Under the glare of portable lights mounted on tripods, a guard is piloting a cargo handler. Pushing a curved blade across the rocky ground, the blade looked like a smaller version of those used on bulldozers. Master Zatlen watches the progress as it pushes loose rock and gravel away from a small squat cylinder. Then he moves forward waving his hand to attract the guard’s attention and points at the cylinder. The guard nods, dropping the curved blade and moving over to the cylinder. Gipping it around the top, the guard uses the cargo loaders strength to pull it away. Then he tosses it fifty meters where it hits the ground with a loud clang.

Master Zatlen approaches the guard. “Alright, that looks good. I’ll set-up the drone and begin the survey. You head over to Master Cyrand. He believes he may have found the duct that goes to the other side of our locked door, but it’s blocked by a large boulder.”

“Yes, sir.” The guard responds and strides higher up the mountain.

Master Zatlen places the bag he’s holding down next to the wrecked cylinder. Extracting a twenty centimeter disc, similar to a flying saucer, he places it on the ground. He then removes a device that looks like a very shallow bowl with small knobs clustered on one side. Tapping one of the nobs the disc lights up and floats gently off the ground hovering at one meter. He twists and turns a few other knobs until the saucer descends into the cylinder.

He taps a knob and a hologram appears above the shallow bowl showing the view down the tunnel. The saucers lights are reflecting off the smooth sides of a duct. Extracting a second saucer from the bag he places it on the ground next to the duct and then taps a knob on the bowl. The second saucer rises and when he taps again it moves forward a small distance and stops. He twists some more of the knobs and the holographic image shows the first saucer moving forward, which the second saucer mimics.

He spends the next few hours controlling the drones as he maps out the ducts and running into multiple obstructions as he does so.

He stops to eat and then sends a message. “Master Ilhon, can you please come to my location? I’ve finished mapping the ducts and I would like to review my findings.”

Ten minutes later Master Ilhon approaches accompanied by Master Paicen. “I brought our geometallurgist as I suspect we are going to need to discuss how I’m going to blow holes in the mountain.”

Master Zatlen nods in greeting to both men. “I’ve identified quite a few likely spots where there is probably a structure underneath the ducts. I’m not sure we can use most of them as they are too deep into the mountain, on the other hand, there are a couple that may be what we’re looking for.” He extracts a metal rod from the bag next to him and then gripping a small tab pulls a thin sheet of metal out. He places it down on the floor and they all crouch down around it.

“How far have you surveyed?” Master Paicen asks.

“I’ve gone to a depth of two to three hundred meters. The stone seems to either absorb or bounce the drone’s signal, so after two hundred meters the signal breaks down. I’ve been using a second drone on the surface to both verify depth, but also to ensure if the drone in the duct loses the signal it backtracks.”

“That’s clever. So, what have you found?” Master Paicen comments.

Master Zatlen taps the end of the metal rod and the metal sheet it’s attached to glows. A diagram appears on the sheet showing some form of a map. “This is the layout of the ducts.” He taps the rod again and a second diagram appears showing faint outlines of rooms. “This is the probable layout based on what Lady Vaeri expects based on the knowledge crystals for previous sites. As you can see numerous rooms could be accessible.” He taps the rod a third time and a series of wavy lines appear, causing sections of the ducts to change color into different shades of red, orange and green. “This is the topographic map. The ducts have been colour-coded to show how deep they are. Everything more than fifty meters deep is in red, less than twenty-five meters deep are green and everything between is orange.”

“There’s a lot of red and very little green.” Master Ilhon says blandly.

“Can you overlay where the rock is solid and where it’s fragmented?” Master Paicen asks. Master Zatlen turns a knob on the end of the rod and several images quickly cycle through until the topographic map is replaced with shaded areas. “As you can see most of the red and orange areas are under solid rock as are a few of the green. The southern edge of the mountain is predominately covered in loose rock and boulders.” Master Paicen says, pointing to several areas on the map.

“We need to avoid the areas with loose rock.” Master Ilhon says in a monotone.

“Why?” Master Zatlen asks.

“Because you blow a hole and it instantly fills with loose rock.” Master Paicen replies as he leans over the map, tapping several points. “I would recommend these locations. They are high up and near steep drops that should allow any debris to fall away from the blast.” He points at two specific positions. “These are the best for both location and depth.”

Master Ilhon considers the map in silence. “I agree. We could use shaped charges to borehole’s and then use a secondary charge in the holes to shatter the rock.”

“Is the slave capable of doing that?” Master Zatlen queries.

“He is.” Master Ilhon confirms in a bored tone. “I’ll also give him some explosive cord to blast the holes in the ducts. It’ll take me fifteen minutes to get the explosives together. Can you get a shield sleeve?”

