Oh to have a grav belt right about now Blake thinks.  Given the small corridor, a lot of bumps and bruises while ascending would result.  Probably need a real helmet too.  He goes back to watching every step, hand grip ...

"Definitely a better idea then falling to my death."

Ollie heads down the lateral tunnel, trying to be both cautious and quick.

Neva smiled and let Blake take the front.  "So what do you want us to do?  Find a place where I can hanker down and shoot them so they don't follow us?  Hang up some grenades so I can shoot them and blow us all up?  You find me a perch Blake and I'll do it but don't complain afterwards."

Wink wink, nod, nod to 'Killer' Neva wanting to shoot an explosive to set it off ...

I'm glad you're on our side Neva !!  I defer to our resident marine and hunter for tactics, Neva.  Personally, I would shoot the first one in, then drop some smoke.  Unless they have electronics, they may wait for it to clear to see to climb up.  Probably squeeze another one in to cover their ascent.  Buys us time to scamper along.  If I was really evil, I'ld toss a couple rocks over the edge once they got started climbing.

Perhaps Ollie could throw a wrench while yelling "Can you dodge a wrench ??"  OK, waste of a good wrench per Ollie, but a great scene.

Neva and Ken, having some experience and training in explosives, believed that a grenade wedged into the foot/hand holes would blow out a good chunk of the wall due to the condition of the concrete. With a couple climbing holds taken out this fashion it would make climbing very difficult. The trick was going down far enough in the shaft to create a crater in the wall that would be impossible to cross. The narrow width of the shaft would make throwing up a grapnel very difficult (but not impossible) to cross.

Ken yelled up as he started to climb.  "Pass down a couple of grenades and I can wedge them into the hand holds.  We can use rope to pull the pins and they can blow enough of the holds clear that they can't get up past them."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 322):

Neva helped Ken set up their plan.  "make sure that there isn't any kinks in that line when we pull the pins."

Ken nodded as he continued his climb.  "I've no desire to blow off my hands." He worked to set a couple of grenades wedged in hand holds tied with line to the pins.  The idea would be to blow them from above without the grenade coming out of the hand hold.

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 324):

With the liberal application of duck tape, the grenades were firmly wedged into handholds about 5m down from the cross-tunnel. Pins where also taped to nylon climbing cords. Ken and Neva climbed up when they were done.

Wisely deciding to not wait for anyone to poke their heads out, they pulled the pins and then scooted down the cross-conduit as far as they could, fingers in ears.

There was a tremendous explosion which they not only heard but felt. The rumble didn't stop immediately after the blasts, but continued, getting louder. A full fifteen-twenty seconds later the sound died down, leaving them deafened and shaken. They were covered by concrete dust, scratched by chips that fell from the conduit ceiling.

In reply to GM (msg # 325):

Neva looked over at Ken and gave him a thumbs up even as she tried to carefully shake off the effects of the backlash.  She then started to dust herself off but still had a smile on her face.

Linus looked dubious.

"Hope you haven't weakened the whole structure. Or that we don't need to go back down this way."

We know the welcoming committee's back that way, lets keep going this way instead.

Neva looked over at Linus and shook her head.  "Nope, you don't need to go back down that way.  You wouldn't like that way."

Ken stood stunned for a moment at the roar of the explosion and the shuddering of the tunnels.  He let out a hearty "Ooorrahhh!" and then laughed.  "Now that's how we do it in the Corps," he said with a smile.  "I hope it shook the roof down on the bastards." He quickly counted heads and then reloaded his shotgun.

"Let's head out of here.  Blake, can you take the lead again?  I'll cover you."

Blake confers with the prof before heading out, any like routes up ahead ??

In reply to Blake Renfield (msg # 331):

Like everyone, Lorrain was covered in a thick layer of greyish-white concrete dust.

Lorrain coughed and wiped away dust from her instruments.

"Ah... yes... if this conduit continues back into the temple complex it will be at a different level above where the bad guys are."

