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"Recover Vessel" KSP Survival Story [Part XI: "The Derelict Mine"]

ZooNamedGames

By ZooNamedGames
in KSP Fan Works

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  • 3 weeks later...
ZooNamedGames

ZooNamedGames

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[Into The Depths]

    Once my heart had calmed, I began to take my first steps deeper inside of the cave. The firelight behind me only cast enough light for a few feet, and all I could see was a tunnel that lead into the darkness. Moss and vegetation had completely overtaken certain parts of the wall and completely covered the stone wall behind it. I continued into the darkness however with each step the light grew weaker and weaker. With only flickers projecting any light. I move slowly as to make sure that I don't slip or fall. With each step, I become more anxious, not knowing whether I was walking towards a pit or loose rocks. Nevertheless I continued onward.

    I continued on for what felt like an eternity until I smack the top of my head on something. I stop and feel what I had hit to find that it was a wooden beam of some sort. It felt rectangular with obvious edges, however gaps and chunks missing from it. As I run my hands along the beam I feel something stick me on my index finger. I grabbed my finger and rubbed it and could tell it was likely a splinter. I tried to feel for the splinter itself but in the dark it was impossible. Eventually I got myself back on track and continued to carefully follow the beam. As I track it downwards, I eventually find that the beam met up with another at mid level and continued forwards into the cave. So I kept my hand running lightly along it. Occasionally the beam would meet with another vertical beam, and when there isn't a beam, I generally find its remains on the cave floor.

    This repeated for so long and so far that the majority of the firelight had completely ceased. The sound also had become completely muffled and was becoming slowly overcome by a low rumbling from deep inside the cave ahead of me. I continued onward until I felt the horizontal beams stop. I took short steps forward, trying to avoid tripping over anything when I felt something hit my foot followed by a booming rattling sound which resonated louder and louder as time went on in the cave around me. I was left completely deafened by it for several minutes. I was left in a state of panic and fear not knowing what had happened, what had touched me or why. Slowly, the sound dampened to a point where I could hear myself think again, when the sound continued to travel further and further away from me, it moved oddly to my right.

    Despite realizing which way lead deeper into the cave, I was more curious about what had just touched me. So I slowly crept forward until I felt something at the end of my boot. I moved my foot around trying to feel what I was touching, and I could tell it was large and eventually identified that it was metal based on the sound of my foot moving across it. So I stepped forward towards it and felt around it blindly and eventually realize it's a large metal box. So I reached inside to feel lots of curved metal objects that felt like dishes until suddenly a blinding light comes from the box. A fell backwards in surprise and it took me a short while to adjust to the blinding light coming from in front of me. Once my eyes finally seem to adjust, I stand up to look inside the box to see that it's filled with dark gray miner's hats.

    I pick up the lit one realizing I must of turned it on while reaching inside. I use it to pan around the cave and behind me I see a long corridor of rocks and wooden beams as I had suspected, however I didn't realize until now I was descending down the further on I went. The fire on the far end of the cave was now almost entirely invisible. Then I pan it to my right to see the tunnel continue onward with something shining at the end of the tunnel. I begin to head towards the shining object when I realize that my eyes were not adjusting as fast as I thought they were, instead the power for the cap was dying, and didn't have long. So I used the remaining light to sort through the remaining caps and try different ones however each had different problems. Either the bulb was broken, missing or had dead batteries or the wires connecting the batteries had rotted. I sorted through more than a dozen before I found one that worked. The one I found working, had a strange hexagonal symbol on the front I couldn't identify with the bright shine of my headlamp, but I carried it with me. I didn't want to use it until my current lamp had become completely useless.

    So I continued on, and as I did, I saw that the tunnel eventually opened up. To my right was a large boulder pile, leading to what appeared to be a set of train rails. As I continue on, I see that I had entered a mine shaft. As I progressed, I found a gap in the wall on my right. I peered into it to see that it lead to a bottomless pit. Even my headlamp couldn't pierce the depths of it, and strangely I didn't desire to find out what lied in it. The deeper I went, the worse condition the cave appeared. Broken and loose rail pieces, fallen wooden beams from the ceilings and also metallic wheels from what I could only guess is from mine carts, with piles and piles of metallic containers and rotted wooden objects piled inside. It became more apparent as I went on.

