The Erchius Mining Facility

Chapter 10 of Book 1: Exploring the Stars...

I took a little longer than when she had made my equipment, but all in all the EPPs were crafted with relative ease. I can't say that I would have produced the same result as Ayano though, the woman makes this look f****n' easy.

The only thing left now is to head off to those coordinates that we were given. We've got our weapons, we've got our doohickeys, and we have our little backpacks that let us breath on the surface. After all, oxygen is pretty important to survival. Luckily for us, we can beam directly there from my ship. That is precisely what me and Ayano intend on doing in just a second here, in fact.

I sat there on the console, looking back at Ayano.

“You ready to go, girl?!”, I asked her.

She gave me a silent and serious nod, showing affirmation. That was my queue to get a move on, trusting her to have my back. I confirmed the coordinates, then we were both off in the blink of an eye.

It only just now had occurred to me that I have no actual proof that Ayano is going to even be a trustworthy partner. I have no reason to believe otherwise, and she certainly comes off as a genuine person... but beyond this I know nothing about her. I am simply trusting this fish woman that I just met with my life, even. This concept may be pretty foreign to a lot of people, but for me it's not so odd. The fact that I give people the benefit of the doubt so easily, that is.

Bear in mind that my only goal is to escape the tedium of regular, everyday life on that planet. I need to stretch my legs and explore. Ayano is my only option to achieve this need of mine, so if it ends with her stabbing me in the back then at least I died as I lived. Either way, I still trust her.

Mid thought, Ayano started making her way onto the site. The location is some sort of moon base by the way. An old abandoned mining facility on a rocky moon in some random corner of the universe. It's actually really creepy.

I followed behind her, stepping inside of the moon base. It was a ghost town. Blinking red lights littered the place. A siren could be heard clearly from deeper inside. Monitors were all over the place, none of which were on however. Amidst the chaos, my partner was sneaking through everything. Not making one single sound as she did so. I decided to follow suit, staying a short distance behind her.

We stumbled on a staircase in the corner of the room. It only went down, however... seeing that this was the only other way out of this room, we don't exactly have options.

After descending a few levels we stumbled on a hallway that it angled off into. This hallways was littered with lockers and above all, a locked door on one end. I looked over towards Ayano, who was glancing around the room with a distinct scrutiny. After some time, she made her way to one end of the hallway near the doorway. She turned to me suddenly.

“Here.”, she said. Just before kicking something metallic. After regrouping with her, I realized that the thing she kicked was a vent cover. Which means we are in for some sneaky-beaky fun stuff!

“Sooo... not that I don't trust your judgement, but do you even know where we're going Ayano?”, I questioned.

“The complex lacks power, yes? We're going to give the system a kick start.”

“And how exactly do you know that this will lead us to where we need to go?”

She knocked down another vent cover, which we then proceeded to exit out of. Glancing around the room I tried to get a grasp of my own surroundings. Walking to the center of the room, I realized there was a locked door to my right that was all too familiar. We were likely on the other side of the door from earlier.

“Simple answer, I didn't know.”, she answered.

A further look in this room shows a switch on the far wall. The numerous signs nearby indicate that this is our main power switch we need to throw. Interestingly enough, it was just simply in the off position... why would someone power this place down?

As I went to throw the switch, I couldn't help but notice that Ayano had her eyes glued to the ceiling. I flipped the switch, and instantly some of the lights clicked on. Machinery started to fire up in the distance. Above all, that area that my partner is staring at is none other than a broken open vent.

I can hear something moving through it.. towards us.

I drew my bow and readied an arrow. Ayano had assumed a poised stance, placing her hand just above her right shoulder. A blade then materialized onto her back, in its sheath. A katana, no less. She grasped the hilt and prepared for what was about to greet us.

A.. thing fell out of the vent. It's a weird little pink thing that was almost.. cute. It was very humanoid in appearance, with a larger head than expected. Small wings were visible on its back. All together, it was a very odd looking creature.

In my hesitation to shoot however, this adorable pink monstrosity held its hands together at us. In a disgusting display, it then shot some sort of pink goop! Me and Ayano split off in two opposite directions, dodging around he attack. It's time for a retaliation!

I shot an arrow at it, noticing that Ayano was closing in fast. She was like the wind itself, quickly and gracefully moving. As my arrow connected so did her blade, as she unsheathed it. Taking one powerful cleave to the right.

Just like everything else I've killed up to this point, the creature had poofed into the aether. Ayano then proceeded to sheath her sword once more.

“Come on.”, she said.

We left the room and noticed the hallway now had 2 hatches in the floor that wasn't even noticeable while the power was off. Seeing how once again, down was our only option, we decided to accept the invite.

Upon looking in the hatch was a ladder. A ladder that I could not see the bottom of. Another descent into the depths of the planet that seemingly entered into a bottomless pit of hell.... great.