"Initializing counter-burn," the computer said in her helmet.

Pirra shifted slightly in her seat, fighting back the nervousness before a mission. It was a little stronger now than normal. How could it not be, after that last mission?

At the same time she was also itching for a fight.

Ah, she thought. The universal fight or flight response.

Anywhere there was a Darwinian biosphere - basically all of them - there was that trait.

There seemed little chance of a fight here, though. Further scans showed the building as cold; no one was home. They had a full complement of Guardian drones and scanner drones, and they'd be sending in scanners ahead of themselves to check for traps.

And this was their element. They were espatiers, meant for space combat. The moon was a body, but small enough to have only microgravity. Perfect for them.

The counter-burn started, and her team were shoved in their seats hard as they were hit with ten Gs. They were all braced, and no one fainted.

Her leg hurt, but she ignored it. Her suit noted the spike and suggested a painkiller, but she ignored that, too. They said the painkillers given on missions didn't affect one's thinking, but she always felt they did affect her, and she wanted a clear head.

"Impact in ten," the computer said.

The G-forces were still intense, but decreasing marginally. Still nine Gs, her system told her.

She took a series of sharp breaths, then held herself. Blood was wanting to be pulled towards her back, but she kept her body tensed, preventing that as much as possible.

"Five seconds." They were down to six Gs, still a fight, but tolerable.

Four Gs.

Then two.

The counter-burn stopped, and they bumped just slightly as they landed.

"Landing successful," the system said.

"All right, team, out and form up! Cover every direction, remember we're not on some mudball anymore! It's proper vacuum out there!"

"Aye!" her seven espatiers called.

Each member of the team had checked their gear before leaving, confirming all was sealed up. The computer had checked them as well before transit, during, and even now. But each member now checked each other as well - in an airless environment, it was always a good idea.

The doors opened, and they moved out in two lines, spreading out in twos to check all directions, and find cover.

They were in the crater, with the ragged canyon a hundred meters ahead. Drones moved by them in carefully-coordinated swarms, spreading out and scanning every bit of surface as they moved.

Her eyes told her they were clear, and the drones said the same.

"Move out," she ordered over the radio.

The almost zero-gravity here meant that they only needed to kick slightly off the surface to move forward. Small thrusters on her shoulders hissed, pushing her back down so she didn't end up flying high. Other than that hiss, conducted through her suit, and her own breathing, it was silent.

After the last time, when their enemies had had extremely powerful jammers, this time they had better back-ups; infrared lasers that could beam communications directly between each member of the squad. As long as there was line of sight, they could talk.

Team Two landed, two hundred meters off to their left. Devilleneuve led his team out.

"Planting surface sensors," Devilleneuve said to her over comms.

"Copy," she replied. While his team was planting the sensors that would let them get an idea of what lay under the surface, she took her team towards the structure in the canyon.

Reaching the lip of the crack, Pirra stopped and looked down.

It was a sheer cliff, the drop not dangerous in the low gravity - only an inconvenience.

They attached ropes to the edge of the cliff, so they could climb back up when they were done, and pushed off, heading down.

"Half a percent Earth gravity," Kiseleva muttered over the radio. "Might as well be zero."

"Eyes on target," Pirra said.

She let her thrusters maneuver her towards the wall, grabbing onto the rock and sliding down it to slow herself. Before she landed on the building she came to a stop on a slight outcropping, while the rest of the team caught up.

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They didn't know if the building was rigged for pressure. Drones confirmed there was nothing visual, at least.

"Scanning section," Kiseleva called, holding a device to the edge of the building. "I'm reading nothing," she said after a few moments.

"It's going to be empty," Pirra said. "Circle the edges, look for any entrances."

"I can make one," Kiseleva said.

"You will. But I want to know if this place was even meant to be entered," Pirra replied.

Kiseleva prepared to make a door while the rest of them searched. A single entrance, a heavy airlock, was found, but it had no power.

"We're down on the side," Pirra called to Kisleva. "Once your explosives are placed, come join us and we'll blow it."

Once she had joined them, Pirra gave the go-ahead, and they blasted a hole into the building.

They all waited, tensed, in case something happened. The explosion could be felt through any surface they were touching, but they couldn't hear it.

The breach hole was wide enough for one to go through easily, and Pirra went first, floating over the hole, and two others shoving her shoulders down.

Raising her rifle as soon as she was inside, she swept in all directions.

The building was mostly empty. But not entirely.

