Mid Morning - Mid Summer : The Ancient Wreckage, Southwestern Holy Kingdom

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"W..woah..." Gently picking up a 'Hot Core', I looked at the complicated yet beautiful map of runes on its exterior before carefully sending some aura through it.

The artifact was nothing short of a work of art. The chained runes were so complex they were hard to follow, yet at the same time, every single one was made with intent as if they were pieces of a puzzle. -But.. is this really something made by the Acardi?-

From what I could tell, there were two independent chains of runes, one to turn some of the helium into hydrogen and the other to create a trace amount of a much heavier metal, with countless other lone runes lining the inside of the core's shell.

Besides the runes themselves, it was nearly identical to something I would have made if I were to create a fusion bomb.

But this artifact was, at the very least, not meant to be a bomb.

From how I interpreted it, the artifact was essentially a 'heat and fuel injector', taking a trace amount of some heavy, radioactive metal and using its fission to kick start a small-scale fusion reaction that would then be released that through a hole in the side of the artifact to jump-start a larger reaction, likely inside of a reactor or something similar.

But that's where the problem was. -Is this.. a fusion catalyst?-

Not only was the artifact the 'easiest to activate' weapon of mass destruction I could ever imagine, but it was also something meant for energy production. -It would make more sense if it was rigged to be a weapon. All someone has to do is remove or force mana through those mythril 'safety valves' to use it as one... But the caps on the injector tube are untouched...-

No matter how I twisted it, the artifact was meant to be an injector. -But even if it was a bit outdated, it isn't even remotely comparable to the antimatter runes and reactor I saw on the wreckage... That gap in technology is far more than just a few generations...-

Things simply weren't adding up.

But that was something I couldn't let myself get hung on. "Haah..." -Well, regardless of all that... I'm almost certain this is the artifact Holcyon took...- The artifact comfortably checked all of the boxes I was looking for; ease of use without much knowledge, incredibly high explosive potential, and something beings from this world would find impossible to recreate.

And while I couldn't help but find it weird that live, operational artifacts remained here after someone came through, I knew simply questioning it would do me no good. -Maybe I'll ask Holcyon when I get back... If he's still alive...-

But as my gaze slowly turned back to the hole in the wall, my curiosity about the artifact and structure returned. -I should have a few more days before Myles, and his crew show up, right? Let's see what this artifact is really for...-

*clunk* Gently setting it down in the rack, I walked over to the front panel full of confidence and quickly looked over the several dozen mechanical sensors, switches, and buttons with a curious look, trying to get a general idea of what each was.

But while I looked at them fully expecting to not recognize any, there was actually one gauge that used a metric I knew: 'µ'

-So, those artifacts are actually meant to be used how they were meant to...-

µ was a symbol I had previously seen in the Acardi database at the laboratory. In short, it was a metric used to denote a reactor's stability and efficiency, usually between 1 and 100, with 50 being an ideal balance. [1]

The issue was that the database specifically stated that it 'lost standard' 1000 years prior to the data entry, meaning the reactor in this structure was technology a millennia older than almost everything else I had seen.

But as fascinating as it was to learn that the Acardi had fusion at least a thousand years before the Great War, I was extremely hesitant.

-I'm.. not really sure I want to try and turn it on now...- Quickly scanning over the other sensors, I tried to find anything else I recognized, but didn't find anything except a switch under a cover with the label: 'Cold Start' on it.

Deep down, I knew flipping that switch was a terrible idea. Attempting to turn on the reactor was essentially like shaking a bottle of nitroglycerin right in front of my face, but even still, I couldn't help myself. -I could probably survive in this form.. right?-

*vwoooom* Sending aura into the wall with some hesitation, I passed through tons of electronics and mechanical parts before coming into a large reactor core I could easily stand in.

It wasn't too much different from the antimatter reactor I saw on the ancient wreckage, except that it was upscaled, relied on water, and had about 20 times the number of moving parts that could break at any moment. -But it doesn't look corroded...- Even in the center of the core, where a pillar of water flowed, there was no corrosion or mineral buildup at all.

And as if it wasn't already enticing enough, at the very bottom of the reactor was a hot core, completely filled with helium and in even better condition than the one I inspected.

It was as if it was asking to be turned on.

-I know I shouldn't.. but...- The possibility of accessing archived data from the structure, even if only the workshop's data was intact, was too enticing.

-Plus, it does look all right...- I spent a while after that inspecting various parts of the reactor with a hesitant look before finally letting out a deep breath. "Haah..." -I should just be ready to jump into the void...-

*vwoooom* Finally deciding it was worth the risk, I readied several times the space mana I needed to enter the void and took one last breath.

"Hooh..." -Well, here goes nothing...-

*tink-ZAP* My ears were met with the horrible noise of arching electricity the instant the switch closed before being immediately followed by a mechanical hatch opening and the liquid in the tube at the center of the room beginning to flow. *CLUNK-BLUB-huuummmmm*

From what I could tell, the water in the tube at the center of the room was turning turbines to generate enough electricity to remove the 'safety valves' on the fusion artifact's runes.

