PB3

Vasquez
"We may need to speed things along. There is activity at the pyramid... And I mean of the ambulatory alien kind. Seems the particle beam fried trying to match Alex' maneuvers and a repair is about to commence."
Chakrabarti-Makkonen "Have another go stunning that slug and I'll investigate the suit...Someone else check the survival dome" "Shoo you horrible bug....Alex...Perry....shoot the damn thing."
Lady Harding "The slugs can hear our radio transmissions. They twitch every time we transmit...

"Vish... careful over there! Those things only look harmless. They must have some sort of defense against the eels, or they'd go extinct."
Weapon probe Engle log Engel fires a stun blast, hitting the slug full on by the beam. It convulses and its tendril jerks mostly free from the helmet. At this point static starts in the helmet speakers.

The bunch of slugs grow rigid as their tendrils intertwine. The static grows stronger. The static repeats rapidly. The slug that was moving towards the party stops as its tendril shoots straight up. However, with what seems like effort, it brings its tendril down and moves at top slug speed toward the stunned slug.
Time jump, static
Lady Harding
"Hmm... they seem to be social, and perhaps intelligent. It'll be... fascinating... to do a vivisection of one."
Chakrabarti-Makkonen awkwardly kneels down next to the helmet, brushing away the spasmodically twitching slug tendril. The suit is holed in several places but there still seems to be a body. He flips the face plate all the way up. A small slug sits there in the skull. The lower jaw and the top of the skull remain, and now seem to be composed of some light grey material The small slug pulses slightly.
Chakrabarti-Makkonen
"Hey guys...These creatures sound like they're talking. Not sure till I run it through my computer's translation programs, but they could have some basic communication skills."

"Though I'm not that sure...." "Liz come here will you and have a look at this poor fellow, he seems to have undergone some sort of transformation."
"Luak Zw!" exclamation in unknown language
Lady Harding
"Interesting... I wonder if these slugs ate him, or laid their eggs in him? There might be more in the torso... Let's see if I can get a sample of this transformed bone. I wonder about this... must be some sort of fossilization."

"I'm going to attempt a quick autopsy, like super quick, see if I can determine the cause of death and identity of the victim. Vish, you want to poke around and see if you can find any information on what they were doing here, maybe a roster of people that were here?

"And the rest of you, if you can keep the critters away from me, that'd be golden."

Chakrabarti-Makkonen heavy static repeating unknown exclamation "Luak Zw!"

"Luak Zw!"
Pulsing static is recorded over Chakrabarti-Makkonen‘s helmet comm. Audio pick ups detect the vortex disturbances of the flying eels. Chakrabarti-Makkonen

"We have in coming...Alex, Perry.....Shut up and listen....Those flying eels are coming....I'm running the slug language through my translator, but it's taking time. They might have called them."
Time jumps, scan artifacts follow the time of the combat
"Yes well that seems right..." Chakrabarti-Makkonen links everyone else's comms to his. "Alex...you must be used to meeting new forms of life being a scout....You've always been good at it at parties....Go talk to their leader...."
Lady Harding
"Alright, that's as far as I can get here. The body's completely petrified... and heavy. Too heavy for me to move. I could do a more thorough analysis aboard the ship, but let's figure out if we want to move it to the ship later.

"Also, if you weren't paying attention, it looks like the suit was pierced and patched. I have a suspicion that something stung or bit him, and that it petrified him. I don't think it was the momentary exposure to the atmosphere that did this."

Markharovm

"This is rather different from a party!"

"Um.."

Suit log: gibberish Ia mi...harm...uii. Mi...harm..Gerb.

Weapon drone Engel’s log many skips and jumps here as scene reconstructed from many sources. scan artifact abound
Eels approach.

Great blasts of static

The slugs tendrils shoot straight up.

Markharovm begins to panic "Have no ziirj and must..."
"Have no mouth..."
Weapon drone Engel’s log The eel's bodies split along the fringed underside. The fringe reveals itself to be the ends of long thin tentacles which now unravel to barely touch the ground. They move slowly along until they reach the slug group. The eels' tentacles feel over the slugs slowly, then enter them. The slugs convulse. Two eels break off from the other four. One heads in the direction of the incapacitated slug, the other toward the leader slug.
Chaotic mishmash of views, scan artifacts, static Chakrabarti-Makkonen's suit log Chakrabarti-Makkonen's helmet pings as something sends a message. An eel let's off examining the slug group and darts towards Chakrabarti-Makkonen. A blast of static goes through Chakrabarti-Makkonen’s helmet
Markharovm whips out a pistol and starts shooting at the eels.
Lady Harding draws a pistol, and starts shooting eels.
Vasquez orders his gun drone to attack.
The eels are soon smoking in the muck.
Chakrabarti-Makkonen "Looks like the pyramid could be fauna folks....Eels are using a possible derivative of it's OS that tried to take over my computer....Oh shit they've changed their frequency....."
Lady Harding "HA! Take that you stupid... eel... robot... THING!"

