Aotrs Commander

The Red Furnace: First Contact

"Any idea of what they might have under there, sir?" Stab queried.

"You're the literal genius," Feltain replied. "You tell me."

She was, and she had the paperwork to prove it. but...

"No clue sir. Could be technology, could be a weapon, vould be some sort of ritual device... I have no clue."

"So we sit tight until the bosses decide what they want us to do."

"Yes, sir."

The next several hours passed quietly. While their superiors discussed the plan, Alpha settled in to do the part of reconnaissence that drones could not replace - finding the right spot, and, fundementally, quietly counting vehicles.

With only eight of them, taking any further action other than observation was suicidal odds, even with Gate exfil (since it would only take one wrong hit to disable Shadowflight and they would be trapped).

Stab knew that their superiors wer debating the next course of action. At the moment, they still had no idea why the aliens were there, nor were they any closer to solving the myster of the star. The alien technology was novel, but in and of itself, that wasn't likely, Stab thought, to be reason to commit the significant force required to take it, especially as the Aotrs still had no clue as to how large the alien's power was. In any other circumstance, Alpha might have tried finding a terminal and trying to hack it for data... But the complete lack of the powered technology made that a non-starter. The only way they were likely to be able to get any kind of information was MAYBE from a prisoner, but that would be tipping their hand.

(Perhaps if one of the native creatures attacked, they might be able to snag one in the confusion.)

The option of simply asking was, of course, open, but Stab suspected like herself, doing so when the aliens had such massively overwhelming force seemed nearly as dangerous as picking a fight. Nothing about the aliens particularly suggested them being generally benevolent. If anything, given their super soldiers, curses and apparent paranoia, they seemed very much like they'd react rather poorly.

After an hour or two, Crippling Glare reported in was closing in. The plan was now for Crippleng Glare to enter the system in the gas giant's ring and go dark, using its stealth armour. If the aliens didn't spot it, good. It'd still be out of scanner range for an active scan, but it'd be close by. Then, they could later gate in closer, perhaps take a proper scan of the star and see what reaction the aliens had when the footing was closer to even.

They meanwhile, were instructed to shift position to watch the Yellow Position in particular, and it was the work of the better part of an hour before they had worked themselves into a suitable spot.

Presently, the light on her HUD indicated command changed to green, showing command was addressing them again.

"Alpha, we are sending a specialist reconnaissence element to your location via Gate. They will then proceed to investigate Yellow Position. Crippling Glare will arrive in system in four-point-seven minutes. You are to remain on station, but be prepared to execute your exfil if the situation becomes hot."

"Acknowledged," Feltain responded.

Via Gate? Stab mused. They'd already located a little bully just deep enough for a person-sized Gate to open withut attracting attention, which was only a few tens of feet behind the outlook she as Feltain were lying on observing.

Must have gotten a high-level caster, one that could easily open a gate from the Myst Gate to their location easily. Not the sort of resource AMET usually had access to on a mission, but this was hardly a usual sitation.

She glanced behind her at just the right moment. She could just make out the point of white light - usually muted, she noted - appear and swell to the gate flat, white rectangular Gate... Actually, was it a bit smaller than the usual two-by-one-five metres? Stab could have sworn the streamers of roiling colours that spilled out from the Gate were slightly more muted too.

Their reconnaissence asset was smaller than she expected - it was a Kobold Commando, in full armour, the slightly oversized helmet covering the large ears and nose. She'd never seen on in person before - but, she supposed, that was sort of the point, wasn't it. The commando moved smoothly and soundless to their position, and the Gate, without no cerimony, disappeared.

The commando crawled up between them. they were good, Stab noted, she was right next to them and she hadn't heard a sound. He hadn't even bothered turning his visual scatter pattern on.

Feltain was clearly impressed - he was a originally commando himself by training, Stab recalled - since his voice was respectful when he quickly appraised the kobold of the situation.

"That's them there. Still no clue as to what they've got under there. Whatever it is, we'd need to be right up next to it to be able to see through the sensor baffles. I've got a planned infil route, just in case we were ordered to do this ourselves, but I wouldn't want to presume."

"That okay," the kobold replied. (Male, Stab idly noted.) "Already worked out own route. Smaller, so will be different. Setting off now. Crippling Glare coming in now, want to be closer to see what reaction will be if they spot it."

Stab resisted the urge to tell the kobold to be careful.

"Rather you than me, sir. I mean, there are an awful lot of them... Er... Anything we need to do, sir, in case, well, like... If you get unlucky?" She ventured, hoping she didn't sound like he was calling his competance into question, because, that would be SUPER rude. She noticed Feltain stiffen ever so slightly and tried not to kick herself.

"Get unlucky?" The kobold just sounded amused. "That not be necessary." He patted her shoulder lightly.

"Me already here."

The Red Furnace: First Contact

Ah, Stab thought, there was the other shoe.

"Okay, those shields are like our body armour, kinectic impact resistant," she informed the squad, flicking the internal channel over so Myst base and LORD FOUL SKREAM could hear her as well. "they've also got the material in the skin and bones too, clearly genetically engineered. They'll be shrapnel resistant, so if we end up shooting a Snake at 'em, don't set it for cluster mode." In standard mode, a Snake, like all the S- series missiles, was ulitmately a shaped charge - well several, usually - so it was the energy of the blast that did the damage, not the fragments. "Treat them like power troops or droids," she said. "They're going to to need coherent fire to bring them down. Actually, if they use those shields, they'll be very like War Droids, since they aren't going to be able to use cover very easily, and I bet they'll try to make some kind of shield wall like, well, our War Droids have their shields."

