Walking through the double airlocks, dressed in my UGF uniform, personal bag in hand, onto the dropship. Constructed similar to all UGF spacecraft, clean and utilitarian. Looking around the dropship, on my right was the bridge and left was a galley. Weapon lockers and EVA suits lined the wall across from the main airlock. A tall, lean man, with salt and pepper hair, walked up to me. "Welcome on-board, I'm Lieutenant William Sheppard and I'll be your pilot for this excursion, accompanying me is my co-pilot Ensign Jin who is getting us ready for departure. I believe you're early and no one else from your team has arrived yet." Lieutenant Sheppard said. Offering my hand, "Hi, I'm Leo Connors, no rank" I say to him. Shaking my hand, "Good to meet you, I've seen you pass by in the mess before. You're a contracted specialist if I remember right." He inquires. Nodding, "Correct, I'm a coder." Pouring himself a mug of coffee, and gesturing towards another cup. Shaking my head in the negative, he continues "Have you been this far away from Gaian before?" He asks. "No, never, furthest I have been was to the ring before, never off," I explain. Gesturing with his other hand, he points to a set of stairs leading below deck. "The dropship is pretty small, the crew is just me the pilot and a second who does navigation, radar, weapons, and also doubles as communications. This deck houses the bridge and crew quarters. This is our small galley," Waving his mug around. "but I ask that you try not to over crowd it, or leave it messy... Jin is a little bit of a germophobe and doesn't like seeing people messing up the kitchen. Anyways, down that stairway is the belly of the ship. On that deck, too the right is the hanger and cargo-hold. straight ahead from the stairs is our med-bay just in case you get a boo-boo, and to the left is the block of bunks for passengers. They're all empty so just pick one. In the center of the block is a shared bathroom with sonics( sonic showers). If there isn't anything else, I'm going to check up on Jin." with that Sheppard turn around and headed the way he came. Heading down the stairs, checking the galley along the way. Small, but could comfortably set 6 at its table. Going down the stairs. a sealed door to my right, the words "Hanger" written in plain white font across it. Turning to my left, heading to the bunks. From bulkhead to bulkhead sat multiple blocks of bunks. Walking into the very first, the door automatically opens, revealing what I was expecting a small room. Housing a desk, and 4 bunk beds on each wall. Taking the first bunk and putting my bag on it. The door behind me sliding open, revealing Marko's frame in the door, carrying his duffel and rifle. "Sup, Leo." He says. "Not much, you wanna take the opposite bunk?" I ask. "Sure, why not?" He says with a laugh. "I normally grab this bunk anyway, everyone usually takes a cabin for themselves, but I'm down to share one if you are." He says. "Sure, if you don't mind," I say. "Good, let's head upstairs. I like to watch our departure." Marko says. "Sure," I say, "I haven't seen the whole ship outside of simulations before," I say. Dropping his gear on his bunk, we both head up the stairs, passing Hale and Burns on the way. Marko and I sit and wait. Lieutenant Sheppard already at the helm, seated at a console with projections showing the exterior. Behind him, Sitting at another console, who I'm guessing is Ensign Jin the only other crew member. "Marko, why isn't anyone else going to the moons with us?" I ask. "Well that is kinda complicated, Shepard here is the only one who can navigate through that mess." He says, pointing towards the garden of moons. "What do you mean, don't we just plot our course, and the ship's autopilot will just take us through it, right?" I question. "Sheppard does it all freehand, no navigation even works near the garden, let alone inside." He says. Looking at Marko wide-eyed, "Freehand, as in manual," I ask, blurting out. The sound of Shepard clearing his throat breaks my attention from Marko, "I have done this over a dozen times now, and nothing has happened, kid. I'm not sure why I'm the only one who can safely do it, most of it's just by feeling. and a little bit of aid from close range radar, besides if you saw what the last guy who tried did, you be praising me for my crazy good piloting skills, kid." Sheppard says without even turning to face me. "It's true, I have been on them all, even that other dropship when Sheppard here was out sick." Came from ensign Jin, sitting behind his console. Sheppard started talking into his comms, "Dropship two, departing as scheduled." "Dropship two, you're clear for departure, safe flying out there lieutenant." The communication officer of the Njord responded over the dropship's comms. The Njord and all battle cruisers have two dropships attached under the ship