Deep Rock Equestria: Into The Abyss

by The Atlantean

25. [Rainbow Dash] Hollowed Ground

Full Mission Roll:
200 Morkite, 10 Fossils, Haz 3, Hollow Bough
Warning: N/A, Anomaly: N/A
Machine Event: Ebonite Mutation
Encounters: N/A
Extra Resources: N/A
Mission Special Beer: Dark Morkite
Roll System in Final Phase

“Scanners indicate rich veins of Morkite and gold further down. Bring it back, girls,” Mission Control said as the Drop Pod’s doors clanked open and the whole thing crashed to the cavern floor.

“Alright!” Rainbow Dash lifted her minigun. It was slowly but surely getting easier every time she did it. “Let’s do this!”

“Keep your guard up,” Rarity cautioned. “We’ve never been to the Hollow Bough before.”

“We just survived a freaking Haz 4,” Rainbow pointed out, annoyed. “This’ll be a piece of cake.”

Rarity glared at her. “Just do it.”

Rainbow threw her hands up in surrender. “Alright, alright, I get it.”

The group left the Pod and began to explore one of the newest biomes to be added to the Mission Assignment Software, the Hollow Bough. The rock crunched like wood beneath their feet, and the walls were covered in thick red brambles and other large thorny vines.

Sunset disappeared into the darkness shrouding the ceiling and came down with a fossil in her hand. She took the landing pretty hard, though, from the wince of pain on her face as she stood again.

“Y’alright, Sunset?” Applejack asked.

“Yeah, I’m fine. Any farther would’ve broken my ankles.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that,” Rarity said. “From what I’ve experienced, our suits are specially built to prevent that kind of thing, instead taking the damage to shields and suit health. Just be careful, Sunset.”

Rainbow indicated the dirt path with her laser pointer. “You know, this whole place looks kinda like the inside of a tree.”

“Indeed,” Rarity agreed. “Perhaps I should consider bringing a camera down here. The biome themes would do wonders in fashion.”

“Where have we not been to yet?”

“The Magma Core and Azure Weald, I believe. The former is very far down, highly dangerous, and extremely hot, while the latter was incorporated into Mission Assignment Software Update 33.”

Applejack drilled through the dirt, revealing the cave beyond. Rainbow took the lead, walking down the relatively empty tunnel until her flares lit up a large red thorny vine that snaked its way back and forth between the walls of a narrow stretch in the corridor. She experimentally reached out, but it pricked her finger.

“Ow!” She smacked it with her minigun, and it retracted, zipping into holes in the walls and finally disappearing into one at the far end of the narrow part of the tunnel.

The cave had a relatively small amount of Morkite lying around, and they moved on after a brief search. Interestingly, the cave was filled with strange root-like ainy structures that wrapped themselves around rocky pillars. More of the red vines snaked along the walls and in the corridors, but they retracted with a single swing of a pickaxe.

Again, Hoxxes seemed to be unusually quiet, especially for a Haz 3. Either something strange was going on, or the bugs hadn’t gotten the memo that they’d arrived. Rainbow chalked it up to the former, since the latter relied on the local wildlife being unable to hear and feel tremors in the ground (and she knew the bugs could do both).

At the end of the cave, they found the last Morkite and fossils needed. As Sunset held down Molly’s recall button, nothing happened. The radio crackled with static.

“Mission Control, sir, do you read me?” Rarity called. Her voice wobbled. “Team 17-B calling Mission Control, over.”

More static.

“That can’t be good,” Sunset said.

Rainbow felt her heart skip a beat. “Do we abort the mission?” she asked.

“There’s no point in trying if we can’t get a signal to the Space Rig,” Rarity replied. “You can’t abort without calling the Drop Pod, and we can’t do that if our radios don’t work.”

Static filled their ears again, but this time, Mission Control’s voice barely sounded through the noise: “17-B, your Drop Pod has been deployed. Evacuate the site. I repeat, evacuate the site. All Rigs, be advised: Management is recalling all Mining Teams from the surface.”

“Did he just pull the plug?” Applejack asked.

Sunset quickly checked her rifle and reloaded. “Sounds like they’re pulling everyone off the planet, and I’d rather not find out why. We better go.”

Molly perked up and began her walk to the Drop Pod, dropping red marker flags instead of the green ones she normally used, and they followed her all the way. No bugs, not even a couple Swarmers, came to give them a parting gift. Rainbow Dash kept expecting something to burst from the shadows and attack, but nothing did. It was eerily quiet.

As the Drop Pod ascended to the surface with everyone secured in their seats, she thought she heard a distant roar, but the doors soon closed, blocking any sounds coming from the outside.

Finally, the static dissipated for the most part as the Pod’s radio crackled to life. “Team 17-B, this is Mission Control, report your mission status, over.”

“Mission Control, Team 17-B,” Rarity reported. “All objectives met, all crew secured. We’re returning to orbit.”

“Copy that, 17-B. We’ll count that as a success.”

Rarity let out a long sigh of relief. “Well, girls, I daresay that could’ve been worse.”

Rainbow could only agree. Whatever was happening, at least they could return.

Author's Note:

Well, I'm back. It's been kinda rough for the last month or so, but I've managed to pull myself out of a nosedive. Luckily, I'm not just a lonely mofo left to the wild by his family. Rock and Stone, everyone.

In the meantime, I've done some sporadic writing (because I can't resist some writing) and have been hard at work determining the timeline for future chapters. I've mapped out up to Chapter 46, and some of those are already written because I hop around like a madman. I wouldn't be surprised if the story ends somewhere between chapters 50-60. I may skip some weeks to tweak and shift things around, but updates will always be around 12:00 noon EDT on Saturdays.

Also, I've started adding the full mission rolls for each chapter as well as the version my mission creator was in when the mission was rolled, and I've retroactively applied this to all previous mission chapters. I may have done this around the last update, but I thought I'd mention it here.

As for this chapter, I think it speaks for itself. Mission Assignment Software Update 34 on Chapter 33.

Comments

[Alyarin9000]

Mapped out up to chapter 46!? Nice!
Great to see you return as well! Do take your time, of course; glad to hear you've pulled out of a nosedive.

Big evacuation... Flutters has done something, hasn't she...

[Cheshirek4t]

So i take it that flutters found the mother, or the mother found her

“We just survived a freaking Haz 4 ,” Rainbow pointed out, annoyed. “This’ll be a piece of cake.”

Hollow bough is no joke, especially if tye cave complexity is high enough