    The cave only stretched further and further on and without much change. Occasionally a spare miner's cap may have been left behind or some broken tool, and only being the outliers. Eventually I just tire of moving forward and out of curiosity I shout into the continual darkness. The sound becoming a rapid howl in my ears, but once it fades I hear it continue on; deeper and deeper in the mine. The sound had no distinct change as it continued. I kept moving forward, now knowing that the cave seemed to only stretch on into eternity.

    Hours seem to pass to me, however despite delving deeper and deeper into the cave; I still find no change whatsoever nor any means to identify where I am, what time of day it is outside, or anything. Nothing changes as I move onward. The amount of rail and broken mining equipment continue as does the tunnel itself. That is until eventually the cave just ends. The floor, ceiling and walls opened up into this black void. As I step closer, my headlamp finally completely dies on me. So I switch it out for the other one when the burst of new light blinded me. But when my vision came back, I started to see something I did not expect. Something new.

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ZooNamedGames

ZooNamedGames

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Surprise new episode! I know this is a bit late but creativity (especially my own) knows no schedule.

So @Pretorian28715, I'm sorry for the delay but I hope this new episode is to your liking and was well worth the wait.

That said- I'm genuinely pleased to see that we just released part 10! Unbelievable! I'm so glad that others have provided encouragement to continue this because despite my stubbornness, I do enjoy writing this as again, this is as much an adventure for me as it is the rest of you. I am trying my best and one of these I might perform another grammatically cleanup (I'm seeing a lot of tense conflicts). However I'm hoping to get to part 20 before too much longer.

I will admit, tonight I was finally had my first thoughts as to where I might end this series. Haven't considered it before and frankly I'll keep it going until I have something equally awesome and interesting in place (because Spoiled certainly didn't achieve this). Ah well.

*also minor update to the OP format.

In the meantime, hope you enjoyed it!

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ZooNamedGames

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What a dark and smelly old place this is! Oh wait, it's because I left it in a cave and promised to release content nearly half a year ago! I should probably get around to fixing that :wink: and I think that's in the cards. I'm going to start typing tonight so even if I don't have enough to type, I should still have something stored for the next time I type.

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ZooNamedGames

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For those curious, I am still working on this, and in fact, I am half way done as of tonight. I intend to release this by Monday (fingers crossed). Biggest delay has been homework amongst other issues, but I am closer than ever to releasing part XI. I intend to keep hard at work to see this part through to the end, and I am so glad so many of you are interested in this, and more importantly are wanting more! I intend to keep to your promises and get this done!

Time for Jabe to revive her adventure!

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ZooNamedGames

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[The Derelict Mine]

    Now that my eyes had again adjusted to the darkness, I pass my headlamp over the large empty space in front of me and see a series of wooden buildings, and metal machines. It didn't take me long to realize, that this was the heart of the mine. Large hoppers and empty furnaces occupy the immense area. The room appeared to be several miles in diameter and nearly a mile high. The cave had several side paths branching off, with all the paths collapsed, with the exception of one path on the far side. I look down to where the edge of path I came from, and see that it's a 100 foot drop from the edge of the tunnel to the cave floor. So I start looking for a way to descent, and notice there's a narrow metal rail, leaning against the tunnel edge. I follow the metal beam to it's end point, which is on the cave floor,and is tightly wedged in between several rocks. I grab the beam, and try to compress it as best as I can, to see how strong the beam is. The beam remained solid, even as I apply my best strength. So I take a deep breath, before grappling the beam, and beginning my descent. I slowly slide myself down the metal rail, moving with extreme caution as I do not want to cause the rail to slide and fall. Just a minute into the crawl, I hear the beam crack and pop, sounds that scare me, but do not frighten me as much as how shortly after, I feel the beam shift and begin to slide underneath me. My blood turns ice cold as I hold onto the beam firmly. I wait as the beam settles, with the only sounds I can hear being the sound of the beams cracking echoing throughout the cave, and the sound of my heart throbbing intensely in my chest. After several minutes of waiting, I finally have the courage to continue. I continuing sliding along, when I am about halfway down, I lean too far forward, and my headlamp falls off of me, and drops to the cave floor below. The lamp survives the fall miraculously, but I am now left in the dark, suspended 50 feet above the floor in a black abyss, only broken by a single streak of light from below me. I continue to slowly descend, relying completely on the feeling of the rail, to lead myself down. After many minutes of sliding, I manage to make it to the bottom. On the cave floor, my only indication of bearings, is the narrow beam of light from my headlamp in front of me.

