Atala, the lost city

[Grizzly]

And thus an expedition of was created. An expedition that consists of all the allied species. Half civilian and half military. The chosen leader of the expedition is a civilian, but from a military background, a compromise that both sectors agreed on. The expedition was fifty individuals large, and they had to take with them as much as possible, chances are they are not coming back.

The expedition stands in front of the portal to the unknown and dr. Blue Star, the leader of the expedition, steps fourth for a motivation speech. "Alright everyone, i'll try to make it short. None of us would be standing here now if we weren't absolutely sure we wanted to go. What lies on the other side? What became of Atala? Are the legends even true? Will we ever return? Those are some of the questions that i am sure every one of us has on their mind. And today, after Celestia know how many generations, we stand united once more, ponies, griffons, zebras and even changelings. We will find the answers together." with the final sentence the portal activated. A water like substance filled the empty space of the portal, making it look like a mirror. Blue took a deep breath and walked through, as she did a ripple spread through the supposed liquid. Others looked at each other, but gathered theirs courage and followed. This is your final chance to change your mind, will you?


---The other side---
Darkness surround everything as the final member exits the portal and it shuts down. The air was dense, hard to breathe, and it was hot. Seconds pass and the first beams of light illuminated the surroundings, light from flashlight and unicorn horns was the source of said illumination. The expedition could see a large and mostly hexagon room. Other thing of note was that some members of the expedition were injured, some unconscious even. The eery silence was broken by Blue's voice. "Nurse?" She looked at one of the nurses, the nurse looked back and both nodded. What followed was the medical staff tending to every member of the expedition.


Questions, applications and rules here

Captains' log:

Spoiler: Entry One • show

This is doctor Blue Star, leader of the expedition. I found a small notebook in my room, so i decided to log everything major that happens, and i'm aware of the old fashion way. We arrived to the city about a week ago, and already we have our first crisis done. The city was under water, and started to flood, and the city's AI systems were acting weird. I was given by the AI, they are called Avatars, a bracelet/horseshoe thing, when i put it on it connected me to the core, we call him Grumpy. Thanks to this, Cosmos, Tundra, and others, we were able to detect the problem, delete it, and safely get the city above the sea. A little too much for our first adventure here, if you ask me.

Spoiler: Entry Two • show

We were to the landmass and discovered something like a pyramid with a maze in it. In the maze we encountered Iron Will's ugly brother. All jokes aside, the creature we encountered was truly fierce, easily destroying two of our machina. The maze and the creature reminds me of a old maretail my mother used to tell me when i was little, about naughty foals that are sent to the Catacombs to be eaten by the Minotaur. I wonder if that story has its origin here.

[Checkmate]

Checkmate took a quick look around once his vision cleared, leaving the lighting to others.  Given that his horn glow was black, it would've hardly helped matters.  Instead he took stock of everypony, making sure none were injured.  Being the leader of the military detachment, he gave most of his attention to his underlings, although he also looked over the civilians.

[Snowcraft_Pony]

Starlight looked over to Checkmate, and then checked herself for injuries. She looked like she came out in good condition.

"Well... We're here."

[Checkmate]

Indeed.  Any injuries?  Checkmate requested, pulling out a pad and preparing to write down a list of injuries.

[Grizzly]

The medical staff of the expedition, including Blue, walked form one member of the expedition to the next, treating their injuries if there were any. Blue walked to Starlight and Checkmate. "Are you two alright?" she questioned.

[Checkmate]

Indeed, Dr. Blue Star.  Checkmate said, saluting briefly.  After all, she did technically outrank him on the expedition.  Any major injuries noted?

[Grizzly]

"None." Blue shook her head and smiled. "It seems that those that passed out did so do to the sudden change in the air temperature." She explained and quickly overlooked the group, the medical staff was just about finished examining everyone. "Alright, now we have to figure out where we are and how we get out."

[Omega_Khaos]

Cosmic looks blindly through his tool kit looking for a light source. "Oh come on. where are you? I know this kit has one. Ah! here it is." He pulls out the light source and activates the sun crystal flash light from his tool kit. he points it around looking to see if everypony is ok. He then says, "Miss Blue, do you need a light source? I found my sun crystal flash light."

