[Episode Three] Defile

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Soon realizing that she'd been left alone with the corpse, Nivara sighed softly, holstering her pistol and clasping the holster shut- and instead drawing her knife from her other hip- a blade that looked like it'd seen some use. The edge of it was sunken in from the rest of the blade slightly- after years of having its edge restored, it'd become slightly thinner. The black coating on the steel was scuffed and faded all over- but despite this, the blade had a gentle layer of oil on it- an old tool that she'd had for a long time, but well cared for.

She used the tip to carefully poke around slightly, pulling open the jacket carefully to inspect the victim's ribcage, her eyes narrowing behind her desert goggles. She shifted to kneel down, setting her knife down to the floor then stepping on it as she opened her jacket. She pulls out a small plastic rectangle- a rather simple smart-device of sturdy construction. She starts taking pictures- opening the body bag more as well so she can catalogue what she could. She figured Dahlia might appreciate it. She of course, had her own theories- the uniform and pins implied some military standing to her, and since they were in a mine, she felt safe concluding that a worker had used their tools in an... unsafe manner.

She, of course, had her own pilfering to do. She gently tugged on the coat, manipulating the pins and pulling the from the uniform- to be added to her own pockets. Whenever she set her knife down, she deliberately set her boot on the blade, and kept her ears open- all too aware that she was alone She patted down the corpse's pockets just in case, but then reached to gently pull the rod from its holster. Her looting and examination complete, she sheathed her knife after a quick wipe on the bodybag, inspecting the rod she'd now acquired, glancing about the room before fiddling too much with her potential new toy.
 
Lower Path

Rhea stared above them for a second, taking in the sight. Yeah, now that she was down here she could really apreciate how... much taller everything was than her. After a bit of considering the structures before them, rhea spoke up, on noticing she wasn't the only one down here. "Ah, hum, let's check out the shacks first, before we get on the catwalks and use them to loop back around to meet with everyone else." She said simply, even as she considered how they should get to the mess of platforms on high.

She looked over at the other two as she walked- one she was sure would at least not make any more noise than her. The other... was using a Driver. And thus, she aproached the nearest shack, before turning to the other two. "Give me a lift on one of your shoulders? I can climb up this on my own but, i'd rather not." She said, gesturing to the stilts the shack was on. Perhaps, given this slight amount of elevation, she'd beable to find out where the bottom of the elevator was- and if she could clamber her way up to the higher platforms that way. Even if it would probably be safer to use the catwalks instead.

"And... please, be quiet." She muttered, as every step reman took seemed to resound with a Clang!
 
The Unknown Cavern


The Fox was caught up taking photo after photo with his HUD to notice that Keith had called out to him at first. every stone, every rail, every engraving could mean SOMETHING. It wasn't until he saw the figures of Keith Reman and Rhea flash over the nearest rails. To be fair, he admired his eagerness to make headway into the depths. "Keep your communicators on channel 3 for updates. I'll be scanning the area this whole time, maybe see if we can get a good idea of a map going."

Perhaps now was a good time to try out his new toy. There was a click as he reached his arm towards a downed railing overhead followed by a crack as his forearm flew away from the fox in a flash of yellow. A long stretch of cable whizzed by until his hand clasped at the bar at the very end of his arm. He tugged a couple times, getting a feel for how sturdy the bar was before flexing his muscle in his mind, prompting the cable to wind him in.

The caverns whizzed by. The fox was a black orange and white blur overhead as he swung away from the main bulk of the party, keeping an eye on the others sliding down the hill below.

Jury's technique in creating the arm may have been... horrifying to say the least, but, for a first test, it functioned beyond his expectations. With a bit of a flip just to show off, he grappled a platform just to pull the breaks on his acrobatics, falling on the roof of the hut in question on one hand and a knee. There was a whine as his arm snapped back into place.
 
Lower Path

Reman's decision was made up, as he leapt below the bridge, careful to land just slightly further than the rest of the people that leapt down off the bridge. As he made contact with the ground, a large thundering kaboom echoed across the walls of the cavern as the armor shifted to compensate the impact of the landing. Reman looked completely unfazed as the ground bent and crumpled beneath his landing zone, sending small particles of rock to scatter across the floor. As his armor gradually adjusted back from any warping and bending that long-ish fall might have caused, He stood around, silent and nervous about the incredible lack of subtlety. Romulus from the top of the bridge just gave him the stink-eye and went to the rest of the bridge.

Reman was as quiet as he could be afterwards, moving slow and methodical down the cavern, trying to not catch the dismissive glare of his comrades as he went looking through the lower floors of the cavern and walking towards the stream to get a better look at the river and the cavern as a whole.
--------------------
Upper Path

Romulus quickly checked his communications and set up his communications system. Onlookers could observe that the channel he had added was one of a myriad, detecting frequencies of far longer range and some of entirely different depth and measurement. A majority of them were magical energy signatures tuned to very in-between magical frequencies, measuring elements similar to Echyllis, but mimicking other more standard forms of mana and arcane energy. The Ferrokinesis frequency had looked like it had been recently established, providing an almost pinpoint directional signal to Reman's location, as well as the Volukinesis one, meant to measure the swarm key and aptly pointing towards Juryrig.

