Act 01: What once was lost...

[Captain Larraq]

Mesen'loras Campaign
Act 01: "What once was lost..."



Thick leather arm rests lined either side of Rygel Larraq as he made his way toward the planet. His Galaar-class Shuttle holding enough finery to hold a business meeting with a Chiss diplomat, should he feel so inclined. Today, however, the shuttle made its way to a dirty little corner of UCoM space.

Looking out the viewport across from him, glass of tea in one hand and datapad in the other, Larraq saw the planet looming beyond the transparisteel windows as the pilot made his final approach. Wayland. A world of biological horrors and untamed jungles since the failed terraforming attempt all those centuries ago. The world had little value to the clans. Even the locals hated the place. What value it did hold, however, lay far below its hazardous surface. The world held Phrik within its crust. A rare and valuable resource available to only a few planets within the galaxy. Not as durable as Beskar, mind you. But still a precious commodity on the galactic market.

 

[Captain Larraq]

Hyperion Mining had been operating on Wayland for a few years now. Small outposts here and there had cropped up and attempted to hold back the hazards of this wild world long enough to etch a profit from its deepest places. Most had ended in failure though. Between the Kremlin swarms and a thousand other biological threats, few outposts lasted long enough to obtain their goal.

The liquid in his glass shifted and his organs churned as the shuttle tore through the upper atmosphere of the planet. It dove through cloud after cloud until rolling forests filled his view through the window. His datapad chirped as they approached their destination. Larraq stood and approached the window, wanting to get a good look at the facility his money had erected. The pilot pulled the craft into a low, slow circle of the facility. It was, without a doubt, massive.

The Harvester Mining Walker was enormous. At nearly four hundred meters long, the facility was the size of a Frigate. Six massive legs stretched out around the facility, each one braced and emitting a powerful shield that arched high over the factory itself. A shield that was currently keeping out whatever local nastiest had the courage to attack something so large. Scurrying between its legs were dozens of droids, walkers, and workers all busy with their various tasks. Most of which were pouring into and out of a massive... cavernous black hole in the earth centered under the 'head' of the walker. She had been drilling.

 

[Captain Larraq]

"Have them lower the shield and bring us in for a landing." Larraq ordered the pilot from the communicator built into his collar.

He was not overly fond of being dragged across the territories to visit random holes in the ground. But, apparently, his men had found something more than Phrik in that hole. He and [member="Countess Calum Teramo"] had been called in to investigate the discovery and advise them on how to continue. While he couldn't get any clear information from them as to the nature of the find, the foreman had insisted that the Countess would want to bring Larraq along. Larraq, for his part, was not overly thrilled by the whole endeavor.

"I swear to the Taung, if they called me out here for fossils, you'll be firing the lot of them." Larraq said to the Countess as he continued to stare out the window at the massive factory and the shadowy mouth of the hole it had burned into the planet. Something about the it made his skin crawl.

 

[Countess Calum Teramo]

Looking downwards with drink in hand taking to her lips the fine wine that would take so sweet when she parted her own lips. Letting herself just think. Before shooting a glance over towards [member="Captain Larraq"]. If it had been her would handled it by herself. These pesty little boggers had been so dead set her bring Mr. Larraq along.

A lot had changed since their first meeting. Speaking her mind she did now, "Well, if that the case they I'll give you first on skinning them alive starting with the foremen himself. , it was the manner she spoke but also those eyes of her that told that she was very serious in letting him do such thing.

Beside what could hurt to get new blood in every once in a while if anything it keep them on their toes and from doing anything stupid.

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Countess Calum Teramo"]

Larraq glanced back at the Countess, momentarily startled by the words that had just come from from the mouth of... a dainty noblewoman. In truth, even one of his soldiers would have gotten a dirty look at the suggestion. But for it to have come from her, of all people, left Larraq moderately shocked. No matter their shortcomings, they were Mando'ad. They were his brothers and sisters, as well as his employees. Were they guilty of criminal activity, it would be a different case. But here... She was talking about flaying alive employees whose only crime would be incompetence.

"Somehow I doubt that will be necessary." Larraq said simply, keeping a wary, analytical eye on the woman as the shuttle landed. A small 'bump' rippled through the hull as the shuttle settled down. Larraq sat his drink down on one of the many tables that lined the cabin and nodded towards the main access ramp while looking at the Countess. A silent invitation to join him and get this trivial trip over with.

