Hearing his name in passing on the commlink, Cosmo's digitized voice eeks out in response. His initial "what?" seemed to be more of an instinctual response to having his focus interupted, but he quickly recovers when he realizes what the troll-wannabe just said. "Nah man, it'll just take about that long. Might get lucky and figure it out in just a couple hours. The brunt of the time is gonna be scanning all these, uhh, coordinate thingies in. Sure could, yanno, use some help or sumfin' with it and stuff."

Deciding to take a burrito break for a moment, Cosmo plops down and leans against the wall. While he's down there, he serendipitously takes a look at the glyphs on the floor and then up at the ceiling with his augmented vision just to see if they're coated with coordinates, too.

Ran ghosts after Torque, her blade still naked, mostly out the lack of anything better to do, and perhaps a hint of a morbid hope that her skills will eventually be required for... something.

She says nothing, simply leans against the corridor wall beside Torque as he examines the gems.

Ghost Dragon walks over to Chase, taps him on the shoulder, and says into his ear, "Watch him. A spirit could enter this place from its native plane."

He walks over to James, taps him on the shoulder, and says, "Watch Torque. A spirit could enter this place from its native plane. And do pass that along to the others with transducers."

He follows behind Torque and Ran, keeping his guard up and his astral perception active.

I am certain that what we will find deeper in this pyramid is not what we are looking for, and that it will probably be dangerous.

Torque looks closely at the gems.
Torque: "I'm sure there was nothing like this in the Dracos Pyramid. I wonder if these gems are real. I can't remember if they found any physical treasure in the place or not, but it couldn't hurt us any to bring a pocket full of gold and jewels home."
Torque presses a finger to the Red Gem, using his chemical analyzer to try to find out what it's made of.

"Torque, give up on that and help Cosmo. Chase, Ran, provide cover. Whisper, Os and myself will recon the rest of the temple. Cosmo, when you've scanned that stuff in, head back to base camp and start decoding the list and writing up a supply list. Ghost Dragon, see if you can figure anything out about that ward please."

"Check," Chase says as much to Ghost Dragon as he does to James.

Torque looks a moment at James, emotions warring in his eyes. Yet his voice is quite mild when he finally speaks.
Torque: "As you command Fearless Leader."
Torque walks back to wear Cosmo is examining the floor and ceiling, and eating a burrito.
Torque: "Right Cosmo, what help do you need?"

James looks right back at Torque. "We'll investigate shiny objects to take home after we know for a fact that we can get home, Torque. Anyone else got a problem with finding a way home first?"

"Nope."

Hearing James' barking, Cosmo furrows his brow as his appraisal of the ceiling is interupted, but nonetheless finishes up his burrito lickity-split before acknowledging the order. A bit of a moan escapes his lips as he audibly groans to a standing position and dusts the sand off his tush.

Seeing Torque approach, he seems a little reluctant to respond, but it's hard to tell if it's genuine trepidition or simply the little stoner having a 'moment.' "Oh, yeah, here," he finally responds, unplugging Chase's camcorder from his wrist and handing it to the medic. "Just go to one of the other walls and start recording every, uh, yanno... the whole thing and stuff. Start at the lower left side and work up and down, left to right. Gotta make sure all the glyphs are completely captured, so take your time. If the memory card fills up, just toss it my way and I'll download it an'.. yeah, whatever, you get the idea. Thanks for helpin' out, man. I 'preciate it."

The tedious chore of scanning each and every glyph takes far longer than anyone expected.

James, and his team begin their search of the the temple. It is practically bare with little or no indication of who built it or why. No hidden chambers, or passageways can be found. The only thing they do find is a carving on the floor. A circle, similar to the gate, about two meters wide, sits a few dozen meters behind the pool, opposite the entrance. The circle is free of any marking though.

Ghost Dragon, still invisible, looks at James and says, "The ward is no longer in place. I can study the crystal, though I doubt that I will learn much from it. Is that what you want me to do?"

James responds to the air. "That kinda creeps me out when the air talks. Well, if you dont think you can learn anything, just see what you can do to help, but stay on the ready, I have no clue how mojo works, but Im afraid of traps. Any chance this circle has magical significance?"

Torque runs out one memory card in the camera and inserts a new one.
Torque: "This is really Fragging boring isn't it?"

