Following quietly alongside Torque, Whisper's hand hovers first over the sleek minigrenade launcher strapped to her thigh and then over her custom pistol, seeming to weigh the benefits of both as she glanced up and down the corridor. Finally deciding on the gyrojet with a small smile playing upon her face, she finds herself halting when Ran does.

"Wh-What is it?"

As the motley group of travelers slow their descent into the belly of the beast, Cosmo finally catches up. Still eating one of his burritos, he refrains from a bite long enough to ask, "hey man, can one of you guys, like, turn the A/C down a bit... it's gettin' chilly back here."

The pass between hot cold is a wall. One step back and it is hot, one forward and it is cold. The hallway itself is triangular shaped, with uneven stones and mortar. Not the smooth interior of modern structures. Every few feet it looks like there used to be torches, now empty Iron brackets dot the wall. The only light is that the comes from the main door.

Torque pulls out his flashlight and shines it ahead. In order to illuminate more than the backs of the other's heads, he steps to one side of the group and flashes it down the hallway.

Cosmo winces when Torque pulls out the flashlight and his flare compensation kicks in. "Cripes, man, warn a brother 'fore you go and do that in a dark room."

Ghost Dragon frowns at the ward's disappearance, but he follows anyway while continuing to maintain his spell.

"Let us hope that it is just as easy to reclose the door and ward. This is our best chance, but we do not know what we will find inside. Be ready to shoot another signal burst at the door to close it if you have to, Cosmo. I will take the rear"

Sealed tombs of ancient and powerful villains. I am sure that we would have seen a warning in those glyphs if we knew how to read them fully. I have the sneaking suspicion that this dragon is still alive.

Only slightly phased from stepping through the hot/cold barrier Os carries on as usual until the others start turning on torches. Then, with a mental command, he brings up the low-light and infra-red mods built into his eyes, along with the display for his Alpha, and switches on the torch duct taped to his assault rifle.

The lighting illuminates a short hallway. It runs about 10 meters, then the left wall vanishes and the hallway opens up into a massive chamber, easily as big as the entire temple.

James phases in low-light as necessary, surveying carefully for any small passageways or chambers.

"Ooohkay... big room. Kinda Dark. Not good, so not good." There is an edge of humor in his voice.

"Bet you anything," Ran replies, "that if this temple has what we need, it's in there." She stabs her blade in the direction of the large room before looking over toward James.
"What's our move, boss?"

@ those with vision enhancements,

The room stretches across the length of the temple. In the center is a pool of water. The textures on the walls change as well once you step into the room. No longer are they earthy and broken, they are smooth and made of a strange black substance. They are also covered with symbols. Floor to ceiling, every square inch.

"I say photographs and sight inventory in two groups. Note anything on the floor and anything you can recognize well enough to describe on the walls. Then we move outside unless we find another exit or Cosmo starts to decode this stuff before we leave." James looks around. "Cosmo, any problems with that plan?"

Ghost Dragon doesn't enter the room. He remains quiet while maintaining his spell.

And no one keeps their guard up. I wonder what the pool is for.

Ghost Dragon stands just outside of the room and observes the pool, the walls, the floor, and the air itself with astral vision.

Something about this seems odd.

He draws his gun and holds down at his side.

The pool itself is dim on the astral. Microscopic life exists in it giving it a luminescence on the astral plane.

Torque: "Well, if nothing else this should cut down on our water shortage. If it's not full of toxins, I'll check it."
The Medic bends down and pushes his forefinger into the water.

"Nah man," Cosmo replies to James while he's already busy scanning through the huge array of symbols. "But, uh, it'll take a while and stuff."

Os looks at the water.

"You should boil it before you drink it. That way you won't have to add the Bombay trots to your list of troubles."

"Torque, don't break the surface, man. Don't you ever watch the trid? That's how they get ya." He grins.

Chase fishes out the micro-cam and hands it to Cosmo. "Here man, can you make some use of this? My hands are kinda full."

While Cosmo is busy scanning through the symbols, he pauses for a moment to look at Chase's camcorder. He lifts a brow just high enough to reach over his rose-colored spectacles before looking up at the 'troll.' "Nah, man, I got it covered."

As Torque reaches into the water to test it's contents you hear a splash, and a sharp cry. When you look, Torque is laying on his back holding his head. It looks as if he slipped.

Gentle ripples float across the surface of the pool.

Oblivious to Torque's plight, Cosmo continues on with his blissful ignorance. After finishing a particularly delicious bite of one of his wrapped delights, his mellow voice wafts over the radio channel again.

"Yeah, these all look like coordinates, man... only prob is none of 'em are labeled so it'll, uh, take a while to find the one that leads home. But we definately, yanno, found what we're after and e'erything. Told ya it'd be easy, but noooo... never listen to the, uh, dwarf..."

Torque: "Frag it, I hate looking graceless. On the other hand that bump shook a memory loose, I recall that ancient Egyptian's built a temple a lot like this. There should be a small chamber on the first floor they stored scrolls in, maybe our coordinates will be there."
Torque heads down the room ahead of the group moving for a different corridor.
Torque: "Oh yeah, the water's drinkable. Slightly higher in salt than is strictly healthy but unless we drink it all the time for months it won't hurt us. But it's a good idea to boil it."

