Into the Void!

The first thing psi 23 remembered when she first appeared in the world was that of absolute darkness, save for the platform on which she was standing upon. There was just nothingness, she couldn't detect any anima other than that of the platform which was made of it. So, in order to get a better look of her surroundings, she went into her battle mode, which upon going into, put a visor over her eyes that had night-vision in it. Once again there was still nothing except for a large empty room with equipment covering the walls, nothing else, except for the repair droids of the facility.


She waited there unable to do anything, the computerized part of her being not allowing her to do anything, since it was "awaiting commands", though she really didn't care, she knew that there was no other life on the planet. 'How could my creators do something like this, just abandoning me', she thought to herself. 'How could they make it so I couldn't do anything until I received orders, and not even be here to do that.' Over the many years of standing there she began to hate them with her whole being, and not just them, but any other species intelligent enough to do the same things. She spent her time waiting by going through the database of information that her computerized part of her had. During this she found that she was created as a weapon, meant to only kill. The only other company she had were the repair droids of the facility, but they could hardly be considered company. She watched as each one of them over-heated and died, a useless death.


She had forgotten how long it had been since the day of her creation, since her computer half even ran out of space to store the memory of days doing nothing but standing there, she herself didn't really care how long she had been there the only thing that she really wanted was to kill any sentient life. Then one day she detected something on the surface getting closer and closer, they were anima sources. This meant some form of life was actually there after countless years of nothingness.


Eventually the sources entered her room, her computer half instantly locked on to them, and gave her information on where she could hit them to cause a fatal blow. Without any thought she went to attack, but something tripped on her computerized half, a fail-safe. The computer ignored her neural impulses and left her body motionless on the platform that she had never moved from. The figures approached her, she hated them so much, and cursed at her computerized half for not letting her rip them to pieces.


Instead the computerized half decided to speak to them, it scanned them and determined the most likely languages that they might understand. Then from her mouth issued a computer mono-tone voice "yfyedehk lussyhtc". The figures simply continued to stare at her and looked confused, except one that wore some strange and really primitive looking suit of armor. He seemed to feel uneasy about something. This particular figure had a much higher anima source than the others in the group. The computer tried another language "Wartet auf Befehle", was what came out this time. Again the figures simply stared at her, however one of them spoke. "Does anyone know what she is saying?" the figure said. The computerized-half instantly picked up on the voice pattern and then she spoke in computer mono-tone again, "Awaiting commands". They simply looked at her wondering how she had finally spoke in terms that they could understand, this whole time of course psi 23 was seething in hatred since she would end up having to do as they commanded, though she was curious about the one with the strange armor.

One of them addressed her asking for her name. She replied in mono-tone even though she was actually the one speaking this time "Psi 23", she realized that her creators even had the computerized half take away her ability to produce non mono-tone speech, and had discovered another reason to hate them. The figure with the light source issued a command to her, "follow us" was her first command, she was forced to obey by her computerized-half, that she was now starting to hate as well.

Spoiler:

***
Vrach eased himself back onto one of the chairs in his quarters, already feeling his musculature repairing itself. He’d spent the past several hours training in the high-gravity center of the ship. He began to space out after a moment, his thoughts leaving the present and going again over the past few days.

The moment the group left the tomb on the Deadworld, the transmitter had crackled to life, calling all Away Teams back to the ship ASAP. Vrach’s team had rushed back to their damaged shuttle expecting to call in repairs only to find that it was in perfect condition. When they boarded the ship they found a machine, its design vaguely reminiscent of the mechano-girl thing in basic technology, though not in form. Another find for Team Vrach.

Without ado, they took off and rejoined with the ship. By the time they disembarked, the Intra-Void claxons were already wailing. It was only when Vrach returned to his quarters and buckled down did he receive word from his in-room data-terminal that they had caught a piece of a signal from a relatively nearby world and were heading to investigate immediately. That was a few days ago. Now they were just a few hours away. Vrach, now fully rejuvenated, got up donned his armor. It was time to go prep his team. Apparently the mechano-girl and robot-thing would be joining it. He sighed as he walked out the door. Why does he get all the misfits? He imagined K’nalla didn’t have this problem.