"Grenades are acid gas, so watch yourselves - closest easy comparison is GT toxin rounds, it'll burn through armour and likely shields given time, and you won't regenerate from it."

"Spears are low threat, non-magicial." Piercing weapons were largely useless against skeletal liches, since there weren't any organs to hit. And the alien's super strength would likely actually hinder them more than help in that regard, since it was more likely to reach high enough velocity to trigger the Medium Body Armour's own kinetic deflection. It PROBABLY wasn't going to be high enough to hit like a vehicular railgun. (Bullets were not all equal in the end, of course, and something like a Hammer of Hatred's can-opener was in a different league to assualt rifle or even heavy machine gun rounds; there was a limit to what Kinetic Armour could actually stop).

As Feltain made his similar reports, Stab mulled over her thoughts, paying just enough attention to stay alert to the conversation.

As he finished, she ventured an observation.

"I think their fiction sucks."

Feltain, surprised, only managed a baffled "Wha?" at the apparent non-sequeituer.

"This whole don't-use-powered-tech thing they have going. Seems to the point of paranoia. It does feel like they, like, got done over in an AI rebellion or something like it."

"Okaaaay..." Feltain replied, clearly still not following.

"Well, sir, thing is about "robot uprisings" is that pretty much everyone who ever had robots and AIs had the idean of them rebelling against their masters in fiction since, well, before robots were a thing, right? I mean, I know, I've read so much of it," she added in an undertone, hearig the faintest grunt of amusement from Feltain and the admission. "So that, by the time it got to the point where, like actual AIs were gonna, everyone took steps, because they were, like 'shit, I've seen this movie!' So it mostly never happened."

This time there was a short chuckle, from Lord Foul Skream. "I concur with Voidslay's assesement from personal experience, since as I recall, Yeller and Daggerheart both used nearly those exact words... In unison as I recall."

Oh dear, Stab thought absently, if I float out of cover will they see me?

"Looking over the data, sir," Shadowflight reported, "I would hazard those curse-spikes could be a form of control, or at least an assurance of control, over the soldiers. Though it is also possibly, given Stab's suggestions, they are also a body-destruction switch, to ensure the bodies are destroyed on death, so they cant be used or assimilated - or raised from the dead, since they appear to have divine casters."

"Noted," Feltain said. "It occurs to me that whatever the purpose, it might also be able to be used to make them explode offensively. I don't think we want to find out, so despite the relatively smaller danger those spears present, try and stay at range. Spears and shields don't make good gear for getting theough undergrowth, so try and keep some of it between you and them if it comes to a brawl."

There was a rumbling of assent from the squad.

One of the technicans from the base, who had also been looking over the data, spoke up. "Captain, their communications with simple language and pheromonal complexity puts me in mind me of the way the Lazerblaster's instinctive engineering works, albiet a bit more obviously. They somehow manage to work, almost hive-mind like, on engineering tasks, using only the simplest casual conversation, but at a level of co-operation that is well beyond that that should be able to achieve. There's a lot unspoken, and no-on has ever figured out how it works, given that it doesn't follow any obvious normal vectors. If this pheremonal communiction produces similar results, they may manage a level of tactical co-ordination that we might only see in controlled animated Undead or in extremely experienced units like the Defilers."

Good point, Stab thought, she wouldn't have caught that herself.

"Okay," Feltain said. "Unless we want to stop these guys from... Setting up their transport infrastructure? At eight-to-one odds - which I don't," he paused, giving their listening superiors chance to give orders to the contrary, which they didn't, "I think we're done here. We'll circle wide around and see if we can get further in. There's nothing to suggest we can't Gate back to the Fallen Soul at the moment, so we'll move deeper in and see what's closer to the heart of this place.

"It occurs," he went on, "that both of these two species might be subserviant ones, given the level of genetic engineering, so there still might be a master race somewhere, and I want to see if spot anything."

She and Feltain made their way slowly and cautiously back to the rest of the squad, and then stealthily, they moved onward towards the alien's central drop-point - or at least as far as they could go...

The Red Furnace: First Contact

Stab and Feltain, covered by the squad from further back, slunk over to a vantage point to watch. Like Stab herself, Feltain had some zero-G training - more than her, in fact, and so the lower gravity was less of a hinderance to them. Their visual scatter patterns were active - the aliens seemed like they might be primitive enough for it to work on, or at least they didn't have any visible scanners.

They both lay flat only a fifty metres of so away from the aliens, their scanners out. This close, they'd switched over to entirely internal communications in their helmets.

"Some sort of teleport portal?" Feltain murmured, as he directed his scanner towards it.

"Seems likely. Maybe the crystals are there to help locate something for point-to-point temeportation?" Stab mused. She was intent on scanning one of the canid-like aliens first.

Feltain's plan was to get as much sensor data as they could from this group, before the squad moved past them. Shadowflight had made sure he'd set the co-ordinates of the Fallen Soul, so if they needed to, they could make a shapr Gate exfil to right inside the vehicle.

