The moment she got a word from the Captian, Ylona pulled the control stick sideways, sending the Adamant into another roll, one meant to bring her directly down to ground level. After hanging upside down for a while, the sudden change in gravity made black spots dance before Ylona's eyes, so she could only hope that she'd gauged everything correctly. The ship set down on crunching gravel, probably scraping some paint off the bottom, but right now she was just happy to have landed. She punched the button to open the back hatch, and then shouted over the howling wind at the group running outside: "Come on, get in! Move! We can't wait around!" She was still too dizzy to trust her senses, but it seemed like that broken bit of tower behind the team was shaking.

The moment everyone was on board, she pressed the hatch button again, and without waiting for it to close completely, just gave full power to the launch thrusters, catapulting the ship straight upwards. Switching on the autopilot to have it compensate the winds by themselves, she unbuckled from her seat and got carefully to her feet. "Roll call, everyone", she announced while carefully walking into the rear compartment, holding herself steady on the door frame. The autopilot was slow in picking up shifting winds, so the Adamant still jerked and shuddered as she rose. "Captain? Good. Rolak? Laudmas? Chidi? Zeros? Dhanyl? What's-it, Seven-Four-Something? All present? Good. Nobody wounded?" She let out a sigh of relief when all questions were answered positively.

"What happened down there?", she asked, "We lost radio contact, because some of those relays were too far apart. Did you find any—" She was interrupted by the shuttle suddenly jumping sideways and nearly rolling over. The passengers and their boxes were thrown around by the unexpected movement. "Shit", she shouted and fought her way back into the cockpit. "Sidewinds", she announced, mostly to herself. Cursing more, she got back into the pilot's seat and steadied the Adamant manually, which was getting shaken by a storm like the fury of a god. For several minutes, she thought of nothing except to keep the ship thrusters aimed downwards despite the winds doing their best to throw them off course, and how she now owed Alice that bottle of Dust she'd bet.

Only when the shuttle reached the upper whispy layers of the atmosphere did the shaking stop and Ylona could take her hands off the controls again. She checked the ship radio, which had thankfully by now had found the Saviour again, and noticed their relative positions. "Shuttle to brige", she called into the microphone, "Ylona here. Everyone's present and healthy, and we'd all like to come home. I didn't hit a good launch window, so we'll have to do some orbital dancing. I'll send you a thrust vector in a second to get us both lined up." Once she'd done the calculations, sent the data over and done all the neccessary maneuvering on her own side, she leaned back and sighed, happy this trip had ended without any losses.

"GO! GO! GO!"

Though Valorum reached the shuttle first with 7-1-4, he was by no means the first one to board. With his plasma cannon primed and loaded, he and Rolak both covered their retreating teammates as the ruin behind them shook with the motions of its colossal inhabitants. A massive sundering CRACK sounded as part of the ruin's entrance exploded and a massive tendril reached out, terminating in a bellowing maw of teeth. Fortunately, before the enraged beast could spot them, Valorum stepped onto the shuttle with his Lumerian subordinate and shut the doors. After everyone was sitting and strapped in, Valorum visually scanned the compartment as Ylona did her role-call, reporting:

"All's present and accounted for, Sister."

When the shuttle shuddered as the winds hit, Valorum was quiet and held on for dear life. Once the Adamant had stabilized, he delivered his report;

"We obtained several relics for study, sister; some ancient data drives and one of the ruin's guardian constructs. However, the inhabitants of the place didn't take kindly to our looting."

The sower was flowing in the middle of the shuttle gently, seemingly not affected by the troubled escape that just had happened, it actually felt somewhat relieved as the ruins broke down, as it wouldn't have the question of when it collapses in the back of its mind. It starts its mission evaluation.

<Colonisati- Exploration Mission: 00001
 Status : Completed
 Initial Information Level : Low
 Threat Level : High
 Crew damaged : 0%
 Outpost Structures established : None
 Objects of Interrest found : 2
 Retrieved : 2

 Evaluation: Mission Successful.>

As the gravity on the shuttle now is almost only artificial again the Drone repeats the odd dance it did as they moved down. Checking if all movement components are still at peak efficiency and adjusting to the ships standard gravity. Staying completely silent during the trip.