Spoiler:

Rein was furiously twitching information about his data pad. "A transmission, life? What is life? What are those beings we found on the last planet, and why were they there alone? Who vacated the planet to leave them there? I hadn't expected this assignment to be so . . . intriguing."

The crew had learned to drown out reins mumbling by now. He was headed back toward his quarters.

"The signals were coming from this region of space, and this is the only planet that seems to be capable of supporting life in the system." An image of the planet slid onto the data pad. They chose not to name the planet, Against all of Steel's ranting, assuming it's inhabitants already had. "The only real signs of life the probes have picked up seem to be a few nomadic tribes centered on the planets deserts. Why would they be sending signals into space? Then again the signals are at least hundreds of years old. We have no way of knowing what's changed since they were sent." Rein zoomed into one of the scans, and then slowly back out slowly drawing the entire planet back into view. "Geologically this planet is a marvel. The deserts these communities seem to call home are all near if not on the planets equator. Outside of that in either direction is are massive nearly unbroken mountain ranges, and beyond that are huge glacial masses. The scans didn’t show much in those regions, only that temperatures are unexpectedly low, and violent and volatile storms tend to ravage the area.”

Rein looked up from his data pad just in time to sidestep the automaton they had collected from the last journey. It was wandering the halls of the ship looking entirely lost, or shocked, or some combination of the two. “How a mass of parts seems to have any emotion is beyond me.”

And once again, Vrach and the others were boarding a shuttle heading down into the unknown and inhospitable. As the shuttle started its trip down towards the planet’s surface, Vrach was almost overcome by the majesty of the planet below.

The world hung in the blackness of space, a giant in its own right, and to Vrach, radiating pride in its rare ability to support life. The northern and southern parts of the planet were lost from view, each consumed by vast swathes of maelstrom and shifting ice. Between these two areas existed a zone that was a world apart. A great band of sand and sun bleached stone separated the north from the south, a belt of blazing heat keeping two frigid brothers from each other’s throat. The mountain ranges between these zones were almost unbroken, save a few crystalline bodies of water scattered about the planet.

Oddly, the groupings of life in the desert were nowhere near these bodies of water. It was almost as though they were shying away from them, Vrach thought.

Before long, the shuttle was nearing the nomad groups. “Only a mile or so ta go now,” drawled Steel Cage over the intercom.

Iav had spent the trip in quiet contemplation, feeling out the tides of the Anima. Suddenly, he felt a sharp change of Anima distribution around the ship. He just had time to call out a warning before the ship crumpled, like a tin can in the fist of a giant. Vrach pulled his head back as the porthole exploded inward and pulled himself into a ball.

He felt the ship bounce once, twice, and then everything went black.

After the craft had settled, all was silent save the howling of the wind and the quiet grinding of stone passing through the eons. The sand of the desert whipped about the metal coffin under the midday sun, its path not troubled in the least by the new obstruction. A bang like a cannon ripped through the desert as Iav punched his way out. He blasted out of the metal and went tumbling in the fine sand before catching himself and rising to his feet. All about him were flashing beams of light, and he let off a curse, removing his helmet.

He held it in front of himself and began playing with the back of it, until he managed to extract a fine crystal. As he held it up to the light, he could espy light cracks along its surface.

Rein emerged from the craft after him," What's that? Is there a problem?"

Iav turned back to him, tossing the crystal to the ground. "That is the precision focusing lens for my augmented perception. " He looked at the shard, " and it is now useless. I have spares, on the ship." He sighed and looked towards the west. "Whatever attacked us came from that direction, I can tell that much." He put his helmet back on as the others emerged from the ship.

"Oh, great, SAND!" Steel cage was less then pleased with their situation.

Vrach woke to oppressive heat and the sharp tink sound of cooling metal. His eyes snapped open only to be temporarily blinded by the harsh light from the sun. He opened his mouth to the air, tasting the dryness, the grit, and blood. The ship was crumpled up around him, but he still had a bit of room to maneuver. He shifted his body around and slid on his belly towards the center walkway of the shuttle, which ran its length like the notochord of a fish.

