"First thing, My name is James. Dont call me sir, I work for a living. Secondly, Why am I the only one around here not allowed to have a sense of fragging humor?" James' cyberarm gyromount begins to click in and out in frustration.

"Well, I don't know the answer to that one....sir?" Chase puts on his best drek eating grin. "But you should switch to decafe," He points to James' wrist. "That's a bad tell."

"Hey, you're making the rules around here, sunshine, but if you want to start killing people, then you ought to think about who's head I'm going to offer up for a return ticket when they block the gate off."

"It may be a bad tell," the gyros begin to spin up to speed, "but it is also damn effective." At this James raises his hand and cracks a burst aimed to overfly the ziggurat.

"Now, if that doesn't get their attention, I think my knocking on the front door might. Follow or stay here, at the moment, I'd rather just get inside, ask to borrow the galactic directory and phone fragging home."

A rather broad grin spreads across Ran's face.

Finally.

She stands to follow James and idly loosens the katana in her scabbard.

"Let's get the frag out of this hell hole, eh?"

Torque looks thoughtful a moment.
Torque: "That is a good point James. We haven't even considered if this pyramid might be constructed by friendlies yet. Good thinking."

It takes a little less then half an hour to cover the distance to the pyramid. You can feel your skin starting to burn, even with the copious amounts of sunscreen applied. The main entrance is tunnel like, leading about five meters in. The entrance is shaded and ten degrees cooler than the rest of the world.

The door of the temple is a large stone covered in glyphs. No handles or other apparatus seem visible. Over the years sand has piled up in the entrance, it doesn't look like it has been opened in a while.

@ Ghost Dragon,

as you get closer you have the oppurtuntiy to examin the ward for yourself. It is strong and is set in the walls. Including the door, though you can take refuge in the shaded entrance.

Cosmo hit the deck of his skyboard a second after James let loose his pound puppy of war. When he heard the rationale over the comm line, the little guy just gave an embarrassed look and hoped no one could see him from his vantage point.

His 'board slowly flittered to the ground next to the entrance at which point, in an amazing display of athleticism, he kicked his foot down on the back causing the BigKahuna to jolt into an upright position and shift into the sand.

A few waddles brought him into a standing position next to the rest of the team. He was looking at the glyphs with the help of his linguasoft while casually reaching into his fannypack to grab another burrito. It seemed somewhat obvious that something was on the dwarf's mind, which in and of itself would be a startling revelation, but whatever it was he was keeping a tight lip about it.

Chase just shakes his head as he falls in at the back of the pack.

Ghost Dragon takes a few minutes to examine the stone at the top of the pyramid as they get closer. He walks with his eyes fixed on it, trying to sense what he can about its purpose, its function, and the repercussions of destroying it.

Once he is closer to the pyramid, he takes another detailed look at the ward that blocks his entrance.

Noticing the focused look on the normaly spaced out dwarf's fas, "What's up, Cos?"

Cosmo was tracing one of the runes with a chubby finger when Chase interupted him.

"Huh.. wha...? Oh, nuffin' man. I was just bummed 'cause I forgot to bring some hot sauce with me. Can you believe that? Stuck on this giant dirtball without any tabasco sauce. That's just not right. Not right at all, man..." He doesn't seem to be quite as concerned as he sounded however, seeing as how he returned his attention to the door only after taking a big bite out of his burrito.

"Heh," Chase smiles and nods his head. "Yeah, I can see how that'd get ya down."

At least the dwarf helps break the tension...

Cosmo scans the wall, eyes locking on a symbol as the knowsoft flashes symbols in his eye. occasionally one will match, the icon will stop, and information will flood his field of view. He counts 300 individual symbols on the door. Of those, he can read ten.

"Oh, and this door's ramblin' on about how a bunch o' slaves that were brought to this pad, like, got fed up with... with a uh..." the dwarf tilts his head for a moment "...devilish dragon-king thingie and totally rebelled against him. Blah blah blah. Somehow they managed to overcome the dude and, like, sealed him up forever and stuff. That or it's some kinda recipe for pot pie, but I'm gonna lean towards the other story.

"And, uhh, oh my stars and garters..." Cosmo's head sort of tilts to the other side before he starts taking a few steps back "...this door looks like it's chargin' up with some kind of energy or sumfin'... can't quite make it out, but I'm pretty sure it's not magical, man... so uh... yeah... you might wanna, yanno, back up off it some."

