The Sound of Silence (CLOSED: E.P.I.C.)

[Dio]

"The air coming from that tunnel has a faint saline smell, although I'm not sure if that is from the sea or a salt deposit in the cave."

 

“Either way, it would be worth investigating.  We can start our search down this gallery and work our way down the other tunnels if necessary.”

 

Instinct suggested that he was right the first time.  However, having studied magic and its practice extensively, Daedalus very much appreciated a methodical approach to things.  If they found nothing in the breezy tunnel, they would return to the hub and investigate the next one.

 

"They have a mole." Squall growled. "WRAITH has a mole in Neighpon government."

 

“Which surprises precisely no one,” Daedalus said dryly.  “Government corruption is never eliminated, it’s merely managed and assimilated.”

 

So it was in Kastrot.  Other governments were no different, save perhaps in their creativity in hiding the backroom dealings.  Neighpon in particular seemed to have its own brand of shadow services stemming from its turbulent past, at least from what he could glean from research in Twilight’s library.  He wouldn’t pretend to be an expert on Neighponese history or culture when he clearly was not.

 

That's the direction that I would go if we wanna find at least a spot to get to where we can see the sea," Ice finished. "Oh, and I marked the passage that we came from, that way we can find our way back out later as well."

 

“Then we are in accord,” he said as he followed Dunder up the gallery.  “Arigatou, Ice Storm-san, for the exit marker.”

 

Daedalus rubbed his lips together as if the words were unpalatable.  “My Neighponese still needs some work…” he mumbled.

 

He reached into his saddlebag with magic and grabbed the inert drone.  His horn flared briefly and runes on the surface of the device glowed.  Its legs moved briefly for a second, but Daedalus hesitated, seeming to change his mind about it.  He turned to Rubble Rose.

 

“Miss Rose.  Being among the stoutest here I believe it might be best if you were to step ahead of me in exploring this tunnel.  You also might want to take my drone as I plan on using my own spells.”  He tossed the drone to Rubble Rose and stepped aside, allowing her to pass.

 

The tunnel wound in a lazy spiral, leading through the mountain.  As they worked their way forward, the tunnel widened again and the smell of salt grew stronger.  Soon, the faint crash of distant waves on stone echoed through the caves.  Finally, the tunnel bloomed into another large, globular cavern.

 

A massive boulder rested in the middle of the cavern floor.  The roof had caved in, possibly from the boulder falling through it centuries ago.  From the aperture above fell a foggy admixture of rain and filtered sunlight.  An additional gallery opened to the right of the boulder, appearing to curve backward to whatever lay on the opposite side of the boulder.  To the left lay a series of hexagonal basalt columns of varying heights, forming a wall of sorts again leading around the boulder.

 

Beyond the boulder, the team could feel breeze blowing.  The crash of waves was more distinct now, coming from what sounded like another aperture behind the large stone mass.  Daedalus’ ear twitched.  Intermingled with the sound of the sea were the faint murmurs of yet unintelligible speech.

“Shh,” he whispered.  “I think I hear someone talking in the next chamber.”

[PyroBlaze]

Xiêyè really had nothing to say about what was going on. As far as he was concerned, he was here to provide combat support. Not that he could think of anything else he'd really be good for here. 

 

The longma took to the air with the sword-wielding pegasus as they made their way into the cave, prepared to strike from above if need be. When the call came that someone might be in the next chamber, he listened more intently and picked up on the faint voices as well. He had no idea what they were saying, but he could hear them. 

 

"I hear too." Xiêyè whispered to the group, nodding to Daedalus. 

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

As members of the group spoke of the possibility of corruption in Neighponese governments, Rose had already taken a few steps down the tunnel. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and tapped once on the stone walls. She held her hoof against the flattest part of the wall, looking rather deep in thought before turning back to face the group and awaiting some sort of instruction. Seeing as ponies were still talking she imagined one of her favorite songs in her head, her body swaying slowly and discretely. Talking about the government of a foreign power's interests was not helpful to this situation anyway. Governing bodies rise, fall, crumble, rebuild, and take new shapes all in good time, it is the nature of entropy.

 

She perked up a moment as Daedalus spoke up, he seemed to have a good head on his shoulders and looked to have some kind of experience in this sort of mission. The 'stout' unicorn pushed off of the wall and smiled ever so slightly, "Ah can handle 'at." Rose caught the drone and paused for a second, looking at the strange contraption curiously. After a moment of contemplation she slipped the drone into her saddlebag.

 

While she walked ahead of the group she would marvel at the scene that sprawled out before her. The way the sunlight, mist and rains melding together leaving her almost entranced as she stared at it's beauty, distracted from the voices and murmurs on the air for the moment...

