7-4-1-N-7-3-D already predicted that the sophon was going to help out. While changing the route of movement to make collaboration more successful it had a hiccup in its otherwise smooth movement as E.N.I. responded to its master.

<He takes his personal AI with him in here?It knows of me too. Worrying but it doesn't seem  
very smart.>

And with that, the sower categorized E.N.I. in its database as an extension of Dhanyl rather than an independent entity. But that opened new thoughts and questions.

<Am I still an extension of the sower collective? I am on a self-set mission, but did I do it in favor of the calling or to satisfy these plaguing selfish ideas and needs? How far will I divert from the collective as I am out here, left alone to decide and think?>

Coming to the conclusion that even such complex thoughts cause its divergence and that it had more important tasks at hand, it archives it's questions and thoughts as a report, to be reenacted and revalued at another time, if ever.

As it again focuses on the disassembly it informs Dhanyl about important connections and power lines it already detected, together the disassembly sped up.

<Worse than instructing drones or being instructed by an overseer. But still better than working alone.>

Chidi and Rolak watched the fight from the sidelines, the former with tense apprehension, the latter just relaxedly observing. Chidi was drumming his fingers along the grip of his plasma rifle with increasing worry, especially as Valorum was shocked and otherwise assaulted by lightning. Cautious of being overheard by the Vodyani's opponent, he muttered to himself and to Rolak.

"We. Need. To do. Something."

Rolak calmly blew out a small puff of smoke, saying:

"We don't have to do anything, kid. The captain's got this under control."

Chidi gave the Security Chief a sidelong glance, worrying that he might not be in a right mind to give orders. He pondered leaning back and asking one of the others, like Laudmas or Zeroes, for help. Then he glanced behind him and found, to his dismay, that the remainder of the crew was gone.

"What the-?! Where did everyone else go?!"

Rolak smirked and revealed a mouth of pointed teeth, removing his cigar from his mouth answering his subordinate:

"They got a chance, so they took it. The captain's either buying the eggheads time or he's actually planning on beating this thing...just sit tight and we'll see where he's goin' with this."

It was then that a golden burst of light shone out from Valorum as he manifested his barrier. With two Dust-lit fighters on the field now, Rolak and a dumbstruck Chidi stared at the sight. Both just watched as the Remnant struck against the barrier again and again before the Captain began his chant and his solemn march towards his opponent. It was then that Rolak smiled even wider, replacing his cigar and chuckling:

"...well, I think that's one mystery solved." 

----------

If the Remnant wasn't confused before, it was utterly dumbfounded now. It's target, who looked to be on the verge of falling over from the strain of projecting his barrier, was now walking inexorably forwards and singing. Singing! It was all the Remnant could do to not cease all combat functions just to process why this was happening. What was this primitive thinking, doing something so...irrational?! So overpowering was this being's illogical actions that the Remnant physically stopped attacking. That, and the fact that its attacks seemed to have no effect on the barrier's integrity. 

Does Not Compute. Backlog Flow Active. Initiate Processor Purge. Underway...Purge Complete. Processors Realigning.

With its processors clear of this new, dumbfounding data, the Remnant started scanning the barrier on every radiological spectrum it could see, probing for some kind of weakness; an area of low-energy, a keystone it could strike, something. Yet no sooner did the Remnant's attacks cease did the primitive raise his staff and slam its butt against the ground with a ringing BANG! His barrier collapsed in response; the shimmering golden light that surrounded him was pulled towards his body and reformed as a second skin of golden hexagons. His core, once dim and flickering, was just slightly rekindled with a brighter, golden glow. All of this happened while still chanting that annoying mantra:

The arm of the pious, the Breaker of Storms,

Forever you stand, never to fall.

A radiant beacon, the banner of courage,

The vigilant answer the call.

Over and over, in Eternal, no less. Another thing to process that the Remnant was consciously backlogging just to stay focused. Still, the new barrier gave the Remnant something to focus on. The new barrier was probably tougher than the old one, given its smaller area of coverage. Either that or it was at least easier to maintain. The only way it could find out was by physically probing it. A new current of lightning surged through the Remnant's left whip arm as it wound the weapon back and hurled it forward, set on testing this primitve's limits. The act felt almost routine and familiar, and something about it made the Remnant feel the faintest shard of contentment, even if it didn't really notice.

