(Gamma World) Not a Test #105 - Into the Mines

The De Facto Explorers have found a tribe of Hoppers, right next to an underground facility in the Glow Zone wilderness across the Big River.   Death seems to have cursed this place long ago.  Here's hoping it has not lingered all these years. 

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Lathar Bracken: A pure-strain human from River Bend.  He's got the muscle, the face, and a mount for most encounters.  Lathar's trusty beast of burden, No Name, travels wherever he does.   Looking for trouble in all the right places. The two-time champion of the Fair-Town Queen's Joust.  Recently married Thunnelda Haycock.

Sneaky Pete: A mutated weasel scout.  Pete's telepathy and night vision take a backseat when he whips out his electrical powers.  Apparently addicted to his newly uncovered yellow powder found at "The Pool House"

Sonny Helianthus: a nearly 10' tall sentient sunflower artifact examiner with four arms, and trusted Restorationist ties. Knowledgeable,  but not a good one with device repairs or upgrades. 

Slitheran Wurmtail (aka Squiggles): a mutated earthworm scout, in impromptu power armor, looking for trouble in all the wrong places,  and finding it often.   He  has been subject to genetic testing and developed super-human strength, a more human body, and a thick coat of shaggy white hair.  Recently gave birth to a pile of baby worms. 

Luna of the Restorationists:  Recent recruit of the Restorationists, who had uncovered artifacts across the River.  

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Lathar hefted the massive slugthrower he had found.  Not a round of ammunition, but if Sonny could concoct some, it could be mounted on the tripod reserved for the spear-hurler. 

Squiggles peaked down around the far corner of the room, finding a very industrial, but fully enclosed elevator, but no access to call the car.  

Pete snuck over the near side, finding a full room with dozens of selections, collected by a set of double doors.  the same physically broken, burned damage on the bodies matched the damage to the doors.  

Pete kicked around the remains, while Lathar upended the desk and terminals in the.  Lathar spied the other door that led to the stairs.  It was chained shut from this side, like the first door.   Flipping the final desk, Lathar disappeared to the ground, only to pop up holder a slug-thrower with the barrel sawed down.... but no ammo... and no saw. 

Pete is his searches fell upon a brown key card with a symbol matching some in the items in the facility,, some personal mining tools, and a single gold coin, which he slipped into his pocket.

Pete:  "I assume we need to go through these doors."

Lathar:  "The two large doors where a bunch of bodies piled up, trying to get through?"

Pete tried the doors, they were shut, but the new brown key card on the access pad made the inter-workings of the door *clang* and the doors opened out.  

The walls to the passageway were machined squared, a  dirt floor leading on.

The weasel worked his way down.  Soon to two pieces of metal equidistant space between them, emerged out of the dirt a few inches.  There were more skeletons and carts along the sides.  There no signs of fighting, although these skeletons surely had a lot of gnaw marks on them.

"Let's but the cart on the track..."  Lathar suggested.  No one agreed except Luna, so he emptied a car and moved in onto the tracks. Luna went inside, Lathar pushed until it seemed to maintain a slow speed

The cart began getting ahead of the group. Lathar's lone light source allowed them to see the track split in two directions.  

"Lean right! Lean right!  Lathar cried out to Luna, and they threw themselves to that side.  Miraculously, the cart followed the direction., but thirty meters later, the tracks seemed to be swallowed up back into the dirt, dumping the cart and sending Lathar and Luna flying.   Lathar tumbled out effortlessly, and allowed him to dust off a rattled Luna.

No one heard the beasts emerging from the darkness...

A group of these greasy albino humanoids with massive arms and sharp claws, came from each side of the split in the track.  

Luna immediately pulled out her flintlock with no effect.  Soon lasers, death rays, and blasters lit up the mine shaft.

But none of the half-dozen creatures fell, they moved into melee.  The humanoids were incredibly precise, but their claws were more painful that effective, but they forced the Explorers to switch to hand to hand weaponry.   

Sonny quickly began panicking.  He was a giant sunflower with bioluminescence, an easy target for theses beasts.  One thought and he could be back at the first door... and the Hoppers.  But as the first beast dropped, he hoped his compatriots had the gumption to pour it on.

The fancy gadgets of the Ancients in hand were replaced by swords, spears, and daggers, whittling down the humanoids bit by bit. 

When a second albino beast man finally dropped, Sonny moved to the original hall. His brightness seemed to thwart a second wave of beasts, who remained lurking in the shadows. As darkness neared Lathar and Luna, the other beasts retreated, but just within the shadows. 

Next: #106 - The Tush Push