He was scanning the hoop structure. They were close enough now to be able to get a full detail scan: composition, surface features, thaumic readings, everything. At this range, it would take longer than the usual minute or so to get it all (ideal range for speed was ideally within a couple of metres of so), but caution was the watchword.

"Hazarding the wolf-dudes might be some sort of servitor race," she said.

"Mhhm," Feltain noncommittally concurred. "Odd mix of weapons though. Most powers with access to firearms or energy weapons tend to skip melee weapons unless they're quite long-lived, just 'cos it's not that easy to train with 'em."

Stab eyed Feltain's magical sabre in its sheathe. "Uhuh. Which suggests that these guys are long-lived and well-trained... Or are, like cannon-fodder with minimall training. Though it's strange if that's the case to give 'em grenade launchers."

"Yeah. Spears and shields, too, which is good if you're fighting in a shield wall, but against modern weapons... Way too exposed."

"And these guys don't exactly strike me as being Defilers-level," Stab mused. "I mean, if they were, and they wouldn't have let us get this close."

She completed her bio-scan, and switched over to do a full scan of their gear, starting with the shield - since first off, she wanted to know what that thing was made of, and pertinently whether it was going to stop a bullet or a cold beam. Though, she mused, in the latter case, even if it did, it was going to get very unpleasantly cold to hold VERY fast...

A quick glance showed Feltain now scanning the serpentine alien and it's... Familar? Pet, maybe? Could be some sort of crystalline construct or golem, which would suggest some sort of magical or psionic capability. Feltain's scan would show.

She focussed her attention back to the dog-dudes. Shield scanned; now onto her second-favourite topic after robots... Weapons. What was she going to get from those grenade launchers...?

The Red Furnace: First Contact

Feltain moved over to the front of the troop compartment and spoke to the Fallen Soul crew.

"Deathblight, work up an intercept for one of those crystals if you can, preferably one which keeps us least exposed to them. I want to get close enough for a scan; maybe try snagging one with a Gate," he looked over at Shadowlight, who considered and then nodded.

"Aye, sit," Deathblight, the gunner/commander nodded and he and the pilot set to work.

Stab shook her head as she watched the alien shps communicate.

"Whoever they are, I don't think they've encountered any powers which significantly out-tech them before."

"Oh?" Feltain said looking over.

"This communication system. Assuming it's not an emergancy back-up... Sir, our sensors can pick up the laser flashes emitted from any point on the sphere, because we don't strictly need LOS at detail-scan ranges, right? So against us, their only means of stopping us intercepting their communications is by putting out enough signals they exceed our ability to translate them."

Feltain seemed to think a moment and then nodded, "Right."

"Well... What would happen if they ran into someone with much more advanced technology, with universal translators much better than what we have - like the Strayvians or the Shardan or the Blastarons?"

Feltain winced, getting it.

Catching the tilted heads of the some of the other troopers, Stab elaborated. "Unless their language is encoded, like, better than a Cybertank's brain, at that level of tech, sorting out the chaff from the real data is not even going to be a blip.

"Honestly, I'm not even sure how well it'd hold up to an analysis from the magical translation spells WE have, if we set up a proper team. But we can't know that until we can get a proper detail scan of one of their transmissions, instead of just catching the visible light, since there may be subtle permutations to the frequency we can't see until then."

"Which we're not going to do unless when can safely get closer," Feltain said. "We're too out-matched otherwise." The chance existsed their technology was such an overwhelming advantage for the Aotrs to functionally out-of-context-problem the aliens existed, but until it was a certainty, no-one would be taking any chances. "We might get a better shot at it from the ground near their base when we do our recon."

As the pilots worked, Stab idly wondered if you could make an anti-G-Well generator. Presumably a regular G-Well generator - whatever effect it had on their FTL system - would make them more maneuverable, would an anti-G-Well lock them down? The Aotrs had never developed a G-Well system (though she suspected Lord Death Despoil almost certainly had one they'd captured squirreled away somewhere), but they did have anti-grav... So could you build one big enough...?

As Feltain and the crew finished conferring and the Fallen Soul began to move again, Stab amused herself with some scroll-back calculations, trying to see. She concluded that no, it probably wouldn't be practical, as Aotrs grav technology almost certainly couldn't get enough power to extend the field out far enough to be worth it (never mind actually having to manufacture one), but it was an interesting diversion.

The Red Furnace: First Contact

The Sentry Drone completed its recon sweep. Feltain had elected not to try and use its sensors to get a better look at the alien craft - not they Sentry Drone's scanner really had the range anyway - but instead concentrating on making sure the immediate areas was safe.

After the sweep completed to Feltain's satisfaction, and the Myst Gate momentarily opened to let the Sentry Drone back through, the captain reviewed the final results for a moment, clearly formulating his plan of action, while Alpha settled back into their ready positions.

"All right." Feltain was not just briefing them, as would be typical, but the open comms to operations, to keep them appraised on his plan. "Alpha, we will proceed through to the planet in the Fallen Soul. If they pick us up right away, we'll be within running distance of the Myst Gate. If not, we'll start moving closer. We'll skirt around their ground forces initially, and get a bit of distance from the Must Gate. We'll see if we can take a closer look at those ships first, maybe try and active scan. Depending on what happens, if we stay undetected, we can perhaps get closer to their base and take a look-see.

"Shadowflight, you've got enough power for a Gate or two, right?"