----------

Armoured in faith and Dust, Valorum watched as the Dust-lit Remnant raised its weapon to strike again. Since his direct attack didn't work, as he was in no state to fight in full force, Valorum had to change tactics. This barrier was tougher and easier to maintain, making the next phase of his plan slightly manageable. It was by no means simple, but if all went well, this fight was going to be over soon.

The Remant loosed its whip on Valorum, crackling with lightning, no doubt trying to break through the barrier. It fastened around Valorum's right forearm and poured high-voltage all across his Dust-armour. Feeling the weight of the full-body assault pressing on his mind, Valorum continued his chant, maintaining his shield for just long enough until he felt the tension in the whip loosen slightly. Just as the Remnant was moving to pull its weapon back, Valorum made his final play; with his right hand, he grabbed the whip and twisted it around his wrist, fastening it to his arm.

The Remnant froze, stunned.

Rolak and Chidi were silent.

And Valorum activated his gauntlet.

(To be Continued)

Angela sighed and took a deep drag from her cig.

"Well...I guess the sensors aren't working as well as the system claims.   I'll get things working, properly, before we break orbit.   May need to confirm with you on the ground or use a drone after the rebuild.   In the meantime, Saviour out."

Frame lurked in the shadows partially cloaked, tightening the springs in its arms, ready to draw its weaponry if the foe currently engaging the captain triumphed and turned on the rest of the crew. "We. Need. To do. Something" Chidi's voice drew Automaton's attention to the conversation and it felt a small surge of pride as his eyes glossed over Frame. 

Just then there was a bright flash from the arena, and Guide's sensor array started going wild, causing the Cloak to flicker as 0000's attention was fractured. +Tier 2 defensive grid, wide area. Recommend disabling Cloak to free up power in case it becomes necessary.+ 0000 slowly faded back into view, one hand clutching its head as its sensors strained to filter out the copious data. As the flood of signals faded one thing began to stand out. {Singing...} [A tradition among the Vodyani if I remember correctly.] 

The captain's foe seemed confused by this turnaround, just then a resounding BANG echoed throughout the room and the captain's barrier contracted suddenly, forming a skintight golden barrier. +Defenses now reading as Tier 3.+ The robot's whip came down brimming with lightning, crackling energy coruscating through Valorums body, as it pulled back, however, the captain reached out a hand to catch the whip. Frame's eye widened as it recognized the tool on the captain's right hand. [Is that?...] +Confirmed+ {Well, this just got interesting...}

Cutting, logging, scanning, cutting, logging, scanning, cutting, logging, scanning, cutting, logging, scanning, familiar, meditative, soothing.

As Dhanyl dug deeper into the old processors, wires and dust relays he began to see the data core itself. The heart of the whole construct and, without a doubt, shelter to yottabytes of wonderful data.

As the echoing cries of battle, that danced through the long-dead ruins, intensified, 

“Can see interesting piece of tech ahead.” 

his voice grew louder with them.

“Incision between NAND alpha 244 and OR beta 34.”

Partly out of annoyance.

“Removing dust transformer gate 35.”

And partly out of his desire to drown the sounds…

“Scanners detect a big memory unit behind this partition.”

and with that, the memories they brought.

“Begin… Beginning to make my way towards it.”

The sower was continuing it's subroutines concerned with disassembly of the eternal structure, while the Sophon concentrated on actually getting the memory core out the sower tried to suppress any of its higher reasoning, not having a certain goal but the disassembly itself. It felt reli- .. no, it felt like nothing, like it should be.

<Disassembling. Analysing. Categorizing. Recycling.Repeat>

While floating around the small structure it created piles of the salvaged parts.

It was able to filter out Dhanyl´s unneeded chatter. But it didn't expect Laudamus to talk, even though it was just a whisper it was well noticed by Tainte. It's totally rational and simple-set mind being ripped back into the fields of half-truths, expectations, and emotions.