belly. Sheppard's voice comes over the dropships comms, "Prepare for zero gravity" he says. Marko buckles his seat belt. I follow suit and do the same. "Disengaging from the Njord, we'll be leaving the Njord's gravity field in 3...2...1..." He says. Like a ripple, weightlessness passes thorough the ship. Always an odd feeling to experience, going from normal gravity to weightlessness and back. Most get acclimated by going up to the halo. Getting a few seconds of it on the elevators ride heading up, and down to the halo and back. "We are separated from the Njord, we will arrive at the outer perimeter of the gardens in a matter of hours. Enjoy the ride boys and girls. Our gravity will kick in shortly, hold on." The gravity slowly building up until it felt normal, taking around 10 seconds. "Gravity waves from the generator are fully encompassing the ship, you can move freely around now," Sheppard announced to everyone. The trip was pretty uneventful, we stopped right outside the garden. We all ate dinner and watched the lightning arcing in the distance. Each arc sparking randomly from sparkling debris, jumping from debris to the moons themselves, disappearing out of the dropships view. The violet-purple arcs of electricity seemed both beautiful and deadly at the same time. "The sparks seem awfully more energetic this time around." Hale states. Jin nods, "They do seem a little more agitated," Jin agreeing with Hale. "Always looks erratic, and mean to me," Marko says. "Let's just hope when we head in, the tides will be calm and easy for the trip," Sheppard says, sipping on a cup of coffee. "Agreed," Val says. Finishing up my meal, getting up to leave. "If you excuse me, I'm going to turn in early. We still leaving bright, and early?" I ask. "Yeah, we'll head to the base at 0700, after I had my morning coffee, of course, don't be late, or you'll miss my flying," Sheppard says raising his steaming cup towards me. "I won't," waving at everyone else. I head to my bunk. Zero, grab me a book that sounds interesting from the cube. I ask. "I have just the one. It's about a girl who goes into virtual reality to work off.." cutting him off. "Sounds good," laying down and I start reading, "The shattered sword." Falling asleep some hours later. Feeling renewed and refreshed. Just a minute before my alarm would have woken me. Marko came in late and must have left early. Grabbing a change of close, I head to the showers before I head to the bridge. Unknown vessel was hidden within the outskirts of the garden of moons Within a pitch-black room, a man is sitting cross-legged, appears to be meditating, but in truth, he is praying to his worlds god. The door behind him slides open, allowing light from the hall to flood into the small space. "Yes?" The man says, staying in his same posture, eyes still closed. Hands resting on his knees. "Sorry, too bother you Sir, but we just detected the Gaian vessel entering the anomaly, your orders, sir?" "So, those Uzal pirates weren't lying to us, good. Keep an eye on them, and their main vessel. We will move when they return from the anomaly and dock with their main vessel, now leave me." He said, with little emotion in his voice. The door to the room closes, enveloping the praying man into blackness once again. Opening his eyes. "Father, guide me and our people to greater heights." with that said, a partial sphere against the wall lit up with circuits flowing within it, pulsing with an eerie green glow. Sitting within the bridge, Watching dozens of moons that could be about half the size of Gaian being projected on the large display in the galley. Seeing hundreds if not thousands more orbiting this planet beyond. Passing by a red giant moon and being pulled into its gravity. This one moon had a dozen smaller fast swirling moons around it. Ahead seeing a small moon crash into a stagnate meteorite explode and send out dust in its wake. The debris slamming against the side of our ship, shaking it, most of the damage being superficial. So far, about 30 minutes into our flight we had one small breach and started losing oxygen from it. Val sent Burns to patch the hole quickly. Val was sitting right next to me, her eyes closed and just enjoying the ride with a smile on her face. Feeling my bone grind into the seat from multiple changes to gravity, Most from coming too close to giant moons passing near us. Our gravity generator trying to keep the balance at 2G but not able to correct for the gravity of the moons fast enough. It automatically making micro-adjustments going in and out of zero gravity to hard gravity by planet-sized moons, working overtime so we don't turn into pancakes from the continued inertia of the speeding ship. Beads of sweat already forming on the brow of Sheppard's forehead as was on Jins. Both, already looking exhausted. Sheppard's voice comes over the comms "We are