All he crawled the shuttles length in this manner until he reached the cockpit. There, he saw the shattered viewing pane. He pulled himself through it and fell out into the sand. He looked about, seeing that Rein, Iav, Sampson, Steel Cage, the droid, mechano-girl, and a few others had survived the crash. That was good, he thought. Everyone else he had seen on the way off of the shuttle had been reduced to mangled messes in the crash.

Vrach pulled himself to his feet, amazed to find that his rifle was still strapped to his back. He slung it forward and checked and sighted it. It was fine. Good make, he thought. He looked over to see Iav pointing in the direction of the village, indicating that that was where the attack had come from.

“Attack?” questioned Steel. “That didn’t feel or look like no gun shot,” he said, pointing at the downed shuttle.

Iav turned to the man. “It was an Anima disturbance.”

The conversation was suddenly cut short as Vrach turned on his transmitter, preparing to call for reinforcements or even pickup. Instead of the sound of an aid on the ship, a wail of static issued from the little machine. Vrach quickly turned off the transmitter, but could still hear the sound carried strangely by the wind for a few moments.

Rein piped up after a long pause, breaking the spell the eerie winds had placed on them. “There must be something disrupting the signal in this area. We’ll have to move.”

“Then I guess we should pay that village a visit,” intoned Vrach. He started trudging to the west through the sand, already feeling his augmented body trying to compensate for the combination of heavy armor and harsh heat. He wondered how the normal humans were dealing with it. Then he idly wondered if Sampson even felt heat…
***

They hadn’t walked far before Sampson spoke. “Stop. Do you hear that?”

The group stopped, trying to hear over the wail of the wind. Vrach shook his head. Even he couldn’t hear anything. “What do you hear?”

The alien turned in Vrach’s direction, his formless face unnerving Vrach slightly, “A scraping. Thousands of tiny shards of crystal etching away at something.”

Steel butted in, his voice wavering slightly from the heat or perhaps simply his own brand of madness, “This is a desert! That’s all it is!”

Sampson’s voice did not convey emotion, only fact. “It’s below us.”

It was then that Vrach noticed it, a shifting mound in the sand a ways to the right. And it was heading towards them.

As though noticing his scrutiny, the mound suddenly grew, gaining speed. It was far closer than Vrach would’ve liked. Just as he shouted a warning, the mound exploded outward revealing the beast that had created it. It was huge and serpentlike, with an armored head and blue plates lining its body. Two small plates on its head slid back, revealing yellow eyes that carried maliciousness unlike any creature of Earth. It’s mouth opened revealing a cavernous maw and a row of long pointed teeth.

The legends of his people swam through Vrach’s mind. The old tales of heroes and the beasts they had bested. A name came unbidden to his lips.

“Wyrm,” he spat as he opened fire on the creature.

Rein's mind slowed down. It shut out the geography, and geology of the planet. It shut out all the questions about his last voyage, and about the life on this world. All that matter at the moment was the beast that writhed it was toward the group. He noted it's movement, and where it's gaze fell, and any connection between the two. He turned his body defensively away from the creature, and checked his gear, His fingers glanced the pieces of his weapon strung across his back, and then followed the contours of his body up to the knife strapped to his chest. He pulled the blade free. The beast was drawn by the terrible flashes that were arching out of Vrach's weapon. Rein took the chance and disengaged the beast. He turned away from the creature, and the group it was attacking, and found a sand dune high enough to give him an operative firing angle.

By now Reins genius mind was all but shut down. All that operated was the instincts built into him during his military training. Thinking only got in the way. His time in the military was not an easy time for him. A large portion of the military is made up of genetically engineered beings akin to Vrach that are made to fight, and do, incredibly well. Being a completely average, less than perfectly fit man of science meant he had a long way to go to make a name for himself. His mind is the only thing that gave him any chance. He absorbed any information thrown at him like a sponge. From the simplest battle procedures to the most advanced wind speed calculations, it all came naturally to Rein, and through repetition it became second nature.

