This is the original surface of Rauh Skutta, the actual moon itself. Rauh Skutta was originally chosen because it was big enough to have standard gravity and had stable geology but years of building and building upwards, tunnelling down for minerals and resources plus the constant weight of population and buildings above have cause the surface of the moon to rupture leading to lava eruptions and flows and a toxic unstable landscape.
This lowest level is stiflingly hot and the air is thick with fumes. I advise wearing protective clothing and a respirator before venturing this deep. I had no idea this existed beneath our feet. It is like finding a whole new world.
To get here I took the lift to level 1140, one of the many sewer levels, and clambered through a number of levels before just abseiling down ventilation shaft LV.
This is the wildest level with lava flows and lavafalls. I found a number of old buildings – one a massive dark keep with lava flowing through the centre. That place is seriously creepy and I did not explore for long. I have no idea who lived here and it’s been picked clean but I felt freezingly cold exploring despite the unbearable heat. I can’t describe the sensation but I never want to visit there again. Something unspeakable happened there.
Moving on, there are still a few brave miners working the lava fields and riding some weird tick-like creatures that they must have brought in from off world. After further investigation I discovered they were Lava Fleas and are fungivores. They come from a lava planet called Mustafar. There’s mostly mining droids though and the ghosts of old equipment.
I slogged over to the bottom of shaft MV and entered an old lava factory where they presumably used the mining from the lava fields to build some kind of machines. You can still see some of them on the old assembly lines but I don’t recognise them at all. Some of the processing equipment is still working but I couldn’t see how they got whatever they still make back up to the surface. Perhaps I will find it on a future trip or perhaps it has just been built over as the city expanded upwards.
This area seems to be used mostly for dumping scrap and rubbish now. Scavengers are going through the scrap piles and pulling out apparently worthless pieces of junk whilst droids are busy processing the rest. New scrap is constantly falling from the levels above despite a no tipping rule for the ventilation shafts. I wonder what other mysteries have been buried down here after a long fall from above or whether the droids have disposed of them too.
The gantries are corroding away with the noxious fumes but I was able to climb up them to reach the level above. There’s a series of ziplines still in place which is how the scavengers must come and go.