Welcome to "The Diary of a Miner"; a blog detailing the adventures and mysteries that I, Syeonyx, embark upon in my quest to further my mining and survival skills! It'll be tough, there will be good times and bad times, but I'll always be alive to post my adventures... probably...

Day 107: Information overload

     Today was the day that I would make the decision of my life based on a few musty reports sealed away in a locked room hidden beneath the enemy! It was very daunting to think that in but a few short hours time, I could be reading through the first contact reports from the men and women who entered into the Nether and came out to tell the tale. Even though they did all return, it wasn't enough for me to think that endangering our life was worth bringing down a company. Admittedly what they were doing was wrong, and they had to be stopped, but the line between heroic and suicidal was becoming ever so blurry! Amie has said that very few have access to the records so it may be possible to bring a few of them back as evidence. We may need some proof to get AMPHIS on everyone else's side. Providing I am convinced myself. OROTHO is asking us to bring back some data about electronic readings, but we've had to burst his bubble and say we're only going to convince the rest. After we had been briefed by COLUS, me Amie, THEROS and UOPETA set off towards the tower. It would take a little longer than usual as UOPETA had to take into account that Amie was with with us. Then again, Amie had managed to defy UOPETA by following us all the way back to the base! Maybe this wouldn't take as long as initially thought. We set off to the North East towards the tower. I was still a little tired, but I think that knowing I would soon be able to read through the actual reports about an area we could be going to was keeping me awake.

     We had set off rather early in the morning, hopefully allowing us to arrive within a good time, and compensating for any guard shift rotations. With the help of OROTHO's telescope, we were able to scope out the tower from a long distance, but due to the tree line, very little could be seen of the base from that distance. We performed the same checks on the base as we passed the Western side to get to the entrance on the Northern wall. There were two guards. Only two. They had either set up a cunning trap, or didn't have a clue what we were up to. One was posted on the entrance, whilst another walked around the three remaining walls, just like before.

UOPETA and myself took out our blowpipes and crept closer through the treeline towards the tower. Once we were in range, we fired off our darts; two high pitched whistles. My first missed, flying rather wildly to the left, but thanks to the magazine system attached to the side, I was able to quickly let off another. My guard dropped a few seconds after UOPETA's, and he sank to the floor in a crumple heap. We waited a few seconds before rushing forwards in case we had alerted any from inside, but no-one appeared, and we continued towards the entrance. It seems THEROS has learnt a trick or two; he followed up from the rear, ensuring that Amie wasn't left behind. Once we were all at the entrance, me and UOPETA removed the darts from the the guards's necks and flicked the switch. I entered first, blowpipe ready, but as usual, there was no-one here...

"Okay Amie, open the secret wall and let's get to that information!"

"No you fool! I said it was down in the master portal chamber! We need to get into there before we can find anything! It's not kept up here where the guards are..."

It seems HoN Co. are even keeping secrets from their own security forces... Are they loyal to anyone...? We slowly progressed down the spiral staircase, following the glass-encased conducting rod downwards until it levelled off and the stairway stopped. The sounds of active portals could just about be heard in the direction of the chamber. After everyone had joined back up, we proceeded, ensuring we took every precaution to remain undetected. Moving to the railing, UOPETA led up front, checking to see if any guards were present, but after circling the entire room finding no guards, we put the blowpipes away.

"No change..."

"What?"

THEROS pointed up at both the left and right side walls towards the primary portals:

"Our last operation hasn't managed to knock out any more of these portals. Not surprising when you consider how many standard portals we found..."

"Well at least there aren't any more online! Now Amie, do you stuff..."

Amie moved over to the desk beneath the stairway and bent down to look underneath the surface. After a moment or two, there was a click and she emerged...

"Sorry, the door is usually locked to prevent someone stumbling across it accidentally."

She then reached into one of the containers around the edge of the room, took out a particularly heavy looking book and carried it to the far right corner of the room. She dropped it onto a the top of a bookshelf; it landed on the surface with a dull thud, followed by a click and then a portion of the wall she was facing slid aside.

"Gentlemen... Welcome to the portal data room..."

     As we stepped inside, I could tell this was going to be more complex than initially thought. I had imagined a small room containing a few shelves of books or reports. Something smaller than the library from the base. What I was met with instead totally blew my mind!

"All of this data is about the Nether... Most of it was collected on that preliminary expedition, but they went back a few times and it eventually accumulated."

Every wall was covered with row after row of books, from the floor up to the ceiling! It was insane! There were even shelves of books fours metres high in the middle running as rows!

"Erm... This could take a long time to sift through..."

"No no. Not really. It depends on what you want to know. State a specific query or question and I can try and find a file or report that can answer it using the automated system."

Automated system? What did that mean? She could see the puzzled looks on our faces and walked down the steps along the left side to the bottom floor. She then walked underneath the stairs and stayed there for a moment. Then she shouted out to us:

"Say you wanted to know about atmosphere within the Nether. I punch in the specific query and the system finds the linked file in the database, and relates that to position with the library. It then brings it back."

There were some tapping sounds and then a metal arm emerged from beneath the stairs and moved along the centre aisles. It stopped, and with speed and precision, picked up a single file and returned. There was silence for a moment and then Amie began talking again:

"The atmosphere of the Nether is comprised of 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and trace amounts of carbon dioxide, water vapour, argon and a few other inert gases... Happy?"

We were speechless... We wouldn't know where to begin in terms of answering questions, but I descended the stairs and joined her. I asked her about any information regarding the Solus stone.

"The query won't recognise that string as 'Solus' was the word you applied to it. If we enter keywords such as 'stone' and descriptive properties, we can see what appears."

She pressed enter, and the arm moved out again. Here was a huge stockpile of information and we had so little time to look through it. It was like being given a chocolate bar and then having it snatched from you after you first bite!

"You two might as well come and help too. You can queue up queries you know..."

Right! To work!

Syeonyx signing off

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