Rein trudged up the dune, fighting to keep purchase as the sand melted away under his every step. The sounds of battle charged the air behind him. The sharp tang of automatic fire smashing against the armored hide of the beast. The horrible hiss of the things form ripping across the sand. Rein finally found the top of the dune, and struggled to pull his form onto it. He whipped the pieces of his weapon off of his back, and started assembling the massive weapon, all the while his companions struggled with the beast below him.

Mairi crawled from the wreckage of the ship, the mangled metal had formed around her body leaving her just enough room to grasp her dagger. There was blood in her hair, and her wrist felt painful yet numb. It was a weird sensation, it was the sensation of a broken bone. She bit her teeth together, and shifted her wait a little and managed to free her hand enough to work. She was proud that she had managed to stifle her cry of pain. She moved her dagger slowly, and began carving at the metal, the vibrations shaking her shoulder into a numb pain much different from her opposing wrist. Slowly she carved out a hole half the length of her body, and then felt it was time to rest.

After a brief intermission she resumed her cutting again, and soon she was near her head.
"Well, this is the tricky part but it's either die in this tin can, or die getting out." she mumbled to herself as she carefully cut away at the metal, her dagger a mere few inches from her face, and she squinted as a metal flake flew past her eye. She was almost out, there was no time to stop now.

The worm bore down on the group, the sand parting easily past its shifting scales as it lunged towards them. Iav rolled to the side, and came up running, slipping past the thing and raising his arm. If it was used to a hot climate, then perhaps cold would be effect against it. He concentrated anima along his arm and let loose a blast of ice that distorted the air around it before impacting on the worm's side. There was a sound like shattering glass as it cracked the carapace, drawing the attention of the beast. It charged at him as the wave of exhaustion hit, sending him rolling through the sand as it clipped him. He scrambled to his feet and began to stumble away from it as fast as he could, the only thought in his mind being one of terror.

Mairi mad the final cut, and gently pulled herself out from the crumpled shell of the spaceship. As she stepped out she looked around and saw nothing but desert all around. She wondered briefly where they were then she saw a dust cloud raising into the sky with lights flashing within. 'Typical' she thought 'leave boys alone for 5 seconds and they find a fight' and so she began running / jogging through the sand towards the others.

The wyrm charged towards the group, Psi - 23 quickly dodged its charge on her cushion of anima, as she did this she saw Iav hit the wyrm with a blast of ice. She noticed that it cracked its armored hide wide enough to expose its tender flesh underneath. Her computerized-half did mention that this type of wyrm couldn't deal with cold temperatures at all. The wyrm wasn't very pleased about Iav's blast of ice, and in less than a second began to charge towards him at a tremendous speed. Luckily the wyrm's charge only clipped Iav, though he wouldn't be able to get out of the way of a second one. Just before the wyrm was rearing back to strike at him for a second and final time, she blasted it with ice, which cracked the wyrm's armored hide just as Iav's had. Quickly she cut into the now exposed tender flesh of the wyrm with the blades on her arms.

The bright color of the wyrm's blood captivated her as it spilled out of the wound, she wanted to see more of it, much more. She felt an emotion that she had never experienced in her entire life, she had no name for it, all she knew was that trying to kill this thing made her feel good. She felt a smile creep across her face, this was the first time that she had ever smiled. She then immediately realized that the emotion she felt was happiness. She began slicing at it more, oblivious to the fact that the wyrm had twisted around to swallow her, instead of Iav.

There was a solid click as the final pieces of the giant rifle snapped together. Rein glanced over his shoulder just in time to see Iav slammed by the massive beast. He scrambled around the pile of metal that made up his weapon, and lay down behind the mass. His scope was full of helpful information. Distance, wind speed, gravitational constant, all calibrated before the start of the mission. Rein kept his eye to the scope, and ran his hand down his leg to find a pocket. He pulled the massive round out, and positioned it in his fingers. He pulled the massive slide free of the barrel, and positioned the round. It went in with another solid click, its shape filing the empty space in the helical slide almost perfectly. Rein never looked away from the beast below him. The cyborg they'd picked up before was furiously tearing at the thing, and it didn't take to kindly to it.