"No kidding, Captain. Seems like those things can chew through solid bedrock after all." Ylona pressed a last few buttons to coordinate the rendevouz with the Saviour. The ship would descent into a lower orbit to speed up, while the shuttle ascended in a higher one to slow down, so that they'd meet within an acceptable time frame. So right now there was a bit of lazy cruising in orbit before she'd be needed at the controls again.

She unknotted the strap of her bolt caster from her seat and slung it over her shoulder as she sauntered back into the rear compartment. "You probably all want a shower and maybe even shuteye before a debrief", Ylona commented while looking over the group, "Your call, Captain." Regulations said something about having the debriefing as soon as possible after an expedition, and those that had remained shipbound were probably eager for news, but those guys had just escaped a collapsing ruin. Not a time to stick to the rules.

One of the boxes now scattered over the floor wobbled slightly, then fell onto a different face, despite the shuttle being completely steady. Within a second, the bolt caster went from dangling at her side to being aimed at that box. Valorum, standing close, might have heard a very faint whine and clonk coming from her clothes as she stared down the sights. "What is in that box?", Ylona asked with alarm.

"In my experience, it is far more restful to say one's peace on a mission before being dismissed."

Raising his voice a little, Valorum addresses the whole shuttle:

"I want everyone cleansed and gathered for a debriefing no later than ten minutes after we-"

Before Valorum can finish his order, he notices the lone box that moved and stares at it as Ylona draws a bead with her bolt-caster. Swivelling his head slowly back around to the Sophon and Android scientists present, Valorum asks tersely:

"Laudmas? Dhanyl? Care to explain?"

"You want to keep worms that eat through bedrock and grow to a kilometer long in a box. On a ship that's a quarter of that size", Ylona summarized in a deadpan tone. Given the panicked retreat of the group from the ruins, those things weren't docile creatures, either, so she kept her weapon aimed at that box. "It's your decision, Captain", she said to Valorum although she really hoped he'd decide against bringing this thing on board.

The shuttle controls sent out a warning beep, which overrode her concern about the box. She was needed at the helm to steer the Adamant into the Saviour's hold. Leaving the Vodyani to decide over the fate of the box and the robot, she sat back down in her seat and with gentle nudges brought the shuttle into its mothership. There was only a slight shudder as she powered down the thrusters, the ship setting smoothly down in the hangar.

"We're home, everyone", she shouted into the passenger compartent while opening the hatch for them, "You heard our Captain. Get decontaminated and then grab whatever rest you can in those ten minutes until we call for debrief. Laudmas stays until we decided this."

The sower finished its adjustments and moved to the decontamination chambers, setting it to "Strong decontamination" and for "Resistant User" partially to make sure it is completely decontaminated, partly to tests if its sensors still worked correctly and its hull is able to withstand it without problems, which it should if it wasn't severely weakened on planetside.

While waiting in the shower of chemicals and radiation and observing its own parameters it sends a message to the engineering crews console reading :

"Ground operation successful, Unit will arrive for routine checkup after debriefing, more to be checked and repaired machines might come too.- 7-4-1-N-7-3-D"

0000 traveled down the corridor engineward, heading for the primary engine bay. Hovering behind it was an autonomous transport dolly carrying the inactive guardian unit from the ruins. Frame and it exchanged information regarding carrying and lifting. A simple conversation, but one that passed the time at least. Zeros was just getting to the point of shifting the discussion towards chemical showers. It had offhandedly mentioned it's distaste for them, the sensation of being showered in radiation and chemicals seeming an inefficient method of cleansing Frame preferred a thorough chemical soak, and the transport had disagreed, likely due to its decontamination protocols being optimized for the ship.

After a time they arrived at the door to the engine room and Zeros cut the conversation off. Guide wirelessly connected with the scanner and entered 0000's access code, Null:2605181519, Frame rolling through the doors as they opened with the dolly following behind. 

"You in here Chief? I've got some samples you'll probably be interested in taking a look at!"

As the shuttle pulls in to dock, Valorum's silent, eyeless gaze gives way to him leaning forward and gesturing sternly with a single finger answering Laudmas in a deadly serious tone:

"Brother, I trust you, but if that thing so much as scratches one of the crew or shorts out a minor conduit, I swear on the honour of the Gods, I will kill it myself. So for everyone's sake, you had best do everything in your power to keep that...thing locked up and in check. Understood?"

