Chapter 12 : The Flagship of Hope

After resting for a few hours, we went a little deeper into the artificial tunnel.

I don't know where it was heading, even after a whole month, we still haven't reached its end. The size of this Hive was immense, although we lack information about this planet, we have been able to estimate its size at around twice that of Earth. I imagine that living on such a wide planet has allowed local species to control much larger territories.

We still had no idea of how big this underground Hive is, it can be the size of a small town or it could cover hundreds or thousands of kilometers and be the size of a country.

'Leader, I detected something.'

While I was lost in thought, I received a rapport from Alice who was scouting ahead of us.

'Tell me.'

'I have a visual on a huge golden door at the end of the tunnel. Two humanoid figures are standing guard next to the door, they do not seem organic.'

'Hm... is it a remnant from the ancient civilization ?'

'I think so, these foes look like mechanical golems. I do not detect any source of energy inside their body and still, they are functioning well.'

'Alright, keep watch on them at a safe distance and wait for us.'

After Alice's rapport, we all prepared for combat. We didn't know anything about those golems, but our experience on this planet has taught us that almost everything and everyone is hostile. We better be safe than sorry.

'Gladia, how far from us are the swarmlings ?'

[They seemed to have stopped their advance. They are currently waiting not far from the storage room we went to previously and do not seem to move forward anymore, as if they are afraid to get too close to us and this golden door.]

'Well, this isn't a good sign...'

After walking for another hour, we finally joined Alice and we had those two golems on sight.

Their heads were turned in our direction, I guess they already spotted us.

Maybe those being aren't intelligent and capable of judgment, and they are just programmed to keep this door safe. As long as we don't provoke them, they might not attack us at all.

The problem is how to pass this door. The swarmlings are patiently waiting behind us, and during the last attacks, the Hive sent more and more powerful groups. We barely managed to survive against the last swarmlings troops we fought ; three alpha swarmlings were leading it.

We are forced to make a choice, either to go back and face the Hive wrath or try our luck and continue forward.

[With your abnormal luck, don't you think you should try to pass this door ? I don't see you guys surviving for long if you go back on your feet and face the whole Hive heads on.]

'At least the swarmlings are a known enemy. By dint of battling them, we ended up knowing them well. On the other hand, these golems are totally unknown to us, we never met any of them before.

They might be strong enough to wipe us all and we wouldn't even know it.'

While exploring the options we had, trying to make the correct choice, Kat talked to me.

"No matter your order we will follow you, Leader."

The others nodded at her words.

I was glad to see them slowly getting some human habits back. They still had this cold and insensitive aura, but little by little they started to each develop a certain personality.

Alice was always energetic and couldn't stay still, Jerome was the gentle giant protecting us and taking care of each member of the squad, Douglas was the silent guy covering our back and Kat was rigorously devoted to the squad objectives and our well-being.

I couldn't help but smile at them under my black matter hood.

"I'm thinking of trying our luck and passing this door, but in case the golems turn hostile we'll have to prepare to fight."

I looked at each of them, before adding.

"I have no intel on these beings, but in case they decide to attack us we should not fight them the same way as we fought the swarmlings.

I will go alone to open the door, if they act hostile I'll serve as bait for them.

Jerome, you stay ten meters behind me to protect our backline.

Alice, I want you to stealthily close the distance to the golem on the right side and be ready to stab it in the back at any moment.

Douglas and Kat, you stay behind Jerome. I want you guys to focus on the right target as well."

Once I saw them nod again, I explained.

"These beings seem individually much stronger than any foes we fought, even more than the centipede and alpha swarmlings. If they turn hostile, which I hope they won't, use everything you've got and focus on the right golem first.

Our only chance to win if a fight breaks up would be to destroy one golem fast enough so we can gang up on the second one."

[Jun, you should be prepared to use the void energy again.]

'I am always prepared to use it, but I would rather avoid it for now...'

"Leader, let me take your place and act as bait !"

As expected, Kat proposed herself to replace me for the most dangerous role.

"No, you have to stick with Douglas and deploy your field skill if needed.

Who knows, it might affect them much more than it does to organic beings."

After giving my orders, we all started moving. Once I confirmed everyone was in position, I slowly walked to the door.

