Chapter IX: Exalted
The lower reaches of the cavities were treacherous. The cavities that didn't have their lights still active and the pathways that obviously weren't meant for traversing on foot made it hard to make progress without better light. As a result Ghost had also grown especially fond of replicating noises it picked up from a variety of predators during its travels, it comfortably scared away all sorts of scavengers.
The lower confines of the cavities were a mess of sludgy machinery, pools of oil and a maze of pathways that followed no coherent logic. The innards of a titanic warmachine didn't exactly come with a clear map, which made Ghost guess paths via finding areas that still rerouted power. To its large dismay, such areas in the lower levels were very far apart and finding any signs of larger power spikes beyond repair drones, lighting and couplings felt like a monumentally futile task.
Was there truly even anything alive down here? What little signatures were given didn't give the Ghost much to go on. Possibilities of hibernating Warumathans still stuck within such a dark dungeon felt like a slim hope. Ghost dived deeper down a pipelike structure, wrapped in thick and darkened cables, which almost resembled tree trunks. Ghost scanned the cables and found peculiar signals. It was not simply a single source, it was as if the cables had a source that transmitted a massive chunk of data. Ghost did what it felt was the right decision. It locked to the source of the signal and beelined to follow the cables. The vast chasms, ever tightening narrow passageways that housed the cables and lightless corridors blanketed its journey.
Before long, larger bundles of the cables started coming together all emitting the same peculiar signals, all from different sources. Or at the very least, sources that had no conscise origin. Was this all really set in motion by reigniting the power? Ghost finally gave no mind to anything except the end point. The mouth, much like how a river always flowed to a single, larger body of water. The cables soon multiplied to tens and some of their sizes were even larger. Going through a last pipeline, the cables converged into a pathway so narrow and dark that the Ghost had to squeeze through it.
Ghost popped into a cavity so dark and dusty, it had to shine lights across its entirety. Places like this were to be expected, all lighting and machinery had most likely failed. The crushing amounts of oil that leaked into the giant kept conviniently disrupting any and all forms of hope that many areas would have access to safe passage. Ghost looked towards the walls and saw that the larger cables now split into ever larger numbers. What it caught in its sensors next freezed it on its tracks.
"Augur. You read me, Augur?" the ghost hollered through its integrated communication array.
Response took a long time and was horribly static, but the Ghost could make out parts.
"Yes. Still here and alive. You have something?" Augur responded.
Ghost took a fast trip throught it's surroundings, measuring and taking in details. The room was cramped, much like a tube. Throught the middle ran a massive railing that overlooked the areas below. The rest was too murky.
"Try and reroute power to grid K97." the Ghost instructed.
The instruction was soon followed by a clear humming and sputtering much like air purification or rotors, the lights followed next. Ghost looked below and although he had already gotten a good sense what lay below, the life that had returned to the room made it much more impressive.
"Augur. I think your friends are far more reckless than I might have imagined." Ghost morbidly stated into the comms.
Ghost swooped throught the ruby coloured blood cocoons hooked into the cables that littered the room. Some had been smashed and leaked morbid mechanical innards and fluids, others were intact. Both Ghost and Augur had wagered that survivors in the Sea would have been scarce, what was found instead was a place of life. A refuge that held almost three platoons worth of Warumathans.
"You might want to get down here, Augur. Right now!" Ghost said and started his work on thawing the first promising cocoon.