“Why?” Master Paicen queries.

“He can use shield in the ducts to protect himself, so we don’t have to pull him out. The smaller area will allow him to focus the shield improving its strength.”

“I’ll get the slave and make sure he has sleeves for shield and Force. I’ll also make sure he has a knife in case he meets something on the way.” Master Zatlen states, then standing up, walks away.

Twenty minutes later, Alex is wearing a helmet and is clambering down a rope into the opening that leads to the ducts. He drops into a circular area four meters wide with six ducts leading away. A pack descends after him on a second rope, when it hits the ground the rope is tossed down after it.

Master Zatlen shines a light onto him and calls down. “Remember the helmet has lights and we’ll be able to see what you are looking at.” Alex crouches down and looks and the two ducts in front of him. “The duct you want is to the left side.” Alex points to one of the ducts. “Yes, that’s the one.”

Alex kneels and peers inside regarding the one and a half meter wide smooth stone pipe. He takes the rope tied to the pack and creates a loop that he puts over his shoulder and across his chest like a bandolier with two meters of slack. He then removes the knife and sheath from his waist and secures it over the Force sleeve he’s wearing. He extends his arms in front of himself and eases into the pipe. The lights on his helmet come on and he hears the sound of his body scraping across the floor as it echoes.

“Once more I venture into the realm of darkness,” Alex mutters in English as he drags himself forward using his hands, elbows and feet. After he has travelled a few meters he feels the rope around his chest tighten as the pack snags behind him. He looks over his shoulder and see’s the pack caught on the lip of the pipe. Behind it is a drone carrying a large fan, which is larger than the pipe. Grabbing the rope he gives it a sharp tug and the pack frees itself.

Alex keeps moving forward over the dust and small stones that litter the bottom of the pipe. After he moves just over a hundred meters he approaches a cross junction. There is a distinct lack of any floating prana in the pipe and the atmosphere is dead. In the dust, there are paw prints and small black pebbles that lie around the area, with any luck they’re stones and not droppings. Abruptly there’s a whine, then a strong gust of air propelled down the pipe from behind.

“That’s just the fan. Keep going straight on.” Master Zatlen’s voice declares within the helmet.

“Yes, Master.”

Continuing to crawl forward time loses meaning as the slow progress is underlined with painful hands and knees. The flow of air soon can barely be felt giving the surrounding darkness a claustrophobic atmosphere. It becomes so oppressive that it turns into the path into an exercise of pain endurance. The overriding noise in the pipe is the echo from the sound of panting breath. The disembodied voice of Master Zatlen breaks the silence with terse directions. It’s the only indication that there are others alive outside of the pervasive gloom.

Eventually, Alex hears what he has been hoping for. “You’re at the first location. Take out the explosive cord and lay it in a one-meter circle on the bottom of the duct.” Master Ilhon’s flat voice states.

Alex reaches down and pulls the rope tied to the pack until he can pull it in front of himself. He unclips the top of the pack and pulls out a thick bag. Opening the bag extracts a three-meter ribbon and unwinds it then placing it on the ground he completes a circle. Returning to the bag he then removes a very small core and presses it into the point where the two ends of the ribbon meet. Extracting a small pebble from a pocket on his sleeve, he touches it to the core which begins to softly glow and then replaces the pebble.

“Good, you’ve activated the detonator. Now back to the last junction.” Master Ilhon commands.

Alex puts the bag in the pack and clips it shut. Then begins to push his way back, it seems much harder than going forward, as the pain begins to build in his elbows and knees. It seems to take longer to return to the last junction as he drags the pack along with him.

“Move into the side passage to your right.” Master Zatlen commands. “How’s your prana?”

“It’s at maximum, Master.”

“Good. When you detonate the cord you’ll need to use shield to block the end of the duct. I’ll ensure that the drone remains behind you.”

“Yes, Master,” Alex says, then pulls back into the junction and with the little extra room, it allows him to twist into the desired pipe and face forward. Alex removes the pebble from his pocket and announces. “I’m ready, Master.”

“Good. You’re only a hundred meters away from the charge so you’ll need to activate the explosives and the shield at the same time. We’ll activate the audio filters in the helmet so it’ll go quiet for a short time.” Master Ilhon advises.

“Understood. Triggering in 3, 2, 1” Alex’s voice was steady and calm. As he finished speaking, he channeled prana into the arm with the shield sleeve, which is also the hand with the pebble. The shield popped into existence directly in front of him and a fraction of a second later the pebble flashed blue.

