January 17, 2019, 5:12 pm.

Josh leads the way, rose-shield and thorn-spear at the ready as we step inside, Beth close behind him. We're all tense, prepared for the unexpected as we descend into the tunnel. Everyone is quiet and on alert. Even Smoulder is moving with care, only hopping forward once Josh checks around the corner.

The tension only lasts until we make it to the first corner. The darkness continues down, but we break out a plethora of magical aids to light our way.

"So, this new quest," Roberts starts, pausing when Smoulder twitches her large fluffy tail, switching to her flame-on mode. Somehow, she's able to cast light without burning those nearby. I wonder if that's pure skill or a special ability. I didn't see that listed on her page.

"Yeah. The rewards are pretty huge," I note as Rufka activates a glowing rod that has a ball of flickering orange flame on the end.

Passing the torch to Beth, Rufka comments, "I agree. While Citizen status is interesting, gaining 4 progression points from a single quest is like a story from out of legend. Mum would warn me not to take this lightly."

"Eighty integration points also seem like a lot," Josh observes from ahead as I create a glowing bundle of light. It's more of a flower than an orb this time, the light-shifted flower of twilight casting a soft yellow light. Not only is it pretty, but it also helps me practice.

"It is quite a boost. The rewards from this quest are troubling. I've never heard of a quest that grants Citizen status. It’s rare to get a quest with so much information at the beginning. This must be of great importance to the System," Tipan mentions as she produces a harsh green light which emanates from the end of her staff, throwing her pale Mohawk and elaborately braided fur into sharp contrast.

"I'm worried about the target. It sounds like not only can they tear the System out of us, but they might be able to bring us back as Fallen," Beth's voice carries back from near the front of our procession.

There's a general murmur of agreement.

"Do you have any thoughts on who this Citizen Demo might be?" Tipan asks.

"Not one iota," I answer while Beth shrugs.

Once the lighting is sorted out, we continue down, Rufka and I at the back. Which doesn't bother me, it's nice back here. While we're walking, I decide to expand, reinforce and decorate the tunnel walls. I may as well work on my earth skills, making it safer as we explore.

"How deep did they dig?" Roberts wonders as we round the fourth bend. So far, each section has been roughly a hundred meters forward for every ten down, then a sharp turn. At least the Fallen keep their tunnels consistent.

"Hard to say. No signs or anything. It's well packed though, so probably deep," Josh answers from the front.

We continue to move slowly, taking several turns, the tunnel getting narrower the further we go which I continue to modify when it's my turn to pass through.

We've continued through another six turns before we encounter our first discovery. And our first obstacle.

"There's no more tunnel," Josh calls from the front.

"Well, that's anticlimactic," Roberts grumbles from just in front of me and Rufka.

"Hold on people," Beth orders. Then there's a bunch of scuffing, scraping and even some laughter from ahead where the others are trying to switch places.

While we're waiting, I reshape the walls to our sides, pushing them out while compacting the ceiling to better support the larger chamber. By the time the scuffing sounds have died down Roberts, Rufka and I are reclining on earthen benches along the edge of the new alcove.

A moment later Josh's dirt-covered armour appears. He's dismissed the spear and shield at some point, but it's not like his armour leaves him unarmed anyway.

"Right," Josh pauses, inspecting the alcove.

"Beth could probably use your help, Alexis," Josh states, stepping further up the tunnel leaving me with plenty of room to move past him. When I reach Tipan and Beth, I don't try to squeeze past them, expanding and reinforcing the tunnel instead.

As the earth around her starts moving, Beth flails for a second, before turning her head to glare at me.

"Oops. Sorry," I apologize while halting the changes. "Josh said you needed my help," I offer by way of explanation.

Running her hand along the edge of the recently compressed and smoothed tunnel, she shakes her head, "it's fine. You just startled me. I thought the tunnel was collapsing. You'd think at some point I'd stop being surprised by what you can do with magic."

"I highly doubt it," Tipan comments, looking at me, her eyes narrowed, "I've been studying magic for years. Alexis is the most versatile iron rank I've ever encountered."

"I'm sure. Now, let's get back to this," Beth redirects our attention to a small opening no larger than my hand. Inside the opening is a silvery surface, dancing in the reflection of our myriad light sources.

Stepping forward, I inspect it closely. It appears to be a section of the 'silver bullet' from above.

"Think you can open a path kid?" Beth asks while moving back out of the way. Tipan takes it a step further, retreating all the way to the alcove while glancing in our direction.

"Definitely," I declare confidently. Reshaping earth is trivial. I start moving the dirt into the surrounding walls, weaving simple designs into the wall while clearing a larger section of the wall. I've cleared over nine square metres when I notice a change in the surface near the bottom of my excavation.

