The three of us, Mitsiro, Adelaric and I, went down the shaft in the personnel elevator. The ride seemed to take ages, and these second-hand protective suits do not cope well with the heat.
We walked down the tunnel to the tomb wall, and entered, EM pulse guns at the ready.
No dog to be seen.
The tomb is a large cube, with sides of at least fifty meters. It consist of an outer wall - breached at the tunnel where we entered. The outer wall is actually part of a double wall, with passageways in the two meter space between the inner and outer wall. It has been mostly mapped already, so we could find our way down this outer defense double wall to the ground level inside.
The inside opens up to a large space - the cube is hollow. Inside are several small buildings and a large hexagonal-base pyramid, at least thirty meters high. The roof of the cube was damaged, and some spots down below are covered in soil and debris that fell down. There is scaffolding placed by the excavators, and clear signs of digging and dirt removal by the workers, at the base of the structures. The structures themselves look intact, made of a shiny metal that does not appear to oxidize. The metal is etched with intricate winding patterns.
The cavern is completely barren - no plant life or animals of any sort - apart from a sort of yellowish green fungus that clings to the outside of the structures, finding some way to anchor in the etchings on the metal. The smaller buildings are covered with it, the pyramid has growth up to half its height.
Not all the lighting that the workers put up in this cavernous space is still working, but enough of it is. Some seems to have attracted the fungus, it may be heat-seaking (in the darkness it cannot be phototrope). Heat readings are consistent with readings that the structure inside the pyramid is powered up, at least partially. Mitsiro mentioned these power signatures were there from the start of their exploration.
We continued to the entrance of the piramid, and narrowly avoided being crushed by a section of the scaffolding that collapsed. A bad omen. Beyond the entrance, there is a stairway leading up.
[to be continued]
