revivalproject | In the Deep Dark Hills of Eastern Temba

Entry tags:

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

That the lift was still functioning was a surprise to Felwinter as well. He exchanged a look with his Ghost and Cobb, but didn't hesitate to step inside after the man. At least the thing looked sturdy.

"I thought as much. I just never considered it being on a different planet under such peculiar circumstances."

He while the others piled on. Well, the elevator waited. It seemed to know when everyone was on and started to smoothly move down on its own. Now, it was starting to great really dark. True darkness with no light except for what they're brought with them.

"It's not as rough as it's been before. We've all been pitching in here and there to make things better." Especially those who had been here a long time. Cobb wasn't new to pulling people together but this group required a more delicate touch.

"If y'all want some fun, turn off all the lights. Spend enough time in darkness like this your brain will make things up because it wants to see something so bad," he called to the group.

Felwinter tried not to get too anxious as they waited. Felspring scanned the elevator as the others loaded themselves on, and not without a slight side-eye at the contraption Drake was bringing along. And the cat-thing. What was this team?

"...having others of a like mind does seem to have its advantages..." the warlord mused quietly in the corner he had positioned himself, for all the advantage that two walls at his back in an elevator gave a person, but habit was habit. His Ghost drifted back towards him, switching her directional light back to the default while they were in such an enclosed space.

Fun? Humans had strange ideas of fun, even if it's meant to be sarcastic. But Felwinter supposed you didn't need to be in darkness to start seeking out things to see in your desperation.

Cobb, out of habit, stood in the middle of the platform, though he had to step aside for Drake's droid thing.

It wasn't really fun. Cobb meant to sarcastically. He was a little uneasy being underground again. He hadn't been in a mine for roughly ten years now and he had some bad memories of being underground. But that experience made him the best choice to keep everyone safe. Cobb didn't look unsettled though. He was steady as always.

"We do better workin' together." Even if it wasn't always the smoothest kind of work.

Most of Felwinter's time spent under ground was in bunkers, seeking out information amongst the long lost artifacts of a bygone era. If they hadn't been places that Rasputin were well aware of, the Exo might have considered them excellent places to hide.

"Hm..." This was a logic he did not refute. Things generally worked out better when you had someone at your back, and when you had a common goal. It wasn't anything new that he'd given thought to, but he still had yet to make a decision back home.

Cobb had caught on by now that Felwinter seemed to be a man of little words. Sort of reminded him of Din that way. Quiet and straight forward.

"The farther down we go, the more we've got to worry about air," he explained to Felwinter but also the group in the elevator. "And as a few folks pointed out we don't know what might be living down here. I'm not confident those bugs are gone just because they put some goo on the walls."

And those bugs were supposed to be very dangerous according to a few people. He didn't really like the idea of going insane from a bug bite underground. "We put Felwinter, along with Reeve's and Drake's droids in front. The farther down we go the more likely we're going to find pockets of bad air."

"If there is anything alive roaming below, Felspring will let us know," the Exo said. He wasn't sure what all Drake's mini-tank was meant to do aside from atmospheric monitoring, perhaps, but having more than one pair of 'eyes' as it were, wouldn't be a bad thing either.

He nodded as Cobb went over the basic plan again, although his head tilted slightly at the mention of pockets of bad air. He wasn't quite sure how that worked.

"I don't think this place has sarlaccs and krayt dragons," he said with a little frown in his voice. "Everything else that settles in mines is usually small and stays near the surface. Unless it's born to live deep underground."

Cobb didn't expect any sort of huge monster like they had back on Tatooine. That they would've noticed by now if it was living right underneath them.

"We just take it slow and methodical and we'll be fine." Cobb hoped, at least.

"It sounds like wherever you come from had some interesting...wildlife," Felwinter observed. "What is a sarlacc?" Dragons were not an unknown to him that he assumed they must have some sort of similar thread to them even in a different world or universe. "Things may not be the same as you would expect of a mine in your world, here," he suggested.