His pad also contained something very, very notable to anyone close enough to observe. There was a category in his library called SynthEc, and right at the very top was a high-priority signal without an identifiable name. Unlike any of the other frequencies, this one remained inconsistent, and was frequently prone to shaking and random motions akin to bugs in the program itself. What's more is that every inactive frequency other than that one, when monitored while he was fidding with the controls stood perfectly still at their last known location. This one, however refused to remain in one spot, though deactivated, as if it couldn't find the exact locale.
///ERROR/// LAST KNOWN SIGNAL "URANE" LOCATION, UNKNOWN ///ERROR///
"You know, you really shouldn't leave the medical professional to wander off. I'll be heading to her locale." Reman walked away and back towards the entry of the cavern, not quite out of the room, but heading toward Nivara's last known locale.
 
Main Cavern Room

"Okay, so where are we going now-" Marie asked, before she noticed quite literally everyone splitting off in their own ways. Oh great.

Well. There were certainly benefits (and obvious drawbacks) to following any given group. Being the rational one, she decided to instead sit down and weigh the pros and cons of any of the three groups. She could:
  • Stay with the boss. This included prominent figures such as Perry but also Osco (who could actually read the signs) and Aradia.
    • Pros: Aradia is a multitool. She has magic. Lots of it. Osco would definitely be a factory of information.
    • Cons: She could literally send pictures to Osco to translate. The combination of Aradia and Osco also does not need that much help at the end of the day.
  • Go with Romulus. This included Romulus.
    • Pros: Romulus. A medic.
    • Cons: Romulus.
  • Go with...the rest of the goons. This was by far a much more interesting idea, but also a much more risky one as this idea included figures such as Keith, Deimos, and Rhea, but also Juryrig, Juryrig, and Juryrig.
    • Pros: By far the biggest group. Staying with them would not only be safe but also that four out of five of the people there actually can hold themselves in a fight. However, there were also not many people over there who have any senses beyond 'being kind of human.' There was also Juryrig.
    • Cons: Something was going to get destroyed. Someone probably would, too. There was also Juryrig.
So Marie made her choice. She stayed around with the captain, unlike the others who sort of...up and left. "Do you really need it to be battery powered?" Marie asked, picking up one of the emergency lights, trying to work on disassembling it and powering the bulb herself.

"You think the others are gonna be alright walking around by themselves?" Marie asked while working away at the light with a handful of normal person tools. "Or rather...should we be splitting up like this?"
 
Elevator Shaft

Aradia stood precariously close to the edge of the elevator shaft, peering up and down - mostly down. The arcanist, though seemingly quite more accustomed to "home life" than most of the Downrider's crew of adventuring chaotics, seemed oddly comfortable with the ruins... Except the smell. The breeze cut out as she stopped her concentration, and fixated on the grate above. "I'm going to pop the grate, if you three don't mind. I'm sure we'll be fine with splitting up as long as people don't go off completely on their own... No loners," Aradia stated.

The white-haired one's fascination - obsession - with technology was pretty funny, at the end of the day, but was a light really that interesting? Regardless, Aradia made her way over to the nearest set of lockers, rummaging through them - giving some of the more stuck ones a concussive treatment to try and jiggle them loose... With magic.Marie's tinkering, however, made Aradia's second plan a lot harder to notice; a mote of light, no brighter than a campfire's ember and no larger than a golf ball, floated through the air from her position, beelining towards the vent in the inconsistent light. Osco, of course, could see it easily - a little dragonfly, though translucent - transparent, even - and glowing. The bug was quick to scurry into the vent's grating, and then Aradia spoke again: "Mind your ears!" As she shouted, her familiar discharged a little shockwave - a burst of energy, of force that rattled the grate loose, ideally dislodging it to crash into the elevator platform below with a cacophony which would give the team's position away had they not been spotted already... Or been identified from Juryrig's shenanigans earlier. Or, anything really...
 
Lower Path

"Communications to channel 3... check. Light refraction field device... operational." Keith checked himself over after his soft landing post-climb, landing sharp on his feet and kicking up a small cloud of dust in his wake. "Don't wander off, don't touch anything, and especially, do not engage hostiles without back-up," he said, his voice echoing throughout the enclosed but vast cavern as he followed behind Rhea to the nearby stilt-shack. Approaching the child closer, he knelt on one leg to lift her up easily by her ankles, pushing Rhea straight overhead instead of on the ex-soldier's shoulders for a greater altitude boost.

Once Rhea had grabbed on to the roof of the shack, Keith let go of her ankles and surveyed the surrounding area. "I'll go scout with Reman, see if we can't figure something useful from the abandoned machinery. I'm trusting Deimos to follow you up there; report back if you find an elevator," he said, his curt tone leaving little room for doubt as befitting a former military sergeant. He walked off after delivering his instructions, following the discernible thumps of heavy armor that were indubitably his crewmate's, but skipped a few steps ahead of the mechanic to start progress on investigating the trashed mining equipment and the strange flora by the still riverside.
 
The Cave

Juryrig(?) stood there, gawking at the massive cavern. He can't imagine what any of this was for, but he can't wait to find out-

"Alright, I'm getting bored! Do SOMETHING before I make you!"

"H-huh? Oh, right, I uh-"

"DING! My turn!"


With that, Tom was no longer in control of the body; now it is the TRUE Juryrig's turn to shine!

