Clockwork Foundry Zone

Zeek listen to Shrike and Gear as he hugged the left as what Shrike did. His trusty and well kept Zweihänder was ready for action. Seeing the door locked and hearing the noise he guess there has to be some sort of key nearby. He looks at the other doors to think of his options, taking in a deep breath he sighs as looked at the door with the familiar sound as before, the one loud whirring and factorial sound. Thinking for a bit he wonder's if the beast will be there and attack him and his comrades or will it flee? Maybe it would be a goo idea to just attack it? or is the monster already know about their ware-about that it is plotting an ambush? No, it would be more silent to do an ambush like that. Looking at Gear and Shrike he pointed towards the door.

"Guys, should we just head there? Maybe there is a key to open this door...if it is a survivor then we ca rescue them...I'll leave it up to vote but I'll say we head in there, if there is going to be battle I suggest we do a quick rundown on what our position will be...that way we have order and no chaos in the battle." He quickly said it as he was being cautious with what could happen, there is sign of a beast either flesh and bone or steel and gears, either way he could cut into it with his sword in conjunction with sharp wind blades around it.

Gear pondered the ideas before him. Personally he didn't see any time to waste with exploring and trying to find a key or anything. By then the person could be gone or something, that would be great to be so close and missed because of arbitrary searching.

"I got a laser. I can easily cut through the door without doing any damage. This will be a lot faster as our mission is to find stuff and things, not preserve doors."

Gear moved in front off the other two, tapping his chest port.

"Besides, whoever is on the other side may be gone by the time we find the key to this door."

-Shrike stood there in thought for some time and what could be the best course here, they needed answers and maybe just maybe who ever was behind here was not a monster but some one could help them figure out a few things, then again it could be the thing that had killed that guy back in the far rooms. 

Zeek, seem to opt for retrieving the key, which could be any where at this point, while Gear opted to simply cut the door down via high powered laser, he didn't know what to do. 

On one hand going back to get the key would be the quietest way to gain access to the door and hopefully catch them off guard, cutting the door open would give away their position and force who ever it was behind the door to fly, figuring out some one was here. 

"We have options but both have draw backs, if we go back to look for the key as Gear said they may already be gone by the time we get back, on the other hand if we attempt to cut through the door who ever is behind will be alerted and no doubt flee further into this place....."

-It seemed like Shrike was the one who had to decide, leading was not in his blood, his 2 years of service and only ever reaching the rank of Corporal meant he never got to do officers training and being taught how to lead groups of soldiers, he was being at being the one who was ordered around, but here it seemed like he had to be the officer.- 

"For now, we can not afford the loud and proud approach, maybe later....alright listen up Gear I want you to remain here at this door..do NOT! I repeat do NOT! venture off or attempt to breach it...I want you to monitor communications from the other side, keep me informed of what they are doing..Zeek you with me we going key hunting...keep me in the loop Gear we will be back. Only use the laser as last resort."

-Shrike decided to head for the first door of choice, the load whirling and factory noises, this door seemed to be open and proceeded inward into this area, hoping Zeek follow in suit.-

The decisions have been made.
They headed onwards, Gear being left to guard the door and listen in to the sounds in the hallway.
Would he go explore elsewhere or try for the door while they were gone?
Keeping communication while separated would be good too.

Shrike and Seek headed into the lone door on the right side of the hallway. Entering, they found no monsters, but instead a miniature factory, with a conveyor belt, slamming pistons, and... strange... wooden and metallic... automatons... doing something. Were they made to build something and have no supplies left? Their simple design seems to suggest that they should have wound down by now... but clearly something was keeping them wound.
The room was about as large as the cafeteria, and it was loud with the noise of machinery. Junk scattered the ground - perhaps whatever materials they were working with eventually somehow fell off the conveyor belt?
Among it there were a few strange jars of glowing substance in the corner of the room, away from the simple machines.
No monster, but these machines were very Mobian-esque, almost to an unsettling degree...
A lot of hedgehogs, a few canines, a few birds...