"Up here,"  Alice called, her head appearing, upside down, from an overhead hatch.  Her eyes locked onto the cargo.  "...one moment."   

With the grace of a gymnast, the engineer swung her body out from her perch and landed on her feet before the construct.   She paid 0000 little mind as she inspected the remains of the machine.  Her abilities confirmed it immediately: the machine was definitely not going to be running again any time soon, but that didn't mean it couldn't be of use.   

She retrieved her cutting tool and a small plastic container from her belt, slicing a thin layer from the dead machine's armor.   "The lab will probably want to analyze what this thing's made of.  I've seen this alloy before, I think, but for the life of me can't remember when."   Though she kept up her usual frown, there was a manic twinkle in her eyes as she began her full analysis.

It would take time to decipher the guardian's secrets, but the Saviour afforded her plenty enough.

Dhanyl was relieved when he heard Valorums decision. A fierce discussion was the last thing he wanted after this exhausting escape. And he would have argued fiercely, after all, they were about to study an entirely new ecosphere, a task requiring every sample available, with living ones being the cream of the crop.

Slowly he rose from his seat and slouched towards the decon chambers, he needed a hot chem shower after all this. Maby he'd even get out of his suit. In passing, he gathered his containers and tools from the floor, where they were scattered from the turbulence, walked past Tainted, who was already in a chamber and sat down with his stuff in an empty one. 

"Decontamination, medium resistance", he said and the chamber immediately closed its door and filled the inside with a chemical downpour, colourful vapours and low radiation. For a few minutes, Dhanyl relaxed without thinking about anything particular, letting his mind and body rest after the recent excitement. Then, he said "Decontamination, low resistance, organic friendly" and began to get out of his suit. Just as he was about to pull off his helmet, ENI spoke up, "Debriefing due in 2 minutes."

 It was quite handy to have his own personal assistant, listening in on everything going on around him and automatically setting up reminders so he didn't have to. But sometimes he wished he didn't.

 "Stop Decontamination", he said, gathering his stuff again and making his way toward the debriefing.

mantovani parked his rear in his workstations stool. The seat hovered a foot and a half above the base, emitting a faint blue glow.

'sophons' he thought, 'the only race that could make a chair that needs to run on batteries'. With a broad diagonal wave of his hand a series of holographic projecters came online and displayed the keyboard, various screens and menus. he sweeped his finger along a box, minimising it and drgging to the side for later. he repeated this several times until one screen remained. Getting up from his chair he pinched the final screen and dropped it infront of him while he approached a hastily installed hot-drinks dispenser. if the captain couldn't consume liquid materials and didn't know his quarters was supposed to have a drink dispenser, no one would care right? Besides he needed it more than than glowy metal suit anyway.

mantovani placed a mug under the nozzle and pressed the icon for tea before pouring over the status info on the ships various hardware systems.

mainframe was working at optimal efficiency, nav computer was online and assisting the pilot; albeit in a limited way considering her more hands on approach. Mantovani respected that way of thinking. 'if you want something done right do it yourself' he mumbled.

on that note he wondered where that human he worked with had gone. Marcus was it? he should be here and not chatting up some female.

Remembering that he himself was skipping work moments earlier ended that chain of thought. Mantovani didnt want to embarrass himself infont of... himself.

Freshly dispensed black tea in hand and a few more system checks later he sat down in his chair, warm steam rising from the bitter drink. Mantovani decided to rummage the random scribbles that constituted the beginning of the expedition's after action report.

He kind of liked the idea. Exploring distant worlds, discovering ancient or recent civilisations. He read information on the endless ruins; it peaked bis interest. '' maybe i could learn a thing or to about art from the endless'' he mused, the thought making more and more sense in his head.

He scrolled down further. Mega fauna: carniverous worm species tha-

mantovani closed the screen. 'nope' he said aloud. 'now im going to have nightmares'. He let out a shudder at the thought of those 'things'.

He rested a palm over his face. ' why did there have to be pictures, i would have happily NOT seen that for the rest of my life'.