He could agree on taking care during this expedition, however. At least no one was going to barrel ahead in here. Hopefully.

"Sarlaccs are big creatures. They dig themselves into the sand or rock but leave their mouths and tentacles exposed. Anything that is unlucky enough to get in range, gets eaten. Slowly." Cobb had never actually see a sarlacc in person which he considered pretty lucky. He had heard the stories though as had everyone on Tatooine.

"They probably aren't. Lots of creatures try to live in mines and caves back home to get out of the suns and maybe find some water." The underground of Tatooine was cool and sometimes moisture condensed naturally. There were rumors of underground wells and springs too but usually under the palaces of the hutts. "Still, those bugs have to feed off somethin'. Tells me there's more life down here."

Well that sounded unpleasant. At least they seemed largely avoidable. Felwinter nodded slowly as he looked towards the lift doors, wondering just how far down they'd be taken.

"Suns? How does anything survive under more than one? But therein is my point- the terrain, the environment is different. The creatures themselves. They may simply be able to subsist just because this is their planet of origin. Best we remain on our guard at all times. At least our number is small enough to keep an eye on."

"Well, we're real stubborn where I come from." Cobb did not want to try and justify Tatooine's existence right now. He really wished people would just accept it when he told them about his home. He wasn't making it up!

This wasn't the time to argue about what was possible or not.

"I think we would've felt it if something big lived down here. You can feel a krayt dragon tunneling before you see it." He felt these mines wouldn't have a big predator or the Agrii wouldn't have told them to come investigate. In his experience they didn't deliberately put them in danger. "Just warn us if you've got to shoot something."

Felwinter's tone wasn't incredulous, but rather genuinely curious. The Sol System only had one sun, after all. He wasn't sure how to take the man's comment. Surely one's stubbornness did not affect the existence of suns! If it did, then that would certainly be troublesome. "Does it have two moons as well?"

He glanced at Felspring, but the Ghost gave a small twitch in the air like a headshake. No, nothing alive coming up red on her radar. The only lifeforms were still those within the elevator with them.

"I don't have my shotgun," the warlord said at Cobb's advice, looking down at his empty hands. "But if I must resort to an attack, I will be sure to refrain from Solar attacks."

"Three of them." Cobb smiled a little as he thought of home. "The Twins and the Triplets."

This place with one sun and one moon was unusual to him. He had never lived without intense suns before. This planet was always slightly cold to him because of that. Underground like this it was harder to tell because everything was humid and chilly anyway. Cobb hated it.

He understood shotgun. Sounded like a scattergun from home. The solar bit was a little more confusing. "Like solar power?"

Cobb hadn't talked a lot with Cayde about his powers. He really wasn't familiar with Guardians at all even though he liked Cayde a lot.

What sort of gravitational influences three moons would have on a planet were not something that Felwinter decided to consider. There was still much about the rest of Cobb's planet in general he didn't know about to really paint a proper picture, but by Cobb's expression it seemed to underline that one's home was their home, no matter how harsh it might be. Felwinter wondered if he had the same sort of nostalgia for his own homeworld. Were travel beyond not an issue, was there really anything keeping him there?

The warlord nodded at the question. "Yes. Like the heat and flame of the sun. Or suns, in your case, I suppose," he amended.

Cobb would be the first to say Tatooine was a miserable forgotten dustball but it was home.

"If it gets dark that might be useful but an open flame underground can get dangerous." Cobb shifted a little bit as the elevator finally came to a stop. There was no obvious indicator of how deep they were but judging from the amount of time they were hundreds of feet under the surface.

"We'll use it if we need it," he said to Felwinter with a nod as he stepped around the group and got out first. The dark and cold also told him they were pretty deep. It had a strong damp earth smell, stronger than back on Tatooine. "Alright, scouts and droids, you're up."

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

In the Deep Dark Hills of Eastern Temba

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject