|Viraliv|[20-14]Sliue-Ececs|Ora’s Eye|Tepi|Tepi-3|

11,163,955,738cy

Terraformer Station ‘Favala’, Low Tepi-3 Orbit

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#150 Years Later

Time has ticked along for quite a while this time. Many things have changed in the little colony since its mini golden age. For one, many of the leaders and aspiritors of that age have long since passed, many more of them forgotten than remembered. Remembered fondly as a time of peace and prospects, a much needed reprieve from the terror of the time adjacent. That once small colony, Grashkillok, has grown into a proper city. Reaching all corners of the cave system it inhabits and houses close to thirty million people within its illuminated vault. A middling amount for a Tarmon city, but quite good for a planet such as Tepi-3. A planet that is now not as desolate as it was.

Though barely visible from the viewing galleries on the Favala, one could see the thinnest slice of an atmosphere hanging above Tepi-3. Protecting it from the warm and harsh embrace of the sun. Still, radiation bathes the surface and not many inhabit its surface; only the scientist and various other away-teams do. However, while the people did not inherit the surface, they did claw into the other cave systems. Though most of them are still in their founding stages. Another area that the people of Tepi-3 had wanted to spread their influence was the undercaverns of Grashkillok, a project that had been abandoned many years ago by its founder, the great Captain Simiffin. The project found itself reestablished as a more viable means of increasing population potential on Tepi-3.

And so they dug, but quickly it became obvious that digging wouldn’t work, at least not the way they were digging. Afterall, an exciting discovery was made deep into the drilling, something that would inspire many talks about terraforming and the future. The discovery of water in the undercaves was a spark, albeit a wet one, that made the undercavern project amongst the top priorities of the government. The people were excited as well, too used to the recycled water they drink, and for some to live in. Of course, this water might not be safe, it is on an alien planet after all and it’s water that’s been trapped in a cavern now home to a mining project. The people had to stifle their excitement for a bit longer, until the project was finished and infrastructure could be built.

Perhaps the most excited were obviously the Thelsk, whose homeworlds have high percentages of water to land mass already; nearly the opposite of the Tarmon. Scans of the undercavern place this water in a very large bend, where the rest of the cavern dips up coming out of the water. This creates an extremely large pocket of water that the Thelsk could live in with more comfort than their current standards, albeit with lots of modifications to the underground sea. It’s something that even now is not fully complete, large sections of the sea are blocked off for fear of instability or health concerns in the stagnant water and air of the caves. The areas that were cleared for habitation and industry were quickly occupied and became known as the Thelsk quarters, allowing a trail of Tepi-3’s natural water into the colony as well as a resting spot for miners who were going deeper into the undercaverns. Though perhaps the ability to go deeper became a dismay for the people living in that time; afterall, who knows what lurks beneath.

#Point of View of Sumbara Rythe, a Tarmon guard under charge to provide security to the mining teams as well as the growing Thelsk habitats.

Dark. That’s the first thing that comes to mind when staring at the tunnels ahead, one wouldn’t even know they existed if not for the mapping software in our helmet. It allows us to see a real time three-dimensional plot of the area from a snapshot taken earlier. Not foolproof since it’s tied to a snapshot. If anything in the environment were to change, for example if rocks were to have fallen on the path ahead, they wouldn’t show up on the grid-like green mesh dotting everything. It’s good for showing the way in the dark, at least until some of the engineers set up tak-lights. Those powerful lights allow us to actually see the surroundings just as well as if that bright Tepi sun was down here with us.

That’s how the other teams have been progressing but now we’ve made it to a forking in the path. The other team took the left path so we have to take the right. Path is a bit of an understatement though, they look big enough for a small shuttle to fly through them without worry of scraping the piantjob off their sides. The exposed walls are made of thick, compressed rock too; well various metals and like are also present. It made the Egol eggheads and even a few Thelsk miners start speaking like a bunch of exciting kids getting hold of a hulous. Well, I suppose that’s good for any of the brave people who would want to live here. Me? This place gives me the creeps, I’d feel more comfortable with a few more lights and a lot more guns. Besides me there's only twenty-three other guards.

Although there’s not any life on this dusty rock we call home, a soldier’s paranoia can be a healthy thing. Too bad most of the scientists can’t agree, always complaining to our superiors that we “lumbering moronic yults” just keep getting in the way of their oh so very important work. That work being, sticking some dirt in a vial and sending it to the hub. The hub is our base of operations, it’s also where the elevator shaft from the top reaches down below. It stands on a small island of natural rock jutting out of the undercavern’s giant lake, which has yet to be named. A long titanium cable-bridge extends from there to the point where the cavern starts to go upwards and out of the lake; near where we are relative to the expected size of this place. In actuality it’s about sixty-five kilometers.

