Eaty sits inside a patcher’s work area; scans had been run, visual inspections done, and nothing of note found.
“Well ETA - 0327, as far as i can tell, you’re fine.” The patcher turns and looks back at their instruments, “I’ve checked everything I know to check, and nothing is out of place.”
“But what about what happened earlier?!” 3487 sternly asks.
Eaty jumps into the conversation, “I told you. The effects faded fully before we even got half way here, it was probably nothing.”
“But why’d they happen in the first place?” 3487 says, still worried about the whole situation.
“We can’t be sure, might’ve just been a glitch, an electric signal being somewhere it shouldn’t. These things can happen, especially if the Seeker has wear on them, and 0327 has taken some hard hits before, I’m sure,” The patcher glances over to Eaty, then back to 3487, “but I can assure you, nothing serious is wrong with them, I’ve checked everything.”
3487 sighs, begrudgingly accepting the patcher’s words. “Fine, I guess I’ll trust you.”
Eaty hops off of the inspection table. “How much do I owe you?” Eaty asks.
3487 quickly interjects “I’ll get it! I was the one that dragged you in here in the first place.”
The patcher laughs, “I didn’t do anything other than inspect them, so just give me a steel mark and we’ll call it even.”
3487 opens their pouch on their waist and looks inside. Two chrome marks roll around on the inside. 3487 looks up at the patcher embarrassed, “Got change for a chrome?” 3487 smiles wide in an apologetic manner.
Eaty chuckles, and the patcher says “Nope, but I will take a chrome as payment as well.”
3487 freezes for a second, before looking over at Eaty, more specifically the leather pouch on their waist, they slowly move over toward Eaty until in range of the pouch and slowly reach over and open it, pulling out 10 steel marks and dropping in one chrome. They slowly close the pouch and pat it twice. They look up to Eaty who is now wearing an annoyed expression, 3487 smiles innocently at them, and quickly turns to the patcher who is now holding back a chuckle, handing the mark to them and quickly moving towards the exit. “Thanks for your help, but we got places to be!”
Eaty looks at the patcher and puts their hand over their panel, rubbing it back and forth “Is the head pain back?” the patcher questions.
“Yeah, but for a different reason this time.” Eaty says, as they head towards the exit back onto the street with 3487.
Eaty exits back out onto the Main Street of the first tier. 3487 is outside waiting for their arrival, that same innocent smile still plastered across their panel. “Thanks for the help in there, buddy.”
“Mhm,” Eaty says. “We still need to get provisions for the ruins expedition, and since you have change now, I think you can handle buying your own.” Eaty grins
“Aw, really? C’mon don’t be like that.” 3487 sighs, but Eaty is already walking away from the conversation. “Hey wait up!”
Eaty and 3487 go about, spending the remaining 4 hours until the scramble preparing for the expedition looming over them. Rations are purchased, equipment is maintained, and consumable items are restored. With time growing thin, they head towards the loading dock leading towards the depths. Still on the first tier, arriving at the base of the second tier, a large tunnel is bored into the wall of the second tier. The tunnel stretches far into the wall, until it opens into a large room. Doors are present down the tunnel, each one having a different label starting with Beta, then Gamma, Delta, and so on.
“What’re we going after again?” 3487 asks.
“A Forge heart,” Eaty says. “Apparently one of the fabricators on the second tier is out of commission, and there’s no spare hearts to fix it.”
“That’s what I thought it was. I gotta swing by the locker room and swap out my pack before we go,” 3487 says, heading towards a door on the side of the tunnel marked ETA.
Eaty follows them, “That’s fine, I’ve got to grab a light anyways.”
They enter into the room; it’s a thin room with a slight radius, lockers line the wall, most unused but several with labels across them. They begin to make their way down the row.
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“Why do you always bring a flashlight? We can use our panels to light the way,” 3487 asks, as they continue walking down the row of lockers. “Think it’s going to be a blackout?”
“Could be, but even if it’s not, I still prefer to have something with a bit more light output.” Eaty stops at a locker labeled ETA - 0327, and opens it, sifting through the miscellaneous gear inside and grabbing a flashlight within.
“Well I’m not going to complain. All light is good light, as long as it’s not draining my energy,” 3487 says, arriving at their locker, opening it, and pulling out a backpack loaded with various mechanic tools, and plopping it onto the ground with a heavy thud.