"Alright rookie, here is how you choose which way to go,"
Juryrig said openly, putting his fingers together like a picture frame and eyeing through the rectangle as if a director for a movie. "You have to follow where the wind blows..."

Though, there's no wind. "... There's no-"

"And the wind blows... THATTAWAY! AH HA!" Juryrig, with his eyes set on the Upper Path!

"Yooo hoo, Romuluuuuus, dearie~!" Juryrig ran, catching up and phasing through the crewmate using the armor's phase ability; he turned on his heels, donning this pose for the former adversary. In the power armor, mind you.

"I can't just let you go all alone; besides, Reman's already got two scouts covering his clankin' science ass." He turned back around and walked right ahead of Romulus.

"Now, see brother? THAT is how you decide where to go!"

"... Even the whole thing-"

"Nope, that is called 'establishing workplace dominance!' Let them know that you're gonna be the star tonight, you know? The big L in the team, the leader!"

"... Oooooh. That makes sense, I guess."

"Good! Because you're taking over bye!"

"JURY WAIT-"


With that, Tom takes back control.

"... Nuts..."
 
Kerolyne Defile
Elevator Shaft


Aradia's rummaging through the various lockers found a few items between them. One locker contained what could be best described as a bundle of mushy bricks, wrapped somewhat tightly in metal foil packages. Faded black letters were etched onto the foil, in a block lettering system not unlike the one found on the sign earlier. What exactly the stale yellow mush that oozed from the foil was could be anyones guess, but if it was edible at one point, it likely isn't now.

Another locker raid yielded a small bot noteworthy device, hexagonal in shape. The device's exterior was a durable black plastic, with a beveled control panel taking up the front with a radial layout of rubber buttons surrounding a dusty glass lens which split the device in the center. Pressing the buttons gave nothing from the device but a blinking red rectangle, dead empty and hard to see even among the murky lighting of the establishment. Underneath the device in the locker was a folded bit of waxy photo paper. The continued existence of the paper was a testament to preservation, though the potential centuries of age had certainly taken a toll on the details.

Photographed roughly were two vaguely bird-like creatures, their colors long distorted to nothing more than a murky grey-green. They somewhat resembled the specimen presented within the codex- Arcadian Avecris. The details were blurry, but one of the two creatures appeared to be in uniform, an assortment of pins and bands adorning the shoulders and breast of the sharp vest. The reverse side of the image held a faded script written rather elegantly in black ink. It took a while, but the translation feed from OSC-01 appeared superimposed in Aradia's peripherals, most likely the work of the headbands they had given out. Eventually, the text itself had been replaced with the translated version in an augmented reality, albeit one with some allignment issues.

"Amiss Farfell Thazeus, to another five. Yours, Dermoit."

---

Dahlia walked around the elevator shaft with a single exhale, looking about carefully as her nose upturned. The captain stopped to peer into the transport cart that laid precariously over the edge of the doorway into one of the branching corridors. A quick beam of the flashlight down the hall revealed the tunnel to be collapsed a few meters in, a large pile of blasted rubble and debris preventing further investigation.

The captain attempted to gently shove the cart back into a stable position, finding it quite heavy. "You know, I was expecting something a little more..." Dahlia trailed off, bending over to look at the bottom half of the cart. "Elegant, to be found in a place like this. It's a bit rough, even without the waterlogging."

The Overseer tread down the metal stairs of the shaft silently, eyeing the details of the room. Though she lacked any known sense of smell, OSC-01 still glanced up at the grotesque vent from time to time. "The Arcadians reserved their class for things only in the public eye. Given the state, I don't believe this was anything meant for the civilians."

The Overseer took a moment before stepping onto the lightly water-logged floor, carefully treading across the base level to avoid splashing any water. Perhaps they should have brought the metal footplates.


Marie's investigation into the flickering emergency light brought upon her a wealthy of shoddy electronics. The board and container controlling the light itself was nothing revolutionary, though the two lights themselves beckoned, The lights were not unlike LED lights, set in an arranged tube that cut deep into the crystalline bulbs. The bulbs had some heft, and could probably be reused for some of Marie's personal projects. Or as a brick, who is left to judge. Fortunately for the Captain, the hard-wired components of the light was long dead, with the power instead coming from a small circular batter set into the control board of the light.

Marie felt a firm metal hand land on her shoulder, that of the Overseer. As the pilot called out in warning, the Overseer guided marie about a foot closer to the wall. A moment later, the smoking metal grate crashed to the shaft floor, spewing bolts and droplets of still water all about the room. Not a drop landed on either.

A few seconds after the explosive force dislodged the vent, a creature emerged with blistering speed. It was a six-legged amphibian of sorts, a little smaller than a man. Its steel blue skin was accented by dark black scales which ran down the length of its back. Two twitchy yellow eyes darted around the group as the creature chuffed in a mix of fear and agitation. As it did, the pale green faulds of skin puffed out like a bellow, before subsiding once more. The creature leapt from the ceiling, landing on the wall before dashing away into the tunnel from whence the group came, nearly knocking over the pilot on their dash out. It carried a waft of the scent away with them.


Airlock

After a bit of experimentation with the package, the Medic finally found its use. With a flick, the bar extended out into a full length baton, with a small button laid into the strangely grooved grip causing... some sort of reaction at the end. A small spark of blue and purple, though it generated little heat. It did give off a little sickening sensation, however.

