Looking at the ma.s.sive tree standing in the middle of a plaza Dax still wore his completely black s.p.a.ce suit and had a grim look on his face as he spoke out."Atmospheric pressure normal, no known toxins detected, also no unknown airborne compounds.. A completely normal and stable atmosphere."
"I don"t feel like you"re happy that"s the case.."
"... That"s because I"m not, not even in the slightest."
Dax had expected to find a dead and abandoned station, worn down and broken from the pa.s.sage of time. From what Dax had a.s.sumed and observed the station had no heat signature, there were no signals of any kind stemming from it, and even the most sensitive seismic probes landed near it sensed no vibrations. Looking around the plaza Dax found everything to have an eerie cleanliness to it, not a single thing was out of place and the numerous benches, tables and other decorations stood on the clean stone floor, but there were no signs of anything capable of maintaining that order.
"Anyway a stable atmosphere means it"s safe for me to remove my suit."
Tied to wearing the bulky s.p.a.ce suit that kept her wings greatly restricted Solaris pressed the b.u.t.ton that was supposed to loosen her helmet, but nothing happened.
"Yeah there"s no way you"re doing that under my watch, your suit stays on for this entire trip, as will my own."
"But-"
"Radiation, rapid depressurization not to mention sudden attacks utilizing poisonous gas are only a small part of the reasons you are under no circ.u.mstances going to remove your helmet."
"... B-"
"I can also have one of the drones drag your a.s.s outside to sit and wait if you don"t want to follow my instructions."
"... Fine."
With the chain of command sorted out Solaris put on a pout and sat down at a bench as she continued complaining.
"But how are we going to explore this entire place? It must be gigantic."
"With the wonders of modern technology of course~ ICI commence lantern survey mapping."
[ORDER CONFIRMED, COMMENCING LANTERN LIDA AREA MAPPING…. SCRAMBLING DRONE SWARM.]
At ICI"s command one of the specialist UGAV"s split open revealing countless apple sized black metal spheres that all suddenly split open partly and flew out propelled by tiny ion thrusters.
"What the h.e.l.l are those?"
Looking at the countless drones flying around in a strangely organized fas.h.i.+on Solaris was struck with awe.
"They"re lanterns, an area surveying type of dorne developed by Rex industries. They will check and map the flanks while we continue on towards the center of this dome."
Deciding the break was over, Dax picked up his rifle and gestured for Solaris to follow him as he started walking deeper into the station. The internal of the station revealed itself to be plaza"s like the first room connected by a series of halls stretching out in a gigantic net like structure, and even after exploring for an hour either Dax or his dornes had found anything of note.
"It sure is empty…"
Even Solaris were starting to feel there was something seriously wrong with the place.
"Yeah... There"s plenty of s.p.a.ce, and somehow the atmosphere is also perfectly maintained but other than that nothing stands out at all, at least on the surface. We"re going to hold here for a moment, I"m going to take a look at this stations subsystems."
"Subsystems?"
Dax started looking around the plaza that looked just like all the others before approaching one of the walls as he started explaining.
"Yeah, the mechanical things maintaining the air, light and tree"s in here.."
Finding the edge of a stone looking panel Dax formed a fist and smashed the frame apart before prying it open to see what was inside. Pulling out a mesh of wires some of the lights in the room stopped working as he ripped them apart and started looking at the internal structure in more detail.
"So simple copper wire with some kind of synthetic insulator… This is definitely not s.p.a.ce age, nor would it still work if the station depressurized. If the station suddenly lost pressure the insulators on this wire would shatter and the exposed wires would contact fuse in the vacuum and short courcut the entire system."
"Meaning?"
"I don"t know yet.."
Walking a few meters along the wall Dax punched another hole into it to reveal something else behind.
"This is an atmosphere control system, and a crude one at that… It"s like whoever made these halls had no access to the technology that would make such a station like this possible, and then there"s these circuit boards, no signs of use nor any identifying markings or product id"s.."
[WARNING: LANTERN 414 LOSS OF SIGNAL. REASON: UNIT DESTROYED, COURSE UNKNOWN.]
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".. Solaris hunker down, ICI establish visual on area, all units weapons free."
[REAPER 02 REPORTS HOSTILE CONTACT.. LOSS OF SIGNAL, REASON: UNIT DESTROYED BY HOSTILE.]
"What is-"
"Something is moving here fast!"
Lighting up the recoil compensation system on his suit Dax emptied a magazine of his rifle towards something that moved faster than Solaris could see clearly. The blur didn"t seem affected by Dax"s rifle fire and crashed into him, sending him flying in the low gravity before it came to a hold and allowed Solaris to get a better look at it. It was some kind of golem, standing about 3 meters tall its overall st.u.r.dy body lacked any outward weak spots and was covered entirely in some kind of gray rock that seemed to act as armor, and showed light cracks after being hit by anti material rounds fired from Dax"s gauss rifle.
"That f.u.c.king hurt!"
Having been buried deeply into the opposing wall Dax emerged mostly unscaved, mostly except for his mood, he was p.i.s.sed. Disappearing from Solaris" sight in a blur, Dax left deep cracks in the wall he had landed in as rushed towards the golem and subsequently buried his fist inside it. The golem didn"t break from that however and quickly grabbed Dax that still had his hand stuck in it by the head with one of its ma.s.sive hands and started crus.h.i.+ng it.
"Like that would work on me you f.u.c.king tin bucket!"
Apparently p.i.s.sed off at the very idea of the golem being able to crush his head Dax grabbed the hand that was holding his head and pried it off him before kicking the golems main body as he still held onto the arm. Using the inflexibility of the golems arm to his advantage Dax placed himself in it"s blindspot by locking the arm in place he kicked the armor on its body portion apart with numerous precise kicks, acting more like a surgeon than a fighter. After about 30 kicks the golem slowly stopped moving after Dax had destroyed most of whatever was inside its chest. Not apparently satisfied with that Dax kept systematically tearing the golem apart as he still held in place and blocked its movements.
"I think it"s dead already…"
"I"m not so sure."
Keeping up his surgical strikes until they became more like a disa.s.sembly than anything else, then finally tossed the golems arm aside after he had completely destroyed its internal structure.
"Now its dead."
Looking at the former golem that now had been reduced to nothing more than a heap of sc.r.a.p Dax confirmed there were no more signs of function coming from it.
"Now this is definitely more like it."
"Like what?"
"s.p.a.ce age, even if slightly abnormal."