Zeek has followed behind Shrike, sword still in hand as he takes a glance around he room. Looking at the floor he can see some fallen materials and he would pick up whatever was light and small to save space in his backpack. As he stands back up he noticed something glowing in the corner of the room. As he squint his eyes a bit he noticed it was some glowing jars and so he takes a step forward but took noticed of the automatons that are in the room. The thins where freaky in a way, why so much mobian? could it be some sort of robot war factory that went wrong? Thinking for a bit he looked at Shrike.

"Hey man...there are some glowing jars in the corner...and what do you think of this robots that are in here? Makes me wonder what kind of place is this...maybe a war robot factory gone wrong?" He told Shrike as he started inspection the automatons, but he kept his distance in case they jump up to life and want to bite his face off or something. This entire thing made him feel uneasy, human do tend to fear what they don't understand so he was being cautious.

Gear waited at the f oor as instructed, waiting on the others to get back.  He pressed against the door, trying to listen in on what was going on the other side of it.

At the same time he tested the door to see if he could get it open, considering buring through the lock itself to avoid dropping the door and creating a large noise. He didn't like waiting and doing nothing.

-Well if the last thing was spooky and unsettling this sure just wiped the floor with that, the room and its atmosphere were...strange the say the most, tho it clearly looked like some kind of assembly line, given the machinery inside the complex.

Tho it did seem the supplies to continue production were exhausted, yet still didn't hinder those around it, while functional it also looked dysfunctional, items and scrap laying about on the floor, not even on teh conveyor belt it self.

What caught his attention most were those inside of it were he strange Mobian like machines if he put them in a simple term and in fact on top of it the unknown origin substance that was distinctly glowing, that couldn't be good.-   

"Well this is about the strangest thing I'v seen all day...looks to be some kinda of manufacturing area...I'm not sure what this factory is but it is no doubt still operational....Let's no provoke these things....lets go check out that strange substance in the corner.."

-Shrike ignored the automatons and headed straight for the unknown substance, letting his helmet being an analysis of the substance, results turned back negative, his helmet had no record of this stuff.- 

"Any idea what the hell this......stuff is ?....take a look Imma contact Gear."

-He uses his radio com device-

"Gear this is Shrike, we have entered what seemed to be a manufacturing area, place is creepy, bunch of mobian like Automatons just idle here and some unknown substance which does not register on any thing I have...whats happening on your end ? " 

The figure on the other side of the door behind Gear kept rambling, now going on about "Clockwork", "Babylon", some... other stuff that was notable but sounded like gibberish.
They seemed to be wallowing in self-pity, mad at themselves. But... why? Were they literally locked in this room?

The automatons Zeek was inspecting continued doing as they had probably done for years.
Most robots on Mobius were malevolent but highly advanced AIs, with personality and some sort of feeling... But these were so simple that it only made them creepier despite also making it well known that they couldn't harm them. They weren't alive...
It was uncanny, imagining something made in the image if living things, moving as would a worker on an assembly line, but with no autonomy, free will, anything... They don't react to anything because they are things, you don't expect a calculator to be able to aknowledge you and say "How are you?", but a calculator doesn't look like a living thing...
The glowing jars in the corner all seemed to glow different colors. Their properties weren't apparent at first, though one stood out amongst them. A yellow jar, a blue jar, a green jar, a red jar... and a purple jar. It glowed black, literally it was a black light, looking more like it was absorbing the light from around the room then giving any off.
Best not to drink the stuff, you don't know what it is.
The jars give off a sense of aura upon getting close enough... liquid aura? Soul? Each "liquid aura" gave off a slight feeling.
Maybe it was liquid emotion?
How could soul, aura, or emotion be... liquefied...?

Zeek listen to Shrike conversation with Gear as he moved towards the jars. Now being closer to the strange bottled up liquids he can feel some sort of aura around them, he wasn't sure why that is but he must guess its paranoia or some sort of gut feeling. Crouching down a bit he carefully picked up the jars as he placed them in a simple plastic bag he had on his backpack and now stuffing a towel in the bag he made it secure so the jar wont break easily by being moved around. Now with the items in his backpack he looked at Shrike.

