Chapter 75: Horror in the Mine (Part 1)
The journey to the abandoned mine was as uneventful as Soshyan expected.
Since they left the city, they had been attacked only once by blind and angry rebel peasants, and occasionally by native wildlife hungry or stupid enough to attack the Astartes.
If Soshyan called a mortal escort and let the mortals take care of everything, the journey would be much easier, but in this case, the news would spread quickly.
They will be known before they find their target.
At last he judged that it would be better for them to enter on their own, and merely caused West to send a few men and a steward, with orders to keep their presence and journey strictly secret until they allowed it to be publicized.
Soshyan believed that, at least in a short period of time, the man would not dare to disobey his order.
This mine, known as the "Dead Man's Pile", is a typical primitive vertical excavation site. Its main body is located under a mountain with an average altitude of thousands of meters. After passing through the passage for workers to enter and exit, it is The living area of the mine that can be seen is located on the edge of a huge pit. The faint light spot on the top of the huge cave provides extremely limited illumination, which is far from enough to illuminate the entire pit.
A large number of wooden tracks and elevators are distributed around the edge of the pit. From here, workers go down to the bottom to excavate minerals exposed outside the rock formations.
In addition to iron ore, precious metal minerals including copper ore, lead ore, gold and silver are also produced here. According to Steward West, this mining area once had 30,000 miners working day and night. to excavate these treasures buried deep in the ground.
Although this is an agricultural world, the most basic smelting industry is still available. Many of the minerals excavated have been turned into agricultural tools or daily necessities, and precious metals have become home or personal decorations for landlords.
However, a few decades ago, accidents began to occur frequently in the mines. Miners often disappeared underground for no reason, and the output of the minerals was getting lower and lower.
Finally, after a large number of miners disappeared and died, the owner of the mine abandoned it, and the miners lost their jobs and left.
In order to prevent further accidents, the nearby landowners chose to close it, which was a roadblock composed of rocks and wood piled at the entrance before Soshyan and the others entered.
“There’s a hole there.”
Standing on the edge of the giant pit, Armin suddenly pointed to the rock wall a hundred meters below.
“It looks like it was chiseled out, but...it’s a little too smooth.”
“I see it.”
Soshiyang put it A pebble kicked off the cliff, and it should have hit the bottom a dozen seconds later, but the never-ending sound of the nearby underground river swallowed up any possible echo.
“Proceed with caution.”
Thor followed Soshyan carefully to the edge of the cliff.
"I estimate that the bottom must be at least two kilometers deep below here."
"I really wish there was a ladder."
Soshyan sighed and tried to let go Others thought he was joking.
Of course, there is no ladder.
But at the end of the cliff, there is a lift that the housekeeper said is still usable, extending down to a series of rock platforms, forming a simple and irregular passage.
This made Soshyan relieved.
It is too deep here to tell whether it is rocks or extremely old concrete, but no matter what, the surface is loosely covered with a layer of moss, making it a little slippery every time you step on it.
Looking at the lift that was swaying gently in the breeze, Soshyan was a little uneasy, but after checking the power system, he found that it could still be used normally, and he was relieved.
Fortunately, this thing was very strong when it was first repaired - someone drove rivets into it for fixation, and it was easy for four Astartes to stand on it. It should have been a freight elevator used to transport minerals.
"Leave two people to guard the top. The others will go down in two batches. Thor and I will take the lead, Calvin and Levis will follow. Armin, you will lead the second batch."
After making a simple deployment, Soshyan and three others boarded the elevator.
The moment Astartes stepped onto it, the iron elevator made a painful creaking sound, and large amounts of rust and dust fell from the unused supports, hitting the ground on the ground. On the silver-gray armor.
Soshiyang stood for a few seconds, and after confirming that there was no problem, he nodded towards Sol.
The second Space Marine walked up, and the elevator platform suddenly sank a little.
But it held on.
Then the third and the fourth.
After confirming that there were no more problems, Soshyan made a gesture to Armin, who immediately started the lift.
With the roar of the engine and the large amount of black smoke pouring out of the exhaust port, the power system that had been dormant for decades revived again and rotated the winch, slowly pulling the cable that was as thick as an adult's forearm. lay down. The lifting platform also slowly sank.
Everything went smoothly, and two minutes later, they reached the first ledge.
From here, they had to walk on foot, and the miners built many small railroad tracks for transportation.
There is at least a kilometer of depth below.
After the lift was pulled up, Soshyan waited on the ledge for a while, and the three people led by Armin soon arrived here.
“Which way do you think we should go?”
After observing the terrain, Soshyan looked at Sol next to him.
The road bifurcated. The main road continued to go down along the railway track, while another narrow and broken path, barely large enough for a person to stand on, stretched out roughly horizontally into the darkness.
"I propose to go along the main road."
Saul was silent for a moment, and then expressed his opinion.
“The trail is not even a road, and our team will be forced to form a line with no front or rear support.”
"Agree."
Armin nodded
"This looks like just a rock crevice, which makes people think it is another road."
"Wait a minute. ”
Soshyan illuminated the trail with his helmet’s tactical light.
"There are traces on the road. It still looks fresh. Someone may have walked along there."
"Sir, there are also footprints on the main road."
Armin also pointed to the main trunk with lighting equipment. Yes, there are indeed some traces like footprints on it.
"It still looks like complete footprints, not those on the trail that may just be traces of falling rocks."
"Has someone been here recently?"
Soshyan had new questions, but every moment they hesitated, the completion of the task was delayed further.
Then he shined the light deeper, hoping to illuminate more traces.
There was a faint reflection coming from a pool filled with poisonous gas and mixed sewage. Some shadow spots were obviously printed on the cliff wall, shaking uneasily outside the range of the light beam.
Soshyan turned the light beam outward and found a long series of stepping stones across the pool.
“We need to be careful, those pools don’t look shallow.”
"Without a doubt."
Thor agreed.
"I estimate that the average depth is between ten and twelve meters."
Soshyan turned around and decided to continue walking downward, and then he extended the light beam across the cliff and finally Check the route down one at a time.
Suddenly, he found that a large cliff seemed to be moving. He thought it was a landslide at first, but then he realized that something else had actually happened.
"Enemy attack!"
Before he finished speaking, he had already drawn his bolt pistol.
At this time, the shadow spots he had noticed before were all climbing up the cliff at a speed that was almost beyond normal speed. He pointed the lighting of his helmet at a shadow spot and confirmed his guess.
“It’s a group of underground creatures!”
(End of this chapter)