2920/Dwellers of the Depths

Dwellers of the Depths
Date of Scene:	29 August 2015
Location:	Brimsteel Frontier
Synopsis:	Missing miners are found... And an ancient abomination too!
Cast of Characters:	Kotone Yamakawa, Staren, 571, 673, Corona Arclite, 750

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Corona Arclite has posed:
Fortunately the ride down into Rocksfall Mine went uninterrupted and uneventful this time. Which probably meant the molemen were plotting something else instead of rebuilding their last manevolent mechanization, but we will take what we can get. I would say sit back and enjoy the ride, but it's a mine for bloody sakes, there really isn't much for scenery, just a bunch of rock.

Occasionally there is a faint, distant rumble. And if one strains enough with good hearing they might hear the vagest hints of chanting, but it's too muffled by the surrounding stone to make out over the rattling roll of the train of minecarts.

Finally the ride pulls to a harmless stop at the bumper bar at the literal end of the tracks, and Corona hops off the kobold-sized drive engine. "This is as far as the extension tunneling got before the miners started disappearin'. Hopefully there's some sorta clue t'be found round here..." She pulls her steampunk portable out of a pouch of her belt, flips it open, and starts fiddling with the scanning apparatus.

The stone walls of the tunnel bear some cracks and divets were digging had been started, but that's about it. Pickaxes and shovels lie scattered about. The case of a large steamhammer lays on the stone floor, ripped open and guttered of parts much like Corona's automatronic construct had been before.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis has /never/ been in a mine before. That makes this a very interesting experience, especially as she goes from bright sunlight and blistering heat she can feel even with her suit's temperature-compensation units in use to pitch blackness broken only by lights every so often. Admittedly, she's cheating by using night-vision in her HUD, but that's beside the point.

    Given the tight quarters of this place, she's opted for a VEPR 12 automatic shotgun, bringing with her both slugs and also triple-ought (aught?) buck for good measure, taking a second to check the drum she currently has loaded before slamming it home again, and chambering a round. Her Kama comes along as a backup, as does her PDW. All in all she's packed for close quarters engagements, perfect for this enviroment.

    "Check your corners, down here anything goes." She says warily, before she hops off her ride and takes point, training her shotgun downrange as she stalks toward the case, dropping to a knee and inspecting what's left of the hammer. "Hnnn..." Her head cants up at Corona, eyeing the fox's own hammer curiously. "What do you think, scavengers?"

Rebound (750) has posed:
    Stupid Molemen. Always being jerks and ruining things. Rebound really doesn't like those guys and was super disappointed that she didn't get to punch the king moleman in the face. So now she's prepared to do just that. Of course they arrive at their destination without any sort of combat, so she's a tad disappointed. But she pats the Impact Drivers a bit, "Don't worry babies, you'll get to see some action soon."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
If you'd told hetr three years ago one of her best friends would be combat cyborg, a humanoid fox and an full out AI with a Ghost of her own? Kotone would have said you were insane. Now here she is with them and now making her way there with two of them to hunt for Molemen, she's far better armed this time for the trouble that lays ahead of her. She's armed ready and she looks to Alexis and opens up a cybercomm link to share tatical information with.

"Down down to gobling town we go my lads."

Corona Arclite has posed:
"Dunno if they were scavagin' parts or just tryin' to stop the diggin'," Corona replies to Alexis as she wanders over to the far wall, and turns to put an ear to it. ".. And it sounds like there's somethin' on the other side of here. Maybe they were gettin' too close to somethin'..." She gives the rock a rap with her knuckles, ears twitching a bit, then takes a step back and puts the C-PAD away. Instead unslinging the resonating hammer she got from the Flotilla and eyeing up the wall. She winds back, then glances over to the others. "Everybody ready? Things are pro'ly gonna get crazy fast once we're on the move."

Staren has posed:
    Staren is totally there too yes.