Joined by the Artificer of the group and headed out back to the main cavern, the two were alerted to a fast approaching set of light footsteps. As the two swung around to investigate, they found themselves facing the confused creature that had just departed from the elevator shaft. It looked between the two, slightly shivering, though its twitchiness was far from comforting. It gave the two a deep guff, going low as it eyed them. The creatures skin was rather glossy, as if it were recently wet.



Lower Path

Keith's investigation further down the subterranean river brought him closer to the busted mining equipment that had been passively polluting the water for who knows how long. It was a rather large blue tractor, what was left of the original paint job eaten away by rust and decay. The machine laid on a pair of large metal and rubber tracks, one of which laid completely disconnected and strewn downriver. Attached to the front of the machine was an angled boring tool, a nasty set of metal teeth laid in position to gnash against rock and each other. The mudflaps and front end of the machine was adorned with a pattern of neon orange daimonds, set in with sun-faded reflective paint. On close inspection of the drills, four mounted devices could be found near the corners- lasers. The diodes sat in rotating shells, but it looked like they could be pried free. Whether or not they could still be used was up for debate.

Farther down the river towards the second shack, Reman spotted a broken catwalk rising from the riverbed like a twisted root of a tree. At the end of the catwalk was a metal cage, hiding a bundle of chains and motors within its framework. The chute rose from the ground to another passing bridge above, a few solid metal platforms build into the wall along its path: an elevator. this low into the cavern, the giant arched bridges span above them like a web, going every which angle down the cavern.

Shack A

Deimos landed squarely on the roof of the first shack in a graceful manner, standing to get a view of his surroundings. The view was a short one, however, as the force of the landing took a toll on the aged sheet metal. A few rusted screws snapped and suddenly the man was inside the shack- a loud crash echoing down the empty cavern. It wasn't more than a moment later that the now loosened metal door squealed open, revealing Rhea at the entrance.

Beyond the foxman laid out atop a sheet of aged metal, the interior of the shack was rather dusty. A plethora of lockers and electrical boxes lined the interior walls, away from the river. On the riverside, a set of glass windows looked out into the expanse beyond. A control panel lined the bottom of the window, various switches and screens and keypads arranged in unusual form factors. A ratcheting of a particularly large lever yielded no results, as the power to the console was entirely absent. Underneath the control panel were a variety of drawers, some of which were missing.

The row of electrical boxes on the other side were rigged with similar levers, albeit some appeared to be attached to liquid-grade conduits. What one could only assume to be the remnants of a piece of paper was stuck to one of the boxes, though what remained of it was but a single corner with a few alien letters left. The lockers lining the back wall were locked, but given stealth was out the window there should be no issues in brute force. Underneath the metal plate itself laid the desecrated corpse of an office chair, now flattened and snapped in multiple places and left of the industrial laminate flooring.
 
Elevator Shaft

Marie just finished passing a current through the bulb, lighting up a large area before the creature scurried off. Her eyes were wide open, first looking at where the thing fell, then back up at the Overseer. "Do we...chase it? Or do we...go up there?"

The engineer craned her lightbulb around, waving it around like a large, luminescent...brick. Great. Maybe a stick of some sort was in order. Like, make it a staff of some sort. A flashlight-staff. Double ended for the counterweight and the ability to poke it into holes and stuff. Waterproof it too. Yeah. Yeah.

She started looking around the room for more scrap, mumbling to herself. "So, something long, conductive or non-conductive...doesn't matter, just needs to be durable. Then conductive materials...and tape. Yes, tape." She pulled out a few rolls of tape and started looking at how much she had to work with. Answer: Enough.

And thus the engineer went on about nerd things(tm) instead of anything else that mattered. Again.
 
Shack A

Rhea stood before in the frame of the shack's open door for only a moment, staring down at the rubble. And the parts of the roof. Whyyy... She figured it was best not to li
nger on the matter, and quickly looked away with a mutter. In a fit of baby rage, she fiddled with the control panel, of course, wondering 'what could possibly go wrong now?' only to find that the panel was no longer powered. After, skirting around the Debris on the floor, of course.

"Just, dropping in to say hi are you? Are you still alive?" She finally asked Deimos- although she was sure he was okay- as she looked between the lockers in the back, and the set of drawers, and began searching amoung them for an acceptable key- or something to help fend off whatever angry thing may come running after hearing that noise. Behind her, one of the little glowing crystals was still being compressed through all of this, now glowing slightly and giving her a little light in the shack as she rummaged, while the other... well, it was just being weird, as she tried to stretch it apart. She considered trying to pick the locker's locks instead of looking for a key... Not that she needed to be quiet about it any more, she supposed... and with that train of thought, figured if she couldn't find keys to the lockers within the drawers here, that she'd just have Deimos smash the lockers like he smashed the roof.
 
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Airlock

The artificer was kneeling by the body, observing the corpse before Juryrig's disruptive demeanor interrupted the thin veil of analysis on the body. It was not even at a point where he could ask questions to the expert in the field before being teased. "I assume you're here to watch me, aren't you? I'd ask what state this body's in, but I guess it's not as important as your involvement in my actions." The passive aggression in his tone alone was far from subtle, leaving any trace of more peaceful demeanor towards the medic behind for a more confrontational but restrained stance, lifting his knees off the floor so he could spring to his feet at any moment.

