Renala backs away from the crate. "Yeah, but we'll never make it to the armory alive without it," she says before she makes her way over to one of the small bodies of water and takes a tentaive sip of it from cupped hands.
#Rampage – October 2, 2013
It doesn't look like we have much of a choice. We have to get there. If that means going through them, then so be it. Something tells me we're overestimating their numbers, anyway. If they had the numbers we're giving them credit for, what's stopped them from simply swarming us? There were only four of us, after all.
Renala nods, taking a longer sip of the water now that she deems it drinkable. "Didn't Iressa get a decent, but rough, estimate?" she says. "And I can remember she said there was a krogan up there. We'll need a fucking squad to take down a krogan with as much as half a brain."
Steve shakes his head, "Did you see their armor? They're working with sub par gear. If we can get ours back, it'll give us an edge. I'm not exactly excited at the idea of possibly running into that krogan myself. But if it happens, it happens. Krogan die just like the rest of us. Just takes more squeezes on the trigger."
Renala take another long swig of the water before standing up. "Alright, but let's search the rest of the floor before we move up," she says. "If not our gear, we might come across something to tip the odds a little."
Steve nods. "Well..." he sighs, rubbing at his forehead as another wave of pain shoots through it, "Which way?" He glances back and forth between their two options.
Renala shrugs. "Doesn't really matter," she says before moving towards the one that was ahead, "but I've always started left in depth-first searches..." She checks whether the door's locked.
Steve takes a position beside the asari as before, raising his SMG in anticipation of the door opening.
Renala taps on the door interface for it to open before quickly stepping aside in case there's a barrage of rocks or hostiles waiting inside.
Steve leads down the hall, keeping his weapon trained on the door at the end. Upon reaching the end of the hallway, he waits for Renala.
Renala follows after him, and opens the door, taking two steps back as the tunnel's not really wide enough to be even partially out of view for anyone inside.
Tyranniac| The door opens up into yet another empty room full of crates, mostly stacked along the walls. It is a bit more irregular than the other rooms, being heavily mined out.
Steve steps into the room, sweeping his weapon back and forth as he gives the room a cursory search for threats.
Renala waits out in the hallway, but steps inside after a few seconds. She looks over the room, trying to get a approximate count of the crates.
Steve lowers his weapon and approaches the nearest crate. "Great... More crates." he sighs as he opens it.
Tyranniac| There are somewhere around 10 larger crates, as well as about the double in medium ones and a handful of small ones.
Tyranniac| It is also empty, aside from some pebbles at the bottom, indicating it held ore at one point.
Steve kicks the second crate a few times, clearly agitated. He takes a short lap around the room, breathing deeply as he walks. "This is a waste of time. We need to get up there." he says, staring distantly at the ceiling.
Renala picks up a pebble and turns it over in her hand. "Yeah, looks like there were only stone in this crate, if these small rocks are any telling," she says before dropping the pebble on the ground. She takes a few steps towards the door. "I still think we should search the floor. Might be something useful here that might help us up there."
Steve continues walking, not speaking or slowing down until he arrives in the room they encountered the bandit in. He waits for Renala at the remaining door. "Not many options left."
Renala didn't follow far behind him, and arrives at the door a few seconds later. "I know, but I prefer exploring the less risky ones first." She checks if the door is locked, and if not, steps closer and opens it.
Tyranniac| The door leads to - surprise - a tunnel, ending in another door, however this one doesn't have a holographic interface at all.
Steve continues with their established protocol and stalks down the hallway with his SMG at the ready.
Renala proceeds into the tunnel, her omni-tool coming to life. Once at the other door, she tries to see if she can access it's controls with the tool.
Renala frowns. "I can't get it open," she says as she lets her omni-tool's interface dissipate. "Guess we'll have to go back to the main chamber."
Steve nods and turns on his heels, making his way back to the direction they started from. "Had another door to check in the central chamber, didn't we?"
