Chopper looked with apprehension at the deployment pods. He'd ridden in one before and it wasn't the most pleasant experience he'd ever had. Although he would be secured inside, the ride itself was still bumpy and made his heart race from fighting the instinct that told him he was going to die when he'd feel himself falling. Think riding in a glass elevator but amplified to be much worse.

"We ready to go?" Celtic called to the group, weapons strapped to his body.

"Sei-i." Scar confirmed, fearlessly approaching his own pod. Celtic looked at Chopper and rose one mandible in a smirk. "You're te'dqi ju'dha." He pointed out. Chopper wiped at his sweat angrily. "You would be too if you had to ride in one of these again." Chopper snapped. Celtic rolled his eyes. "Chopper. . .pauk, just get in the pod." He ordered.

Chopper glared at him and his mandibles clenched in unvoiced anger, but he wordlessly did as told.

Celtic climbed into his own pod and all three doors closed at once. Even though they were excited, they were also nervous. If their pods weren't sound proof, they might have been able to hear each other's heart beats. They strapped themselves down further inside. Chopper might have done his tighter than was recommended, but it made him feel safer. The other two, having no experience, loosened theirs a bit for breathing room.

Without a warning, the three pods dropped.

Lucinda had seen many corpses in her life. It was her job to figure out how they had died. She'd seen plenty of common causes like choking, gun shots, knife wounds, cancer, etc. She's also seen plenty of uncommon causes, such as accidents that were so ridiculous that they wouldn't be released to the public.

She certainly didn't expect this!

The group had entered a room that Sebastian had declared was the sacrificial chamber. Their evidence for this being the dead bodies laid out on tables in a circle. Lucinda knew there'd be dead bodies. The whole reason Weyland brought her here was because of the possibility of reserved corpses within the pyramid.

She just didn't expect them to be so. . .torn up.

Along the walls of the chamber were heads and spinal columns. That's it. Hung up like trophies and decorations. The bodies on the alters were probably the most interesting though, but they also freaked Luci out the most. Not because she was scared of dead bodies (for obvious reasons), but because of the apparent way those bodies died.

Holes. Giant gaping holes either in their chest region or slightly above their stomachs. On top of that, the protruding ribs gave the impression that something had burst out from the bodies, not in.

Lucinda had never seen anything like that. If it had been an impalement from the back, then that would have been obvious. But the spines weren't broken, or even chipped. The placement of the holes would have suggested that something would have had to pierce the spine first to go all the way through. Their clothes as well, though time worn, also showed no signs of having been tampered or torn by any projectile that could have come from the back.

Lucinda wondered if maybe some sort of torture device had been in play, like hooks buried into the skin in order to pull the ribs up and out of the flesh that way.

But the hole wasn't even close to the right shape for that type of torture. The flesh wouldn't have as clean of a cut. Plus the ribs, though broken out, had no signs of being chipped from being violently hooked and pulled.

Weyland approached her, though she noticed that he was having a harder time moving than usual. "Anything?" He asked.

Lucinda frowned and shook her head. "I'll have to take these back to a lab for a better look. I can only do so much with naked eye observation." She regretfully declared. Weyland frowned as well, but nodded his head.

"We'll come back again with a team to collect artifacts and to take these bodies back to the surface later." He reassured her. "Thank you." she replied gratefully. He nodded again and turned to leave and discuss with the other members on their own findings. Athena went with him, trailing like an obedient service dog.

Lucinda had to admit that she had misjudged Athena when they first met. Her past experiences with tall people often left her sour and wanting to avoid them. She thought Athena would harass her for her height as well.

But then she saw Athena's skin and had come to realize that maybe the friendly giant had plenty of harassment herself for different reasons. When Athena gave her a genuine smile during their official meeting, she realized Athena didn't care at all that she was short.

And that made Lucinda like her a lot.

Lucinda was broken out of her thoughts when a glowstick was broken and shaken to light before being dropped down the grate that was in the middle of the chamber. Everyone gathered around to look.

"There's another room down there." Someone had declared. Lucinda didn't see who, as she was looking down.

Weyland look down the hole and nodded. "Then we go down." He said.

He left half of the team in the chamber to see if they could find more answers. He would have left Lucinda there too in order to study the bodies more if she hadn't pointed out that it was pointless without her gear and proper lighting. So she was brought along with Weyland and the rest of the group, which included Lex and Athena, much to her pleasure.

As one, they went down.

"PAUK!" Shouted Celtic as he stumbled out of his pod. He cradled his aching head in one hand while slamming a fist angrily into the side of the pod.

Scar came out of his pod with a similar, angry mood, but he choose not to verbalize it. He cradled his own head in pain, but choose to look over and see if the other two were alright instead of taking his anger out on the transportation machine.

Due to both loosening their straps a bit, they had found out the hard way that their heads didn't exactly stay pressed to the padding during the landing. They had slammed their heads roughly against the backs of their pods and felt their limbs protesting from being slammed as well.

Chopper climbed out of his pod in a better mood than both of them. He was happily unhurt and had even found the fall easier this time.

He strode up to the two and clapped them on their shoulders before shaking. "Come on you two kainde syra'yte." He said with light clicking of his mandibles for mild laughter. "We have a dtai'kai'dte to complete."

Cheerfully, he strode away and towards the hole leading to the pyramid. The other two followed behind, griping under their breath and putting on their masks.

Their Chiva had begun.

Author's note: Translation time!

-Sei-i: Yes

-te'dqi: Secreting

-ju'dha: Water

-pauk: F**K

-kainde: Hard

-syra'yte: Head

-dtai'kai'dte: Hunt

-Chiva: Trial