Guardian Ruins Part 1
07 Mar 2018MMMMMalcolm
“The engineer Ram Tah, a leading expert on the mysterious Guardians, has requested help in locating undiscovered sites from the ancient alien race. He has issued the following statement:
‘The artefacts recently delivered to me have been subjected to intense molecular analysis. As a result, I have deduced the
possibility of Guardian sites in three specific systems: Col 173 Sector QU-O d6-25, HD 63154 and Synuefe EU-Q c21-10.’
‘I urge the galactic community to investigate these systems, where I believe we may find further traces of the Guardians’ ancient civilization. I appreciate that this could be a wild goose chase, but data from such sites – if they exist – would be extremely valuable.’
Ram Tah has asked that any data be delivered to him at Phoenix Base in the Meene system.”
I switched off the Galnet radio article and continued my research using Galpedia’s public data archives. This Ram Tah fellow was interesting. History characterizes him as an explorer with an intense attention to detail. He was so meticulous; he was able to teach himself not only engineering but archeology as well. I was eager to meet him.
I thought it was strange that someone tried to sabotage his early research programs. I wanted to know his thoughts on who would want to hinder the extraordinary discovery of an ancient civilization. It smelled fishy to me; ‘Club’ sandwich fishy. And I wanted to look him in the eye when he told his version of the events.
“We're dropping into Meene,” Kay informed me over the intercom.
“Copy,” I replied. I closed down the computer and made my way to the command deck. Kay had a holo-com going with Chase, our new wing member.
“I’ve already apologized a hundred times Chase, be we did not know we had to meet Ram Tah before we came out to Synuefe. We thought we could just take him our data after we collected it.”
“Other pilots are beating us to valuable materials and important discoveries. This delay will push us farther behind.” Chase chided. He made no attempts to hide his frustrations from the communication camera.
I jumped in to fortify Kay’s argument. “This will only take a minute commander. We will return to Synuefe as soon as we get Mr. Tah’s stamp of approval. Besides, if it weren’t for our little research rookie mistake, you wouldn’t be here. So just relax and enjoy your new lease on life.” I cut the link.
“Thanks,” Kay said looking up at me over her shoulder. “But did you have to be so mean?”
“Probably not. I guess I’m a little over protective when it comes to you.” She didn’t respond with words; just adjusted her grip on the flight controls. It spoke volumes.
Mitchell Dock is a small mining outpost, orbiting Meene AB 3, 433ls from the main star. Its largest landing pad was a medium and it only had one. Its services were sparse. If you needed anything beyond refueling or repairs you would have to go elsewhere. It didn’t even have a live flight controller. An AI system accepted our docking request and its electronic voice directed us to pad three. There was a dock crew at least and they rushed to care for our ship. I guess they were as excited to see our face as we were to see theirs.
I was about to leave the command deck to meet Ram Tah when the com panel beeped indicating we had a new message. Kay opened it. A recording of Mr. Tah offered us credits; in exchange we would provide decrypted data recovered from the Guardian sites. I was disappointed. I wanted to meet Ram Tah in person, not interact with an electronic secretary. Then a thought hit me and I calmed down. Considering my past experiences with ‘The Club’, I would be this paranoid too in my dealings with strangers. I told Kay to accept the mission and then smiled. If he wanted whatever we found out there, he would have to talk to me to get it.
******************
It did not take us long to get back to Synuefe; at least that’s how it seemed to us. Chase, on the other hand, couldn’t get there fast enough. I decided to give him something else to think about.
“Five clicks out,” Kay reported.
“When we land, Kay will stay in the ‘Menace’ and keep an eye out from the air. Chase, you take your SRV and cover the East side of the site. I’ll take our SRV and cover the West side of the site. Everybody will keep everybody informed of whatever we find.”
“Copy, commander,” Chase replied. “Beginning landing sequence now.” Kay echoed his report and began lowering our Asp to the surface. I headed toward the SRV.
