revivalproject | In the Deep Dark Hills of Eastern Temba

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In the Deep Dark Hills of Eastern Temba

WHO: Cobb Vanth & Mining Expedition Team
WHERE: The Mines
WHAT: Mine exploration
WHEN: First Week of Event.
WARNINGS: Cursing. Blood/Injury.

Mining Expedition - for Mining Team

It had been a long time since Cobb had worn the armor he bought on Coruscant. He stood outside the entrance of the mines in the polished slightly gold colored durasteel with no cape. Last thing he wanted was for that to get caught on something while underground. The armor would protect from minor cave ins and small falling rocks but a part of him wanted to take it off. If the ceiling came down, Cobb would honestly preferred to be crushed immediately instead of survive.

A few had happened while he worked underground and he'd been lucky not to get caught in them. He had seen what happened to slaves who had been and those images haunted him as he looked at the entrance to the darkness beyond.

As the little team started to gather together Cobb pushed those thoughts from his mind. He needed to focus to keep all these people safe underground.

"Here's the general plan," he said when they had all arrived. "Drake's probe, Mini, and this guy here will go first. The probe should be able to tell us the air quality which should be your number one concern. Anyone who breathes starts to feel light headed, you walk out immediately. No pretending everything is fine. We're here to map this place and see what needs fixin', not start digging around."

Anyone who toughed it out and then passed out would put them all at risk. Cobb's tone was very stern and grim. This was not a time to fuck around like this was a walk around talk. Luckily, this group didn't seem like the type to do that.

"Second thing to look for is the ceiling. You see it bowing down anywhere that's a good sign of a collapse. Should be even all along the way." That was how it was back home, at least. "And it might get tight in there depending on how the Agrii build their mines. No one goes off alone. You always have a buddy. Any questions before we head in?"

The mine's entrance was big enough but Cobb felt once they got inside and got under they might be in for a tight squeeze.

---

Cave In - for thesepreciousthings

It was surprisingly easy to get comfortable underground again. Cobb was all too willing to explore around with Starling when she asked. Apparently, she came from mining people too. She felt more useful helping out in the mines than exploring the new city.

"I can't tell much of what they were doing down here," Cobb said as they walked down a side tunnel, intending to map it. They had a pretty decent map taking shape with marked spots for the strange place they found and the holes to the surface. "They didn't leave any mining equipment behind so who knows what they got from here? Haven't seen crystals or coal or oil. Not even salt. Just the stone walls."

He was a little bothered by that. This was an extensive mine and clearly served a purpose at one point. There was no real clue what the purpose was however. Not to Cobb's eyes, at least. They had some hope once they understood the panel and all that, it would become clear.

Cobb was about to say more when he noticed something in the glint of his flashlight. A piece of metal hanging down from the ceiling. He had half a second to realize it was a roof bolt meant to hold the roof of the mine in place when a stone slipped.

"Starling!" He grabbed her just as more stones start to slip and the roof broke apart. Cobb dragged her out of the way but they were caught in the fall. Not the worst of it. Cobb pressed her against the wall as what felt like the whole of the earth came down around them. It was his worst fear come to life and it hurt as the stones bounced off his shoulders, his back, and his head while he tried to keep her from the worst of it.

When the rumbling stopped and the air went still Cobb blinked in the darkness. His flashlight was somewhere but they were in complete blackness now with the mine closed in around them. Well. Damn it all.

---

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Ah, so he was hungry. Reeve was glad he'd offered the food then. It was good that he'd come over then. And now Bucky had merely encouraged him.

"I am glad to see that I provided what you needed. And that you'll hopefully not be hungry if the time comes that a fight comes upon us."

"I'll not concede that sort of battle." He wouldn't just roll over for anyone like he did about the protein bar, especially not if there was a threat. "This one simply wasn't worth fighting."

But he'd noted too his own concession, and how his companion acted about it. That could be important if they came to another, similar situation. "It is my hope that my particular skills won't be needed. But I don't trust that this will be entirely uneventful."

Oh come now. Surely it wasn't that much of a battle. He knows better than that. It was a request from a companion, and a smart one at that.

"It is my hope that my more combat oriented skills aren't needed as well. There is only so much one can hope for, though. Trouble will come in its own way."

Requests as such still feel strange to him. After all, they hardly know each other; certainly the Soldier has done little enough to endear himself to his companions.

"Of that I have no doubt." And while he doesn't desire to court it, a part of him wishes that the trouble would hurry up and get here already, just so he would finally know what they're dealing with. "The suspicious part of me notes that our forces have been split between the new city and here. I can't help wonder if it was deliberate or not."

An interesting premise to suggest. And the paranoia in him would agree were it not for one thing.

Reeve believe in the Agrii.

"I hope you are wrong. That this is not deliberate. I think Ga Re is truly as lost as the rest of us are. However, of that I cannot be certain. So I must hope they are exercising caution. And that these mines are really stable."

If only it were that simple.

"I too hope I'm wrong." He would rather anticipate the worst and be surprised, than to not plan for it at all. And he can't shake the idea that the Agrii may only be pawns themselves, and another power may be manipulating them.

Or, to complement Reeve's last words, that the mine is stable and nothing happens to seal them in it. An ill-timed earthquake would make quick work of them. "The last concerns me most. A battle we could fight, but a collapse of the passages down here could be catastrophic. There's only so much rock we could shift, if we had to."

"If that happened, well..."

That would be a pain. Reeve sighed. "If nothing else, my ice magic could probably hold a safe pocket for us for a while. But then there are risks of hypothermia. I really just have to hope it will be fine. And if not, that you'll find a way to get us out."

