The ride down is uneventful, save for some prodigiously terrible singing. However, the landing is something different. The ship lands not at a normal port but appears to have landed somewhere within the confines of the palace compound itself. The area they landed is in a large courtyard, open to the sky, but closed in on all sides by high walls. The courtyard is quite well designed, the walls pillared and inlaid with mosaics, as is the floor, though it has clearly been blasted with exhaust far too many times for the mosaic's colors to remain as anything but shades of gray and black. This appears to be the palace's private landing area, if this was, indeed the palace.
Across from the shuttle's opening hatch was a hall, leading out of the courtyard and deeper into the building, no doubt. At that hall was a procession of men. An older man stood in the center, a dark skinned, heavily wrinkled, bald head poking out of an expansive collection of colorful robes. Despite his extravagant clothing, his face was set in a dour, detached, somewhat disapproving glare which, if the deep creases around his mouth and eyes were anything to go by, was his natural state of being. At his sides and behind him were what you could naturally assume were palace guards. Their clothing is Monochrome, mostly white with some grays and blacks, and more tight fitting then the man they guard. Their face is veiled and you could almost consider them nothing but ceremonial if not for the weapons they carried. One was what appeared to be an indeed ceremonial curved blade and a hooked dagger stuffed in their cloth belt, but the rifle slung across their shoulder was modern enough.
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Topic: Mission 17: Diplomacy (Read 77973 times)