But my senses couldn't be dulled even if I wanted them to. -This is it...-

*WHAM* *vvvvvvvwooOOOOM* An exponentially growing suction of mana appeared instantly as all the ambient mana in the area was ripped through the walls and into the artifact.

*VWOOOOOOOM* *TINK-CRACKLE* It only took a few seconds for the material in the artifact to start the reaction. *tss-crackle-WHHHAAAMMMM* *vvvvvvVVVVVMMMMMM*

A deafening explosion ripped through the room as the matter in the core of the artifact was injected straight into the reactor, spinning it up and causing the lights in the room to turn on instantly.

*VVVvvvvmmmmmm* As the hum eventually stabilized, I slowly and hesitantly eased my nerves.

But they were heightened again almost instantly.

"ETSC 4 Systems Booting..."

"AH!" The horrifically loud, crackly, and distorted voice coming from several speakers in the walls sent my nerves through the roof. -Holy shit, that was loud...- It made me jump out of my skin, but I thankfully managed to calm back down.

"Loading Presets... Crawler Activating..."

-Huh? Crawler?- Quickly looking at the central monitor on the wall as it flashed for a moment, a few lines of basic text appeared:

'Extraterrestrial Surface Crawler 4:

Critical Error: Legs Inoperable: Automatic Repair: Impossible

Security Systems: Disabled

Data Integrity Verification: Disabled

Reactor Protocol: 48B16.5A

Reactor Integrity: Passable

Booting Systems...'

The screen quickly returned to black before being replaced by a simple menu, while the other screens lit up to show countless calculations, measurements, electronic gauges, and even a sonar map of the surrounding area. -Woah...-

"Activating Locally Detected Systems... Main Server: Unreachable... Connecting to Local Database. Integrity: Uncertain."

-Local Database?- My eyes lit up like a kid opening a present on Christmas. -Is that something I can access through this?-

Quickly toning out the automated voice, I looked more into the menu on the central screen and, to my surprise, immediately found the database.

My eyes were lit up like stars as I looked through the astronomical amount of data in the database, including the 'Activity Records' of every device connected to the reactor, power consumption and management, and all activities over the course of nearly 100 years with extremely few glitches in the data.

Now, it is true that most of that data was meaningless to me, but the deeper I went, the more I found. -'Travel Records'? What's this?-

Quickly opening the tab, I was presented with a giant, somewhat low-detail 3D map of the surrounding area, but with thin trails leading just about everywhere.

The trails themselves were surrounded with incredibly detailed renderings of the area, to the point that I could count the leaves on trees, as well as specific nodes that could be tapped to bring up a note, usually being something short and simple, like 'S34 Section 3 Salvage' or 'Hostile Wildlife and Fauna' with a date and time.

But among the nodes, there were two that had clearly had the most traffic between them: 'S34 Atmospheric Freighter', which was right on the ancient wreckage, and 'Home', which was exactly where I was.

It immediately destroyed any hint of doubt I still had. -This guy was definitely an Acardi survivor...-

Quickly tapping and skimming through the notes on each of the nodes along the nearly 1,200 trails, that fact became increasingly evident. Almost two hundred of the half a thousand nodes were related to other survivors, being locations of emergency broadcasts or the last known locations of people. There were even nodes higher on the mountain labeled 'Personal Emergency Broadcast', which was likely the owner of this place's own attempt to be rescued.

-But they never came...- Glancing up at the date on the last personal broadcast node, I couldn't help but let out a sigh. "Haah..." -To think he'd keep pushing for his survival even after being abandoned...- The date was almost a hundred and twenty years after the first broadcast. -I'm not sure whether to give him pity or praise for holding onto hope for that long...-

Quickly checking out the last few nodes, I gave the map one last skim before finally closing it and moving on.

But most of the database was still irrelevant information, with most of it being stored logs from various machines, including some of those in the workshop, as well as things like blueprints and projects for machines, rooms, gadgets, and weapons, among other things.

However, something interesting among the blueprints was a rough blueprint of the crawler itself.

As it turned out, the area I was in now and the area with the large gate were two of the three main parts of the original crawler, with a little over a dozen blacked-out crab-like legs sprawling out from under it.

It honestly looked a bit creepy, but I couldn't deny that it was an effective design. -It definitely wasn't meant for a hostile surface though...- The best defensive armament on it was essentially just a vent of heat and plasma from the reactor. -But if it works, it works, I guess...-

Continuing deeper into the database, I came across some data about possible survivors and their information, last locations, chances of survival, etc., along with a folder of distorted images and error-filled videos that looked to be taken from the surrounding area. -The data here is pretty distorted though...-

Among the images I could see though, there were horrifically mutilated creatures, puddles of unrecognizable blood and flesh, massive swaths of destroyed forest, pieces of bones, blood-covered railguns and other weapons, and countless other horrible images.

The videos were not so lucky, with very few even being playable, let alone watchable.

However, one of the few watchable videos was simply a black screen instead of static, with the label 'Final Broadcast - Friedrich al-Gobcheif ; -351.3, 138.1, 7.8, 91.2'.

-Hm? What is this?- I opened it immediately.