#underground vehicle

The Venterial Environment Excursion Vehicle was developed by Anodyne, Inc. in the late 1970s to act as a mutlirole utility vehicle platform for applications within the Mystery Flesh Pit. The vehicle architecture employs a set of twin counter-oriented screws for propulsion, as the wet and uneven interior of the Mystery Flesh Pit anatomy makes wheels, tracks and other conventional locomotive strategies ineffective.

Though cargo, flatbed, liquid transport, and wildlife transport variants of the VEEV could be found throughout the park, the “Safari” variant was the most familiar to park guests. For the price of an “AmbulaTour” ticket, visitors to Mystery Flesh Pit National Park would be driven on a 3-hour tour of some of the most spectacular and inaccessible locations within the park, all while sitting in complete comfort. The tour vehicles comfortably seated eight guests, with room for one stewardess/tour guide, and two drivers located in a low cab beneath the front of the vehicle. Inside the main cabin were eight rotatable plush seats, a small lavatory, and a small galley kitchenette for serving refreshments. Powerful lights on the exterior of the vehicle allowed guests to view the otherwise dark pit interior through large reinforced cabin windows. The vehicle was powered by two diesel engines connected to a proprietary transmission which provided the necessary horsepower and torque to easily traverse the interior of the Mystery Flesh Pit. For navigation, a large ultrasonic instrument in the nose of the VEEV provided drivers with a three-dimensional map of anatomy within a ~40m, 30deg cone directly in front of the vehicle.

Tragically, several dozen guests were trapped and later died within these vehicles during and following the 2007 disaster. At least one vehicle was crushed completely flat, while the door hatch of another was forcefully pried open by opportunistic and hungry park wildlife during the chaos. Perhaps the most well-known incident (As portrayed in the 2012 film Fire in the Deep)involved an armedMining Rig and its crew which were able to escort and protect two full tour vehicles until they could safely escape to the surface, though the crew and tunneling vehicle were gruesomely destroyed by large parasitic organism.

The grim legacy of the VEEV has not diminished the utility of the craft, however, and the vehicles have continued to be used by the Permian Basin Recovery Corporation well into the present day to shuttle researchers and other limited personnel through various sections of the former National Park.  

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