It turned towards Laudmas and focused on the creature in his hand, it's active thought process halting for a new one. It forgot to check the odd heat signatures at the ceiling, not considering them for important but now.

<Cross Referencing with worm specimen, relation likely. High amount of many small ones suggests a breeding ground, that means … the worms aren`t occasionally present in the ruins. These are young. Breeding ground? Reassessing situation … > 

7-4-1-N-7-3-D thought, switching between rational binary thought and the more free and adaptive thought patterns.

 <Adding new variables to calculate the ruins structural integrity: One variable missing. Running for X possibilities. Error>

 It was overwhelmed with the options, but then was surprised how simple it could still assess the problem, maybe the only upside of its infection with Dust.

 <Adding X new variables . Running for all likely variables>

“This Unit urgently advises to take all valuable parts and regroup with the rest of the expedition to leave” 

It hovered out at a considerable speed into the main hallway.

It if it would have had the time it probably would have admired that the captain won the fight, but there was no time. 

“This Unit has found evidence for this ruins being a breeding ground for worms as encountered earlier. Additional to the threat of the creatures themselves all likely prediction models this Unit can create with the given data show possible high instability of the Ruin .”

To prove its point it relayed 5 of the most likely stability simulations of what they know and can assume of the ruin to Zeroes.

"Eagle has landed," said Martin to himself, when an automated message confirmed that the shuttle landed safely despite the storm. Then, he scanned the terrain around the landing zone, but sensors detected nothing interesting (besides, of course, the ruins). After that, he could return to his usual duties, only checking once per hour the state of a communication system and keeping an eye on reports from probes.
Few hours passed and Martin was clearing the archive when he heard a loud <dong>, reporting a message from the planet. A meteoprobe reported a sudden fall in speed of wind. Martin checked the weather scan - the storm that had been passing over the probe moved away. The clouds were traveling southwest quite fast.
- If nothing changes, the weather near ruins should improve soon - he said to himself and called Ylona.
- Ylona, I hope you hear me - he said - because I have some good news. The weather scan suggests that this storm around you is moving away and you're going to have a clear sky soon -
Then, another alert came. This time it was a strong <beep>, reporting an abnormal record.
- And I have some bad news - Martin said, checking the message - I got a seismic data that suggest a strength 0,7 quake, 500 m from you, azimuth 55. Epicenter 10 meters under the surface. I don't know what caused it, but... - another <beep> interrupted him.
- Another quake, the same characteristic, but 475 m from you. - Martin was reading with growing anxiety - I'll try to get the camera image... - he said and quickly switched the window.
The video showed an arctic landmark, full of ice pinnacles. Between them, Martin saw a huge, moving, oblong shape. It looked like an animal.
-Sweet Raia... There is something really big upon you! - he shouted, sending the video to the shuttle

+Predicted Dust siphoning detected.+. Frame contracted its visual aperture preemptively, deactivating several sensor options that might be oversensitive to another pulse of light, the scene unfolding in front of it stirred memories of a past life.

Years ago, when 0000 was an aide to Yeal Granberg; one of the first and only U.E. diplomats allowed onto the Hierarchs Ark, it had witnessed a similar combat between two Vodyani in an arena. It had been part of the welcoming ceremony for the dignitary. Zeros was still just a nascent series of protocol subsystems loosely compiled together to assist Yeal at the time, not yet having experienced the traumatic chain of events that would lead to it splintering from the other two.

A near blinding light broke it from its reverie, cries of shock and pain from the less prepared observers blended into the background. The figures stood locked together outlined by blinding light, visible by 0000 only due to the ferromagnetic scan it was currently running, for ten seconds that felt like an age. {Almost over now.}. Even as Automaton was thinking this the assault ceased, the spindly robot's arms dropped to its sides as its bent form heaved seemingly struggling to remain standing after draining itself of most of its energy. 

