Still somewhat disoriented by the environment, Feurtes braced himself against the hydraulic cylinder that enjoined the ramp to the shuttle, the toes of his anti-gravity boots barely at the ramp's terminus, a mere centimeter away from Derelict's actual surface. Suddenly, up above, he heard alert sirens blare and the din of metal shattering against metal. His visor turned upward and he, appalled, witnessed a number of MRS mining drones as they collided against the uneven walls of Derelict's primary exploitation shaft. There were shouts of [i]Take cover![/i] moments before a hail of debris formed and ricocheted downward throughout the low-g chasm. A few unlucky souls were too close for that to make any difference, their pressure suits and bodies ventilated by a million shards of shrapnel, grim fates alluded to in the form of crimson jets that flowed soundlessly into the above void. Self-preservation instinct kicked in and Feurtes dove into the protective interior of the shuttle. However, the MRS androids reacted even faster, to the extent he imagined they anticipated the event, an oddity he mentally filed away. Before he landed on the shuttle floor, they maneuvered into a defensive posture in front of the bay door and blocked any errant debris that attempted to penetrate his safe haven.

Finally, the immediate danger passed. He stepped out of his sanctuary, his mind again acclimated somewhat to the noise, and he articulated a response.

[i]"No,"[/i] Feurtes answered Aten's inquiry, [i]"I will remain on Derelict until the Lieutenant remote-recalls the shuttle and comes down, at which point he will replace me as the Origin expedition supervisor. Until then, my objective is to assist you and your A9s in setting up a base of operations. Origin has a predefined location in mind that should likewise be of interest to MRS." [/i]

As he said this, he carefully walked to the ledge on which the shuttle was docked. Beyond the scratched transluminum shield of his pressure helmet, he glanced down and assessed that they were, more or less, at the bottom of the main artery. There was another tier beneath them, but it was overcrowded with scavenger ships. The only reason his team secured one so near the bottom was the threat Origin's navy posed to any who would interfere with their oversight and security roles. An upward look through a haze of fresh red mist and blackened metal particulates and, like a pinprick of inky solitude, he saw space. It was a mote of cosmic horror framed by the jagged interior of a massive vertical tunnel vaguely lit by thousands of variegated flood lights affixed to dozens of vessels. It reminded him of photographs from history class of decrepit sub-rail tunnels in the aftermath of the Earth's world-quake of 2850.

Involuntarily, the scene translated to a nervous impulse in his brain that cascaded shivers along his spine and deformed his skin to goose-flesh. For a moment, he felt lost in the cavernous broken spiral, but somehow pulled himself away. It was unimaginable to him how Cass managed to do this fifty-six times.

He turned around and saw the MRS droids already loaded up with equipment for their trek. Efficiency, it seemed, wasn't something they took lightly.

[i]"Right now we're about 1 klick deep. We will need to be deeper, just above a depth called the impenetrable zone. Have you been briefed on it? An entire layer of Derelict stronger than even your MRS' Ferrous-Derrite."[/i] His equipment was already on him, so loaded up his dataslate and started walking along the designated route. [i]"Also, how soon can you get a post-mortem on why your drones navigation systems failed?"[/i]

[center]. . .[/center]

Alone in the team's quasi-military facility on MOS, Mavriq awoke to the silence to which he, after months of solitary travel, was inevitably accustomed. With Vivaldi's [i]Farnace [/i]activated on the resonance amplifier, he washed his lethargy down the shower drain. Revitalized, he went about the work of setting up and organizing his laboratory, a task he completed midway before two of his prodigal team members arrived.  Engrossed as he was, the metal door's abrupt hiss and the subsequent thud of feet startled him, but he concealed, successfully in his mind, his autonomic fear response as he fiddled with some apparatus. Satisfied, he set it down and acknowledged in a voice accented with bored disappointment, [i]"Welcome to your new home,"[/i] and only then lifted his face to gaze upon the duo.

Unexpectedly, there were more than two beings, although only two members of his team, and as such he raised a brow at Sophia's parade of metal servitors. Prudently, he declined to comment, and instead inquired of Vin, [i]"Any word on Cass' whereabouts, Vin? It was a long day, yesterday, but I seem to recall leaving you and her at some drinking establishment or other?"[/i]

Of course, just as he finished speaking, Cass swaggered in, which was quite a feat for a woman with mechanical [i]legs. Then again[/i], Mavriq surmised, [i]maybe that is a consequence of her mechanical legs. [/i]

[i]"Thought I wasn't gonna make it, boss?" [/i]Cass grumbled from the entrance, effectively ended that avenue of discussion, and introduced herself to the room with a metallic stomp. [i]It takes more than a few drinks to keep me down, that is for damn sure,[/i] she thought. After a brief survey given to her new accommodations, Cass huffed and plonked down on the nearest available chair.

[i]"Right. Err, I mean no. Not at all. Regardless, now that all of us are together assembled, we can get on with our mission brief,"[/i] Mavriq began, squinted through his glasses at his dataslate, and continued, [i]"which is to say, the additional mission details that were omitted from the more public advertisement that effectively lured those of us here for whom presence wasn't otherwise compulsory." [/i]

Mavriq paused, glanced around the room, and saw that Vin was investigating the pantry, Sophia was delineating her space and setting up her own equipment, and Cass, while attentive, seemed bored.  [i]"Feel free to settle in as I iterate over the major points,"[/i] he said as an allowance to the inevitable, then went on: [i]"To be succinct, our primary objective is to determine what transpired with the expeditions and individuals who ventured as deep as any into Derelict and, as far as we are aware, disappeared. Confirmation of these disappearances is, of course, a matter of secrecy. At the moment, Origin has seen fit to maintain a rumor that such are not related to the artifact, but instead are the result of defections and mundane accidents. At any rate, the first time this is known to have befallen an expedition, they managed to get a signal out indicative of the discovery of an avenue through the impenetrable zone. Subsequent expeditions to the same region have met a similar fate. If you recall, the impenetrable zone is an artifact-encapsulating interior surface layer roughly 1.5 kilometers beneath the artifact's outermost circumference and composed of a substance our efforts have thus far been unable to penetrate. We haven't even been able to so much as scratch it with diamond saws, explosives, or lasers."[/i]

He again surveyed the facility. Nobody seemed rather surprised or particularly attentive, which wasn't to say they were outright ignoring him. For a moment, as his eyes narrowed on Vin who now cradled a cup of what Mavriq presumed was coffee, he wondered if they could hear him opposite the plastic sheet, then recalled Cass' sassy riposte to his unwanted and pseudo-sincere concern.

[i]"So when do we go down?"[/i] Cass asked, her arms crossed beneath her bosom. 

[i]"You, Cass, along with Mister Marlowe and myself will descend to Derelict and relieve Officer Feurtes as soon as Doctor Hagiotheodorites has completed her preliminary examinations and established neurological, physiological, and genetic baselines for each member of the team," [/i]he answered.

[i]"Oh, one other item of note. The ONSD has detected an alien signal. It didn't come from the direction of the artifact; rather, it emerged from deep space somewhere, but it is worth mentioning. After all, if this we don't know what this machine is capable of."[/i]