halfway to our destination kids, little air loss, nothing to bad for the first half, should be safe.....oh fra" The ship dives left hard, two small moons collide right in our path, each one exploding, losing a large chunk of their mass, both changing course and head into different trajectories, acting link giant ping pong balls. The aftermath was still hanging trapped between gravity. Some of it flies our way, while the rest looks like a plume of dust on the horizon. "Prepare for impact, some of that debris... is the size of Texas.." Sheppard's voice trails off. Being pulled back again and again in my seat. Emergency thrusters launching us under the massive projectiles. Jin already having powered-up weapons. using them on the smaller fragments in our path. Finally coming clear of the near-death experience, feeling my heart pumping a million miles a minute. "We're clear of immediate danger" Jin said, seeing the tension melt away as he leans back into his seat, wiping the sweat from his forehead with the cuff of his uniform. After the collision of the moons, the trip was similar to the first hour, still completely terrifying. Having gained 3 more small haul breaches, loosing one complete side of maneuvering thrusters and one of our main ion drives was the worst of it. Sealing off most of the bad breaches and patching the smaller ones, before we finally had our destination within sight. In the center of the monitor sat a large green moon, it was our heading. It had 5 smaller moons orbiting it. Our destination sat in stable orbit, slowly orbiting within a calm ring around the body of the main planet. All of the other larger moons further off didn't come close, probably due to the close proximity to the main planet which was simply named Sorilia. The moon having around 4g's of gravity, about half of Gaians, It was slowly being terraformed by our people, it looks like a mixture of gray and black rock covered in vibrant green moss, it was covering almost every inch of the moon. Our dropship coming into the thin atmosphere, moisture sticking to the outside cameras as we began landing. "This is dropship 2, from UGF-Njord, requesting clearance for landing," Sheppard says. "Transmitting our codes for verification, Moon outpost" "Roger, sitting down on landing pad 3.," Sheppard says into his comms. The ship slowly shifting into a slow downward spiral until we landed with a thump. "Okay, boys and girl, get your suits on, the moon doesn't have enough oxygen to breathe, won't be ready for another few years for that, I think," Sheppard said to us, after getting out of his seat and stretching. Heading to my room with Marko following, we both suit up in our military issue EVA and grabbing our other gear. Marko had his rifle slung over his shoulder. Catching my eye looking at it "Better to be safe, than sorry, something my pops used to say at least." He said. Feeling a little naked in comparison to Marko, carrying only my gear pouch, and helmet. Burns and Val already waiting at the airlock door, Sheppard and Jin waiting in the galley ready to go. "Where is Hale?" Val says, looking between us, both of us shrug our shoulders. "Someone, go find him," she says. Marko heads towards the staircase, leans over the rail, and bellows, "HALE GET YOUR ASS UP HERE ON THE PRONTO." "Bah, say it don't spray it, bud, jeez," Hale says coming up the stairs, wiping spite from his face. Val looks around, "Good, helmets on, let's go, Leo, you're with me, the rest of you, you know your jobs, and Hale if I catch you playing cards again with the other company, I'll make you run back to the Njord, got me?" She says. "Yes, Ma'am, Won't happen again, Sarge." Hale stands at full attention. Marko walks over to me and hands me a familiar looking rifle. Taking it, looking it over, it's an exact replica of the one I designed in my first practice with Burns and Hale. "It's for the mission, better to be safe than sorry. Here's a couple of clips." He says tucking them into my ammo pouch. Connecting my single point sling to my suit. I smile and thank him. He just nodded in return. Making sure everyone has their helmets on and ready, "let's move, I don't want to be here any longer than needed." Hitting the pad, the airlock opens up, revealing... not much it, just looks like most other military outposts, that I had seen in pictures, or inside CO(Caliber one). Just tall walls, simple building, and people in EVA suits walking here and there, most with weapons in hand. Towers of different heights surround the walls. A taller glass one sat in the center of the fort, I'm assuming would be radio or command building. Val leads me off towards the middle of the base, towards the largest and obviously the oldest from the ware on the outside of the building. Looking around for the alien wreckage or ruins, but I don't see anything out of the ordinary. We quickly enter