"Seems like they give some sort of aura...either it some sort of liquid emotions or this place is getting to me in terms of sanity, either way this will be valuable to return for our mission...Maybe we'll get some brownies point's for this" He told the fellow human as he was now back to holding his sword, although he does keep an eye out for any information he could see in this room that explains this place or even more valuables that aren't heavy.

Gear tap in his comms as Shrike contacted him, still keeping a close eye on the door,

"Absolutely nothing is happening here. Still someone on the other side talking though,"

After relaying what little he heard he shut off his comms, standing in front of the door, chest port glowing as he charged a small focused beam to burn through the lock.

"Not sure about the others, but I'm not waiting around."

With a flash and a small cackle he fired a small burst and broke the lock open. With caution he opened the door and peeked inside, his eyes shifting to green as he curiously looked inside.

-Simple and mindless, no advance AI or self awareness in these automatons, simply created to do one thing and one thing only, construct, tho it still probably be best not to really interfere with him and rather focus on the strange glowing substance that clearly looked about 50 different version of what the fuck is this. 

Shrike ran another scan but again the scan came back negative simple listing in his helmet as "Unknown origin." 

"I don't like this place either, so much of it is...just...not right..this substance here is not picking up on any thing my helmet ever logged or was programmed with when it was built but this stuff here looks like something worth taking back with us."

-Shrike knelt down and scooped up at least 2 of the jars, the blue and the green.-

"That should be fine, as long as...well you know this shit doesn't try to fuck with us mentally."

-Shrike rose back onto his feet just in take to catch a radio transmission coming back from Gear.- 

"Roger that Gear remain where you are...we just found some weird shit, I mean weirder then normal weird, take two samples and proceeding on wards, still no sign of the key...Shrike out."

-The jars had a snug fit in his pouches, turning to Zeek he had another question.- 

"Well, still no damn key...I would say trash the place and search this entire area but who knows what we may piss off...I don't even know what the key even looks like to be honest...feeling we gonna be here....for a loooong...time."

-He said moving back towards the conveyor belt to inspect what was going on.-

Zeek had taken a lot, Shrike seemed only capable of fitting two in his pockets. All in all, nothing changed at first about their disposition of mental state, assuming anything would change at all. 
If it weren't so loud in the room they were in, they would hear the sound of a lock busting from Gesr firing a laser at it, but they began to look around the room and at the conveyor belt.

The conveyor belt was merely covered in dust at this point, but the automatons themselves seemed to maneuver in various constant ways that made it clear, along with the metal on the ground, what their purpose was. 
The scrap on the ground seemed all vaguely in the shape of animals and humans, some metal bolted together and with visible gears, others even having visible insides of skeleton made of wood, rubber, and various metals. Scrapped machines, junk robots... 

Gear peeks into the room... 
There are three large monitors, looking like old flatscreens of sorts, glowing a neon blue with text of somewhat small font size filling the screen. Controls below it, this was the cockpit clearly, this was a pilotable vessel...
The room was massive, like an auditorium, twice as big as the cafeteria. And it was pretty empty, with chairs along the controls and that was about it. 
And in the center of the room, an automaton, moving irregularly naturally for something so apparently simple in design, began moving back and forth. It was an avian design, resembling something similar to the Babylon Rogues. Was this the thing that was speaking, pacing along the room...? 
It turned to face the door, apparently having heard something... It didn't see Gear yet though... 

"Hm... I swore I heard something. Probably one of the Clockwork getting all busted again. Heh... Only this many years and I'm finally doubting my sanity. Whatever...", the cockney accent rang out from the robot, seeming to mock himself with a hint of sarcasm, before beginning to pace again, this time a little slower.
So it could talk.
And think.
Aknowledge noises.

Oh dear, what the fuck is this thing.

