Eli crept quietly behind Saule and the others. Naytani had relinquished him when she discovered his arm's internal structure was no more high-tech than what the Glint were capable of. He could still hear her cursing as he scuttled into the passage.

Saule, Riyn, Yors and Stuhkey hadn't noticed him following either. They had just entered a large hallway with banks of bone white machinery on either side. Fine golden foil filigree festooned the front of the machines. The floor however was packed red soil, oddly. Lights glowed a bright white, illustrating frescoes of different creatures and symbols of some language. It gave Eli the impression of an luxurious garden entry, beautiful and ostentatious.

The four Glint he followed walked in line following a path of blinking pink lights in the walls. Riyn took the front, with measured cautious pace, weapon at his side and eyes dim in concentration. Yors followed behind him his goad stowed in chest holster, his own glowing eyes bright. A mobile computer was jury rigged on his back so Stuhkey behind him could access it and add anything Stuhkey's equipment picked up tow the computer. Stuhkey was as many readings of the ambient space as he could, obviously fearful of something in the air.

At the rear came Commander Saule. Saule held his weapon in his left hand,with what little Glint body language Eli knew, a sullen attitude. His ears didn't swivel for sound, a dim glow was barely visible from his (colour) eyes. He didn't look thrilled at meeting another alien.

Eli watched them and took his own precautions. He had set his power to the minimum while running as many area checks his body could. He had also stolen a welding tool from the ship on his way out. He clutched it in his right hand. For stealth, Eli did his best. For a five hundred pount mechanical body he was being relatively quiet, and the packed soil floorr dampened his tread well. However everyonce in a while something would crunch under boot and the team in front would stop and listen for a moment.

It still didn't take more than fifteen minutes for the group to make it to their destination. A pair of large bronze plated doors waited at the end of the hall, a mural of great black trees with shimmering white lights and red leaves dominated the scene. As the Glint approached they groaned open. As if they hadn't been used in eons, potentially. On the other side the same tree thay had seen from the _Mad Dash_ stood amidst a lawn of gray plant life. A black furred glint with red eyes, a leather apron and a watering can, reclined against the tree.

"It is so good to finally see my work in person. You are all I made you to be"

———

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That voice unsettled the group deeply.

It was too deep to have come from a glint, too sonorous and melodic. The glint itself was… Wrong. It looked manufactured, like someone had distilled what they thought a glint should be and poured it into a body. No glint had pitch black fur or red eyes. It was unnatural and uncanny.

Saule spoke, his voice quavering ever so slightly, "What are you? You aren't one of us."

Riyn and the others looked to be just as unsettled as himself. Yors made an old religious motion to ward off evil. Riyn visibly clenched his goad, and Stuhkey tentatively stepped behind Yors.

"I am your creator, god, designer and benefactor. Everything that you are I am responsible for, your glowing eyes and beautiful pelts, all my design. I am a Jeweller and you are my greatest jewels, glints of light in the darkness." Rass Misiun said, straightening from against the tree and walking towards the group.

"I will defeat the Tharg and return you to Plinth. You aren't yet ready to face the races of the galaxy yet. But it seems the galaxy has come to face you. A fleet of uncut beauties has come to your aid and are holding off the beast for now. They won't be able to hold it if it decides to utterly destroy them to get to you. Now out away those little chisels, they can't harm me anyways"

As Rass Misiun spoke he had walked with arm's length of Riyn and Yors. With a burst of speed it snatched the goads from their hands. Saule fired as he saw the movement, the goad punching back into his wrist from recoil.

Rass Misiun hadn't been lying. The shot passed through him harmlessly and ricocheted off the black tree into the ground. Rass snarled and crushed the goads he held in his hands, tossing the remains to the side. In a single step he pushed Riyn and Yora to the ground and grabbed Saule by the throat. Saule struggled as Rass held him effortlessly aloft.

Rass spoke, "It does still anger me that you would even try. I am your god and you will respect me."

Rass tore the goad from Saule's hand, crushed it like the others and discarded it, "But I suppose you know very little of me. I did keep my influence after your creation to a minimum. Just a few prophets and prods in the right places. I cannot fault you for your suspicion."

It put Saule down and with a flash of carmine light the fake glint disappeared. A groaning, grinding sound started and grew in intensity. The black tree in the middle of the room was shaking, the ground it rootes in churned. Three black rubbery roots broke free and lifted the tree aloft. The branches shifted revealing that all of the lesser tree limbs branches out from three main limbs, similar to the roots. As the red leaves shifted, they showed a massive cluster of pale blue crystals seated atop the trunk of the tree. They sparkled with a malevolent light. Rass Misiun spoke again, and this time the crystals could be seen to vibrate, creating his voice.

"This is my true form, that projection earlier was meant to put you at ease. Alas I crafted it too well and perfection does tend to incite jealousy."

The tree twisted, displaying itself, "This is my true form. Now go wait by the wall as I do my work. I may even show you the benefits of being made by my tendrils."

A host of input devices and blue screens descended from the vaulted ceiling, Rass's tendrils of leaves and branches began to tap away. The screens glowed and showed lines of code being assembled at ludicrous speed, some showed views of Plinth. The largest was a tactical view of the solar system.

A host of white symbols could be seen opposing a singular pink symbol. As the team watched, the pink symbol vanished, followed by the white symbols. A blaring alarm followed the symbols disappearing, with the Guo'Saphyrn's branches speeding up their movements.