another airlock, and come out the other side into a moderately open building, within holding modular rooms of different sizes, inside most of them looked like labs, with storage in the corners. In front of us, was another airlock, it looked more heavy-duty, completely surrounded by bulkheads plunging into the earth, in all honesty, it looked more like a vault than another building. Signs on the door and around the door say things like "Under armed watch, surveillance, danger radiation," to name a few, looking around, not noticing any guards. "The guards are inside," she says, "They know we are inbound already, it's pretty relaxed here nowadays." Walking up to the armored door, Val places her hand on a scanner embedded into the door's frame, entering a password, then finally pulling out a long key, inserting it into a hidden slot within the door itself. Twisting it, an audible clinking is heard. This whole process taking seconds before the door swings open revealing a white airlock and another heavy security door. "Move inside, the door will reseal in half a minute," Val says, moving into the airlock, the door leading in was solid steel, at least 5 inches thick, the walls around the door as well. The next airlock door opening into a setup steps leading deeper into the facility. Something at the end of the stairs moved, standing no more than 2 meters away, was a massive combat-golem, an AI-controlled drone. This one was about 2 meters tall and was on four squat legs, it had no hands but instead, multi-barreled guns hanging under armored plates that made up its upper half. A single mono eye of red scanning over me. It moved with surprising speed, coming within feet of us, raising its weapons, seeing a set of twin rotary barrels on each arm begin to spin up... "Halt, and scan," Val commands the golem. The golem doesn't lower its weapon but takes a step closer. "Specialist Connors, Leo, granted acceptable clearance, proceed," its flat monotone voice says through speakers built into it. "I've never seen a combat golem before, they're a bit intimidating.." I say. "Yeah, that is an advanced model, just came out, little more bulky, but packs enough firepower in tight spaces to be very lethal," Val says. "Military-grade AI?" I probe further. "Yeah, he's a veteran, or an AI that's from a retired controller," Val says. We chat and walk. I'm watching my surroundings, noticing the floor was sheets of steel over poured concrete, but now, it's turned into a smooth solid tiled floor, pure white, reminding me of the Halo on Gaian. The walls and doors all white, probably the same material it covered every surface from floor to ceiling. The ceiling and walls gave off a soft hum and light glow, illuminating the halls for us. Noticing the floor had a texture rise just as you walked on, ensuring you wouldn't slip. "Noticed that we don't know how it works, but this is all new to us as well. This is the most well preserved Valik structure we have ever come across, besides the Halo, of course. Since you've already signed your non-disclosure," Val, turns, looks at me in the eyes with a serious expression. "Do not ever break the gag order, that agreement you signed is for life, this is military secrets, hell this is beyond just military, it's humanities secrets, not even our allies the Uzal know of its existence. Only, maybe a dozen people even know this place exists. The only reason you're even here is cause there was no one else available in the UGF, no one else was close enough to leave immediately when we returned this last time. Supposedly, our window for this data is limited." She says, "now, promise me, you won't tell a single soul what you're about to see here ever". She pleads at me. Looking at her, knowing that even if I do say anything, I would just end up in military prison. "Val, I promise," all I can say. She nods, and we continue. The corridors seem to go on for miles, each branching off left or right. Most of the doors appear sealed, but ever once in a while, a door was open, bearing only a white room, some with equipment turned off, or empty tables. Noticing a few doors had black scorch marks on their surface like someone tried to use a plasma cutter to get through. "The structure is made of the same unknown composite that the halo is, making it pretty much indestructible," Val says, placing her hand along the wall. "This one can even self-repair, we found only that plasma torches could normally cut any of the Valik metal on Gaian, Only on the thin size pieces. This, even with multiple torches can barely go through a few inches before the cut is sealed, Val explained. Thinking that this is similar to a prison, so far only seeing a handful of doors out of hundreds open, only leading to empty rooms. "This reminds me of a prison," I say out loud. "It does, those were exactly my thoughts when I first got assigned