Zeek is currently carrying most of the items they had found, due to him bringing a durable backpack. After he had taken the jars that Shrike didn't picked up he listen to him and gave a nod. He can see where he was coming from about the unknown thing about this place, honestly it makes him shudder on the inside. Looking around he wonders if they should just head back to gear so they can check the place some more, perhaps some leftover currency could be found to kept as a small bonus but either way a mission is a mission but his life is more important as well the one of his teammates. 

"Yeah, judging by the place I wouldn't be surprise if it's a gear or an old key, maybe even a card key? But either way let's not make physical contact with the liquid but also how bout we regroup with Gear?" He told Shrike as he held his sword against his right shoulder, holding it by the pommel in the palm of his right hand. Beside the item's he had picked up the other stuff he has is some rations and a battlefield backpack sized med-kit.

Gear looked on in amazement. While ad read up on files of other machines similar to himself, this one was... different. It shouldn't be moving nore should it be able to given the how it was made.

Approaching slowly, Gear spoke,

"Excuse me... sir?"

Gear stepped into what light there was, making himself seeable. Now closer, he could now see it was definitely of bird design. Having a complex but simple design for movement and functionality.this  was interesting to Gear as he wanted to know who and what this is. Hopefully he wouldn't end up in a fight.

"Are you ok?"

-Shrike...was starting to feel a little strange from having this stuff basically harnessed right onto his gear, he blinked a few times and shook his head a little trying to cast off the little dizzy feeling, no time to really fuss about it or look into much detail over what exactly they were constructing, perhaps another time.

For the most part it seems like they were pretty much done in this room and were gonna proceed onward and not to sooner either, tho Zeek did speak about the keys, noting they could be literally any thing, as well as shape which means it could take forever to locate one. Who was to say even it would be the right key.

"I hear you on that, longer we spend in here the worse for us I suggest we should at least go and check in on see whats happening over there."

-Shrike left the room only to come to a abrupt stop, there was a haze in the corridor...smoke...the smell of super heated metal...oh shit-

"You gotta be kidding me, Zeek you see the smoke...that sense of burning metal...I think some one we know decided to cut the door down, lets move it!"

-Shrike knew Gear didn't follow his order and decided to go ahead with the door breach with out them, Shrike charged a head, rifle in grip, the pairs foot steps heard coming down the large hall way, out of the smoke from the super heated metal Shrike appeared from it, taking aim at the unknown figure immediate in his sights.-

"FREEZE! don't move....Gear I thought I told you to hold your position...god dammit....Zeek we got a operational one here...not like the others......identify yourself." 

-It may of been harsh but this was standard operating second nature for Shrike, rather be safe then sorry.-

The figure stopped in his tracks as the voice rang out across the room. He stopped, turned, and just seemed to stare.

"Oh, oh wow, how did you get h-"

Then he was rudely interrupted.
Letting out a shrill scream of terror, the machine seemed to go into a panic attack, falling down and backing away from Shrike, "No, please, I haven't done anything wrong, please put your weapon down, b- bloody hell not this again!"
The pure terror in his voice, despite his fave not giving off any - because it can't - was unnerving on it's own.
"My name is Dr. Charlie Ironworth, I helped build this facility and lead the projects on it before we all got attacked, please for the love of Chaos, don't hurt me!"

Zeek followed behind Shrike, to be ready for what he was guessing it was going to be a battle. The blade of his great-sword was being wrapped in a small tornado of sort, wind energy already being channel into it as the wind is the same color as his scarf, a neon green. His sword was being held now by both hands as the wind was adding onto the sharpness on the edge of his sword, blowing whatever dust was around him that was in the air as the wind travels upward his sword along the edge of it and back down to repeat it cycle. When he arrived he stood beside Shrike as he held his sword in front of him only to see one of the automaton that was bird like. He raised an eyebrow as he looked at Gear, then at Shrike and then back at the robotic Mobian before him.

"So...you made this place? Huh, well um...I actually not sure what to do now...but for my own safety and that on my team mates I won't drop my guard down now but either way are you trapped here?" He said as he held his sword across his shoulder, although the wind energy is still being channel through his sword but not as strong as before to not waste too much energy by keeping his guard up.