The tall lich nodded. "Yes sir." He continued, not speaking as much for Feltain's benefit, nor the commands, but for Crippling Glare, which was linked into the communications and wouldn't be familiar with his capabilities. "It's not my speciality, but I'm rated at level 9.7 on Gates. I can manage up to Gate X, which is a bit of a strain, but we could come in from nearly a hundred miles; on foot of course. If we can get within ten miles, I can use Gate V, which would be better - or IV if we need to take the Fallen Soul - in or out - in a hurry."

Feltain turned to Stab. "Voidslay, initial impressions of the alien tech?"

Stab had been ruminating as she'd been watching, so her answer was immediate.

"My first guess would be gravitic technology of some sort, or TK-based, like the Jalyrkieons use."

"Right," Feltain grunted. "they got those little balls on the back of their ship units instead of engines, don't they?"

"Yes, sir" Stab replied, her eyeglows softening a little in a grin at the description. Then she sobered as she spoke. "From what I recall on the intelligence reports, those extra-galactic alien drone-dude-thingies on the rim" - Stab didn't feel bad about calling them that, since no-one yet had given them an official name, since so little was known - "use a simalar system, too. Heck, sir, if it wasn't for the location and there's SOME visible features on those ships, I'd had said they looked a bit like the ovoids seen by those things. And I wouldn't rule it out, since what we've been able to snag data-wise says those things are just automatatons." It has been one of the reasons Stab had looked up the report. The idea of an alien race sending drones across a whole galaxy to terradform worlds for them was quite intreguing.

"Sir," Shadowflight interjected. "As we know so little about those, it IS possible they might be related. If so, we should be wary, since they use a mix of magic, technology, psionics and bio-engineering, so they would certainly be able to detect our own magic."

Stab nodded. "That's correct. However, if it IS those things, the automatons at least were very passive if not interferred with. But we're making a big assmuption - and even if is IS them, the species behind them might not be.

"They're also really close together." Standard Aotrs distances for starships, like much of the galaxy tended to be at distances of sixty to eighty thousand kilometres. Much closer than that, and you ran the risk of being close enough that even the short-lived beams and bursts of energy weapons could track over more than one ship at once, nevermind the vulnerability to cluster weapons. It was not like the movies - though it was an easy mistake to make if you actually looked at starship's combat informaton holoprojector. In order to be visible to the crews at such distances, the 3D holotables exaggerated the real-time imagery enormously, so that it LOOKED to all intents and purposes, that they were only a few hundred metres apart. (Stab had, like many before her, noted that the real thing didn't look that dissimilar to the computer games, for the obviously convergeant reasons.)

"You only get that relativisitcally close if you needed to dock, tow or unload. Or their weapons are really short ranged. Or the little ships need to be that close to the big one to draw wireless power from it. In which case, we might not really be looking at several ships, but, like, one ship which has disconnected parts."

Feltain nodded in satisfaction. "My gut feeling says whoever these guys are, they either had a major malfunction or came out a fight. They're probably focused on getting themselves entrenched right now so if they don't have Shardan-level sensors, they probably won't notice us until we're pretty close. Once we're there though, maybe the Fallen Soul sensors can see if there's any commications chatter."

"If they don't use telepathy or something," someone rumbeled.

"Point," Feltan conceded easily. He directed his next question to the Crippling Glare. "Captain Whisperbleed, I don't suppose you're getting anything like that?"

The slightly gravelly voice that replied suggested to Stab that Whisperbleed had likely been a Orc or Half-Orc. "Sorry Fleshslicer. We're still too far out for detailed scans. But," she continued, "I think it might be wise for us to close in. If they don't pick you up immediately, we can probably take it as dead they don't have super-sensors, so we can pop in a bit closer and go back to stealth. Obviously, we can't do any serious scanning until we're in the same system, but the closer we are, the sooner we can get to you if something goes seriously wrong."

It was a risk, of course, against an unknown enemy. A Traitorwas far from toothless, but it wasn't a heavy combat ship and outnumbered, unless the Aotrs turned out to have a significant technological advantage.

"I concur with your collective analysises," a new voice said.

Stab's control was pushed to its limits not to gasp with excitement, and she wasn't able to control the brightening of her eyes glows. HE was listening to them! Oh, well, of course he was, this was super-important, and especially with the alien ship being there!

Even Feltain was for a fraction of a second taken aback.

"Thank you, Lord Foul Skream."

"General Flaywind," Foul Skream addressed the oprations. "If Alpha is able to get any scans, please alert your team that I will be joining them on their analysis remotely. With this many unknowns, I figured another pair of eyeglows won't hurt."

DAMMIT, though Stab, now she was super-duper jealous. For half a mment, she actually regretted not staying behind.

"Will do, my lord," General Flaywind said. "and thank you. They'll be delighted. Alpha, any further input?"

Feltain glances around his team. Stab silently shook her head, as did Shadowflight.

"No, sirs, ma'am, milord," Feltain said. "Then with your permission?"

"Good to go, Alpha," Flaywind answered.

"I don't need to say it," Lord Foul Skream called. "But I will anyway - don't get killed, Alpha, you're too valuable to lose."

Stab felt a warm glow in her soul.

Fallen Soul Nightsabre lifted off the cradle. With a quick burst of the engine, they were through the Myst Gate and out the other side.

