SRL. LOG-191.

LOG-191.I had already considered the prospect of there being some convenient way out of this hellhole a long shot. After all, even if there had been ships available that we could break our way into, there would be both the added hurdle of actually getting them back online after who knew how many years with no maintenance, and of course, escaping the literal firestorm of holographic ghosts that dominated the sky of this world.All things considered, running out into an empty hangar bay was just about what I’d been expecting, and yet the sheer annoyance of it all was still enough to elicit a light growl from my throat as I spun around, leading my creations down through another doorway, this one angled at a slight slope that assured me that we were moving downwards.Multiple levels. Whatever this Atoll was, it was subject to multiple levels rather than one combined floor. Something to note for later.Keeping my ears peeled, I quietly contemplated whether the lack of thumping sounds was a good or bad omen, and settled on just trying to maintain a wary eye on our surroundings as we passed through several more hallways, followed by a junction.“Where are we going?”Glancing at Patina out of the corner of my vision, I briefly watched Violet zip past us, the smaller Pearl intrigued by an opened doorway further ahead-No, not opened. Broken. Its crystalline slats had been ripped through by something, leaving a mess of shards littering the ground with exposed metallic innards glinting in the dark.“There.”It wasn’t so much of a plan as it was my intuition guiding me, and as we moved closer I dully realised that I could hear something like water running, now that I wasn’t so focused on tracking whatever entity had been stalking us.Stepping through the shattered doorway with Patina following close behind me, I made to call out to Violet, the flying Gem darting from one part of the darkened chamber to another, before my foot finally impacted with something wet.Glancing downwards, I focused on the puddle of liquid I had inadvertently stepped into, before leaning down and scraping a claw along it.Feeling both of my creations watching me, I brought my hand back up and inspected the drizzle of fluid clinging to my extended talon, eyes narrowing slightly as I prompted my gemstone to light up, exposing us but making things somewhat more visible.Sticky. Slightly glittery when exposed to a source of luminescence. I’d seen it before, back in the incubation chambers of the Reef.Pearl growth fluid.Another look around revealed what I had somewhat been expecting. Pools that, while significantly less ornate and decorated compared to what I’d gotten used to, still appeared near identical to the ones that had grown countless Batches of Pearls since the Empire had been founded.Some of them were empty, others full. A few were chipped and cracked, and as I focused on those, I noticed large mounds of leftover silicate material clinging to their rims, with fractures in the surrounding walls and ceiling.Licking my lips as Patina stepped past me to make an attempt at poking through a nearby console adjacent to one of the pools, I exchanged a glance with Violet, my other creation having evidently managed to pick up on the renewed sound of thumping.Louder now, and closer, coming from above rather than the sides, and approaching far more rapidly than before.“Weapons up.”Splaying my claws outwards and squaring off with the darkened corridor Patina, Violet and I had just entered the incubation chamber from, I allowed my vision to sharpen once more, tilting my head slightly as every little detail was put into stark view.As my creations summoned a spear and a pair of kukri respectively, taking up combat stances, I watched the shadowed figure slowly pulling itself out from the ceiling with a subtle, quiet grace, practically sliding out from what I could now see had been a closed hatch of a maintenance tunnel, its seams opening up and permitting the being through as it settled down onto the ground.It…or perhaps she, looked more than a little cramped in the hallway. Which made sense considering what I could make out of her lightform.Approximately seventeen and a half feet tall. Gemstone core is enlarged to a significant degree, reflected by an equally massive projected body. Despite lacking visible receptors, appears capable of optical vision.Tracking our movements. Attention appears focused on Violet-Stepping in front of the winged Gem with a grunt, I glared back at the gargantuan Pearl staring us down, noting her elongated limbs, short yet unkempt ginger hair, almost tattered looking uniform, and of course…Her complete and utter lack of eyes, which had been consumed alongside a significant portion of her face by the utterly enormous gemstone taking up the space where said eyes should have been.The theory was simple enough, especially as I inspected the mutated, raw looking material that made up the core, matching the unknown Gem’s head tilting motion with one of my own.The Pearl had been left to incubate too long. And without a Nacre to remove her from the fluid and refine her into the correct, healthy shape, had simply continued growing…until she’d spilled out of the pool entirely.“Eyes! Stop!”Flinching back slightly at the abrupt arrival of another voice, I turned my attention towards the source, and watched with no small amount of confusion as a lithe figure squeezed past the massive Gem, squishing herself between the wall and ‘Eyes’ in order to run out and get in front of her.And then we were all face to face with yet another Pearl, one significantly more ordinary looking, but of a similar colour to her enormous counterpart, her own beige eyes widening significantly as she took me in.A long moment passed between everyone present, enough that I could feel (and see, with the help of my additional eyes) my creations glancing at each other uncertainly behind my back, before the newcomer bit her lip and dropped into a picture perfect curtsy, her own ginger hair swishing about slightly with the motion.“H-Hello visitors! Welcome to our Atoll! P-Please excuse the lack of adequate reception! It was inappropriate and I apologise sincerely for it!”…Huh.