Chapter 2: Chapter 1: The Discovery
The scene is the Glorithol system, a beautiful dark blue sky filled with stars. The Red Sun illuminated the 3 planets floating in the vacuum of space. One was far too close to the sun, the planet practically a ball of molten magma. The second planet is far enough away, but the mixture of element in the planet's atmosphere makes it inhospitable. And then there's the one in the farthest reaches of the system. Barely within the suns gravity, and so far away that it was just a ball of ice. That was where the USG Camilla was located, floating next to the Ice ball, and not too far from there was the Space Relay Station, sitting dormant. Suddenly the core started to glow a feint blue, the gears slowly starting to spin around the core. Then slowly, the core grew brighter and brighter, the gears spinning faster and faster, causing arcs of energy to channel from the core to the gears, tunneling through the device to the massive points at the front of the Relay System. The loud sound of the Space Relay System activating cutting through the silent vacuum as suddenly, the Relay blasted a pulse of the energy building up in front of it, the SMT Rosé appearing seconds later exiting the Jump. Inside the Rosé, the piloting crew was checking all the systems to make sure everything was still operational.
"System check!" "Autopilot correction system fully engaged. UV and Rad shields are online and detecting minimal UV from the sun. Oxygen systems fully operational and online. Gravity online. All other systems online and operational. Relay Jump is a full success, sir." The Pilot crew breathed a sigh of relief hearing this, since this was their first 3 hour Relay jump into an unknown system.
But they didn't have long to relax before General Drak walked through the sliding doors, his Onyx Black armored suit already equipped. He pressed a button on the operating panel on his wrist, his helmet slowly folding up onto the neck storage space. "What's the word on Camilla? Have we made connection yet?" "Sir, not yet. We were just checking the systems to make sure every-" Drak growled impatiently, rolling his eyes. "I don't want to hear about our ship. If we aren't hearing the alarms, then it's fine. Make contact with Camilla, now!" The crewman closest to Drak was the one to try his best to send the message out quickly. "A-Attention USG Camilla. This is the SMT Rosé, here to answer your response for aid. Please respond. Repeat, this is SMT Rosé here in response to your request for aid." Around 35 seconds went by, but there was no response. Drak looked toward the crewman that sent the message, motioning him to send it again. "Uh…USG Camilla. This is SMT Rosé. Do you copy? We are here to help with your request for help. Please respond." A few moments went by, and again, no response. Drak was getting restless, so he went over to the crewman. "Attention Camilla! This is General Drak of the SMT Rosé! Are you egg heads doin a circle jerk in the closet, or are you just wasting my god damn time?! If you want our help, answer the damn coms!"
After a few seconds, the coms heard a bit of static, then a voice. "Ah! S-Sorry Rosé! The crew was away from coms! We uh…we honestly gave up hope of a response. We sent that request weeks ago! B-But we're still grateful for the response! I'll hail the border crew to set up the boarding dock."
Drak grumbled to himself about the idiots being 'away from coms', but decided to let it slide. Rosé then slowly moved next to Camilla, readying to connect their docking tubes. Seconds later, Camilla's tube connected to Rosé's, the ships pressurizing the tubes with oxygen. Once the green light was given, the 18 crewmen from the research crew and all 35 soldiers from Delta Squad along with Drak crossed over into Camilla, the soldiers wearing their armored suits and armed with Pulse Rifles. The airlock door opening to reveal 5 scruffy looking men and a man who was slightly cleaner looking than the other 5 he was standing in front of. The man in front saluted Drak and the crew. "Greetings crew of the Rosé. I'm Major Tom, head of the USG Camilla's Research Division." Drak saluted back, though it was easily noticeable he didn't care about the salute. "Let's cut to the chase, Major. What's this artifact that's got your top researchers stumped?" Saying this, Drak noticed the 5 scruffy men looking on edge but trying to act calm. "Ah, of course. I'll lead the researchers down to the labs. Your soldiers can wait up here until-" "That isn't gonna happen." Drak cut Tom off, stepping forward, the 6 men visibly nervous. "Me and the boys come with you, or my crew walk out. We gotta make sure this artifact isn't a problem." Drak raised an eyebrow, looking Tom in the eyes. "There isn't a problem…is there, Major Tom?" "Uh…o-of course not General. It's just that the crew isn't used to seeing so many…guns." Tom looked behind Drak, motioning towards Delta squad, all holding their Pulse Rifles in front of them, the barrels pointing towards the floor. Drak raised his eyebrows with a half hearted look of confusion and looked towards his men, then back at Tom, letting out a soft chuckle. "So what yer tellin me is…my men are scaring yours, Major Tom?" Drak took his rifle and placed it on his back, the Rifle folding up to look like a rectangle metal box on his back. "Alright boys! Weapons on standby. Don't want our graceful hosts pissing their pants." Delta squad chuckled at this, doing the same with their rifles, their Research Crew just rolling their eyes at their remark. The head researcher from Rosé clearing his throat to try to change the mood. "Major, if we could get back on track. We Are here to help, not ridicule." Drak nodded, holding his hand out to let the researchers lead the way. Tom nodded as he turned around, leading his 5 men down the hall. "This way gentlemen."