    I begin walking forward slowly through the dark, making sure to not trip over anything that may be on the cave floor in the seemingly infinite darkness around me. Every step I make, echoes throughout the cave, seemingly going on forever as it travels through the tunnels. A few steps after heading towards the headlamp, I end up bumping my foot into something. I slide my foot along it, and can tell it's a large wooden plank strewn across my path. So I step carefully over it, only to step on another small plank which had me loose my balance, before I manage to recover, and continue onwards. I take a few more steps and encounter another foreign object in my path again. I try to feel what it is, but I cannot tell. I bend over to feel it with my hands, but all I can tell, is that it's metal. So I carefully step beyond it, and it's only a few steps further that I encounter yet another object. I never go more than 5 steps without encountering another object in my path, but eventually, I manage to reach my headlamp and as I don it and look behind me in my path, I see just how cluttered with junk was. Large rock piles, shovels, buckets and wood beams are strewn everywhere. The object I couldn't identify was apparently a large pipe that's been crushed.

    Now with the aid of my headlamp, I begin heading towards the structures occupying the cave system. As I do, I begin investigating each structure. The first one I come to, appears to have collapsed on itself, but among the wreckage I can identify the crushed remnants of a furnace, and a workshop table. Through the fallen roof pieces and timber beams, I can see an occasional tool buried underneath, but have too much debris covering them for me to consider trying to get them. So I move onto another structure, inside of which, appears to be similar to the last. I continue past it and make my way to towards the center of the cave. The next building I pass, has a large metal hopper outside of it. As I get closer, I see that it has a large hole in it's side, and is entirely empty. From the hole, I can see a large pile of stones have fallen out and crushed the adjacent structure completely. I try to examine the rocks, but none seem wholly different from another, or show any significance. So I continue on.

    Closer to the center, the proximity of buildings to each other has increased immensely, and some are still standing, however, after peering inside, I see that most are either completely empty, are standing with a collapsed roof, or have nothing of interest inside. What did peak my interest, was the large metal structure I could spot in the core. It was at least 3 stories tall, and had no exterior and largely resembled a metal cube. I was curious what it could be, and why it was positioned to be in the center of this community. I point the beam of my headlamp directly into the open doorway into the structure, but all I can see is shifting shadows and an ever changing shape. The room seemed to have no discernible shape for the longest time, as the room kept shifting and changing as I looked. I can't tell if I'm tired, or if my eyes are playing tricks on me in the darkness.

    Once I reach the entrance the structure, I peer inside, and see several large machines, and contraptions lining every wall and some extending to the ceiling of this three story structure. I see lots of gears, springs, chains and screws, but what they serve in this massive machine I cannot tell. However, as I scan across the room, I spot a series of documents strewn across the floor amongst other useless junk like test tubes, old broken abacuses and measured weights. I collect the book, and dust the cover, to see that it's a journal belonging to a Mr. Vernon Kerman. I open the cover and begin flipping through the pages of the journal, and just inside of the cover, is an envelope addressed to a Maximus Kerman, whoever that is. I attempt to carefully open the envelope, but end up tearing the top off by accident. I stick the torn top part in between some of the pages at the end of the journal, and then take out the letter inside.

"Dear Maximus Kerman

I am proud to report, that our operations in the mines has after long last, been proven. Our quest to find the famed mineral ore has finally been found! At approximately 5 kilometers in depth, we have finally found an ore vain large enough to process. Our locating of the ore vain could not have been more opportune, as I had also finally completed my refinery here in the depths of the mine. Creating this refinery took the large part of the year since I last wrote to you. A maddening array of filters, compressors, fiery furnaces and baffles work in distinct order to convert this ore into a more useful material. Sadly, we couldn't manage to create anything of use, however, after an accident by one of the miners proved, the liquid by product of our reactions works as a fantastic fuel! It's possible we could use this elsewhere."

