“Revenge is the raging fire that consume the arsonist”

-Marc Lucado

Prologue: Relic of the Distant Past.

"How many days have we been here?"

The words utter by a woman walking down a hallway made using some sort of metallic material, each step she makes send temporary turn the floor she’s stepping on some sort of liquid state, where ripples travels around her boot. A short man on her side slides his hand on the wall, it behaves like the floor, temporary turning into liquid despite standing still, ripples travel in the direction of his hand. "I say, about 4 forge days"

the man said, "that’s long, are we really sure about that? I mean, from our ship, this place is rather small "you see" the woman spoke once more, as she stops speaking, the group of men behind her dressed in protective gear stops, the floor calm down, return to its solid state as they're step stops.

She then looks to the group, raises her both of her hand, her right palm opens, her left have its 4 fingers close, with her pinky finger raise. "Were currently on a precursor vault, whom scholars suggested, an ancient race that once rule this part of the galaxy, the forge. the remnants of their technology can be seen rather everywhere, yet they are very alien to our human minds.

Of all their relics, one stands out the most, precursor vaults. Precursor vaults are the most valuable remnants of the precursor, huge structure of unknown purpose," the woman said, one of the men of the group exclaim "THATS OUR Ayato!" he said, the woman then shush the crowd. "Unfortunately, precursor vaults are hard to pinpoint, due to its nature of disappearing so suddenly, along with whatever inside.

explorers, like us are often advice not to stay longer than 6 days inside, this is the so-called rule of 6" Ayako said, the crows whisper to each other

"6 days, and were at our 4th day, we got 2 more days before it gets risky, and yet were not so sure if we can reach the sanctum on time" one of them said, the crowd slowly starts to panic, before one of them speaks

a man standing out due to his visible armed, having firearm to his side, and his protective gear representing an armor of sorts.

"Calm down, you all agree to this job, a job greater than ourselves.

finally, after unknown time, we can finally pinpoint one of these vaults, and now were inside of it.

If we die here, we will die doing something greater than ourselves"

those words resonate within the crowd, turning their doubt to a new resolve, and they cheer and laugh.

"Yeah! that’s why we hired your help, drifter" one of them said

Soon, the sound of march comes on the other side of the corridor in front of them, armed with firearms, and their suit shows a sigil of eagle on its right arm. "This is Quickdraw, half of the corridor is secured, half of my crew are scouting the rest of this site” The man leading the group said, unlike the rest of this armed group, his shoulders have some feather design on it, representing a wing.

Ayako claps her hand in joy, before speaking, facing the explorers.

“Eight, now is the right time to give our self a well deserve rest” Ayako said, one of the explorers lower his backpack, pulling out a circular device from it. “Well, it’s time for good ol

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Logan to do some machinery miracle doesn’t it? Leave the shelter to me” before pointing at a small explorer on his side.

A woman voice comes out from the explorer his pointing at

“I handle the cooking, its much USEFULL than my brother “machinery miracle” “the woman said , eying the figure on her side, whom spoke “well if there’s a way to rate my construct against your ridiculous cooking, I say mine will sweep the floor using yours” the man replies, before both of them bursting to laughter. Ayako and the rest of the crew seems confused at the dynamic of the two. Soon the shelter has been built, a transparent dome that only have one entrance, that serve as an exit as well. The crew gathered around a portable campfire.

“HEY! You can’t eat my food after insulting it!” The small explorer said, looking angrily at his whom eating the dish like a glutton. “If you’re that angry, then why not go rest outside of my

Dome?” the man replies. At the corner of the dome, two explorers are in each other. “You’re not going to eat, Alisa?”

“I don’t feel to, the thought of only having 2 days before we, disappear along with this mess, don’t you feel scared, Marcus?” the woman replied, clinging tighter.  “Of course, I feel scared, were humans, it’s only natural. You know what else is scarier?’ “Hmm? What?” “Dying of starvation before we finish this job, remember our dream?” “You still believe that dream? Buying a starship and heading to the distant unknown, living on our own terms” “yeah, that dream, this job is our gateway to that dream, just this job will have us enough money to buy that ship. So, you better eat before we die of starvation,” the man said, smiling at her.

Drifter is outside the dome, guarding the corridor as the rest eat at the dome. “You’re not going to eat? You cant fight anyone with an empty stomach” Ayako said, who’s walking behind him.

“Appreciate the concern, I will eat later after you all finish, we can’t afford to lose our guard” drifter replies. “so its duty about everything else? Boring~ hey, is it only for duty? What you just did earlier?” Ayako said, drifter raised his eyebrow. “what I did earlier? What part?” “The part where you deliver that speech, you know? Morale is a big part on any team, you just reinforced it” Ayako replies, standing next to him.

“so, why are you here? “Ayako ask “Just like why everyone else for, the money we get after this “drifter respond. Ayako cheeks puff, until the laugh can’t be hold anymore “PFFT! No silly, of course it’s the MONEY, what you’re going to do with those? You see, Logan will use it to set up a shipyard, His sister , mistral will use it to set up a restaurant next to his. Marcus and Alisa want to buy their own star ship, what about you?” Drifter thinks for a while, before answering “I guess it’s not about the money after all, I just want to help for the better, I guess. They say our discovery will change the course of the future for better, I want to be a part of that.” “that’s, quite noble of you” Ayako response “how about you tho? Top student of the academy, why are you here?” “You see…… I don’t know”

“hm?” “maybe I only in this place right now because of my duty “no one can pull this off other than you” they say , I mean how come can you reject them if they the one who gave you scholarship? So here I am” “that’s, rough…… being forced to live someone’s dream”. The rest of the scouting party came back "the corridor is secured, and we also saw a huge door at the end, we are at the sanctum, ladies and gents"

The crowd went wild with its cheering. Soon they reach the end of the corridor, a huge door , like the scout party said.

The door has a carving of 20 shadowy figures on it.

"Here it is" Ayako said as she pushes the door open, despite its size, such petite girl manages to open it with little to no effort.

Behind the door is a massive chamber, with 20 statues of incomprehensible being on its walls, rather, forming a wall. In the middle is a floating, geometrical object, compose of 20 sides, white colored. Its size is rather huge, half a grown man. Ayako reaches for it, despite the rest of the group telling her to be careful. Upon touching it, it emit a bright glow of purplish light, before shrinking to a size of a hand, Ayako able to take a grip of it. Quick draw walk behind her, "good job, doctor

now, then for your service" and at that moment, shot has been fire, quick draw holding a revolver on his hand, with black smoke coming out of its barrel.

It’s like an instinct, an instinct of a human being to preserve their safety, the explorer panic and try to make a run for it, yet each step is followed by gunshots, bang, bang, bang, each step, a body falls, It went blank.

" The top explorers of settlement Vesper has been killed, along with its hired bodyguards from the Mercenary guild, Iron Hounds. Investigation suggests that the sole survivor, the drifter does the heinous act after allegedly finding out the vault have no treasure"

"LIES! LIES! LIES!, I didn’t do it, I can’t do such thing! I am sorry, I cant protect you! I swear, I swear, an iron vow.

I will avenge you"