"I think I've found something," I say while continuing to excavate the area. Once I've cleared another meter or so, it starts to look like the edge of a door. The walls are incredibly sturdy by this time. I'm going to have to keep this in mind. I could easily create an entire underground base with power like this.

"What is it?" Beth asks as she steps up beside me.

"A door?" I shrug.

"Hard to tell with only the top exposed," Beth observes.

"Yeah. Give me a few, I'll get it unburied," I remark while shooing Beth, gesturing at her to give me space as she moves up the hall chuckling.

Turning back to my work, I continue to compact the dirt while creating a set of stairs that leads down. When I'm finished there's the newly revealed door of course, as well as the wall it's set into. The door stands over four meters tall, and both the door and the wall are slanted slightly away from us.

But my efforts didn't stop there. Around the door is a sizable room, ringed by twin curving stairs that lead down to the door from either side. With a railing, for… Safety? Yeah. Let's say it's for safety. In the middle is a large alcove, complete with small benches along the side.

The whole thing only took me ten minutes.

"Okay. I think I'm finished," I yell at the others as I adjust the railing where it transitions at top of the stairs, adding a small flourish.

"I think you may have gotten carried away kid," Beth says when she comes to inspect the room.

"You think the light recesses are too much?" I wonder, eyeing the intricately shaped recesses critically. Smoulder joins me in my inspection, sending a wave of approval at the design of our new den. She especially appreciates the aforementioned resting nooks, (light recesses). I don't bother correcting her, setting her inside of one instead. Her perpetual flames give the room a nice ambience.

"I didn't even notice…. Yes. The recesses are too much," Beth answers, sighing while I smile behind her back. If I'm going to be using my earth manipulation, there will be flourishes. Earth is the perfect combination of firm and moldable material for quick and easy customization.

"Well, I wasn't aware we were waiting in the economy class area," Roberts comments as the others join us outside the silvery door.

"I like it," Rufka opines.

"I'm not sure how we're going to…" Beth trails off as she sets her hand on the door, totally breaking protocol.

"This is confusing, Alexis, Roberts. What do you think?" Beth asks as she turns to us.

"I'm sorry. Think of what, Bethany?" Roberts replies but I have a suspicion. Moving next to her, my thoughts are confirmed as a notification appears overlaid on the door.

"Citizen status recognized."

"Access granted."

"Error - access hatch damaged please contact maintenance."

It takes me a minute to realize why Beth is confused. Then understanding dawns on me. The message isn't written in Vausian. It's in Astreum, a language used by the Builders. I almost forgot I'd learned more than Vausian from Uthica. Thanks, Uthica.

"It's saying it recognizes us as Citizens and it would grant us access, but it's broken," I inform the others.

"Well, couldn't you magic the door out of the way?" Beth suggests, making a waving motion with her hand. I guess she's not surprised I can read it. But then, considering how often I know things I've no business knowing, that does make sense.

Shrugging, I reach out, connecting to the building with stone and metal manipulation. It appears to be a titanium alloy, reinforced by magic. The wall itself is completely resistant to my magic, but the mechanism the door is attached to is seriously busted but partially there. I'm not able to reshape the door, but I am able to manipulate the attached mechanism, slowly sliding the door out of the way with a painful screeching noise.

The inside is dark and silent. For some reason, I was expecting to find glowing lights and quiet beeping noises.

Less than a meter inside lies a skeleton of a creature I don't recognize in a hallway that curves out of sight to either side. The skeleton seems vaguely humanoid, but it's taller than a human. Which means it's definitely taller than most K'tharn.

"Well, that's encouraging," Roberts comments as Josh moves towards the open door.

"One second, slugger," Beth halts him with a hand on his chest.

She looks around for a moment before sighing, "kid, you want to throw a rock in there?"

"Sure, one second," I answer, pulling a nice baseball-sized rock through the wall of the staircase. The only visible stone in the room is the arching support pillars and the textured stair nosings. This means the rock needs to be pulled through roughly a meter of packed dirt, taking a few seconds.

I hand the rock to Rufka instead of throwing it myself. I'd be impressed if I could get it across the threshold.

"Here goes," Rufka warns, tossing the stone into the open door, nailing the skeleton, sending the bones scattering.

"What in Vaus' pit?" Rufka swears, jumping as the bones clatter.

"What?" Beth demands, looking for the threat.

"Didn't expect it to scatter like that. I've never heard of an actual skeleton in a training area," Rufka explains sheepishly which causes me and Tipan to start laughing.

"I don't suppose the explorer subclass gives you trap detection abilities?" Beth asks Tipan while Smoulder sniffs at the opening cautiously.

"Not... Not as such," Tipan stutters out, still giggling.

"If it's still trapped after the opening mechanism is broken, then I doubt we'll be able to find it," Rufka notes, her ears laid back in embarrassment.

