Thousand Worlds - Strange artifact - 06x1 Thousands World - Strange artifact – 06×1 Thousand Worlds

The St. Angel was traveling near System L 143-23 in search of a strange signal coming from the closest planet in the system. The approach promised to be quite an odyssey, the anti-radiation panels were already overloaded and she still had a long way to go until she could take cover on the opposite side of the planet. Meanwhile, the ship was bathed in a reddish light, advancing towards the signal.

Inside, alert alarms were sounding from all decks, and the small crew of seven who were dedicated to the salvage and trade of objects found by all systems ran from one place to another in constant stress to keep the life alive. ship and themselves.

The ship’s captain, Eriksen, a middle-aged man with dozens of jobs, ran desperately to the control deck where the pilot was sweating to set the ship on course, hit by the solar winds.

“Stay the course.” Eriksen said as he staggered with the turbulence.

Eriksen pulsed an intercom that connected to the engine room and life support where the ship’s engineer and the support lieutenant were.

“How’s everything down there?”

In the engine room, Cris ran from one side to the other trying to check all the constants of the engines.

“The engines are overloaded, we have to start the approach maneuver now to hide the ship from the star, now.”

While in the support room, the oxygen and water indicators were at the limit. While Dimirov tried to divert and optimize all resources from his checkpoint

“We are losing high atmospheric levels in the interior. If we continue like this, the water will have evaporated in less than 15 min. I recommend turning off all supports and putting on space suits.”

The captain maintained a firm gesture, but without a doubt he had to act, he gave the order for everyone to put on their space suits, and he placed himself at the controls so that the pilot could carry out the operation.

Once everyone put on their suits, the captain gave the signal. Dimirov turned off all life supports, and Cris turned off the FTL, which at the moment was a useless waste of energy, leaving only the advance and blow engines.

“At my countdown we will begin the approach maneuver, in 4 minutes we will be out of the range of L 143-23 and the planet will protect us from radiation and intense heat. Check the suits so that all the constants are correct, on this side we will go to the opposite side of the coin and the readings indicate almost absolute zero.

All the crew members anchored to their positions, while they waited for the countdown. A few minutes that became hours, until the captain started it.

In the cargo bay operators Lopez and Kely were sitting in the maneuvering chairs and checking the constants on the suits. While they watched all the equipment.

In the medical room, Mbeba had just put on the seat belt in the maneuvering chair, when the captain already started the countdown. This meant that the ship was going to make some abrupt maneuver, gravitational speed changes, or movements that were normally a significant load for the entire human body, so the chairs had a kind of stimulating juice so that in case of losing a little knowledge all could react immediately to changes.

“Three, two, one…”

The ship turned fully to the right shutting down the engines and releasing the port stabilizer jet drive. All the crew members were supporting a great gravitational load, so the player jumped automatically, injecting himself into the neck of the crew members.

The ship turned again to align itself with the planet and from an intense red light, which kept the ship incandescent, it changed to an icy cold that caused the metal to cool abruptly, producing a compression sound that chilled the captain’s blood.

“Okay guys”, said the captain, “everything is in order, we have a new course and the ship is stabilized, check all the parameters and telemetry, I don’t want any shocks on the way back. We have 30 minutes to the surface.”

The ship approached the planet, it was a calm descent since it had no atmosphere, there was no friction, just a gravity to counteract that they were already very used to. Not needing to deploy the dropship and place the St. Angel in orbit made the job much easier.

All the crew members descended in their suits, with the exception of the pilot who was always checking the consoles, telemetry, and watching the ship.

Lopez was carrying a position tracker that marked a valuable object about 50 clicks away from where the St. Angel was located, right in the vicinity of a large crater. The group made their way through the broken terrain that lava and the action of frozen water had carved over thousands of years. It was not easy to advance since from time to time they found large fractures that they had to go around.

Near the immediate vicinity of the artifact, Lopez detected a lot of movement. The captain quickly signaled slow progress and Kelly pulled out an impulse pistol and Dimirov too. They did not use weapons of any kind and much less in these conditions since weapons were not usually effective in places like these. Only guided missiles could successfully navigate to the set target. So the captain, instead of taking his weapon out, connected with the pilot.

“Wo, fix a couple of missiles on the location just in case, we have detected movement, we will proceed to approach cautiously.”

“Roger, I will also fix movements in orbit and activate radars on the surface.

They all approached slowly skirting a large crater that was in the vicinity of the artifact, giving an advantageous elevated position for observation.