The PA system blared out the captains call for the debrief.

Mantovani drew the mug to his mouth, taking a long sip.

He returned to work once more, the captains voice reminding him of his duty.

(im just going to fully take over the horatio martin created :p thank you for letting me do so)

While enduring the decontamination process 7-4-1-N-7-3-D had not much more to do than continuously run self-diagnostics, so it started to ponder, to think.
First and foremost: 'Thinking' is an interesting concept for it, still a new experience and it never was the same, new insights pass its lense, while each insight shapes its lens itself! Of course self-adapting and other learning algorithms were already part of its mind, but 'thinking'? Processing so irrelevant things like that game it had with the sophon? The fight between the guardian and the captain? The last one could maybe be of value for a military overseer, but it was far from that position.

Even more amusingly it realized that it was thinking about thinking and also was able to take direct note of it. Is that how overseers with sufficient processing power tackle problems? In these unreal abstract forms of data processing? Or is the sower one of the few of its kind who possess it? How could it even know if any being is evaluating data like it is now? And if the others also all do it differently, is it a step higher or lower than them? Is it smarter than most if not all overseers?

That was the moment it had crossed the line, it stopped itself the second it realized what treacherous assumption it just made. Instead of taking a guess at how it would go so far or thinking at all it starts running one of its preprogrammed subroutines: frontier establishment. Using the data it gathered from the exploration of the planet below.

And so it just idly floats in the chamber, until Valorums message reaches it and it gets forced back to use its hardware. The machine shuts down every useless subroutine, ends the decontamination process and heads for the bridge, arriving soon later to float calmly in a corner and, for once, its mind is as idle as its body.

Ylona had left the shuttle moment before Valorum, but before she could go to decontamination, there was a list of post-flight checks she had to go through. The check-list in hand, she wandered around the Adamant, inspecting the thrusters, the hull, the amount of used fuel... The shuttle was still in fine condition, as was to be expected after only a single flight. The gravel had left a few scratches in the paint at the bottom, but she didn't bother writing that down. A dropship that hadn't a few traces of every world it had set down on wasn't worth its name.

Then, she wandered on into the decontamination, stripping down naked and putting her clothes and armor into a separate chamber for lethally hard decon, while she got herself the customary chemical shower. When that was then washed off with water, she used the chance to wash herself, too, getting some of that smell out of her skin. While water wasn't as scarce and rationed on the Saviour as on some of her longer cargo trips, the allowance still wasn't high enough that the showers felt like more than a bucket dumped over your head.

Unfortunatly, her pleasure of warm water on her skin was cut short by the announcement of the debrief. Somewhat grumpily, she stepped out of decon and quickly put on her clothes again, awkwardly carrying the support rig for her boltcaster over her shoulder. Well, time to get through with it and find out what the ground had exactly been up to during their hour of radio silence.

((If people feel it might stint their creativity and not help in developing their characters, we could skip the debrief. However, I'm hardly the person to decide that, given that my character doesn't have much to say. So give your opinions in Recruitment))

“Understood, Captain” Laudmas replied. Returning to more of his genteel self he closed off with the word “excellent”. The worm box was marked and a capable looking Pilgrim was assigned to look over it in the meantime. The robot then slowly paced his way to the decontamination chambers. He pulled out his radio (the one that was connected to Liam’s) and as soon as he got it working, he casually said to him: 

“Ah, Liam. This is Laudmas. You might ask how well your drone did but there’s something bigger to talk about.” Laudmas paused. “Literally, that is.” He chuckled a bit. 

“We encountered gigantic worms and they weren’t too fond of us. Now, I have an important assignment that I’ll entrust to you. A crate marked 19-01-1990 is located within the ship. It contains several juvenile samples of the worms I have mentioned. Now, a pilgrim called Chidi should be looking over it. Tell him you’re Liam, pick that crate up, and deliver it to the research centre.”

The robot halted for a bit so that Liam could get everything down. 

“However, you’ll need to wait and guard the box until I get there. Make sure no worm escapes or the entire ship will be jeopardised. This is Laudmas and thank you for doing this.” After instructing the location of the lab to Liam, the radio simply closed off with a crackle.

