Beyond Light

Underground Complex.

No more robotic units appeared. John and Team Bravo continued down through the vertical tunnel. A second tunnel turned to the right, and after traversing it, they found themselves on one of the biggest subterranean complexes ever built.

Dark and silver, glowing in litmus purple, it was an artificial space that extended up to 50 meters. John used his reconnaissance scanner, and the dimensions of the rectangular place were measured with high precision: 103.29 meters wide and 689.83 long, 49.88 tall. It was the whole size of a light cruiser!

The triangle mark was at the other side, where another hexagonal gate stood. Various prismatic pillars extended ahead, as the ones of an ancient Greek temple would. The metallic beams on the curved ceiling had tiny lights on their edges. On their centers, the same geometrical encryptions were lasered, glowing like helipad signals.

“What in the world is this place?” murmured a soldier. ‘In the world’ was the wrong expression, John thought.

“Aliens must have built it up,” another trooper responded.

Would it be wise to be inside there? No enemies appeared on his motion sensors, but anything could strike at any moment. They needed to continue.

“Commander?” Com. Officer Jeffrey connected to his HUD. “Are you inside? Your signals have weakened ever since you entered.”

“Affirmative. We've entered the unknown structure,” responded John. “It's enormous, and enemy contacts haven't stopped.”

Jeffrey nodded. “Look, your signals only begin to weaken off. We didn’t expect the frequency to decay so soon. If we could detect the signals from the Eternity of Return from billions of kilometers away despite the blockage, they are likely very strong.”

“Any ideas of what could it be, boy?” asked Derek. "Hard to believe only the metal and the ground is keeping this isolated."

“No, to be honest. Some kind of augmented repeater, probably, but you’ll likely discover it when you reach it. Xi is sending an update signal to the drones. They’ll keep marking the way for you.”

“Understood. Keep us informed,” responded John, and both sides disconnected.

“I don’t like where this is going,” said Derek.

“What’s it?”

“Everything, Cap. Our signals are already weakening, but the ones of the Eternity keep going strong. I think those bugs must be playing something on us.”

Bugs? John had forgotten about them for a moment. Could those Insectoids be the owners of the facility they were in? It was likely. It seemed advanced enough for them or the supergiant of 100 kilometers that obliterated the Eternity of Return.

But there were some puzzles that didn’t fit into the equation. like those strange ships that attacked the Eternity of Return first, and the designs of those ruins themselves. That didn’t guarantee anything, but none of the vectors involved fit any common assembly or design with each other.

John hoped they’d find more answers the further they advanced. They also needed to wait for Yuri and his team, who were still scavenging whatever they could find from the remains of those ships that attacked the Eternity of Return. They could find useful data, but no one had news from them.

“Alright, assembly a defensive formation. Let’s see what we can find,” John took the first steps ahead, the DEFENDER.v4 platform making metallic noises as it marched.

The three V99m’s formed a triangle at both sides behind him. The soldiers marched in the middle, and the seven drones glided ahead like killer wasps. They walked through the first two pillars, and something white flew from one to another.

“Enemy contact!” yelled a Soldier. They raised their rifles and made the tiny machine explode in purple. Another appeared, then another. They kept spraying fire, but the mini drones just ignored them as they moved between pillars, blowing up or having enough luck to survive.

“Hold your fire,” ordered John. The soldiers kept aiming. More of the tiny machines hovered from one side to another, ignoring the intruders.

“Must be some non-fighting units,” said Derek.

“Look more like maintenance drones,” said Doctor Winslow. “like the ones roaming your deposit.”

“Drone units,” John spoke to the flying machines in their side. “Capture and retrieve signaled units,” he marked one of the white mini-drones, and the black drones launched themselves at it like a clan of hyenas.

But only one could catch it through an induced magnetic discharge. It returned to John, showing before him the alien drone paralyzed in the air. It shook forth and back trying to set itself free. John hummed. No bigger than a human torso, the device’s shape resembled the one of a banana or a macaroni. Red-eye was on its upper top, while on the tail down a purple light beeped.

“Looks like a toy,” said Heinrich. “Maybe it’s these things the ones who maintain this place.”

John sent the command, and the drone let it go. The silver machine flew away from them and returned to a pillar, standing at the top of it and unlocking a plank. It shot its mechanical interiors with a purple beam before closing it and moving to another one.