After a short walk (and crawl) through clear and semi-blocked passages, they came across a series of ramps leading up.

Again, all equipment was stripped and markings faded with age leaving behind grey featureless corridors and empty rooms and chambers. It was obvious this was an older part of the vast underground complex. Due to its remote location in the surrounding hills (relative to the mammoth dome on the plain) had not been fully converted into a temple or used as a quasi-religious shrine.

Ken shared out water to everyone as they paused while Lorain determined their path.  Once they started off again he took the lead with Blake.  Ken set a fast pace eager to get out of the labyrinth and back to the APC.  "It looks like they built an extensive complex before they decivilized to the lower tech.  Was this a defensive base?  It seems odd to otherwise build it underground."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 334):

Lorain nodded in agreement.

"Yes, that sounds plausible, considering the constructions. That large surface dome we entered could have been a command post or sensor site. We might find similar silos in the hills all around the city ruins, if we were allowed to look without being shot.

"If this was some kind of massive defensive complex that would be a significant anthropological find. After the fall of the Second Imperium these kinds of sites tended to be abandoned on Worlds that suffered a technolotical relapse. Few if any i know of were transitioned into religious sites."

In reply to Prof. Lorain Messandi (msg # 335):

Neva smiled as everybody cleared themselves from the dust.  When Ken set a faster pace, she stayed in the back a bit more to make sure that  there wouldn't be scragglers and then followed the group, checking to make sure that the way was clear behind them as well as ahead of them.

During the water break, Blake has a look at his inertial loctaor -- fixing this with the machine
s reality ...  Then scooting along.

Blake's device showed they had travelled underneath the floodplan, following some hidden shelf of bedrock, so that they were now under the northeastern hills surrounding the valley.

After picking themselves up and dusting themselves off, the group trudged up the series of ramps and tunnels that drew them to the surface.

Lorrain said at one rest break, "I'm almost just guessing at this point, we're practically off the map I made from the inscriptions in the dome. Just keep going up, eventually we'll get out, if there's any exits remaining."

The surroundings were monotonous. Concrete corridors with mud and gravel floors, empty side chambers, side corridors that often were blocked with rubble and dirt a short ways down.

Eventually, they saw a watery grey light up ahead: daylight! They came out into a large rubble-strewn chamber that had a wide circular vertitcal shaft 40m across that led to the surface, about 30m above, and blow. Rain poured down from an overcast sky as it was now later morning. The water didn't pool in the chamber but instead drained into the dark shaft below.

If Ken or Linus would have to guess, this reminded them of a vehicle garage or hangar for ship's boats or fighters. The round shaft would have been for a now-missing elevator capable of handling anything up to the size of a shuttle or maybe 100 dton Scout ship. However, they could see no elevator, nor indeed any vehicles parked in the gloomy recesses of the chamber.

Ken shook his head. "It's a shame that all of this complexity is on the Descaroth side of the treaty line.  It seems like we may have a major settlement of the Sky Raiders if not their homeworld.  So much could be learned from looking over all of this.  There may be more computers and records hidden in these complexes.  There had to have been control equipment that would provide clues."

When they reached the shaft Ken poked around out on the floor of the circular area.  "It looks like the landing pad or hangar for a shuttle or even a scout sized ship.  There was probably an elevator that raised and lowered the ships. We should look about.  There may be some kind of emergency ladder or stairs to get from the control center up to the surface to work on the elevator mechanism."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 339):

Shining her light at the walls and ceiling, Lorain looked around. Water leaking through the roof had created clusters of stalactites and stalagmites of dissolved minerals.

"I think they stripped all the machinery and electronics. The battle rider down below was different in that it seemed to have some kind of ceremonial purpose. Yes, let's look for some kind of exit."

There were several passenger and smaller cargo elevator shafts, as well as stairwells. They were either empty shafts or filled with rubble.

Fortunately, they did find one stairwell leading up that was still partially clear. Dim sunlight filtered down. It would be difficult but they could still worm their way up towards the surface.