-

Strong Decontamination

Resistant User

Double-run

Due to properly handling the worms, Laudmas opted to have the shower run over him twice. While two chemical showers were not necessary and it wasn’t like him to be exceptionally cautious, he greatly admired cleanliness. Even more so, the fact that he was the ship’s doctor made him want to set himself up as an example for proper hygiene. Besides from that, it reminded him of the planet where he acquired his pet cephalopod from. Notably, it was also where he first met Liam. After the intense showering, he let some water through and lubricated his chassis in order to remove the smell and acquire a more appealing impression. From wormguts to god-knows-what chemicals to something unknown that was a little pleasing. Just in time as he finished his cleansing, the announcement of the debriefing came through. Humming along, he leisurely walked towards the bridge.

 Liam jolted awake with a familiar sound of a radio and an equally familiar sound of a friend. He swiped scraps of rusted metal and dust away, picking up a few words, something bigger than the drone?, he thought, unclear on what either object was. He listened quietly as he sat upright on his bed. He scribbled a number down as it was read, 19-01-1990. Near the end, he remembered saying something along the lines of, “Worms, box, more worms, pilgrim, location, got it.” and left his room. He sluggishly walked to the entrance of the cargo bay to pick up the crate. Liam met Chidi said he needed the box and briefly flashed an old card with his name and picture on it. Chidi shrugged and gestured towards the crate where he hauled it to the listed coordinates. He stood outside the room and left the crate and himself at the door, where he and poked at the box for an indefinite amount of time.

Mantovani finished the last file. With a swipe of his finger upwards the file saved to the hard drives and the holographic interface shut down.

He pressed the mug of tea to his lips, finshing the last of the drink. Mantovani let out a pleased sigh and a weak smile curled the sides of his mouth.

"finally done".

The happy thaughts flooded from his mind and his expression quickly soured as he reasied he had nothing to do.

The Horatio as a people were cloned from a single, great genius. As a result of their heritage, they all suffered the crippling disease all geniuses had; the persistent disease of easy boredom.

Mantovani thought hard on what he could do. He thought it would be best to continue attempting to hone his non-existent artistic talents.

Thinking of possible inspiration on new pieces he remembered how the away team delved into the endless ruin and its magnificent architecture...

Mantovani paused, his mind still as he slowly threaded this chain of thought.

"Architecture" he began. "builings that were crafted, designed, sculpted..."

A flash of realisation struck across his mind. With a snap of his fingers he yelled "A sulpture!" 

Ideas waiting to be given solid form fluttered in Mantovani's head, ideas for new pieces. He rushed out into one of the ships arterial corridors. Not even a second could afforded to be lost, he must begin the piece whilst ideas were new; greater thought and intricacies can come later.

Eyes picking aprat the loose crowd of crew walking along like a hawk surveying a field for mice, he searched for some type of engineer. As a painting needed colour, a sculpture needed parts, a malleable substance or any material that can be reassembled. Metal parts was going to be the most readily available material so an engineer might know where to get some useless components that can be reformed into a work of art.

Mantovani quickly found a likely candidate, a running woman wearing a singed and stained uniform, tell tale signs of a mechanic.

Almost appearing out of nowhere to the human, Mantovani greeted her with a polite hello whilst breaking out into a jog along side her.

"um... hi?" she said, confusion clearly displayed on her face.

"where might a person like my self find spare metal components to construct things with?" mantovani inquired.

"uhh, i dont really know" words escaping between each breath. "but i do know an old guy on-board who knows all about that kind of stuff. He is called liam kantari."

"thank you" replied Mantovani with a smile. He slowed down and made his way back to his work station. opening his computer he seached the crew roster for him and found his quarters on the database.

with a glimmer of joy in his eye he set out for liam's quarters. From his impulsive, couple minute search for a sculpting medium, liam was his best chance for the resources he required.

it didn't take long before he reached the door. Pressing a Sigel on the side of the door, the door opened and Mantovani walked in.

"excuse me, but do you have a-"

He stopped talking as he realised the room was empty of anything that could listen. The over excited horatio suppressed his feelings of annoyance at the disappearance of the room's owner. He inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly.

"i suppose i will wait for him to return."

glancing at the numerous trinkets around the room he decided to pass the time examining the devices littering the room.