《The Celestial Venture》Chapter 10 - Lantern III - Divide

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As they entered the ruined structure for shelter, Kree stopped and just glanced at a few skeletons. They were huddled together, embracing each other as the biggest one tried to protect the other, smaller two. Biting her lip, she continued deeper in, until the two of them found a still roofed room with a door they could close, providing them with proper shelter.

Jarvell moved to lean against one of the room's walls, while Kree looked around. It appeared to be an office of some sort, also had some kind of a computer. While she doubted it would still work, she still tried turning it on. No reaction. Opening it, Kree started to take it apart, and putting the computer's hard drives in her bag.

"What are you expecting to find there?" Jarvell asked after noticing what she was doing.

"Anything. About these people, how they came to their end, and if possible, perhaps about anything celestial."

"If that's the case," Jarvell moved away from the wall and towards the office window "Just any random computer probably won't provide you with what you want. But there were normally hub rooms, where information was stored. More secure and means the information doesn't need to always be on the move and overload the networks."

Glancing at Jarvell, Kree raised an eyebrow.

"I was always more of a tech guy myself. Even as a slave, they had me working in an office. Just a lotta overtime, no pay aside from food."

"Sounds harsh."

"You get used to it," Jarvell said "But at the end of the day, it was still about survival. You didn't do enough work, you'd either be ejected into space without any breathers, or dumped into one of our seas. And a radiated sea is basically one giant cesspool. Nothing can survive in it, or even move it in."

Kree shivered at the descriptions, before standing up "Then were do you reckon the hub would be?"

"Underground. There would be ventilation to the place, but if we can find a path to an underground spot that isn't the sewers, it might be it."

Nodding, Kree glanced out the door. The radiated rain was pouring hard, and there was a lot of wind too, which quickly forced her to close the door.

"I think we're stuck here for now. You said that the rain would also get past your skin too, right?"

Jarvell nodded.

"Then we can only wait for now." Kree said, before sitting on the table.

The radiated storm didn't take much longer to pass, and the sounds of rain and winds seemed to fade after thirty minutes. Once they did, Jarvell and Kree both stepped outside, being careful not to step into any puddles.

"We probably oughta get these pieces back to the ship, so we can start fixing it up. If you hand me your pieces, I can carry them back to the ship and get started on those, while you start searching for the hub I mentioned." Jarvell said, offering two of his free hands to carry the other materials Kree was holding.

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"I suppose that'd be wise, yeah." Kree handed him the materials, before checking if she could perhaps fly. But a single motion of her wing made her flinch.

"That didn't look good." Jarvell said.

"Didn't feel good either. Guess I'll refrain from flying for the moment unless I absolutely have to. Now get going."

Jarvell seemed to want to say something for a moment, before nodding and beginning to head back in the direction of the ship.

Going through the ruined building, Kree tried checking behind several doors, with most leading to offices, or being completely blocked by rubble. She had to climb a large pile of rubble to manage to make it to the otherside, and a misstepp caused her to trip and roll to the bottom of it.

"Damnit." Kree muttered as she stood up, putting a hand over the side of her body, the pain pulsing from the sudden rough roll. Noticing another partially blocked door, she moved enough rubble away to be able to pull the door open, revealing a set of stairs leading up and down. While the upstairs were blocked by a lot of rubble, the downstairs seemed to be fine.

Pushing a boulder against the open door, so it wouldn't close on her, Kree took a few deep breaths before beginning to head downstairs. Turning on a shoulder light, she could see it led to what used to be a very secure basement. Numerous laser grids, vacuumed sealed passage, and even a pair of turrets. All rendered inactive long ago. As she walked through, Kree noticed something weird. The handles of the passage had a handprint mark on them, of something with only four fingers, and very rugged appearing. And it looked very clean compared to the rest.

From the look of every single skeleton on this planet, this handprint was not someone native to here. Either that, or they mutated from all the radiation. And both thoughts were concering.

But Jarvell was already heading back, so even if something was there, he and Twy'la could support each other. Kree, however, knew she needed to watch her own back now.

Inside the hub room, her eyebrows rose. There was, as Jarvell said, numerous large computers, but most had been pushed to the side, and with plenty of force, as there were bent spots on each computer, also with the same handprint. And yet, all the computers were covered by dust, including the handprints. So moving those happened some time ago.

Going over the computers, Kree found numerous hard drives to take with her, each appearing to contain a lot more data compared to the regular office hard drive, which she put aside. As she turned out to leave and head back to the ship, Kree felt the blood drain from her face as she noticed what was on the other side of the room properly.

A few skeletons, piled up, next to a simple table, chair, and plate. And on the plate was a half eaten bone.

