Neil felt like he was running through the corridors of a submersible and the groaning was its hull that was near to bursting. He didn't know if he was as fit as Sayeeda, but he had long legs and an energy most would envy. Making his way out of the strange temple they had found Drake in, Neil sped down hallways, his mind surprisingly effective when it came to memory and logistical thinking, realizing (mostly) just where they had come from even after all of those turns. It was one of the benefits of being able to pilot near anything. 

Most turns he wouldn't even skid to a stop, merely leaping and kicking off the wall to turn. His hands fully secured around the core as the groaning grew louder and louder. Unfortunately, the clock was against him. The AI had said the core needed to be returned 20 minutes ago [i]18 minutes ago[/i], and Neil still had a few hallways to go, not to mention he had no idea how to put the fucking thing back. "You find a good ship, you get a hot Captain, might start a small business of high space piracy, and then what happens?" Neil asked himself facetiously under his breath, wondering just how he ended up trying to save a planet after being on Savran less than a day.

He didn't even slow down when he made it into the Xenos mausoleum, instead leaping off the third story and surfing down the curve of the wall. "Your prisoner unleashed the Harbinger of Doom." the AI voice replied to his query. Neil hopped off the wall at the bottom and then paused for a second to glanced upward. "I was just bullshitting. Now what do I do?" 

The room began to glow red, and more than even before it began to shake. The very foundations of the ground bucked and groaned like a lover. "Answer me!" Neil cried, but the AI instead began to repeat. "[i]Warning. Harbinger is being unleashed. Warning. Harbinger is being unleashed. Warning. Harbinger[/i]-" 

"SHIIIIIIIIIIII-" The pilot leaped and tossed the core into the central light, hoping to all that was holy that it worked. The core sailed through the air, hitting the light as if it had penetrated a surface of water. It flew far into it, before bouncing back to slowly bob a bit in the center, the mark on Neil's hand now glowing on the core. The light regained its natural color, and the groaning halted.

"Goddamn." Neil said to no one. "I need a vacation." 
[hr] 
It was ten minutes later Sayeeda's transport found Neil, only the landscape was much changed from their last visit of the place. The pilot was at the top of a tree, sitting on one of the outer lying branches and waving for them to see him. The horizon behind him was no longer the mountain of the valley, however. The trees, rock, and soil had been replaced with the top of a monstrous, metallic visage, eyes made of intertwining steel, and the horizon itself had been replaced with an arm that had lifted out of the planet's surface to find purchase on the the above ground. The hand of the beast could now provide cover for a city thrice the size of Hatcher's settlement. 

Once the transport hovered next to him, Neil grabbed on and wiped his brow, his red shirt now matted with sweat. "Thanks babe." he said to Sayeeda. He gave her a grin, the events that just transpired were a bit too out of their realm of reality for him to remember rank just there. All they had to do now was evade the Terran blockade. Not too hard, right? 
[@Penny]