[MaxKojote]

Joel looked at the female ork somewhat sadly. As he did so, he allowed himself to slip into the Astral again, checking to see the current status of the Astral space at their location. "I swear if that door is somehow sealed..."

[Ren]

--Joel--
The aura of death was perceptibly weaker here, than up in the main areas. A single half-being sought after the remains of the ork woman's feelings, and made a weak attempt at your much stronger emotions, but it was easy to swat it away. All what happened above, was still present down here, but it felt like this was a light rain instead of a heavy storm.
[spoiler=astral status]Astral visibility is up at -1 penalty. Aspected domain is back at level 1.[/spoiler]

[Gustovness]

Leroy looked on to the dead ork woman.  He felt nothing for her.

He caught himself as he reflected on this fact... his feeling of nothing for the poor woman who lay there broken was a sharp contrast to the feelings he had earlier when he was surrounded by countless bodies and felt a great loss of control due to the overwhelming helplessness that came over him.

There could be no way that he was turned numb to so much death already.  He wasn't cold blooded.  No.  He was a firefighter.  He was supposed to save lives.  You can't dedicate yourself to saving lives while simultaneously not giving a shit about it.  It wasn't like dedicating yourself to pouring soykaf.

He almost began to feel guilty at his lack of compassion for the lifeless shell that lay before him.

However, he was a firefighter and he did have a logical understanding of the human body.  He shoved his feelings of guilt for his lack of empathy deep inside of himself and decided to chalk it up to being in shock.

I'm in shock.  We all are.  I'm not thinkin' straight.  My brain is fire'n off on primitive protocols to keep me alive through this mess.  I'm not an asshole.  I'm not an asshole...

Leroy's brow furled up and he walked up to the door that led to the waterway.  He leaned his back up against the wall right next to the door and put his hand on the handle, checking if it was locked.  He looked to Miko with an expression that asked if she was ready for him to open the door.

[Ren]

As Miko readied herself, and Leroy opened the door, the hum of engines became stronger. Inside, there was a walkway, fastened to the left wall of a larger room, about 3 meters above ground level. Down there, big machinery still worked, probably on keeping the water clean and the supplies full in the building. A mass of pipes crossed the floor, sometimes one, sometimes a group, steel ladders crossed those at places. A large batch of pipes disappeared under the walkway, about halfway to the other end of the room, 20 meters from you. That was where the building plans indicated the exit into the sewers.

You saw steel stairs leading down to the floor, almost at the other end of the room. Another door led out at the other end of the walkway, closed. And you saw, heard no movement inside.

[Gustovness]

Leroy peeked into the room and looked around.  Before stepping on that hanging walkway that was above so many moving mechanical parts, he'd make sure the room was structurally sound.  There was no telling how the blast...

or blasts, who knows what actually happened...

affected things like architectural supports and such.

Civil Engineering Test
LOG 5 + Engineering 2 + Civil 2 - Wounded 1 = 8 (8d6.hits(5)=3)

3 Hits!

[Ren]

--Leroy--
You saw no structural damage in the room, neither the machinery, nor the walkways seemed damaged. It was in the same condition as it was built.

[Csjarrat]

Matt flexes his grip on the taser, his weak flashlight casting threatening shadows in the recesses of the pipework and railings, playing tricks on his mind. cannot wait to get the hell out of here!
As Matt enters the room and crosses the walkway, he sends his flyspy ahead first to scan for any signs of life ahead.
<<Drone Command v1.03>>//Move ahead 20 metres, scan for contacts. report contacts to me//
Closing the distance to his AR marker for the exit via the piping, Matt starts looking for the controls or access they need to complete their escape
int 3, percept 4, co-processor 2, +active 3 -1wound (11d6.hits(5)=2)

[Ren]

--Matt--
The drone hovered down near ground level, and still didn’t sense any contacts. It saw, however, what seemed to be the exit you were seeking. Right under the walkway, there was an access hatch, with lots of pipes crossing through the wall on both sides of it. It looked like this time would be different than with the emergency exit door, as the drone also indicated a service panel right next to the door. The panel was intact and small flashing LEDs indicated it was still working.

[Csjarrat]

"Guys, I've got our exit. It's an access hatch on the level below"
Matt hurried the remaining distance to get to the door, confident that the drone would keep look out for any trouble while he was distracted with the door controls.
His boots clanked loudly against the metallic walkway as he covered the distance, the sense of imminent freedom giving him a much needed burst of energy. He ducked under and around the exposed pipework, holstered the Taser and took a good look at the access hatch
Taking stock of the controls, he tried to open the door using the codes present on the 'link he took from the maintenance worker.

[MaxKojote]

Joel carefully followed Matt, still viewing the Astral space over the meat space. He wanted to be fully aware of when he was free of the oppressive influence of death, and of any possible Astral threats. "Carefully, Matt. We don't want to be surprised by something on the other side."

[Csjarrat]

"Damn-straight, you guys be ready as soon as this thing opens"

[farothel]

"No worries, I was born ready," Jade said.  She was still holding a warhawk modded for a troll.  Something quite impressive if you looked into it from the wrong end.

[Ren]

Unfortunately, the codes were not valid for this exit. Whoever the guy in the staff room was, he had lower security access than needed, in order to open the door. An ARO flashed a few times, cautioning against further unauthorized attempts to open the hatch. You had to find a different way to open the door.

[Csjarrat]

Shit!!!! Fuckin' thing won't budge, codes are no good! Freedom was so close, the disappointment was crushing.
Guys, we're gonna have to do this the hard way. Any of you know a spanner from a screwdriver? Come give me a hand down here

Matt knelt down and unhooked the toolkit from his belt. He only really knew the basics of maglocks, it'd been some time since hardware class at college..

[Gustovness]

Leroy let out a sigh, half defeat, half frustration.  He remained up at the entry way looking out side from whence they came, serving as lookout while the gear heads did what they had to do to break through their supposed final barrier between here and freedom.

"I know that we should take it one step at a time and all... but any of ya'll have somewhere we could lay low for a while once we get out?  Until we figure out what the hell we're going to do next?  We can't just go home...  they know who we are."

Leroy wondered if Cuco might be willing to take them in.  The handlebar mustache wielding mage might be a good place to start, assuming they... whoever they were... haven't already associated him with Leroy.  Either way, he wouldn't be able to reach out to him via commlink.  Too risky.  Whoever framed Leroy would probably get a notification as soon as he got out and tried to use his commlink.  He'd just have to show up there... assuming there was no better place to go.