He pushed the slide forward, and the gun came to life with a whine as the electronics came online. The beast whipped its head around to face the mechanical girl. Rein tightened his finger on the trigger. He was holding his breath, rechecking his calculations, waiting. Waiting for the moment when he had to take his shot. The moment that felt right. There was a flash of the massive maw the thing hid in its mouth. Rein squeezed the trigger.

The battlefield always seems to slow down as he fired. He felt the mechanical click as the trigger pulled through its firing range. There was a sudden and sharp change in the atmosphere as the capacitors dumped their charge. The sensation was cut short by the sharp concussion that ripped from the barrel of the weapon. The air lit a bright yellow with the flash of plasma as the shell tore into the air. A layer of sediment shook into the air around the gun, and the dune Rein took position on shifted as the blast tore out. The round hit the beast in the middle of its upright form, and tore through the beast without problem. For a very brief moment there was only a small hole in the beast's form. The concussive force quickly followed the round through the monster, and for the most part liquefied its form. The intense spray of ichor painted the air the same crystal blue of the things armor before falling to the ground like rain. The round continued momentarily before slamming into the sand, marring out a massive crater. Rein held his breath until the ground under him settled.

The ground shifted a moment longer, and finally settled after lowering rein a solid foot from his initial height. He exhaled slowly, and pulled the slide back out of its active position. The gun wound down, its massive whine letting way to the hiss of heated air. Rein brought himself up, trying desperately to wipe the smile from his face. The beast was shredded, and besides the shock of the concussive weapon, and the spray of ichor, still raining down, no one in the group was at all injured.

Vrach paused to wipe the bluish ichor off of his face. He was practically coated with the stuff. The wyrm was a ruin of flesh twelve feet in front of him and everyone seemed to have just frozen around it, shocked by its sudden demise. He took his goo-covered weapon and attached it to the maglock at his back. As he was commending Rein for his shot, Mairi walked into the group.

Vrach shook his head. They’d forgotten her when they’d left. What a wonderful team, he thought. He started helping Rein disassemble his gun. Before long it was packed away and the group was ready to move again. As they turned to move on, a figure surmounted one of the dunes ahead of them, unnoticed in the fight.

He was tan and his face and shoulders were obscured by a cowl and his lower body was covered in an arrangement of wrappings, but his chest was bare. He looked like a human. A very large human. One easily Vrach’s height.

“What a waste of meat,” the figure said, planting his spear pointedly into the sand. Vrach was surprised for a moment that he’d understood the alien, until he remembered Sampson’s little trick. Sampson acted as a telepathic relay, translating the concepts into the most appropriate words. “I’ve been sent to guide you Space-Walkers to the village before you harm anymore wyrms.” The alien turned to walk away, and after a nod from Vrach, the group followed him.
***

It wasn’t long before they reached the village. It was basically just a grouping of tents with a handful of mud-brick buildings. As they were walking through the village towards its center, Vrach saw several other aliens, though they all looked like the one leading the Away Team. He wondered why he saw no females, though for all he knew the genders may be indistinguishable to humans.

They had finally reached the center of the village, which was a large tent surrounded by a ring of incense burners. Iav felt a huge amount of Animaic potential inside the tent and instantly knew that whatever had downed their ship was inside it.

The front of the tent parted and an alien walked out. While the first alien the Away Team had run into was big, this man was huge. He was easily three or four heads taller than Vrach. He was bare to the waist, but unlike the other alien, he wore no cowl and gripped a dark iron staff at his side. However humanlike he appeared, he certainly was not. His eyes were a deep purple, almost black, with no iris, whites, or pupil.

“Hello,” the alien said through a slightly too large mouth for a human and tombstone teeth, “I am the Shepherd of my people.”