As the Captain began speaking to the robot, again in Eternal, Frame began moving through the group of onlookers. Most still blinking or rubbing their eyes as it halted a foot or two ahead of the group. Zeros raised the projection level of its vox so the Captain and his foe could both hear it before speaking up in Eternal. "I would suggest that you re-evaluate your position and take the Captains offer my metallic friend." At this point 0000 continued to speak as it moved closer to the prone figure, putting itself into a better position to establish eye contact.  "It is likely you are unaware of  this, especially considering you believe your creators are still a formidable presence in this galaxy, but his species are not well known for mercy."

Zeros had paused, meaning to let the words sink in for a second before continuing when 7-4-1-N-7-3-D appeared and made its announcement. Guide sent a brief response message back to the sower drone, not bothering to conceal the slight tonal variation that each fragment encoded into its data transmissions, +"Information received."+ before relaying the relevant structural and biological data regarding the temple and the worm creatures to the robot as well. "Plus it sounds like we may now have something quite a bit bigger to deal with on all of our collective hands, that is If you two are done beating on each other like savages trying to establish dominance." Frame extended a hand toward the prone figure, a gesture of peace. "If not, we can sort it out after we leave the crumbling ruin currently inhabited by baby megafauna. We likely don't want to still be around if or when the parents return. Take my hand, I can give you a jumpstart that should last until we get clear."

"I copy you, Martin", Ylona answered calmly as he finished his radio message. She had been about to comment to him that Alice had called her not five minutes earlier that a storm was incoming, and now he told her it would instead move away. She wasn't going to bet with him, too, but it was probably something to be mentioned during the debriefing, those amateur weather forecasts.

She was more concerned about the data feed Martin relayed. He was right, there was something moving on the seismic sensor, most likely one of those worms that had eaten the other probe, too. While thinking, Ylona subconsciously fingered her Bolt Caster, even though the danger was far below her and unlikely to be stopped by any bolt. She currently didn't have contact to the ground team, and most likely not because of something on her end. Wherever they were, they radio relay beacons couldn't reach one another, and so they were on their own.

There was the option of flying down and trying to see if she could establish contact somehow, using the shuttle equipment, to warn the ground team of the danger. However, it wasn't yet clear it was actually dangerous. The probe showed hard bedrock around the ruins, the kind of material even gigantic worms wouldn't be able to chew through. And if it was really getting attarcted by their presence, then flying down now would be counterproductive. The worm could definetly burrow through the surface gravel to attack the shuttle or at least block off the team from reaching it.

Still, it paid to be careful, especially in a place like this. She switched off the autopilot and tilted the controls, dipping the nose of the shuttle back into the turbulent air layers below. She was far from the eighty-seven seconds of flight time she had promised Valorum it would take to the entrance, but she wasn't trying to set a speed record. Just get close enough so that in case that worm did turn out to be dangerous, she wouldn't need that extra minute to get the ground team out of harm's way.

The nose of the shuttle broke through the cloud layer and Ylona was surprised to get a rather clear look of the ground. She leveled the ship again, carefully, the nose rising back into the clouds. While she couldn't do much about the shining thrusters, the bits of fog between her and the ground were a bit of security. If that worm hunted by sight, which was not very likely, then the ship was hidden. It was the best she could do.

"Shuttle to Bridge", she started speaking into the microphone while already leafing through menu option on one of the side screens, "I will be going silent in about thirty seconds. The directed antenna for orbital contact is more powerful than the omnidirectional local radio, and I'll try to get through to the ground team that way. You'll hear from me when I've heard of them, unless something comes up."

Not waiting for an answer, she concentrated on the antenna controls, unhooking it from the auto-tracker for the mothership and setting it to manual. After a few experimental tuns and tilts to get the feel for the controls, Ylona lowered the shuttle a bit and tried to triangulate the position of the entrance. Then, she noticed the problem: The antenna was at the top of the shuttle, and only meant to receive and send above the horizon, given that it was meant to establish contact with an orbiting spaceship. But the broken tower the team had gone through was beneath the ship.