Now, Stab thought, we see how good their sensors are, and whether this little adventure going to be over before it even starts...

The Red Furnace: First Contact

Habitable, then, Stab thought, and they were lucky enough to have landed at the right spot. Perhaps not the best of vistas (Stab had noted a penchant for the Must Gates to open on a higher spot looking down, bot the top of a low rise seemed be about as high as this area could provide. Looking at the atmosphere, she was glad they were sealed in. Not because any of the allergens would affected them, but they'd be, like, manky, and since becoming a lich, she'd become rather used to not having to do much personal cleaning now she didn't generate any waste. Some liches still liked an occasional shower just for the feelign of water over their bones, but Stab wasn' among them.

As the initial scan reports came in - and were transmitted to the Crippling Glare - and the drone moved off from it's hovering initial position, Stab and the team settled in for the long haul, patiently waiting for the Sentry Drone's sweep to complete.

A Sentry Drone was primarily optimised for ground-coverage scans, with the majority of it's detail sensors directed downwards. A standard terrain sweep scanned an area of up to 0.49 square miles (1.28 km²) per hour and the its optimum scanning cruising speed, scanning a forty-metre wide strip at a speed of twenty miles per hour. A full twelve-hour spiral pattern sweep covered approximately a 2.73-mile (4.4km) diameter circle, with an area of roughly 5.93 square miles (15.36km²). While is was quite possible for the Drones to fly much faster, the faster it went, the less information the scans gained. At the slow optimum speed, the sensors had full chance to properly determine detailed data - sufficient for the battlefield level, including picking up hidden vehicles and potentially infantry along with, as pertinently for the AMET teams, any other structures or points on interest within the immediate area as a local starting point for exploration. It was more thorough, more so than in a combat situation was possible, but it ensured that the fixed exit point for the Myst Gate was secure. (And it not, and the drone was shot down, that was useful in itself.)

Stab was almost always interested enough to watch the scan data. She was fairly sure that Feltain would have the Fallen Soul investigate the power signature while they were out there, but there might be other areas on interest too. If the Drone's scan didn't pick anything out in the immediate vicinity (or in the distance as it swept from its other, omnidirectional sensors), she predicted after a quick look in person around the local gate exit point (to be absolutely sure), they'd probably pick a direction towards the space anomoly and head out. She figured Feltain would have them keep low to start with and then fly up underneath it, at least until the determined if it had any active defences.

Feltain looked like he was also going to monitor the sweep too (while not strictly necessary, since the data would be being gone over by the base's specialists too who would understand it best, Feltain was clearly of the school of thought that he ought to anyway) as did a couple of the others. The rest of the squad relaxed, along with two crew of the Fallen Soul - see could see one of her squadmates - she was paying too much attention to the data to be exactly sure who - quietly discussing with the Fallen Soul crew whether they though they could kill one of the titantic creatures if they had to, woth a particular emphasis on whether the Fallen Soul's function as a boarding ram would be feasible. She could heare a couple more flicking on their scanners to play games (the sound of the games discretely limited to inside their own helmets, of course).

Liches, shorn of the bilogical imperatives, not even needing rest save to recharge the mana pools, could be interimidably patient, and those training by the Aotrs more so. With her professional detechment still solidly in place, Stab's gaze remained fixed on the stream of data until it was time to move.

The Red Furnace: First Contact

Stab Voidslay was excited. While the was in general something of a ground-state for the lich, today was exceptional.

It was not just that she was going out on a field mission for the Aotrs Myst Exploration Team for the first time in ages. The last few years had been quite eventful and she'd never been bored, certainly. (Which would have been awful.) In particular, the galaxy-shaking discovery of the facilities the led to the establishment of Damning Echo base, far-off in the galaxy and on a section of an incomplete ringworld had been fascinating. (Getting to play with alien technology - especially old Harbinger robots and weapons - had been the Best Thing Ever.) Nor had the time been entirely short of action, with the invasion by the Brotherhood of the Grey Lizard a couple of years ago. Though fixing the mess they left afterwards was certainly the least interesting thing she'd done.

No, that she was finally getting to go out to explore a new location with the Myst Gate with the Myst Gate - actually resuming the job that Myst Base had been intended to do, before that interruption - was only due a regular amount of excitement. The extra was because this was going to be a first. Attempting to open the Myst Gate to a KNOWN location that had not been linked to before.

Stab ran her final checks on her gear. She was the primary technician on this one, so she triple-checked all her equipment. But this was second nature even to the relatively young lich. (She was a comparitive baby at only 35, compared the her peers who were generally two plus (sometimes plus a LOT) her senior.) And this let the portions of her mind not on the job at hand to reflect.

The General (Grimzephyr Flaywind, Myst Base's CO) had called a briefing a few days ago. Long-range probes had detected some unusual anomolies in the far-off Tanshin system. These warrented investigation. But the distance was significant, even for Aotrs Gate drives - though, granted, not as far away as Damning Echo base was. Still, to make a good investigation required more than long-range scans. And if it was not of interest, sending a full fleet out that far was loads of resources. Under normal circumstances, the Aotrs might have done so anyway, or dispatched a Pathfinder team. But the anomolies had piqued the interest of High Command.