Everyone was surprised, since they did not expect at any time to see what they saw. They certainly looked like machines, which belonged to the hives of artificial intelligence, there were two species of combat spiders, similar to the combat vehicles used by humans, but these had considerable modifications and intelligence of their own. There was also a series of operating machines that were manipulating what looked like sarcophagi, without a doubt it was the artifact and most surprising, there was a third kind of machine that did not seem like such, it seemed more cybernetic, more human. She walked from one side to the other controlling everything, she had legs and a mechanical arm and on her head she had a kind of helmet that covered her entire range of vision. He gave the sensation of a highly modified human rather than a machine.

“We have a big problem, guys.” The captain said to all the crew members gathered on the hill. “We don’t have firepower to kill the machines and I don’t want to give away the position of the ship, we have little room to maneuver even to flee the situation”

“What do we do?” Lopez said a little nervous.

“Any suggestions?”

They all looked at each other without providing any apparent solution, thoughtful while Kelly did not stop looking at the scene. She was trying to see some way out by increasing and decreasing all points from her helmet.

“I think we have two options, either let them take the artifact and get out alive or we set a trap and run with the artifact, it seems very valuable, otherwise the machines wouldn’t bother.

“I agree with that,” Mbeba said.

“What do you have in mind Kelly,” said the captain.

“I think I’ve located their ship, we could direct one missile right at it and another one right at the opposite crater wall, that would bury the machines and hopefully crush them, then we just have to clear the rubble and get that thing.”

They were all thoughtful, it wasn’t a bad plan but they all knew that the machines were a rival that nobody wanted to come across.

“Do we all agree?”

“I think we should stick with the first option.” Said Lopez, “the machines could quickly detect the missile and we don’t have firepower to repel its attack if something goes wrong.”

“I’m with Kelly, the bloody artifact could give us retirement, I’m sure,” Mbeba replied seriously.

“What do you think, captain?” Lopez anticipated.

“No doubt that artifact is valuable, but I’m not all in my head about having the wow factor.”

“I say we go for them, we put a couple of missiles”

“Guys”. Wo joined all this debate, “there is activity coming out of the FTL in space, I suggest that if we are going to act we act quickly, the only problem is that we will have to hide in this landscape after collecting that artifact”

“We could dismantle her beacon and throw it to the other side of the planet, creating a smoke screen,” Eriksen asked Kelly.

“No problem, but we must act now”

“Okay, let’s do them, Wo launches two missiles at each position marked by Kelly.

Kelly laser-marked the two positions he had been working in to hit the machines.

“Go ahead Wo” indicated the captain.

Four missiles came out of the darkness, from where the St. Angel remained hidden. Two hit what Kelly detected as a ship and the other two hit the side of the crater.

The first two disappeared from the range of vision of the crew members who were watching from the heights of the crater, impacting on their target and causing parts of rock and water to fall into the void of space.

The other two missiles precipitated a mass of debris on the excavation in which the machines tried to extract the device. They quickly looked and everything was flooded by suspended dust and a lot of debris that could escape into the void and many others that seemed to have hit their target.

A metallic sound began to be heard in the distance, near the position of the ship that Kelly had detected, suddenly some great steps began to be heard, as if the earth were shaking, and a great machine, a kind of gigantic cockroach appeared. on the horizon, it began to release missiles against the position of the St. Angel, without it being able to do anything to divert them.

The crew members witnessed a large explosion in the position in which the St. Angel was.

“Wo,” said the desperate captain. “Wo responds, tell me that those missies have not hit the ship. Woooo”.

The captain turned to the crew who were puzzled and helpless looking at him. They didn’t know what to do, the plan that seemed infallible turned out to be a deadly trap.

“We have to go down for the artifact, take the weapons from the machines and finish off the goliath” Kelly said despairingly.

“We will issue an SOS, when they leave.

Kelly shook her head and ran down the crater, where he ran into a cloud where gunshots rang out. And from which he did not come out again.

Dimirov tried to follow Kelly, and Eriksen grabbed his arm, leading him on. Suddenly they saw how the goliath took control of the opposite summit of the crater and a light began to come out of its belly and some arms that extracted the sarcophagus. Everyone looked perplexed as on top of the sarcophagus was the cybernetic machine that seemed to direct the operations.

The machine began to undertake a slow flight, and then went to pick up its legs. Little by little it was rising, getting smaller in the black sky.

There, stunned, each crew member desperately looked at their constants and the moment in which they would be out of range to be able to send the SOS. Until Dimirov, nervous, activated the beacon on his suit. They all looked at him.

“What have you done” said Mbeba, “You are going to condemn us all.”

The captain looked up, stood up and advanced a few meters from the position. While a bright light advanced towards them, a celestial light that seemed to come for them, a light that seemed to descend slowly and that exploded a few meters from them, causing the place to break into a thousand pieces.