[Checkmate]

I would propose we make a base camp here, and send out some of my ponies to function as scouts.  Checkmate offered.

((I would like to be clear, this is not the nice Checkmate from other RPs.))

[Grizzly]

Blue smiled at Cosmic. "It's alright, the light spell is almost no strain on me what so ever, its about the same as a levitation spell." She explained and then turned to Checkmate. "Alright, do so." She nodded. More and more members lighted up their own flashlight or horn. Those who notice could see that the entire room has an circuit board like look, and the portal on this side is about four times bigger than the one they used.

[Checkmate]

Checkmate hoof-picked a few ponies to scout the surrounding area, and others to begin setting up tents and such.

((Basically, if anypony wants to be in the scouting group, go ahead!!))

[Omega_Khaos]

cosmic's eyes had a sparkle to them as he looked around. All anypony could hear him say is "Jackpot!" cosmic begins to analyze the whole room. Namely the portal. He checks to see if there was any way of activating it again and if so where he might find such an activation switch.

[Grizzly]

There are no noticeable switches anywhere in sight, though if one closely looks at the circuit board pattern at the base of the portal one could see that a few circuit lines lead to a circle on the floor, about ten meters away from the portal, about double the size of a regular pony hoof. Other circuit lines also lead to this circle.

[Omega_Khaos]

Cosmic follows the lines and says to checkmate, "Hey boss! I think I might be able to get this portal operational again if we can find out where these lines go." Cosmic points a hoof at the connecting circle and the lines leading from it. "Only one problem. The tech here is a bit more advanced then I thought and I didn't bring the hyper advanced kit with me. So I will need more time then normal to figure it out." Cosmic begins to analyze the circle on the floor see if there was any sign of a language or something to tell him what these lines are for and where they could lead. this in turn forces him to examine the entirety of the room. he says, "If any of the equipment is damaged or gets damaged while we are here, let me know and I will fix it for ya. That is one of my jobs after all. if not I will continue to analyze the room and try to make heads or tails of what we can and cant do with this here portal. If yall find any more portals let me know about them as well."

[Checkmate]

We will.  Go ahead and get that portal operational while we wait for scouting reports.  Checkmate said, pacing within the area.

[Grizzly]

---The circle---
From your analysis you can only guess that the circle is either a control point for the room, and perhaps more, or where you put the energy source, though what kind of energy it needs you have no idea.

[Omega_Khaos]

Cosmic Writes the official report he needs to and hooves it to checkmate. The report contains only a few things. The portal seams to lack some sort of energy source or the circle may be a control point for the portal. if it is in need of an energy source, the report says, without a proper analyzing kit I am unable to determine what kind of energy source would best work the portal. Requesting that all things related in some fashion to the portal be brought to Cosmic for further analysis. All unidentifiable items also are requested to be brought before Cosmic for analysis.

[Chibalt]

Tundra seemed completely absorbed into searching the room from the moment they arrived, lighting the immediate area around him with glowing runes while occasionally making runes on the floor, activating them for a few seconds before erasing them again as he searched for any traces of magical energy to hopefully find any potential traps, and perhaps find a lightswitch too while he was at it.

[Snowcraft_Pony]

Starlight looked around the room for a door of some sorts, and heard her communicator.

"Ma'am we've completed our scouting and found- what was that?"

"What was that?" Starlight asked the communicator.

"I'm not sure, it may have been a miss-fire" came the reply.

"Carefull everypony, we don't know for sure if something is out there...

[Grizzly]

A tremor was felt in the room, all of a sudden the circle Checkmate was examining lighted up in a light blue glow. The glow spread from the circle to the portal, to the walls and even the ceiling. The whole hexagon room was now lighted pretty well and the walls themselves began to glow in a white light. Two doors opened on the far ends of though the corridors were dark.

"Stick together everypony." Blue called out and looked around. Suddenly a voice was heard, though it sounded distorted distorted.

"Welcome to Atala." A flash of light spread from the middle of the room and a form of a white transparent alicorn appeared.