 

[Countess Calum Teramo]

Giving him a small grin as she felt them touch down. Not giving away that it was noting more sitting her own glass down. Feeling it was time to see what was going on. It wasn't until they got there would they get to the bottom of things. As always in this part she played very well. Having on one of her custom made royal blue dress something she hadn't totally did away.

"Where is your sense of humor, Captain."

It wouldn't take long for them to located the foreman as it seem that he was so eager for them to talk to them that he meet them half the distance at a quick gate. Starting to go on about what they had found, as if this one need to be slow down in his speech.

"Whoa, Mr. Treedom slow down so me might make sense what being spoken, I understand you don't want to speak out in the open, this is good, don't you think [member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Countess Calum Teramo"]


Larraq and the Countess were instantly besieged by the foreman as soon as the exited the shuttle. The man was clearly excited and rambling on about caves and unidentified machines. Larraq and the Countess quickly shushed the man and suggested that he simply show them what they had found. A small speeder was brought in and the three of them made their way into the darkened depths of the mine. It stilled smelled of scorched earth from the massive laser that had dug the hole, though it had likely stopped laser-drilling many days or weeks ago... the ground still stunk of it.

Dozens of similar speeders lowered droids and workers into the mine, or pulled them out of it. The larger AT-MP mining walkers used their own propulsion to raise and lower themselves from the mine. In a way, it was good to see his technology put to use in person. Much of what he saw now was what had allowed his company to grow as it had over the past few years. "We had been on manual drilling for nearly a week." Began the foreman, explaining the situation to them as they made the decent. "Before we started encountering natural caves. At least we thought they were caves."

"You found a complex?" Larraq said, obviously surprised by the obviously one in a million chance of encountering buried structures on a blind dig.

"Yes. Most of it had been destroyed by cave-ins long before we arrived. We're still not sure if the drilling caused it, but these ruins are ancient. Several hundred years old at least, maybe even a few thousand." The foreman explained and their speeder descended deeper and deeper into darkness.

 

[Countess Calum Teramo]

Giving a quick glance over to [member="Captain Larraq"] listening to everything he was speaking them them now. Feeling that there indeed something to this. Wondering to the speeder only to have it take off as soon as they was on board. After which time brought them closer. "This is very much interesting turns of event."

Not knowing what else there was down there if these was indeed man made.

[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Countess Calum Teramo"]

"Well." Began the foreman. "We didn't just find tunnels." The man said as the speeder finally set down. Larraq could see the obvious outline of concrete structures pressed against the rocks that lined the cavern. A little further into the dark, he could see the concrete tunnels themselves as they stretched into the distance. "We found some... hardware." The foreman said cryptically.

"What sort of hardware?" Larraq asked, suddenly finding himself irresistibly curious.

"As far as we can figure it... We found some mainframes." The foreman said as they exited the vehicle and began walking through the dark, dirty tunnels and into the darkened interior of the ancient ruins. A portable generator had been set up back by where the speeder had landed. Wires and lights crawled along the ceiling and stretched into the artificial tunnels that his miners had stumbled upon. "Most of them were crushed during a cave-in... But a few appear to be intact."

"Intact?" Larraq asked as they walked through twisting corridors. "Has anyone attempted to access the mainframes yet?"

"No. We knew that whatever it was was above our pay grade." Answered the foreman truthfully.

 

[Countess Calum Teramo]

Walking a long listening to all that the foreman being spoken. "Have you made a swept for safety of the structures around the mainframe."

Coming along side of [member="Captain Larraq"] as took herself deep in thought over this matter. As she finally spoke up this time turning her head to speak to Larraq directly. "So, do you remember reading anything about this planet what could be that ones here has found."

Running her hands along the smoothness of the structures. "Have you made sure that these generators still have some power left, after all this time there has to be taped out."

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Countess Calum Teramo"]

Larraq looked back at the Countess and listened to her questions. "None of our records go much beyond the ancient terraforming attempts that were made on the planet." Larraq admitted. "But..." He said as he recognized a symbol on one of the walls. "I think this may answer that question." He pointed at what was obviously the symbol for the ancient Galactic Empire. The symbol had been re-used by the Atrisians and the Sith Empire from time to time, so it was hard to mistake as anything but what it was.

