The guideline wobbled dangerously, almost yanking her off of her perch on the cavern wall, but she managed to keep her footing, jamming one heavy combat boot into a narrow crevice in the rock.
"C'mon! Everflowing, keep the damned line straight!" Ivy roared, craning her neck to glare at the unfortunate engineers at the plateau edge.
Shame-faced, they wrestled with the pulley system to bring the guideline taut once more, allowing her a stable anchor to fix herself to. Dozens of them lanced out from the ragged surface of the plateau, fired like harpoons to allow the swift transfer of people and equipment across the magma lit moat.
Swearing under her breath, Ivy turned back and levelled a heavy industrial cutter at the rock face.
Much more powerful than the handheld variant, it looked like a short rifle cradled in her hands, a clump of wires spooling from its rear that disappeared into the power pack slung across her back. Pulling her blast goggles down into the place, she set to work, joining several other engineers who were meticulously hacking away at the cavern walls.
Sun-bright light flared from the cutter's nozzle, slicing into the battered stone. She moved it in a gentle side to side motion, flensing away layers of rock until she could see the black metal of ... whatever it was underneath.
Above and below her, covering a large section of the wall, a whole squad of her fellow engineers spread out, anchored on fresh-cut ledges or dangling out of tight, armoured harnesses as they sliced away. More and more smears of black emerged, and with them came a gentle curve, apparently following the incline of the cavern wall upward.
Working along the left edge, Ivy kept cutting, removing more and more of the concealing rock, and what she found was that the bizarre obelisk stretched back into the rock face a lot further than they'd realised.
Despite hours of work, she didn't feel any closer to figuring out what it was. So far it was just a solid lump of something out of place, and the engineers worked painstakingly to avoid actually cutting into it with their tools. Riverlords-only-knew what might happen if they damaged it. For all she knew it might have been the only thing holding the whole drowned cavern together.
She kept going, cutting a narrow path that others could follow.
Several feet into the solid rock, she heard – and felt – a faint whump. She froze. For a moment she thought she'd imagined it.
"Capicza – excavation team," called the engineer working a dozen meters above her. "Anybody else feel that?"
So not a figment of her imagination.
"Shanklin here," Ivy replied quickly, edging away from the black metal. "I felt it too."
"Kenyatta – excavation team," the captain's voice cut across the comm. "What's going on?"
"Felt a vibration," Capicza answered. "Might have been a tremor."
"Came from the direction of this thing." She looked close, pushing up her goggles and narrowing her eyes. "You feel anything on your end, captain?"
"Negative. Plateau is stable – no seismic deviations."
She nodded; kept watching. It took nearly two minutes, before another faint pulse gently pushed at her feet, and this time she saw a tiny but definite throb of pale blue light beneath the surface. Her mouth opened in surprise.
"Another one," Capicza confirmed. "Shanklin?"
"Yep." Ivy nodded. "And it looks like this big lump isn't so inert after all."
"What you got?"
"Some kind of pulse. Come see for yourself."
"Captain?"
"Authorised."
"Be with you in a ripple."
A few minutes later, Capicza appeared in her little tunnel. He was a couple of years older than her, but he didn't look it. Short and skinny, the young man was well-built for clambering around in the guts of Brekka's war machines. He shuffled along to join her, turning his eyes to the same point on the wall.
"Alright, what am I looking at?" he asked.
"Just wait." Ivy pointed. "Right there. When the next pulse comes, watch for it."
Capicza nodded, his clean-shaven face a picture of discomfort. Evidently he didn't much care for being this close to the thing. But he watched and he waited, and when the pulse came again, his eyes widened in surprise.
"Watching Lords," he breathed.
"This thing's generating the vibrations," Ivy said into the comm. "Must be some kind of power source inside it. Low level – you'd probably need to stick a seismic right on top of it to register anything."
"Capicza, confirm?" Kenyatta replied.
"Confirmed, ma'am," he replied. "Some kind of light pulsing beneath the surface in time with the tremor."
"Hold your positions," Kenyatta advised them quickly. "If that thing is sending out tremors – even minor ones – We need to get a full spectrum scanner rigged out there before you go digging any deeper. We don't know how stable that part of the cavern is."
"My torch is almost dry anyway," Ivy answered, "I'm coming in for a recharge and I'll take a scanner back with me, copy?"
"Copy that, Shanklin. I'll have a fresh pack charged and waiting for you," Kenyatta replied. "Capicza – hold your position. Copy?"
"Don't have to tell me twice, ma'am," Capicza replied, shooting Ivy a nervous look. "Hurry back, eh?"
"Just don't touch anything," she replied, clapping him on the shoulder before shimmying back out of the crevice she'd cut for herself.