When we arrived, the planet was rotating away from the star bathing the site in darkness and shadow. An eerie haze surrounded us. An unnerving silence accompanied us. I felt like I was in a graveyard and the decaying structures resembled headstones. When Chase radioed that he was going to activate his rover’s lights, I nearly jumped through the roof of my vehicle. I did the same after my nerves calmed a bit and headed onto the site. The rover’s lights cast a narrow arc in front of me and only intensified the shadows beyond their influence. Then, in the distance, a greenish glow seemed to rise out of the ground.
“Chase, what’s your position?” I asked over the com link.
“About three hundred meters East of you, why?”
“Because something is moving in front of me and I want to be certain it’s not you before I shoot it.”
“Don’t shoot it!” Chase screamed. “We may…” His com cut off.
“Chase, Chase come in! Do you read me?” Just then Kay chimes in.
“Malcolm, I’m reading repeater fire from Chase’s SRV.”
“Do you know what’s…” My question was interrupted by an explosion that rolled my SRV completely over.
“Under Attack!” SHAE coldly reported as if I hadn’t noticed. I engaged my handbrake, locking the vehicle to the surface. Good thing too because a wave of something hit me soon after. It hit five times in succession, violently rocking the rover. But this time it did not tip over. “Shields Offline!” came the report. I activated my turret and swung it around searching for my assailant. A few meters away I saw a triangular drone hovering above the site. It had what I can only describe as an “eye” that glowed blue in its center and it was pointing right at me. Suddenly the whole drone started to glow. After a second, two blue lights shot up into the sky. “Incoming Missile!”
“Crap!” I spat and braced for the end. The missiles hit. The SRV shook but didn’t tip. “Hull Integrity Compromised!” I opened my eyes and looked at my console. The SRV hull was only down to eighty five percent. “Shields Online!” A wicked grin cracked my face.
“My turn.” I targeted the drone. The console read “Guardian Sentinel”. I balanced power between systems and weapons and then opened fire. The sentinel fell and exploded on impact.
“Malcolm, Malcolm come in!”
“I’m ok Kay. Chase, you still with us buddy?”
“Yeah, it’ll take more than a metal watchdog to get rid of me.”
“What happened?” Kay asked still a little frantic.
“It seems the site has some automated defenses. They wanted to welcome us to the neighborhood.” I tried to ease her concern.
“Sorry guys, they didn’t register on my sensors.”
“It’s not your fault.” I replied. “They seem to have been jamming our communications. They might have been jamming your long range sensors as well. It had no effect on our short range targeting.”
“Well now we know, stay alert.” Chase wrapped up the impromptu debrief and we resumed our inspection of the site.
I returned to the green glow I saw rise out of the ground. It emanated from the top of a tall pillar. I targeted it. The console read “Ancient Relic”. I sat there staring for a long time trying to figure out what to do. The pillar was too tall and the SRV doesn’t fly. The pillar and the relic were too small for Kay to try to scoop. All I could think of was the one thing Chase told me not to do. What if it was valuable? What if it was the most important piece to a weapon that could destroy Thargoids? Either way it wasn’t doing me any good perched on top of that pillar. I fired the repeaters praying I didn’t destroy it. I was relieved to see the relic break free and fall to the ground instead of shattering into a million useless pieces. I opened my cargo hatch and scooped my prize.
“Chase, you can shoot the green glows. They give you ancient relics.”
“Copy commander. What do we do with them once we get them?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t found any place to put them; I just found out how to get them. One step at a time.” I shook my head. A moment later he calls me back.
“Hey, I got some movement over here.”
“Is it another drone?”
“No it’s a pillar rising out of the ground but there is a blue glow in its center, not a green glow at the top.” He paused, then asked in a panic, “Hey, are you seeing a timer count down on your HUD?”
I looked at my console. “Yeah, I’m seeing five minutes and fourty five seconds on the clock.”
“What’s happening? Is the site rigged to explode?”
“I don’t know. Shoot it; will that stop the timer?”
“Why is everything shoot first and ask questions later?”
“You got a better idea?” The com went silent. A moment later I saw a bright beam of light shoot up through the darkness.
Chase’s voice cracked the com again.
“I got a message that said ‘Power Pylon one of six charged’. Then the timer reset to eight minutes. There are five more pillars like this one. Do you see one near you?”
