The journey to the abandoned mine was as uneventful as Soshyan expected.
Since they left the city, they had been attacked only once by blind and angry rebel peasants, and occasionally by native wildlife hungry or stupid enough to attack the Astartes.
If Soshyan called a mortal escort and let the mortals take care of everything, the journey would be much easier, but this would also allow the news to spread quickly.
Before they find their target, it will be known to everyone.
Ultimately, he judged that it would be better for them to enter on their own, and simply asked West to send a few men and a steward, with orders to keep their presence and journey strictly secret until they allowed it to be publicized.
Soshyan believed that, at least for a short period of time, the man would not dare to disobey his orders.
This mine, known as the "Dead Man's Pile", is a typical primitive vertical excavation site. Its main body is located under a mountain with an average altitude of thousands of meters. After passing through the passage for workers to enter and exit, you can see the details of the mine.
The living area is located on the edge of a huge pit. The weak light spot at the top of the huge cave provides extremely limited illumination, which is far from enough to illuminate the entire pit.
A large number of wooden tracks and elevators are distributed around the edge of the giant pit. From here, workers go down to the bottom to excavate minerals exposed outside the rock formations.
In addition to iron ore, it also produces precious metal minerals including copper ore, lead ore, gold and silver. According to Steward West, this mining area once had 30,000 miners, who mined these deep underground materials day and night.
of wealth.
Although this is an agricultural world, the most basic smelting industry is still available. Many of the minerals excavated have been turned into agricultural tools or daily necessities, and precious metals have become home or personal display decorations for landlords.
However, a few decades ago, accidents began to occur frequently in the mines. Miners often disappeared underground for no reason, and the output of minerals was getting lower and lower.
Finally, after a large number of miners disappeared and died, the owner of the mine abandoned it, and the miners lost their jobs and left.
In order to prevent further accidents, the nearby landowners chose to seal it off, which was a roadblock composed of rocks and wood piled at the entrance before Soshyan and others entered.
"There's a hole there."
Standing on the edge of the giant pit, Armin suddenly pointed to the rock wall a hundred meters below.
"It looks like it was chiseled out, but... it may not be too smooth."
"I saw it."
Soshyan kicked a pebble off the cliff. It should have fallen to the bottom ten seconds later, but the never-ending sound of the nearby underground river swallowed up any possible echo.
"Proceed with caution."
Thor followed Soshyan carefully to the edge of the cliff.
"I estimate that the bottom must be at least two kilometers below here."
"I wish I had a ladder."
Soshyan sighed, trying to make others think he was joking.
Of course, there is no ladder.
But at the end of the cliff, there is a lift that the housekeeper said is still usable, extending down to a series of rock platforms, forming a simple and irregular passage.
This made Soshyan relieved.
It's too deep here, and I can't tell whether it's rocks or extremely old concrete, but no matter what, the surface is loosely covered with a layer of moss, making it a little slippery every time I step on it.
Looking at the elevator swaying gently in the breeze, Soshyan felt a little uneasy, but after checking the power system, he found that it was still working normally, so he felt relieved.
Fortunately, this thing was very strong when it was first repaired - someone drove rivets into it for fixation, and it was easy for four Astartes to stand on it. It should have been a freight elevator used to transport minerals.
"Leave two people to guard the top. The others will go down in two batches. Thor and I will take the lead, followed by Calvin and Levis. Armin, you will lead the second batch."
After making a simple deployment, Soshyan and three others boarded the elevator.
The moment Astartes stepped on it, the iron elevator made a painful creaking sound, and large amounts of rust and dust fell from the unused supports and hit the silver-gray armor.
Soshyan stood for a few seconds, and after confirming that there was no problem, he nodded towards Sol.
The second Space Marine walked up, and the elevator platform suddenly sank a little.
But it still held on.
Then came the third and fourth.
After confirming that there were no more problems, Soshyan gestured to Armin, who immediately started the elevator.
With the roar of the engine and the large amount of black smoke pouring out of the exhaust port, the power system that had been dormant for decades revived again, and rotated the winch to slowly lower the cable that was as thick as an adult's forearm.
The lifting platform also slowly sank.
Everything went smoothly, and two minutes later, they arrived at the first ledge.
From here, they had to walk on foot, and the miners built many small railroad tracks for transportation.
There is at least a kilometer of depth below.
After the lift was pulled up, Soshyan waited on the ledge for a while, and the three people led by Armin soon arrived here.
"Which way do you think we should go?"
After observing the terrain, Soshyan looked at Sol next to him.
The road bifurcated, and the main road continued to go down along the railway track, while another narrow and broken path, barely large enough for a person to stand on, stretched out roughly horizontally into the darkness.
"I suggest walking along the main road."
Saul was silent for a moment, and then expressed his opinion.
"That trail is not even a road. Our team will betray and form a line that cannot be supported from the front or rear."
"agree."
Armin nodded.
"It looks like it's just a crack in the rock, and it makes people think it's another road."
"Wait a moment."
Soshyan illuminated the trail with his helmet's tactical light.
"There are traces on the road. It looks fresh. Someone may have walked along it."
"Sir, there are also footprints on the main road."
Armin also pointed to the main road with lighting equipment, and there was indeed some kind of footprint-like trace on it.
"It still looks like complete footprints, not those on the trail that may just be traces of falling rocks."
"Has anyone been here recently?"
Soshyan had new questions, but every moment they hesitated, the completion of the task was delayed further.
Then he shined the light deeper, hoping to illuminate more traces.
There was a faint reflection coming from a pool filled with poisonous gas and mixed sewage, and some shadow spots were clearly printed on the cliff, shaking uncomfortably outside the range of the light beam.
Soshyan turned the light beam outward and found a long series of stepping stones across the pool.
"We need to be careful, it looks like those pools are not shallow."
"no doubt."
Saul agreed.
"I estimate the average depth to be between ten and twelve meters."
Soshyan turned around and decided to continue walking downward. Then he extended the light beam across the cliff to check the downward route one last time.
Suddenly, he noticed that a large section of the cliff seemed to be moving. He thought it was a landslide at first, but then he realized that something else had actually happened.
"Enemy attack!"
Before he could finish speaking, he had already drawn his bolt pistol.
At this time, the shadow spots he had noticed before were all climbing up the cliff at a speed that was almost beyond normal speed. He used the lighting of his helmet to focus on a shadow spot and confirmed his guess.