Apparently, it was Lord Foul Skream himself that contacted Myst Base to talk to the Major (Carallan) Scimitar - the base's lead specialist on the gate - about the possibilty of sending a team through the Myst Gate instead. Lord Foul Skream had been following the progress of the AMET project super closely, especially since the trip to the co-ordinates of MGL-045 had turned out to be Fearmore itself, and barely four hundred miles from the Citadel.

(That had been a whole Thing in itself. Stab had been with her usual teammates, usually designated Alpha Squad. All geared-up and ready to go and they had stepped out into friendly territory.

Barely five minutes had passed before first Lord Yeller, and then Lord Foulskream showed up, with an equally amused retinue. (Lord Yeller did not stop laughing for several minutes.) Scimitar had Snowward (ooh, Stab hoped he was enjoying his super-big promotion) run the Astrometrics Analyser for the sake of argument, but as the Major had suspected, it simply told them what they already knew.

Lord Death Despoil himself had arrived within a couple of hours, and took the opportunity to conduct a quick personal tour of the facility. To everyone's relief – and not a little pride – he found things very satisfactory, and even took the time to exchange a few words with each of them. (For Stab, it was a toss-up whether that had been more squee-worthy than speaking to her own personal idol.)

After a quick session with the general and major, that specific set of co-ordinates were command-encrypted for the obvious security reasons. As he left, Lord Death Despoil was already talking with Lord Foulskream about setting up a security outpost around the area of as a precaution. After all, a backdoor directly into your mostly secret capital world practically right next to the Citadel was not something to take too lightly, even if the chances of it being used were small.)

Major Scimitar was a bit bummed, but sort of pleased, as she’d hoped her co-ordinates would take the connection somewhere in the direction of Aotrs space. But it was building on these things, and landing on other known places, that was letting the Major slowly get her skull around the way-complicated spacial/magical co-ordinates the denizens of Myst had built the Myst Gate on.

And, with input from the Lord Foul Skream (and reputedly from The Boss Himself), Major Scimitar has said she was as confident as she was going to be that they could program in some co-ordinates that would take them to Tanshin.

Gear check completed. Standard-issue Mark 14D coldbeam rifle, check. Standard-issue heat shorsword, check. Not-standard-issue, Stab-loves-weapons-requisitoned PP-2 Plasma Puise Pistol (replacing her coldbeam pistol) and personal frost energy whip, check. Tech scanner with her favoured tech programs and her personal cybernetic tool kit, check. Combat armour webbing over standard-issue Medium Body Armour, with three AGF-08 offenseive grenades and plenty of power cells for her weapons and equipment, check. Assault pack, with the her Crypt personal shelter tucked neatly at the bottom, check. Neatly coiled on the side of the pack was the newest addition of the personal gear she was permitted to be allocated: sixteen metres of plasteel cord. While not exactly glamorous, the first couple of trips out with Alpha, no-one had brought any and Stab was determined not to be caught out again.

Satisfied, Stab headed out to meet the squad in the Myst Gate room. She was going to be the last one to arrive (still in plenty of time, of course, because anything other than professionalism was unthinkable). But that was okay, Feltain knew she would double-check her stuff, 'cos he was cool like that. She headed out towards the Gate Room, still reflecting.

It was by no means a certain thing, General Flaywind had explained. (Ooooh, he was so professional! And he was just the BEST at exposition; Stab was sure that was why he got to be in charge; Stab just would go on and on and on once she got started, she'd never been good at controlling that monologuing urge, she'd go all over the place and getted side-tracked and... Wait, what was she thinking about? Right, briefing.)

It was by no means a certain thing. Major Scimitar has estimated their chances of success were no more than 70%. And that was just of hitting the SYSTEM, not necessarily the intended target of Tanshin II. But as Flaywind had said, if it didn't work, then it would be no loss, just an "ordinary" Myst Gate exploration mission. The Aotrs would then just have to send someone to Tanshin the old-fashioned way, like, with starships and stuff. But if it DID work, yay, 'cos it meant they could do the recon in person AND they'd figured out how to get the Myst Gate to somewhere they WANTED to go to, instead of having to link to random places and store the useful settings. (It had taken, like, massive effort to be able to re-open the Myst Gate to places they HAD opened it to before to start with.)

Stab arrived at the Gate room.

The Gate room was large, fifty metres wide, and a hundred long from the furthest point. The walls chamfered in the last few metres into a shallow curved vault, perhaps thirty metres high at the highest point. The floor and part of the walls were covered in the usual hangar-grey metal surface, but above that, the room was mostly stone.

There was ornamentation on the walls in the form of complex patterns, lending the impression that this was some grand cathedral – which was, of course, exactly what it had (sort of) been when built by the long-vanished Myst natives.

Sets of columns rose up along the walls. At the base, they were covered by a protective sheath of metal, but about halfway up, Stab could see they were stone. The columns were inlaid by a tracery of metals – a fair proportion of which Stab knew was gold, silver or copper or close alloys of the same, gemstones and sweeping runic-like symbols. Some of the stone was ancient, while in other places it had been restored and replaced.

The ceiling was dominated by a huge structure. It reminded Stab of nothing so much as the spine of some creature, running the length of the ceiling until it curved up ten metres from rear opposite to the Gate. It hung a couple of metres below the ceiling and was five or six metres is diameter. The wall columns rose to meet it, rather than the ceiling. Similar columns coming out from the ceiling met it from above – those ran through higher parts of the building. Where column and spine met, there was a complex lattice of metals around the join, restored by careful engineering work (Stab had helped), where the inlaid designs appeared to leap forth into three-dimensions and blend together.