Eaty is affixing the flashlight to a self made mount on the side of their helmet. “You sure talk about energy efficiency a lot for someone that fuels as much as you do.” Eaty quips.
3487 turns to face Eaty, “Hey, it takes a lot of energy to keep this running,” 3487 gestures towards themselves, then flexes, as if showing off a massive machine.
“Yeah, you’re definitely not using that much energy.” Eaty continues to connect their light, now running a wire down through a small hole in their helmet, and cracking their armor locks to get access to attach it to their side.
“You don’t know how much eng-“ Eaty finishes connecting their light and looks towards 3487, flipping the light on in the process. “AH! BRIGHT!” 3487 quickly looks away.
“Yep it works,” Eaty laughs, and flips their light off.
“Why would you do that!?” 3487 says, panel now expressing betrayal.
“I had to test it?”
“ON ME?”
“Well who else?” Eaty says gesturing to the empty room.
3487 just stares silently with a disapproving expression. Looking away back at their pack, they continue to pull stuff out of their original backpack and pile it up next to the one that was just pulled from the locker. “Now that you’ve blinded me, can you at least come over here and carry my supplies? Since you know, I have to carry all these heavy tools around,” 3487 says, putting the original backpack into the locker and hoisting the new one onto their back.
Eaty begins walking towards 3487. “I guess I can do that,” Eaty says, arriving at the pile and begins sorting it into their backpack.
“About time you did something,” 3487 jokingly remarks.
Eaty smiles to themselves and finishes sorting through the pile. “Alright come on, let’s get to the platform, we’ve only got a few minutes left.”
Arriving back in the tunnel, Eaty and 3487 proceed into the large semi circle room, the flat wall sitting opposite the side that they’re on. A large hexagonal shaped box sits in the center of the room, against the back wall. Rods rise up from the floor at each point of the hexagon and stretch to the ceiling, the box is attached to the rods by way of clamps, pressing the rods into rollers on the side of the box. Large motors are attached to each roller. A single small window is placed on the center of each flat of the box, barring the front, where sits a large sliding metal double door.
In Front of the lift several heavily equipped Seekers stand, not allowing anyone onto the lift. And in front of them stand a group of roughly 50 seekers. Collectors. All talking amongst themselves, sharing tips, and steeling themselves for the plunge. Eaty and 3487 walk up to join the crowd, but before they get to them, a Seeker bearing the prefix Zeta takes note
“Well if it ain’t 327,” The seeker turns and makes eye contact with 3487 who is wearing an insulted expression. “And 3487 of course,” The seeker laughs. “I was beginning to think you two weren’t going to make this decent.”
“We ran into some complications,” Eaty says.
“Like what?”
“It was nothing seri-“ Eaty is suddenly interrupted by 3487.
“Eaty nearly died!” 3487 quickly spits out.
Several familiar faces to Eaty, turn and look at them from amongst the crowd.
Eaty drags their hand down their panel. “You THOUGHT I nearly died.” Eaty proclaims loud enough to stop the rumor in its tracks.
“So what actually happened?” The seeker says, now wearing a grin across their panel.
“Well…” Before Eaty can continue, one of the Seekers standing guard at the lift speaks up, addressing the crowd and cuts Eaty off. “I’ll tell you on the lift” Eaty whispers.
“All Collectors present form groups based on access level!” The guard says.
Quickly the crowd disperses and quickly forms into 3 smaller groups. Eaty and 3487 stand with one other Seeker, The Gamma Clearance Group. The next smallest group being the Delta Clearance Group and the biggest, Epsilon. Lift attendants begin moving to each group and collecting and verifying Depth Passes. Once all the passes had been collected, the main attendant speaks up once more.
“If your Depth Pass has been collected and verified, proceed to the lift!” The whine of hydraulic motors can be heard as the large metal doors on the lift begin to slide apart. “Your Depth Pass will be destroyed upon your arrival, you will need to apply for another pass upon returning if you wish to descend again!” The guard steps out of the way of the doors, into the formation down the side of the lift.
Collectors begin piling into the lift, all quickly taking their preferred seat.
“Here we go again,” Eaty says, slowly approaching the lift. 3487 quickly in tow.