I had my energy sword ready to be deployed, and I already focused on the Void link in my left arm in case I end up in a hopeless situation again.

After getting close to the golems, I could examine them in detail. I had to admit that I was extremely surprised by how they looked like.

The golems were about 2m tall, they were made of an assemblage of unknown gold and silver metal, with some wires emitting blue light shining in the darkness of the tunnel. Contrary to what I first thought, they did not look in very good condition. All over their metallic body, I could see different cut marks and burns, apparently made by energy weapons and intense combats.

Through the destroyed part of their chest, their insides could be seen. There was an assembly of cogs, gears, and mechanisms that had nothing futuristic about it. What surprised me was how these beings who seemed so technologically unadvanced could still be active after so many years, and especially what kind of energy source do they use to still be functioning after all this time.

I don't know why, but at this moment a word popped out from nowhere in my mind : Magicraft. I have no idea if I already met something similar in my previous life, but this word was the first thing I thought about when looking at those golems.

When I was nearly 5 meters from them and the door they protected, they suddenly activated.

"ALERT, UNAUTHORIZED ORGANIC LIFE FORMS DETECTED.

ANALYSIS…

THREAT LEVEL : LOW

COMMUNICATION PROCEDURE INITIATED."

The golems both turned their head at me and said in weird language.

"STATE YOUR PURPOSE."

I somehow could understand them. Their language was almost the same as the one the Scyllas incorporated in our brains when they abducted us. I have to admit, getting a way to communicate with any kind of beings through the universe was a precious gift they gave us.

"Hum... Hello ? Can you understand me ?"

"AFFIRMATIVE."

"We don't want to fight, we are being chased by the locals monsters from the Hive surrounding us and we seek shelter or a way to escape this place. We are trapped here between you and those monsters behind. Can you let us go through this door ?"

"REQUEST DECLINED.

AUTHENTICATION REQUIRED."

[They seem to not be hostile but stay cautious, they might decide to kill us if you fail this authentication they talked about...]

'We have to try, if it fails I'm ready to use the void energy. No matter if I lose a second limb by doing so, the survival of the squad is most important.'

After the last golem's words, a trap door opened on the floor where I was standing and a platform with a shelf came out.

On this shelf were five stones, and what looked like a handle in the middle.

"PLEASE START THE PROCEDURE."

"Do I need to grab the handle ? Or pick one of the stones ?"

I didn't know what to do, and the golems didn't seem willing to answer.

[You should probably grab the handle, I can feel a special kind of energy inside.]

Following Gladia's advice, I grabbed the handle with my right hand. Nothing happened in the beginning but I didn't let go, I was feeling weird energy passing through my whole being.

"SCANNING COMPLETE.

UNKNOWN ORGANIC LIFEFORM.

OBSCURA MATERIA DETECTED.

NIHIL CONSCIENTA DETECTED.

ACCESS GRANTED."

I didn't know what happened, but hearing those names again reminded me of the black monolith in the Scylla mothership. Does the monolith share the same structure as this ancient AI ?

'Just to be sure, what they call Obscura Materia and Nihil Conscienta are the black matter and you right ?'

[It is a way to call us, yes. Like you would be called Homo sapiens-sapiens.]

'I guess I need to thank you then, I don't know what is so special about both of you but we just avoided a fight with these ancient golems thanks to you.'

After the scan was complete, a stone on the shelf emitted a faint glow and suddenly flew to me. I was surprised, but I still had time to block it with my right hand. However, after touching my hand the stone just changed its form and transformed into a kind of bracelet with a gem in its middle.

[This is probably your pass to go through the door.]

'Why do I keep attracting more and more unknown stuff and they all stick to me like if my body was a five-star hotel for alien lifeforms ?'

[I have to admit, you are a very comfortable hotel.]

Once I confirmed this bracelet couldn't harm me, I told the rifters to join me and do the same procedure.

After a few minutes, we all have been granted access through the golden door. The golems went back to their initial spot as if we were not existing anymore, and stood guard again.

We all walked to the golden door and Jerome opened it.

After the door opened, we saw what was hiding behind it. I just couldn't believe it.

'Gladia, am I dreaming right now ?'

[You're not.]

'It is impossible to be real.'

[And yet is it, right in front of you.]

The other rifters were as surprised as me, and they soon asked me what to do.