    Mine, enclosed space, dangerous molemen. Staren's answer to these dangers remains: Powered armor.

    As he scans the area with advanced sensors and Corona finds a secret tunnel by knocking on the wall, he reflects that his sensor package has some oversights. He should look into that later. For now, though...

    Staren nods. "Ready as I'll ever be." He raises his arm, pointing the beam cannons at the wall as if expecting molemen to be right behind it.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis gives Corona a nod. "Swing away, I'm ready for anything." Whether or not she's telling to truth is hard to say, but she does have a small arsenal on her person at the moment.

    As she watches Corona wind up for a smash, Alexis covers her with the shotgun in case something jumps out through the rock, right when Staren does the same thing.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    "As ready as possible." Rory answers. She's geared up in her surprisingly thin armor. Some pretty crazy metamaterial weave went into it, it should offer extreme protection for the weight - which isn't much. She has no need of power armor because her own body is robotic already, what's the point?

    As for weapons... hers rains to be the non-lethal riot foam blaster meant to incapacitate and render harmless anyone who gets mired in the expanding, hardening, breathable goo!

    But she stays behind others and uses cover a lot. "Why can't they just work things out peacefully...?"

Rebound (750) has posed:
Making a motion with one of her hands, Rebound motions for Corona to lead the way, "You probably know your way around inside of here better than I do, so I'll follow your lead." She says, "Of course when it comes ot hitting things, I'll do what I do best."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa says "They could have a city down here?:

She's starting to wonder for now. She is carrying some pretty good heat her self as she brings the XCOM issue laser rifle up and adds to the spport fire to cover Corona as she heads in.

She'll also Ping Rory to get hooked up to the hud she runs. It's strange, Kotone was so wary of this once but she seems to trust Rory to the point now she never even thinks about it now.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona smirks a bit at the others just before she swings...

Shift to the other side of the rock wall, where a massive cavern has been turned into a ritual chamber of some sort. However there is no solid floor to the cavern, just several low plateau surfaces in a lake of magma, connected by grated metal planks. The largest platform at the center stands several cloaked molemen in a circle, around the missing miners tied three apiece to several stakes, chanting and grunting in some dark unintelligible language. Though they stop with a jerk when the far wall of the cavern explodes in a cloud of rock being vaporized to dust from a heavy resonate impact.

Out of the cloud of settling dust Corona is the first to walk, hammer now resting on her shoulder. With the other hand she pulls up the Forge Sweeper, cocks it one-handed, then flips it into firing grip and cracks off a shot that knocks one of the cloaked mole's skidding to the edge of the platform.

Staren has posed:
    MAGMA?? And molemen cultists sacrificing the miners. "Yeah, that's enough of that." Staren raises his arm and fires beams at one side of the circle, followed by a half-dozen micro-missiles locked onto several of the molemen in front of the cultists, with plenty of light to guide themselves by and airbursting in small explosions even on a near miss.

    Staren manifests wings and flies over the magma, towards the platform. "Time and time again you've had the chance to talk and make peace. Now I'm going to show you what happens to people who refuse that opportunity."

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Yeah, screw that noise." Alexis can't help but make a face when she spies sacrificial victims at the hands of the mole people. Hoisting her shotgun, she comes next through the opening, taking aim as she throws out her grapple.

    She swings like some kinda bionic commando tarzan, shotgun ready as it spits out hot buckshot once she gets in range. It's very eighties action hero as she swings on a line, firing away at the bad guys with her automatic shotgun, yanking the grapple loose and aiming her landing toward solid ground. She rolls, sticking the landing in a three-point stance with shotgun still gripped, and she goes back to shooting away at unfortunate cultists.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa sees they are into blood rites, killing people for this? Kotone normally will hold back? Today she's not going to be holding back in the face of something like this. No she's not going to let this slide, she's not going to be thisting for blood, but the lives of the miners are more improtant. FOr now she's moving along and she's now openign fire where she can with the laser rifle, ands she's holding it one handed with no issues on holding it.