It was not much later that a disturbingly close wet thud caught Romulus's full attention, behind the now vulnerable Jury leapt a creature low and quick. It did not take long at all to notice how the Artificer's gaze snapped to the strange thing behind them, before Romulus backed up and slowly stood up, reaching into his pocket. "Trouble. No sudden movements."
--------------------
Lower Path

It did not take long for Reman to notice the giant mechanical contraption ahead of him, and to catch the mechanic's curiosity. The thud of his footsteps was obvious enough that the crew around him could notice he was making his way towards something. It wasn't too long before Reman made his way up the catwalk, somehow not indenting the metal beneath it as he investigated the cables and the strange "cage" at the end of the hallway. The mechanics of these bits and pieces were unknown to him, foreign and enough and broken that he could only see raw components in their place.

The bridges sprawled almost every direction he could look at, and he waited patiently to find anything relevant to the mission other than maybe this bundle of scrap. Through the comms, he took pictures of the scene and only sent the message "Where to?"
 
Elevator Shaft

"Eeep!" Aradia's squeak was... Rather poorly masked by the commotion of an alien lizard thing scampering past her, nearly knocking the shorty over but thankfully sparing her the second form of embarrassment. She took a couple shallow, quick breaths, and attempted to recompose herself by smoothing out the nonexistent folds of her shirt.

"Leave it, it looked... Dumb. Actually Marie, come check this out, Overseer, you as well - know what this is? It's electronic, looks like the battery still works... Just out of power. Ish." Pocketing the note for the moment - at the least, it was a souvenir, at the most this erm... Dermoit? Person might somehow be relevant to the facility. Or possibly even alive, if Arcadia did some really weird shenanigans. The device was quickly handed over to whomever offered to hold it first; Osco could probably read the info without breaking it, but Marie is also Marie. The water was a bit crappy but honestly, still an improvement over the desert heat from earlier - but washing whatever oil and gunk got into her shoes was going to be a huge pain in the ass later...
 
The fox would flash a confident smirk before the door caved. Amidst the squeaking, shrieking piles of debris around him like a roof made of tin foil, a single, vulpine yip would escape his lips. He'd crash down, dazed, but not out as he came to terms with his newfound place inside what must have been some kind of shed. The moment the dust cleared, he would see the smaller crewmember judging him as she made a headway around his new metal bed - surely he would be feeling it when he got a chance to lay in his cot.

"I'm fine, I'm fine. Underestimated the overall quality of the roof, but... hey..." for once, she would see the otherwise gloomy scout beaming with a childish glee, staring at his arm as though it were the latest action figure. There was a hint of a squeak in his voice. "This thing ACTUALLY WORKS! I know Jury is a bit of a loon but that was..." He'd forgotten he was standing right in front of a teammate who was actually doing her job, but caught himself before a girlish squeal could escape him. He popped the balled-up metal fist to his muzzle and cleared his throat. A breath later and a shake of his head to dash away the bright expression and he'd be back on track.

"Right- uhh.... find anything interesting?"

No matter how much he tried to shake it, there was a hint of a glimmer behind that half-lidded expression.
 
Lower Path

The informant's first order of business upon reaching the large tractor was to investigate the laser diodes on the front-side corners of the machine, carefully stepping around the massive rusted drills. Having laid abandoned in this place for what could quite possibly be centuries ever since the downfall of Arcadian society, it was difficult to tell whether any of this technology was still in working condition; but it could certainly be scavenged and studied, if not scrapped for raw materials or sold for expedition funds.

His raw strength alone was definitely enough to just easily pry the diodes loose, but that would indubitably result in damage to the equipment considering its current state. It'd be no surprise if everything was rusted stuck, and so Keith decided instead to collect some of the leaking oil to lubricate the rotating shells, before slowly but firmly pulling all four of the mounted lasers free in a methodical fashion. He attached the now-loose diodes to his bandolier, in a way so as to loop around his torso.

Now then, second order of business: figure out where the leak was coming from and stop it. The entire tractor was a gigantic explosion hazard as it stood, and with foundations as old as those inside the Kerolyne Defile, it would certainly be a wonder if they could withstand an earth-shaking blast. Yeah, no—there were better ways to die than being buried alive or killed by falling scaffolding.
 
Elevator Shaft

The Overseer simply rolled their head towards the pilot, glancing down at the hexagonal device being offered. OSC-01 picked it up, twisting the device around like a card between her fingers with a pious air on being requested. However, the response came a little... slower than usual. "This is a... modular index scanner. The Arcadian kept these installed with various sensors to read different kinds of input."

Hastily moving away from the stutter, the Overseer popped the casing off the back, examine the silver battery cell before passing it over to the resident electrician, "See what you can do about this." The Overseer paused, shifting a step towards the shafts lower exit. "And mind we're not all in standing water before you do it." She remarked.

Marie's own personal investigations about the bottom of the shaft yielded a plethora of usable scrap ranging from loose bolts and dead wire conduits to long metal pipes that once formed the now decrepit ventilation cover. They were about two inches in diameter, a meter long. A good size for poking, indeed. Dahlia stepped out of the watery basin and on to the concrete platform upon which the tracks into the next shaft laid. The Captain stared upwards toward the entrance to the shaft. It'd seem that the mutant... whatever didn't maul Juryrig, so it was best to leave it be.