At the far end of the room, the spine curved down into the Myst Gate device itself.

A free-standing monolithic structure, the Myst Gate device was over half the width of the cavernous chamber, and it ran back to the far wall, which was nearly thirty meters distant. In the cathedral-like air of the room, it was reminiscent of a grand altar structure.

The basic shape was roughly rectangular from the front, but numerous protrusions and indentations visible along the sides made it defy easy description.

The front was dominated by a huge catenary arch imbedded in the surface, whose frame was two metres thick. The arch was not far short of twenty metres high, and not much narrower at the base; easily wide enough to drive a Distant Thunder Heavy IFV through with room to spare. The arch framed a smooth, blank wall. Both were made in a complex pale grey material which looked ceramic but was actually a complex stone ore. The room spine curved back along itself to disappear into the squarish stone just behind the top of the arch.

The base of the arch was raised slightly above the floor with a single step, but a shallow, heavily reinforced metal ramp ran down the centre of the room and roses to meet it – as the initial impression about it being wide enough to drive through was not far off the mark.

Aside from the featureless surface inside the arch, the whole thing was covered with more runic designs and metal traceries. Even the addition of Aotrs technology linking it to the computer system and power sources was discretely woven into the design.

Half-way down the left-hand wall, about twenty-five metres from the Gate, the operations centre jutted into the room. A starship grade bridge window protected the ops centre and a wide balcony projected from beneath it. Gantries either side ran about half-way down the length of the room, just far enough from the wall to skim the columns.

Below those were several blast walls, to provide cover for infantry and the two heavy weapons turrets currently retracted into the walls.

Finally, there were two sets of hangar bay doors leading to the base’s vehicle bays; one was situated between two columns on the right wall, opposite the ops centre and the other was towards the right side of the rear wall.

A few metres from the Gate, a Sentry Drone sat on a launch cradle. A few more metres behind it, the Fallen Soul multirole assigned to this mission sat on a cradle of its own, with the left hatch open.

Stab's squad of eight waited outside the vehicle, clustered near the cradle's ladder under the door. For this mission, they would be designated Alpha Squad - typical for the first squad going out on a new mission - but in composition it was not the same liches she worked with most often. The Myst Gate project by necessity had a more flexible unit set-up, but most of the time, a squad deployed would be the same, plus or minus. For this mission, though, Stab was not under the command of Captain Norath Deathbringer, but newly-promoted Captain Feltain Fleshslicer. (Actually, Norath was still newly a Captain himself, comparatively, he'd gotten promoted with the whole squad for discovering Damning Echo, Stab mused.) Feltain was the one she knew the best of the other seven, though she had - naturally - a working relationship with all the others.

As she appraoched, Feltain nodded to her curtly in greeting, and a couple of the others made little waves, which she returned, with her excitement evident in the larger movements. There was no exchange of "are you ready?" since it was unnecessary; if Stab wasn't, she'd have said so right away.

Feltain had chosen from the resources allocated to this mission to make a typical start: Fallen Soul and the two crew for transport, and a Sentry Drone to perform an initial, local area sweep. The sweep would be monitored, and might last for up to twelve hours. But, of course, as they had no idea what they would find on the other side, so the squad needed to be assembled ready in case they had to go now.

(The Myst Gate's wormhole could only be held fully open for only an hour or two (they still hadn't beaten the record of three hours, nine minues and forty-three seconds), but by closing it down to a pinhole, they could stretch it out to seventy-five hours. However, as in the last two or three hours, the wormhole became increasingly unstable, so the safety limit was no more than 72 hours. Of course, since the Myst Gate opened on a world in exactly the same spot, now they could open Myst Gates to the SAME place more than once, the gate closing "only" meant waiting, out of contact, for twenty-four hours for the recharge, rather than being maybe lost in some forgotten part of the galaxy until regular Gate forces could be sent to fetch you.)

More unusually, an ouside normal Myst Gate protocols, Stab knew that the Traitor-Class Recon Destroyer Crippling Glare would be observing from afar, outside the system. The Crippling Glare had been the vessel to perform the long-range scans as was thus the closest to the scene, currently located in interstellar space on stealth watch - to be joined by a fleet if it became necessary.

As she joined the group, Stab noted Feltain had managed to requisition himself a Mark 18 coldbeam rifle for his personal geat alloted. Stab was deeply jealous. Top-of-the-line, new equipment, it was waaay better than her Mark 14D, which wasn't even the most recent Mark 14. But Myst Base wasn't a front-line combat station, so they were low on the list for the absolute newest weapons, at least for standard issue. Stab probably could have gotten one herself, but it would have taken most of her equipment allocation for her rank and experience, as as a lowly Second Trooper, she didn't get all that much. So most of it had to go on stuff she needed to do her main job, which was primarily cybernetics and robotics. And she wasn't the best shot. This wasn't to say she was a poor shooter, just that her combat skills were only in the upper middling range. While she devoted more time to it than the primary casters and wider-field-technicians usually could, the full-time soldiers were naturally better then she was.