The St. Angel was traveling near System L 143-23 in search of a strange signal coming from the closest planet in the system. The approach promised to be quite an odyssey, the anti-radiation panels were already overloaded and she still had a long way to go until she could take cover on the opposite side of the planet. Meanwhile, the ship was bathed in a reddish light, advancing towards the signal.

Inside, alert alarms were sounding from all decks, and the small crew of seven who were dedicated to the salvage and trade of objects found by all systems ran from one place to another in constant stress to keep the life alive. ship and themselves.

The ship’s captain, Eriksen, a middle-aged man with dozens of jobs, ran desperately to the control deck where the pilot was sweating to set the ship on course, hit by the solar winds.

“Stay the course.” Eriksen said as he staggered with the turbulence.

Eriksen pulsed an intercom that connected to the engine room and life support where the ship’s engineer and the support lieutenant were.

“How’s everything down there?”

In the engine room, Cris ran from one side to the other trying to check all the constants of the engines.

“The engines are overloaded, we have to start the approach maneuver now to hide the ship from the star, now.”

While in the support room, the oxygen and water indicators were at the limit. While Dimirov tried to divert and optimize all resources from his checkpoint

“We are losing high atmospheric levels in the interior. If we continue like this, the water will have evaporated in less than 15 min. I recommend turning off all supports and putting on space suits.”

The captain maintained a firm gesture, but without a doubt he had to act, he gave the order for everyone to put on their space suits, and he placed himself at the controls so that the pilot could carry out the operation.

Once everyone put on their suits, the captain gave the signal. Dimirov turned off all life supports, and Cris turned off the FTL, which at the moment was a useless waste of energy, leaving only the advance and blow engines.

“At my countdown we will begin the approach maneuver, in 4 minutes we will be out of the range of L 143-23 and the planet will protect us from radiation and intense heat. Check the suits so that all the constants are correct, on this side we will go to the opposite side of the coin and the readings indicate almost absolute zero.

All the crew members anchored to their positions, while they waited for the countdown. A few minutes that became hours, until the captain started it.

In the cargo bay operators Lopez and Kely were sitting in the maneuvering chairs and checking the constants on the suits. While they watched all the equipment.

In the medical room, Mbeba had just put on the seat belt in the maneuvering chair, when the captain already started the countdown. This meant that the ship was going to make some abrupt maneuver, gravitational speed changes, or movements that were normally a significant load for the entire human body, so the chairs had a kind of stimulating juice so that in case of losing a little knowledge all could react immediately to changes.

“Three, two, one…”

The ship turned fully to the right shutting down the engines and releasing the port stabilizer jet drive. All the crew members were supporting a great gravitational load, so the player jumped automatically, injecting himself into the neck of the crew members.

The ship turned again to align itself with the planet and from an intense red light, which kept the ship incandescent, it changed to an icy cold that caused the metal to cool abruptly, producing a compression sound that chilled the captain’s blood.

“Okay guys”, said the captain, “everything is in order, we have a new course and the ship is stabilized, check all the parameters and telemetry, I don’t want any shocks on the way back. We have 30 minutes to the surface.”

The ship approached the planet, it was a calm descent since it had no atmosphere, there was no friction, just a gravity to counteract that they were already very used to. Not needing to deploy the dropship and place the St. Angel in orbit made the job much easier.

All the crew members descended in their suits, with the exception of the pilot who was always checking the consoles, telemetry, and watching the ship.

Lopez was carrying a position tracker that marked a valuable object about 50 clicks away from where the St. Angel was located, right in the vicinity of a large crater. The group made their way through the broken terrain that lava and the action of frozen water had carved over thousands of years. It was not easy to advance since from time to time they found large fractures that they had to go around.

Near the immediate vicinity of the artifact, Lopez detected a lot of movement. The captain quickly signaled slow progress and Kelly pulled out an impulse pistol and Dimirov too. They did not use weapons of any kind and much less in these conditions since weapons were not usually effective in places like these. Only guided missiles could successfully navigate to the set target. So the captain, instead of taking his weapon out, connected with the pilot.

“Wo, fix a couple of missiles on the location just in case, we have detected movement, we will proceed to approach cautiously.”

“Roger, I will also fix movements in orbit and activate radars on the surface.

They all approached slowly skirting a large crater that was in the vicinity of the artifact, giving an advantageous elevated position for observation.

