Story Seed - Jade

Image Source: http://jordangrimmer.deviantart.com/art/Nibelheim-Reactor-386209298

The first thing you'll see is the glow. Visible from miles away at night, and even in daylight from a good mile, the green glow that seeps between the jagged peaks, over the broken hills, and around the jutting spires of rock announces that there is something there. Once you crest that last stoney hill you can see it, and hear it. It sounds like a clock and a water pump, both of which function, but neither of which work. It looks old; a complex from some forgotten time when living meant more than ensuring subsistence.

The glow doesn't come from the complex though; it comes from the pools and crystal growths that dot the rocky ground. Pipes from the complex create a web of steel around the area before plunging into the earth. It is unclear if they are drawing from or draining into the ground  below. The green pools, and the massive crystals that surround them, seemingly grown from them, could be product or resource.

What becomes clear as you approach is that there is none but the simplest and hardiest of life within the rocky cradle formed by the broken hills. Short grasses and lichens, stunted scrub brush and withered looking vines. The air smells odd, and a miasma rolls from the pools with the wind. The locals say the complex is dangerous, but they also prize the strange green crystals for the continual light the shed.

What lies at the heart of the complex? What purpose did it serve in time forgotten?