//------------------------------//
// 23. [Fluttershy] Karl's End 
// Story: Deep Rock Equestria: Into The Abyss 
// by The Atlantean 
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Fluttershy crept through a dark, lightless tunnel, guided only by her Glyphid Grunt friend Steeve, who clacked his legs against the rock for her to hear. Her belt flare maker had finally run out of power, and all she had left were her guns and armor rig, which had also been run down. For batteries rated to only last a day at most, they held up pretty well for the better part of a couple weeks.
She wiped a bead of sweat from her brow and panted. It was a good thing she’d gathered as much water as she could carry while she was in the Strata because this place felt hot enough to melt rock. The ghost of the Bulk Detonator had chased her farther from the surface, so far that she wasn’t sure her comms could reach DRG’s satellite network if they still had power.
Rounding a corner, Fluttershy saw a soft orange glow emanating from farther down the tunnel and around another corner. Finally, light! She picked herself up and jogged to the turn.
The rock around her was dark gray with black streaks and the occasional orange chunk. The ceiling was jagged and covered in stalactites, and the walls were warm to the touch. In the middle of the room, she saw a massive lava lake that bubbled and stretched into a river that disappeared behind a ridge.
She tapped her wrist screen to check her depth out of habit, but it remained dark. She blinked, remembering that its battery had died, and sighed. Her legs ached, so she sat on a stumpy stalagmite to rest.
“Is this the Magma Core, Steeve?” she asked. “Or are we below it?”
Steeve screeched.
“Below it, huh? Is there any food down here? Or water?” She shook her nearly empty canteen. “Oh, I need water.”
Another screech.
“Well, then, we need to get back to the Strata. Unless--”
The ground trembled, and a small chasm opened up nearby. Steeve shrieked and skittered closer to her, rubbing his head against her leg like a cat.
“It’s okay, Steeve,” she cooed. “It’s just an earthquake.”
The earth shook again, and a large clang echoed close enough to make Fluttershy feel like she was on the inside of a ringing bell. When her ears recovered, she looked for the source of the noise. It didn’t take long to find a long-abandoned Drop Pod with doors heat-welded shut and scorch marks along its hull.
She looked up. The cave above wasn’t the easiest to reach, but it could be done--especially since the Drop Pod’s crash caused an avalanche she could climb. She clambered up the rocks with Steeve at her side until she reached the top of the hole--and the floor of the cave above.
Two more Drop Pods in equally dilapidated conditions to the first, three wrecked Mega-M.U.L.E.s, and various weapons were scattered about the massive cavern. The cave itself reached maybe fifty meters high, seventy wide, and over three hundred long.
Fluttershy’s jaw dropped. Three full teams had been in this cave, likely at the same time, and none of them had returned. One of the Drop Pods had a hole blasted in the side, so she climbed up to risk a peek. Maybe she’d get some insight into their deaths so she could avoid their mistakes.
Two skeletons in DRG armor rigs sat inside. One had a rifle next to it but was missing its head, while the other had no weapon and all its extremities attached. The far computer looked intact, but the near one was completely wrecked.
Steeve clacked his legs on the rock.
“I know, Steeve, but this is important.”
She climbed through the hole, taking care to not cut herself on the ragged metal, and pressed a button on the central computer opposite the hole. Naturally, it failed to activate. She moved to the headless skeleton and tapped its rig’s wrist screen.
The screen activated, albeit poorly and with very little charge. The only thing it did was play an audio recording:
“Deep Rock employee 1-XT-25-B, name: Herb. This will likely be my final recording.
“The rendezvous went fine. Our Drop Pod landed right next to the other teams’ pods exactly where Navigation said we’d land. No other operations of this nature have been attempted previously because of the danger involved, but no dwarf is left behind. Our task was to locate and extract Employee 1-XT-1-A, name: Karl, from his last known location by any means necessary.
“Unfortunately, that also happens to be seventeen kilometers beneath the surface, below even the deepest Magma Core excavation sites. This is an entirely uncharted region of Hoxxes.
“I won’t spare you the details, but all that matters is that we failed our objective. Whatever he stayed behind to distract was awoken by our landings and attacked us. If anyone can hear me, do not attempt a rescue. Only two of us are left, trapped in our Drop Pod until we starve.
“The Mother is out there. She is intelligent. And she is angry. Employee 1-XT-25-B, signing off. Goodbye.”
Fluttershy’s heart sank as the device sparked and died. Heidei had mentioned this place when she asked about notable dwarves. Three teams went in; none came out. This was Karl’s End. She climbed out of the wrecked Drop Pod and slid to the ground.
“Come on, Steeve,” she called. She pointed down the tunnel. “We’re going to find a way out of here.”
As she jogged down the endless massive tunnel, she felt a slight tug of magic, but she decided it was her imagination. Hoxxes didn’t have magic. And besides, Applejack had her geode anyway. She couldn’t use it even if there was any.
She just hoped she made it out before she found the Mother.