Gears eyes flicked red as Shrike burst in, a serious look on his face.

Wasting not a moment, Gear spun around and grabbed Shrikes gun, hitting the safety catch and shoving it up and away from being trained on anyone.

"Don't shoot! He's not hostile. My job is to scout, if your going to say not to split up and yet decide to leave me behind what does that say about your leadership skills? How am i to listen to you judgment? Stand down before you do something you'll regret."

Gear turned away and approached the Clockwork, holding out his hand to help him up, his eyes flicking back to normal coloring.

"Sorry... that won't happen again. Now... Ironworth was it? My name is Gear and we're a part of the guild on a mission to explore this place. If you are the creator would mind coming with us and explaining things?"

-With out question it was pretty obvious this new figure was different from the rest, didn't need to be a mechanical genius to figure it out and Shrike was the furthest thing from mechanically gifted, tho suddenly and unexpectedly Gear turned to him and shoved his weapon far off in another direction, knocking if way off where he had it aligned. 

Shrike had no intention to shoot unless the figure before him proved to be hostile, tho shoving a weapon away could be been dangerous if the under barrel grenade launcher could of gone off easily as it didn't have a safety switch. 

"Jesus christ I wasn't gonna shoot him, we just don't know what we really dealing with here, letting your guard down could be last thing you do....I didn't have a choice if there was a 4th member I would assigned you with another, your position was tactically secure as the only way some one could get to you would be in front, besides we were literally just in the opposite room, hardly split up at all, you better not do that again to my rifle or there will be complications..."

-Shrike lowered the rifle but switched back to full auto, his experience taught him that in the unknown the unprepared will fall first and he was not about to let it slip that easily, Zeek seem to feel the same letting the guard down was not a option at this point, tho with the recovery of this figure the intel he could provide would be invaluable.-

"We were sent into the facility for recon and recovery, salvage any thing of use an clear out, since we found you we going to extract from this place, bet you wouldn't mind getting the hell off this place...tho technically we still haven't finished full recon of the place, tho that may take a while....hope the damn pilot is still out there. Any way whats your name and you said you built this place...why and what is it exactly?" 

The automaton, who stated his name was Charlie, listened in on them all before finally taking Gear's hand, still cautious due to not knowing what the Guild was and how they aligned.
"I see...", Charlie commented before looking to them, particularly at Shrike, "While I understand you didn't intend to harm me... yet... I still struggle to trust someone who aimed a gun at me. I hope you understand, sir."
The bitterness on his voice was vicious, but he shook his head, bringing a mechanical arm to his 'chin', "Still, I do need help out of here. It's... Quite lonely."
He lowered his head... Then looked at them all, "My name is Dr. Charlie Ironworth, for those of you who didn't hear before, and about 20 years ago with many of my comrades, we built this lab and factory for the sole purpose of performing experiments we were hired to do for the Sliamese government. We were primarily hired to build things known as 'Clockwork Soldiers', my expertise given I was once famous for making simple machines for not-so-simple tasks. During combat, they could just be pumped out by the hundreds, every battle could be won purely by numbers with fewer actual casualties..."
He turned his head away, before stepping to the blue screens, now more apparent as typed documents if some sort.
"However... We stopped getting supplies from Sliam. I... I should have known to stop working and just leave, something was wrong... Disaster, we were attacked. I don't know what happened, but since then, my soul continues on in this metallic body of my last creation, my flying automaton, the Clockwork Babylon..."

He stopped, before chuckling, turning back to them, "But enough about me and my story of woe! How did you three get up here...? I'd be glad to help if it means I can leave."

Zeek saw the interaction between Gear and Shrike as he just shake his head and looked towards the avian automaton as he listened to his story and his name. So his soul was inside of the robotic body then? that is very interesting for him but thinking about souls made him remember of the jars he and Shrike had picked up. Letting his sword rest against his shoulder again he used his left hand to pull out the jar he had picked up before. Now holding the jar in front of him he looked at Charlie Ironworth.