Mairi saw Iav tense as the man came near, and knew this man had to have the same type of power as him, this man probably had more judging from Iav's reaction, which meant he could most likely sense her presence.. It's a shame thought Mairi, I really like being unseen, but I guess every now and then you have to do it everyone Else's way. So she did what any normal person would do.

"Well it is very nice to meet your acquaintance. We are simply the scouts of our people, and hopefully their saviors." she stated while staring him in the eyes, ignoring the kink in her neck from doing so.

Fear emerged from the tent in front of Iav. He did not see the physical form of the being, something that resembled a human, but a being that was capable of plucking their shuttle out of the air with nothing more then a thought. His Focus was broken, and he began to loose himself before his training kicked in.

So he didn't run, standing before it, locked into place.

Fighting the wyrm had not phased him, it was something bound to the physical realm and no matter what, could not limit him. But here was something that weighed on the surrounding area, like a blanket that enveloped him, strangling him. For a moment, he flashed back to his experience in the void, with that monster, and despite the temperature moderation of his armor, began to sweat. He gazed at the thing, eyes locked into place on its empty visage, unable to move his body a centimeter.

Until that strange girl broke the silence, and he found he was able to move, albeit slowly, and walked over to Vrach. He leaned in close and was about to administer a warning, when the thought hit him.

It had spoken comprehensibly.

It had spoken their language when it was impossible for it to know how they spoke. Somehow, it had picked up the knowledge from them. The full consequences of that thought crashed upon Iav, sweeping what was left of his resolve away.

It had somehow imperceptibly read their thoughts, which meant that the thoughts he was thinking right now were . . .

His stomach dropped through his shoes as he turned his head slowly, to gaze into those empty white eyes.

"Strange, strange, strange. the last planet, this planet, how do I quantify some of these things I'm experiencing?"

Rain was furiously sliding things around his data pad, glancing back and forth from the world around him to the digital facsimile he was making, mumbling all the while. He bobbed his head around, trying to get a better look at the large mans eyes. It was only then that he realized that Iav had moved closer to Vrach, blocking his view, and that his demeanor had changed. Rein shifted his focus.

He traced Iav's line of sight back to the massive man, and tried to draw some meaning from the way he was looking at the group, or the way Iav was looking at the man.

'I've missed something.'

Rein shifted his own demeanor to match Iavs nearly defensive posture, and focused the entirety of his attention on the group, and the man they were all talking to.

The Shepherd looked off into the distance, noting the low position of the sun. “It will be dark soon,” he murmured. “Come in, and allow me to explain my actions.” Without another word or gesture he turned and entered the tent. At a nod from Vrach, the group followed.

The inside of the tent was rather Spartan, a floor of what looked like the skins of wyrms, and a handful of incense braziers that produced only a faint glow. Somehow, no sand had made its way into the tent. The Shepherd walked to the far side of the tent and took a seat on the only furniture in the room, a throne made from the bones of slain wyrms. When the group had gathered before him, he began to speak.

“I am sorry that I brought down your iron hawk. The last time we had visitors that used such conveyances, they brought horrible suffering. I shall do my best to make amends. But first, tell me: why have you come?”

Vrach stepped forward at this, “We’ve come as part of an Exploratory Fleet that is looking for allies and supplies.”


“Ahh…” the Shepherd seemed to drift off into thought for a moment. The group saw Vrach tensed for a moment and then returned to his normal state. The Shepherd’s eyes widened a bit.

“You want allies in war, against the faceless baaskarn, like your ally here,” he pointed at Samson. “Very well. I am sorry, but what you ask is greater than a payment than the worth of your ship. You must complete Yenant for that. “

Samson turned to Vrach. “The concept Yenant does not translate well. It is a combination of a blood pact and the fulfilling of prophesy.”

The Shepherd continued. “The last group of offworlders refused to complete the Yenant and left to leave a wake of destruction on their way into the upper wilds. Are you like them?” The menace was apparent in his voice.

A moment passed. Vrach looked squarely in the face of the alien. “It would appear we have no choice,” he said with a smile.

