Investigation of Section 7 (PL 2)

Suzo and his party arrive at the edge of the search zone by dusk. Section 7, as Markus described, is barren and unremarkable; the nearest settlement- if it can be called that- is a gathering of less than a dozen patchwork tents more than thirty miles from the circled area on the map. Beyond the group is a sun-scorched waste with not even a hill or ridge for defining features. With the size of the search zone and dependent on the thoroughness of the search, it could take up to a week to scan everywhere. A light breeze blows small eddies of dust particles as the rising moon illuminates their search.

Suzo looks across the vast featureless wasteland of Section 7 in dismay before turning to the Public Order agent. "Did you bring the scouting equipment I asked for?" he asks eagerly. "Yes, yes. Don't worry about it Suzo. We should be able to concentrate our efforts excellently with the help of some top-of-the-line Order Department tech." Agent Gin responds. Gin pulls a strange helicopter like apparatus from his rucksack and places it on the ground. Moments later he pulls out a remote and turns the contraption on. After a few moments, the drone begins ascending into the air zone of Section 7 and after a few minutes is hundreds of meters above the ground. With a few taps on the screen of his remote, Gin suddenly has a birds-eye view of all of Section 7. "Let's see if there's anything of interest." Suzo enthusiastically states as he looks hopefully at the screen. Shirokani can be seen nearby sharpening a long machete.

As the drone scans the landscape, all is just as barren as what the party sees before them. However, near the middle of the search area, one might notice the sands have a slightly darker hue than the sun bleached ground around it. The ground appears to be long lines of the darkened sand: about 75 yards across and stretching about 400 yards. Near the edge of one of the larger spots is a strange reflective object, casting a bright glare onto the drone's optics. To reach this area would only be about four hours worth of jogging.

"Well, what do we have here?" Gin says curiously. With a flick of the wrist, Gin manipulates the controls bringing the drone closer to the reflective object. Suzo eyes the screen anxiously as he awaits the drone to enter the reach of the mysterious object.

Upon closer inspection, the strange object appears to be a metal cube, about a fourth of it stuck beneath the sands. The cube is made of a reflective silver metal and is spotless despite the winds and sands. From just a preliminary observation, nothing else seems special about this metallic cube.

"This seems a bit too suspicious." Suzo whispers. "Indeed, why an object of this design would be here... is perplexing. I say we call in for some form of reinforcements before we investigate further." Gin responds. Shirokani looks at the two men disinterestedly, "Are we gonna do something or are you two geeks gonna play with your toy all day?" he groans. Suzo pulls out a radio from his pack and begins to attempt to contact Markus while Gin pilots the drone within arms reach of the cube.

Markus’ gruff voice can be heard aver the static of the radio, “What is it, Suzo? Find something?”

As the drone gets even closer to the cube, the four corners visible above the sand appear to lightly glow with green light.

"We found some kind of giant metal cube out here in no man's land! We have no idea what the hell to do and it's starting to glow!" Suzo hastily yells into his radio. "We might need back up! We have no idea what kind of threat this thing can pose!" he continues frantically as the cube begins to light up.

“Cube, eh? Alright. We’re sending in the tech kid to check it out. He should be at your position within-“ he pauses and sounds like he can be heard talking to someone- “ten minutes. You may as well start getting to it; he’ll be able to catch up. I want to know what that thing is and if it relates to our target. Over.”

Markus and a young kid of 16 with blue hair that is spiked to look like flames stand in front of the monitor. The kids eyes appear to be robotic, with shutter pupils contracted to zoom into the pictures on the screen. He speaks in a feverish and excited tone, “I’ll get my tools and equipment ready, sir. This looks like it should be good. What weaponry would you suggest?”
Markus turns to him and states, “All of it.” The kid claps excitedly and runs off to his workshop to prepare. In his workshop is various tools and weapons that are in pieces and parts. A few robots and battle suits hang on racks in similar states. Grabbing a large toolbox, the kid straps it onto the back of a functioning suit. With a few keystrokes on his computer, the suit opens up and he hops inside. The large metallic suit stands at 9 feet tall, with intimidating wrist mounted battling guns and a brutal rocket launcher mounted to the back. The suit closes behind him, as he fits his arms and legs into the suit. Blaring to life, the suit’s integrated computer systems speaks its routine system checklist, with all functions operational. The feet of the suit then flare as jets of flame erupt. The suit rockets into a nearby tube, which travels a long way before opening far in the wastes, letting loose the boy into the sky. He rockets towards the location of the search party.

The search party begins to slowly and hesitantly make its way closer to the location of the cube. Wary of the strange device, they decide to wait until the kid arrives before getting within sight of the mysterious object.

The kid lands with a metallic thud as the hydraulics suppress the impact from the landing. The chest piece opens and the young kid's torso is exposed. "Greetings. Tochiro Atakanara here. So what have we got?"

"Listen Tochi, we've encountered some kind of strange metal cube not far from our location. It started glowing when we approached with an unmanned drone and we're not sure how to proceed." Gin seriously briefs Tochi.

“A cube?” Tocgiro asks dismissively. “Well, I guess I’d better examine it.” The group approaches the cube, with Tochiro in his suit at the lead. Taking off the tools from his back, he pulls out a pair of electric probes and puts them near the cube. The sensor flares up as the probes sense a moderate amount of electricity flowing through the cube. The green lights on its corners continue to fade in and out softly. He examines it with a few more tools before the chassis of the suit opens up and he rubs his chin. “This thing is strange. It’s got an electrical field, but I can’t find anything connected to it. Nothing much left I can do besides try to touch it...” Tochiro kneels close to the cube and puts his finger on it to pick it up. As he does, the lights on the corners turn red and the dark sands beneath the party begin to shake...

Suzo and Gin start to run away from the area of trembling sand as quickly as possible. Shirokani, on the other hand, pulls out his double-barrel shotgun and aims it at the cube. "Just give the word and I'll take the shot!" he shouts over the chaos of the crumbling sands.

Jets propel Tochiro into the air, where he hovers above the ground. “I don’t think shooting it will-“ he’s cut off as a loud fwoosh of air spreads, the dark sands dropping into a deep hole that just appears beneath them. The entire dark area, 75 by 400 yards, suddenly turns into a hole that devours anything above it. The cube is shown to be on a small stand of metal, with some cables spanning down the hole. The bottom of this hole cannot be seen, as darkness and dust block all vision.