Dahlia glanced at the Overseer as she shook the excess of hopefully plant matter off her shoes. "What was that thing?" OSC-01 stood dead silent, longer than normal but lacking the ferocity of any kind of stare. Instead they were looking out dead into the next shaft. "...Osco?-"

The two were interrupted as a crash came from behind them. The minecart resting on the upper level finally gave way, crashing upside-down into the still water below with a thud. Not one moment after the cart hit the ground, a secondary blast of white and blue rattled the cart upwards. The reactive pop didn't directly harm anyone, but did ring the ears of everyone involved. A cascading sheet of water drenched anyone unfortunately close, splashing the dirty mess all over the nearby walls as the cart came to a rest once more. A tingly waft of ozone permeated the air in the aftermath, though it was quickly washed out by anyone who got a more direct application of the gunk.

Dahlia was deafened for a moment, rubbing her dazed head as she stood back up. Her right arm had gotten splashed, but she was fortunately unhurt. The captain sputtered another question, short of breath. "What was THAT?"

The Overseer snapped away from their defensive posture, slightly ahead of the captain. "Kerolyne."

The Captain blinked, looking at the cart and then back at the Overseer. The Captain began to sink a little further into the shaft, away from whatever caused the blast. "There was nothing in the cart, just dust. What do you mean?" OSC-01 glanced back at the captain, beginning to talk moments after moving away. "Kerolyne is a base compound of Arcadian munitions. It's reactive on it's own but not destructive. In small quantities."

Dahlia huffed, slowly looking at the walls around her. It began to dawn on the Captain that they may be standing underground in a mineshaft surrounded by explosives quite possible anywhere. "Common sense tells me a place called the Kerolyne Defile wouldn't have it in small quantities." Dahlia rubbed her eyes with her clean hand, motioning to the crew. "Let's get out into the open. You can explain the rest on the way,"

As the captain lead the continued walk, she contacted the rest of the crew through an incredibly broken radio transmission. "at-ch or step, his -ace may be ola-ile."

---

Upper Path

The group slowly trod forward into the tunnel, some more soaked than others. But as they walked, no explanation came from the Overseer. After a minute, the Captain shot an eye to the unusually quiet monk. "Well? Do you have anything on the Kerolyne Defile?"

The monk returned the gaze momentarily. Put on the spot, OSC-01 pondered for a method a deflection to the question, but there was no escaping it. "I... don't recall. It know it was a mining facility, and a moderate risk target." The answer caught the Captain a little off guard as she glanced back at the Overseer. It took her a moment to put a few things together. "What do you mean you don't remember? I thought you had an entire wealth of information on the Arcadians."

OSC-01 was quiet for a time, the usual regal tone of her voice diminished briefly. "I don't keep the actual information on my person. Since the- impact at the Observatory, It was leading to... cognitive issues. I keep the bulk of it on the Codex." The Overseer quickly attempted to spin the conversation another way. "An old friend once said it was best to travel light."

Dahlia kept her gaze fixed on the Overseer for a moment, before blowing a huff of the cool tunnel air. The Captain didn't entirely believe the robots explanation, but an argument in the tunnel was going to be an earache for everyone involved. Given the pale glow of light coming from around the bend, it wouldn't be long to the end however. "Great. I'm guessing it's out of range then?"

The Overseer remarked with a return to her normal face. "The Pixy units were tasked to follow our tracks should we fail to contact in a timely manner. They'll bring it for certain, Miss Morgan."


The group finally emerged from the catacomb-like halls to the main cavern, albeit farther down than they started. The light was much brighter than that of the tunnels, taking them a moment to adjust. They found themselves at one end of a large bridge that spanned the horizontal width of the grand cavern, the creek and shacks below looking like mineatures form their height. To the left of the bridge's gate was a downward ramp which led to a storage platform of sorts. A few large containers laid on the platform, at least one of which had been forced open rather recently. Beyond the various containers and rusted barrels laid the dangerous remains of the catwalk which spanned back to the origin point of the Defile.

Ahead of the group stretched the grand bridge. The railroad breezeway was walled in with panels of glass and metal beams that broke out from the concrete footbridges, joining into a shallow angled roof. A line of dead light strips spanned the entire bridge. OSC-01 stopped at the entry point of the enclosed bridge, the metal roof and sides of which laid in disrepair. Holes in the roof and broken glass panels were common, and the bridge itself started to show its age near the center. On either side of the bridge laid intermittent... consoles of a sort. They appeared inactive, but held some text hard-written on their chassis. Not far from the end of the bridge laid an unusual shape- vaguely humanoid but clearly not a human.

Far down the cavern still laid more bridges. In the distance, the group could see the cavern open up wide, surrounding something rather... large. In the center of the opening, a sharp statue broke through the darkness. What exactly it was meant to represent was hard to gauge, though the V-shaped silhouette stood atop a pedestal that rose well above the cavern floor.

Brought to attention by a muffled beeping, Dahlia fumbled through her backpack to retrieve some kind of communicator. The reception in here was iffy at best, but it seemed important. The Captain spun around to address the others. "I need to try and take this, cover me and look around."

