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RP: SNV Gam'trosha [Chapter 3.3] Away Team - Cave Exploration

"Unfortunately, I am getting nothing," the engineer replied, "I would attempt to repair this device would it do any good; however it works fine when testing on objects with known results. I know electrical phenomena should register; but it is possible I have not been watching enough for radioactive - particularly beta particles."

That having come up though, Ye'gor quickly adjusted his equipment to start checking more intently for traditional forms of radio isotope presence.
 
As Def returned to the tank she saw Shar nowhere near, and as comms were down, there came no reply as well. Tank looked abandoned and since it was still locked it was unlikely that Shar was inside.

"Looking fro me Lex?" Came voice from behind Def'leor. Shar stood few feet behind the lexicon, she held her rifle and looked around through visor of the helmet. "So far nothing happened, I kept out of sight to see if the tank would lure something in, but nothing happened."
 
Def'leor could not believe her ears at Shar's comment.

"Nothing happened? Did you not see that electrical discharge? Check out the tank and make sure all systems are operational. We are going to relocate to someplace where we do not have to worry about a billion amps of electricity running through us. Perhaps closer to that cave or even in the mouth of the cave."
 
Everyone's suits began to register a new contact on their tactical displays, a signature that had just suddenly and unexpectedly appeared out of no where from amongst the ruins; its location was given away by the slight humming sound it gave off followed by a reddish pulsating glow that spread throughout any cracks that could be found in the ruined building this thing was inside. At the same time the storm above had calmed down to the point where it was now only raining, the lightning had stopped.
 
Ye'gor's ears twitched again at the contact then to the sound. Soon he put the scanner up to try and see if he could get more information that way, despite how much he felt it would be futile. Maybe, just maybe something could be even remotely detected with their equipment - even just the repeated pressure changes that are needed for the current vibrations to be transmitted through the air.
 
Def'leor looked at the suit readings. There was definitely something going on in these ruins. She made her way through the ruins to get closer to the building with the glow and see if she could get a better look. She looked at one of the other ruined buildings and climbed up the damaged structure to get a vantage point to look at the building. Perhaps if she was lucky she could actually see what was causing the glow, but she did not hold much hope.
 
Shar did not reply to the Def'leor. Instead she raised her rifle and aimed the way, strange readings came from. From the distance, the marine used her helmet to activate the tank and ran diagnostics. She wanted to make sure, their ride was ready to go. With her rifle, ready to fire, she followed Def'leor to make sure the Lexicon would not get into any trouble.
 
It wasn't much of a vantage point, parts of the ruins were still blocking the origin of the glow but small parts of it could be seen through cracks in the walls. It was a shining glow, one that couldn't be mistaken for anything other than a crystal, the hum it gave off was rather distinctive to be anything but. On Shar's tank, her sensors would only back up this possibility by picking up a power reading from the area of the glow.

Within the nearby cave, something peered out and watched the team, whatever it was matched the coloration of the cave and remained hidden.
 
"Drisa." Def'leor swore when their vantage point failed to give them meaningful information. Why was the universe conspiring against them at every turn.

"Well, looks like there is only one way we are going to see what is in there. We're going to have to get closer and look inside either through what's left of a window or the door way. May as well go for the larger opening. I'll approach from the left side, you come at the doorway from the right. Someone or something is playing games with us, and I for one want to know why. Let's go." she said dropping to the ground and rolling back to her feet to absorb the impact. She then set off to move using what available cover there was to get to the edge of the doorway.
 
As the two got closer, the humming grew louder and louder; becoming all the more appareant as to 'what' it might be. The doorway to that building, or rather, what was left of it; lead into that building 'living room', there was a broken table and chair along with a few other assorted items in various stages of decay and disrepair; the glow was coming from the next room over, whose wall was intact just enough to block the soldiers views; although there was a partially constructed stairway off to the side of the doorway that lead to what was left of the second floor which might serve as a good vantage point.
 
Def'leor wondered what was going on. The hum was clearly some sort of equipment, a generator of some kind. Not unlike the those aboard the Gam'trosha. But what were generators doing in these ruins and what was its power source. More important though was the purpose of this equipment.

