The safety field shimmered in front of her, pulsating and moving like a wave. Her eyes couldn't really catch the colour range of it; it was something between blue and violet, or maybe she saw red?

"Based on your reaction, I get that you like technology, detective?" Jason asked, surprising her. He was there, behind her. After the conversation with Anemo, the engineer followed her everywhere. He talked a lot, even when she didn't respond to him, but the man was helpful.

"It's fascinating," Pax agreed swiftly. "We didn't have a major integrity breach on the colony for decades, so similar devices were never in use."

"The technology is outdated, almost as everything is here, but it's made to last." He answered though she didn't ask. "Give me a minute and I'll be ready."

Pax turned around from the field. Jason was struggling with the gloves of his suit, the pieces seemed to come from different sets, different colours, and material patterns. It looked very bulky, with a bright yellow overcoat-style material he threw over it. Unlike her suit, which was made out of simple two-tone orange and black material and a very familiar mining sensor helmet.

She tried not to smile at the clumsiness of the engineer as he worked to get himself ready. His whole personality contradicted the waves of knowledge that came out of him, not only that, he was a tall broad-built man who looked like he could easily win a brawl.

"Ready!" She saw his face disappear behind the insectoid helmet.

"Are you sure the pieces will fit?" Pax mocked.

"We keep the best-looking suits for visitors. But, it's not about looks but performance." He replied walking past her to the field.

"Computer, authorization code Pi." After that, he waved at her to follow him as he passed through. It was a short, odd sensation. She looked back for a second on the light corridor with semi-hydroponic boxes on its sides, on the lush greenery and followed the man into the gaping black ravine that used to be a section's entrance. They had shoulder lights that cut the darkness in front.

Beyond, metal pieces littered the floor, hiding in the shadows. Pipes and cables dislocated from their point of origin. Some electrical fuses still flickered at random. The further they went, the more rubble appeared, but the shadows lifted slightly, as a pillar collapsed over a corridor connection, opening the ceiling for the light to flood the area.

"One of the rupture points," Jason said in a hushed voice. He helped her squeeze between the rubble that had collapsed. Further down, she saw rooms on both sides of the corridor. In one of them, there was a large dome window overlooking the dunes. The glass-like material was blackened, just like the rest of the interior. A blue wall light stripe was still on.

"A rare find," she noticed.

"Not on this side. There were more of these, for leisure and research purposes. We are getting close."

The further they got, the more damage they saw. It wasn't just rubble, ashes, and burn marks. The structural integrity of the section ceased to exist. Holes and punctures were everywhere. Collapsed floor and ceiling panels, machinery, pieces of material, maybe even suits. She couldn't tell, but they told her all of the bodies or what was left of them were removed from the area.

"My sensors are not reading anything," Pax mentioned quietly to get his attention.

"Because there isn't anything. The explosion caused a global chain reaction. All the gases in this section ignited and turned into a fireball of destruction, and the narrow spaces and pressure just pushed it forward."

"How did the rest of the structure survive then?"

"The old barriers were set up as a sort of anti-backflow and security system; they were powerful enough to contain the fireball, and we were lucky enough that it ruptured the walls or we would all be dead."

"Were there no force barriers here?" She asked as they walked. A number of punctures let the light in, illuminating their figures. Illuminating the destruction.

"They were removed for the time being until all of the restorations were done due to electrical wiring being replaced in many corridors and rooms, but they were scheduled to be set up back once everything is done. Why? What are you thinking?"

"I wouldn't speculate until I know more."

The next space they entered was something else entirely. It was a large chamber that looked like it used to be a mezzanine. Pax stopped and slowly turned around, illuminating the area from the floor covered with black and crumbled concrete, the metal walls which were twisted and bent. The heat must have been so great it flecked and crumpled the paint on them, up to the ceiling. It was burned and blackened so much it swallowed the light in its darkness. Jason followed her steps, providing a half-voiced commentary on what she saw.

"There used to be concrete pillars, four of them. Electrical wiring within them as they had terminals attached. The explosion took them out." The light passed over a rumple of misshaped material. It almost looked like the heat had melted the concrete.

"On the ceiling, there were honeycomb light panels and vent systems." All of these are gone now. Melted or burned out holes.

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"And these were the mining entrances?" Pax pointed at something that could have been walls and chambers in the past.

"Yes, in a simplified way. There was a whole system of safety and machinery chambers before. I'm not going to bore you with the work protocol. This is where it happened." She wouldn't mind his talking; her mind would just filter out the unnecessary bits of information.

"Maybe later, I want to understand the blast dynamics. How and where did it come from?" Pax started walking around looking at different parts of the mezzanine. It was a large space, and it would take her a long time to gather any resources. "I'm so glad you guys are using these." She truly was grateful for the sensory helmet. It was an older model than the ones she was used to on Iapetus but did the job just as well. With a number of tweaks to the parameters, the data readings could be adjusted. What she was looking for was correlations between structural parameters and explosion severity. If she could identify possible microcrystal structure evolution using the diffraction analyzer, she could build a pattern they could follow to find the point zero of the explosion.