It sickened Kree, who quickly covered her mouth and rushed out of the room. Breathing quickly, she could hear the breather beep out alerts of dangerously accelerated breathing pace. While in the vacuum passage, she briefly removed the breather. Just closing her eyes, she tried taking a deep breath, only to start coughing. Even if it felt lessened below ground, the air was still radiated here.

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Once the breather was back on, Kree started to head out. She couldn't stick around and continue exploring anymore. Twy'la and Jarvell needed to be warned, and they needed to get off this planet as fast as possible.

Heading out, Kree made it out the door, and started to notice tracks in the ground. Much like the handprints, only four toes, but otherwise appeared to belong to something humanoid. Starting to follow the most recent tracks, Kree found herself walking in a street parallel to the one she and Jarvell had walked through, before the prints seemed to go in the direction of the forest surrounding the ship.

"God damnit. Did they hear the crash?" Kree muttered as she continued following the footprints into the forest. She and Jarvell didn't see anyone pass by them, so they had to have moved quietly.

Even if they survived on bones, how could they survive on a planet like this? It was unimaginable to Kree.

Continuing through the forest, it slowly became harder to track the footprints, to the point where Kree realized she had completely lost them. And yet, even without seeing any tracks, she felt she was still on the right path. Using her wings to perform a boosted jump, Kree felt the pain surge in her side as she landed near the top of a tree.

"They circled around?" Kree said as she could see the site of the crash, only now she was on the west from the ship, while the city was to the west. Definitely felt like whoever it was, they were scouting out the ship and whoever crashed with it.

Dropping from the tree, Kree made her way back to the ship, which seemed to be the same as before. She could also see Gum on the Tin-Can's wing, looking in the direction of the city. But there was no sign of Twy'la or Jarvell.

"Gum! Are you okay? Where is Twy'la, and Jarvell?" Kree asked as she hurried to him.

Gum didn't seem to react at first, simply staring off in the direction of the city.

"Gum?"

Still no reaction.

"What's wrong with you?"

"Nothin' wrong with him, Wings. He just learned that he doesn't need to follow the orders of someone who is clearly not their boss, kin, and mean nothin to him!"

Looking around for the voice, Kree suddenly noticed someone else was sitting on top of the ship. As they stood up, Kree could better tell they were completely covered in scales, had four fingers and four toes. Exactly like the prints she found before. The person possessed dark red skin, and as he approached Kree, he offered a fanged, toothy smile.

"Come now, can't blame him, can ya? Took the poor guy off his home, and without asking him too! And then you stuck him with one of his hunters on the ship too!"

As the scaled person spoke, Kree could notice the colour of Gum was slowly changing, as if it was reacting to every word that was being said. And it was slowly changing to green.

"So of course he wouldn't want to obey anything you say! You're nothing more then a kidnapper, and a tormenter too! Though then again," The scaled person came closer to Kree "It was basic manipulation for the little blob. Your other friends took a bit more before I got them fighting." He whispered in her ear.

"What did you do?" Kree followed him with a wary gaze.

"Oh, me? Nothing much. Just got them to see things in a certain way. The way that leads to nothing but glorious conflict." He said, before turning back to look at Kree "Speaking of which, I can tell there is a lot you would want to fight. Like your little Kly'ta friend, for being such a naive fool who acts before she thinks. Sending you off like that when you could've exploded midspace? Oh deary me, that is a big reason."

Kree just kept her eyes fixed on his, her gaze narrowing a bit "So you're a warmonger."

"That is one way to describe me, though I haven't dont any actual fighting in a very long time. Speaking of which, you might want to look at your friend."

Glancing away towards Gum, Kree quickly stopped him as he bounced towards her, with intense force, and had turned completely green. The blank, naive gaze of the blob was gone, instead replaced with a pair of deep red, angry eyes. Kree could also feel as her hands were heating up, as Gum was clearly trying to melt her skin.

"Such pests, aren't they? Gelacs are such a pain. Melting different parts of the ship since even before he was allowed on! Don't you want to just fly up and throw him into space?"

"W-what? No!" Kree called out, looking at the scaled person.

"Really? Not even a little bit?"

"Not even if he melted me to be nothing but bones!"

"Wow, well, that could end up happening if you keep holding onto him. Though then, who would stop your friends from fighting if you aren't here?"

The scaled person pointed away, towards the city, where Gum was looking at before. Kree could see some dust rise, and midst the dust, there was a large blue, four armed figure, and a smaller, grey-skinned figure, with pink energy surrounding her.

"What the hell did you do?" Kree shouted at the scaled person.

"How did you say it? I'm a warmonger? Well, these aren't wars, but I simply created entertainment for myself." He said, as he climbed back onto the ship and sat down.

Looking back at Gum, Kree wondered how she could stop all this, and how the heck did a single guy manage to have so much power over all three of them to cause this.

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