There was a loud bang that echoes through the pipe, and then a storm of dust erupts causing the shield to flare. The shield flickers and straightaway as sucks more prana in to repel stones and rocks. For the next few seconds, the shield flickers but holds at the cost of most of Alex’s prana, until eventually there was no more debris just swirling dust. After a few minutes, the shield drops and weak air currents move the dust that saturates the air as it begins to clear.

“Alright. I’m going to use the drone and investigate what happened.” Master Zatlen states.

“Yes, Master,” Alex replies and watches as the drone silently float past and around the corner.

Master Zatlen watches what the drone is seeing as the hologram is projected above the bowl. The drone turns its lights on and floats slowly down the pipe until it arrives at the point of the explosion where there is now a large hole in the floor. The drone floats down into the hole emerging into a wide chamber. Little is visible except clouds of dust and smoke. Tweaking a few knobs and suddenly the image becomes clearer.

The chamber seems mostly empty, but as the drone continues to get lower, it detects there are large piles of rock littering the floor. Moving around the perimeter of the intact wall it finds an opening and it slowly enters. It moves into a larger room which is filled with an array of small cylinders mounted in racks. The drone moves over to the cylinders and begins to slowly inspect each in turn; several seem to have been smashed and are lying on the floor.

“Slave, rest there I’m going to check with Lady Vaeri.”

“Yes, Master.”

For the next five minutes as the drone continues on its search pattern before moving quickly back to the first chamber. The drone flies to a point on the far side and as it approaches a large machine is barely visible buried under a pile of rocks. Lady Vaeri’s voice breaks in and states “Ah, that’s unfortunate. This appears to be an air filtration plant and quite a big one. There will likely be other facilities nearby, probably for water filtration. We won’t be able to get anything worthwhile in the short time we have available. Keep looking.”

“As you command, Lady Vaeri.” Master Zatlen responds. “Alright slave, you need to turn around and follow the pipe you’re now in.”

“Yes, Master,” Alex responds as he squeezes around to face the opposite direction and begin to crawl. He ensures that the pack is once again being towed behind him as he moves. There’s less dust in the air of this pipe, but he still coughs sporadically despite wearing the helmet. The colossal weight of the rock seems to become more stifling the deeper the pipe leads into the mountain.

Stopping to rest as the pipe slowly starts to change direction and move up the mountain. Soon grunting echoes down the pipe as feet are braced against the sides of the pipe and used to slowly push up the steepening slope. It probably finished at only a twenty-degree incline; however, but still a massive struggle due to the limited space. At the top, there is a crossbar and with just enough space to squeeze through. Lying flat and using arms and hands to propel forward into a clear straight pipe.

A short while later he approaches a pile of rubble blocking the way. He pauses in his crawl along the small duct, cycling some of his prana into the collar around his neck and makes a call. “Master, I’ve encountered a blockage, I’m sure I can get past.” He’d travelled nearly an hour through the pipes. Few things were more dangerous than exploring ducts in a mountain that had already collapsed once.

“It doesn’t go too far, just dig your way through. There’s a can of rock-foam in the pack, you use shield to hold it up the ceiling while you spray it and it sets. It takes ten seconds and becomes rigid, it’s great for filling small fissures or for building a bridge over larger ones. The canister you’ve got will do about a cubic meter.” Master Zatlen states.

“Yes, Master. I understand.”

Edging forward and pulling some of the rubble lose the work begins. Clambering to drag the rubble clear, then retreating down the pipe, moving it out of the way. The next thirty minutes are spent crawling backwards and forwards. The blockage slowly reduces and the rubble is carefully removed. The occasional shifting of the debris, as bits are removed, causes spikes of fear that the pipe might cave in. As the work progresses, it becomes harder as the rubble needs to move further away and the pace slows. Another ten minutes of tired progress later and now short of breath, with arms shaking, and hands covered in rock dust, it stops as a small gap appears. A final push at the blockage causes the final pieces of rubble to fall away, but more falls from the ceiling. Collapsing in total exhaustion, dizzy and lightheaded, the back of the helmet bangs on the ground.

“That’s enough slave. There’s a sufficient gap for the drone to get through. Rest for now.”

“Yes, Master,” He gasps.

Turning over and taking deep breaths, the light reflects off the motes of dust floating in the air. Watching the motes spinning slowly as they fall through the beam of light, gravity slowly and inexorably dragging them down to the floor. Waving a hand results in eddies and swirls but also causing a memory to surface. It was a sermon made by the priest. He expounded that man was created from dust and had the breath of life blown into him, rather than being a handful of dust combined with water and molded.

Ten minutes later Master Zatlen’s voice announces. “Slave, you’ll need to shore up the ceiling and push through. There’s not much further to go. After about a hundred meters there are a few more twists and turns until you get to the target area.”