The little guy continues backing off, shifting his position behind Chase a bit as he does so.

Taking the dwarf's advice, "James, I strongly recomend that we vacate the immediate area. Pronto." Chase raises his weapon with his right hand and locks his gaze on the door. He starts to back away slowly at first but with increasing speed, keeping his left hand lightly on Cosmo's chest to move the dwarf back.

Out of the corner of his mouth to Cosmo, "Is there a sign on my back that says 'Troll,' or something?"

"Uhm... I dunno." Cosmo looks up at Chase's back. "Nah man, I don't see one. But, uh, I don't think there's anything t'worry about. Things seem to have calmed down since I backed off. I was just gettin' some wild interference and the door was a bit hot to the touch. Might be some kind of energy field or sumfin'. I dunno. I just wouldn't, yanno, advice taunting the door or nuffin'."

Chase relaxes a bit; almost laughs at the first part. "Good to know. So, its proximity sensitive? What about the outside walls? Os and I could make the climb if we have to. You and the hover-board could move anyone else up if needs be." He lowers the barrel of the 227S so it points to the ground.

"Or if we can find some sort of operating mechanism, maybe Whisper could work her magic on it," Chase shoots a wink at Wisper.

"I dunno. I'm guessin' it's just a constant field or somethin'. Took me a few ticks to figure out what I was peepin'." Just to test his theory, Cosmo takes walks back towards the door while keeping a sharp eye open for any more interference.

"Either way, man... I really wouldn't go the boom-boom route. Dunno about you guys, but findin' a neon sign reading sumfin' like 'devil dragon-king entombed here' kinda suggests that, uh, bad things would happen if we muck it up without knowin' fer sure."

"Greaaat," Chase sighs. "Well, here's Alex's 'advanced technology' at work." He fishes around in his pouches until he comes up with the micro-camcorder. Chase gets images of as many of the glyphs as he can. Then he shrugs, "Can't hurt."

When finished, he replaces the micro-cam in pouch and takes up the SMG again.

James whistles a bit. "Ok, so we have an entombed demon dragon-king, a door we are not sure if we can open, and an energy field across the door for a third case."

James plops down into a prone position, using his Security helmet as a rest for his MP5. "How about I sit here and point my gun at this door while those of you who can read that thing or at least puzzle out how it works discuss it, I'm out of ideas."

A soft, barely audible radio transmission comes across the airwaves. "I cant shoot it, stab it, and I don't think they'll let me blow it up. What am I supposed to do? I know!" The volume kicks up as he speaks aloud. "Ok... Well, yeah. Anyone have a clue what need to do now?"

After casually retreating to the safety of Chase's amble backside, a glazed look (all right, a more glazed look) finds its way onto the dwarf's face as he unleashes the Mad Hatter on his comm unit to try and figure out a way to open the door.

The unit bombards the door with with RF energy as he switches between channels. After a few minutes the radio start approaching UHF levels and the door responds.

The door begins to hum. A low moaning sound. Dust shakes loose from the ceiling coating everything in the entryway. The walls themselves feel as if they are shaking.

After a few minutes of humming the door begins to slide backwards with a noise like stone on stone. It stops after four feet and slides to the side. The inside is a long hallway that is cloked in darkness.

Chase drops to one knee covers and open doorway, "You wanna warn next time you do that?"

Whisper followed at the rear of their little entourage, keeping a careful eye on their beagle buddy as well as their general vicinity, glad again for the light clothing that covered her from head to toe. Sure, she was sweating, but at least her skin wouldn't be extra-crispy by 'nightfall.' The prospect of using her ahh, talents on the ziggurat brought a light smile to her face although when the idea was just as quickly discarded, the smile vanished. Her sullen remark wouldn't have registered in most ears and certainly not over their transcievers. "It didn't have to be a big one ...."

With a bit of a shrug, she takes one small step forward and sniffs the air coming from the newly opened passage, her head tilted to one side in an oddly birdlike gesture.

"Yanno," Cosmo begins as he returns after a few moments, "I was, like, lookin' o'er those video streams I snagged from the drones when I, uh... noticed sumfin'. Looks like there's at least two suns here, and if I'm not mistaking, they're timed so that as soon as one is setting, the other's rising. I could be wrong though... kinda hard to tell with these bummed streams."