I looked at my console and verified the timer had reset. It read seven minutes and fifty seconds. I then began searching for another pylon. It seemed to take forever, but as I rounded a hill on the edges of the western border, a pylon began to rise out of the ground. In its center was a glowing blue orb. I glanced at the timer. Four minutes and fifteen seconds. I targeted the orb and fired. The glow began to rise up the pillar. Built-in panels opened with the increasing light. When the glow reached the top of the pillar, a beam of light shot into the sky with such force it shook the ground. A message appeared on my HUD. ‘Power Pylon two of six charged’. The timer reset to six minutes. I didn’t notify Chase. I figured his HUD had let him know. I began looking for another pylon. I started toward the center of the site, when suddenly it lit up with blue light and I felt a tremor. Ok, three down, three to go. We found one on the East side, one on the West side, and one in the middle. Maybe…
“Malcolm, I found a weird pyramid looking building not far from the center pylon. I’m going to check it out.”
“Copy.” I glanced at the timer. Seven minutes. Which way do I go? North or South? When things go south it’s bad. I steered my rover north. A few meters north of the main site there was another smaller site. I raced toward it. As I approached, another pylon rose from the ground. I targeted its center and without hesitation opened fire. ‘Power Pylon four of six charged’. I glanced at the timer. Three minutes and thirty seconds were left. Time was running out.
“Chase, you find anything by that pyramid?” No response. “Chase, you copy?” Uh oh! I raced back toward the main site. In the distance I saw four lights shoot into the air, turn, and fall back toward the ground. When I turned a corner, I saw Chase’s SRV on its side between two sentinel drones. His shields were down and his hull read fifty percent. I wanted to tell him to engage his handbrake when he righted himself but our coms were jammed. I targeted the nearest drone and zoomed in guns blazing. When it turned to face me I slammed on the handbrake and balanced power between systems and weapons. As I activated the turret, a wave of five energy bolts struck my rover. She shook but didn’t budge beyond that. I lost one shield ring. I squeezed the trigger and finished off the rest of his hull, causing it to nose dive into the ground.
I turned and saw Chase wrestling with the other drone. Behind them sat a pyramid flanked by two pylons. A glance at the timer revealed we only had a minute and thirty five seconds left. I raced past the combatants, stopped, and fired at one of the pylons. ‘Power Pylon five of six charged’. I didn’t look at the timer; I just fired at the final pylon. ‘Power Pylon six of six charged’. The whole site began to shake.
“What’s happening? We can’t be too late, there’s still two minutes on the timer!”
“You look like you’re parked on an ‘X’.” Chase offered. I was happy to hear he bested the last drone. ”Try dropping that relic you found.”
In my haste I fumbled the controls and went to my functions panel instead of my inventory panel. I glanced at the timer. Twenty seconds. I brought up my inventory, selected the relic, and jettisoned it. The top of the pyramid opened and a giant metallic orb appeared. It hovered and spun above the pyramid like a globe. Blue light glowed around it. Arcs of electricity danced along its surface.
“What now? Should I shoot it?”
“Whoa! Back away from the trigger! Try scanning it first.”
I activated my data scanner. It completed with a notification ‘New Data Discovered’. Then, in a flash, it all ended. The tremors stopped, the lights on the pylons went out, and the giant metallic orb went dark and lowered back into the pyramid from whence it came.
“Well that was anticlimactic,“ I stated a little disappointed.
“What, you rather we all died in a planetary implosion?” Chase asked incredulous.
“No, but some confetti or fireworks would have been nice. Shucks, I would have accepted a banner that read ‘Congratulations!’.” Chase didn’t respond. Kay giggled over the com before adding.
“I’m just glad you two are alright. Is that it then? Did we get what Ram Tah wanted?”
“I sure hope so,” Chase replied. “I’ve had enough surprises for one night.”
I sat scanning my radar and listening to my surroundings. All was quiet.
“I think we survived the worst of it.” I suggested. “Kay, land the ‘Menace’ next to Chase’s Asp. We’ll meet you there. I feel there’s something else we’re missing, but I’m too hungry to figure out what it is right now. Let’s eat something before we decide what to do next.”