Tainted continues to follow the hallway, it was narrow, mostly because rubble and other unimportant objects filling the way, tainted ignored these after it decided that the rubble wouldn't be worth it to be recycled.The sower floats way slower than before, out of fear that it will walk into active turrets the next time, it's lights were shining the way for the others.Some more turrets were also identified by the sower, but like the others poorly installed with an energy cell as fuel, all run out.

“Only one major threat detected, please mind the dust on parts of the ground and rubble, infection should be prevented” The sower tried to stay away from things covered with the substance as much as possible , it slowed even more down in passages of the hallway were larger surfaces (about one square meter) even only slightly covered with it.

The sower then noticed that no ground was under its sphere anymore
“Halt, this Unit reached the shaft, watch your step, this Unit will engage sensors to locate a possible way down and detect other threats”

It sends out different bursts of EM Radiation, it will not only give it a good idea of the shaft but also unwillingly trigger most sensors.

Valorum didn't seem to notice 7-1-4 moving ahead, nor did he thank Laudmas for carrying his gear or reply to Ylona's report. Instead, he simply unlatched his plasma cannon from his back, opened it up into its active form and loaded an energy coil into it. After seeing his weapon hum to life, orange light igniting along its body and a holographic rune flashing up to display how much ammo remains in the clip, he activated its barrel-mounted spotlight attachment and the area in front of him was bathed in a faintly orange-tinged light. Moving it around, he saw more than his subordinate bothered to scan. Three more pairs of turrets were further down the hall, all spaced 10 metres apart from each other. With a glance up at the ceiling, the captain saw that there were three other pairs of roof-mounted turrets as well, all spaced above the gaps between the floor-mounted guns, like rows of teeth in a predators jaw.

Fourteen turrets in total; and all of them pointed inwards.

Cold dread clenched in the Vodyani's chest as he solemnly ordered:

"Rolak, take my right flank. Chidi, my left. Everyone else, stay behind us and keep moving."

Chidi silently did as he ordered, but Rolak couldn't help but ask in a low voice:

"Care to let me in on the this, captain? What's the deal?"

While turning off the safeties on his cannon, Valorum responded:

"Defensive structures are meant to protect a facility from external threats. Those turrets, however..."

Rolak glanced at the inert defenses, taking the whole scene in while staring down the hallway through his iron sights.

"Yeah. They're facing the inside...they weren't worried about anybody getting in..."

Valorum grimly finished his comrade's sentiment:

"...they feared more for what might get out."

That was all the time that they could speak, however, as Valorum motioned for the party to start moving forward to catch up with their runaway Sower.

Automaton had no qualms about hanging back, a quick systems check revealed that while its right foot was hanging loosely on the ankle gear, due to a shredded Dust conduit, mobility was possible although limited by running a locking bar down the back of its shin.

<We will have 80% reduced foot movement until we are able to repair and recover.>

+It shouldn't affect our fighting ability unless an enemy identifies our deficiency and exploit it, then we could be in trouble.+

[Alright, we're advancing, regardless of our issues.]

0000 continued advancing with the group muscling forward until it was just behind the main fighting force hands clenching and unclenching, with slight sparks playing across its palms, ready to draw its blades at any moment.

As the team approached 7-1-4 at the edge of the shaft it was scanning, Valorum held up a hand in a clenched fist, ordering his team to stop moving. Cautiously, he approached the edge of the spherical hole in the ground and shone his light down into the shaft. All told, the circle was about 10 metres in diameter, and the shaft was infinitely deeper. Even with his light, the captain couldn't see the bottom; it simply stretched into the bowels of the planet.

"I suppose this should be some kind of elevator..."

He should have looked for a control panel of some kind to raise the elevator, but instead, Valorum glanced back at the team, asking:

"Does anybody have a disposable torch? Or some kind of flare?"

“Give me some room.”

Using the box to help create some space, the robot finally managed to push through the crowd. Unfortunately (due to the size of the box) Laudmas wasn’t able to get a good luck of the surroundings. Just as well, at least ground was quite pleasant to look at.

