Zeta: 9 "Mole Rates." within the depths of the level.
Six members of Zeta 9 followed the path that James had marked with a combination of X marks and arrows. Each member wore a hazmat suit, and with standard equipment, the member at the rear of the group had a tether attached to a harness. Since there was still a threat of getting lost in the event the X marks or arrows disappeared, "I feel like we have been walking for miles here; how far did James get into this place?" No one had a clear clue how much further they got to go when they asked him, and he had no clear idea either. "Going by the marking, we still have a bit further to go. Another thing I notice is that you have a hard time figuring out how much time has gone by." Unless you had a watch, you could never tell how long you had been wondering if losing track of it could happen. Just like getting lost within the maze of walls that went on in every direction. "Hard to see here, but I think I see that wall he spoke about." If that is the case, then that was the end of how far he went. He was under orders to return when he found a wooden door. Yet at the same time, there was no telling if this was the one that they were looking for.
Walking by three groups of walls, the long, unbroken wall was visible to them. The wallpaper was a darker shade of yellow than the other walls. "There is an arrow in the middle, and I am willing to bet that this is the place." Mole 1, ahead of the group, said the other followed behind him. Mole 5 stopped for a second, making sure that the tether was not snagged on anything. "Tether is still good; I don't feel anything messing with it that happened with James." All of them have been on high alert for that report of unknown places and unknown threats. The six of them made their way to the other wall along its left side, making their way down it. Spotting the next arrow and moving past it, they turned the corner, and along what would be the "rear" of this location, a wooden door could be seen. A metal handle stuck out of it, and its color was a dark brown. "Do we know if it is unlocked?" Mole 3 asked. "From the James report, yes, he was able to turn the handle and crack it open just a little." Moving forward, they train their weapons as they are near the door.
Three of them would take positions on the left side of the door, and two would take positions on the right side. "Ready for breach." Mole 1 reaches out to the door handle, taking hold of it. He slowly opens it before throwing it open. Rasing his weapon, he looked inside this room, where the wallpaper was a beige color. In the middle of the room were a table and four chairs walking slowly within the room; the three on the left followed him in. "Clear here. This is quite an odd and strange place." Mole 3 said this before his eyes were focused on the table. "Sir, we have a folder here." In the middle of the table was a folder, and the words M.E.G. were labeled in the middle of it. "What the hell is M.E.G. supposed to mean?" Walking toward the table, Mole 1 would take hold of it and pick it up off the table. "I don't have a clue; chalk it up as something else to figure out." Upon opening the folder, a few pieces of paper were within it, yet there were clear signs that a few had been removed.
At the top of the page are the words "Notable Levels." Down below, it seems to be a way to give anyone who ends up in this place an idea of where to go.
Level 0: "This is the current level that you are within. It has some unique properties, one of which is that if you come in as a group, you will be separated. I am sure the other effects have become apparent, as well as the buzzing of the light and seeing things that are not there. Your main task is to escape from this level, and to do so, you must no-clip. No-Clip is what we say for moving from one level to the next level by going through one of the walls."
Level 1: "Once you have left Level 0, this is where you will end up. You must find our main base here, for then you will be safe. Level 1 takes the appearance of an infinite warehouse stocked with crates full of supplies."
Level 2: "Level 2 is more dangerous than the previous two levels and has much tighter spaces to traverse. It takes the form of a labyrinth of maintenance tunnels and piping, often maintaining an uncomfortably hot temperature."
The bottom half of the page was ripped out, cutting off what else was on the paper, but they now had a good idea of what they were in for. "This seems to confirm it. There is more than just one place of endless yellow walls." The director and a few others assume that with all the information they had from Armstrong and Tyler about what they could recover, there was more than one of these, what is known as "levels," and how far they went was the question now. "Let's head on out and see if, by chance, we can find another door or someplace where we could do this no-clip." The group would step out of the room, shutting the door behind them. "You think we should leave that folder in there? There is always a chance someone could end up here as time goes on, and we can't cover every location." Mole 2 spoke towards Mole 1 on the matter as he held the folder in his hands. "For now, we take this with us and will bring a new copy and other information we can gather from it." There were a few other pages within the folder, but for now they need to just take them with them and let the eggheads look them over.