"Let's use those stairs to get above that space and see what is in there. That much power has to have a purpose. I suspect that it must be some sort of weapon system. Perhaps the same one that put a hole in the Gam'trosha." She said and then crossed over to the partial stairway and started moving upward.
 
As possibly recognizable as what his eyes and hears took in, the complete lack of sensor information along the lines of any known theories of energy confused the engineer completely. It was almost as if what was going one had been set up to make those like him become a true believer in Chilerious. He had no other remaining explanation for it.
 
Going up the stairs was a bit of a precarize venture, as parts of the structure would break apart from their ascent, one piece shifted slightly, making a metallic sound as he thumped against the side of a support columb located beside the stairway - which was perhaps the only thing that kept it from completely collapsing. Once at the top, the two would find themselves in what one might assume to be a bedroom, there was the framework for a bed up against what was left of a wall - although there was no mattress or anything else, just the frame.

Off to the direct right of the two, the faint glow of the object below could be seen casting its harsh coloration against the remnants of the wall.
 
'Drisa, Drisa, Drisa.' Def'leor swore to herself. No matter how they tried to get to a vantage point to see what the source of the glow. none of them worked. Now they had to try to cross a floor that was most likely rotten and would deposit them on the ground floor before they got to where they could see. This would be an ideal situation to have some sort of compact remote device that they could fly over the area.

"Well, looks like we are going to have to get closer. Staying close to the wall remnant should be more stable than crossing the middle." She said and started over to it.
 
Ye'gor nodded in agreement, however he also tried to see if he could detect where the structure was under the floor, in effect, locate load bearing walls that may help in traversing across a stronger section of floor. Of course, part of his mind questioned the use of such an attempt if nothing could be detected.
 
Inside

The decision to stay close to wall turned out to be a good one, as the two traversed the top parts of the floor crumbled away from years of neglect; crashing to the floor below. As the two would round a bend they would have the object clearly in sight, its glimmer and humming made it clear that it was in fact a Lunabaren crystal, sticking out of the ground and nearly five feet tall; around it was an assortment of broken furniture but also remains of bodies - skeletons that were resting up against it or some that looked to have been tossed through the air given a few were resting on remains of tables.

Outside

Shar's helmet would pick up a few glimmers of a sensor contact but it was so brief that the system couldn't fully isolate 'where' the contact was, and with the storm raging overhead, it wasn't easy to determine whether the contact was because of the storm or something else.

A few feet from where Shar was standing, an object hovered lazily closeby; it wasn't out in the open but rather hiding behind a destroyed partition of the wall, whatever it was made very little sounds and the sounds it 'was' making were being drowned out by the storm.
 
Damaged Structure

Def'leor looked at the Lunabaren crystal with a sense of disbelief. She had never seen a crystal so large, and the simple truth was there was no way to ascertain just how large the crystal was. She had been expecting some sort of alien mechanism, not a crystal of the type that until know she believed only existed back on their home world.

She turned to Ye'gor, "Have you seen a natural Lunabaren crystal of that size before? I would not have expected to find Lunabaren out here, we haven't detected any of the usual gravitational anomalies that produce them."
 
Damaged Structure

Ye'gor's eyes widened as his ears and tail followed in betraying his surprise. Though Lunabaren crystals were something he dealt with regularly, natural occurring ones were something else.

"I have only seen unrefined crystals in pictures," the kit began as the initial surprise wore off, "Otherwise I have only seen the kind we use in power generation. Dealing with them as part of my job, however, I would recommend we deal with this extremely carefully."

At that moment the pages of various engineering and safety textbooks came up in his mind. Processes, procedures, containment; the young Laibe was soon changing from a look of excitement to one of anxiety. A crystal even this size, with unknown lattice properties, could be a huge incident waiting to happen should the wrong moves be made.
 
Damaged Structure

"I am no engineer, But I am thinking something that large is a significant danger. Something on the order of what burned through the Gam'trosha. We are not equipped to deal with that safely. Your thoughts?" She picked up her comincator out of habit, then recalled that it was inoperative. "Do you think we have the necesary equipment on board to collect, and study?" She also wondered if the cave perchance had secrets yet to be plumbed.
 
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