Hearing what the captain said, the robot lowered the box and briefcase (carefully!) and pulled out a simple torch. He lit it up, went close to the pit and promptly tossed the torch in.

It slowly plummeted down; steadily illuminating the entire pit. Laudmas watched carefully as it descended while quickly grabbing ahold of Chidi, who decided to take a closer look

Valorum peered over the ledge and watched the torch fall as well, its chemical flame casting an orange-yellow light on the sides of the pit as it descended. One, two, three, four, five seconds passed before it stopped shrinking, having finally hit the ground. According to the probe readouts that he reviewed on the ship, the gravity of Tanye II clocked in at 9.238 m/s squared. After five seconds of falling...well, Valorum was no mathematician, so he couldn't judge the distance with accuracy. It was still obvious that there was some mechanism to find here in order to descend, so he looked up and around, spotting a small podium with a tilted triangle as a topper off to the right side. Approaching it cautiously, he waved a hand nearby it and holographic icons lit up to form a screen and a graphic user interface written in a gibberish language. Gibberish to everyone else, in any case.

Valorum easily navigated the panel, finding the function he was looking for and activating it. A ring on the ceiling slightly smaller than the pit flickered with gold light and eventually lit up in full, and a disk-shaped elevator with a similar control-panel on it descended to the floor. Valorum motioned towards it, as if to say to his team 'get on it'.

The sower swiftly hovered to the middle of the shaft . It was not in the need of the elevator to move down the shaft , so it hovered 2 meters over the elevator to give the rest of the group more space to stand . 7-4-1-N-7-3-D prepared its sensors for quick scans to detect possible threats.

<Impressive how the captain is interacting with the ruin tech ... but is it save for him to do so-The captain knows what he is doing , doubting this is only unefficient> 

Meanwhile, deep within the facility, something stirred and awoke. It crawled from a hole in the wall to stand on the long-untouched floors. It did not move with the flexing and stretching of muscles, like an animal, but rather the precise, practiced movements of motors and metal. It stood and for the first time in the better part of an eon, He felt.

For this machine, it was a peculiar new sense, feeling. At that particular moment He felt what could only be described as excitement when He detected a wave of EM Radiation rippling through the building like a stone dropped into a pond, and like ripples on water, you can trace them back to where the stone was dropped in.

The entrance.

Had He a heart to beat it would have pulsed faster, had He lungs to feed they would have breathed harder, had He muscles to move they would have flexed and tensed in the mere anticipation of action. But He had none of these. His blood was lightning, his air was Dust, and his muscles were motors, all of which remained untouched by this new sense of the world, this feeling.

All He knew was that the hunt had begun.

Dhanyl marvelled at the beauty of the facility, the black, stonelike Material that made up the walls, the golden trickles of dust that ran through these walls, trying to power whatever they were supposed to power, but too weak to do so. However, the first thrill of discovery wore down soon and got replaced by distress, as he saw his theory proven by the turrets they found.

Cautiously he advanced, a meter behind the rest of the group, examining the few features the mostly blank corridor had. Sadly, nothing he found was interesting and he soon caught up with the others, pushing himself through the group and onto the elevator.

0000 boarded the lift with the rest of the group, instinctively raising its cloak up slightly and compressing its height to better hide in the crowd.

Valorum waved to the two other guards, and Chidi and Rolak stepped onto the platform. Valorum followed, motioning for Laudmas to get on the platform as he approached its console and removed his hood. With the brief reprieve, Rolak took an opportunity to approach Valorum and ask:

"Captain, if you don't mind me asking..."

"Now's not the best time, Brother Rolak...but what bothers you?"

"That thing you did outside, where you found that circuit with your hand...how'd you do it?"

Valorum chuckled a little, explaining:

"The benefit of a diet of pure Dust, Brother; I am a living font of the substance. Endless machinery and leylines react to my presence."

Rolak took a moment to mull the captain's answer over.

"...that why you didn't want to get near the door controls at first?"

"Partially. With my Cloth being of Virtual make and my core inundated with Dust, if this was a Concrete temple, my direct interaction might have activated defense mechanisms."

