How far down do you think we are? Pretty damn far. We're somewhere between soft storage and the heating core. Wow. Yeah. Careful now, there's a step. I see it. The bottom level is submerged. Looks like coolant. Want to keep pressing in? Yeah. We have to. Ugh, why's it so cold? This level still gets power from the ventilation farms. That'll become more sporadic further down though. I don't see why they'd need to keep these banks running. You know we could use the power. Until we can eliminate the chance of finding something useful on them, on the grid they stay. I miss the elevators. This is just gross, wading around in processing goo. You sure there's no better way to get to the archive level? The elevators weren't installed when these levels were built. They just bore down, adding these access shafts as they went? They bore up, not down. And yeah, pretty much. It gets... less refined the further we go. Or so I've been told. How do you even know all this? I found a lower-level blueprint on one of the routine dig jobs. But even it doesn't map what's past the 6th reinforement. I was only ever told there were 4. What, reinforement levels? Yeah. I can't believe that there's more. Mmhm. There's a lot more. Okay wait stop. Yeah? There should be an access hatch over there. Where? There. It's too dark in here. All I see are diodes. Just follow me. This hatch? Yeah that's it. Here, I'll help you lift. Do you hear that? The rumbling? It means we're getting closer. I'll go through first. By all means. Did you bring the adapter? I did. Wasn't easy to get a hold of either. Sorry for that. But we need it. I know. I'm honestly surprised you were able to find one. Cross-level adapters are rare, if nonexistant. Well you know me. I get it done. That you do. Looks like there's a living quarters to our left. Temporary housing for long trips up and down. You want to take a look? It won't interfere with our schedule? Nah, we're making excellent time. Still another six hours before the next bio sweep. Then let's take a look. I didn't expect it to be so... empty. I guess they took everything with them when they moved up. How many generations ago was this? Can't be sure. These levels were clearly in use for a long time. But this is older than one or two hundred years, that's for sure. Time all stacked up. Indeed. Hey what is this? Uh, I'm not sure. Aren't you the expert? I've never seen one of those before. The shape reminds me of ventilation batteries though. Could be old, even older than the people who lived here. Well that's a little clastrophobic. You're just saying that because you grew up near the surface. Okay, we're almost there. It's quiet again. We're past the generator arrays. That's what the rumbling was then? Could be. Could be? There's a lot we don't know about long-term storage. Hm. Can you hand me the adapter? Sure, here you go. You've done this before, right? Only for soft storage in the random access fields. But with your adapter, this is virtually the same. Plugging in now. [ INITIALIZING ] [ sudo ls -v ] -- dir -- |-> config |-> boot |-> help |-> os |-> quit [ boot load bin access {0..157} ] [ ACCESSING | 1.40% ] [ ACCESSING | 8.97% ] [ ACCESSING | 43.00% ] [ ACCESSING | 43.20% ] [ ACCESSING | 43.85% ] [ sudo rm grbg collect ] [ ACCESSING | 69.42% ] [ ACCESSING | 82.01% ] [ ACCESSING | 99.97% ] [ ACCESSING | 100.00% ] [ QUIT ] You there? I think so. That was intense. Was it? It was an honour to watch you work. Thanks. I try. Did you get anything? I... I did. I got a lot. Anything we can use? Genome sequences... more floor blueprints... far too many dlls... oh... What? There are MEM files here. Wow. Holy shit. Yeah. We gotta get this upstairs. Definitely. You okay to walk? I'll be fine. We should be back in a couple hours.