The Shepherd stood. “Good. It is not every day that a man agrees to kill a god.”

Vrach was no longer smiling.

Iav managed to pull himself together. Now that the shock had worn off, he was merely cautious, but felt defenseless. He was nearly blind without his focusing crystal, and now they were being asked to kill something that this powerful psycher believer to be a god. He feared for his sanity.

He moved to the edge of the tent and began to send gentle washes of anima over his armor, removing the sand from its crevices. While the conversation continued, he warded himself, setting his management system to continue to apply energy to the ward after he had stopped focusing on it. He really didn't want to break anything else.

Mairi sat within the shadows of the tent, the few their were considering the lighting, but she sat and watched. She watched her party members shoulder's tense as the big man talked, but more importantly she saw something the other members failed to see. She saw the Shepard's servant spill a little of the liquid he was pouring right as the word Yenant was spoken. Apparently, it was something that was not to be taken lightly.

The Shepherd turned away. “Allow me to explain.” He took a deep breath in preparation of the weaving of the tale of his people.

“In the beginning, there were two brother gods. In those days, the land was fertile and the world rich with life. Each brother created a race of people shaped to their whims. My people were shaped by Atelai.

As time went on, the hearts of the brothers shifted from each other to their people. Their love for their creations had overcome their family bonds. And for a time, the peoples coexisted peacefully together.

It was not long, though, before tension began to arise between our peoples. We lived off the land, while they developed bizarre magics that warped it. As our people began to become more antagonistic towards each other, so did our gods.

Then the war broke out. The tales are incomplete in that era, but we have a general idea of what happened. My people committed an act of genocide against our brother race. In his fury, their god prepared to wipe us from the world. We were saved by Atelai, at the cost of his life.” The Shepherd paused, his face taking on an aspect of anguish.

“In his remorse, the brother god left to seek solitude, but not before cursing the land. We were left with barren land and a god who hated us. And as long as that god yet lives, the land will yield nothing to us,” as he spoke he became more impassioned. “Our previous and final prophet had declared that the curse will end with the fallen god, but that he would only be destroyed by others from the sky.” He took a deep breath.

“That is the last of it,” he said. “You leave in the morning. Follow the sun as it rises.”

Mairi looked forward from the shadows until it was clear no one else was going to speak. She then lounged against the wall of the tent and spoke outward.

"It is all well that we are the only ones able to destroy this god, but will we have any help from your or your people? Also, we did not so much as fall from the sky as get blasted down by yourself. Certainly with the power you possess you would be a formidable ally, so will you help us to kill this curse on your land, or will you simply put your fate in the hands of strangers?" Mairi asked while keeping her voice cool and emotionless with it all spoken in a soft whisper.

Iav awoke the following morning drained. He was forced to leave his force field on while he slept so that the send couldn't wear away at the components of his armor. He began to dig through his pack, eventually retrieving a ration and consuming it quickly. He still suffered from some of the shock of the day previous, but forced himself to his feet and wandered outside the tent. Most of the others were waiting, ready to move out to whatever the destination was. Apparently he was one of the last ones, because soon after he joined the group, they set out into the desert.

The wind soon picked up and began to rip at them with its gritty claws. Step by step, they worked their way over the dunes, and before long the began to see signs of their quest. Pillars of stone began to rise in the distance. As they got closer, they began to see that they were covered in writing.

Spoiler:

"The end is near? What's that suppose to mean?"

The sand began to shake, sliding down in a funnel toward the center of the pillars. Then bursting out of the middle of it all was a giant lemming and he spoke

"He who does not progress his own RP will follow the fate of the others." He points his clawish hand toward the 3 pillars that were farthest away from the group.

The pillar to the far left read: Iron Souls
The pillar in the middle read: The Engine
The Pillar to the far right read: Republicans...I mean, Rusty Spurs
There was another pillar that was partially destroyed. It seemed to have been destroyed by someone or something. They couldn't make out all of it, but they could make out the word "Quest".

Vrach, or whatever Greg's character is named in this, decided that it was time to do something! but what? idk