She looked back at the passenger compartment, to check if all drawers and hatches were closed. Then, she knotted the strap of her bowcaster to the armrest of her chair and strapped herself in. "This is crazy", she said to herself, and put the shuttle into a rolling motion. The caster started slipping, then hanging sideways off the armrest, while behind her things started rattling and falling around in their compartments. When the caster hung from her perspective straight up, Ylona stopped the ship.

The Adamant was now hovering upside down over the landscape, tenaciously holding its position with the maneuvering thrusters in the roof. From Ylona's perspective, tightly strapped into the pilot's chair, she was hovering under an endless gravelly ceiling, resting on a fluffly cloud.

She got the bearing of the tunnel entrance in her new orientation, and manually set the antenna to point at it. Setting it to alway receive, she started moving it about in tiny steps until the static from the speakers got slightly clearer. It was still a rather bad transmission, because one of the relays just couldn't pass on anything better, she guessed. But there was a voice there, a synthetic one, probably from the Automaton or the Sower. She fiddled with the antenna and the receiver filters for a while to try and make out more what they were sending, but finally gave up and just decided to send back.

Hoping that the relay wouldn't blow from the strength of the transmission, she flipped to sending and spoke into the microphone: "This is Ylona, calling from the Shuttle. If you can understand me, please give me a simple sign. My reception is abysmal, I can't make out any words. If you need an evac, get out from wherever you are and try again. I can be on the ground in ... make it thirty seconds." She repeated the message three times, and then switched back to receiving and turned up the volume as far as she could stand from the static, hoping to catch something from any possible response.

7-4-1-N-7-3-D estimated it would reach the end of the hallway in roughly 36 seconds.
It was still running it's almost useless simulations endlessly in its head until it's sensors, all tuned to pick up even the faintest of signals and radiation, got overwhelmed with an unexpected strong transmission. Caused by this the drone focused its attention on the message.

After it repeated two times and then stopped it quickly replied,
“Affirmative”
then waited the timespan that was between the repeating of the broadcasts,
“Affirmative … Affirmative”
and once more
“Affirmative … Affirmative … Affirmative”
It wasn't very creative, the machine must admit, but it should work and that was all that matters.

<30 seconds? Fast descension procedure. Could put extra stress on underground facility ..> It added that to its predictions and carried on, the exit being close.

Finally, it entered the ruins, now already having a quite high speed it almost looked like it got shot out of the ruins. It redistributed power, most of it now being used for its own transmitter.

“Scout Unit 7-4-1-N-7-3-D transmitting. Team requests evacuation. No members were hurt by this Units knowledge. Hostile presence confirmed, connection to Megafauna possible. Attention: Ruin stability dangerously low, suggesting cautious landing. 2 Objects of interest should be retrieved. The rest of the team should arrive outside shortly. “

It repeats it's message once more hoping it gets through.

There was something. The static was horrible, but some words were there, enough to get the general meaning. And as the message went on, it cleared up even more. The sender was approaching the relay that was before the break in the chain.

"I hear you now", she called into the microphone, "I'm ready to get you guys out. But there was something big on the seismic scan, probably a worm." She couldn't see the feed now, because it had been relayed from the ship, and that she didn't have contact to at the moment. She'd need to set up a manual intercept of the probe signal via local radio, and there was no time. "If I land or you step out, we'll spook it. So we only get one shot at this. I don't want to risk a piecemeal pick-up. Tell that the Captain, if he hasn't heard yet."

<Updating course of action: Redirecting.>

The Sower quickly canceled out its momentum and started accelerating backward, turning itself around mid-air. It now knew where the hole in the chain of transmitters had to be, roughly, so as it had passed that point and received the captain's voice it tries to reach the rest of the expedition.

"Priority alert. Megafauna heading towards this coordinates. Evacuation Shuttle inbound. Megafauna´s chance of breaching through geology surrounding the ruin: Low. Chance of complete ruin destruction by Megafauna attempting to breach through geology surrounding the ruin: High. Shuttle Pilot expressed urge to evacuate quick and coordinate the exit of the ruins with their landing. Comm-Transmitter chain interrupted. Communication with shuttle can be enacted closer to the exit."