Josh is standing there, staring at the recently scattered skeleton.

"Josh? What do you think?" Beth prompts, her hand still on his chest.

"Huh?" Josh grunts as he jumps, turning to Beth.

"Do you think you'd be okay going through?" Beth repeats patiently, smiling at him.

"Oh sure. One sec," he answers, his helmet and shield reforming. Is it just me or was that nearly instant? It's certainly much faster than when he first did it.

His armour in place, Josh places the tip of his shield through the door but nothing happens. He follows that by putting a single finger through the door. Since he still hasn't provoked a reaction, he steps carefully through the door. Even though he's careful he still stumbles slightly when he places his foot on the slanted floor. Swiftly regaining his balance, he glances to each side.

"K, looks clear. Gravity shifts," he warns, avoiding disturbing the skeleton while moving just out of sight.

Beth follows him in, sweeping her gaze both ways, Smoulder close beside her.

"Hey kid, can you come read this," she requests a few seconds later.

"Sure," I say, stepping over the threshold. As I do, I can feel the effect Josh mentioned, shifting my sense of 'down' to be perpendicular to the floor. But it's not the only thing that's off. I feel as though an unseen pressure has suddenly lifted. A pressure I've been acclimatizing to since we stepped outside of the circle of standing stones. Looking around, it takes me a moment to realize it's the ambient mana.

Or I should say, it's the lack of ambient mana. Because I don't feel any in the air.

"Kid?" Beth prompts.

"Right, sorry. Mana in here is weird," I say, moving next to her.

"Weird how?" she asks. She's standing in front of a metallic sign that wouldn't be out of place at an airport back on earth. Except all the words are projected by the system. Each word written on the sign has arrows next to them indicating directions.

"There's no ambient mana. It's just air," I answer. Then, pointing at the sign, I read out, "To the right is Observation, Crew Quarters and the Cafeteria. On the left, we'll find Command, Engineering and…." I indicate each in turn. But a surge of hope runs through me when I reach the last entry.

After half a second, I add, "and a Ripple Drive-core."

"Well, let's make that our last stop, shall we," Beth decides, assigning the drive-core the exact opposite priority I would have chosen.

"Seems wise. Engines tend to be hazardous. Perhaps we can discover relevant information elsewhere first," Roberts proposes, as he joins us inside the hall.

As we're moving further inside, I hear Tipan saying, "this is incredible. I doubt any-"

"Gah!" Tipan exclaims from behind us, interrupting herself. Turning, I find Tipan sprawled in a ball outside the foot of the threshold, Rufka beside her. "Vaus' tits, that looked like it hurt. Full speed collision."

"It appears we're not invited," Rufka observes, pressing her hand against an invisible barrier. The way her fur splays against the barrier is kind of pretty, I note, as she rotates her hand back and forth.

"Not sure I like the idea of splitting up," Beth states, looking at the entrance.

"It's fine. Tipan and I will keep watch for you here. If you're not back in a few hours we will meet you at Raz's," Rufka replies, as if the idea that anything bad could happen doesn't occur to her.

"I think we should at least explore this level," Roberts contributes.

While they're talking, I realize I can still feel Rufka and Tipan through IFF.

Connecting to Rufka, I ask, "Can you hear me now?" while taking a step farther down the hall.

"Yes, I can," she whispers back.

"We have comms," I declare a little louder than necessary, making Beth wince.

"Okay. That settles it. We'll explore this floor. If we lose comms or you need us, we'll hurry back," Beth decides, "let's go right first."

Josh nods, moving up the passage next to Beth, still being careful not to step on the bones. I stay in the back, collecting Smoulder so I can keep her safely in my pocket. Besides, I kind of like being at the back.

Since I'm already in the back, when I use a little bit of water to tidy the bones into a little pile, the only one who notices is Rufka. She raises her right eyebrows, grinning, but doesn't say a word. I notice she's pulled out Astra's Stride and a folding table while Tipan settles in across from her.

Huh. Should I get a folding table? Wait, I can just make my own. Metal manipulation is better than any folding table.

It only takes a minute before we come across a door labelled Crew Quarters. Next to the door are two sets of stairs, one leading up, another down. The stairs themselves are set at an uncomfortable height; each step is roughly half a meter tall.

Over the stairs going up is a sign reading Observation, Cafeteria and Crew Quarters while above the stairs heading down the sign indicates Engineering and Ripple drive-core.

"Am I reading this right? There are crew quarters here and up there?" Beth asks.

"Yeah. It looks like we can get to engineering and the drive-core by going down these stairs too."

"That would make sense. The engine is likely at the bottom, with engineering next to it. You'd probably want to maintain ready access," Roberts speculates while Beth leads the way into the door marked crew quarters.