[Dunder]

After Squall had his epiphany, Dunder would have spoke up but it seemed like plenty of others made it clear that there were probably WRAITH moles in all governments. Just like any government of the world, it seemed, anypony with enough gusto could get in. No reason why an unsavory character from wraith couldn't find their way into any sort of governing power. Dunder figured that there were moles in EPIC too, but didn't say anything about it. Better safe than sorry. On a dangerous mission like this, there were many opportunities for an 'accident' to strike.

When the group exited the globular cavern, they group seemed to take up more of a tactical formation. As a pegasus he naturally took to the sky, flying above and slightly behind their current vanguard: Rose.

He stopped then they were faced with another cavern. This one seemed in worse shape than the first. Overtaken for a moment by the amazing sight, he almost flew inside, but the low murmuring of a distant conversation on top of Daedalus's shush halted the pegasus.

"I should move ahead, my wings don't make any noise against the ground." He suggested, still flying above them all.

[Lux]

“Either way, it would be worth investigating.  We can start our search down this gallery and work our way down the other tunnels if necessary.”

 

"Agreed. We have to start our search somewhere." 

 

"They have a mole." Squall growled. "WRAITH has a mole in Neighpon government."

 

"All the more reason why WRAITH was able to find the location of the Door so easily. It's too late to deal with the mole right now. What matters is the Door and pathfinder." 

 

With the exit marked thanks to ice Storm and the path chosen, Rubble led the team down the path. Night took to the air, navigating the tunnel so as not to add the sound of her hooves against the stone. Now she and Dunder would take the air, and the others would have the ground. 

 

“Shh,” he whispered.  “I think I hear someone talking in the next chamber.”

 

"I can't make out what they're saying, but we're not alone. It sounds like there is some kind of conversation. Everypony stay close and move as silent forward as possible. Rubble, since you're in the lead, the moment you see anypony in the distance, raise your hoof and that will be a signal for us to halt. We need to find out who these ponies are and their plans before we decide what to do." 

[Ciraxis]

".....In retrospect I suppose it wasn't any kind of revelation." Squall admitted quietly. Nobelpony and cynicism got along together for a long time by now, but once in a while Swift had hopes that state of some thing was better then it actually was. "Quite a leash, greed." he mused under his breath, taking a guess what exactly could motivate W.R.A.I.T.H. informants.

"That or lack of faculties..." unicorn added.

 

Swordstallion froze when Daedauls mentioned presence of others in a next chamber. Flicking of his own ears confirmed that Maretonian was right - the foe was really close by. Squall moved his head next to a wall, in attempt to overhear what the conversation was about. However the vibrations made by the ocean waves, as well as words and breaths of his companions ultimately made the effort futile. Squall has brought with him more equipment then his teammates combined, but not a single one of items - hidden underneath a stealth inducing black cloak - would've have helped with eavesdropping. It seems that no matter the care put, one could not prepare himself for every scenario. Without any further words, Swift pulled out a repeating crossbow from under the dark fabric.

 

"Acknowledged." Swift confirmed understanding of Night Watcher's choice of action - all the while loading his ranged weapon. "We only need one of them...." he pointed out as he pressed himself against the wall.

 

[IceStorm]

 

Ice Storm gave Daedalus a not when he thanked her for the exit marker. She didn't really feel that a thanks was in order, as it was the most logical thing to do, yet at the same time the most disastrous thing to forget in a cave system. She wasn't an expert on caves by anymeans but considering that she knew that this mission was going to be traversing through them, she made sure to do enough research to where she felt she had at least a basic understanding of how they worked and how to get out of them when the time comes. She also watched Daedalus give Rose his drone, telling her that he would be using his own spells. She wasn't sure if the drone would inhibit their abilities to use their other magics, but in the off sense that it did, Ice couldn't be without hers. Her magic was the only magic they had that could save them from a tunnel collapse. Rose would be able to bust them out of it, but it wouldn't do them any good if everypony was crushed beforehoof.

 

She decided to leave hers in her saddlebag as well for now. If it became something that they absolutely needed, then she would use it. Until then, she knew she could trust herself, and she knew that the others here could as well. They wouldn't have called upon her and everypony here if they were not masters at their craft for a mission of such importance as this one. On paper, yes, it was a simple extraction mission, but the who, the where, the why, and this instance, the what, all made everything that they needed to do much harder.

 

When she heard Night walker and the others essentially echo what she had already said in regards to the mole, a small part of her held a bit a pride, even more so when Swift admitted that his revelation added nothing to the situation. At the same time though, it was a set back all the same because the more time they spent on something like that the less time they had to think on things that actually mattered. For instance, what they were going to do once they actually found pathfinder, and how they were going to actually deal with the door once they found it.

 

She followed the others down the cave, staying right next to Daedalus. There wasn't much of a formation, but it was better than nothing. As they progressed, Ice Storm to could pick up that the scent of the salt in the air was getting more and more distinct, as well as the distant sound of waves crashing against a shoreline. She paused for a moment when Daedalus paused. He said that he heard something that sounded like mumbling, she gave him a nod. The others seemed to catch on as well and with a small eat flick she could pick up on it to, but not with enough clarity to pick up anything.

