The day went along new crew of the ship learned how to pilot the ancient vessel. Lilly started to become more joyful as she taught them the controls from what her and the excavation team learned. As she went over these, Jake saw 5 of the 7 consoles along the front of the bridge glow with a certain shape.

“Hey guys, ya might want to have a look at this.” Jake stated gaining everyone’s attention as the looked to the various panels.

The first one to the far right next to a beige screen was a compass. Lilly ha said this was like an automatic map. The front most one, the one with the periscope, was a magnifying glass. Next to that one on the left was the claws on a console of unknown use. The next two on the left held the, what Jake assumed, was a crystal ball, and the hammer and crystal on the very left most panel. The purpose of these was also unknown. Everyone turned around to see the centre most console glowing with the final symbol. Jake looked at it and like everyone said, he could see dozens of shapes in it just by slightly changing his view.

It was pretty clear that each symbol required one of the 6 people but that still left two consoles which Lilly didn’t know the purpose of.

“I guess everyone should go their console.” Glaze cautiously said as he walked to his assigned console. Upon reaching it, a chair sprouted from the ground for him to sit on. The same thing happened as each individual reached their station.

Jake upon reaching his, following Lilly’s instructions, started to move the ship around slightly in order to learn how to properly control it. “So, I vote we head down to the city.” He suggested. Everyone else agreed to take the ship down to the ruins.

The vessel flew for a couple minutes while the crew sat in silence. John was playing with his panel and learned he could zoom in and out and place landmarks. Lilly discovered at hers she could use a periscope along with controlling the security cameras. Jake tried to figure stuff out, but nothing happened within his testing. Glaze, Frey, and Wolf all had no luck in their experimenting and Wolf even got, what Jake assumed an error message.

A few more minutes of silent flying went on before Wolf asked Lilly something. “Does this ship have a name?” The sudden, seemingly random question brought everyone’s attention as they waited for an answer.

“From what we uncovered; it did have a name.” Lilly in an excited but empty tone before it went to a depressing tone. “Jesse actually found an extremely old document that we assume was the vehicles manifest. It was faded, missing parts but still readable to a surprising degree once we translated it. The name for the ship was the Valkyrie.”

“What was she carrying?” Wolf questioned.

“Well, it seems the ship was a converted transport ship carrying medical supplies, food and a few other things but the document couldn’t be read by that point. As for what she was converted to, I don’t know.”

Glazed spoke up next. “How is it flying?”

“I have no idea.”

Getting asked more and more questions about what she loved, Lilly started to feel better and continued answer till they arrived and landed the ship next to the ruins.

The six comrades left the bridge to see on the side of the deck, a set of stairs had appeared to let the off.

**********

The group wandered around the towering structures gazing in awe at them. Even someone who didn’t care for these fragments of the past would be impressed at the structures surrounding the six individuals. Lilly was having conflicting feelings as evident to her reactions. Jake noticed she wanted to go wild recording these towering ruins but as evident, she was also in destress. Everything likely was reminding her Jesse.

“How long do you think these have been standing?” Wolf asked in amazement at the sights all around him.

“They have to been her for millennia.” Glazed answered. “The weird thing is their condition.”

Everyone but Lilly looked at him in confusion.

“He’s right” Lilly stated. “Even the largest recorded ruins of the ancients are almost completely collapsed, and the detail lines are almost always are gone.”

Everyone else realised that that they were correct. Does that mean the ancient statue at home is an anomaly? Jake thought to himself. I wonder if it has something in common to this place. “So wha…”

Something crashed into the ground behind the group and as they turned around, on the ground was a hot cup of coffee shattered into hundreds of pieces. John immediately spread his wings and took off towards the top of the buildings with Jake soon after.

At the top of the of the building was a chair, a screen similar to those in the Valkyrie and a coffee maker.

They were not alone.

The two descended towards the group. “We need to get back to the ship.” John bluntly stated.

As John and Jake flew above the group standing guard, the others ran below them, ready to ambushed, while making their way back to the safety of the ship.

Once the others were back on the ship, Jake ran to the pilot seat and took off and sat a few hundred meters away from the city while above the empty expanses of the oddly cool temperature of the black desert.

John flew around the ship for several minutes making sure they were safe before retuning to deck. The group blocked the broken door to the bridge while the cameras scanned the black desert for any movement.

**********

“It seems I need to give them a different scenario in order to get them to attack rather than flee.” The figure said aloud from on top of the Valkyrie. She was impressed with how they reacted despite them doing the wrong thing. She could work with this.

Using the blind spots of the ships cameras and the fact they didn’t know how to use the detection system, she returned to her viewing spot and continued to watch the group from afar.

They weren’t ready for the Citadel. Not yet anyway.