With that, the Captain huddled in the best open area she could find around the bridge. The Overseer was busy examining the materials of the bridge itself, running a metal finger down the support beam. Something had clearly piqued her interest- or perhaps her concern.


Airlock

The creature stood monetarily still, staring at Romulus and Nivara with blinking eyes. The creature vibrated momentarily, flicking it's tongue periodically. As Romulus drew near, the creature reared its head. The baggy pouches of skin around its throat puffed and wobbled as the creature grounded itself, spewing a cloud of noxious fumes and liquid droplets onto the two. The scent was overwhelming, and any droplets that got on or near the eyes stung enough to force them shut.

The two temporarily incapacitated in a waning cloud of gas, the smelly animal fled, scaling the rocky walls to the roof with ease. There, it disappeared into one of the derelict conduits.

The two could see the group that had disappeared earlier reappear farther down the cavern, crossing one of the larger bridges. Their next move was up to them. They could try and catch up, take a shortcut, or perhaps try and track that creature.



Lower Path

After several minutes of lubricating and pulling apart the machine, the diodes were his. They wouldn't be of much use to him in their current state, but there was enough unstable- err, brilliant minds among the crew to find a use for them. Keith's investigation into the machinery found the source of the leak to be the fuel tank of the mining rig, The large drum had broken open from a previous impact, and the majority of its contents had already spilled into the stream. It would seem the damage had already been done, the black glossy ooze trickling down the stream ahead of him. What was one to do with that kind of damage?

Peering down the stream, Keith could see the eventual end of the line. As the cavern walls widened, the stream widened into some kind of dam. A large glass and metal wall stretched up from the streams surface, rising to multiple times his own height. It was hard to gauge the exact scale from here. There was still another maintenece Shack to investigate between here and there.

---

As Reman pulled and yanked on the chains, he could feel some kind of tension pulling back on them. Investigations revealed an array of pulleys, locks, counterweights... it was most certainly an elevator. As the mechanic pulled on one of the slack chains, he could hear a distant pop, a crack of metal. A metal lever hit the ground not far from him, appearing to be some kind of locking mechanism. The slack around the mechanics footing quickly disappeared, snatching the armored man along with it. Reman was hoisted upwards along the cavern wall as the hefty counterweight rocketed towards the ground.

The counterweight slammed through the base of the cage elevator shaft as Reman reached his destination in the most uncomfortable way imaginable. The mechanic came to dazed and confused coiled in snapped chains, laying on a platform high above the cavern floor. It would appear the top end of the maintenance elevator put him at a large metal door, the likes of which would require mechanical force to open. Given the age of the machinery, it could be doable.

He might just need a minute. Or two.

Shack A

Rhea's adventures in rummaging through the drawers yielded such luxurious finds: truly adult items a child would long for. Writing utensils, spare parts, and oddly shaped screws. Fortunately, also a pair of keys of a sort. The set of keys had a gnarly set of teeth, six in total arranged in a snowflake formation.

A meander around the now open-roofed office found that one of the two particular keys fit the locked electrical and pump boxes on the back wall. It wasn't much exciting, but a utility key was a utility key. All manner of Arcadian script lined the breaker boxes, leading to various parts of the river- as shown by a crudely represented diagram. It would seem that the shape of the river has became a little less... machined over the years.

The secondary key had yet to find a matching slot, and didn't appear to interface with any of the locked lockers.



---


???

Somewhere, hidden in the distant, twisting tunnels of the Kerolyne Defile was an odd gathering- if a pair could suffice. Two figures stood about in a large tubular room surrounded by a time-riddled forest of machinery, conduits, and metal switch boxes.

The first of the two odd characters was a rather tall figure- one which could as feminine but one that held rather warped features. They were dressed in layers of cloth and fire-retardant materials, wrapped up nearly in a teal cowl that covered the persons face. The figure scowled as she swiped a hand across the many open boxes, feeling each individual swith as a swathe of purple light rolled over them.

The other, however, seemed much more serene in temperament, though larger in size. Much larger in size. Even sitting, they came to eye level with the average human, and were twice as broad. They sat on the floor, legs crossed, in total silence. With their eyes shut, they kept a state of meditative bliss, even with the ruckus their companion was making threatening to shatter it. A long, serpentine tail swished across the floor with a light noise.

A distant rumbling echoed about the caverns, bringing the woman to alertness. The source of the sound was hard to identify, but it sounded like... a horrible attempt at sneaking around. Crashes, booms, and clattering. The woman turned her head to the angled tunnel running out of the chamber, revealing am uncanny maw of purple crystals protruding from the front of the cowl. She spoke with a small hiss, though it carried some kind of harmonic chime. "What was that?"

The female figure brought up a communicator from her belt, clicking it on to the sound of static. No word. The gigantic reptilian, on the other hand, opened its fiery, blue eyes and stared in the general direction of the commotion with disinterest. Its senses were greater than the average human. Slowly, it stood to its full height of ten feet and sniffed the air. Old machines, the woman's shampoo, and other miscellaneous scents. Then, it caught the far-off wisps of new scents; ones that hadn't been present when they'd arrived in this strange hole in the ground. Normally that would have been cause for concern, but the scents were far away, and not close. Therefore, the scents were not dangerous. If the being were capable of rolling their eyes, they would have, and then they sat right back down on the floor. All of this effort just to look through boxes, when the time could be better spent finding something to eat.