 

When she heard the pegasi mention that they could move forward because their hooves wouldn't make any noise on the ground she shook her head. "You hooves no, but your wingbeats do make a sound and any guard would be trained to pick up on that just as easily as hoofsteps," she said in a whisper, make sure to keep the noise down. She took a moment to look around the terrain once more before takes a few slow hoofsteps back. "We need to know how many there are..." she said as she noticed Swift already heading towards the entrance of the chamber, weapon loaded. That brute was going to get the lot of them killed. It would be nice if for once second he would think before he did something. She sighed and moved along to the side right behind Swift. If he was going to do something brash, she'd need to be able to get him out if things went wrong. before hoof though, she did construct a small ear trumpet out of ice, and used it to listen inside of the chamber.

 

On the wall above her with her magic, she inscribed what she heard. "I hear about five individual ponies in the following room. none of them seem to be aware that anything is out of place, one of them is a nervous wreck, and two of them are agruing about who's supposed to be taking watch. It's likely a shift change. If we're going to capture, we should capture the one that's already nervous. He'd be the most likely to talk," she told them through her visual message making the alphabetic runes glow only enough to be visible and no more.

[Dio]

 

The gallery continued upward, terminating in a large cavern with several stacks jutting out of the cave floor, one of which obstructed the immediate exit of the gallery. For the moment they were concealed. The sound of agitated chatter grew louder, but was still obscured by the sound of rain and thunder and the echoes through the cave. Daedalus tugged lightly on Rose’s tail with his magic to indicate for a stop. The chatter approached, finally resolving itself as the echoes were directed into the gallery instead of diffusing into the aether.

 

“... being cold and wet. That agent is sure taking his sweet time for the pickup. The airship should have been here by now.”

 

“Shut up. Big ponies upstairs have eyes and ears everywhere. I hear the guy running this op can just disappear you with a wave of his horn. I’m not taking that risk in ticking him off. He’ll be here when he gets here.”

 

“That doesn’t stop it from being you guys’ turn to go on the next patrol.”

 

“Fine. Get up. We’ll take one lap around and then I’m putting on some coffee. This damp cold is miserable.”

 

Daedalus realized that the two arguing guards were just on the other side of the column and were rapidly circling around. He had to think fast. A glowing rune appeared in front of him, vaguely approximating the shape of a sine wave with a strikethrough overlaid across it. The sound of rain and thunder abruptly stopped in the tunnel, leaving it eerily silent.

 

Another set of glowing runes appeared behind him, spelling out a terse message, Two coming. Silence up. Grab when in range.

 

Shadows moved around the column without the sound of hoofsteps. Daedalus tensed and gripped the form of Kyanaster socketed into his armor with his magic. At the first sight of a WRAITH uniform, Kyanaster leaped from its pocket and flared to life, its miniature starfire briefly lighting the cave next to Daedalus’ head. A runed circle appeared in front of the first mook, stopping him dead in his tracks. Before he could backpedal, a portal opened and sucked him inside with unnatural force. Daedalus whirled around and pointed his horn in the opposite direction, the same runed circle appearing in the midst of the group.

 

The exit portal opened, spitting out the mook face first right in front of Squall. The other mook cried out in vain as the silence bubble smothered his words in magic. The vacuum of the first portal opening caused him to stumble, landing him squarely in front of Rose.

 

Grab them! Daedalus mouthed in silence, but in clear view. If one paid close attention, they could see wisps of shadow flame dispersing from both his horn and the mage’s implement floating next to him as well as the unnatural wintry chill that swept through the tunnel, leaving patches of hoarfrost in its wake...

[Pretzelparty]

 

 

 

 

A soundless zone spell. This would be usefull. It wasn't long before her assumptions were proven right. Some of the magic this Daedalus had use of was truly impressive. Spatial magic wasn't easy to do, teleporting alone was incredibly complicated depending on how the caster went about it. There was no time to dwell on that now. The crimson coated stallion's portal making brought one of the talkative goons right in front of her. 

Before Daedalus had even spoken, Rose grappled the stallion. Putting down her success in grabbing him to the element of surprise, Rose wrapped her hooves around his head and put him in a sleeper hold. The silence kept by the magic leaving the squirming minion grunting noiselessly and struggling until he went limp. She brought her head to his to see if he was still breathing. While the magic muted the sound, Rose could at least feel his breath on her coat. Now that she sure had him down for the count, the unicorn touched her hoof to the floor, just by the wall. A miniscule flash of magic darted around the spot in a patter and made a hole beside her with an small incline. It was deep enough to hold the stallion at least up to his neck. This way if he woke he could still breath... and more importantly couldn't go and alert anyone to the group.

 

Her eyes fell to Squall, likely planning to offer the same method of minion disposal to him as well once he had finished with his target.