Once outside, shutting the door behind them, each of them looked over their current location in every direction. "So... if we were to head to the next, nothing here makes any sense in making out which way to go; we have a rough idea of direction. It said to do this no-clip, we need to find a wall, and I would guess that it looks different just like this room's outside wall." Mole 4 spoke to each of them and had no clear idea of which way to keep on walking. "I think we keep on going in the direction we have been going and see what is ahead of us." Mole 2 said, and it seems that everyone agrees with it. "Got that can of spray paint?" Mole 1 asked Mole 6. "Yep, got three cans here with us." Once, they made sure they had a way to mark their way forward and backward in the event that something happened to the tether. "Before we go any further, even though we have the cans with us, do we think we should set up a rope here or tap?" They also had with them a few other items for ensuring that they didn't get lost within this place, going over what the first group who found this place did. "We can set up one here; it could also be a further guide for anyone who gets stuck here." Each of the moles had a backpack loaded with equipment. It was heavy and hard to move around at times, but it was needed.
Mole 6 would pull off his backpack and start to pull out a large roll of yellow and black tape and a line of red rope that was within a spool. Next, he would bring out a drill and four bolts. This is what the people who worked at Async did. So, they decided to do the same since it was better than just using spray paint or tethers. There were even talks that if a path could be found, it would take them to the wooden door that Tyler spoke about. Ether knocks down some of the walls and makes a straight path, or closes them off with wooden walls along the gaps and makes a path that way. At the moment, it is just an idea; there is no telling if anything here could be damaged or if that would be enough, and something just breaks it down. Or a chance could phase through it since it seems to be a way for things to move around; there is a chance they could do the same to what they build. "After we get done here, setting this up will keep going in the direction we have been going." Breaking off could not end well for them, and so far, the path has been clear of any danger. If nothing comes up as they mark their way for an "exit," then they will head in another direction after backtracking.
As they did this, stepping through the gateway, James was under pressure to explore the direction that the Async exploration teams went in the most. This was in the opposite direction of where Zeta 9 is. "Comms, check everything is good." He asks about checking his harness and tether to make sure everything is secure. "Read you loud and clear, sir. No problems; here we just got an update from Zeta: 9; they found a small room behind that door you found. At the moment, they are heading further down into the place in the same direction you have gone." That was a surprise for James for what was on the other side, which he assumed could lead deeper into this place. Looking around the location, he started to walk beyond the gateway along the floor. In a few areas, there was tape that was yellow with black stripes along it. He decided to walk down it to see where it went; he imagines that there were many others like them covering the floor within this location.
"I must say they knew what they were doing here to find their way back." I can see that a lot more areas here are open, not closed off like the other path. We could do what they did by bringing in small carts to move back and forth; this would speed things up compared to walking and could even bring in heavier equipment." At this time, they were limited to what they could carry, which at this time was not much. With something like golf carts, it is possible to bring in even heavier loads and supplies, along with helping bring things back if they could not carry them. As he thought about this during his walk through the place, he stopped for a moment to find a black substance on the floor that seemed to spread out from around a wall. "Command... I got something here; it's black in color and looks like some kind of oil on the ground. I'm collecting a sample now." Leaning down on one knee, he pulled out a small glass canister, using a small spoon to scoop up the material and place it into the canister, then put it on his side. "I got the sample and am making my way around the wall." Placing his hand on his weapon, he aims it forward as he slowly steps forward.
Staying close to the side of the wall, he leans around the corner of the wall, seeing what was on the other side and seeing if this substance went further from this location. On the other side, spread out over the ceiling, floor, and walls, was a mass of black tentacles blocking the path through some of the walls. It had the look of vines, with some smaller tentacles hanging attached to the larger ones. To James, it seems like some kind of nest. "Command got something here. Black tentacles—a mass of them—cover this location. I got a sample of the substance on the floor. Do you think it wise of me to do the same here?" As he walks forward from around the corner, he checks his surroundings, looking in every direction. Seeing that it was clear, he walked to it. "Collect it if you can, but be careful; we don't know what this is. From all the flies we have found, there is nothing that matches what you are looking at." Hearing this made him worried; this was something new, and it scared the hell out of him, yet orders are orders. Getting within two feet of one of the larger tentacles, he pulled out another canister as he also pulled out a knife; he would cut one end of one of the smaller tentacles that was hanging. Having it drop into the canister once the other end was cut, closing the top, he started to walk in front of it. "I see more of that guided tape on the floor behind the mass, but I am not going to try and go through it." Stepping back, he looked along the floors and walls behind him and to his left. "Understood. Come on back with what you have; once Zeta makes it back, I will send them over to that area."