Torque Examines the opening a moment.
Torque: "That's some impressive work Cosmo, really great. I figured alien technology would be a lot harder to manage. Inside the air's probably stagnant and unbreathable, anybody else feel like getting the tents and setting them up so we can wait a little more comfortably?"

"It was harder than it looked, man."

Snoopy trots forward a few feet toward the entrance. Sniffs the air a few times, and then takes a few more steps in.

Getting to his feet, "The dog seems to think its safe." <shrugs>

Pausing for only a moment, she nods to Chase.

"Acceptable levels of c-carbon dioxide, though I d-don't reccomend prolonged exposure if it can be avoided."

Whisper wipes absently at the bead of sweat that hangs from the tip of her pert nose.

"I suggest we take 10 and then head inside... we dont want to rush in and scare the entombed demondragonking."

"I don't see any other viable course of action," Chase leans up against the wall but keeps his eyes and his weapon locked on the doorway. "Here's a thought. What if this thing ain't a tomb? What if its a prison--a cage? Magic exists here." He looks at Ghost Dragon, "We know this. The people were primitive. It'd be easy for a spirit or a...a...Some other magical nasty to convince these people he's a demon king. Frag, he could have actually a dragon. Whatever it is, is probably still alive. And pissed off."

Ghost Dragon follows after Snoopy and casts an invisibility spell on himself. He says, "Be careful, Snoopy. Do not get too far ahead of me. Go as quietly as you can."

He sneaks along behind Snoopy into the ziggurat's entrance.

"With any luck he hadn't heard of grenades yet," Os says as he goes into the temple.

James stands up, looks at Os, and says "Amen, brother," then heads on in.

"With little more luck, he'll never get the chance to learn." Chase flashes a devilish grin at Os.

"You guys ready?" He says to the rest of the team.

Ours is not question why...

With a mouth full of burrito, Cosmo manages to eek out a "yeah, man. Let's, uh, lock and load or whatever."

"That is, without a doubt, the lamest thing you have ever said," the Mad Hatter exasperated within the hallowed ground of Cosmo's shattered mind.

"Sh'up," was his only response as he casually fell into line behind everyone else.

Torque: "I feel so safe around all these brave fighters I'll just let you handle the shooting. If you get shot at back I'll be right here at the back of the group."

"Fleet does the flying, Mobile Infantry does the dying," drifts over the radio. "Just don't look like the radio guy or an officer. Battery-powered grunts and officers always get shot first. Makes it harder to call in fire support. And remember, friendly fire does not offer to shake hands. That would be a friendly fire elemental."

My God. He's got space dementia.

Cosmo stops in his tracks upon hearing James' words about the radio guy. Readjusting his rose-tinted glasses, he nonchalantly readjusts the remote-control deck on his back so that it's underneath the light camouflage jacket Alex's team set everyone up with. Another readjustment of his shades has him continuing onward, nary a word spoken in between.

While following the others, the dwarf seems to be more distant than normal. Unbeknownst to everyone but the Mad Hatter and himself, his mind is preoccupied with the glyphs they found on the door outside. The symbols mull around as he tries to look past their literal meanings in order to gain insight into putting all the pieces of the puzzle together to discover what they truly represent.

Ran unsheathes her katana with a quiet steely slither before heading in near the front of the line.

Chase adjusts his line of fire to clear Ran.

Torque starts to make a comment about bringing a sword to a gunfight, then belatedly remembers he's the one who brought a whip on the grounds that it would look cool. He hides the near-faux-pas as a cough instead and busily examines the hallway they're in.

Ran leads the pack into the hallway behind the floppy eared dog. Snoopy has stopped a few feet in, presumably to let his vision adjust to the gloomy hallway. The inside seems a few degrees cooler; that is until Ran takes a single step passed the beagle. A wall of cold assaults her as the temperature drops significantly. One moment it was warm, the next, it is freezing. She turns to speak and the rest of the team can see her breath as she exhales.

Ghost Dragon stops to take a look and make sure the ward is down. He slides his vision over to the astral to examine the path in front of him.

The crystal controls the ward. I wonder if there is some way to trick the mechanism.

"What the..?"

Ran looks around, trying to discern the cause of the temperature change. Not that it isn't welcome. Just... unnerving.