Inside the Cult of Mordalis' temple

"My goodness, I can't believe they've been chanting for this long," Drill Master said to the others. Once again, the group was punished with a painful jolt of energy.

"Damnit Drill Master, do you think any of us like this?" Admiral Lilwall replied as the painful energy continued to flow through them. "Do you? Huh?"

On the upper ledge of the temple, Gravix and Artifice continued to prepare the diversion.

"Okay, you loosen the harpies, I'll place the cable" Gravix told Artifice.

"Actually they're called gargoyles" Artifice replied.

"Whatever, just do it if you want my help" Gravix replied.

"Yes sir" Artifice replied casually.

Artifice crawled around on the ledge being careful not to allow anything to be seen from the ground floor. Such a task was especially hard since he could not cut too far before it would be possible to see his laser cutter. Gravix crawled around him placing thing cables in the incisions that Artifice was making. As Artifice and Gravix put their plan in motion, they could hear the dull chanting below. They couldn't understand anything the Cult was saying, but it sounded much like prayer.

"Any idea what they are saying?" Artifice asked.

"Not much, the language they're speaking is very old. I can only make out a few things, something about their quest for the Mordalis crystal, and the rest seems to be just hailing and praising Mordalis" Gravix replied.

Artifice chuckled. "Heh, sounds kinda like the Decepticons and trying to get that precious Matrix."

"Do you think your friends can hold out? Those chains look rather tight and they've been jolted quite a few times" Gravix asked.

"If they want to live they'll hold out. LONAC is a tough breed, simply leaving the Autobots or Decepticons is proof enough" Artifice told Gravix.

"What about you little friend Waste State?" Gravix asked.

Artifice stopped what he was doing for a moment and turned to Gravix. "Number one, you know how I hate small talk when I'm supposed to be on a bounty. Number two his name is Waitstate. Number three, just because he has to work harder to prove himself does mean he's any less that the others."

"Oh sure, we have to rise up from the blindness of the Autobots to become neutral, but he's born that way" Gravix retorted.

"Look, this is neither the time nor the place, lets just finish this and get our bounties" Artifice finished.

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Outside of the temple

*Oof!* Ruse said has he landed on his chest. Diamond Fire landed off to the left of him on her side. Waitstate collided with Scamp as he fell and they landed in a pile on the ground. Lastly, Dark Star came falling through the portal. It looked as if he were going to land on his back, but he quickly whipped around and landed on his feet.

Waitstate sat up and looked at Dark Star. "How did you . . .? You'll have to teach me that sometime."

Dark Star seemed to ignore Waitstate. He made sure both of his guns were intact and fully charged. He then turned to the group. Waitstate looked at Dark Star then stood up along with the others. Ruse offered to help Diamond Fire up, but she refused.

"I can get up on my own" she told Ruse.

The group was in silent awe of the surroundings. The place gave off a very strange and morbid feeling.

"This place is incredible, I've never seen anything like it" Ruse told the others.

"Live it up, we're not going to be here much longer" Scamp replied.

Waitstate spoke up quickly, so as to avoid another argument. "I hate to agree with Scamp but he's right. We're only going to go and pull our guys out. If we're lucky maybe we can even get a few answers."

"It looks pretty far off," Diamond Fire said.

"And we don't have much time to waste" Ruse replied. "I'm getting the creeps, but if this is the right place, our friends are inside that thing."

Waitstate and the others transformed. "Let's go and see what's inside shall we?"

Waitstate lead the way and the group of five took off in the direction of the temple.