Prologue:
15 years ago; Szmaragd Ruins; Drakis
In the midst of a flurry of effort, a tiger faunus emerges from a tent quickly followed by a young man, his green hair contained by a pith helmet, his frame obscured by a large brown greatcoat; the tiger faunus turns as he is addressed by the other man.
"Thanksconcentrateonthesouthernclifftomorrow; becarefulthegroundthereishard, sobecarefulwhenyoudig."
"Um..."
"I hope you will pardon my young friend here, he's rather excited to finally be here." a grey haired mustachioed man in a matching grey and yellow suit said as he emerged from the same tent. "Now if you could focus your efforts on the northern cliff tomorrow we would appreciate it. It's going to be hard work so take the necessary precautions."
"Yes sir. Thank you sir." The faunus said before turning and walking off.
"Bart; I can understand your excitement, but you must understand that most people cannot understand you when you speak that fast." Dr. Watts said as he scolded the younger man.
"I-I'll try Arthur." Adjunct Professor Bartholomew Oobleck responded.
"It's perfectly fine to be excited Bart, a find like this will put you on the fast track to that doctorate you've been working for."
"Dr. Watts! Mr. Oobleck!" another man shouted running up to them
"Professor." Bart mumbled under his breath earning a sideways glance from the older man beside him
"What is it? Have you found something?" Dr. Watts asked.
"Yes, we followed the corridor from behind keep, it matches the location described in Mr. Oobleck's paper."
"What? Showmewhereitis." Bart began before pausing "Could you please show us?"
The other man merely turned and started back the way he had come before speaking again as the two academics followed behind. "It's different from the others; it only seems to have cosmetic damage."
"Well now; It seems that doctorate is even closer than I had thought. Congratulations Bart. I can't wait to study this new discovery." Dr. Watts stated as they walked up to a standing plinth that started glowing as the two Aura users approached it.
"Arthur... Have you ever seen anything like this?" Bartholomew asked his colleague as they stopped having noticed the glow only to see Dr. Arthur Watts rushing forward.
"I-It's working! Bart! It's actually working!" Dr. Watts exclaimed as he slowed to a stop right in front of the plinth. "Do you realize what this means?"
"W-we've found..." Bartholomew trailed off; "This... this changes everything..."
"This proves that the ancients weren't just incredible architects... My father was right!" Dr. Watts said just before he jumped as he heard a beep come from the glowing pedestal before him.
"Wykryto zakwalifikowane Lwy. Funkcjonalność Scarecrow na poziomie siedmiu procent. Inicjowanie napraw."
"What was that?" one of the workers asked even as he started edging away from the pedestal.
"I-it sounded almost like old Vacuoan..." Bart said even as the statement began to repeat itself "Detect... something... Lion... Function... Scarecrow... something... seven percent... something... repair?"
"As much as I would like to investigate this further Bart... we need to call this in. We are going to need some engineers from Atlas to help study this... Scarecrow." Dr. Watts said as he turned to head back to camp, "I'll go report it , you stay here and record everything it says, we might be able to get a better translation from a linguist."
After hearing an affirmation from his younger colleague Dr. Arthur Watts walked away with a spring in his step. This was better than anything he had expected to find; not only would this revolutionize the known history of civilization on Remnant. This discovery would clear his father's name Wallace Watts would no longer be remembered as 'Wacky Watts'. As far as Dr. Watts was concerned; there was nothing that could ruin this. His father was redeemed and everyone involved would go down in history. 'I hope you're smiling up there Dad.' he thought as he sat down to send his message via the long distance connection.
Surprise find at dig site STOP Functional technology discovered STOP Takes appearance of a pedestal STOP Requesting engineer support STOP Awaiting response STOP
After sending his message Dr. Watts sat back waiting for the response, and he was rather happy he didn't have to wait long, after all this 'Scarecrow'was just waiting for him; at least until he saw the content of the response.
Waiting on orders from council STOP Hold until further notice STOP
"That's odd..." Watts thought confused; "there's no reason they should need to be bothered with this..." It was while pondering this that Dr Watts fell asleep while still on the bench.
Early the next morning Dr. Watts bolted awake hearing a commotion outside the tent he was in. Rapidly getting up he stumbled out into the early morning light to see a couple of bullheads loading equipment, even as an Atlesian airship floated lazily in the sky.
"What's going on here?" Dr. Watts demanded of one of the workers passing by him.
"The council decided to pull the plug on this expedition Dr. Watts."
"What? Why?" Dr. Watts demanded, everything here was wrong.
"All I know is that we are not to reveal this to anybody."
"So they just want to hide all this?" Dr. Watts said anger lacing his tone.
"That's what it looks like." The man replied before rushing off.
Looking around he quickly spotter an Atlesian soldier standing guard near one of the bullheads, pushing through the busy mass of people Dr. Watts quickly made his way over to the soldier. "Soldier I wish to speak with your commanding officer."
"I'm sorry sir but Specialist Ironwood is currently unavailable, If you want I can see to getting you an audience later today."
"BULLSHIT. I am Dr. Arthur Watts one of the men who commissioned this expedition. I demand to see Specialist Ironwood now so that I may find out just why he is shutting down MY EXPEDITION"
"I'm sorry Sir but..." the soldier was cut off
"It is alright soldier, I've just finished speaking with Dr. Watts colleague," A tall man with black hair said as he addressed the soldier guarding the bullhead, before he turned his attention to the rather irate doctor in front of him. "If you could follow me Dr. Watts. I believe I have some answers to questions you would very much like to ask."
After following him for a minute or so, they reached an empty tent, everything already having been stripped, leaving them to their privacy.
Turning around Specialist Ironwood began to speak. "Dr. Watts I am sure you have many..." before he was cut off by the professor.
"Why has the council decided to stop this expedition? I better get a satisfactory answer from you, specialist or so help me..."
"Straight to the point I see. I can appreciate that, so I'll get right to it as well."
"Well?"
"This device that you have found has been deemed a threat to human survival and the councils have decided that the proper course of action is to destroy it without any further delay."
I hope you all enjoyed the prologue to Pyriform. I don't know when the next chapter will come out but be assured that I have the general plot laid out already. Please leave a review I'd love to see what you think.