here. Clarice thought it was some sort of research and development facility. Since you're under a gag order, the same one I am, I'll let you know that each room we passed had different technology inside of it. Ranging from small machines, to prototypes of the arbiters, and so much more. We just boxed it up and brought it back to Gaian for study." Val finished. "She is right, this is similar to a research and development facility by how the layout is designed, it could be a prison as well." Zero chimed in. "How, what do you mean?" I asked Zero. "The layout, it's a hexagon, the outer corridors are 5 miles long, with multiple inner hexagons, each connected with thousands of rooms and only one entrance and exit." "How do you know the layout?" I ask. "Simple, I calculated it off the echo and by reading the vibrations of your footsteps while we've been traveling. I can pull up a map on your HUD if you would like to see." "Do it," I say, the map appearing in the corner of my HUD, seeing we're almost to the center of the map. The map showing all of the opened doors, and shut doors. I would say more than 90% are closed, only 12 rooms appear open. Rounding the corner, there was something I haven't seen before, a door that was open, but not just open, it looked like the door was pried open from the inside, tore into jagged pieces. "Frack me," I say. "Right, we aren't sure what did this, the room was already empty when we arrived on the moon, the front of the facility was open to the vacuum of space. When we first tried torching one of the interior doors, the broken exterior door was removed by the structure to repair the damage we caused." Val said. Walking past the sheared door, inside had multiple dents on the floor right in front of the door. Stopping and examine closer. "Do those, do those look like feet indents too you?" I ask, Val. "Actually, I never really thought of it like that, but yeah, looks like they braced their feet to slam against the door," Val says. Val steps up to the door next to the damaged one. Inside was something I didn't think I would ever see in real life. An Arbiter, but he was laying against a broken console. Both of its hands had a mass of black cords connecting to the console. The Arbiter, it looked just as it was described in the textbooks. About 6 feet tall, black synthetic muscle, with red and white armor plates covering most of its body, the head which was drastically different from humans, housing elongated white ridges into a singular eye in the center of its face, at the crown of it's what I would call forehead was a red opaque orb set back within the crown of ridges. "Is that, what I think it is?" I ask. "An Arbiter, yes, This is why we are so secret," Val says. "You do know, that if the Arbiters knew we have an Arbiter body in our possession, they would probably turn hostile towards us, it's a taboo," I say. "Right, they freely came with aid for our race, helped us get on our feet after the Gaian arrived, and their accord only asks for a handful of promises, which includes turning over sentient AI, the research into, discovery of, or possession of nanotechnology, which is considered a high crime, for not only the individual but the entire species." Val starts, "Than we also cannot attack any Arbiters or their structures, and of course, returning any lost Arbiter technology or remains upon discovery, as well as another handful of minor things like the limit of military classified ships per race, yadda, yadda." she says. "Then why hasn't the Gaian council returned the Arbiter to its people, already?" I ask. "Because he is still connected to the mainframe of this facility, we still think it's still alive, just no longer connected to the hive of its people," She pointed to the tubes coming out of its hands. "So, we use it to connect to the mainframe and pull data?" I ask. "Yep dubbed the data mind, it's what Clarice coined it anyway. We have to brain hack it to get to the juicy bits inside. Hannibal and Clarice already grabbed multiple data nodes. This last time she stumbled upon one, she glimpsed and thought it held a way to use light travel, similar to the FTL the Arbiters use aboard their ships. Now, Hannibal, it will be able to navigate you to right back to that node. Clarice described getting the data was more art than coding." Val explained. "Okay, Zero and I got this," I say. Getting ready to link to the terminal, the Arbiter already connected, using some type of head harness to interface with, it looked like an old school VR helmet that has been modified. Linking empty data cubes together with the linked terminal. Getting comfortable in a nearby chair, which I'm guessing was just for this purpose. Syncing my own tablet to the terminal, feeling the connection through my implant, like a newly discovered app. Looking at Val, "I'll be back" I say, then engage the dive program.