<<Rory! Can you focus on saving the miners while we keep these guys busy!?>>

Rory White (673) has posed:
    Rory wastes no time once the wall is broken through. She releases her Saucer. The little drone hovers high into the cavern above the magma lake, using its extraordinary sensor suite and link to Rory's analytical software. With lightning speed the AGI categorizes hostages, allies, enemies. Kotone will get a birds-eye-view window with them marked in yellow, green, and red respectively.

    <<Once there's an opening. Draw the guards away!>>

    She does rush out to try and find some cover onto the path towards the miners though, firing blobs of riot foam at any Molemen who are targets of opportunity along the way!

Rebound (750) has posed:
    Well if there's one thing Rebound loves, it's punching bad guys in their stupid mouths. Besides, she needs to charge up the Impact Drivers so when they run into the king again, she can give him both barrels, so to speak. The 'roo fighter dives into the fray, sucker punching one of the moles as she sails by with the armored gauntlet, turning and roundhouse kicking him from the opposite direction after she hits.

    "Alright you subterainian screwheads, listen up! All of you picked a really bad day to try to escalate to kidnapping from petty theft. Some of my compatriots might want to try to negotiate with you for their freedom, but me? I'm just going to beat the hell out of each one of you until we get what we want!" Rebound emphisizes her point by punching the moleman that she already kicked while he's on the ground, "Now you want some, come get some!"

Corona Arclite has posed:
The moleman cultists are routed by the sudden appearance of surface dwellers, several scattering in the opposite direction to the edge of the platform. It they're the lucky ones not to get outright removed from the problem by the bombardment of heroic attacks, and even then they have to deal with people like Rebound punching and kicking them in various directions.

As soon as they've been driven (or blasted) away from their captives Corona sprints across the metal walkway to help Rory free the miners, but pauses and ears snapping upright at a rumbling through the cavern as one of the remaining cultists reopens his battered old tome and starts somewhere between chanting and actual singing.

"o/~ There's an ancient legend; a story you should learn.
A tectonic monster, not a squid and not a wyrm.
It isn't quite a creature; it isn't quite machine.
And you won't know what hit you 'til you hear the cosmos scream!
Down below the mantle, it's waiting in the dark
From the boiling nether it will tear your world apart
It's tentacles are massive, it's teeth are made of steel
You may call it myth but I assure you that it's real! o/~"

The remaining cultists start to get up and run for the other platforms, only to be swept away by the swells of molten rock as something -huge- rises from the magma lake.

Corona Arclite has posed:
The titanic form has segmented body parts with some kind of metallic coating, and what look like stacks of gears spinning between them. A multitude of tentacles extend from rings near the 'head', some ending in biometallic augers, others holding glowing spheres that are possible eyes. The two thickest and heaviest ones look like the primary pair of a kraken drop down on the edge of the main plateau as the creature opens the quad-segmented jaws of its mouth to reveal three -spinning- rows of serrated teeth as it roars.

"o/~ When the quakes come rolling in, and sulfur fills the sky
Then the surface dwellers know the Landviathan is nigh!
When it digs into your world, it'll never let it go--
Soon you'll join a thousand souls, now crushed, in the depths beloooAAUGH!"

Then chant is brought to an end as the cultist is speared by one of the tentacles, shudders a bit, and then poofs in a cloud of inky blackness much like what came out of those hollow armor-moles before as the remaining robes collapse to the ground empty.

The miners wisely RUN LIKE HELL for the entrance made by the adventurers. They're not paid enough to deal with abominations from the planetary depths!

"... Aw, shit," is about all Corona can come up with to say.

Rebound (750) has posed:
    "Well that ain't good." Rebound says, after she punches her moleman one more time for good measure while looking up at the malevolent mutant monster which has manifested from the magma.

