The Deeper You Dig... [Day 0]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

Sparing a glance over his shoulder, Ambrose looked to Kiran and then to Hawat for his reaction to their observation. There were a lot of things that might explain a rhythmic vibration in a mining operation like this. The problem was most of those explanations spelt trouble for their little expedition, especially considering the two bodies they'd found so far.

[Efren Lanville]

At the front of the group Efren paused and waited for Thufir’s go-ahead to move into the facility and into the rhythmic terrors that awaited them…

[Kannon]

"It's the pulveriser more likely than not. It would mean they have left the reactor on. One that likely cannot operate for too long without personnel." Hawat frowned. "Let's proceed with caution, monitoring radiation readings." He looked at the cutteray-wielder.

[Efren Lanville]

Being located near the front, it would possibly make sense for Efren to be operating the cutteray... and so with Thufir's acknowledgement he (and whoever may also be helping to operate the machinery) began working on the door ahead of them.

[Kannon]

After they had positioned themselves on the other end of a long airlock, cutteray was put into use. The rem count didn't budge as their laser made an incision into the welding. But the detector of atmospheric gases did, them abruptly leaking into vacuum from the other side of the blocked passage.

[Kiran Alsahar]

"It's the pulveriser more likely than not. It would mean they have left the reactor on. One that likely cannot operate for too long without personnel." Hawat frowned. "Let's proceed with caution, monitoring radiation readings." He looked at the cutteray-wielder.

"It's definitely mechanical in nature. Makes sense to me," they agreed quietly as Efren worked on the door. They watched as he did, quiet and listening with their helmet against the wall near the airlock for anything unusual beyond the rhythmic thumping now that they're closer. It wouldn't come through the vacuum, but the sound would translate through the air inside, the wall, their helmet, and the air inside that.

[Efren Lanville]

Not hearing any order to stop from the mentat, Efren would continue to work on the door… hopefully along the line that had been welded shut and do as little damage to the sealing which previously had kept the air inside the facility secured.

[Ambrose Pantazis]

The breach of the airlock drew Ambrose's attention away from their rear for a moment. An ambush would most likely come from within at this point, but he did spar some focus away from the door for the unexpected. He was curious though, had the door been sealed from outside or from within.

[Kannon]

By then Hawat had checked if the mechanism to close the airlock behind them to pressurise the space they were in was actually viable. Having done some Hawat magic on it, he made it work, testing if he could override opening it as well. Only then did he keep it shut. As Efren kept removing the weld, more gas started accumulating.

"Monitor oxygen levels at the weld. If they get too high, we need to fall back."

The sound of thumping strengthened in Kiran's cranium, but wasn't getting polluted by irregularities. In the light of the cutteray, Ambrose could clearly discern that the weld had been done at least from the outside.

[Efren Lanville]

Efren did as instructed… continuing to work on the door and watch the readings while listening to the others for warning signals.

[Bernard Martikova]

Bern continued to monitor the situation, keeping his blade at hand should the worst happen. The thump was a definite concern, and anything doing that would probably become a problem the moment they opened the door.

[Kannon]

The oxygen levels began stabilising at the breath-ready levels before they finished cutting. It looked like this part of the airlock would be compromised once they would pierce through and they would have to vent everything on their way back until there were other airlocks beyond.

The thumping kept coming from beneath, so it did not intensity as they were getting closer to the breach. In the end the slab of metal gave in and fell off forward, with less thud than expected. The grotesque truth behind it soon came apparent - it fell on bodies, apparently locked out of escaping on the other side. The gas readouts were showing a trace increase in methane - unlike before, this had been a theatre of aerobic decomposition. Any helmet removal would be for the brave - the putrid stench of death was most assuredly permeating the air.

This was a reactor control room. It looked operational, the lights were flickering without agitation, only a few nominally orange. Rem counter marginally popped. There were further bodies and scattered bones across the floor, one only half-eaten, bottles or other improvised containers lay scattered, empty. The closed-quarters carnage that had played out here was one of desperation, but there were no visible signs to sabotage the reactor. Had they been locked out?

"More than abandoned then." Hawat said grimly, mapping exits from the central room. Some of them seemed open, or openable.

[Efren Lanville]

Efren's mind flashed to a cave and faces much like his pooling together in a bioelectrically illuminated darkness... Such were the excesses of the wealthy and powerful. The kind that use the people for wealth, or science, or whatever self-justification they find necessary to act in the way they do. Viewing the world in ledgers, charts, and progress led to this kind of cruelty. Not caring about those who came before... or what will come after.