Everyone was surprised, since they did not expect at any time to see what they saw. They certainly looked like machines, which belonged to the hives of artificial intelligence, there were two species of combat spiders, similar to the combat vehicles used by humans, but these had considerable modifications and intelligence of their own. There was also a series of operating machines that were manipulating what looked like sarcophagi, without a doubt it was the artifact and most surprising, there was a third kind of machine that did not seem like such, it seemed more cybernetic, more human. She walked from one side to the other controlling everything, she had legs and a mechanical arm and on her head she had a kind of helmet that covered her entire range of vision. He gave the sensation of a highly modified human rather than a machine.

“We have a big problem, guys.” The captain said to all the crew members gathered on the hill. “We don’t have firepower to kill the machines and I don’t want to give away the position of the ship, we have little room to maneuver even to flee the situation”

“What do we do?” Lopez said a little nervous.

“Any suggestions?”

They all looked at each other without providing any apparent solution, thoughtful while Kelly did not stop looking at the scene. She was trying to see some way out by increasing and decreasing all points from her helmet.

“I think we have two options, either let them take the artifact and get out alive or we set a trap and run with the artifact, it seems very valuable, otherwise the machines wouldn’t bother.

“I agree with that,” Mbeba said.

“What do you have in mind Kelly,” said the captain.

“I think I’ve located their ship, we could direct one missile right at it and another one right at the opposite crater wall, that would bury the machines and hopefully crush them, then we just have to clear the rubble and get that thing.”

They were all thoughtful, it wasn’t a bad plan but they all knew that the machines were a rival that nobody wanted to come across.

“Do we all agree?”

“I think we should stick with the first option.” Said Lopez, “the machines could quickly detect the missile and we don’t have firepower to repel its attack if something goes wrong.”

“I’m with Kelly, the bloody artifact could give us retirement, I’m sure,” Mbeba replied seriously.

“What do you think, captain?” Lopez anticipated.

“No doubt that artifact is valuable, but I’m not all in my head about having the wow factor.”

“I say we go for them, we put a couple of missiles”

“Guys”. Wo joined all this debate, “there is activity coming out of the FTL in space, I suggest that if we are going to act we act quickly, the only problem is that we will have to hide in this landscape after collecting that artifact”

“We could dismantle her beacon and throw it to the other side of the planet, creating a smoke screen,” Eriksen asked Kelly.

“No problem, but we must act now”

“Okay, let’s do them, Wo launches two missiles at each position marked by Kelly.

Kelly laser-marked the two positions he had been working in to hit the machines.

“Go ahead Wo” indicated the captain.

Four missiles came out of the darkness, from where the St. Angel remained hidden. Two hit what Kelly detected as a ship and the other two hit the side of the crater.

The first two disappeared from the range of vision of the crew members who were watching from the heights of the crater, impacting on their target and causing parts of rock and water to fall into the void of space.

The other two missiles precipitated a mass of debris on the excavation in which the machines tried to extract the device. They quickly looked and everything was flooded by suspended dust and a lot of debris that could escape into the void and many others that seemed to have hit their target.

A metallic sound began to be heard in the distance, near the position of the ship that Kelly had detected, suddenly some great steps began to be heard, as if the earth were shaking, and a great machine, a kind of gigantic cockroach appeared. on the horizon, it began to release missiles against the position of the St. Angel, without it being able to do anything to divert them.

The crew members witnessed a large explosion in the position in which the St. Angel was.

“Wo,” said the desperate captain. “Wo responds, tell me that those missies have not hit the ship. Woooo”.

The captain turned to the crew who were puzzled and helpless looking at him. They didn’t know what to do, the plan that seemed infallible turned out to be a deadly trap.

“We have to go down for the artifact, take the weapons from the machines and finish off the goliath” Kelly said despairingly.

“We will issue an SOS, when they leave.

Kelly shook her head and ran down the crater, where he ran into a cloud where gunshots rang out. And from which he did not come out again.

Dimirov tried to follow Kelly, and Eriksen grabbed his arm, leading him on. Suddenly they saw how the goliath took control of the opposite summit of the crater and a light began to come out of its belly and some arms that extracted the sarcophagus. Everyone looked perplexed as on top of the sarcophagus was the cybernetic machine that seemed to direct the operations.

The machine began to undertake a slow flight, and then went to pick up its legs. Little by little it was rising, getting smaller in the black sky.

There, stunned, each crew member desperately looked at their constants and the moment in which they would be out of range to be able to send the SOS. Until Dimirov, nervous, activated the beacon on his suit. They all looked at him.

“What have you done” said Mbeba, “You are going to condemn us all.”

The captain looked up, stood up and advanced a few meters from the position. While a bright light advanced towards them, a celestial light that seemed to come for them, a light that seemed to descend slowly and that exploded a few meters from them, causing the place to break into a thousand pieces.