Colossus By Choice: Book 1 Verse 23

3001 P.G.E. (Post-Godzilla Era)

[Universal Date: Day 120]
[Planet: Pyrestar]
[Capital: Silver Sun City]

[Location: Silver Sun City – Silver Sun Mountain – Human Ruins]

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A dark tunnel all the way down. No lighting whatsoever. Just cold, shimmering metal with no defining features whatsoever all the way down.

Eventually, white lights at the upper corners of the drab metallic grey hallway flicker on, illuminating the path ahead. Even with this added ability to see, the Nanometal expanse lying before Taum and the others remains featureless and overbearing like many Human structures; it’s just metal walls, flooring, ceiling, and occasional divergent halls and doors leading to other rooms or areas. The pristine appearance of the metallic structuring in spite of its hyper advanced age adds further to its eerie and somewhat unsettling presence.

Out of everyone in the group, Tarbo Haw and his niece look the most comfortable as they walk down together, like this is just business as usual; Taum and Skrill are decidedly more tense given their unfamiliarity with such advanced technology that is not quite dead but not alive, either; Yun-Tao is in utter awe, gently pulling her hand across the wall to feel the Nanometal’s texture.


(Yun-Tao): It’s exactly like how the elders described…. You can feel it almost pulsing with a heartbeat despite it being a solid metal, like it could spring to life at any moment.

(Skrill): Guuhhh, don’t put that mental image in my brain. Tarbo, can we just get to where we were supposed to go already?

(Tarbo Haw): Now now, it’s a little ways off. How about a story as we walk down the hallway to the site?

(Cerato Falc): Is it finally time to learn about what great uncle learned?

(Tarbo Haw): You got it, ruffle-head! No interruptions this time, I hope?

(Skrill): As long as it gets us through this creepy passage.

(Tarbo Haw): Of course. Allow me to begin.


==
==


The excavation incident of ’72.

Publicly, what everyone knows of the incident was that an archaeology team contracted out to explore these Human ruins. By that point, my father, Gorgo Haw, was already a seasoned veteran in the field and was one of the team’s leads. He helped them navigate the pathways down here in order to locate areas that would provide the best data for both research and historical documentation while also satiating the Iron Mongs clan and their desire to locate pockets of Nanometal that were safe enough to extract without incurring the wrath of the True Titan spirit, Mechagodzilla.


(Yun-Tao): I’ve heard many tales of unfortunate treasure seekers activating ancient defences that ended their careers early.


Which is precisely why Gorgo Haw was so important to the team. He knew what signs and tells to look out for so that the Oxbul miners wouldn’t accidentally take any sacred metal that was considered off-limits by Mechagodzilla or otherwise trip and alarm. He lead the expedition down this very hallway that we’re travelling through right now. Near the end of this particular hallway lay the exact room that everyone sought, what used to be a storage room I believe for the ancient Humans long ago.

This storage room would’ve contained a vast quantity of materials that the angelic servants to the True Titans would’ve made use of when they were still around, all of varying qualities and types to satisfy the need of pretty much every interest party. Historical documents and records, scrap garbage turned Oxbul treasure, you name it and the Humans had it in spades.


(Yun-Tao): I remember being told that even mere storerooms had security measures that wasn’t easy to crack or bypass.


That’s indeed true. So Gorgo Haw found a workaround for this particular storage area by spraying the interface next to the door with chalk dust. In doing this, he found very minute imprints within the dust on the interface that corresponded to finger presses. These imprints were definitely millennia old fingerprints left by whoever had last accessed that part of these ruins, likely as part of some combination to enter into the interface.

It took several minutes, but eventually the group figured out the right combination that would unlock the storeroom. Unfortunately, the doors had jammed and wouldn’t properly deform enough to allow the team through. It was at this point that drastic measures had to be undertaken.

After some convincing by the leading chieftain of the Iron Mongs, my father was persuaded to allow the Oxbuls to forcibly open the door.


(Skrill): And let me guess, that’s when they ended up trapped.


Actually no!