This was an Imperial structure.

The foreman nodded his agreement with the theory and answered the Countess's questions. "Most of these tunnels are fairly stable. The ones that aren't have already collapsed. We weren't sure if we should reinforce these tunnels or mine through them." He said with a shrug of his shoulders. "That's one of the questions we were hoping to get an answer to." He said as they continued their walk. "As for the generators... They should have enough fuel for the next few days."

"For now, let's try to keep these structures intact." Larraq said as they continued with their lengthy walk.

 

[Countess Calum Teramo]

"Our advance engineer team making sure the tunnel will hold." as knew that it would take a few days to make sure but until then. As they came to one of the generator. As it looked like it mostly untouched but with a thick layer of dust from long time being inactivate. Started to get her hands dirty which wasn't normal for someone like her but she wanted to see just what this thing looked like. After some time getting to all the major gears and componates.

"It looks like it should work, got to give them credit they knew how to build them back then." ,

[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Countess Calum Teramo"]



Larraq nodded in agreement with the Countess's statement. The Empire of old was renowned for its technological marvels. The question remained though, what could they have left that was of any value? That question would answer itself, however, as the small group rounded the next corner and followed the lights to a massive, vault-like door. The door had already been opened, but it was what lay on the other side that was the obvious point of intrigue. "An archive?" Larraq said out loud, more to himself than to anyone else in particular. For as far as he could see, the bulky forms of computer mainframes were intermixed with collapsed sections of ceiling and rubble from the surrounding rock formations. Joices and other support structures had already been put in place to prevent the rest of the ceiling from collapsing down on them, but it appeared as if the bulk of the damage had already been done. Only a few of the precious mainframes appeared intact.

"Foreman, please tell me this is what I think it is." Larraq said as he took it all in.

"As near as we can tell... Yeah. An Imperial archive." The foreman said.

"Have you been able to access it at all?" Larraq asked.

"I've pushed a few buttons, but nothing seems to be working yet. We even tried plugging a few into a generator, but we couldn't get much out of them." The foreman responded.

"Alright..." Larraq said as he tried to process the scope of what lay before him. "I want this area secured. Put in a call to Hyperion Security. I want a team down here securing the site. I want a team of slicers and engineers working around the clock to get these mainframes functional and under our control. Once that's done, you're going to continue excavating the area and salvage everything you can. Am I understood?" Larraq said to the foreman, giving stern orders to secure what he considered to be a vital resource for his company.

 

[Countess Calum Teramo]

Beside it being very dark it wasn't nothing more then what lay in wake. After all she had been taught to look at everything. Even those it seem to most to be useless. Now as they walked into the room all she could get out of her mouth in between. Jackpot?" , as she let herself be taken in to the room that looked more like a death trap, but some eyes. To other eyes this would be the future of what knowledge could be gleam.


"Do you think that we need to have adapter for the companter to our equipment. "

 

[Captain Larraq]

[member="Countess Calum Teramo"]


"Possibly. We'll leave that to the slicers though." Larraq said to the Countess. Looking around at the crumbling remains of the room, Larraq couldn't begin to guess at how much precious data had been lost. Then again, he couldn't guess at how much data would be salvageable. Nor at what sort of data the archive would hold. For all he knew, he had found the Galactic Empire's IRS records. Larraq reached out and let his fingers drag across the surface of one of the mainframes. It was old and dusty, but it somehow felt powerful to the man.

"This could take days." Larraq eventually said to Ms Teramo. "For now, I think we should head back to the Harvester and plan our next move here."

 

[Countess Calum Teramo]

Hearing what said about taking a few days after giving herself another glance around the room. Once again facing [member="Captain Larraq"] "I think you are right about a few days at less, lets us retreat to Harvester," in a way after all this time away from the good Captain she had missed their talk, if more for the fact that enjoy the fact they had like mind for business and loyal and duty. No matter what came afterwards she would still be loyal to Larraq not matter what would happen in this galaxy. After all he had shown her of the culture she was embracing.

Shall we, Captain Sir, retreat to have some tea.

That she found out early on in their business dealing that they both enjoyed.