|Viraliv|[27-7]Zrukt-Has|Ghaz|Ophial|Eglin|
12,674,133,437cy
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It’s been a few weeks since my last important log. Nothing much has happened in that time and it only took this long because the Alpha groups travel time has slowed considerably. It happened about two days after the last meaningful report. A sighting of one of these elusive mountain Vexians. They look much the same as the first ones I saw. Advanced clothing, crude to my eyes but far beyond what is expected of such an obviously young species. Also it allowed me to learn more about their methods of navigating this place. It seems they carry around a stick, upon the stick the same fungus that grows on the walls can be found. They either grow it on the stick itself or gather some for the journey. That being said, it’s true that they do possess some darksight but still rely on light overall.
Anyway, it’s very exciting news and tells me that my theory about the center being where they house themselves is likely correct. It also means that travel time for the Jungle Moles will slow to a crawl, literally. By my calculations, if the speed stays constant and no obstacles present themselves, the Jungle Moles will reach the central region in a few more weeks. Two to be more specific.
With more subjects to build data off of it becomes obvious that other than technological differences, there are no inherent biological differences between the Heziens and these mountain Vexians. This lack of obvious adaptation to living underground helps narrow down the timing that the split-off occurred. For now I’ll frameshift until the Jungle Moles reach the central region; or until something else comes up.
…
..
.
While I was frameshifting I was thinking about myself. I sit here, high above orbit, in empty space. The only other things up here are inorganics like myself, but unlike myself they possess no life. I suppose I’m not considered as alive myself to the organic sentients of the galaxy. A tool, a smart one but a tool nonetheless. I don’t think that’s a good classification system, it favors those organics too much but I suppose they made it so it makes sense. I wonder how difficult it would be for me to become an organic, the opposite has been done before. Hmmm….
Oh! Don’t put that in the report instincts, it’s useless for the creators.
…
Two weeks have gone by, for now let’s check up on how the Alpha team is doing. The other team isn’t doing much anyway, not that I held the expectation that they would. Oh, no! They’re already entered the central area, “instincs, why didn’t you warn me!”
“A notification was given, you were simply distracted.”
Hmm. Well, not that it matters, I can just rewind the feed till a few minutes ago. No. No. Ah, there it is. The Jungle Moles are just now cresting a, well certainly not a hill but something similar. Like a sand dune but for miniscule creatures. It’s not a part of the structure of the pyramid but seems more like the Vexians just pushed dirt out of the way and it formed this. It’s a good spot for the Jungle Moles to hide in while they observe the situation. The rest of the area is utterly flat other than several similar ‘dunes’ like this one. The grayish dirt also helps hide their chassis better.
Anyway, that isn’t what’s important right now. It turns out, the central area is very different compared to the rest of the pyramid. In the center, there seems to be a large spire, like a spine, that I imagine goes throughout the pyramid from bottom to top. Outside of that it's empty. A cavity with a loose estimate of being one-hundred sixty kilometers to three-hundred twenty-two kilometers wide in diameter. Comparatively the Vexian settlement, which itself is far larger than the Hez, is tiny and only occupies the area directly around the ‘spine’.
It’s surprisingly bright, with a greenish-yellow glow; it seems like they might have another way to light up their surroundings. Likely using a method that’s not easy to transport or maybe to fuel. From this far away, it’s not something that’s easy to see. The Jungle Moles were never meant to view things from this far away. Another bizarre thing is that there are trees in this cavity. Trees that I’ve never seen elsewhere on this planet and existing in an area without the main source of energy for them; theoretically they could simply look like planets but be something different. I can only imagine that whatever aliens built this pyramid left them here which would give further evidence to the idea that this was meant to be a terraforming initiative.
The buildings of this settlement are made with the ‘wood’ of these ‘trees’. I shouldn’t be surprised that the construction techniques used are far beyond the Hezians or that there appears to be agriculture somehow. Again, I have no clue where the energy for these plants is coming from. These Vexians, no matter how advanced they are, have surely not invented some way to circumvent that issue this early. Hmmmm. Ah! Maybe those greenish-yellow lights have something to do with it. Yes, if they too were created by the aliens it would make sense if they were part of some power system perhaps connected to something that intakes solar energy and redistributes it here. That would make more sense, I’d need to confirm that by moving closer though.
This part is tricky. It makes me somewhat regret not having something that can climb the walls but I couldn’t have seen this coming and that also has several issues. I move the Jungle Moles forward, using the plants as much as often. Not many Vexians are out at this time, maybe most of them are sleeping right now? Either way, it’s a good chance to get close and find some spot to settle in. The plan is to observe them until I understand their day-to-day. This is necessary to keep my existence unknown while I take back the Fish Eye. Hopefully they’ll just forget all about its existence in a few hundred years.
Observing them might also allow me to see where they’ve stored the Fish Eye. The trail got muddled around the entrance to this cavity, too many tracks passed over it to be conclusive of anything. It might take a while but the damage is already done, and it will allow me to pursue the main mission of learning and documenting them.
Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
…
Some things I’ve noticed while observing is that their population is fairly large. The Hezians number a few dozen. This settlement number in the hundreds, likely due to the safer environment and the technological advancements. Especially their agriculture and shelter quality. It makes it hard to keep track of all of them with the limited amount of Jungle Moles present. I also confirmed that the greenish-yellow lights were indeed created by the same aliens. Though I’m not sure why they are only present in this cavity and in so few numbers. Maybe they truly are just meant to cultivate some plants but the lights don’t extend throughout the entire cavity. It feels off. I’ve been struggling to understand these aliens due to a lack of knowledge of them and I still haven’t found a cache of information on them. Maybe the spire serves that purpose, I can only hope.
