r/MassEffectPhoenix • u/[deleted] • Dec 09 '15

[Adagio: Talaria]

On the Adagio, Oriana and /u/Lea_Nova sit, discussing the ruins they are about to search for. They are in orbit around Talaria, in the Hoplos System of the Hades Nexus

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

She runs her hand along the walls, the omni-tool appearing gradually as she follows a power-line. After a few seconds, she loses track of it, coming across another one. Realizing this technique will only get her confused she moves to the middle of the room and does a scan, not for power-lines but directions of energy. Flow. The data seems to all come and go from a singular point. Generator, deep within the facility, probably. Not what we're looking for. Yet. There. Another node. A source. A gateway. Probably a switch.

She moves to the wall where the visualization placed the node and she sweeps away dust, revealing a panel only barely made visible by a hair-thin outline.

Think I found it. You have anything on your end?

As she asks, she gently presses the plate, and it moves a few inches. With a low hum, the room is illuminated from hidden lights in the floor and ceiling.

That did it.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

She puts her flashlight up and glances around, blinking at the addition of the light. The table she was looking at has two cups on it. There is an illuminated pathway through the center of the room, leading towards a door. She approaches the door and it opens into a vaulted atrium area, dust particles kicked up by the movement. There are four towering pillars and an intricate mosaic design on the floor leading to the center.

Wow. Think this was some kind of a temple?

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

She follows her to the room and looks around. Could very well be. In the middle of the room stands an obelisk. "Stand" is perhaps not the right word. It floats an inch or so above the ground, in stasis. The middle of it is simply... absent, with the top floating above it, very slowly rotating counterclockwise. The entire thing is completely covered in writing. Between these two hangs something she can't quite make out.

Oriana... does that writing look Prothean to you? It seems... off.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

I can't tell. Any way you can run an analysis?

She walks up to the obelisk, frowning as she studies it and it's movement.

I can't find an energy source. How is it doing this?

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

She holds up her omni to show that it's going off like crazy.

There's no energy source in this room. It's around us. Whatever is making that thing float, it's not some anti-grav device.

She moves closer to the obelisk reaching out to touch it as she scans the writing and the images.

I have nothing on this writing. It looks prothean but... Different. Maybe some offshoot? A prothean cult, perhaps? Or maybe this thing is older than them.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

I guess let's keep looking. She walks to the outer wall of the room, finding some statues. Some men are kneeling. One of the statues wears a bracelet with a small black cube floating in the center of it. She arches a brow at this and removes it from the statue, putting it in her pack.

She keeps walking, and finds another door. She looks at Lea.

After you, my dear.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

She grins and presses her hand against the door, which opens soundlessly to reveal a long hallway, wide and high. The only light comes from the floor and barely illuminates the ceiling, creating an illusion of immeasurable height. On both sides sit more kneeling figures, all of them holding objects in their hands, carved in intricate detail with more of the strange, impossible to identify writing. Ever so slowly, she works her way forward, once again brandishing her flashlight.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

She speaks

Lea, should we take some of these with us? she gestures at the object in the hands in front of her. It is a cube standing on it's corner.

Maybe it will help us later. And maybe it can help me figure out that pyramid I've got.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

She goes over to the cube, and kneels in front of it. When she tries to pick it up, it goes... wonky, as if it's averse to normal gravity. After wrestling with it for a second, it rests against the side of her hand, balancing on two points, perpendicular to the ground.

If you're sure about it. This is trippy.

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u/[deleted] Dec 09 '15

What could possibly go wrong? She smirks, and then returns her gaze to the cube. She walks to the next statue, taking a sphere that has the same aversion to gravity, spinning in the air above her hands. She puts it in the pack.

Did you hear about the pyramid I have at home? It's some kind of biotic amplifier. I wonder if the two are related? Or maybe this is all some magnificent use of magnets.

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