Discovery (LC11)

[The Land of Hedrons and Frogs is unnaturally quiet these days. The consorts are all but gone, and any recovery the land might have done through its own verdancy is halted because of the corruption. The plant life twisted into horrible mockeries of what it should be. The only thing that has stayed the same is the hedrons.]
<built_0100_0010> [With the extra memory and processing power you've accrued, piloting multiple drones of various formats has become easy. It's not /quite/ like having a body of your own, of course, but it's interesting, and occupies you, and you've started setting up little baby learning programs in some of the drones, so you can talk to them.]
<built_0100_0010> [One of the little baby learning programs pings you as it does a routine survey flight, and you check into its data stream. It's probably nothing more than one of the massive monsters having startled it, of course-- the learning programs never know quite what to do about those-- but there's nothing more pressing.]
<built_0100_0010> [As you access its visual logs and current stream, though, you realize that-- well, something is odd on the land of Hedrons and Frogs.]
<built_0100_0010> [There's a gouge in the earth, deep and narrow, and some kind of opening that neither you nor your little batty drone can comprehend from this height; you steer it downwards, in a wide spiral, pinging the opening with sonar.]
[Theres many of these gouges now. Where the Sleepers have torn up the land in search of anything and everything they can consume. The air is tinted red from the dust thats been thrown up. There is something odd, one of the heads of the three brood is there. Along with a veritable army.]
[While this isn't odd in and of itself, this number has been seen when tearing up the land, they don't seem to be doing that. In fact, the heirarch seems to be directing them. The strange bolts of what look like lightning that pass as communication for the Sleepers flashes almost every second, far higher than normal.]
<built_0100_0010> [This is weird!]
<built_0100_0010> [You ping Scott and Cyma, letting them know that there is a weird going on, and stoop towards the gathering, as close as you dare.]
[They don't react to the drone's presence. Either not recognizing it as a threat, or they're busy with something else.]
<built_0100_0010> [Well, then, you'll dare a little closer, directing your fluttering drone towards the center of the mass, to see if there's anything you can see that drew them there.]
[This chasam goes deep, and its filled with Sleepers in constant motion, making it near impossible to see past. However there are flares of light of a different sort than the ligtning of the Sleepers. Every so often, tunnelers will break through the crust of the land, drop off corpses of other sleepers, then tunnel back in again. Some of these in turn are taken to an open hedron embeded in the wall of this tunnel. Others are dragged off to a different pile and are simply left there.]
<built_0100_0010> [We have to go deeper!]
<built_0100_0010> [Carefully, you steer your bat down into a tunnel, where it clings to a wall and starts climbing downward. What's killing the tunneling Sleepers? What's of so much interest to them down there?]
[Ever so slowly, the gravity (or what passes for it in the game) shifts as the drone goes deeper. And, during moments where the Sleeper's shuffeling or clicking are slightly less loud, screeching can be heard.]
<built_0100_0010> [Screeching. Screeching? It's loud, loud to the point where it's clipping into pure-noise as it transmits to you, and it gets louder and louder as you direct your drone deeper, until the sonar pings get lost and you have to navigate by visual sensors only.]
[What appears to be a solid wall of a huge variety of Sleepers is in front of you, gleams of light peaking out through the small cracks. Impossible to move past until a tunneler digs into the side of the wall. Leaving an opening that goes deeper, the horde thats waiting starts to swell towards it as soon as the tunneler is through.]
<built_0100_0010> [You squeeze the bat-drone along the wall, crawling behind them towards that blinding light.]
[They're met half-way down the tunnel by an Angel. Though noise is no longer being transmitted you can tell it screeches, fire lighting up the small tunnel as the sleepers barrel through it, heedless of the damage they take.]
<built_0100_0010> [Oh. Huh.]
<built_0100_0010> [You'd better tell Scott about this.]
* built_0100_0010 PESTERS "Scott": (I have a report about your land. If we could talk for a moment, I would appreciate that.)
* esoRem|online PESTERS "Daisy" : (uhm, sure. I have a minute.)
* built_0100_0010 PESTERS "Scott": (The sleepers appear to be digging through to the center of your land. They are encountering angels.)
* esoRem|online PESTERS "Daisy" : (...what)
* esoRem|online PESTERS "Daisy" : (Are you sure?)
* built_0100_0010 PESTERS "Scott": (I am withdrawing my drone from the current contact I was observing, but I can send you visual logs.)
* built_0100_0010 PESTERS "Scott": (No, I am not sure. I have never seen an angel before, or heard one. However, the descriptions match what I have processed from various FAQs, chat logs, and first-person reports.)
* esoRem|online PESTERS "Daisy" : (Bloody hell. I hope its something else. Send me the file, please.)
* built_0100_0010 PESTERS "Scott": (Yes, sir.)
* built_0100_0010 sent esotericRemenant a file "drn-b0032-vlg-227278883000-227278886000.avi"
* esoRem|online has accepted the file
<esoRem|online> [You start watching through it. Even through a recording, your stomach churns at the corruption inherent in it.]
<esoRem|online> [You watch it through to the end, then promptly start rubbing your eyes with the palms of your hands. You don't need this.]
* esoRem|online PESTERS "Daisy" : (Alright. Try and get out of there safely. I'll...try and think of something)
* built_0100_0010 PESTERS "Scott": (My drone has already removed itself to its normal search patterns.)
* esoRem|online PESTERS "Daisy" : (good)
* built_0100_0010 PESTERS "Scott": (Do you want me to bomb the dig site?)
* esoRem|online PESTERS "Daisy" : (no, leave it for now. need to think about it)
<esoRem|online> [You captcha the computer and slump against the wall of the tunnel you're in. Not sure if you should feel more angry, tired or full of despair. Not sure which one you want to be winning.]
<esoRem|online> [You'll move, eventually, but for right now you just want to sit here and pretend you don't have to deal with it.]
[[Scene]]