Mahina was still some 8 kilometers out from their position.
“She should be arriving within 15-20 minutes.” Booster estimated. “Do you see anything down there, Thaigoon?”
Thaigoon switched to the night vision he had available on his helmet. “There is, uh, let’s call it debris down here. A LOT of debris. Bones, rock and dirt and other things that come from the back end of a creature. That was a very big creature too. If you know what I’m saying. Other than that, I only see a single tunnel extending off into the distance in each direction.”
“When Mahina gets here maybe we can run a couple drones in each direction.” Arkana suggested.
“You guys get a core from the elder lasher?” Mahina asked.
Booster looked at the huge creature. “No, we did not.”
“Where do we start? Maybe we should get Thaigoon out of the hole first?” Arkana said.
“No point in doing that if for some reason we end up using the tunnels. Perhaps they lead directly to the ruins we are trying to reach.” Mahina replied.
“I think I might apply some points. I’m not as resilient as Mahina and Booster.” Thaigoon said.
“That’s a good idea.” Arkana agreed. “I didn’t do it before but now I have quite a bit.”
“I’ll dig the core out of the lasher.” Booster started working on that.
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Thaigoon brought up his stats.
Attributes
Stats Score Modified Durability 4 6 Utility 4 6 Vigor 4 6 Control 6 12 Power N/A N/A
Attribute points to distribute: 14
As he understood it, the first 3 stats were all the physical stats. It was tempting to put everything into Durability. That would give him the most survivability. But if he needed to run, Utility and Vigor would be crucial to how fast and how long he could run. He could put 4 points in each of the physical stats and 2 in Control.
It was also tempting to maintain his point lead in Control. He could put 8 points in Control to bring that to an even 20 and add 2 to each of the other stats. He had played games like this before. He thought the attribute points might matter when they hit level 18 and had to choose a Phenotype. Who knows? Maybe it didn’t matter at all. But he thought that extra boost in Control was likely the result of the trade he had made before he left Earth. The cost for that was too high to just let it mean nothing.
Adding more points to the physical stats might be a better fit for his Honormark. To be honest, he almost immediately regretted that even as he started running and doubly so as soon as his foot stepped on the Lasher.
He added 8 points to Control. And 2 each to Durability, Utility, and Vigor. That left him with 8 for each of the physical stats and 20 in Control.
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Arkana opened her stats.
Attributes
Stats Score Modified Durability 5 9 Utility 5 10 Vigor 5 9 Control 5 9 Power N/A N/A
Attribute points to distribute: 16
Arkana felt like her attributes were not leaning in any particular direction. She had a slight lead in her Utility score, but she didn’t know what that really translated to. She knew that Mako and Mahina were both in the 30’s for some of their modified stats. She considered that without any of her mods, she would have a total of 38 points at level 18. With her mods, she would have a total of 35 points above her baseline points at level 18 for a total of 55 points. That meant her mods basically boosted her about half a tier if 18 points equaled half a tier of points since her mods equaled a total of 17 points.
Her 16 available points was almost another half a tier of points. She was tempted to increase her physical stats, but she didn’t really want to get up close and personal with any potential enemies. Plus, while control seemed to have less initial importance, it was a mental score which felt like a score that was important to her.
If she had no mods and had done nothing but divided her points equally. She would have 9 points in each attribute at level 18 with 2 having an extra point. Since she was just about at that level already, she felt like she could treat the total of 18 points she would be getting as bonus points. Points to be used to set her apart in the areas she wanted to be set apart. If she wanted to remain at range with a focus on mental stats, she decided to place points in Utility and Control. She placed 8 points in each. That would effectively double her score on those 2 attributes.
She now had a score of 9 in Durability and Vigor. Utility had a score of 18. Control had a score of 17. She was satisfied with that.
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Mahina arrived at the camp a short time later. Booster had just managed to find and extract the Edler lasher core. This one was difficult to find as it had a dark brown color with darker brown patches. Arkana put it in a sample jar while Booster tried to clean up his hands a bit.
Mahina, who Booster noted had just run 22km straight and wasn’t even breathing hard, set up a drone. She took out another one and programmed that one as well. A moment later both drones shot down into the hole and took off in different directions in the tunnel. “I’m not sure I’ll be able to stay in contact with the drones, so they will scout down both directions in the tunnel and come back with a report of something when the tunnel ends or becomes impassable in each direction.”
“What if the tunnel branches off?” Arkana asked.
“They will stay in this main tunnel.” Mahina took out a third drone and set it up to scout the area around them. “I should have had this out the whole time. If I had, I might have avoided this whole series of events in the first place.”
“How long will the recon take?” Booster asked.
