Chapter four

The conduits and hubs are made from a self healing material that is all but indestructible to us. Even a GRB or overloading a warp core right next to it only slightly blackens their surface, with it changing back to golden in the blink of an eye. If these are ruins, then what would a fully functioning ancient facility look like? What could it do?

Selene stood on the deck of the flagship, frowning. The anomaly had turned out to be more troublesome than she had originally thought. At first, she had merely taken the anomaly to be another conduit or hub, but a whole anomalous planet was beyond her wildest imagination.

Her orders had been to attempt to capture the anomaly, or at least attempt to negotiate some benefits. The problem was, she couldn’t even get into the anomaly, much less capture it.

She brought up a connection with the other leaders on her screen. The leader of the Borond Herd looked bored, the leader of the Grent Empire looked as excited for conquest as ever, and the leader of the Sythren Conclave looked air headed.

“Why don’t we work together to explore this anomaly.” She proposed

“How will the rewards be split?” The leader of the Grent Empire was as hungry for loot as ever.

“Finders keepers?” The leader of the Sythren Conclave proposed. They all agreed.

“I propose we use capital ship weapons to gain access to the inside of this planet.” The Grent Empire proposed.

“That’s a bit extreme. What if we damage any important facilities or tech?” Selene retorted.

“None of our planet bound weaponry is so much as discolouring the surface. Capital ship weapons might be our only option.”

“Our bombers are ineffective. I agree with the Brent Empire.” The Sythren Conclave cut in. The Borond Herd grunted assent.

“Fine.” Selene had no choice but to give in.

As one, all their capital ships aimed their railguns at the planet below, unleashing showers of tungsten slugs downwards. All the leaders had their eyes glued to the planet, but the expected showers of debris did not occur.

“I…Is it just me or are our projectiles b-b-bouncing?” Selen stuttered out. Indeed, they were being treated to the sight of tungsten slugs bouncing off like rubber.

The Grent empire leader rubbed his eyes, then snarled. “I don’t believe that a mere planet can stop us! Fire the missiles!”

As short-lived blooms of nuclear fire and crackling EMPs erupted across the planet, all the leaders rubbed their eyes in disbelief as the planet emerged intact. Missing a surface layer of space dust, but otherwise completely intact.

“I-l-l think this might be a bit beyond our capabilities.” The Grent Empire stuttered.

Selene snorted. “A bit? More like a couple billion light years! I’m also very worried.”

“What about?” The Sythren Conclave asked.

“Think about it. So far, the only ancient structures we have found are half-broken conduits and hubs which are impervious to all known damage. Luckily, they have never attacked. What we are looking at is a brand new kind of facility. If it is even slightly active and starts to attack, even if it attacks with a single drone, we might not be able to stop it. And we just fired on it.”

The room fell into silence as everyone tried to think about the implications of what they had just done, and what might happen. Faces started to pale.

“We might have made a mistake. A big one.” Was the thought that ran through everyone’s minds.