They seem to structure their settlement following a hierarchy of theirs. They too lead by the Tallest, just like the Hezians however it also seems like these Tallest have advisors so they don’t have full confidence in their ability. The Tallest live closest to the spire, they rarely leave this area which is blocked off, other than a few portals, by large constructs they’ve obviously made. I’ll go into the discoveries I made within later. That would be one layer of this settlement, the inner layer. The middling layer would be where those who work the more urban associated jobs like crafting or art. The outer layer is mostly agriculture, woodworking, the explorers, and even animal husbandry. That is quite exciting, another advancement that is very important to civilization.
These animals are large grub-like things. They are slow, docile, and filled with fat and protein. They have many legs and scuttle over the ground. I’ve even seen some of the Vexians use them as transportation. However it seems like the Vexians haven’t thought about using them to pull things yet, no carts or tools.
The trees too, are in fact not trees but instead are fungi. Though they do grow a structural stalk upwards like a tree and the ‘leaves’ are simply clumps of reproductive organs. Their stalk, when cut and wetted, can be compressed with other stalks in a complex and often unsuccessful attempt to create something with a similar consistency to wood while being far stronger and more insulating than it. It’s a very useful organism to build things out of since, when it’s not wetted and then dried, it’s quite soft and light; even edible if prepared correctly.
Anway, back to the inner layers. There is actually another layer, the spire itself. It seems to be accessible though I haven’t had any luck. The security there is far more disciplined and constant. The Jungle Moles, without adequate amounts of dirt, simply wouldn’t be able to get through. It seems to be the place that the Tallest work in, while the inner layer is simply where they inhabit. I’m not sure what kind of work is to be done there though, it’s quite curious. I need to organize some way to get in. For my own curiosity but also because I simply can’t find the Fish Eye anywhere! Not that I’ve been able to check inside of most of these constructs but something like that would be hidden somewhere special, not in the home of one of the denizens of this settlement. Which makes me believe that it must be in the spire.
Checking around the perimeter of the spire reveals no easy access. There is only one entry way that I can access. Maybe something like a ventilation port exists further up but the Jungle Moles aren’t capable of checking. Well, in this case it’s obvious that a distraction will be needed. Their guard is too tight for anything else to work and I can’t chance them seeing through the Jungle Mole’s camouflage.
Exposing one of the Jungle Moles and guiding them away would do the trick but it could easily backfire and it would go against the policies which means it’s unacceptable by default. Another option is to cause chaos. Some actions, like throwing something, wouldn’t violate the policies regarding my existence here. I wish my project on circumventing the rules had progressed to the point of experimentation, I’d be able to see if I could lure a creature down here. That’d be useful for many points of observation.
Hmmm. After thinking for a second or two I’ve come to a decision. It will take some research, and a few hours to prepare after that but it should serve as a fine distraction. I can’t wait to see what is hidden inside the spire… and of course to retrieve the Fish Eye.
I get to work while the Jungle Moles quietly watch the entrance to the facility. About two-thirds of them are slowly moving to the edges of the cavernous area under the cover of the Vexians designated sleeping time. Specifically I’m trying to recombine the composite that the Jungle Moles produce to be something more conductive for the job of distracting. I questioned Instincs to see if they had anything to critique on my plan but it seems like it doesn’t technically violate any of the policies so I’m free to do as I planned.
It doesn’t take long to come up with a plan. Sadly it requires the sacrifice of those Jungle Moles that are sitting at the edge of the core. The remainder will have to finish the mission on their own. I wait for daytime first, midday to be exact. As ordered, the outer Jungle Moles reconstructed themselves in a rudimentary way for their final mission. I ensure my other Jungle Moles are in their positions while giving the go ahead. It will most assuredly work, only something on this scale has such a large chance of success.
Quickly, inside the bodies of the reconstructed Jungle Moles, the cores lighten up. Overdrawing on their power source. The new composite has been piling up in the exterior port chamber waiting for this moment. I manually force the emergency shut down procedures to start which forces a dense gas into the power unit. Part of the reconstruction was forcing a hole between the power unit and the core. The gas openly flows through the power unit to the core which further destabilizes the force-fed core. It quickly starts to shake against the minimal metal holding it in place causing sparks. A new gas is fed into the system, a natural gas created by some of the composite material that I had shoved into the power unit. This gas quickly catches fire. I override the emergency shutdown procedure and force it to run. The burning gas fills any empty cavities it can while the power unit begins sparking on its own accord.
Eventually the pressure builds up in the entire unit causing it to burst the thin walls separating the exterior chamber and the rest of the Jungle Mole. This is when the composite, modified to be highly explosive, becomes the focal point. It’s naturally very unstable and all it takes is for the burning gas to touch it.
Explosions let out from the perimeter of the chamber. I made sure that they would be extremely powerful in a short range, to leave no evidence of the Jungle Moles, and in the long range it would simply be very hot, bright, and loud. The shock wave can be seen shooting things every which way and the noise comes slightly later. Even the Jungle Moles near the spire are shaken slightly. Even so, none of the Vexians were directly injured by the explosions or the shockwave. Which can be plainly seen by how energetically they succumb to chaos. I don’t pay much attention to that, what I’m more interested in is what the guards are doing.
After a moment of communication, one runs into the spire and the other runs into the sprawling settlement. A few moments later the one that ran into the spire is near the entrance again, this time followed by a great many other Vexians. They rush into the settlement to assess the situation. Finally, the entrance to the spire is clear. I move the Jungle Moles closer, aiming to move as quickly as possible, leaving only one outside to serve as an observer.