“Hard to say. The drones can move pretty fast.” Mahina considered it for a moment. “Assuming the tunnel ends at the ruin we are trying to reach. It will be about an hour for it to scout and return.”
“The other one going to other direction won’t have much more charge than that without light or a heat source. It will be back in about an hour as well.” Booster said. “In fact, we can’t move very far from here or it may not be able to catch up to us again. We just have to wait.”
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An hour later they had their answer. About 14km ahead, the tunnel ended at a large door. There were also a couple of side tunnels. There were no additional breaches in that direction. Behind them there were several more lashers partially lodged in the tunnels. But the nearest one was almost 5km away.
Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.
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Quest Update!
Industrial Age. Reconnoiter the ruins located 36 kilometers SW of the lander. (Chain Quest)
- Recon the ruins.
-Enter the ruins from the tunnel or from above ground.
- Irragen points awarded upon completion.
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“Looks like it doesn’t make a difference which way we go. I say the road looks pretty clear underground. We should go down and move as fast as we can over even ground and without any potential attacks.” Booster suggested.
The rest agreed. They made good time through the tunnels. They were able to move at a slow jogging pace and reached the first of branching tunnels about 2 hours later.
“Let’s go up to the main doors we saw and take a break.” Mahina said. “With our back to the doors we can see any attack coming. We can send out the drones to check the 2 side branches here.”
The drones launched and Mahina watched them for as long as she could. The first branch the drones came to went to the right to the southeast. It curved to the south and the tunnel had stairs that led up to another door. The other drone went down a passage to the left heading in a northwest direction. It turned to head in a southwest direction and downstairs to another set of doors.
Mahina set the drones to return. She left one in the tunnel about 300 meters back the way they came to warn them if anything came down the tunnel.
“We need to figure out how to get the doors open.” Mahina stated and told them what she found down the other branches of the tunnel. Trying to force the doors open didn’t work.
Booster nodded and started examining the doors. The doors were arched doors that were smaller than the arch of the tunnel which gave it some space on either side of the door and above it. There were hexagonal tiles on each side of the door. Most of the tiles were partial tiles but some of them were whole. It appeared to Booster that there were whole tiles centered at about shoulder height on each side of the door. He felt almost certain that these were operation panels of some sort that were dark now due to the lack of power. They were, like the handrails and stairs, a bit high for the average human.
That also allowed for several more whole tiles above and below the one that Booster thought would be the operation panel. He took a closer look at those hoping there might be some sort of emergency release. He tried pulling and pushing at the edges. He used a machete edge to try and pry one of the tiles off. He didn’t try too hard. The blades were not meant to be used that way and would chip or break with relative ease.
He sat back having had no success on either side of the door. Looking at the door, he tried to think about what he knew about the people that built this place. While he hadn’t seen much of their tech firsthand, he had a few observations. They were very organized and consistent. They had appeared to have made some effort to not have small, loose exterior parts. They aren’t the kind to have flimsy doors that could break off. Even the turbines had a casing around them to contain all the parts within. He hadn’t seen a lock anywhere.
Booster felt certain this door wasn’t working because it had no power. Perhaps they would try inducing voltage. He considered that and threw it out. He simply didn’t have the equipment to attempt that. Even if he did it might take a while to figure out the correct voltage and the current and the frequency and ideal location to induct. Too many unknowns when Booster felt certain there had to be an easier solution.
This was engineered to be easily accessed, but probably not accidentally. It was not obvious, but probably not intended to be that hard to find. It had to work without power. It probably was a door that opened in a way that would be easily concealable but not fragile. Maybe the whole panel pushed inward.
Booster started pushing in the center of the tiles with both hands. Finally, one clicked and pushed inward. With some testing and trying, he made it slide toward the wall of the tunnel. This revealed a red T shaped handle.
Arkana had been watching. “Why didn’t you find it when you were pressing on the plates before?”
“I was mostly pressing at the edges and it was a little firmer than I would have expected. Perhaps having developed in this gravity, they were naturally a little stronger than we are.”
“You aren’t exactly average human strength now.” She pointed out.
“True, but I don’t typically use all of my strength all the time. It would be a little destructive.” Booster smiled at her and turned to pull the handle.
There was a significant click behind the wall and Booster tried the door and found the door on that side moved easily into the wall. Air rushed into the new space. A lot of air. Booster had to hold on to the door to prevent himself from being pulled in. It took about 30 minutes for the rush to slow to a crawl.
“Was it in a vacuum?” Arkana asked.
“It looks like the atmosphere inside was mostly nitrogen but a significantly lower atmospheric pressure.” Mahina surmised from the readings she was able to get from her sensors.