The silver door swings on a silent hinge, revealing a long central corridor that ends in a wall at the far end. Taking the first door on the right, Beth leads us into a room bereft of furnishings with no signs of life.

"It's… kind of empty," Josh notes as we enter our third empty suite. Despite being designated as crew quarters, these rooms are huge. Each suite is bigger than our apartment back home. But then, considering the height of the doors and the rise of the stairs, the original occupants were pretty tall, so they'd need more space.

"Yeah. Looks like they packed everything up at some point," Beth agrees as we continue searching.

We spend the next few minutes looking through rooms that are mostly the same, only slightly different in shape. There is one room that is completely different at the far end, but other than several discoloured patches, we find nothing.

"This whole excursion has been rather anticlimactic so far," Roberts remarks as we step out of the room with discoloured patches. I think it might have been a communal bathroom. Or maybe a laundry facility?

"Would you have preferred being jumped by slavering aliens who want to burrow into your chest?" Beth asks drily.

"Hardly. But when one is given an opportunity to explore what appears to be an alien ship, it's safe to say that they expect more than a few empty rooms."

"It's how they keep their secrets," Josh whispers conspiratorially from inside his helmet.

No one has a response to that.

Since we're done searching through all the rooms without having found anything significant, Beth motions us out. With Beth leading the way, we circle around to the other side. As we're once again passing the pile of bones, it occurs to me to analyze them.

“Creature analyzed: Yrken. Gene-seed B"

Huh. That's the first time I've seen a gene-seed that isn't D.

"Yrken are a well-established and loyal servitor race. Trading their freedom for ensured genetic continuity, the Yrken are held in great esteem for their continual efforts on behalf of the Creators."

It looks like they're a servant race. I wonder what it means by genetic continuity.

"Name: Calvin Sbboh'n."

"Attributes: Physical; Extreme, Mobility; Extreme, Magic; Extreme, Awareness; Extreme."

"Attacks: Restricted."

"Defences: Restricted."

It doesn't really tell me much. There's no codex to download. Another reminder that Wyonna is gone.

I'm finished reading the analysis by the time we make it to the other side where we discover another pair of stairs. There's no door on this side though. The stairs down are labelled Engineering and Drive-core, same as on the other side, while the stairs leading up are only labelled Command. Where's the damn elevator?

"Well, I guess that's that," Beth says as we all look at the stairs.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm kind of disappointed," I say, leaning on a wall near the exit.

"Me too," Rufka replies through the link I've kept active the entire time we've been exploring, "Tipan is surprisingly good at this game."

"I'm inclined to explore another floor," Roberts contributes, looking at the stairs leading to command.

"Me too," Josh agrees quickly.

"Well, I'm down to explore another floor," I echo, giving Rufka an idea of what's going on.

"Yes. Do that. I need time for a rematch," Rufka growls through the link.

"Rufka thinks we should too," I chuckle while relaying her opinion.

"Okay then. If we're going to do this, Command seems like a good choice. If there are answers anywhere in here, I imagine they'd be there. Or Engineering," Beth concedes easily, starting to climb the stairs with bounding steps. She's immediately followed by Josh and Roberts. Funny how strange it is to see them taking half-metre stairs, two steps at a time.

I don't bother trying to match their prowess, conjuring my hoverboard to fly along behind them instead.

I don't know who designed this place, but it takes us SIXTEEN sets of stairs to get to command. There are several landings but no other doors. Luckily, with everyone's now superhuman resources, it hardly matters. I'm not certain but I think we must be halfway up the building. Seems about that far based on my IFF feedback from Rufka and Tipan anyway.

As I float through the door, right behind the others, we all stop to look around. There are metallic forms of what might have once been machines scattered about the room, but it's only in this moment that I notice there's no dust. There hasn't been dust anywhere.

"Aren't abandoned places supposed to have dust?" I wonder out loud, inspecting the nearest metallic husk as Josh and Beth lead the way into the room.

"Damnit. I should have noticed that," Beth remarks, shaking her head as she steps forward.

"No one notices everything," Josh offers consolingly as he moves ahead.

"No mana and no dust. Perhaps they're related," Roberts suggests, following close behind.

"Doesn't look like there's- oh, nevermind," Josh says from where he disappeared around one of the large metal consoles.

As we all step around, it's easy to make out what Josh found.

Slumped over a still illuminated console is another Yrken skeleton, in a more intact state than the one we found below. In this position, it's easy to see that whoever they were, they stood at least three metres tall.

But that's not what draws our attention. On the screen is a clear three-dimensional map of the city. Which is great. Even better, next to it is another 3D map covered in greens, blues and browns.

It's hard to say without a closer look, but I think we may have just found a map of Akilo.

As we step forwards Roberts remarks,

"Now that. That is something worth seeing."