Location: The Relentless
Planet: Precursor Vault - The Needle
Details about the Precursor Vault:
The ship settles to rest about 200 meters from the base of the tower. The tower itself stretches into the sky above them, projecting a few kilometers from the surface. It's surface covered with glyphs and geometric patterns that travel up and down it's length as far as they can see in the ships floodlights.
"What are we doing here, Kieran?" Mae asks Kieran. They are in his cabin as he straps on his gear and armor. "We're delaying chasing Juro."
"You know why we have to go in - or have you forgotten about everything that's happened to us?" Mae turns about and Kieran cinches her backpack tight and checks the buckles and harnesses on her vac-suit.
Mae sighs, "You're right, but I don't have to always like it." She absent-mindedly scratches at her side through the vacuum suit.
Laris is waiting in the cargo bay of the Relentless when the two arrive - wearing a vacuum suit, but her helmet hanging from her belt.
"You're not going," Kieran says. His vac-suit is now covered in armored plates and weapons - more so than the normal pistols and short double-barreled shotgun. He seems positively covered in barrels and blades and various things that go boom.
Laris begins to protest but see's the look on Mae's face. "It's not negotiable. We used to run on a grub crew and scavenged dozens of these places. We know what we're doing. You'll just get killed." Mae frowns.
"Besides," Kieran interjects, "We need you to help us figure out who tried to sabotage our ship back at Scirocco." He smirks. "Whoever did that would have killed you as well."
The blond constable places her hands on her hips. "What do you want me to do while you're gone?"
"Keep an eye on the ship, keep it closed and locked up - unless it's us coming back. We don't know what's here so monitor the sensors, keep your radio on."
At this last bit, Kieran and Mae put their helmets on and check each others' gear one last time. They three check their radios and Laris heads back to the bridge, closing the internal airlock behind her.
Sound or Signal (First Outer Look)
The surface of the planet is scoured clean - the atmosphere stripped away thousands or millions of years ago. Under their feet, the duo can see the faint outline of an ancient path made of hexagon-shaped tiles. Fit together so tightly that the seams are almost invisible.
Kieran crouches down several meters from their ship and brushes dirt and rock away, exposing a few of the tiles. They are unmarred, whatever material they are made from untouched by time or the cataclysm that shattered the planet.
Their radios crackle, "Everything alright out there?" They can hear the stress in Laris' voice. Mae can see Laris peeking out of the bridge window.
"We're fine," Mae waves towards the ship. "Just checking something out."
They move towards the base of the tower. As they approach it, their suit sensors detect a signal coming from the structure…
they move to the base of the structure
The surface is a subdued metallic material that is flesh-like in appearance. Striated and etched with flesh-like patterns of muscle and skin.
Automated Defenses (Interior First Look)
The final automaton fell to the floor. The interior entryway now full of smoke and pieces of the automated robot defenders.
Mae tosses out a few flares to light up the area. Bullet holes and blast marks pebble the walls from their fight. The same glyphs and geometric patterns extend throughout the walls, ceiling and floors.
The duo move off into one of the darkened pathways that appear to go deeper into the structure. Once past the entry way the pair follow the hallway for several minutes as it bends left, right, has gone up and down. It is impossible for them to determine if they have gone up in the tower-like portion of the vault, or if they are now underground.
The find themselves in a large room, dozens of meters to a side. Kieran lights several flares and throws them around the room ahead of them. On the walls and floors are scrawled markings, interspersed with intricate symbols and pictographs. The floor is clear of debris or detritus - but he can spot several long gashes that have gouged out areas of the floor.
Mae and Kieran use their data pads and begin to take scans and images of the markings on the walls.
"This stuff look familiar to you?" Kieran asks Mae.
"No, not really. I don't recognize any of this. But maybe we can find an AI or someone who knows more about it?"
Kieran turns to look for their next area to scan when he spots movement in the darkness. Brief glimmers, like the sun reflecting off of a mirror.
They top over 2m in height. Vaguely ant-like in form, they have 4 legs attached to a thin abdomen. Two long, muscular multi-jointed arms are attached at the thorax, each arm ended in four fingered hands with retractable metallic claws. The head was shaped like a diamond, with four front-facing eyes and a wide mandible. Metallic plates of armor were weaved throughout the creature's skin.
"Forgespawn!" Kieran yells out as he whips his submachine gun up and sprays at the enemy from the hip.
Kieran and Mae kill the forgespawn without issue over a few moves. They do so without taking any injury.
PROGRESS FURTHER INTO THE VAULT NEXT WEEK we have only partially explored the vault