"Hellooo..." Cosmo's sing-song voice echoes on the comm channel, "I, like, just said I found 'em all an' stuff."

Torque turns around.
Torque: "Yeah, I'm not deaf. I heard you chummer. You get the glory for finding the symbols and decoding them, if you manage to keep your attention on the task long enough. Kindly allow me credit for remembering about the hidden chamber, and finding whatever's in it."
Torque starts moving again.

"Cripes, man. Take a pill or sumfin'."

After seeing the results from Torque' water testing, all levity is gone from his voice, "No offense, Torque, but I told you not to break the surface." Chase points the HK at Torque's chest. "I'd like you to sit down and explain just what happened to you there--No sudden moves, just sit down. And I dont give a frag about how much you watch the History Channel on the trid. Just do it," the merc's eyes are hard and his voice cold.

Chase mentaly turns the HK from safe to burst. "Ghost, check his aura." He says without taking his eyes or the barrel off the medic.

"Cos, I know ya got it cover'd but I want a back up. Just do it." The barrel doesn't waver a centimeter from the center of Torque's mass.

Os readies the Alpha at his shoulder, but keeps the barrel pointed at the ground.

"Calm down, Chase," he says. "Point your gun away from Torque. We can get your wires retuned when we get back to Earth."

Torque turns and puts up his hands.
Torque: "Sure Chase, somehow I was possessed by a Great Form Water Elemental in a tiny pool without anybody noticing it. Look at the floor man, from the layer of dust nobody's been in this temple for at least 50 years. I noticed that when I hit it. While Germs can survive that long, anything else but a spirit will have starved long ago, and Ghost Dragon's Watcher would have told us if there was a spirit inside of here. This place is completely dead."

James leveled his MP5 at Torque after Chase.

He sits quiet until Torque speaks, then steps up, voice only, no transmission. "I agree with Chase, and that was a bullshit answer for two reasons. One, no one else has slipped the whole way through this place. Two, from what I heard Ghost Dragon say, the watcher couldn't get inside because of the ward. Speak up now Torque. Convince my friend here." James then broadcasts, "Cosmo, how long to decipher the co-ordinates, and do you need to be in here to do it?"

"Ghost Dragon, clarify as well, would the watcher have known about an inside spirit? I don't to end up billed as Extra #3 in ::Gate Technologies, the new horror trid from Ares Entertainment::"

"Like I said, omae, no offense. But I never seen anybody slip on dust. Get me?" Chase indicates with the barrel of the HK, "Now get on the ground and keep your hands where I can see 'em. If Ghost gives you a clean bill of health, I'll......say I'm sorry or somethin', 'kay?"

Taking Chase's camera, Cosmo just gets a ruffled look in his eyes before quickly jacking it in and just making into a second bank of storage memory. When he looked back up and saw guns drawn, the dwarf was shocked into full possum mode. It wasn't until James asked him a direct question that he snapped out of it.

"Uhm, err, uh, it's gonna take a bunch of hours just to scan all of this stuff in. Then prolly a couple days to go through 'em all and hope I can figure out which one leads home. So, uhm, what's goin' on, man? I was just kiddin' about the pill."

Still not taking his eyes off Torque, "Relax, Cos. Everything's under control. Torque was just about to tell us how he managed to slip on the dust and why he suddenly 'remembered' there was a secret room in a pyramid on planet light-years away from earth." Chase's voice softens slightly when talking to the dwarf but hardens up again, "Isn't that right, Torque?"

Ran watches the drama impassively, deciding when everything eventually goes to hell and people start shooting each other, she'll be conveniently absent.

Torque: "Oh quit being such an idiotic pair of neanderthals. You've never seen a person slip on dust? When's the last time you saw dust this thick? Besides, maybe it's escaped your notice but I'm not exactly one of you superninja commando warriors. I'm a medic. I carry a riot shield because I don't have the same athletic abilities you types do and rely on extra armor instead.

Why did I remember something about this design? It's been in the back of my mind all along. The Dracos Zigguraut, to be precise, a pyramid aligned so that it's top points towards the constellation Draco during the summer solstice. It's got a pool of water inside the front-main chamber, which a tourist slipped on and died from a concussion when it was opened to the public. That's what made the connection in my mind. I don't remember the year. And in a chamber on the first floor is a secret pocket sealed with a limestone block, in which they found some priceless scrolls that contained a lot of information on Egyptian Astrology."
Torque lowers his hands to waist level.
Torque: "Now, let's talk about your mental health. You James, Booby-Trap your locker and threaten us all with explosives. Then you set up an idiotic plan that leaves the stargate, which is our only ticket home, unprotected. We discover that the drones were killed by Ares own stupidity, the only life-form Cosmo can discover is a type of lizard, and we find absolutely nothing here except a pool of water. And Ghost Dragon has presumably already been using his astral sight, or else he's a complete idiot, and the only ones here that fit that description are you two. Don't you think he'd mention it if the Pool was Swarming with Astral horrors or spirits? There's absolutely no threat and I think the only reason you two are pointing guns is because you know you don't get to be the big boss men unless there's something to fight, otherwise the rest of us with our actual working brains get to be the stars. So you decide that slipping and falling constitutes some form of massive dangerous threat to you, so that you can threaten us all with your guns and stroke your egos some more. Well fine, if you think that somehow touching a pool of water has made me dangerous here, have my rifle."
Torque unslings his rifle, being careful not to put a hand near the trigger. He sets it on the ground.
Torque: "But I'll fraggin' let you shoot me before I'm going to get down on my knees before idiots like you just because you decide you want to play tinhorn god for a day. So, I'm unarmed now. Do you have the nerve to point those things the other way or are you afraid I'll use my new awesome psionic powers I got from a drop of water to turn you into cabbages?"