    "Guys we really should get out of here, and uh, blow the tunnels or something?" She grabs the mole man off the ground and throws it at the monster, hoping it'll find that meal better than her.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    "Fuck me running." Alexis mutters, staring as the monster emerges like a night on Bald Mountain...or something close to it. She shrugs at Rebound, before she begins to take a few shots towards the monster's mouth. Aim for the mouth, what is this a video game? She has to be out of her mind to even be thinking of doing this, and she's the one who's questioning its use!

    Whatever. Best to find a way to get out of here before the beast eats everyone, then stay here and die wasting ammo at something much too big for small arms fire. Alexis ceases shooting, only to motion for others to run like hell before following suit, with retreating fire. Or she just shoots at it's mouth, assuming nobody /is/ leaving.

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Well now they seem to have some sort of horrible thing the molemen feed themselves to. She watches as the tentacles get the thing and suck out what might have been a man mole. She sees this and narrows her eyes, this is like Kingsmouth, this world could become like that place. No she's not going to take this, the other weapon she'd brough with her was that rocket launcher Albert had given her some time ago. She's turning to run but now and then she's starting to fire rockets at the things mouth as she flees with the others.

Staren has posed:
    "Oh no, none of /this/." Staren turns and tries to fire at the head cultist(?), but the sudden shaking as waves of magma wash by makes his shots go wide. And then the monster kills him anyway. Well, okay.

    It's a... mechanical monster, but they summoned it? Man, /what/ is going on? No, that doesn't matter as much as destroying it. No, that's less immediate than getting the miners to safety.

    Staren looks around the island he landed on. The miners, where did they -- Oh. There they are, running away. Good men.

    Staren wants to get in and dismantle it, but the risk of getting dragged under the magma is far too great. That doesn't seem like something he can survive, even /with/ his armor.

    Most of his weapons release intense amounts of energy. But what's more intense than being under /magma/?

    Then again, if it's /used/ to hot temperatures... Staren draws his laser pistol, pulls something from his bag and slots it into the handle, then aims at the dragon's head and fires a cold laser. "Hey you!"

    And then he runs over the bridges, occasionally firing back as he makes for the exit (he plans to run a different way from the miners once he's outside).

Corona Arclite has posed:
"Grindin' gears, Ah think y'all got the right notion there." Corona's kind of lost here. That these things summoned such a monstrousity some how is one thing... and then it just goes and gobbles up the survivors (and one thrown to it thanks to Rebound) like they're just the appetizer. Thank gods the miners had the sense to -run-. ".. There has to be a reason it is only here.."

Rockets slam into the Landviathan or whatever the chanting cultist called it. The heat doesn't do much damage to the magma-restitant metal plating it, but the concussive force of the explosions do dent it. The gunfire towards the mouth gets a gargled snarl out of the thing, and it spits out some fleshy ichor that -might- be blood of some sort before closing its mouth. Maybe the thing is organic on the inside? Or demonic. Or something. One of it's 'eyes' gets cracked by a shot when it clamps it's mouthparts shut afterwards, too. It's monsterous and durable, but not entirely indestructable it seems.

The cold laser does cause some of the trendils around the head to frost up and thrash about more rigidly. One drops the cultist it was waving about, and as his dead body hits the ground, a book falls out of his robes.

Corona shoots one of her grappler chains to snag it, and even as she's reeling it back in she's turning to run after the others.

The Landviathan lashes after them with it's clawed and drill tipped tentacles, but the movements are lethargic from the cold shots and easier to dodge. As long as people are smart enough to keep running out of the cavern, at least.

Rory White (673) has posed:
    ALL HELL BREAKS LOOSE.

    Although an AGI, Rory is fully capable of seizing up in terror. This she does as the miners go running past. Mouth wide open and one foot turning back and away on sheer instinct. RUN, RUN her deepest thoughts scream. RUN, don't fight that thing. It's madness.