"On my way, ma'am," she called. "See you in a few." Slotting the bulk of the cutter into place against the small of her back, she pivoted within her harness, giving the taut guideline an experimental pull.
Then she took a deep breath and launched herself across the chasm. Even with the protective netting below, she couldn't swallow down the gut-churning sensation of wheeling across empty space, the plateau rushing towards her with frightening speed.
A burly female Blackwater guard was waiting to catch her when she landed. She thudded into the woman's armoured body with a grunt; strong arms clamped around her to stop her momentum dead.
"Safe!" the guard barked to the nearby operators.
"Nice catch," Ivy remarked as the attending technicians unhooked her from the heavy duty work harness.
"Living the dream," the woman replied dryly, releasing her. Ivy chuckled and set off towards the main encampment.
Outside the main command tent she saw Kelso deep in conversation with two of his officers, and they looked serious enough that she decided not to bother with pleasantries for now. Walking past, she ducked through the tent flap and into the makeshift command centre for the expedition.
The tent was almost fifty feet long, filled with a rotating duty shift of engineers, technicians, scientists and guards. Temporary computing stations whined in the intense head, their coolant systems battling against Rychter's unforgiving environment.
"Corporal!"
She spotted Kenyatta waving at the mouth of the tent's equipment store, holding a rectangular power pack for the cutter. Shrugging off the power pack as she crossed the space, she unhooked the cutter and placed it down on a nearby table. Removing the depleted pack, she set it aside to be collected for a recharge.
"So, that thing isn't dead?" the captain asked as she handed over the fresh cell for the cutter.
"Doesn't look like it." Ivy shrugged. "Don't know if we should be scared or excited."
"A mix of both sounds sensible to me."
"That's why you're the boss." Ivy slotted the fresh power pack into the back holster, and connected it up to her cutter before giving the tool an experimental torch. Then she turned to Kenyatta. "Got a scanner for me?"
"Right here." She disappeared into the equipment store for a few seconds, before re-emerging with a bundle of spindly metal rods fixed with a bulbous dark sphere at one end, its surface cratered with hundreds of tiny sensors.
Ivy hauled on the power pack, shoved the cutter back into its cradle, and then turned her back to Kenyatta, allowing her to slot the scanner's slim structure into her harness alongside the power cell.
"All set."
"Then I'm out of here."
"Corporal, hold up a second." A firm hand on her arm stopped Ivy from scuttling off and she turned to face her commanding officer to find Kenyatta's face grim.
Ivy gave her a questioning look. "Everything alright, ma'am?"
"Its not been sent out on the wideband just yet, but we need to pick up the pace," Kenyatta admitted, casting a wary glance towards the tent flap. "Your friend Kelso just told me. Word came down the security comms from Brekka. There's been an incident."
Ivy raised an eyebrow. "What kind of incident?"
"The shooting kind."
"Scraegans?"
"Looks like one of their packs took some shots at a patrol out at Coaler's Basin. Now there's a whole diplomatic circus setting up at the Liaison Post to try and figure out what's going on before this thing spins off into the rapids."
"Drown me." Ivy didn't quite know what to say to that. "I... do you know how true it is?"
"I'm not sure. Some people are saying its time to go to war again. Some people say we need to wait – that there must be an explanation."
"What do you think?"
"I've got no pissing idea." Kenyatta let out a snort of disgust. "No matter what happened, we're stuck down here and there's not a damned thing any of us can do about it except cross our fingers and pray."
"But, if they start fighting again and we're still down here with the Scraegans..." Ivy looked around, the reality of the situation hitting her like an ice bath.
"Exactly." Kenyatta nodded. "The point is, even if this doesn't end up in another all out war, we might not have that much longer to dig this thing out – whatever it is. If things go sideways and we have to leave, we need as much information as we can get, as fast as we can get it."
"You can count on me, ma'am." Ivy tapped two fingers to her forehead in salute. "We'll figure it out. We always do. That's why they sent us and not just some science team."
"The 15th gets the job done," the captain agreed with a wry smile.
The smile disappeared when a rumbling bellow cut through the air outside the tent. They both straightened abruptly. A sudden quiet took hold for a few seconds, before a second roar answered.
Exchanging a worried look, the two engineers bolted out of the tent. Just outside the threshold, she found Kelso standing there, staring towards the tunnel mouth with his long-barrelled rifle clutched in his hands.
He looked nervous. It had been a long time since she'd seen that.
"Kelso, what...?"
The question died in her throat as she followed his gaze.
At the mouth of the entry ramp, a group of Scraegan warriors were descending into the cavern.
Over the weeks spend down here, Ivy had gotten used to the comings and goings of the Scraegans assigned to the dig site – a predicable rotation of warriors – but she didn't recognise this group.