"Can I help with anything?" Jason's voice buzzed after a very long period of silence.

"Not sure." She answered after a while. "I'm trying to build up an analysis to find evidence of the primary and secondary explosions."

"Can you do this?"

"With this helmet? Yes. It will take a long time, but I can do it. As this is site zero, the evidence I'm looking for is the pattern of explosion, residue, and the pattern of damage. The sensors do all of the analysis, showing me pieces of a puzzle I need."

"And what are the pieces? You know that we can connect the processors of the scanners to improve efficiency. It would just be a simple data bridge; I'd see the same parameters, but the scanners would pick up more."

"Fine. Do it," she responded without hesitation, and he created a sync connection.

"What am I looking for?"

"How about you just look, and I'll do the commentary." Pax was getting a bit annoyed; she preferred to work on her own in absolute silence. Other people just didn't follow her mind; they asked questions, and she didn't want or have the time to answer them. But she also had to provide commentary, and she couldn't really ask him to leave.

"So far, the analysis results show a number of locations where the dust contains higher volatile matter content, lower reflectance, and a varying amount of ash contents. This leads me to believe that if we create a map..." Jason input a number of commands on a keypad that he had hidden in the forearm of his glove, and both of the helmets created a virtual overlay of data in different colours.

"Thanks, that will help," she looked around with a new perspective.

"This doesn't make sense," Jason commented. She had to agree as the computer processed the data into a virtual representation of both of their sensors.

"With the increase of the explosion pressure coming from the epicentre, it should have a significant effect on the microcrystallization structure. We have the parameters to assume we got the spot, but it's not 100%, it's more of a 99% like something is missing."

"Have you looked up?" He added. She turned toward him and looked up where the pillars used to be. "I think this is the missing piece."

She had no idea how, but it looked like the explosion points were located within the higher parts of the pillars, which would explain their semi-melted condition, the pattern concentrations on the ceiling, and then the floor level.

"It's almost as if somebody put rocket fuel in the pipes."

"Your guess is as good as mine for now," Pax answered, trying to capture more data. Lifting your head up in these helmets on such an angle wasn't the easiest thing to do. And then she felt a slight rumble and noise. "What was that?"

"I'm getting a seismic reading here. This area is located above the mine tunnels. I'm certain the explosion has weakened the structure of the stone." Damn it, she won't get the data she needs if they will have to evacuate from here. "Wait... I've got something we missed."

She was certain it wasn't possible; she looked around the whole area and then concentrated on the pattern. Jason walked away towards the mine entrances.

"Plot twist. We didn't see anything here because it was covered with collapsed concrete and dust." Another rumble.

Pax followed suit, not wanting to stay by the centre of the room. He was right; under the thick layer of ash and dust, which seemed almost like sand, was a blackened floor. Yet, the analysis she made wasn't consistent with the data they already gathered. It filled in the gaps, yes. But the answers only brought up more questions.

"The microcrystal structures show this was the far side of the explosion. But not the explosion that happened here."

"I'm confused as it comes," Jason shrugged. The floor shook again, much harder. This time everything moved. They lost their footing and fell hard on the ground. Metal shrieked, and stone cracked in a long, never-ending moment. Her computer sensors completely shut down; the lights flickered like mad. Hands trying to find something to grab not to rely only on the floor. She found Jason's arm and grabbed it, holding tight. And then it all ended. Silence fell, cut only by rare cracks of the metal corpse the building was, or what was left of it.

As they slowly got up, her helmet rebooted, and she could see again; one of her shoulder lights was down though.

"I think your evidence is gone," Jason murmured when he walked up to a huge gaping hole that used to be the floor they were investigating a few minutes ago.

"And our way back too," Pax replied when she joined him.

Everything was gone. They could not see the other side because of the darkness, and their light wasn't strong enough to pierce through. There was no way for them to come back this way.

"Sir, we have a bit of a situation here." Anything that Jason said came out of her earpiece too.

"I'm not sure how many of these situations I can take, Jason. What's wrong?" Anemo responded almost immediately.

"The bombing site was unstable, and some of it collapsed. Both of us are fine but we can't come back the same way we came."

"Damn it!" They heard him swear before he calmed down. "Go through the mines if you have to. Be careful; I don't need any more dead people. Report to me every 30 minutes when you are down there."

The transmission ended.

"Can't we just go outside and walk to the nearest airlock?" Pax asked as the whole situation seemed like more of an annoyance to her now.

"These suits aren't built to resist the radiation you have outside for long. Even with a few holes in the walls, we are safe here, but outside you won't make it. It's probably a 4-hour walk because you need to avoid a lot of terrain you can't climb or descend."

"Fine, lead on." It wasn't the investigation she had in mind. All the evidence was gone, and the only record they had was the data. The quake knocked her out off her feet quite heavily and her bruises woke up.

"It's going to be a long walk, be warned. But, hey, we will be able to track the confusing explosion signatures."

"I cannot contain my enthusiasm." Pax could already imagine that, and she didn't tone down the sarcasm in her voice.

"Sorry, you are breaking up. What did you say?"

"I said..."

"I know."

"You're a jerk."

"I know." He laughed.