     I stop and look around the room again, and things start to make sense to me. This room, must have been one of the earliest attempts at an ore refinery, where the first traces of liquid fuel was created. I flip through the first few pages, and see that the journal outlines all the details about the refinery. What each part is, and how each specific part is to be tuned so that the whole machine functions to create fuel. I'm just amazed by the amazing ingenuity it must have took Vernon Kerman to get this working, and I keep having to catch myself from just staring at everything in wonder. Though, I notice something in front of me when I made another distracted peak away from the journal.

    In the center of the room is a large lever. Intrigued as to what it could do, I step over to it, and pull it. But I end up accidentally snapping it off by mistake. With the sound making an interesting twang sound which echoed throughout the cave and connecting tunnel systems. As it got further away, the sound got deeper and deeper in pitch. Despite no longer being functional for the machine, I see that the broken end of the lever is extremely sharp. Potentially even sharp enough that I could use it in the future. So I store it away with the rest of my gear, and begin to move on.

    As I do so, the town gets less and less sparse, as the refinery was located in the center of the town. Occasionally a unique or new building appears, but inside is always the same empty shell, occasionally with a collapsed roof. As I make my way onwards, I finally reach the far end, and can see that like the tunnel I came from, that the tunnel I'm wanting to reach, is elevated at least 100 feet off the ground. At least this tunnel still has a ramp reaching up to it. This however, did not make me feel any better, as I could tell that the wood was rotted through and in absolutely terrible condition. I step forward and lean on the ramp's edge to test it, and although I hear an upsetting amount of creaking, popping and cracking, the ramp, remains largely solid.

    I feel a lump in the bottom of my stomach as I begin to hate the idea of ascending this ramp, however, I take a deep breath and move on as I know I have to. So, I take my first steps up the ramp and slowly beginning to move towards the top. With every step, the ramp makes a whole new array of popping and cracking. A few dozen steps up the ramp, and my next step punches through a hole in the ramp and sends my leg shooting down through the ramp. I panic and immediately jump out of the hole and end up diving forward shattering the boards I land on, however they did not break apart. So I carefully roll myself onto the boards next to me. Moving carefully, I manage to make it, and in doing so, stop to calm myself. I notice just how fast my heart is pacing and just how hard I'm panting. So I take several moments, so just focus on my breathing, and I try to tune out all of the disconcerting sounds the ramp is making.

    Eventually, I get the nerve to continue. I stand myself up, carefully and begin to scan the ground carefully before taking any steps further. I keep a continuous scan of the ground around me to make sure that where I step next is strong enough to support me, and occasionally I test boards to see if they can hold me, and when they can't, I detour around them carefully. A tedious process, but after what surely must've been a nearly hour half climb, I finally reach the top of the ramp. By the end of the climb, my whole body was shaking, not only from being tired of focusing on every step and every move I make, but from being stressed from the continuous sounds of the ramp. A huge wave of relief poured over me as I made my first step back onto solid ground when I reached the tunnel edge.

    I slam myself against the edge of the tunnel wall, and just take several moments to breath. Relax after that harrowing ordeal. I reach into my pack to get a water, but as I begin to shuffle through my bag, I notice that things begin to gradually grow darker. Looking around, it didn't take me long to realize that my head lamp was finally running out of power. Out of desperation, I begin to beat the lamp with my fist, but it wasn't long after that it went completely dead, and I was left completely alone, in an infinite sea of darkness.

Edited by ZooNamedGames
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  • 5 months later...
ZooNamedGames

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tenor.gif?itemid=4929427

Time for a news update for those who are actually interested. Like a clingy ex-girlfriend (two things I've never actually experienced in person yet) the Recover Vessel series has never left the back of my mind, often stirring continuous 'what-ifs' situations. So, I give up trying to avoid it. I have pledged to post a new chapter by the end of this week, and to celebrate episode 10, I will include a little bonus :) segment. Assuming school doesn't kick me down, I'd like to get back into a rhythm writing these episodes, after all I'll never get the support all those fancy smancy story series have if I keep my pace of twice a year! Ah well. Let me know what you guys think.

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