The leader was big, almost large enough to be an Alpha, with striking fur the colour of fire and scarred, smoke-darkened armour strapped haphazardly across its massive body. In one great paw it carried a club of black stone, the other carrying the weight of a well-used furnace cannon.
Behind it, the accompanying pack of warriors were similarly garbed, wearing ramshackle armour and sporting bright coats of reds and oranges. Ivy squinted at them in confusion. Most of the Scraegans she'd seen, on film or in real life, had muted fur colours – nothing like this vibrant display.
"Now who do you suppose these folks are?" she said quietly.
"Never seen them before," Kelso said, and his disquiet was evident in the tightness of his jaw and his piercing stare. The two Blackwater officers next to him eyed up the newcomers warily, one whipping out a pair of binoculars to take a closer look.
The Alpha of the Scraegans at the dig side let out a loud, throat scarring bellow and trudged out from its position among the Scraegan diagnostic machines, a big-toothed axe clutched in one massive paw. Half a dozen of its warriors formed into a loose rank behind as it stomped out to meet the interlopers.
They stopped maybe a dozen meters from each other, point-blank range for such big creatures. Low grumbles and growls rattled back and forth; heads tossed and teeth bared on either side.
"Doesn't look like a happy reunion," Kenyatta said.
"Captain," Kelso said quietly. "Start getting your people back onto the plateau."
"Sir?"
"Prepare for an emergency evacuation." He looked at her. "Just in case."
The look in his eyes made Ivy shudder. He was deadly serious. Kenyatta hesitated for a moment, then nodded, moving back from the potential confrontation and speaking in hushed tones through the comm.
Ivy didn't hear the words, her mind fixed on the Scraegan packs. They continued their stand off for what felt like minutes, until eventually the newcomer opened its mouth in a blunt-toothed snarl and it took a single, heavy step forward.
The Alpha leading the Scraegans at the dig site let out a sharp, guttural cough, hackles rising on the back of its thick neck. It advanced in turn, taking two immense strides and letting its axe arm sweep back, ready to swing. Ivy watched in amazement as the two great beasts approached each other, squaring off like two gladiators.
"What in the Everflowing is going on?" one of the guards murmured.
"Doesn't look like they're friends," Kelso replied. His finger slipped to the trigger of his rifle, his other hand coming off the barrel the touch his earpiece. His voice remained low and calm as he spoke. "Forge-CCD – all security units. Defensive readiness. I repeat, defensive readiness."
Ivy looked at him in surprise. All around them, across the plateau, the soldiers of the Blackwaters slowly readied themselves. She saw several come sliding discreetly from their barrack tents, buckling on armour and checking rifle sights as unobtrusively as possible.
It felt like a spark would blow the whole cavern to pieces. She tensed, ready to run if she had to. Her thumbs slipped into place along the clasps of her harness, preparing to shed the cumbersome cutter and power pack at a moment's notice.
The Scraegan leaders edged even closer, their muzzles almost close enough to touch. All the furnace cannons along the line remained cold, but she could see both entourages bristling for a fight.
In a motion so fast she barely registered it, the Alpha of the dig site headbutted the intruder.
The clunk of impact echoed deafeningly through the cavern as the thick skull plates crashed together. The fire-furred newcomer flew backwards with a roar of surprise, crashing onto its back at the feet of its warriors.
The Alpha bellowed a challenge, loud enough that her ears stung and she grimaced. Along the line its warriors echoed the call, surging forward to flank their leader. She edged back, half expecting a full blown battle to start there and then.
The bright-furred warpack recoiled, dragging their leader upright, spitting and barking what she could only assume were Scraegan curses. When it was upright again, the pack-leader bared its teeth and uttered a fast stream of grunts and growls, its head dipping angrily towards the human encampment on the plateau.
"Think he doesn't like us?" Ivy ventured nervously.
Kelso didn't reply, watching and waiting as all around him the Blackwaters took up concealed firing positions.
Thankfully, they weren't needed.
After a short, and very bitter-sounding exchange, the fire-furred Scraegan eventually let out a disgruntled snort and turned its back, trudging back the way it had come. Its followers moved with it, as though dragged by gravity, snarling and growling parting shots at the Alpha and the warriors. Their footsteps echoed away into the dark and soon all the bright fur passed out of sight.
The Alpha waited for a moment, watching the tunnel mouth. Then, without explanation, it simply stomped back over to the Scraegan half of the plateau like nothing had happened.
"By the Watching Lords," Ivy breathed after a minute. She looked up at Kelso. "What now?"
"You'd better get back to work, Ivy," he told her, his eyes never leaving the darkness of the tunnel. "I have a feeling they'll be back, and soon."