“Well, these don’t seem like the ones we should take care of," said John. "Too risky to bring one to the Beyond Light, though. Someone could track us through them. Let’s advance. ”

They continued with the formation. There were various locked bays and hexagonal gates on the walls behind the pillars. Where would they lead? John felt that they just were at the main lobby of a supermassive anthill.

“Don’t you find the color lilac on these things familiar?” asked Derek. “The ships that attacked the Eternity had propulsors in the same color. The robots and these drones either shoot red or purple, and they all explode in lilac.”

“They still look different,” said Doctor Winslow. “Most human vessels and vehicles either shoot orange or blue flames, but you can’t mistake a PFSR Cruiser with an INSU Frigate.”

“Good point,” said John. “Whatever it is, I feel as if neither is gonna be our friends.”

Two pairs of minutes and some more pillars ahead, and they reached a section that was cut with the rest of the way. A black abysm descended so deep that the bottom got lost between the darkness. John activated the night-vision mode on his HUD. There was some fog that blocked anything below. Not even his thermal sensors could catch anything.

“It’s a jump of some 20 meters to the other side,” informed a soldier. “Should we begin hook maneuvers?”

“Hmm. Seems like there’s no other way. That or jumping,” said Derek. “Can you see anything? Some retractile bridge, perhaps? Maybe there’s an interface to deploy it around.”

“Big guy, this place is literally alien for us. There’s nothing that makes sense around,” mocked Doctor Winslow.

John looked. His artificial 6.2 meters of height allowed him to spot a barrier near the edge on the other side, which was not visible from their position. He knew what to do.

“Alright, I’m leaping. Everyone, stay here. Maybe I can find something useful on the other side,” he sent a command for the drone team to follow. He bent his mechanical knees and charged his thrusters.

The indicator on his HUD began to turn red, and the burning noise of the thrusters took over. He jumped, gaining height and kinetic energy to reach the other side. He decelerated, and reached the metallic floor on the other side, rumbling a clap of thunder. The drones hovered around him like a curious charm of hummingbirds.

He moved to the black barrier, and to his suspicions, there was a small panel on it shining in lilac. “I found something. Some kind of controls.”

“And how are you supposed to manipulate an alien display?” Heinrich sarcastically asked.

“C’mon. Our leverages don’t have much science either,” responded John. As the Paladin was too big to interact with the panel, he unlocked the hatch and jumped out, leaving the systems on standby mode. “Alright, let’s see what I can do.”

He looked, but it didn’t make sense as much as he tried. The screen was crammed with those geometrically agglutinated symbols. He raised his hand and touched the screen. A siren screamed once, and boiling sounds came out from the hole impeding their way.

“Cap? Come and see this. Whatever you did is working!” said Derek.

John returned to the Paladin. The hatch sealed and the controls reconnected to his nervous system. He walked to the edge, and the fog dwelling the abyss rose, stopping at the maximum level and condensing like dry ice.

“What kind of tech is this?” said a soldier. They all looked down in awe.

“Now this is something I wasn’t expecting,” said Heinrich Winslow. “I actually wanted to hook into the other side.”

“I can deactivate it for you once everyone else crosses,” responded John.

The fog accumulated so much it made a translucid barrier similar to an ice field. The hissing boil ended, and then the icy bridge began to get transparent. Nothing remained but a crystal clear cover, where a lilac undertone shined like an aurora.

Everyone looked suspicious to step on it; various soldiers tied themselves to the V99m’s and crossed. Reaching the other side safe and in one piece, the rest followed after. John decided to test the resistance for the V99m’s. He stepped on the barrier with the 52 tones of the Paladin, and hopped on it twice, ready to activate the thrusters in case it broke.

But nothing happened; as much as he jumped, hopped, and trusted up, the barrier didn’t even vibrate. It was like the most resistant glass aloy ever created. “It’s alright, you can come.”

“If we fall you’re going down there and taking us back up,” mocked Doctor Winslow. The three light vehicles transversed it, sending blue light down through their propulsors.

They continued. More maintenance drones roamed above them. The mark triangle was only 200 meters ahead, at a hexagonal door that was already open. John had good and bad feelings. Were they moving to an ambush? It was unlikely that those robots had simply given up and left.

But the signals were near, their next and only track to discover what happened to the Eternity of Return...