The Harkonnen's are monsters... Just like everyone has always said... Just like Chaen Marek.

Reinforced preconceptions flowed through Efren's subconscious like spice in the bloodstream... It gave him focus and purpose. The people on this world needed help... all of humanity needed help... Help that could be provided by ending the reach of Harkonnen power and influence.

He withdrew his knife and readied himself for the order to check and clear the other rooms outside this main death chamber.

[Kannon]

It wasn't getting any better once the glowglobes had fully floated into the room. They may have expected something inhuman, but the gore they were witnessing seemed entirely human-made. By those who had locked them. And by those who had chosen to fight to survive at every expense until the very end, holding out for anything that would offer salvation, which never came.

They were both questions and answers here though, to be drawn from amongst morbid sights. Like: why.

[If someone wants to have some realisation ammo for a moment of personal illumination before Hawat says his piece, that's a Daunting roll on Education or Computation.]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

A flashback to the manta birds' cave came over Ambrose with the opening of the control room, especially when he caught sight of the half eaten corpse. It took a moment to steady his breathing and fight back the revulsion surging inside him.

The horrors these people had gone through in their last moments, as if he didn't have enough reason to hate the Harkonnens before. He was quite familiar with the effects of starvation and dehydration, both the technical aspects from his medic training and the harsh realities from personal experience with addicts. At the peak of Ailar use, it wasn't uncommon to see its users withering away to nothing while the drug took all priority in their lives and any sort of nourishment was neglected. The two outside had truly been given a merciful end compared to the poor souls trapped in here.

Ambrose quietly mumbled out a small prayer before speaking up, "I'm shocked they wouldn't overload the reactor, take the whole base down with them. Maybe they still held out hope of escape until they were took weak to do anything about it."

-----
Pregame, TDYT, Education, 2adv for 1boost: 1eP+3eA+1eB+4eD 2 successes, 1 threat


Player pool: 2
GM pool: 4

[Kannon]

The fact remained: they hadn't. And only two explanations presented themselves. Either someone who had locked them up didn't care enough about the site, or they knew those left behind wouldn't have done it even if cruelly left to die horribly. But how one can know such a thing, be certain of it enough not to kill all of them outright? This is what most would have done to silence everyone who hadn't been meant to bring the secrets of this place, whatever they were, outside. How one's mind could have projected that the outcome of this most hideous social experiment would exactly be that they would all die, one by one, having gone through full pathway of moral degradation, instead of just sabotaging the reactor to end the suffering and preserve a modicum of dignity. Assuming they could.

The coupling of such insight and predictive power with such genocidal inhumanity terrified. And there was only one name that was coming to Ambrose's mind in this context.

Piter de Vries.

[Using 4 Threat to kindle paranoia.]

[Ambrose Pantazis]

"Why not just kill them. To leave them here to suffer such a miserable end for no purpose other than some sadistic gratification. Risking the whole facility, not just losing it but exposing it to outside scrutiny. Unless that's what someone wanted. Someone left this macabre scene to draw us in... into a trap?" He gave a meaningful look Hawat's way before nervously scanning the room and their exit routes, gun drawn on ready to fire at the slightest hint of ambush. Surely the Master of Assassins had projected this much.

"Only one name comes to mind when we combine this level of sadism and foresight. Piter de Vries." If the twisted mentat was involved, not only could this facility be a deathtrap, their whole operation might be compromised.

[Efren Lanville]

Efren listened to the revelation of the lieutenant and nodded. Efren didn't have a tendency to overthink things... if conditions were possibly worse, then so be it. The mission remained and the Atreides had brought Piter de Vries' equivalent. They had things going for them and would surely have things going against them... It was his job to act and make things happen.

He continued to wait for the call to check the adjacent rooms and know how to proceed.

[Kannon]

"To acknowledge this has been staged for us would mean I have been outcomputed by Piter." Hawat said calmly, apparently less fazed by the macabre. "But yes, odds are this prolonged murder is his doing nonetheless. Which would mean he had taken a detour from his other duties to spend time in the Kornephoros system within the time frame we already established. Which in turn strongly indicates he took part in Gurney's interrogation. But the reason why he might have had his hand in the semi-shutdown of this facility is not yet fully clear."

Hawat pointed to the plated walls. "Iridium alloy. Not just a pulveriser, but an arc furnace somewhere here. This area is likely largely cut-off from any scanning and communications. This is a black vault. Find me the entry to the main thing."

[Efren Lanville]

Efren nodded in his soldier-like fashion and began moving through the room at the front of the group looking for the proper path...