As Tom and the other men lead them through the ship, they were surprised by how high tech it was. It was obvious this vessel was made for researching. There was rooms filled with massive tubes with strange creatures inside them floating in some fluid with tubes connected to the creatures. Next to the tubes are screens with different numbers flashing on them, along with crewmen taking notes and talking to each other about the different creatures. There was also rooms filled with different flora and fauna, as well as sediment from different sources, the crewmen writing down notes and discussing to themselves. They even had a room to keep the children in case the crew decided to start families, which had a good amount of little ones playing. And in the middle of the ship, there was a massive garden filled with plants and a little stream, on top of the stream was a little waterfall, giving off a 'tranquil garden' vibe. In the garden there were a few crewmen who appear to be meditating. All the while Tom was letting the crew know that each room was a research area to analyze the planets inhabitants. The garden was a zen garden to help clear the mind and boost morale and mental health.
"Gotta say, I'm impressed Major. My only problem is the lack of security around here." Tom cleared his throat, leading the men through the garden towards the elevator. "We prefer high calculations over high calibers, General. Though we Do have an Armory on board, we prefer to only use weapons as a last resort. After all, how would you feel if you boarded a ship wishing to communicate, only to find everyone armed to the teeth?" Drak thought about it for a few seconds, then shrugged his shoulders. "I'd feel right at home, Major." Tom rolled his eyes, stopping in front of the elevators. The doors opened to reveal the elevator was big enough for all 42 to enter easily. Once inside, Tom pressed the button for 'RR Lv.4', then the elevator quickly made its way down.
When the elevator doors opened again, the men were in awe of the massive area. They moved out of the elevator and followed Tom towards a massive room. The crewmen in the room were all surrounding this massive tube, scribbling notes and mumbling to each other. As the men exited the elevator, the room itself felt far different than the rest of the ship. The air felt heavier, and the walls were covered in strange markings as far as you could reach, balled up papers tossed everywhere, even some torn to shreds scattered all over the floor. The lights seemed dimmer as well, and flickering randomly, like they were only a few seconds from going out. But the thing that took Drak by surprise, was not a single one of the crew in the room acknowledged the men entering the room. They just stared at the tube, scribbling down notes and mumbling to each other, almost like they were in some sort of trance.
"And here we are gentlemen. This room is for High Priority researches, and this alien artifact has even our top researchers baffled! We were hoping your team could assist in our studies." Tom made his way past the crewmen, still scribbling and mumbling, making a path to the tube, revealing a strange small pyramid shaped object. It was a jet black color with what seemed to be glowing red symbols on it. It seemed to be octagonal in its shape, leading up to a point, with a slight spiral in its length. The bottom of the strange object appeared to be jagged, like it was broken off of something. Inside the tube were what appeared to be lasers scanning the artifact, but the screens were coming back with no information on the symbols, or even the material it's made of. Drak stared at the artifact curiously, then at the researchers that have been constantly scribbling notes. "So how long have you been studying this thing?" Tom was giving the Rosé's researchers his notes on the artifact, Drak helping himself to a copy of the notes. "We've been studying it for about a month or so. After a few weeks with no breakthrough, we sent out the request for aid." Drak skimmed through the notes Tom handed out, catching only a few interesting parts. 'Unknown materials', 'Strange runes or language', 'possible telepathic signal'. "What's this about a signal?" Tom's eyes lit up with excitement when Drak asked about that. "Ah, yes. Well you see, after prolonged exposure to the artifact, there seems to be some sort of signal that starts to broadcast directly into the brain. We can't make heads or tails of it, but it seems to give information directly to whoever is within reach! But maybe, just maybe, with your researchers help, we could crack the mystery!"
Drak grumbled to himself, handing the notes back to the crewman. "So how long are my boys going to be helping you with this, Major Tom?" "Ah, we'll I was hoping until we cracked the mystery of the-" Drak stepped forward, cutting Tom off abruptly. "You have 2 days, Major. After that, we head out." Tom was taken by surprise by this answer, even the Rosé's researchers seemed surprised by this. "B-But General! Surely you have to understand the potential in this! You can't expect up to-" Drak glared at Tom, cutting him off again. "2 days, Major. If your batch of grade A eggheads couldn't crack this thing in a month, I doubt having a few extra noggins is gonna change anything. I'll leave half of my soldiers here to keep me posted, and to make sure you don't try anything funny." "B-but Gen-" "This isn't up for debate, Major." Drak glared at the artifact, then at Tom; "Either my soldiers keep an eye on things to make sure this is on the up and up, or we walk away right now." Drak stepped closer to Tom, who is now visibly on edge; "Do we have an understanding, Major Tom?" After a few seconds, Tom reluctantly agreed to Drak's arrangement. The researchers, along with 20 soldiers from Delta Squad were enlisted to aid with the research of the Artifact. After that, Drak and the remaining 15 soldiers were escorted back to the Rosé, seeing no other reason to stay on the Camilla while they wait for the 2 days to pass.