Vasquez

"Ancient technology, aggressive local fauna and that deadly little pistol of yours. Just like old times, Alex."
No clean records follow
Markharovm
"First two samples. Though we may need different containment if they can turn any material into our supermaterial. They're not quite silkworms but I have a feeling we'll need to steal the equivalent secret of sericulture if we're to make our employers happy. Does answer some questions though. Like how you work such a material in the first place."

Chakrabarti-Makkonen

"What do you make of that lot? I think it's time we had a chat with our slugs.

Perry, the eels have just transmitted 'Summon the Petrifier. That doesn't sound too good, can you get the probes to watch out for anything leaving the pyramid?"

"I'm starting to think that our pyramid might be living." Vasquez "They're already watching the pyramid, Vishnu." "Actually, while we have a moment. Do you think you could stop ordering me about? It's unnecessary and irritating. There's a good chap."
Chakrabarti-Makkonen "Oh stop being so sensitive. You're in charge of the damn probes and I'm being attacked by eels, christ on an asteroid."

"Why do you want us to kill you?"

Markharovm "Biotechnology. All of it. The slugs, the eels, none of them evolved naturally; I'm almost certain." Markharovm turns to the slugs. "Please..tell us what's going on, if you can." Pulsing static fills all comms.
Vasquez "No Jump but in every other area their technology equals or exceeds the best we can produce. Violent and cruel in the extreme... on the evidence so far." "It may be worth dumping our data and notes to an emergency probe for the Navy to find.... You know, just in case the alien with the huge meson gun and penchant for speciecide turns out to be beyond our capacities. I'm told kinetic orbital bombardment solves a lot of problems."
Vasquez "You probably have a point. I think we should relay all we have discovered back to the ship for now, and tell Eddie that if we don't contact him in time to get lifted off he should fly to the nearest Naval Outpost and tell them what happened." "Okay, folks, I think caution and the wind need to get acquainted here. I'm sending one of our probes into the pyramid to take a closer look. How do we want to play this? Move on to the main objective?"
Lady Harding
"I think the smart thing to do would be to leave, and let someone else deal with the problem... But because of the financial situation... I doubt we're going to do the smart thing. Vish... Perry... promise me that you'll kill me, obliterating my brain, before you let him turn me into one of those slugs. I promise the same."
Vasquez "I agree, Liz. Smart would see us away as quickly as possible. I suspect we need to get ourselves inside that pyramid before this "Basilisk" targets the area though."

"I'll leave the suicide pacts for you two. Ow... But I'll reserve judgement until the time comes... You'll have to pack me in a sample case, to start with at least, but so long as you don't leave me here.... Who knows? Might be interesting?".
Probe A1 logs

Probe A1 enters the pyramid. It notes that the entrance has been melted through the structure. Radioactivity readings indicate that a shaped nuclear charge would be the most likely device used. Dating places it at 12000 years, +/-2000 years. The wall is 1.44 meters thick. Substances: Unknown alloys, unknown plastics, unknown ceramics, unknown material.

The probe edges its way past the still figure. It is about 2.2 meters tall, covered in fine scales and shell or chitin covering vulnerable areas. It appears to be made of the same stone-like substance as the body in the camp. The front half of the head is missing. It has five digits on each limb with two opposable digits on the hands. The hands look vise-like. It is unclad. The fluorine atmosphere swirls around thickly.

The interior walls have been damaged by the atmosphere. The drone moves on to discover a prone body, frozen in the act of crawling for a blast door just ahead. The atmosphere here is breathable. Vents on the ceiling and floor push a great amount of air into this area, so much so that it keeps the exterior atmosphere at bay.

The body is of a different species or phenotype. It too has fine scales, but instead of plates on sensitive areas, ridges of thicker scales around the neck and shoulders and the waist. Its hands have longer thinner fingers with only one thumb. The head here is out of proportion with the rest of the body. The front half of the head is missing here too. It is made of the same stony material as the other. Its lower left leg is missing. The reason for the crawling one can infer. The petrified body is also unclad.

Logs record a fifteen minute hike, pausing once when a flight of the eels passed nearby, They reach the blackened area of ground in front of blasted entrance into the pyramid. The crystalline structure atop the pyramid pulses red with a regular. The blackened area is almost entirely free of the ubiquitous muck..

As they approach the outer surface is seen to be a dull flat white nacre. The feed from drone A1 inside the pyramid ceases as does the party’s.

Continue PB4 Y/N