The land speeder bumped along the streets, bullets and energy blasts whizzing by the foggy windows. The general drifted down the mud roads, the pilot of whatever ungodly craft came from above was the Collective’s main target now. I clutched onto the canvas duffle bag in fear, watching as my fate lay in the arms of another man. The citizens of New-Arakkis were butchered with glee by the robots and Collective soldiers paid no attention to their heed. When we reached the docking port at the shipyard sparky was firing repeatedly at a group of settlers who had tried to commandeer the ship. We unpacked the automobile and tossed the cargo onboard.

At first, the settlers tried to attack us; however the three of us were too fast. Ellis threw a pistol into my hand and I blasted one across the face, the stun shot knocked him backwards rendering him unconscious blood flowing from a few missing tarnished teeth. How easily they destroyed and slew their foes, was it right to merit a wound to a man with the same motives as us? I had no time to ponder the questions which haunt me at the moment I put these words to paper.

Dr. Shaw pulled out a custom disruptor and blasted one of the mercenaries square in the chest leaving them to gasp in pain and fall into a pile of oak barrels crushing them under itès weight. The rest of the bandits fired back a few times but were quickly suppressed by a few jolts from Shaw’s gun and forced to flee for cover when a collective transport zoomed overhead, its side leaking blood as its own allies pummeled it.

Sparky slammed his hand on the bay door control and the craft opened up. The three of us jumped into the ship's hull and it took off, speeding hastily into the unknown. Behind a mighty Equinox, the ship had landed and a small skirmish could be seen below.

Gunfire and laser fire danced among the streets in an ecstasy of horror. Sitting down to catch my breath I panted for a moment, aware my physical condition was not up to par with those around me. The ship had a familiar scent, the aroma of burning metal wafting through the air. The hum of the engines soon filled the entire hull. I felt the ground violently shake beneath my boots.

Dr. Shaw quickly ran into the control room and pulled a rectangular object out of her leather bag, she removed the first panel with a quick slash of a screwdriver and rewired the box inside, a flurry of movement I was able to barely identify even with the enhancement. Then she hit her hand down on a series of switches.

The craft shuttered and steamrolled out of the secondary exhaust ports as the entire vessel disappeared. Vanishing into the unknown the cloaking device hid the protagonists among the clouds, I, one of them peered outside of a small glass window and questioned the outside world wondering what lay next to me in this journey.

The general showed Shaw to her quarters and barked at Sparky to place a full speed course for the next town on our odyssey, the forward outpost or slum settlement of Ionius-Major. From that, we left the smouldering remains of the citizens of Arakkis and hoped the next people who dared harbour the ship of souls did not suffer the same fate.

Meanwhile, far away in a distant solar system, an asteroid streamed through empty space. A handful of Kestle and Aquir science vessels were hurdling to intercept. Their ships slowed to match their speed as a science team attempted to intercept and study the ancient rock.

Orbiting through space once every 20,000 years it was a prime opportunity for scientific advancement and these two species were collaborating on a diplomatic mission of historic significance as soon the asteroid would zoom past their control and enter collective space disappearing behind the lines of the border patrol which protected the power’s fleet of worlds. The Major in command ordered the two parties to engage, the piece of rock now appearing on the two space-craft view screens.

With a relaxed attitude, he turned to his Aquir counterpart, engaging in minute conversation. Their ceremonial dressing was elegant and refined, their blasters dormant and cool. The weapons on the ship covered the cobwebs of diplomacy and ignorance to the perils of outside lands. The Kestle robes were decorated with a layer of gold and silver, the cloth silky and refined. Military insignias showed proudly on their shoulders as empty medals sat on their breasts.

Medals that a collective soldier bathed in determination would have fought twice as hard and three times as dirty to earn. The Major tipped his pointed hat in acknowledgement, twiddling his thumbs along his belt.

“This collaboration will be good for our two societies,” he spoke.

“Yes, and with the right samples from this ancient rock, we can determine almost the exact time of the big bang, the moment of creation” the other replied

“It's good that you caught this, if only we had determined the exact location of the asteroid sooner, then we could have had more time” he spoke

The Aquir was wearing the same style of ceremonial robes but the outline was far more elegant, the colour a dark blue which shone through the bridge. The Aquir was different from the humanoid Kestle diplomat. Its eyes were larger and rounder, gills shown on its proud cheeks.

“I suppose the ambassadors will be joining us on Vala-4 for the after-party?” he questioned

“Yes. We bought a few kegs of Aquir ale, finest of its kind” the other replied

“Sounds good!” he exclaimed enthusiastically

“I will enjoy that very much, but now we must finish the mission before The Collective swine claim the rock to sit in the bowels of their archives.