"We've got some equipment," she called.

Cutter's voice came on the line. "Closer. Share feed."

Pirra did so, sweeping her gaze slowly over the equipment. It was huge, whatever it was. Something . . . coiled? It was hard to tell.

Reaching the floor, she pushed off a wall, heading around the huge piece, and then gasped.

"Sky, something had a meltdown in here," she said. Her eyes flickered to her radiation sensors, but there was no uptick in the readings. "Confirm my rad sensors are working."

"Confirmed," Cutter replied. "Drones detected no elevated levels of radiation."

Pirra let out a breath.

Kiseleva came over. "I think this was intentional damage. An attempt to destroy and cover up, not an accidental meltdown."

"I concur," Cutter said. "Very hastily done. Very poorly. Good for us. Find anything intact - share feeds."

"Copy," Kiseleva replied.

"Secure this facility," Pirra called out to her team.

It was a large building, but being so empty it did not take long to check it all. There was no data storage, nothing complex except the single large, partially-melted device.

But they did find a sign on the wall.

"Commander," Kiseleva called. "You'll want to see this."

Pirra came over.

At first she thought it was some sort of art. It had boxes imposed on a circle, and lines from each heading towards a single central box.

Then she saw that one of the boxes on the edges was marked out.

"You are here," she realized.

"I think so," Kiseleva said. "This is only one of many."

"Our scans didn't find any others," Pirra said.

Kiseleva shrugged. "We could have missed them. Or they might have been dismantled more thoroughly."

Cutter's voice came on again. "Image confirms suspicions. This facility makes little sense on its own. But as part of a ring - can only be a zerodrive."

"An asteroid-scaled zerodrive?" Pirra asked. "For what purpose? Omen isn't a new moon."

"Do not know," Cutter said. "But I am confident in conclusion."

Suon's voice came through the comms. "We've found a computer hidden in a wall panel. Nothing big, but it's plugged into the main system here."

"Is it on?" Kiseleva asked.

"No, it's off."

"We're on our way," Pirra said.

Suon spoke again, but his voice suddenly had a note of alarm. "It's turned on and it's doing something!"

"Did you touch it?" Kiseleva demanded.

"I just- I barely-"

Pirra whirled, her system guiding her to Suon's location. Jetting over, Kiseleva right behind her, they looked at the computer.

The wall near the computer had a huge burn hole in it. Kiseleva peered through it.

"The computer's connection to the system had been damaged by debris," she said.

"There was a cable that had come out," Suon said. "I touched it and it slipped back in."

"It's not a booby trap or we'd all be dead already," Kiseleva muttered. "So what is it doing?"

Pirra turned, looking around the room.

Something wasn't right. There was a hum in the floor that hadn't been there before. It was subtle, but growing stronger.

"Do you feel that?" she asked.

Everyone froze, and she saw Kiseleva's eyes widen. They both realized at the same time, and looked at the huge damaged coil.

"It's getting hot," Pirra said.

"Yebat’," Kiseleva spat. "The people trying to hide these facilities didn't dismantle them. They sent them into zerospace."

Pirra's eyes widened. "But this one had a failure . . ."

"And the computer just sent it an order to try again," Suon finished.

"We can't be near it when it opens the portal," Kiseleva said quickly.

"Can we turn it off?" Pirra asked, moving in front of the computer.

"The power is building rapidly," Kiseleva said quickly, scanning the computer. "I don't know what will happen if we break the connection. But I know that that coil is already dangerous. Look what it did last time."

Pirra looked at the damage to the room. They wouldn't survive it, and if it was much more powerful this whole building wouldn't survive.

"We're moving out!" Pirra called on a channel to her team. "Team Two, do you copy?"

There was no response.

"Kis, what's going on?"

The floor was humming more and more. Her team, she realized, hadn't even all reacted to her order. "Craton?" she called. No answer.

"The zero field is messing up radio comms," Kiseleva said, her voice coming through the direct infrared signal system. "Line-of-sight communications only."

"Get everyone else," Pirra ordered Suon and Kiseleva. "Then meet outside."

It took them precious time to get the other five members of the squad.

"Up and out," Pirra ordered. One by one they all leaped up, passing through the hole they'd cut through the ceiling.

They had three lines coming down, and they leaped up to them, grabbing and jumping higher, using the ropes only to keep from falling back down.

As soon as Pirra crested the lip, she called out. "Team Two, back to the shuttles now!"

The ground, she realized, was starting to rumble.