"Could be worse, man. 'Least we got some air keeping us frosty an' stuff."

Three hours pass as Cosmo and Torque catalogue the temples walls. Finally the dwarf mumbles that he is finished or "sumfin".

Satisfied that he has everything scanned in, Cosmo undertakes an arduous quest to travel to Torque's general position to retrive the camcorder. "Yoink," is all he said as he takes it and plugs it in. "Thanks again, dude. You're alllll right."

After he turns and starts waddling towards the entranceway, the dwarf's lackadaisical voice casually drifts across the airwaves. "Okay, man, I think we got everything I need from this joint so I'm headin' back to the, uh... yeah, the place with the tents and stuff. If you guys need me, just gimme a shout."

As Cosmo trumbles to the entrance, he realizes that there is a shadow cast over the outside of the door.....

As the thought pierces the perpetual veil the clouds his mind a tremendous shockwave hits the temple. Dust and debris rain down from the ceiling. A roar and rumble echo from the sky above the temple.

Torque looks out the doorway, being near Cosmo at the time.
Torque: "Well that just figures. We finally know that nothing is alive in this place and can relax, and aliens show up. Well, why not? Though I suppose now the Neanderthals will be pointing guns at them instead of me so it's all to the good."
Meanwhile Torque moves back into the room hoping to find some cover, and readying his Rifle for a decent position. Hoping to take advantage of the rifle's superior range, he heads as far back as it's possible to still see the doorway from.

Over the comm: "James. Chase. We got company 'ere. You might wanna get back here ASAP. Os, Torque; grab some cover and watch the door and turn off those damn lights! Cos, get real small."

Assuming the lights get turned off:

Chase swats the boonie hat off his head to let it hang by its strap and pulls the thermo goggles down over his eyes. The HK is mentaly toggled to 'burst'.

Ran holds her arms out to steady herself as the shockwave hits. She was on her way out the door after Cosmo, and now presses herself up against the wall just inside the doorway, glancing up at the ceiling apprehensively.

Ghost Dragon says, "There is always a chance that the circle has something to do with magic. The absence of any sort of markings means it is not a ritual circle, unless magic is performed differently here. It could still be a focus or an anchor of some kind. It will have a presence on the astral plane if it is."

Ghost Dragon takes a look at the circle on the astral plane to see if it is magical somehow.

When the shockwave hits, he looks around and says, "What the?"

Os crouches and puts his hands to the ground as the shockwave hits, and upon listening to Chase's message, offs his light and finds a place of cover.

James barks "Everyone take cover" amid all the chaos and voices.

"I want everyone together, now!"

James readies his HK and crouches, mentally, physically and cybernetically on the ready.

One more massive shockwave hits the temple and the whole building shakes. As suddenly as it started, it stops. Dust falls quietly through the air. A slight whir echos down from where Cosmo's board hovers seventy feet in the air.

Torque pulls his respirator up over his nose and mouth and puts the security helmet onto his head. He then angles his Riot Shield to cover the front.
Torque (Via Radio to all): "I know this is probably a waste of effort speaking to certain people here, but are we going to actually try to communicate with whatever's coming before we shoot it?"

James is on the radio instantly, "Only if it talks first. If it or they or whatever open fire, I'm firing back."

Over the comm: "What the frag was that!?"

Cosmo remains crouched in his little nook, not so much out of fear, but out of the sanity induced by a moment of clarity. His attention is mostly focused on the sensor array of his skyboard while doing his best to assense the situation both inside and outside.

Torque: "I haven't seen what it is yet, but something was big enough to throw a large shadow over the Pyramid, at least what I could see of it. Unless it's Godzilla coming to visit it must be some sort of vehicle."
Torque glances at Cosmo.
Torque: "You might want to get behind me. The Riot Shield's big enough to cover us both."

While only moderately wondering why Torque is looking at a blank spot on the other side of the entryway, Cosmo's voice filters through the commlink in response with a curt, "I'm cool, man." Anyone bothering to monitor the signal and triangulate its origin will only find it coming from the skyboard at the top of the pyramid.

After finding suitable cover, Os deftly takes off his pack and pulls out his combat helmet along with the mouthpiece for his respirator. Putting them on and throwing his hat into an easily accessible pocket, he shoulders the bag and resumes his firing position.