Quite the distance, and with tak-lights lighting up the entire ways back. Outposts are sporadically set up too, the ones closest to the hub have better infrastructure so it didn’t take too long to get out here. Me and my team have been out here for close to a month already, and still not used to this place yet. I heard that some teams have been here for over half a year already. I don’t know if I could stomach that myself…

#Over Half of a Year Later, Sumbara Rythe

These dark tunnels. Always filled with such smooth cold walls. And yet, what’s this I see? Something different is illuminated by the tak-lights, something that juts out sharply and causes shadows to be cast on the nearby walls. Those walls too are filled with sharp, jutting shapes. The kind that causes your pores to open in a shrill terror. Obviously not natural formations, and one of these “thorns” are as large as two or three Thelsk. These thorns are adorned onto a spine-like object, perhaps as hard as the titanium we build our infrastructure out of. One could only assume this to be the corpse of a megafauna creature, or perhaps some ancient alien civilization's sense of art; please let it be the ladder.

As opposed to me or the team, the Egol seem to be excited, scared too but most wouldn’t notice that in their metaphorically glowing faces. Guess that’s why we’re here, to make sure the easily-bruised don’t rush headfirst into the nearest sign of danger. One would think they’d learn that the universe isn’t as harmonious and peaceful as their homeworld once was. Well, it’s not too difficult to understand why they’re so excited. I’m no scientist myself but even I went through grade school and learned about the theory that life could have potentially inhabited this planet. I imagine that all of these greedy Egol eggheads want their names printed on whatever research paper will come from this in a big fat font.

Me? I care more about how this trail of thorny ringlets hasn't ended for the last seventy-one meters. And while I can’t see very far, much to my chargen, they seem to continue. The mapping software doesn't help either, the further down we go the less helpful it becomes as any terrain gets smoothed down by the struggling snapshot tech. The fact that it even reached this far is amazing. At least it hasn’t led us into any walls, yet anyway. Though quite a few accidents have happened where people trip over these spine-things. One can only wonder how long this goes on for? And what’s next is probably the next thought though.

A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

#A Few Hours Later

Not good news surely, I think as the captain's radio blurs out a garbled load of nothing. The only time those radios are called in is for an emergency or at scheduled times for a checkup. This isn’t a checkup though which means it’s bad news. As expected the captain barks out a return order, the scientist grumble and the miners give a low rumble of happiness. I’m as happy as they are, we can finally leave these twisted ruins of life. After the rows of thorns we entered another tunnel, the type that we’ve been traveling through for months now. Only now, we’ve been joined by three thick spines, made of the same bone or whatever material as the ringlets. It’s obviously been long since dead since no flesh can be found, just its fossilized bones remain, even so this place gives me the creeps and the radio from earlier doesn’t lighten the mood for me. The other guards are at the ready too.

#Less Than Two Hours Later

The only sound is the ever present crunching of footsteps, that and the sporadic call of the radio. It being used so frequently highlights what a big emergency it is. Perhaps that’s why the footsteps come often, like the sound of rocks tumbling down a chasm. By now we’ve made it to, what the scientists believe to be the mouth of the dead creature. The ringlets are still there, the tak-lights casting their shadows around the thorns and the rings themselves. The primitive fear that can be felt from the dark, the chaotic radio chatter still not understandable, and the quick pace was perhaps what caused it.

Kildred, one of the Egol, lost his footing and fell into a crevice between two of the ringlets. A common occurrence, especially at our pace but annoying nonetheless since we don’t need any interruptions right now. I suppose I can’t blame him though, scientists aren’t trained for quick endurance running and especially Egol aren’t suited for these kinds of things. We waited of course, he was at the back of the group so no one was particularly close enough to help right away. It shouldn’t be a problem anyway, the bones of this creature have quite a good grip and many ridges to act as footings. And yet, it’s been a solid thirty seconds and no movement nor sound besides the radio and everyone's attempt to catch their breath.

One of the Egol closest to the crevice called out to him. Still no response, a worrying sign. It’s not too hard to think that Kildred landed wrongly and was knocked unconscious, Egol are the soft sort after all. That would slow us down considerably though so hopefully that’s not the case. We all started to shift closer to the crevice. The Egol peering down over the edge of the ringlet said nothing as of yet, still looking apparently. Looking long enough for even me, who was closer to the front, to meet up. One of the people who got there before me tossed out a flare, not as powerful as a tak-light but good enough to see. Except we didn’t see anything, just pitch darkness. Another flare was thrown down, this time I saw it, there was just a hole whoever knows how deep. The darkness quickly swallowed up the light from the flare and we never heard the sounds of it hitting the ground, even with our ears.

I freaked out for a minute, mentally, any of us could have tripped the first way through here if they were the least bit unlucky. Not to mention we don’t know how many of these crevices are hiding similar traps, the tak-lights don’t cover all of the crevices afterall. On the other hand, one of the Egol was freaking out in a more dangerous manner. They were likely close, and they were quickly subdued even if it slowed us down. We’d have to move slower now anyway with the new knowledge we have.

