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[Dungeon of Stories] 34 – Ranger Station Beta
🕑 Added 2024-05-11 13:44:43 +0000 UTCThe entrance of the building was mostly covered in dirt and vines, but with a little bit of digging, the team managed to shovel enough dirt with their hands to make an opening into the structure.
Sliding down the mound of dirt, Bright cursed. The room was shrouded in darkness, the only light coming from the opening.
“Hey, get some wood. We’ll need to make a fire and some torches,” Bright said to his men above.
Meanwhile, Bright waited, not turning his back from the darkness, as he had no idea if someone lurked within the shadows. When his men came back and tossed a few branches down, Bright wasted no time grabbing one that was sufficiently long and thick before wrapping the head with cloth. With a simple snap of his fingers, sparks lit the cloth alight, lighting the area around Bright.
The floor was covered in creeping vines, yet none of nature seemed to have breached through the metal floor. As the others slid down the mound of dirt into the building, Bright lit a few more torches and handed them out.
"Alright, let's spread out and scout the place out first before we set up camp, split off into two groups, and search the building. Yell for help if needed. I'll stay here and watch over John," Bright began issuing orderers left and right before examining John's injuries thoroughly and making sure that his wounds were not infected. He was lucky, if that monster tree were any stronger, he'd have been killed instantly instead of being given only a fatal injury.
After fifteen minutes had passed, everyone returned one by one, reporting to Bright that no monsters or animals were calling the building home. However, what his subordinates reported concerned Birght. Signs of a struggle and fights were clear as day around the building, as long-decayed human remains littered the building and multiple rooms that seemed to have been boarded up with old destroyed furniture were filled with dozens of skeletons. The strange thing? There were arrows littering the area, the arrows seemingly sharp and strong enough to have pierced the mysterious metal these people were so fond of using to build their buildings out of.
The same green creatures that attacked the poor guardsman at the checkpoint the ARK Settlement was built beside. What were these creatures? Why did they kill all of these people? Why not even one of those creatures' bodies were found alongside the human skeletons? Were they just that strong despite their seemingly primitive appearance?
While a few stayed behind to start a fire and to look after John, Bright and the rest began to explore and investigate the building actively. In their searches, they began to piece together what could have happened based on the position of the skeletons and what they saw from the guard's logs back at the checkpoint. These people must have fled from the little green men into this building seeking shelter. The question was, what was this building's purpose?
Bright and the others continued their search until one of the men found what looked to be a door covered completely by vines. Ripping them down revealed a small room, one with strange technology that took up much of the wall space of the room. Noticing a blue light, one of the men touched a button, and before they could react, the power turned on, lighting up the building and the many display screens that aligned the wall in the small room.
"What's this supposed to be?" Bright wondered to himself as he prodded at the screens and console, unknowingly activating something. Multiple screens began showing what looked to be live feeds of the building's interior, which was now mostly lit up, with quite a few lights seemingly no longer functioning.
"Was this a security room of some kind?" Bright wondered.
For the next hour, Bright continued to mess with the console and screens, trying to figure it out and how it works, eventually activating some holographic keyboard which was when he really started making some progress. As he sat on an old chair that struggled to stay together, Bright clicked an arrow key, and one of the camera feeds switched to show outside. Another press and the feed showed some random part of the jungle.
Quickly realizing the potential of this console before him, Bright's enthusiasm rose exponentially. If this security system really did have cameras scattered throughout the Jungle, then that could mean that they'd have a way to monitor, track, and keep an eye out for anyone moving through the Jungle. However, Bright continued to cycle through the cameras, hoping that one of these cameras would reveal more hidden pieces of this civilization.
While Bright worked on the computer, some of the men stepped outside and began digging out a pit and began a mass burial.
Hours passed as Bright worked on the computer, and John finally awoke, his body having nearly completely healed from his injuries. The others congratulated and celebrated their friend's survival. Meanwhile, Bright made a breakthrough with the incredibly advanced computer. To Bright, it was like going from using a dial-up phone to dealing with one of the most advanced computers of his time on Earth. From the cameras, he managed to back out and access the main system of the computer; from there, he was able to access its internal files and finally learn what this building was: a Ranger Station of sorts. Specifically, the internal files had it labeled as Ranger Station Beta.
Then, he managed to find the security logs.
...
It was a completely normal day. As usual, people were trying to live normally while the world outside was slowly falling apart as the Terran Federation and the United Republic of Earth fought each other in a devastating war. People walked around the dome, one of the largest and one of the few parks in the world, right at the city's center. People enjoyed the sights, as the park was one of the few places on Earth that preserved nature and was still thriving.
People enjoyed the sights of nature, the enclosures housing countless animals and dinosaurs brought back from extinction, both natural and man-made, but that all changed when, one day, the sky turned red, and monsters invaded the park. People fled deep into the forest, hoping to escape the small green men who began wantingly slaughtering all in their paths, hunting down those who fled.
Then, the animals and dinosaurs housed within their containment units escaped and caused chaos among the scared humans and monsters. It was only thanks to the animals and dinosaurs that the humans remaining managed to survive, but by then, they were few in number. Numbering less than two digits, the survivors fled from the Dome, hoping to escape to the city to get help...they didn't make it past the beasts on the lose and the roaming little green men.
Time passed, years and years, and what was left of humanity's creations were quickly overtaken by nature as flora and fauna grew in number and plentifulness. The bodies of those who died from the attack decomposed and were eaten by the beasts that remained across the dome, and yet, no help ever arrived. Across the dome, the eight Ranger Stations, two stations in each biome, suffered the same fate, as those inside died from the beasts, little green men, or internal conflict.
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Congratulations! A Quest has been completed!
Quest Name: A Mysterious Structure
Quest Type: Exploration Quest
Quest Description: You and others have uncovered a structure from many years ago that nature has long since reclaimed. What is this mysterious structure, and what does it hold?
Quest Option 1: Explore the structure and discover its purpose.
Optional Quest: Learn what has happened here and listen to the final moments of all those inside.
Quest Rewards 1: Map of the Dome
Optional Quest Rewards: Pristine Focus (Rare) and 'Watcher' Engram
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Comments
Biazar Lockhart
Bright honestly may become the Anti-SCP force within the dungeon as while he knows they do good he wants to protect everyone before returning to them