Ghost Dragon continues to maintain his spell and takes cover near the far corner of the room against the wall. He tries to get as flat as he can against the wall to be as invisible as possible in case someone from whatever vehicle seems to have landed is able to sense light beyond the visible spectrum. His gun is still drawn and ready.

Over the comm: "James. Chase. You know I'm with ya on the security detail but I think Torque may have a point. We're not here as conquerers. If there are beings inbound, someone should try to talk to 'em. They might be the folks that imprisoned the demon-dragon king. I nominate you. Second?"

There's absolute silence from Cosmo, though his opinion on the matter had been made clear enough in the past.

A loud high pitched noise drops down from the ceiling followed by a beam of white light. The beam lines up squarely with the carved circles the team discovered earlier on floor. The beam of light wavers as the ground erupts and six circular rings rise up. The beam pulses and flares out. When the light is gone, three towering men stand shoulder to shoulder.

Each is adorned in chain mail armor from head to shoulders. They each have a tattoo on their forehead, though the middle one looks like his is engraved in gold. The two on the outside are carrying large wooden staves, while the last one appears unarmed.

The light fades and leaves them standing their.

"Jaffa, kree!" The gold tattooed one barks. The other two approach the pond.

Ran turns to face the newcomers, slipping easily into a half crouching stance, blade at ready. Her eyes flicker over the three men, immediately recognizing them as a possible threat, but not a certain one.

Dammit. I wish they'd wear signs. Something nice and simple, like "Bad Guy" or "Shoot me first".

And then she waits for aggression from any of the three men, or a single word from James.

James holds his position for the second, holding his action.

Over the radiolink comes, "Anyone understand that? Sounds like a command, Goldy is the leader."

[#@$%]

Torque quietly begins to swap out lingasoft chips on his chipjack, hoping to find a match.

The two who approach the pool suddenly stop. "Jaffa, kal'kek no mar," the one with the gold tatoo barked out. The other two immediately go into a crouch, bringing their staves up and pointing them outward into the darkness. The leader unclips something from his arm, and holds it in his hand like a pistol.

Chase drops to one knee and draws a beed on the "pistol" wielding intruder.

Torque: "I have no linguasofts that work here. Okay. Um, Hi! I don't suppose either of you guys speak English?"

The two Jaffa in front take a step back at, a stunned expression crosses their face as they hear the voice from the darkness. They both point their staves in what they hope is the direction they heard. The ends of the staves split open and ignite with orange energy. A piercing blast lights up the entire temple as they open fire. The third Jaffa, who never moved, taps a large jewel on his wrist. Immediately a beam of light encircles him.

Ghost Dragon takes aim at the head of the Jaffa closest to him, hoping they don't notice the little red dot. He spends a few seconds making sure he is aiming at the base of the skull for a one-shot kill, since the Jaffa appears to be humanoid.

While doing so, subvocally, he says over the radio, "These guys are obviously hostile. Possibly guardians of this temple. Opening the door and the ward must have triggered some kind of alarm. That is probably why they are here. If we cannot communicate with them, we have to kill them. I have the head of one of them in my sights. Any better ideas?"

"My vote's to stay quiet and hope they go away."

"Bit late for that. Light 'em up!!"

Chase focuses on the crimson targeting reticle hovering over the gold insignia on the lead alien's head. He strokes the trigger of the HK, the weapon bucks slightly in his hands and coughs out three rounds that speed toward his target.

"We're screwed, man... we're totally screwed..."

Tucking into a ball, Cosmo grabs his ankles and burries his head between his head. "You're just a rock, dude... you're just a rock... silent, still, part of the terrain... just a rock..."

The white light surrounding the Jaffa pulses and the six rings erupt from the ground. The bullets from Chase's gun ricochet off the rings as the Jaffa dematerializes and vanishes.

Ran bursts out of hiding, materializing almost from the shadows. Her blade slices through the air and connects with the first Jaffa's neck, cutting cleanly through it and severing it. She lands on the other side from him in a crouch ready to attack.

Os lines up the remaining alien with his Alpha, placing the crosshairs visible only to Os on the alien's legs.

"We take this one alive," he says over the radio.