It’s been about a 1 ½ weeks since the characters left Tammuz on their quest for the so-called “Likhamii Sapphire”, a valuable item being sought by Nolan Malik of the Helios Corporation. They’ve been directed to search the mine by Vissi Rovane, the plantation manager for Carthen-Si on Pratt, however, after conversations with Derrick Burcham in his jungle camp, some of Rovane’s information seems a little dubious. While his claim of a crashed ship seems to be true, Burcham denies Rovane’s explanation of how the Sapphire was lost. Arriving at the site of the abandoned mine in the dusty highlands of Pratt, they find the entrance, but also find evidence that someone else has arrived ahead of them.
The characters are now in the cool and musty depths of the mine with only the dim emergency lighting and their own flashlights to illuminate their path. Having fought numerous insects and arachnids and one powerful, but clumsy, security robot they have discovered an open ventilation shaft with a wire leading down, obviously left by the other, preceding intruder.
Descending to Level 3, the characters find themselves in a similar but somewhat quieter atmosphere. With Jack and Ethan’s armor badly damaged by the security robot, they cautiously make their way down the darkened corridors. Following a hallway South, they discover an area that leads into a larger room with what appear to be tanks for cooling water. Whether they are empty or full is impossible to say as they are too tall to see over. Searches of the smaller rooms in the area reveal nothing of value, but as Nevada approaches the Northernmost room, he spots, and is spotted by, what appears to be a giant centipede hiding behind one of the water tanks.
A battle ensues, and the 1st centipede is quickly joined by another coming from the Southern water tank. While the other characters retreat into the hallway, Fred stands his ground at the entrance. As the hungry chilopods gnaw on Fred’s head, the other characters fire round after round into their segmented bodies until eventually they fall, leaving Fred’s helmet in disrepair, but the rest of the party relatively unscathed.
Going back into the hallway they discover a pair of double doors. Unable to break the lock, they head North again to try another route. Moving through a few more non-descript rooms, they notice that beyond a cracked open door to the South, the area appears to be fully lit. Beyond a couple of small chambers, the area opens into a much larger section with a lowered floor that holds what appear to be several generators. On inspection, some of the generators appear to have been tampered with and one, in particular, has a ladder propped against its side and some tools scattered nearby on the floor.
Moving further into the room Jack explores the raised Eastern section while Fred moves quickly off in the in the direction of the previously discovered locked doors to the West. Nevada and Ethan search the area around the generators. Fred believes he senses motion to the East in the area where Jack has searching. Looking closer he sees nothing but moves to investigate. Nevada and Ethan surmise that parts were being removed from the generators and that whoever was disassembling them left in a hurry.
Ethan searches several of the crates lying about looking for armor repair parts, but then experiences the same sense of motion that Fred did, only this time near the Northern entrance to the generator room. Nevada quickly moves in that direction and when he arrives can see what appears the be the blurry outline of a figure standing in the small room through which the characters had entered moments before. The figure has seen him as well and while a face is difficult to discern, he can tell that there’s a weapon pointed directly at him.
“Who are you?”, it asks in what he can tell now is a feminine voice.
“Who are you?”, he replies.
“I have the gun” she says.
“Good point.”, says Nevada then goes on to explains that they’ve just been sent to look for a lost item.
“Who sent you?”
“Nolan Malik”, Nevada replies.
“Nolan Malik?”, she says.
“Yes”, says Nevada, “we were sent here to find a rare gem, the `Likhamii Sapphire`”.
“Let me guess, you’ve never actually met Nolan Malik, have you?”, she responds.
“Well, no. We were sent here by Vissi Rovane, but how would you know that?”, says Nevada.
Suddenly the blurriness resolves into the figure of an attractive, though a bit grimy, woman, about 5’3” (160cm) with brown skin, bright green eyes, and wearing a dusty blue leather suit with a tall cap.
“Because”, she says, lowering her weapon, “I’m the Likhamii Sapphire.”