He couldn't entirely hide the involuntary shiver at the mention of ice; those unpleasant memories had no place here. And, if such situation was to happen, then it could be the best chance of keeping people safe while rock was shifted.

"I would do what was necessary for the safety of the group." Though it did spark another thought in him: "has anyone thought to test communications to the surface? Natural to assume the rock here would interfere, but is that only assumption?"

Perhaps Reeve is not the best at picking up at small cues, but he can definitely see that the man shivered there. Yes, that didn't seem so happy, so he didn't intend to bring it up again.

"Actually, I had not thought to. Suppose I should. Do you know anyone on the surface and hopefully nearby who might respond?"

One of them should try it.

He shook his head, annoyed both at himself for thinking of it only now, and at the disorganized nature of everything lately, with people running off on the train all carefree. On his mind if made an excellent opportunity, dividing the people stuck on the planet. He wondered what they would encounter next.

"No one I would trust," he finally replied, though followed by an admission, "not that I trust easily. But for a test perhaps when we're done today, if you'll wait outside the entrance, I will come back in."

"That sounds like a plan. If we are out of here by the end of today."

Reeve... didn't know about that. He tried to have faith, but he also expected things might go wrong.

"When we are out of here, then." If it was today, or if they ended up camping in the tunnels. Slow, safe progress was better than trying to rush, especially since not everyone was used to extreme physical endurance.

"You mentioned once some skill in architecture. Does that give you any insight to the tunnels here, or is it too different?" To the Soldier, a tunnel was a tunnel. He could spot major concerns of course, big cracks or rock that looked loose, but that was the extent of his skill.

Oh rushing would truly be silly. Reeve, though, was mostly glad he wasn't overworking his arms here. His legs could handle the strain. He did used to do the stairs at his work just to keep fit. Which was really a special form of self-hatred he supposed.

"The tunnels are primarily cut into what seems to be natural stone. Which is more a geological side than architecture. I can glance at this place and tell you the angle of the join between floor and walls, and how strong the curvature of the ceiling is. But caves in general?"

He gives his head a brief shake. Nope. This is beyond him.

"It's all rock to me," he admitted. A lot of rock, above their heads. Mindfulness in regard to their surroundings was a must.

Still, at one point the Agrii must have mined it themselves. That spoke to stability, at least at some point in the mine's past.

"What I wonder more is, what might find us down here. How's long the protection of that so-called bug gel will last."

Yes, he didn't like it all over their heads either. He didn't know the tensile OR compressive strength of this material. It made him vaguely tense. He was trying to fight it down though.

"Well, those are both good questions. Me? I want to know why the mines exist. I've been looking at the walls, and a cursory glance by an admittedly not talented eye can't find any valuable mineral. It's possible they just removed it."

"Do you think we're just not far enough into the structure for it?" The thing about a mine was that it provided access from the surface to whatever was being mined: as more material was removed, the mine got deeper. Or so that was his understanding, anyway. And that was of course comparing Agrii behavior to human. "Were they even really mining anything? Or is this a path to some kind of underground workshop or bunker?"

Just, you know, tossing that out there. Not that he had experience with a secret installation hidden in an old underground bunker or anything like that.

"That, of course, is another good question. The mines I am most familiar with back home are all mithril mines, and mithril is actually a mineral that, while rare, is near the surface. So I do not know if this is common or not."

Again he felt so clueless to everything going on. But the idea of underground workshops and bunkers yields a visible flinch from Reeve. That was bad. Deepground. Oh what a thing he had never wished to think of.

"I'm not sure either. I'm more familiar with structures deliberately built underground." Which wasn't to say this wasn't such a thing, Agrii-style. But then again, it could be something else entirely.

He did notice that flinch though, and made a mental note of it. He hadn't meant to make the other man uncomfortable so carelessly, especially when so much of what the Soldier was made others uncomfortable enough. "It is possible that the mapping of the space still gives a clue to its purpose. Could not its footprint, viewed at once, give some idea?" Likely a vain hope, but not impossible.

"Yes, those... tend to be problems," Reeve answered, his voice darkening with the weight of his opinion. Things like that got people killed.

He took a deep breath and nodded at last.

"I intend to do my best, on all aspects of mapping."

He simply nodded, and dropped that line of conversation. There was no way it would bring positive associations for either of them, it seemed.

He nodded to the assurance; from the little he'd seen of Reeve's work thus far, the man was meticulous. And the accuracy of the map would be important, should something happen to extend their stay down here. "An official cartographer then, to put a name to it."

"If you wish to call me such, I won't turn away from the title," Reeve laughed. "I made physical ones back in the last place that took me as well. The technology level didn't work well with my skills."

"I suppose that we could attempt to record some of our progress as we go," he mused. "But the paper copies are important, I think. Something, some kind of virus maybe, could infect the network, and our devices." Then where would they be?

And the paranoid part of him wondered if there was anyone else out there snooping on their network and activities, either with the knowledge of the Agrii or without.

"Exactly my thought," Reeve agreed. Which was why he had brought so much paper and so many different things to write and draw and measure with.

"I didn't trust the last place, I learned to be paranoid."

They certainly seemed to have enough supplies. And the cave wasn't damp at all, which was promising for the drawings surviving the trip. Still he knew they'd all likely be careful of them, because one could never predict what would happen.

"Your home, or somewhere else before here?" His gut told him it was likely the second, which was the reason he asked.

Having extra supplies was always the best choice, just in case.

"Both," Reeve answered, because why not both. "The last place felt... Like we were being watched. Like here. But the forces were definitely messing with us intentionally. As for home, well, I was in a very awkward position."

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