Small creatures. Running through the ducts. Harmless. Also tasty.

The woman stepped away from the boxes, returning to a nearby cart filled with a variety of tools. An unusual metal creature- wholly artificial, was sitting on the cart, serving as an additional sentry. The blade-beaked Gargoyle stood still with its single orange eye fixated on the tunnel. Periodically, the small robot of scrap would look around. The woman raised the communicator once more, trying to reach an unknown party. She spoke in an unknown dialect to the large beast. "Have you brought anyone yet? The power is still down."

Nothing came from the channel but droning static. Annoyed, the figure huffed and holstered the communicator. She could tell this was already going to be a pain in the neck. The woman looked over at the other, larger figure with two glassy eyes- albeit only one was behind a mask. She spoke with brevity. "Follow me, and don't get lost."

The woman looked at the Gargoyle. She spoke once more in the unknown language, as if talking to something beyond the machine. "Stay here. Be on the lookout for the stragglers."

he reptilian let out a low groaning noise and stood back up. With heavy, thudding footfalls, it took position behind and slightly to the side of what was obviously its superior, looking the part of big, dumb hired muscle. It casually craned its neck to and fro with its blank, bored expression, taking in the sights. This was boring. There was nothing here except dark tunnels and boxes. Why this strange crystal-studded human wanted to look at boxes in dark tunnels it would never know. It seemed like a dull existence. So, its mind wandered to a more enjoyable subject: porkchops. It began salivating.

"Keep those thoughts to yourself."
 
Shack A

"Ah..." Rhea let out a gasp of realization, as she hit her palm with her fist- the key still in her grip, with the other... misc items being stowed away in pockets for the time being. She could maybe stab somone with a pencil if they got uppity. "I found some keys, and a breaker box that they opened- i can't open the lockers though. Can you maybe, punch the lockers open, or-" BIG ASS THUNDERY NOISE

Rhea covered her ears, and took deep breaths. Calm down, its not like we had a chance in hell to be sneaky any way, it isn't her problem if they are toppling statues. and exploding ordinance. Once the vaugee ringing in her ears subsided, she opened her eyes again, and made an attempt at continueing like nothing happened. "Right, lockers... can you, break them open? Or, go get somone that can with your grappling hook?"

She trailed off a bit, as she looked at the breaker grid. She'd sort of seen how they worked in shows and the like, but she wasn't sure if she'd beable to work them right herself, having never touched one before. It helped that this was a totally alien facility, and that turning on the power could turn on the laser guns.

"Umm... Hey, what do you think about this, Should we touch it?" She turned to the fox, and asked.
 
Upper Path

Aha. Now Marie had...a light stick. Wow, this was actually kind of stupid. But hey, tools are tools. Kerolyne on the other hand...sounds like something they should take as much of as possible. Reactive but not volatile. Or in other words...plastic explosive. The demolitionist's multi-tool, now in some alternative format that involves a long-dead civilization and some really old containers. Maybe the containers had some.

"Here, hold this," Marie stated, before leaning the light stick against the Overseer and running off to peek inside the containers, hoping for even just one vial. Enough for Juryrig to sit down and hopefully produce more of before he blew it all up. Or for the Overseer to pick apart with a chemistry kit. Yeah, that sounded safer.
 
Airlock

Romulus noted the mist and almost immediately covered his passages as to not inhale the substance, and backed off as far as he could before the burst of gas covered the creature's escape route. As an extra step of caution he held his breath until he was a safe enough distance away. Romulus took no chance and did not fire at the creature as to not draw it's ire, and actively tried to keep Nivara out of harm's way. As the gas faded Romulus grew to his usual bitter self, and sat back at the body, mostly ignoring Jury's presence and resumed asking what he had intended. "What do you think this man was doing at the entrance, and how old is this body?"

--------------------
Metal Door

For any ordinary man, the gigantic metal doors would be an obstacle of unmatched stature. However, since his armor was meant to be used by anyone, there had to be something to help him wield the cumbersome armor he had on. Reman slipped his fingers through the gap and used the suit's innate enhanced strength to force the door open by pulling it back, or by bending the metal itself until it gave way. The door creaked and Reman let out exacerbated grunts as he pushed against the rough metal of the entrance, the armor almost moving with the force of a bulldozer. Any way this went, if the door would not move, he had another way of forcing it to without using that much force.

To Reman, the sound was grating and painful. Like rusty nails on the blackboard of an abandoned college.
 
The group of people following the robot. Who is sane again? No idea.

Once Aradia's ears had stopped ringing, and the headache had faded, she spoke. "We're in a gunpowder mine, just for fancy people. Woulda been nice to know that going in, knowing half of our co-explorers... Well, they'd likely try to blow the walls up."

She hesitated for a moment, then asked the robot, "So what's special about this Karolyne? Never heard of it before, but if there's multiple mining operations that have existed to collect it it's not a particularly rare resource..."

Aradia considered checking out the large containers. The idea of actually checking out some of this... Ancient futuristic gunpowder was pretty interesting, but without any mining equipment - or the skill to use the stuff - she'd have to make do with some of the already extracted... And refined, perhaps? Karolyne. If she could find any...

But for now, it was better to stck with the group instead of running off on her own. She'd never make it back to the surface if she split, anyways.
 
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