The Iron Mongs tested the security response by first melting the edges of the tiny opening with their welders with permission. Luckily, Mechagodzilla didn’t seem to be responsive to these advances. Gorgo Haw allowed the Oxbul blacksmiths to start using heavier equipment in order to get through the door. In particular, the crux of this operation was the chieftain’s prized Monster hunting weapon, his personal Greatsword forged from the materials of the Silver Sun himself known as the Rathalos Gleamsword.


(Yun-Tao): Oh yes, I know that one! That is a particularly proud achievement for any Oxbul to forge given the Silver Fire Wyvern’s rarity and power. They used its inherent imbued Fire Element as a baseline to add heat to, didn’t they?


Correct!

The opening was just big enough to allow the chieftain to place the middle of his Greatsword’s blade edge through the hole and rest it against the unfinished separation of the doors. As soon as he placed it there, its radiating Hellfire heat began to slowly warm up the Nanometal around it, albeit very slowly. However, the other Oxbuls held out their own Fire Element weapons to make contact with the sides of their chieftain’s sword and channeled the imbued heat energy through the Rathalos Gleamsword.

With all this added heat, the Nanometal began melting away steadily until a slit large enough for everyone on the team to slip through was created.

Speaking of which…..


==
==


The group has made it to the end of the hallway; they’re presented with a fork between either the left or right directions.


(Tarbo Haw): We take the right.


The quintet follow their archaeologist’s lead and head down the right path. After a few more minutes of walking, the group comes upon the end of this branching hallway; they now stand in front of another set of doors, though it’s not at all melted or cut into like what Tarbo Haw had been telling them just a few minutes earlier. In fact, it looks completely intact, like as though it was never touched to begin with.

What is just like the story, however, is the interface. Just as his father did, Tarbo pulls out a can of chalk dust and sprays the door panel in order to highlight the fingerprints left behind on the holographic keypad from the last users. Before the dust completely floats away, the Rapteaglet researcher inputs the code on the keypad; after pressing the final key, the floating light panel lights up green and disappears. Following this disappearance, the doors melt away in normal fashion without any jamming issues whatsoever.

The group steps inside, after which the doors reform behind them. The lights in the room come on a moment later, illuminating the storage room for all to see.

The room itself is what one might expect out of a storage room, albeit to a much larger and grander degree than is ordinary; it’s a massive square room easily over 30 metres in length per side and almost as tall; the walls, floor, and ceiling are composed of solid steel grey Nanometal with almost no scratches or wear and tear on the featureless surfaces to speak of; the walls are lined with huge shelves that almost reach the ceiling and are stacked with all kinds of trinkets and miscellaneous items of known and unknown properties; the centrepiece is a statue of Godzilla herself, also formed from Nanometal albeit one that has a much darker colouration to it.

While all of these amazing displays are certainly eye-catching, they aren’t what has the attention of Tarbo Haw and the rest of the group.

No, what has their attention is far more shocking of a surprise: the bodies of several people and their equipment, all converted into the same Nanometal that comprises the room itself; were it not for their distinctive shapes and clearly terrified expressions being immortalized by this conversion, one might not even be able to tell the difference.

Everyone is in complete shock at this sight, though Tarbo Haw seems to at least be familiar enough with what he’s seeing to recognize it. Cerato Falc’s uncle walks up to one of the bodies in particular, a Catzfin that seems to have been petrified as she was sprawling out on the ground and reaching out; the middle-aged archaeologist squats down and takes a closer look at this individual’s face.


(Yun-Tao): I heard rumours, but….

(Taum): Mechagodzilla wasn’t always the most welcoming of spirits after the other gods vanished, but this? It’s…. It’s—

(Skrill): Unholy. Like the Skull King himself. It couldn’t possibly be the Titan spirit’s doing…. Could it?


Tarbo Haw stands up and turns around to face the others. The expression on his face all but confirms what the others feared.


(Tarbo Haw): It’s exactly what we didn’t want to find. You’re gonna want to hear the rest of my story now.


==
==


The brave and confident adventurers had made it into the legendary storeroom with the treasures they sought. It was a brilliant find, containing riches lining the walls that seemed endless in their quantity, all topped off by a marvelous statue of the highest True Titan of them all. It all seemed too good to be true.

And it was.