"What are your orders, Leader ?.."

"Well…Let's explore first. We might have just found out our exit ticket to this hell."

And so we all went through the giant golden door, entering a gigantic underground hangar the size of a city.

In the middle of this hangar was a gigantic ship, surrounded by tons of other smaller ships and ruins of buildings.

I had no idea why there was this kind of facility underground, even more on a planet inside the Singularity. What I did know is that before opening the door, I could never have expected to see this scene underground.

The area was huge, the whole hangar was at least 15 square kilometers wide, and around 2 kilometers high.

The flagship in the middle had a very refined triangular shape. It was in complete contrast to the golems' outdated technology and appearances which seemed more rustic and magical ; this ship looked to come straight from a highly advanced civilization.

It had no visible wings, and what appeared to be its weapons were hidden in small slits all along its hull, except for its main calibers : two huge batteries of three triangular canons each stood at the top of the hull.

The smaller ships littering the ground appeared to be some kind of automated interceptors, and according to Gladia's analysis, the flagship belonged to some type of carrier class.

I ordered my squad to spread in the area and look for any corpses, skeletons, traces, or anything else that would allow us to know more about the civilization that made these. Unfortunately, after many hours of searching the place, we couldn't find anything related to these ancient beings.

The only clue we had were the golems standing guard behind the door but I doubt we'd get anything out of their AI, and I'd rather not mess with them as I am sure they would not have a lot of trouble eliminating us.

After half a day passed and we explored the whole hangar, we decided to do a briefing before trying to enter the flagship.

"Alice, report."

"I didn't find anything related to a living species, nor any organic materials or traces."

"What about you Douglas, did you spot something on the ceiling ?"

"Nothing, no exit of any sort."

"Kat, Jerome, anything particular ?"

"Nothing, Leader."

"Negative."

"Hm… If I had to guess, I would say this place served as a giant storage hangar. Those unknown ancient beings probably used it as a reserve outpost, maybe during a war, and then either they went extinct, got decimated or left the singularity but none of them came back and the ships stood there during all this time."

"How did they plan to take these ships out ? We couldn't find any exit and the whole place is kilometers deep underground."

"That is a good question, Alice. They probably have a kind of mass teleportation device.

Thinking about it, it is really smart to build this kind of hangar deep underground if you had access to a teleporting technology similar to the one the scyllas use in their mother-ship.

Your base would be harder to detect, more protected and virtually impossible to siege. From the remaining golems at the entrance and all the artificial tunnels now used by the swarmlings, they probably had a lot more active security measures back in their time."

"The golems AI is also similar to the monolith the Scylla used to evaluate us."

"Yes I figured that out too, maybe the Scyllas stole those technologies. Or maybe their ancestors lived in the Singularity before getting kicked out. Who knows.

What matters for us right now, is to enter the flagship and see if we can make it work to escape this planet."

All the rifters nodded until someone said what I truly hoped I would never hear from one of them.

"The faster we can escape, the faster we can return to the Scyllas."

My gaze fell on Kat, before I saw all of them nodding at what she just said as if it was the most logical thing to do.

It seemed that it wouldn't be easy to free these guys from the Scyllas control over their minds. The brainwashing they suffered seems more serious than what I initially thought.

Waiting for my orders, I started speaking.

"Go check the flagship and report to me everything interesting you've found out, be it an entrance to the ship or anything else."

"Roger."

The rifters all responded and started moving.

'Gladia, before thinking about escaping this place, we should first find a way to clear the minds of the rifters.'

[Yes, but... do you think this is a good idea ? It would be easier to escape alone.]

'As far as I know, we are the last humans still alive in the entire galaxy. I refuse to let them die and escape alone because of pure selfishness.

Even if I do escape alone, where will I go ? What is the point to escape the Scyllas if I'm alone and I don't have any destination ? With this squad beside me, I at least have a goal : that is to protect them and perpetuate our species.'

[It won't be simple, Jun.]

'I know, and that's why I'll need your help later.'

Watching my squadmates that I started liking and caring for during this past month, I had a bitter taste in my mouth.

Despite what I said to Gladia, I know that I might have to abandon them if I can't find a way to save them from the Scyllas mind control.

My last hope relies on this ship, and what is hidden inside.