Three hours later,.
After doing a large area of exploration along the "north east" of level Zeta-9, return back through the gateway to change out oxygen tanks. And to gather some demo kits, they were under orders to test this black mass at first to see if there was any reaction from a hostile attack. If nothing happens, they are to blow it with one of the demo kits to clear the path forward into the next area. One thing they liked was how open the path they were moving on was compared to the other path; there were not as many blind spots, but they were still on alert. "Hmm... We should be getting closer, according to James; he followed this tape on the ground that led to that stuff. Our orders are to first see if it has any hostile reaction to attack and if it is even close to beginning alive. James did cut off one of the smaller tentacles without any response, but it could have just not seen him as a threat." Mole 1 told the others Moles 4 and 5 were carrying four demo kits. "How are we going to see if it responds to any of our actions?" Mole 1 would raise up his SMG. "One or two rounds; if there is anything from it, we pull back. If nothing, we blow it. It is much faster than trying to cut through it." And if this mass does not attempt to attack them, that is not to say that another mass could respond. So, trying to cut it would not be the way to get through it.
After a few more steps, Mole 1 held up his hand to stop the group. "I got something on the floor here." Spread out along the ground, with some of it over the tape on the floor, they had found the spot. "Alright... I'll fire first if nothing happens. Moles 4 and 5 plant the charges. If it reacts and is a threat, we pull back." Flipping his safety off, he walked forward past the wall, looking towards his right at the mass that was spread out all over the area, aiming his weapon at one of the larger tentacles he would fire off one round. As the bullet hit the tentacle, black fluid splashed out from it as the echo of the gun firing would reverberate throughout the area. It did not react to the hit as the bottom half of the tentacle slumped towards the floor, with a chunk of it blowing out. Aiming for the center, he fires again with the same results: black fluids splashed out around the impact area with nothing else happening, the mass staying still. "I think we are in the clear here at the moment. Bring up the kits; the center seems to be a good spot to set the charge." Mole 4 would walk forward from around the wall. Mole 1 moves to the side, keeping his weapon ready in the event that this is a trap or something else comes along, attracted by the noise.
Getting close, he would place one of the charges in the middle, set a timer for thirty seconds, and look towards Mole 1. "Charge is ready; set it off in 1... 2... 3..." Hitting the button on it, Mole 4 and 1 run for cover, with the other pulling back behind another wall to be safe. Soon, coming from around the corner, a huge fireball and tremor would rock the area around them, with the lights flicking above their heads for a few seconds. "Let's go have a look." This was also a test of the walls, floor, and ceiling durability, for it was unknown if anything in here could be damaged. Walking around the wall they had taken cover behind before setting the charge off, some of the smoke lingered in the air around the ceiling; parts of it were scorched. The Moles Rats stepped around the wall that covered their view at the spots where the mass once was. A few of the tentacles hung from the ceiling, one of which was slightly on fire at its end. As for the rest, along with parts of the carpet, they were gone, yet two of the walls that were closed while scorched from the explosion were undamaged. The same with the ceiling; it seemed to be clear that the parts of the level couldn't be damaged.
"Path is clear; let's go have a look and see what was on the other side. Is the tether still attached?" He asked Mole 6, and with all their movements, it could have gotten snagged on one of the walls or ripped off from the harness. Moving his hand around the clip, the tether attached, and it was still on it, giving it a small pull, seeing that it was not hung and attached. "Were good it not hung and attached to me we have an easy guide back shame we did not bring anything else with us." There was tape on the floor in a few areas here, yet behind them there was nothing else that made it easy to get to the exit. Stepping along the area that was cleared, a floor could be seen when the explosive was set off under the carpet. Even though it was at the center of the demo explosive, there was no damage done to it beyond the carpet. "It seems that it can hold us. Does not feel weak; quite durable." Mole 2 committed as they all walked forward, following the tape that was on the floor beyond that mass that once blocked them.
Soon, they would find another interesting discovery.