Sobek the Immortal [Closed]

[hi_there_aliens]

Planet Designation: Kalimba Status: Terrestrial, H-class.
Non-sentient life: Extensive flora and fauna.
Semi-Sentient Life: Unknown
Sentient Life: Ruins and step pyramids suggest the presence of intelligent life at some point. Currently: Unknown.
Water: 70.2% of the planet's surface. Heavy rainfall/monsoons.
Climate: Earth-like.
Landscape: Primarily jungle and swamp, some plains, severe arctic conditions in northern and southern poles.
Air: Type I (breathable)
Sky: Blue-green.
Warnings: Medium to high levels of megafauna. Watch your step. Conditions in the atmosphere make several forms of orbital scans and equipment unreliable.
Mission: Archaeological investigation of step pyramids and ruins, investigate for signs of source of abnormal energy signature in target area.

The first thing the group would notice was that Kalimba's air was humid and heavy, with a light breeze. The morning had long since burned off most of the mist, and in the distance, clouds lazily drifted onwards towards the horizon. The typhoon season was a long ways off.

The undergrowth was tangled and dense, seemingly impassable in places. Vibrant flowers and vines took up residence where some of the tree cover faltered. With limited sunlight available, it was every plant for themselves. Disturbed by the archaeology group, "birds", each easily half the size of a person and more salamander than avian suddenly took to the air in a flash of brilliantly colored wings. They were gone almost instantly, slicing through the air and leaving only the ear-splitting shriek behind.

The hill sloped down. The cover of trees broke as they came out onto the stone remains of path that must have once been heavily used. Now, just like everywhere else, massive roots and tanglers tore at the ground, slowly swallowing any signs of civilization back within itself. There were trees of all shapes and sizes as far as the eye could see, a rolling wave of jungle and rainforest. Tan and dirty gray step pyramids, all more massive than those found on Earth, and the occasional obelisk rose through the canopy cover like claws, dotting the landscape.

Stac's scans indicated much of the planet was covered in these structures, with the largest in this location. Aside from the archaeological mission, her scans also indicated the presence of an abnormal power that may be of interest.

Comments

[valaunbound]

Vala jumped down the last couple of feet, anxious to get away from the ear drum pain if nothing else. Whatever it was it was worse down here, like the narrow passages were concentrating the noise and amplifying it as it filled the entire pyramid.

"What?" She shouted after him, running to catch up. Her own hands were clamped over her ears, the torch now in her pocket as the delightfully eerie glowing walls were lighting up the passageway better than her double AA batteries had been managing anyway. Vala couldn't hear him properly at all, but he was striding onwards purposefully enough to assume he had a plan. Briefly she looked behind them, back that way really wasn't an option. The last jump she'd made, or perhaps it was the noise and energy surge of light, had made more of the rocks slip out of place. It was practically unclimbable.

"Well there's definitely something in there," Vala's eyes all but twinkled themselves in anticipation, only marred slightly by the unbearable and decidedly worrying noise and light. Vala immediately wedged a foot into the tiny gap, and using the side wall to prop her back against to give the door as much push as she could muster. Thigh muscles always worked better than arms and after a couple of inches she'd be able to slide the other foot in hopefully.

"Oh by the way," she added nonchalantly. "Going back that way is going to be harder than we thought." Just as she said it and at the moment that the heavy stone doorway started to give, there was the distinct sound of rubble avalanching behind them even more.

"Possibly impossible, actually." She shrugged. "Unless that's technically an oxymoron."

[hi_there_aliens]

The door slid inch by inch, then suddenly got much easier to push. Either someone had done something to the door mechanism, maybe carved a path in the floor, or...

...or maybe the Jaffa pulling the door open could have had something to do with it. From the way the two in the back were twisted to look back, the group had been about to move on and continue searching other rooms when they heard the door start to move.

Vala and the Doctor found themselves with three staff weapons lowered to aim at their faces. The heads split and sparked.

[makeherblue]

....yes, well, that fascinating discussion they could have on the differences between technical oxymorons and impossible possibilities would have to wait.

The Doctor eyed the weapon aimed right at his face, between his eyes, glanced over at Vala as if to see that oh yes, she was in the exact same position, and slowly held up his hands up in surrender.

"Hi," the Doctor's eyes darted from the three...guards? Employees? Armed employees. Very extremely armed, he amended, eyeing the three staffs pointed at them and sparking far too ominously for his own liking (now he might not know Vala very well, but he assumed she was human and had that human's sense of self-preservation there). "We were just sorting out that door for the three of you. Sticky thing! I'm the Doctor, this is my friend, Vala."

Friend-ish, actually, which was the step under a friend but that was probably another one of those little details that didn't seem quite as immediate as the staff in his face.

[valaunbound]

Vala grinned at them, nodding along with the Doctor's completely ridiculous story, her false smile fixed in place the entire time. There were two doors into the room as far as she could see, the one that had Jaffa standing at it and back the way they came. Reaching for her gun that was tucked into her waistband at the back was also pointless, not with this many Jaffa and all armed and primed. She did however push it slightly further down in her pants just before she raised her hands to mirror the Doctor.