# Half an Hour Later

Now that we started actively looking, peering over every crevice the tak-lights didn’t cover, we found countless holes. Many of them are too small to fit into but it does give pause when considering that the ground below us must be quite porous. It’s likely that the only thing holding us up, or rather the giant skeleton we are currently navigating, are the uniquely compressed walls of the tunnel.

Another annoying and very worrying sign is the shaking of the tunnels. Like the undercaverns are deteriorating as we travel. Perhaps the reason for the radio traffic but regardless it’s something that makes crossing the ringlets even more dangerous. The falling dirt from the shaking doesn’t help either, it’s more on the unpleasant side of things though since our gear would filter it out; it just makes the light from the tak-lights more grainy. To add to that many of the tak-lights were disturbed and had fallen onto their sides, some had even fallen into the crevices themselves, attached only by the wire lines connected them all back to the outpost.

Upon reaching the edge of a ringlet, and about to cross to the other one ahead, a particularly strong shaking forced me to the ground, my visored face staring directly into the bottomless hole between the two. The tak-light that fell in there, swinging wildly as dirt rained down on my head, luckily nothing big hit me on its journey down. My heart was squeezing through and I thought I saw something brown and large rush down through the tunnel below where the hole led. It must’ve been nothing though, the dirt makes it hard to see anything and the tak-light is quite far below, I wipe my visor clean and stand up waiting a bit before crossing to the other side with a hand from someone who had already crossed before me.

We hurried on ahead, the shaking got further and further ahead of us. The outpost would be safe from the tremors though, they’re built to stand and once we reach there we’ll be able to take a rest while we figure out what’s going on down here. The radio has cleared up slightly, still nothing useful can be heard besides people mentioning the hub and various outpost stations. Our lead has done so too, mentioning where we’re going so high-command back at the hub knows; it’s likely they hear us just as garbled as we hear everyone else though.

#Just a few Minutes More

We’ve made quite the distance back to the outpost and from my position in the middle of the group I can hear just how exhausted everyone is. Even we soldiers are breathing heavily, it’s a wonder how the Egol are still standing. Up ahead is trouble though, the front has stopped completely, talking about something. The issue quickly became clear,, the tak-light set up in the position up ahead isn’t venting any light out, perhaps all of the shaking caused it to be covered with dirt completely. It’s a big issue considering that our mapping software isn’t very reliable at this depth and all of the ringlets simply mesh together meaning we can’t see any of the crevices except for with the few flares we have left.

The back part of the group has caught up by now, taking the opportunity to sit down against the bones and rest. Their hearts beating heavily, though for a different reason than why mine beats so sporadically and fearfully now. The other Tarmon can hear it too. I can tell by the way their heads lift up and their feet shift. The echo of sharp grinding coming from ahead, like some machine tearing its way through rock except without the sound of an engine. Just the raw terrifying grinding noise. It’s not exactly something you would want to hear in a straight tunnel.

From the noise it sounds like it's right here, just beyond the reach of light. Yet the noise gets even closer, and it does so in a sickly pulse. The sound doesn't grow closer until it quickly pushes forward only to stop again for a few seconds. Press, wait, press, wait. Over and over again like a pattern. Even the non-Tarmon can hear it now, some of the miners worriedly throw out flares but the light does little to illuminate the source of the sounds.

Even though the shaking around us hasn’t stopped, nor has the cry of the radio, nobody can hear anything but the pulse of the shredding as it grows closer and closer.

Another few seconds pass and then a surge forward, like usual. Only this time the dying light of one of the flares catches something before it becomes smothered by the darkness. The shredding is now too loud to hear anything else. One of the miners throws out another flare high into the air above. It slowly starts to fall and reveals more bones. Nothing out of the ordinary until the flare lists more, slowly large black, shiney jewels are revealed to us. Four in total, staring at us with an unblinking gaze. The flare droops lower, revealing more. A gaping maw of darkness that seems to suck in the light of the flare, weird protrusions line the edges of it. And inside the hole thorns much like the ones we stand near can be seen. The source of the grinding noise becomes obvious then. A mouth like the one we’re standing in can be seen in the creature, the ringlets spinning around quickly and the razors tearing away at air; for now that is.

My brain reacts before me as my body throws itself into the darkness below, into a hole between the ringlets. The wire line from the connected tak-lights catches me and twirls around my body, I fumble around trying to get a better grip on it as I hear the powerful surge above me. The force of the movement from the creature makes the wire line and me swing in the hole below. Above me I can hear nothing, not even a scream or the ever-present radio. Just the sound of shaking retreating into the distance. My thoughts seem dull but also as quick as they ever have been, my heart beats at a pace faster than any music I’ve ever heard and as I look around it becomes obvious that I’m alone. There is nothing around me that can be seen in the reaches of the light and going by the mapping software I’m inside of the ground currently.

All that I can do is swing here until my arms lose the strength of the rope and it constricts around my neck. Or until I fall; which I do after letting go of the wire. The still air of the tunnel greets my ears in a screeching fury at my quick descent into the pitch darkness…

#End Point of View