User:Monster Pumpkin/BFE Stories

Chronicles of Darkness: Part Three
Seeker Kariosas Martoas – Dravimos, unidentified building, Moon KG456-P4-M15

Kariosas stepped out of his starship, the mix of snow, glass, and ash crunching and swirling around his boots. All around him spires of twisted glass and metal reached for the starry sky like elegant artificial trees. The light of the massive gas giant in the sky cast a soft blue glow across the entire compound. In a sense, it reminded Kariosas of home.

Stooping down, Kariosas scanned the ashes beneath him for any signs of life. After a short projection and analyzation, the scan came back negative: the ash was no more than burnt and blackened glass and metal. Looking up, Kariosas scanned the complex rising before him. Within a few seconds, he located the entrance. Pulling out his rifle, Kariosas kicked down the battered door and walked in.

The building was very much the same on the outside as it was on the inside. Pillars of steel and inlayed glass refracted light in scattered patterns across the floor and walls. The roof was completely gone, allowing the sky to provide the light. The only sounds were Kariosas’ raspy breaths and the systematic march of his boots across snow, ice, and glass. The presence of so much glass and ash made it clear that some calamity spelled the end of this place, although what that calamity was Kariosas could not guess. He also didn’t know what this building was for or even who built it, although that was what he was here to find out.

Kariosas was close to not even being given this assignment. Given the remoteness of the location and the high probably of piracy in this system, the Seeker Council almost sent the Imperial Guard to explore this site instead. The representative for the Guard refused, stating that the Imperial Guard “had conflicting arrangements of considerable political importance.” Kariosas scoffed in distaste. That was always their excuse. At least Kariosas got a challenge and a chance for considerable prestige. Discovering an undiscovered form or signature of life, whether extent or extinct, was considered to be a great honor. While this location had been discovered two years prior, political intrigue from the supporters of the Emperor had made it nearly impossible to launch such a mission.

By this time Kariosas had walked towards the end of the building, and it seemed rather clear that reports of pirates in this system were not unfounded. There were no signs of any tools or organisms. The building was picked clean. Even some panels of the walls were cut out to collect the symbols that might have been alien writing to sell on the black market. Even to this day, the sale of alien artifacts, known or unknown, remained common despite the intense law and enforcement designed to make it downright impossible. The building ended in a wide room with a large glass window casting a view over the snow ridden valley just outside. Six rooms split off from this room and each one had been thoroughly searched and emptied of all remotely valuable objects. One of these rooms, seemingly a bedroom, was partially collapsed, the wall caved in over some of the floor. Looking down, Kariosas noticed a crack running along the floor, half covered by the rubble. Too straight to be natural, Kariosas knelt down and with a grunt lifted part of the wall away, revealing a latch. Pulling on this latch did nothing. Locked.

Facing no other choice, Kariosas took out the fusion cutter from his belt. Lighting the blue flame, he carved out the lock, the searing of the metal scattering an orange light throughout the room. With the lock melted, Kariosas grabbed hold of the latch and pulled the door upwards, revealing a secret room. Activating the lights on both his rifle and the side of his helmet, Kariosas descended into the darkness. It became clear soon enough that this room had evaded all detection, and based on the location of the door it was designed to do so. Containers scaled the walls, and once opened revealed that they were full of long frozen foodstuffs and water. Small artifacts lined a shelf, although Kariosas couldn’t determine if they were tools, toys, or idols. With still no life detected as his parameters indicated, Kariosas continued down the small passageway. Finally, at the very end of the passageway, Kariosas found precisely what he had hoped to find. A skeleton cradled in a fetal position in the corner, holding fast to two items, a small circular disc in the right and what appeared to be a weapon in the left. Two holes in the creature’s skeleton confirmed his hypothesize. Next to the creature’s left hand was what appeared to be a personal computer or some other comparable device. Wasting no time, Kariosas set to scanning the skeleton, hoping to find some remnants of genetic code. Thankfully, the dry cold atmosphere of the room had done nicely, and the skeleton contained severable viable strands of genetic code. Moving on, Kariosas wrested the weapon from the skeleton’s fragile fingers. Judging from the wound on the skull and the nearby wound to the wall, the weapon was a ballistic weapon not unlike those that the Dravimos used in ages past. The disc in the right appeared to be a distress beacon of some sort, although its signal had died long ago just like its owner. It appeared to broadcast both the coordinates of this isolated moon and the coordinates of a nearby star system, presumably where help could be found.

Kariosas finally turned his attention towards the computer. Knowing that it had no power, Kariosas scanned it then tore it apart, searching for the power source while also bypassing key parts. With that done, Kariosas redirected a portion of his suit’s power into the power source, jumpstarting the outdated machine. A faint blue glow emerged on the screen, followed shortly after by random symbols that could only be writing. While unable to read it, Kariosas smiled. This was exactly what he was looking for.

With the computer and beacon in hand and the genetic code downloaded into his suit’s mainframe, Kariosas left the underground room, closing the latch behind him. While Kariosas could not understand any of what he held, he knew quite clearly its importance. Because now, even by a fraction, the key had begun to turn, and what was dead and gone may be very much alive once again.