"We came by a helicopter, nothing special really...but do you know that this is?" He said as he was curios as to what this thing is and hopefully the Dr. knows something about it. He has a solid grip around it as to not let anyone snatched it away from his hand and he still has his sword in the other hand as well. The feeling of he aura returns to him as he held the jar, the liquid glowing as he wonders what the hall is this stuff? could this be some sort of soul due to the aura? Either way he wants to know as it is part of his mission to gather whatever information and take whatever is salvageable.

Gear felt a slight sting of pain. Manufactured soldiers, disposable warriors with nothing but a purpose to fight and treated like garbage. The only good thing was at least these things weren't sentient and alive, they wouldn't and didn't have to understand pain.

"Well... salvaging anything is priority. Think you could point us around and gather stuff you may want to take with you and salvageable stuff for our mission? Maybe the guild will be willing to accept you in the science division."

As Zeek held out the container Gear gave it a scan. What puzzled him was it was acting like a life signature. But at the same time it was both incomplete and acted like and energy source.

"Reminds me of that one ore..."

-Seemed like quite a bit has happened over that span of years, mostly boiling down to a surplus of mindless combat machines that they could simply overwhelm enemy forces with, cheap and easily to produce and or replace. However right now Shrike was thinking along the lines of immediate extraction, this being could be valuable, remaining for much longer could put him in danger. 

"It is also the same way we probably going to get out of here, which I think we should now that we have located you, your high value nature means extraction is urgent, along with this substance we are taking with us...now all I gotta do is contact the pilot. 

-Shrike stepped away from the main group and tried to establish communications with the pilot- 

"Shrike to pilot do you read me...we have located a high value figure and are requesting immediate extraction from the facility..be advised we have also come into contact with a unknown origin substance sample which is also to be extracted....what can be your estimated time to arrival at the foundry entrance over." 

-Now all he had to do was wait for a response from the pilot, mean while Shrike returns to the group where upon they were talking.-

"Called for extraction via Helicopter..tho it will still probably be some time before it arrives, time to gather what we can before we pull out. Mr Ironsworth, you now have lead, since you know the facility better if there is any thing you wish to bring along, please do so."  

First of note, if it weren't that special, more people would have come to the flying station. Though his expression gave no hints as to what he really felt, as he had no expression, it was clear he wasn't sure how to feel about Zeek's response. Seeing the jar, he tilted his head, "Ah, if I remember correctly that is called 'Okratil'. At least, that's what a good friend of mine named Dr. Hirsch called it. I'm not sure how or when, but he claimed to extract it from the souls of Sliamese - apparently, many of them gain powers just from having especially prominent traits like happiness, anger, positivity, negativity, virtues, sins, fear, hope... Some absorb it, others generate it. We experimented with it a little alongside the Clockwork Soldier project."

After his explanation, he stepped around, pacing a little, "Not much here of worth, especially bit to me. Could any of you tell me more about the 'Guild' you work for? You have my intrigue."

After Shrike's call, he almost immediately hit a reply - turned out, the pilot never left. They could leave whenever.

Zeek puts away the jar as he makes mental notes of what the doctor just said. he isn't very smart with technology but he just memorized what he said in case he have to explain the soul in the jar is to the person who put up the quest. Listening to Shrike calling the pilot makes him let out a small sigh, seems like this mission is gonna end soon which means he can get back home and have a nice meal after this, should he get some beef stew and white rice? or maybe white rice with fried pork as well fries? he can think of so many options that it almost made his mouth water but he prevented himself showing any sign of it. When he heard hr question the doctor just said he decided to answer.

"Basically is a guild to be a hero, we use our skills that can't be used in every day life beside military, crime or a body guard, basically it is a guild hat give future hero and adventurer who loves to explore and fight a chance to do so...at least that is how i see it, plus it just feels good to do something good" He said with a simple shrugged as he waited by the door that Gear blasted as he takes a peak outside, making sure no danger was present or if there any new sign of...it, he knows something is out there but just what is it?