“Sir we are reading an unusual amount of energy readings from the asteroid, it seems to be blocking any scanners. From these readings we have found the rock to be around 12.7 billion years old.” a crewman spoke quickly, nervous about communicating with his leader.

“Is the surface stable?” The Aquir commander asked.

“Yes your honour.. it seems to be solid and the area is safe, I can get no deep core readings, and from what the instruments say I would not rely on any information, it is extremely jumbled.” a soldier replied, his blue coat drooping as he leaned over the computer.

“We will have to do a manned mission, we can launch a spike once we have a beacon and emitter set up, this should tell us the needed information about the core.” the commander said.

“Alright, sounds good. Assemble a team and have them leave on the double, how do two of ours and two of your sound my friend?” the Aquir leader whispered.

“Good, let us hurry before we are impeded by the time” he replied.

After a few moments of a vain attempt trying to fix instrumental readings a brief team was created and ships hastily readied. Their faces were fresh with excitement and wonder at the thought of descention. Climbing into the hangar bay they suited up in crisp armour and gathered materials before embarking onto a series of skiffs.

The allied crafts ejected small space skiffs into the open void. The two sped up and carefully landed on the speeding object’s dusty surface. A crowd of varied species in the scientific vessels cheered with joy as the historic mission set down, a bottle of ale could be heard with a celebratory pop in the background. On the asteroid, the scientists only had an eighty-minute opening to collect as many samples of quiantium, aurite, palladium and other rare minerals before the asteroid hit Collective territory. The hurdling rock to soon enter the hostile territory and surely be tucked away forever in the folds of time. The pilots of the two skiffs converged as their doors slowly slid open.

Seen in gilded ceremonial blue spacesuits they carefully glided across the asteroid's surface. Their soft boots imprinted history into the swirly sand. The surface of the asteroid was vast and foreboding. Tiny chunks of rock littered its surface while boulders were strewn across the land. The first of four astronauts started pulling out various technological equipment and sample bags, tucking away as much dust and raw ore as possible. Two of the explorers went forward placing seismic spikes and ultrasound spikes on the ground before turning around to chip more palladium off of a nearby chunk of rock.

A few seconds later one pulled out a diruminate drill and carefully excavated a large splotch of ice. Meanwhile, the two Aquir scientists stepped back to enjoy the cosmic view, casting appreciative glances at the pure beauty they saw. One waved his hand signalling to the mothership for a spike to be injected.

The main ship then heated up for a moment to shoot out a large torpedo type splinter which embedded itself into the asteroid, yet this time in the awe of all who looked instead of drilling into straight rock the spike violently bent, bouncing right off the surface the drill bit tenaciously grinding into the rock for a split second before drifting back into the void of space. The crew and commanders stood bewildered. An ioliuminte drill was rendered useless by supposed weak dust.

“Pardon me?, was, I am going to assume that was a malfunction, fire again”

The Aquir commander would have none of this. She waved her hand and ordered the tactical team to reactivate the core. This time the spike ejected at full power, yet it had the same effect, rendered useless by some metal below. The only difference was a clear loud ring as if a giant moon-sized asteroid was simply a hollow tree, which had received a sturdy knock of anger.

The Kestle commander stood back, his eyes in shock, he barked orders to his 1st mate.

“What…. That's ioliuminte, that's… did we send the wrong ones?” he questioned

His second in command replied as fast as possible, examining the computers for any kind of error.

“No Sir, those were ioluminte…” she replied the same look of confusion rendering on her face.

The commander stood for a few seconds before taking out a plan of action. He turned to his Aquir ally.

“Iolumite. It's the strongest metal in the galaxy… the hardest metal, this doesn’t make sense…” he spoke quickly ordering another set of advanced testing on the rock. The Aquir commander then replied.

“Send another? Send the team to investigate?, we still have 25 minutes until it reaches Collective Space, tell them to analyze the ultrasound readings, I could have sworn I heard some sort of sound.”

The Aquir 1st mate relayed the message to the explorers below. Slowly the astronauts stopped taking samples and walked over the set of robots and drones they had left to explore the surface. Scanning a planted computer screen, they reeled back in horror, the Aquir gasped, the Kestle scientist nearly falling backward in fright.

All of them had puzzled gazes covering their once snide faces. On the ground the scientists scurried, panicking they analyzed the data, trying to make some sort of sense about what they saw. Onscreen was a labyrinth of rooms and tunnels, the ultrasound has revealed the very rock from which they stood was no rock, it was a vessel, a massive archaic vehicle adrift of the millennium. The Aquir commander knew they had to act fast, there was no time for any kind of delay.