Back on the Rosé, about 17 hours have passed, the soldiers were relaxing in their quarters while Drak decided to dig up some intel on anything that matched the notes Tom took on the artifact. He went to one of the crewmen, resting one of his hands on the desk, the other hand on the back of the chair the crewman was sitting in. "Look up anything that has the same info, and dig deep." "Nothing so far Sir. And if I may, is there any reason for that short timeframe? I thought we came for any help we could give." Drak sighed, looking over towards the massive window facing the Camilla. "Call it paranoia, but something about that artifact gave me seriously bad vibes." Drak tapped the desk with a finger, thinking for a few moments. Suddenly, as if the feeling was too much for him to ignore, Drak scooted the chair from the computer, taking the crewman by surprise as he watched Drak input something into the computer. "You see nothing from here on. Understand, soldier?" As he typed into the computer, the screen went black with big red words 'Top Secret' flashing over and over again. Drak typed in a code, and the screen opened up with intel on something called 'Markers'. The crewman looked at the screen, unable to make heads or tails of the info on the screen. "What is this, Sir?" "Info that might shed some light on this 'artifact', and if my hunch is right, they stumbled on something that needs to be destroyed at all cost." As he mentions this, he pulls up an image of a Marker, a strange statue that looks like 2 twisting spikes with runes that seemed to be etched into the sides all over it. After looking at it for a while, Drak seemed to relax a bit, as the info of the Markers noted that the statues tend to be anywhere from 10 to 30 ft tall, if not taller. The artifact they found was barely a foot long, if that. As Drak stares at the screen, his eyes widened in horror at what he noticed. "Sonofa….Get Camilla on the radio, Now!" Drak nearly jumped away from the computer, moving towards the communications, hitting the com button so hard he nearly broke it. "USG Camilla! This is General Drak! Under the Orders of the Space Military Protection Laws, I am ordering that artifact be confiscated and destroyed immediately! There is No room for discussion! We are destroying that thing right now! Delta Squad, subdue and contain any crewmen that interfere! I am on my way back right now! Over and out!" Drak went to storm out of the control room when the coms started to receive static mixed with a voice. "*static*rak! This is Car*static*omething's going on! Re*static*ack up! The arti*static*ing mad! We're un*static*eed back up no-" Just then, the coms cut out. Drak pressed the button to answer, but as he was looking out the window, he saw something he almost didn't believe. The Camilla…the ship they were just on only a few hours ago…had what looked like multiple explosions go off inside, followed by the back half of the ship exploding violently. "My god…" Drak had to compose himself to hit the com button for the Rosé. "Everyone brace for impact!!" Seconds later, the shockwave of the explosion shook the Rosé to its core, setting the alarms off as the systems went haywire.
A few moments earlier, the remaining members of Delta Squad were cutting up and horsing around. Some of the men were arm wrestling, others were practicing their CQC, while a few were just relaxing on their bunks. One of the men, Nick, was boasting on how some of the Camilla's female crew 'couldn't take their eyes off him', exclaiming how his next shore leave is going to be on the Camilla. Another Squad member, Santiago, was doing his best to ignore Nick, focusing on his arm wrestling match with Carlos. Jack, one of the men on the bunks, chuckled at Nick's remark. "C'mon Nick. Everyone knows that with a mug like yours, you'd scare all the ladies within a hundred miles." "Oh? That right Jack? Cuz the only thing I see ugly around here is you! When's the last time you even got laid, bitch?" Jack chuckled again, Nick making it too easy. "I unno Nick, why not as your mom? She keeps hittin me up for another round." Hearing that, most of the men started laughing, Nick moving towards Jack to try and throw down, but just then, "Everyone brace for Impa-a-a-a-" came over the intercom before the entire ship shook violently, knocking the men around, tossing the bunks and lockers around like they were made of paper, the lights flickering before going out, the emergency lights turning on, lighting the room in a reddish glow. After the shaking stopped, the squad checked to see if everyone was alright. Other than a few scrapes and bumps, the 15 soldiers were fine. Trying to figure out what happened, Vega, one of the newest recruits of the squad went to the port window to see if they were under attack. That's when he noticed what happened, but he couldn't believe what he saw. "Holy shit…" his shaking voice caught the attention of the rest of the squad, all of them moving over to look out other port windows. They, too, couldn't believe what they saw. The Camilla was blown nearly in two, chunks of debris floating away from the destroyed back half of the ship. "What the fuck? Yo…Yo what the fuck??" "We we're just in that…what the hell is going on!?" "Was it…was it attacked? Are we…are we next??"
"Delta Squad! Suit up and get to the bridge!" Drak's voice snapped the squad out of their fear induced trance. "We are heading to the Camilla in 15 clicks! Everyone who's able to move, get your shit and be ready!" As Delta Squad raced to get their armor suits on, a million questions raced through their minds. 'What happened to the Camilla?' 'Why did the ship explode and not the Rosé if it was an attack?' 'What happened to the crew in the ship?' All the answers were waiting for them onboard the now half destroyed Camilla.
To be Continued.
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