“Yes, Master,” Alex replies then pulling the tether attached to the pack he pulls it forward. The pack had been a hindrance when shuffling backwards and forwards causing extra effort to move it in addition to dragging debris. The pack was dirty, covered in rock dust and several muddy boot prints, but still securely shut. Opening the pack he removes a bag that contains the explosives and then delves deeper until finds a canister and pulls it out. The canister is thirty centimeters long ten wide and heavy, at one end is a nozzle and a small ring next to a handle. Running the length of the canister is red script and at the base is a small core.

“Slave, pull the pin out until it clicks and then it’ll be ready to use. Pulling the handle will squirt the rock-foam out. Once you’ve covered the area use your shield to hold it in place, don’t leave any gaps. It takes about ten seconds to set.”

“Yes, Master.”

Pushing along on his back he gets into position to view the hole in the ceiling of the tunnel. Doing as instructed, he pushes the canister nozzle into the hole and pulls the lever. The core on the bottom glows as does the script, and a thick jet of light grey foam is pushed out under pressure. As the hole is filled the foam begins to slowly sag down, rushing to finish Alex sighs, then he activates the shield sleeve focusing on the foam. The foam looks like it’s being squashed behind a sheet of glass as it slowly darkens.

“Alright, that’s good, you can release the shield. Is there any rock foam left in the canister?”

“Yes, Master, but not much.” Alex gasps.

“Good, remember to take it with you. You should be able to push the rubble forward now until you can get past.”

“Yes, Master.”

After another ten minutes scrambling through the debris, the pipe leads into a vertical shaft only a meter wide. Leaning over and shining the light down, piles of rock and sharp metal can be seen littering the floor. The air in the shaft is stagnant and smells musty even through the helmet filters.

“Slave, you’ll need to brace yourself and climb up about ten meters to the first duct that joins this one. You’ll need to get to the other end of that duct where the drone is waiting.”

Turning over and sliding into the vertical space a sense of panic nearly surfaces as a foot slips against the side of the pipe. Frantically scrambling to find purchase with hands and arms. The foot abruptly grips and steadies stopping the slide down the shaft. The only sound heard is the thunder of a racing heart and the wheezing of ragged breaths. As the panic subsides the pack is pulled free of the pipe and held in front. Then the slow walk up the shaft commences while bracing hands and feet against the wall to avoid falling. Looking up, the top of the shaft is not visible as the weak beam of light stretches upwards. After long minutes and definitely more than ten meters, another pipe joins onto the shaft on the opposite side.

Leaning over and pushing the pack into the pipe first before placing head and shoulders into the one-meter wide pipe. Then pressing both arms against the sides the first foot is released. Rapidly pushing forward, there is a brief moment of dread when the second foot slips away. Then scrambling forward grabs a secure position in the new pipe, sighing in relief.

Using arms and hands in front to both push the pack and also to claw forward makes the progress slow. A headache has been building for the last ten minutes and this

After another ten minutes of painful crawling a glow can be seen ahead. A minute later, resting on the bottom of the pipe in some form of pattern is the drone. Creeping forward, it’s confusing at first until it becomes apparent there is some form of grid set into the floor. Next to it is a small recessed device and that’s what the drone is resting on.

“Slave, you’re at the point you need to gain entry.”

“Master, how am I supposed to get through? There’s no way I’m going to be able to use explosives. I’ll not be able to get out of the blast radius in these small tunnels.”

“You have a blade, which by the way is runic. I’m sure you’ll find a way.”

“Yes, Master, I’ll try my best.”

When next to the grid it becomes obvious that it’s made of some form of metal and it's supposed to open like a vent. Inspecting the device there are rods running down one side. Unable to move the device Alex unsheathes the runic blade and cycling prana into his arm it glows red. Inserting the edge of the blade to the side of the device, it begins to cut around it until with a crash it falls through into the space below.

Placing the blade into the hole he begins to cut along one side directly in front of him. The drone rises and moves to a much smaller pipe on the opposite side. He has to repeatedly make adjustments as the blade seems to move in directions other than intended. Moving forward, he begins to cut along the second side until with a sense of jubilation he reaches the end. He stares at the corner in confusion as the sound of creaking can be heard. Then suddenly with a scream of tortured metal, the grid starts to break away from the pipe.

Hands shooting out desperately to the sides of the pipe while trying to not fall along with the grid. Then the surface crumbles, dropping everything into free fall. Landing at the bottom with a thud the pack follows him and smacks into his helmet knocking the lights out. As soon as the lights were extinguished there was a darkness so overbearing that you are afraid to move. The total and utter absence of light meant it would be no darker were your eyes plucked from your head.

After a few seconds, Master Zatlen asks quietly. “Slave, are you ok?”