A large open facility lay on the other side of the door. While it was dark inside, the structures reminded Booster of fabrication facilities he had seen before. Robotic arms and tracks on the ground. It looked like the ceiling could be reconfigured to accommodate the manufacturing of items of various shapes and sizes.
“This is a gold mine.” Mahina muttered as she looked around. “If we can get this up and running, assuming we can find the raw materials, this facility could put us decades ahead of schedule.”
“Even with our limited materials, we could radically increase the production of the materials and equipment we need.” Booster replied.
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Quest Update!
Industrial Age. Reconnoiter the ruins located 36 kilometers SW of the lander. (Chain Quest)
- It has been discovered that the ruins are a multifunctional production and manufacturing facility.
- Continue investigating the facility.
- Access the passage on the other side the large doors on the Eastern wall in the center of the production facility on the main floor.
- Irragen points awarded upon completion.
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The party made their way in that direction after closing the door they came through which clicked and reset the lock. After a quick thrill of panic, they found a similar release on their side of the door. It was a bit eerie walking through the vast dead facility. They found stairs that led down to the main floor and continued walking for about a kilometer before they found a set of doors that fit the description of quest.
“How was all of this not picked up by the planetary scans?” Arkana asked.
“Those scans are really just surface scans. Truth be told, we aren’t expecting to find any intelligent life out here. While it is a statistical certainty there is other intelligent life out there in the galaxy, it is believed we are probably alone in our part of the galaxy. At least nothing has indicated anything different until now. If we were to find intelligent life, it was thought it would be easy to spot. Satellites, maybe spacecraft, large cities, etc. I’m not certain what the surface looks like above us, but perhaps this is far beneath a mountain. With no power, the surface scan wouldn’t show anything of great interest.” Booster explained.
“I get it. It does make me wonder if we have missed anything else out there.” Arkana said.
“I do wonder as well.” Mahina mused. “There are dozens of colony ships out there. Possibly many more now. What if someone else is having a more unusual experience than we are? What is that like?”
They found the doors. They reached from the floor to the ceiling some 30 meters up. There were smaller doorways to each side. Hoping the smaller doors led to the other side, they opened the doors and were not disappointed.
This was a materials warehouse. There were stacks upon stacks of metals and various materials. Boxes and cases were stacked on huge racks.
“This is a very good start. I wonder why we weren’t led here first?” Booster said.
“Perhaps the other location is closer to the pertinent points for our immediate survival?” Arkana offered.
“I think whatever is leading us around, wanted to see who we are first.” Thaigoon posited. “Before we were handed the proverbial keys to the city.”
The others looked at him.
“You think someone is in control of all this other than RETA?” Mahina asked.
“You don’t?” Thaigoon responded.
“What do you think IT is?” Booster asked.
“There is another option.” He looked back at the others. “This is all fabricated and none of this is here. Maybe this is some sort of crazy test. Maybe the trick is that we are supposed to figure a way out.”
Booster stared at him for a second. “If that’s the case they did a good job of figuring out how to lock us out. If anyone has a way out it’s you.”
“Maybe. I kind of doubt it.” Thaigoon kept looking around. “I think if I try anything it’ll stop me. We should get an update here in a second. We saw what’s on the other side of the doors.”
They waited for a second and looked around and at each other. Time stretched out as they waited.
Finally, a message popped up.
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Quest Update!
- Locate the chest in the room in the northwest corner of this warehouse with the following symbol.
- Examine the contents of the chest.
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The symbol was a horizontally elongated hexagon with uneven lines radiating out from a center point.
“You know that is one of the few symbols we’ve seen. I haven’t seen any evidence of a written language or signs.” Booster pointed out.
“Maybe, all of the signage is digital and won’t show without power.” Thaigoon suggested.
“That’s a good point.” Booster nodded.
They found the chest in the room and opened it up. There were 6 cylindrical devices that were about 30 sens in length and 20 sens in diameter one end had a flared flange that was 30 sens in diameter. Alongside of those were 6 solid black cores. They were long and thin but clearly designed to be installed into the larger devices.
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Quest Complete!
Industrial Age. Reconnoiter the ruins located 36 kilometers SW of the lander. (Chain Quest)
-You have found a production and manufacturing facility.
-Additionally, you have found a significant cache of materials with which the production of equipment can begin.
-You have found a case of resonanting detonators that can be used for mining and other major earth-moving projects.
Irragen Points awarded!
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New Quest! You shall not pass! Destroy the tunnels lead to Tedexa Goran. (chain quest)
-Verify the graphite batteries can be charged.
-If they are defunct. Construct new batteries.
-Install batteries into Resonating Detonators.
-Collapse tunnels that lead to Tedexa Goran.
-Irragen points will be awarded.