“Crewman, scan the ship for any signs of life” she barked

A scruffled human hopped onto a computer and imputed a series of buttons as fast as possible, his fingers moving at an incomparable speed..

“No life signs, the ship is apparently fully mechanical Commander” he replied

The human Major stood bewildered. He ordered all members to stand by, and for the team on the surface to collect samples of the underlying.

“Obviously we need to call off the dig? Perhaps we found the wrong asteroid, it could be a remnant of a former war?” he screamed

“No… I have been waiting for this moment for 50 years, our calculations have been checked every single day for the past 25, this is the right asteroid, and what lies underneath is far more vital than what we had formerly imagined. From our sample analysis, in order to create a structure of this magnitude, you would need to almost completely destroy the rock and then use a new rock to envelop it or build it underground into the rock, the only way to determine if the structure is as old as its surroundings, and the only way to find out the truth behind this is to go inside.” she scowled.

“Alright, if you are sure that this is the right one, why don't we barter with the collective? See if we can get an extra hour for research purposes?” he asked.

“The asteroid will be streaming into the nebula between our space in a matter of minutes, even if we stay with it for the suggested time, our ship could suffer heavy damages and even loss of life in the uncharted. If we wanted more time we should have left for the three-month journey rather than wait for it at our door.” she snidely replied

The human commander stood back and stretched his hands behind his head in anguish.

“Fine, we will do an entry, and collect as much tech and samples as possible… there should be a slight risk of dormant disease so send in a cleaning drone beforehand,” he commanded

A new package of a mixture of weapons, tools, soldiers and drones was hastily shot at the asteroid's surface calmly floating towards the sands.

“How do you plan for them to enter? To find a door is valuable time we do not have” The Aquir spoke.

“Those drills may have been strong, but let's see how the metal holds to the mighty power of the UNOK Ominion” he replied

The Aquir commander looked at him, her eyes in slight shock.

Waving his hand, he directed the tactical team to open live fire, something which rarely occurred in this sector. Clearing the cobwebs from his military ranks he ordered his teams to do a precision cut straight into the structure and make a clean opening.

“Wait, you could risk the integrity of the entire rock!” she shrieked.

It was too late, the ship hummed with the sound of pulsating energy, and released its attacks upon the grainy surface. Luckily, the tactical team on board was inexperienced in the form of combat but highly skilled by years of education. The quick three-second series of blasts and cuts had lacerated a sizable hole to the point where a bronze-coloured metal was seen to be parted, tarnished and bent.

“You worry too much”

The crew below then seized the opportunity. Moving at lightning speed they threw a drone into the gaping hole and penetrated its icy halls for the first time in over 10 billion years. The small robot quickly submerged itself into the maze of the unknown, at first, the leaders of the two ships valiantly watched the live feed, and for a split second, they saw the uncanny inside. Bronze-coloured halls, filled with mysterious weapons and artifacts.

Altars and enthralling statues were lined up parallel. Ancient scripture filled the walls, providing a flow of text and pictures to blind the eye with amazement. The halls and rooms were dark, and abandoned, no sign of living creatures was seen, no crumpled bones, corpses or food. It almost seemed like a storage facility, the chronicle of an ancient race desperately piled and organized into one monolithic masterpiece.

All the hallways seemed to interconnect to one massive room. It was a layout similar to a large square, with rectangles splitting off on each side, populated by a brethren of smaller chambers. The main power of the facility was offline, only a few dim lights shining bravely through the darkness.

Having seen the basics of the layout of the structure, the Kestle and Aquir had a knowledge of what lay in store, a grand find of archeology, a holy grail of creation. The entire reason for many of the scientists' arrival to the field, they had discovered one of the first intelligent species to master the art of spacefaring.

The feed from the probe had gone blank from interference however when it returned to the surface, the readings showed no hazardous diseases, hostilities or danger to any adventures.

Sensing the urgency of the moment the Aquir commander transmitted to the troops below.

“We are losing desperate time, Commander Quex engages and go inside, attempt to download or capture any information that can possibly be found in the crafts database and collect as many artifacts as possible, I will send ten more of both our species people to accompany and help with the effort.”

With that motion two more of the ships disbanded from their parent craft and sank onto the asteroid, quickly dispersing a small army gathered as many readings from the surface as possible before a team of ten made the mortifying trek into the blasted region. The first to go in, a commander dressed in an elegant spacesuit, his grey hair parted back to reveal sky blue eyes as he ordered his troops to enter formation he put a hand on the hilt of a blue pistol which hung at his waist.