"Good speech. Ghost?"

"James, Chase, this is beyond a joke. Point your guns away from Torque," Os says. "Do it or I'll bloody confiscate them."

Chase raises an eyebrow, "That'll be the fraggin' day."

James tosses the MP5 to his left hand, and extends a spur from his right wrist, then pulls it back in and starts his cyberarm gyro.

"Not unless you have a surgery kit. And Torque, I'm waiting on Ghost Dragon. If it was anyone else, I'd have the medic check him. But guess who is bloody acting up? The medic. Deal with it or not. As to booby trapping my locker, the only thing you will find in there is a note that says "bang" on top of a mine. Next, do you know how far the disintegrating swirl of that hoop extends? I dont. Finally, I do believe you were one of the group who walked here. I also don't remember any objections to your coming until that tiny drop of water touched your finger. Any questions? I've got 11 answers that take 6 seconds or less to give." No sense or sign of fatigue interjects this highspeed, clipped barrage of vocal and radio noise.

Ghost Fragon looks over at Torque briefly, "theres nothing wrong with, if you don't count the massive amounts of cyber ware in him and the bad attitude."

James lifts the MP5 into the air. "Chase, stand down. You heard Ghost Dragon."

Chase's eyes dart from Os to Ghost to Torque to James. He lowers his HK until the barrel is pointing down.

"Sorry, Torque. Nothing personal."

Ghost Dragon looks at the group of people with guns drawn and says, "You are all idiots, and if you continue acting this way, you are likely to get yourselves killed at some point. Your caution is understandable, however let us not turn on one another for testing the water and slipping on some dust."

He walks into the room, footprints forming where his invisible feet walk in the thick dust.

"It is thick dust. I see nothing wrong with him. The pool is also fine, as are the walls. There is nothing here but us and some bacteria in the water, and it is seemingly mundane. Allow me a closer look, and then perhaps we may explore further, though I would suggest not touching anything else."

He examines Torque and also the pool more closely with his astral vision.

Tension drains out of Torque greatly, showing particularly in the hunch of his shoulders and the relaxation of his neck as he bends down and picks his rifle back up.
Torque: "Fine. Might I suggest a certain somebody turn their Wired Reflexes off? Those things make you real twitchy, you know. Also, if your spirit hasn't searched the temple already Ghost Dragon, could you have it do so? If we know there's no life inside we can all calm down a bit and act more like professionals."

Tension drains out of Torque greatly, showing particularly in the hunch of his shoulders and the relaxation of his neck as he bends down and picks his rifle back up.
Torque: "Fine. Might I suggest a certain somebody turn their Wired Reflexes off? Those things make you real twitchy, you know. Also, if your spirit hasn't searched the temple already Ghost Dragon, could you have it do so? If we know there's no life inside we can all calm down a bit and act more like professionals."

Chase makes the 'Who? Me?' face.

"I thought I was acting proffesionaly." He lears, "If I hadn't been, I woulda just shot ya." Chase winks, "I said I was sorry."

He mentaly safties the HK before he kneels down to adjust his boot strap. Using that motion to hide his hands Chase turns off the mic and whispers to Cosmo, "Stay clear of the pool 'kay?"

He stands up and brushes the dust off his hands. Looking in the direction of the footprints, "Oh yeah, Ghost: Bite me." He turns the mic back on.

Ghost Dragon points his gun at Chase's head for a moment and laughs. He decides not to 'bite' Chase just yet, and he lowers his arm.

"Torque is fine. I can see nothing out of the ordinary in his aura. I doubt my watcher is still around. I can summon another one. We are here already though. Do you think it will matter?"

Torque starts moving again towards the other corridor.
Torque: "It does not matter to me particularly. Creatures need food or at least energy to keep going, and a dark pyramid doesn't have enough to keep anything advanced alive. I merely thought the certainty a spirit would give us would help."

Torque walks down the wall, paralell to the pool, and away from the entrence. There he finds a piece of the wall that is encrusted with jewels. They seemed to lined up. From top to bottom the order is red, blue, green, yellow.

Chase looks from Os to James and shrugs. "What do you wanna do? Cos said it'll take days to figure out our 'home number'. Do we do recon the rest of the temple and do it here or head back to the base camp?"