"And why didn't it?"

"I saw a rune on the side of the entrance. A Virtual rune; one that meant 'safe passage'."

With everyone on the platform, Valorum hit a button and the lift began to sink down into the depths of the ruin. There was no mechanism holding the lift in place; just some kind of gravitational beam that slowly pushed the platform down through a cylinder of black metal. The descent was slow, but then the round walls of the elevator shaft gave way to a magnificent sight.

The area this elevator descended into was a massive corridor shaped like a vaulted pentagonal prism. Easily 30 metres high and 10 metres wide at its furthest points. Faded circuits still pulsed through the ceiling and walls which provided dim illumination in addition to the party's lights that shone across the black metal of this interior. Several passages seemed to run perpendicular to this one because the walls opened up at points with similar, albeit smaller, hallways that branched to the left and right, while this huge chamber seemed to run into the horizon and out of sight. Though he didn't show it, Valorum was a little disappointed. There were no decorations here; no massive statues of robed Endless and no metal-wrought models of ships to herald the glory of this ancient empire. It was just this massive, empty hallway and whatever was scrawled on the walls. Still, even that was something.

Seeing as there was a solid wall behind them and the only way was forward once the lift hit the ground, Valorum stepped forward to the head of the group so he would be the first off the elevator, and holstered his plasma cannon in favour of drawing his blade and extending it to glaive-form. When the elevator finally hit the ground, all Valorum did was walk forward. Chidi and Rolak took the hint and took their positions at the right and left flanks of the group, but with nothing but a wall behind them, they aimed forward to cover the captain as the group slowly began to move, deeper and deeper into the belly of this sleeping beast.

Though it would have been utterly terrifying if the monster had attacked, it would also have been a bit more satisfying.

More satisfying, that is, than a silent bolt of golden light lancing out from the darkness and punching in one side and out the other, leaving not so much as smoke or ash where there was so soon before live flesh. The creature shrieked in rage and pain, recoiling and attempting to either flee or eat the walls. Before its actions could be ascertained, however--

Another bolt of gold struck, this one further down the worm's body. A third shot struck its eyeless head, and the serpentine monstrosity writhed in agony, collapsing and twitching uncontrollably. It was not dead, but it would be soon.

Certainly, the nigh-skeletal figure emerging from the shadows ahead had every intention of ending this creature.

The figure walked with purpose in its step. It bore no aura or air, only the all-but-silent, familiar whir of the Dust. It was tall, at least two meters, and entirely metal. Its design was unfamiliar, more rigid than an Automaton or Sower, but not so much as a Craver. Sharp shapes, including a rectangular knee between each section of leg. The workings of its waist were hidden by a form of tattered skirt, divided along worn, vertical creases. The fabric was eaten and rotting, a section crumbling like aged rock into dust as the machine's hip caused it to flex too far for it to bear. Its torso was a bit more curved in places, and in fact bore a black semi-sphere in the center of its vaguely T-shaped torso. Its arms ended in four clawed fingers, without so much as a palm to unite them, and began with broad, tall shoulder-plates that protected its thin, rail-like neck. The spiked, spine-like protrusion extended a least half a meter on its own, topped by a metal half-head with two beady red eyes with enough space for a human fist between them.

But all of this was made all the more eerie by the swirls of golden Dust trailing along behind it like fog, glowing in the darkness.

The machine held in its claws a weapon the likes of which could barely be recognized. It was much like its wielder, long and angular. But as it approached the worm, writhing on the ground, the weapon collapsed its thin barrel into the body, and six smaller openings revealed themselves on the end of the gun.

With no visible hesitation, the machine pointed its armament into the worm's maw, and the rapid flashes of gold light and shrieking noises of agony persisted only a few moments before the beast fell still, and its slayer holstered the gun on its back silently.

Whirling around, it spoke in a rushed, incomprehensible blur of words surrounded by a terrible shrieking of audio feedback.

"EEEEEEEEEEEIDNTFRSLVSMMDTLEEEEEEEEEEEE"