Renala nods, following beside him. "But if you really want to just go up, I'm with you, even if I doubt we'd have much to lose in searching where the last door leads."
Steve rubs at his forehead, cringing slightly. "Yeah... I mean-... No. You're right, we should cover as much ground on this floor as we can before going up." he says, walking down the last hallway that leads to the main chamber.
Renala continues following beside him. "That's given they don't have friends off-site that are underway," she says. "I really doubt they do, but it's a possibility."
Steve stops at the end of the hall and glances out, reassessing the situation before stepping out onto the ledge and continuing to maneuver around towards the next door. "Either way..." he grunts, "It's not something we can worry about right now. We'll deal with it if it comes to that."
Tyranniac| The final door appears to have been broken by the explosion, stuck in a half-open state. Luckily it is wide enough to get through. The room that can be seen through the opening contains several bunks, each with a chest accompanying it.
Renala follows after Steve, keeping her balance well as she moves along the ledge. "Be careful, so we don't get a repetition of last time," she says as a biotic shimmer forms around her person.
Steve nods. "It's open..." he whispers as he slips through the opening. He quickly raises his weapon and lowers into a shooter's stance as he sweeps over the room.
Renala follows into the room as soon as Steve tells her, and looks around, silently hoping the crates would contain anything useful. She did look up once she entered the room.
Tyranniac| There is nothing in the room aside from the bunks - far more comfortable looking than the ones they previously discovered, and the chests - one for each bed. There are no doors leading out.
Steve makes his way over to the next bunk and attempts to open the chest. He glances towards the other bunks, taking a quick count.
Renala enables her omni-tool, trying to see if she can somehow conenct to it wirelessly when holding it very close to it.
Tyranniac| There is no wireless connection. When Steve kicks the lock, it sparks and the lid flies open, revealing a chest full of things.
Steve looks back at Renala, a hint of a smirk beginning to take hold on his face. He takes a knee beside the chest and begins to poke through it, chuckling silently to himself.
Renala mutters a curse before looking over the shoulder as Steve kicks the crate. "The lock's all that's holding the lid shut?"
Tyranniac| The chest contains a lot of clothes, a pill bottle, a knife, a few empty plastic boxes, a roll of toilet paper and a credit chit.
Renala nods and she uses the biotic energy built up to warp the lock, at least trying to soften it up. She positions herself while doing that, so that if parts would fly out of it, it would impact agaisnt her shields rather than Steve.
Steve tosses the clothes across the floor. He looks over the credit chit for a moment before pocketing it. Lifting the pill bottle in front of his face, he examines it, looking for any kind of label.
Tyranniac| The lock falls apart, revealing a chest with similar contents. Clothes, a credit chit, a few magazines and broken datapad.
Renala rummages through the stuff, examining the broken datapad before dropping it into the chest in disinterest. She moves on to the next chest, giving its lock the same treatment.
Tyranniac| The metal surrounding the lock is warped, and it doesn't open, rather being hopelessly sealed.
Steve pockets the pills anyways and grabs the knife, testing the weight for a moment and checking the edge.
Tyranniac| it is fairly generic utility knife, rather light. It is well maintained, with a sharp edge.
Tyranniac| Renala's chest opens. It also tips over, spilling clothing over the floor along with some other generic items, including a credit chit and a metal flask.
Renala rummages through the stuff, putting the flask and credit chit into one of the armor suit's compartments. She then moves on to the next crate, repeating the process: kicking it up to five times.
Tyranniac| The chest opens, revealing just a handful of clothes along with a disturbing amount of Fornax magazines.
Renala quickly seearches through it, snorting as she notices the magazines, before moving on to the next one, repeating the process.
Tyranniac| Steve's chest contains more clothing and other items. What stands out is an antique human pistol of 20th century design. The one Renala now investigates has much the same content as the rest, with the addition of an omni-tool.
Renala sighs, and moves on to the next, the empty chest not really being much to search. She opens it in the same manner as the previous ones.
