-Survey Site 1108-Alpha, Narsier Mountains
@Raineh Daze@VitaVitaARAuxiliary Storage - Cafeteria and Recreation room
The piping connecting the machine groaned and squealed as it was compressed. A rather unconventional way of repairing the holes, but it seemed to be working. It'd slow the flow of mana due to a compressed size, but overall, it would seal it shut.
Suddenly, the entire building rumbled slightly. something collapsing not terribly far away.
"Hey whats going on! I'm hearing a lot of not great sounds, Amalee, Regis!""Hm. Sounds like the passage the others took may have collapsed." Otelius frowned. "Sounds like they're fine, for now though." Otelius turned his attention to the old robot, studying it intently as the mana was slowly pumped into it by the ancient machines, the low-power of the facility doing its job as best as it could. Thankfully, it seemed at least this would potentially count as 'maintenance' mode of some sort.
After a few minutes of waiting, the robots entire body would shudder and groan, years of rust and corrosion flaking off its body as a number of blue lights lit up on its body.
"...bzzt....eerrror." A garbled error message played out of a speaker. "POwer...10%...error...N-bzzt-u-ul-bzzt-ll.." The robot slowly started to move, creaking joints sending up years of dust and corrosion as a heavy limb pressed on the floor, slowly making its way towards the corroded over door. "Err-err....n-nexus...offline. Pathing...protocols...absent.-bzzt-u-bzzt. C-commence...c-clean...maint-p-p-rotocol-new path."
It lifted the arm with the hammer and slammed it into the corroded door. Once. Twice.
"E-ero-r...in-intru..."
Three times. Each movement became faster and faster, the beating of metal on metal until the door started to give way, and after five beats the drill started to rev up, until almost in a disconcertingly manic fashion it starting ripping and tearing at the doorway until the entire thing gave way, smashing through it with enough force to crack and crumble the surrounding wall.
Once through, it rip and tore at the wall, bashing and tearing it down - a hole large enough for it to move through into the room beyond. Once through, it paid no mind to the trio of mortals, walked through the room spouting more errors and pathing objectives.
The room in question beyond, once the dust settled...
a graveyard.
Thats what it was.
What at one point seemed to be some sort of recreation room, or perhaps cafeteria was now home to nothing more than a bunch of skeletal remains. Some seemed as though they had simply sat down for a meal, slumped over tables - or perhaps they were sitting when they accepted whatever fate they had - some, with weapons near them were slumped against the now barricaded door that seemed to lead into the main area. Some had holes in their skulls, or other obvious injuries indicating a violent end of some kind.
Were they ancients? Or ancestors of their own? It was difficult to tell with the equipment they had on hand.
The maintenance robot didn't seem to pause or pay any heed as it stepped on the remains, crushing it underneath as it headed for the barricade and immediately smashed through it, disappearing further in as its programming led it on some unknown objective.
The only other way out was down a set of stairs, the subtle blue glow of dense mana gas signaling it was likely dangerous to traverse.
They didn't have to linger here, at least if they didn't want too it looked like. Perhaps following the maintenance robot might lead them somewhere.
"Well...while they're getting their bearings, how are things on your end, Cellica?"
@Crimson Paladin@Pyromania99Maintenance Corridors -> Power Core
"H-hey! Do I look like a sack of rocks or something!" Khalisa responded to being picked up as one might expect - like a cat that had suddenly been lifted and decidedly didn't want to be. She wiggled and squirmed, arms flailing lightly and legs kicking. Thankfully for Regis, she was about as strong as a kitten herself and after a few seconds she managed to steady herself.
Amalee was the first through the door, the hallway beyond didn't seem to be in much immediate better condition, the weakened ceiling crumbling like wet paper as a metal part fell onto the ground right behind her seconds after she moved and just seconds in front of Regis as he turned his helmets lamp on, illuminating the dim corridor beyond.
"Hey whats going on!" Monique's concerned voice came over the coms for everyone to hear.
"I'm hearing a lot of not great sounds, Amalee, Regis!""Uh, nothing to worry about!" Khalisa responded on her own comms. "Just...a little detour? We're going further in!" Vision blocked by dirt, debris, and a lack of light in general made passage difficult at best. If not for Regis' headlamp, they might not have any light at all aside from the dim and half working emergency lights of the facility itself - nor how long the corridor was in the first place.
The ceiling above groaned, metal creaking and coming down completely now as the trio ran through the hallway beyond, it was hard to tell how long exactly it was, but it wasn't until a soft blue glow was seen further down did the ceiling start to become more stable, the ceiling collapse stopping as suddenly as it had started as Regis managed to pass the threshold into the room beyond.
"I want a status report, now you three!"The room they found themselves in was much larger - and in vastly better condition. A roughly circular room at least three stories high, softly glowing blue from a pit in the center. Enough to navigate, but not enough to see good details with. Approaching the center would reveal some many meters down was a large blue pool of something - liquid mana - the source of the light currently. Five large pylons encircled it, in surprisingly good condition. Each pylon seemed to have its own console, with each console showing an error screen of some sort ranging from 'Low power' to 'lockdown initiated, please contact Admin', with one being completely disconnected.
Both Regis and Amalee might recognize this as a sort of very old mana-based reactor for power.
More importantly, it looked like there was a door that led elsewhere, though like the one in the previous room it was locked and showing an error on its keypad about a lockdown. At least this one likely wasn't going to be bringing the ceiling down on them. There was also a staircase that led down - unfortunately it seemed to be flooded with gaseous mana meaning Regis was likely the only one who could traverse it safely.
A few machines - one more intact of the one in the previous room was parked to the side. A large robot of some sort was sitting, unused, with what seemed to be some sort of cylindrical object full of liquid mana as well.
LiverisGood
Xaltwind
CitrusArms
datadogie
TruthHurts
Yankee
Renose
BabyKaiju
Double
Crusader Lord