"Precisely," she added to the explanation with a flash of teeth and smiles. "You can never be too complacent about security and frankly this door's a huge security risk, especially with all this..." Vala's eyes drifted to the pile of shiny in the corner, the shiny things that she'd been so close to getting her hands on. Despite the staff weapon held in her face she couldn't help let out a disappointed sigh.

"Anyway. Now that the introductions are out of the way. We won't take up any more of your valuable time and we'll just finish up here." It wasn't like she thought they stood a chance, but there was always something to be said for buying time. At least in Vala's opinion anyway. "So Kree Sha!" She ventured a daring wave of her hand to accompany the Jaffa farewell.

[hi_there_aliens]

The guards wouldn't have it. They might not understand what he was saying but they knew when someone was stalling. He didn't hesitate. The Doctor, for his trouble, got the butt of a staff weapon slammed across his face.

Vala would have gotten the same except for what she'd said at the end. The blow was forestalled for the moment. While they didn't speak exactly the same language, it was enough to understand the gist of and more importantly, enough to get their attention. The other Jaffa blocking the door had fully turned, staff weapons at ready.

The Jaffa instead jabbed her in the chest once with the active weapon. [Get on the ground.]

[makeherblue]

He had a split second to register that maybe this wasn't one of those amazingly good lies, his eyes flicking to the staff heading right to his face and that was going to hurt, wasn't it? It came at him in eye-searing detail. That split second turned into a nanosecond. The curved etchings in the butt of the staff, leaping all over it and up the shaft. The way the armored man shifted his leg to compensate for the weight. Was that a small generator at the base of the -- ?

The nanosecond whiplashed back to one of those regular, boring old seconds. The world flashed white.

The Doctor's head snapped back. He crumpled to the floor in a heap next to Vala and didn't move, the man signaling for the other two to pick their new prisoner up as he turned his attention back to Vala. Vala might get a glimpse of the two guards picking the Doctor up by his arms and dragging him out before the biggest of the Jaffa stepped in front of her and blocked her view as he jabbed at her chest with the staff.

[valaunbound]

She didn't hesitate to get down on her knees, as much as it pained her to supplicate herself in the face of aggressive Jaffa it was a necessary evil - there were just too many of them. Vala's hands went instinctively to the back of her head. She had a gun tucked into the back of her pants and a healing device in her pocket. They could take her backpack, she didn't care about that, and hopefully they'd not bother searching her further after that, well she could hope at least.

The blow they'd given the Doctor was not to be taken lightly, she'd winced and wanted desperately to be able to do something for the man.

"Do you know who I am?" Vala said in her own Goa'uld dialect and with the same superiority and arrogance that Qetesh would. "Your God will not be pleased if you mistreat me." It was worth a shot, either they'd give her the benefit of the doubt or she'd just pushed their patience one step too far.

[hi_there_aliens]

The Jaffa paused, then stepped over, towering above her. The height difference was never more clear then there. With Vala on the ground, she was at a disadvantage, vulnerable. He thumped the staff butt, the same one that cracked against the Doctor's face on the ground, right next to her head. The weapon hit the stone with a heavy thunk, sending up dust. At this angle, some of the Doctor's blood could be seen staining the surface.

[You do not speak for our God or his wants] he rumbled. There was an edge to it, a silent warning not to push it further. He only tolerated her because she, an outsider, spoke the language, but it only went so far. The other remaining Jaffa, weapons still on her, watched.

Bending over, the Jaffa began to search her.

[valaunbound]

Okay so maybe trying to bluff them wasn't the best idea, seeing the Doctor's blood that close and the way he hammered the staff into the stone next to her made her flinch uncomfortably. Vala quickly made the decision that she was better getting out of this unharmed if she could manage it. That way she stood a chance at being able to get them both out of here.

Vala didn't put up any resistance to the search, letting them take everything from her, including the healing device which was a bit of a blow given the damage the Doctor had probably sustained.

"Don't say I didn't warn you, though." She added in English under her breath, unable to stop herself from the sarcastic retort.

[hi_there_aliens]

The gun was confiscated and passed to another Jaffa. The first Jaffa studied the device for a long second, clearly recognizing some variation of it, then looked at her suspiciously. Where had she gotten this? Had she come to steal from his Lord? Law said to kill her for the trespass, but the orders were to take all prisoners alive.

The condition they came in, however, was at the guards' discretion, especially if they resisted.

He might not understand English, but he understood the sarcasm. The Jaffa suddenly kicked at her ribs.

[valaunbound]

The blow to her ribs was more than just a reminder to watch herself, it was a full on potentially rib cracking kick. Vala grimaced against the pain, clutching at her side protectively as she let out a cry of pain. For once she actually found the internal 'off button' to her sarcasm.

"Okay, okay. Message received loud and clear," she groaned.