    Then the brakes screech into place as her thoughts accelerate, giving her an excellently prolonged amount of time to think, to plan, to reason. In one second she thinks worth twenty seconds, and so...

    She STILL RUNS!

    Runs for COVER, that is. Back near to the entrance of the cavern, while firing balls of riot foam in one hand. All over the creature, but mainly at its joints! It likely won't do much if it dives back into the magma though it might buy everyone some time.

    "We can't face this thing ourselves! But it can't follow us through that hole either!"

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    Alexis has no time to watch as the Landviathan devours cultist after cultist, but she /does/ take Rebound's advice and drags a corpse or two to leave as a distraction. As tempting as it would be to rig it up with C4, she only has enough to either try that OR seal the breach behind them, not both. And she expects that monster to be much tougher can a handful of plastic explosives.

    "I got that in hand, MOVE!" She calls to Rory, making a sprint towards the exit, only skidding to a stop as she applies the charges. Once they're set, she goes back to sprinting, running like hell as she makes sure everyone's made it out before blowing the exit shut. There were only three miners, shouldn't be too much to wait for.

Rebound (750) has posed:
    Time to get the hell out of dodge. Rebound makes good use of her enhanced legs and takes a flying leap back towards where they entered the cavern from. She skids to a stop near the entrance, "Come on guys, get moving! We don't wanna be in here while that thing regains strength!"

Staren has posed:
    With the idea in mind that this thing might be trapped? Staren's all for testing that. He runs for the exit, to see if the landviathan even /can/ leave.

Corona Arclite has posed:
Corona Arclite is bringing up the rear since she had to snag the book first, and is zigzagging back and forth to avoid the tentacles smacking the ground behind her. If only barely. Despite being pissed off the monstrousity either doesn't feel inclined to chase them... or it can't.

"LET 'ER BLOW!" Corona shouts as she dives through the opening, tumbling to get clear of the impending blast.

Alexis Maaka (571) has posed:
    And so Alexis does so, setting off the C4 with a click once minimum safe distance is reached. A shower of stones is made after a loud, especially under here, explosion, followed by clouds of dust. Alexis's helmet has a filter in it, thus she's fine as she begins to make her way towards the minecarts. "Get those civvies secured, we'd better bug out while we've bought us some time." She says, hopping on and taking the first relaxed breath she's been able to take today.

Staren has posed:
    Staren watches the rubble warily, waiting for movement.

    Once everyone else is on the train, he boards too. "Do you have any clockworks?" he asks Corona. "Might want to leave something here to watch. To regularly check it."

Corona Arclite has posed:
"I ain't got a portable transporter to send any automatrons from my ship, but Ah can send somethin' down once we get these folks outta here." Corona just hops in a cart, seeing as one of the miners is actually a kobold (no relation to the Kobold Texas Ranger) and better suited to the size of the drive engine. "Management is pro'ly gonna wanna close off this part of the mines again, too."

Kotone Yamakawa has posed:
Kotone Yamakawa is making it out with everyone else thankfully she's able to ge tout with eveyrone out. She runs form the entacles with the mentialy of osmeone whose seeing one of thier worst fears chasing after her. She's at least able to get out and makes her escape.

"We need a plan and a way to kill that thing before this place becomes another Kingsmouth!"

Corona Arclite has posed:
The Landviathan can be heard smacking the wall with it's tendrils a few times, and then the explosion goes off, collapsing the opening just as one of them is reaching through. Crushed under the rocks, it twitchs a few times, and then falls limp as it disappears beneath the rubble. On the other side the monster just rips it off, and retreats back beneath the magma lake to wait for a new one to grow back.

As the mine-train is getting moving Corona slumps in her spot, exhaling softly. "Ah know, Corona." She patted the battered old book laying in her lap with one gloved hand. "S'why Ah grabbed one of them cultist's books. Might tell us more 'bout that thing. Or what -else- might be lurkin' about... When my heart ain't beatin' too fast to think straight."