It’s at this point that I need to mention that Gorgo Haw wasn’t the only team lead. See, part of why the group made it as far as they did was thanks to his best friend, a Catzfin by the name of Wel Aquari. She was brilliant, even better in the archaeology field than my father. The 2 of them grew up together, inspired one another to take to this field to discover the secrets of the ancient past and unravel the greatest mysteries of all creation.

Before he met my mother, Wel was the love of his life. Even after he married, she was still his best friend in the whole universe and was even supposed to be my godmother.


(Cerato Falc): Great uncle never spoke about her.


The incident put enough fear into him that he didn’t want to remember anything about the experience, and it was only after he opened up that I even learned of her and her importance to him.

From what your great uncle could recall, he believes it was all his fault that this whole incident transpired to begin with.

Ordinarily, Wel Aquari was the one who would always take the lead and boldly rush ahead to discover things first while Gorgo Haw was a bit more reserved and preferred to carefully examine things as safely as possible. However, my father and his best friend had made a silly little bet before they had departed on the expedition: whoever had ended up figuring out the best way to get through would be the one to try to crack open the biggest and most important find in the storeroom with no prior examination beforehand.

Aquari knew that Gorgo knew how to navigate Human infrastructure better than she could herself and figured that she could get her friend to take chances and make mistakes like she often did a bit more with this bet. While Gorgo Haw wasn’t exactly thrilled to have won the bet, he was a man of his word and stuck to the terms of the gamble.

It was relatively obvious what he should crack open: a big crate that was sealed up tightly. This crate had warning labels all over it, and through the small window situated at the top of it, my father could make out what looked to be some kind of energy contained within. He ordered the Iron Mongs to bring the crate down from the top shelf and open it up. It took a large amount of explosives to break the lock, but they managed to get it done.

He removed the lid from the crate and unveiled what looked to be a glass container. Within the glass container was a ball of pure energy that crackled and sparked violently like lightning. My father described the energy as looking like streaks of pure darkness with crimson outlines.


(Taum): Was it Dragon Element, like the kind that a Deviljho or Stygian Zingore would use?


Not quite. It was very similar, potentially even a form of it, but Gorgo Haw knew what Dragon Element looked and acted like, and this energy was different. Heck, even just by feeling it through the glass shielding he could tell it was something far more powerful. It felt…. Godly.

This was the big find they were all hoping for, an artefact that would make the 2 archaeologists the talk of the entire universe.

But alas, it wasn’t meant to be.

Despite all the precautions that were taken, everything that the team had done to ensure that their actions wouldn’t incur the wrath of Mechagodzilla, the removal of this potent energy’s container from the storage crate that had clearly kept it sealed for millennia triggered a security response from the entire Nanometal structure the team had found themselves in. Warning sirens began blaring loudly, and the doors that had previously been jammed and melted through to allow the group to head into the storeroom suddenly regained life and reformed.

The Oxbuls were quick to bang on it and attempt to break it down with their weaponry, but it was to no avail. Even the chieftain’s Greatsword was repelled by a specific barrier composed of fully solid light that prevented both the physical blows and heat energy from transferring into the structural integrity of the doors.

The brave adventurers were trapped.

It was at this point that my father made what may well have been the worst decision in his entire life, albeit an understandable one given the current situation.


(Cerato Falc): What…. What did great uncle do?


In that tense moment when emotions were running high and adrenaline was coursing through his body, the only course of action he felt he could take was to smash the energy container on the ground. He figured that the sudden release of energy would stop the alarm somehow, whether it be because of Mechagodzilla scuttling his facility or the energy disrupting the power to the area.

Regardless of the justification, he threw the glass cylinder onto the Nanometal flooring with all his might to the protest of his best friend, shattering it and allowing the energy contained within to spill out. The crimson and black lightning burrowed into the Nanometal and began to show its influence throughout the entire room. The lights, connected machines, everything was being thrown into chaos as this violent and corruptive energy snaked its way throughout the storeroom’s mechanical systems.

Before anyone could properly assess the madness, the floor itself came to life and attempted to convert the team into more Nanometal, taking nearly half of the whole crew and their equipment. Before it could move onto Gorgo Haw and the remaining team members, the energy that had given life to the floor left, leaving it dormant once more after having claimed many victims to add to its mass.

The horror of what he had done stuck with Gorgo Haw forever. Not even the maddened accusations and beatings that he incurred at the hands of the remaining group members could shake him out of his shock. When they had no more energy to expend on blaming him, the remnants merely sat around and waited, hoping for rescue.

==
==

Tarbo Haw looks on at the petrified expression of Wel Aquari with a saddened expression. He places a hand on her shoulder, sighs deeply, and stands up to turn around and face the others once more. Judging by their own expressions, they seem to be at a loss for words about what to say about the story they just heard.


(Cerato Falc): Uncle…..

(Tarbo Haw): I know, I know. In that situation, panic lead to a terrible decision that would haunt my father and your great uncle even to this very day.


Tarbo Haw walks up to Taum and puts a hand on his shoulder; he looks him square in the eye with a very serious gaze.


(Tarbo Haw): You seek answers to the biggest mysteries in existence, and that is to be commended. But let my father’s story be a cautionary tale for us all to take heed and examine what lengths we’ll go to accomplish our goals.

(Taum): We will. Come on, let’s go take a careful look around, see if there’s anything we can find to help us on our journey.

(Tarbo Haw): Alright, then.


Tarbo Haw lets go of the Draconi youngling and turns around to look down at the petrified body of Wel Aquari. He rummages through his backpack and takes out a single preserved rose held in a glass container; the condition of the crumpled petals and stem indicate the rose is a few decades old at minimum. The Rapteaglet archaeologist then places the rose container down on the ground next to his father’s best friend’s body, closes his eyes, and hums a small prayer; Cerato Falc comes up next to him and joins in this moment of silence.

While the 2 of them do this, Taum and the others walk around the storeroom and begin looking at the various stored items in order to try and locate potential information on the Kaiju and Erde-Tyrene that may aid them in understanding the motivations of Primatus Joa and the Iwi-ki invasion as a whole.

Taum rifles through the shelves on the right side of the room, making sure to be careful about what exactly he touches so as to not make any mistakes that could trigger a hostile response from the now questionable Titan spirit. As he looks through the various items, he stumbles on various devices and doohickeys of which their functions are currently unknown, though at least some of them seem to be recovered artefacts from the Draconi’s earliest days back when Mechagodzilla still sent out his eyes and ears to keep watch on the burgeoning new people; no discernible information here regarding the Iwi-ki.

Yun-Tao looks through the shelves on the left side of the room; she continually glances back over at the converted bodies of the expedition from nearly 30 years ago as she looks. Contrary to her upbringing and own expectations where she would’ve given anything for the chance to find the clear weapons and armaments she’s currently examining, the Steel Crushers forge-widow is rather apprehensive about what she looks at and touches. After a lot of deliberation, she settles on a small transparent vial that contains what looks to be a semi-liquid sample of unusually active Nanometal and stashes it away.

Skrill climbs up the shelves situated behind the statue of Godzilla. He looks up and sees the empty space where the adventurers caught in the incident back in 2972 pulled out the crate that ended up leading to the events that trapped them in the first place. The Radent smuggler scurries up and pulls himself into the space; he’s the only one out of the entire group could fit in due to his smaller size.

He walks along this high shelf, looking at and sniffing the various items to see if there’s anything the group needs.

Just as he’s about to give up on this shelf, he spots a small little bar in the corner of the shelf level he’s standing on; he scampers over to it and picks it up. As he holds it on his hand, a few little buttons materialize from the small Nanometal object; he presses the one at the right corner, which causes a green semi-solid light project to emerge from the bottom. On this green page, there’s legible text that he and the others can read.

Skrill skims through the contents quickly and seems to find what he’s read to be satisfactory.


(Skrill): Guys, I think I found something!


The others all look at Skrill after hearing this announcement. The old man quickly climbs back down and walks back to the centre of the room in front of the statue of Godzilla; the others join him there.


(Taum): What’d you find, Skrill?

(Skrill): Take a look. We can read through it together.


Skrill hands the holographic notepad out to Taum. The Draconi youngling and unofficial group leader takes the datapad and holds it in the middle of the group for everyone to see and read.