Steve looks over the pistol. After thinking on it for a moment, he decides to stick it into one of his cargo pockets, lest it might be worth something. He moves on to the next chest and repeats the process
Tyranniac| Renala's chest contains clothes, a credit chit, toilet paper, a pair of binoculars, a datapad, a thermal clip and a backpack.
Tyranniac| Steve's chest contains clothes and many generic items as well as a few empty plastic bags.
Renala rummages through it before she looks over the shoulder. "Found a clip in here," she says. Instead of handing it to Steve, she proceeds to check what's in the backpack.
Steve nods and places the clip in his pocket. "That'll come in handy." he says as he moves on to the next chest and gives it a swift kick.
Steve sighs, dumping the clothes out onto the floor as he searches through the chest before moving on to the next and, once again, kicking the lock.
Renala holds one in the direction where Steve is. "You recognize what these are?" she says, "I know I've seen them back in Freedom Falls..."
Steve pockets the credit chit and turns his attention to Renala. "Energy bars." he says, taking it and looking it over, "Not what I'd call delicious... But they'll do the trick in a pinch."
Renala gives a faint smile. "Well, it's something to eat at least," she says as she gives Steve half of the amount found in the backpack, giving him the excess one if the number is uneven.
Steve unwraps one, shoving the rest into his pocket, and begins idly munching on it as he moves on to the next chest and repeats his lock-stomping. "Good find... Should keep us from burning out."
Renala puts all she has but one in a pocket before unwrapping it. While eating it, she checks out the datapad.
Steve kicks the crate and sighs. "Well, few good finds." he says. Nodding towards the datapad, he continues, "Anything on there?"
Tyranniac| The datapad has a message open when turned on. The message reads: "The tunnel is finished. It was a challenge keeping the noise unnoticed, but it is done. I covered it up with a crate for now. Pack now. We'll get into boss' room, grab his creds, guns, whatever we can find. We'll be out of here before he notices."
Renala gives a small smirk. "Looks like someone's going to make our job easy," she says as she hands the datapad to Steve.
Steve looks over the message and raises an eyebrow. "Any idea where this tunnel might be?" he asks, glancing over the top of the datapad at Renala.
Renala shakes her head. "No idea, but it's probably close enough to the boss that they could sneak out with the boss' stuff."
Well, sure. But where's the other end? All we have to go on is that it's 'covered by a crate'. That describes half of this complex so far...
Renala | "I'm guessing it's upstairs," she says. "Wouldn't be climbing down that ladder in a hurry with the leader's stuff." She pockets the credit chit and binoculars, not knowing there's more on the datapad.
Tyranniac| The previous message reads: "The drilling is progressing well, although it would've been easier if you could have gotten a heavier drill. I'm thinking we should use the side exit, grab the boat to get away."
Steve moves on to the next message. "More messages on here. In this one he talks about escaping through a side exit." he says, glancing at Renala again, "Maybe where Iressa and Darsk left from? If so, the tunnel couldn't be too far, right?"
Renala nods. "Well, it means the cave might as well be on this floor," she says, "so yeah, it might not be far from here." She walks over to stand beside him, looking at the datapad. "Is there anything more on it?"
Tyranniac| The first message reads: "Found a good site for the tunnel. Since most mining activity has moved to the level three mines there shouldn't be much risk of being found out up here. The tunnel should emerge near in the floor of boss' room. You'll get up and grab the stuff, will take too long to make it wide enough for me."
Steve tilts the datapad slightly so Renala can get a good look as well. "Yeah... That's the last of them. What do you think?"
Renala looks over the message once more. "Well, looks like we'll have to find the boss' room first, and then check what room's beneath it," she says. "It could tip the odds if parts of their gang has left, even better if the leader sent people to seek them out."
Finding the boss' room would require us to go in blind. We might have to go through the entire complex to figure that out. I think our best bet is to take another look around this floor. At the very least, we should recheck the room with all the empty crates. If there's a chance we can sneak up on them, we need to take it.