And this time, she would almost be the bottom of the pack, since with only one full necromancer (the freakishly tall Coldblaze Shadowflight, a former elf, like herself), the rest of the group was atypically soldier-heavy. While it was in one way comforting to have TWO Snake Launchers (and, she noted, wth approval, looking at the warhead casings, all brand-new SK-4s), and a coldbeam support in the hands of someone who could best use it, it meant Stab was the only technical specialist. And that was because she was more martially inclined than most of the techs. Feltain had allocated a good amount of the mission resources to help her in particular rush through some emergancy training to get her speed up on the non-robot stuff not in her speciality area. But Stab was completely confident in her ability to handle the job, or she wouldn't have accepted it. It was all soo exciting!

Feltain couldn't have missed the way she was practically vibrating with excitement, judging by the amused light from his eyeglows behind his helmet visor. Nor did Shadowflight; his unusually tall, slender frame shook in quiet chuckle, and he shook his helmeted head. Nodding towards her in indication, he half-turned to the others.

"If we have to wait another twelve hours and she just explodes, do you reckon we get a different tech, or do we just have to carry the pieces?" There was a general rumble of snickers, which deepened into laughter as Stab's own giggle came out a bit more high-pitched and excited than she'd intended.

Further comment was cut short as General Flaywind in the operations centre opened the general comms.

"Alpha. Just got word from Crippling Glare and they're in position. Major Scimitar's also completed her final checks, so as soon as you're good-to-go, we can start ahead of schedule."

"Yes, sir," Feltain replied, saluting smartly and then turning to the squad. "Alpha, in position."

Stab, like the others, immediately schooled herself into professionalism, as if a switch had been thrown. The eight of them climbed into the Fallen Soul and took their seats, stowing their gear. The Fallen Soul's hatch sealed. The comparment was windowless, but instead lit by artifical light - which not strictly necessary, it always helped. The walls and roof also had virtual window screens, allowing them took see outside due to data from the sensors. (Unlike Stab's first trip in a Fallen Soul and through the Myst Gate, where everything had had to be turned off due to the massive EMP.)

"Alpha to Command, Alpha is ready for go," Feltain reported crisply.

"Acknowlegded, Alpha Squad,” General Flaywind’s voice came over the comms. “Gate activation sequence initiated.”

There was a brief pause, and the voice of the female Gate officer, Master Star-Sergeant Sable Onyx, sounded.

“Initialising Myst Gate now.” A warning alarm blared a single note. The columns around the room began to light up, the traceries glowing with blue, green, white and gold lights. The lights ran up into the room spine and finally down into the Myst Gate itself, and it came alive with a multitude of colours.

The featureless surface beneath the arch rippled like the surface of water when a stone was dropped into it. As the ripples continued, the grey surface faded, leaving Stab staring into the now-familiar vortex of red bands of swirling cloud. Some bands whirled clockwise, some anti-clockwise. Crackles of golden lighting jumped at random intervals between the clouds, though none across the eye of the vortex itself. The vortex always seemed bigger than the arch, as if the arch was just a window into it and the vortex extended into infinity.

The voice of the Gate officer continued. “Attempting to connect to Tanshin system.”

No Myst Gate number, Stab noted. That was unusual.

The lights and runes on the Myst Gate started to flicker and change colour in sequence. The vortex seemed to shudder a little and some of the bands of clouds slowed or speed up slightly.

After a few seconds, the lights stabilised. Nothing more happened for several long seconds but then the vortex changed.

The vortex appeared to shrink in length, the infinite disappearing point suddenly rushing closer, stopping what looked like maybe ten or twenty metres from the Myst Gate. An impenetrable curtain of falling red fine mist, a waterfall of crimson cloud, completely obscured the vortex beyond, though Stab could just about make out the sides of the vortex spiralling into it. Simultaneously, a glowing red mist formed at the same level as the bottom of the Myst Gate arch. The mist coalesced into a flat surface of what looked solid dim red light, forming a bridge between the arch and the curtain, anchored in empty space over the swirling vortex around it.

A few of the Myst Gate’s lights and runes changed slightly ocne more and then remained static.

“Connection established,” Gate officer Onyx’s voice confirmed.

There was a minute’s pause, as the command centre conducts the initial sensor scan. Very little could be determined via a scan through the Myst Gate – after all, if that was not true, there would be little need for either Stab's team or the Drones – only some basic information that could be ascertained like atmospheric composition, gravity and obvious background radiation (like the EM spike on MGL-034 on her first trip); not always consistently – but enough to know that the gate had not emerged in a black hole or the heart of a star.

Stab heard General Flaywind again. “Alpha, initial scans are inconclusive. Gravity within up to 2G variance range from standard, EM levels standard. Can't get a clear reading on the atmosphere, but nothing it triggering the hostile parameteres tags."

Stab nodded to herself quietly. Mot the best of results, but, in the end, that was why the drone went in FIRST. And, if she was honest, sometimes the surprise of just.., Stepping through to see what you found (even vicarously) was exciting all by itself. She flipped her tech scanner on and linked into the Fallen Soul's system so she could watch the telemetry herself. Beside her, she could see a couple of the others, including Feltain, doing the same on their standard scanners.

Flaywind continued. "Sentry Drone, go.”

The Sentry Drone wordlessly rose up from the cradle and its engine ignited. With a whoosh of motion, it jetted foward and disappeared into the curtain of mist.

Now, Stab though, the really big, exciting question was what they were going to find when the drone came out the other side...