Chapter 29: Revelations

The Racin had sent a small force of covert operatives to the mining planet after receiving orders from their higher ups that the planet may have valuable resources. They were to remain covert and avoid any plundering the new star-system coming near. They had wiped out the small force of Galtans there and thought of taking out the local population of Relites to. But this would possibly have blown their cover of being part of the Galtan Mining operation. Also they were easy to threaten and useful for surveillance. The Galtans on the other hand, had been easy to dispose of, the mine shafts being very deep.

But now it seemed they had disturbed something in the mine, that they could not have expected. Slait’s boss Gregorn wondered. Was this something to do with the resource they were supposed to be guarding? They had no idea. And they could not communicate with the higher ups at the moment with so much going on in the system currently. Their message would highly lightly be intercepted giving their presences away, to other factions. They could possibly reach out to local faction members in the region but that would be a last resort. He had to sort this mess out himself. How to proceed?

They had taken all the other mines on the planet. All 15 of them. With no problems at all. Why was it his mine? Kill or Capture? That was easy. Capture or he might be killing his own career. He supposed it was lucky that the energy weapon they had used had not killed it but that meant it was at least a ‘R-tier’ life form. He could just sit and wait but the report of current situation was already logged.

He sent out a team to scout the area and informed the Relites to report any sightings.

Then fortune shone down on him. A party arrived on the planet.

They had decided to call their party ‘Grey’s Garden’. Grey was a pyromancer, with a wealthy father and a handpicked party. He had not scrimped on his first party. Sisaro, a top-notch, terraformer, - tank. Zane, a priest - healer . Comodor, a druid, also a healer. They had scouted out a few different planets but they were either highly contested or already taken. So Grey was delighted when they found the mining planet. He would snatch up some Galtans and maybe find some other treasures. He might take back some ore as a memento. Either way it would make for some good stories back home. Not long after arriving they came face to face with a load of Galtans. How stupid were these people? He could understand if they just surrendered but they were armed. Pitiful.

Grey started to conjure a spell to wipe a few out when they came under fire. A large amount of ground between them and the Galtans become nothing but scorched earth. Ok he had underestimated these Galtans a bit. Maybe they should leave. Only the charge on their gate spell would not be backup for a few hours. His group raised there hands in a universal sign of surrender.

He was fuming.

To his surprise the Galtans wanted to hire them to sort out a little local trouble. They needed them to track down a beast and bring it back or just report back when they’d seen it. The beast was not especially dangerous. They would easily be able to deal with it but they had to stay at their posts at the mine. Of course. It seemed a reasonable request. But where did these Galtans get all this money from. He guessed mining was very lucrative and soberly thought maybe he had gone a bit out of his league on this first trip. But stll they had a few hours to spar. It was also funny that the Galtans could speak their language fluently. Again clearly they had close ties with one of the factions. Who must have contracted them out. It all made perfect sense now to Grey, who went on his merry way.

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Gregorn was now happy to sit back. He hoped more parties might arrive. In fact even better he put out an announcement that they indeed did need a beast infestation sorted with. And were willing to pay a hefty reward. Perfect. He had put a tracking device surreptitiously on that guy Grey. So that if they died which he thought was very lightly they would be able to track the beast.

Grey and his party hadn’t been given much of a description of their prey. Only that it was not much bigger than a man, aggressive and was a shadow beast of some sort. They decided to have a bit of a look around and if they found anything before the gate spell was up again, all well and good.

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Adam and Thawain were having much better luck. They quickly found the workshop were the kids had clearly been bedding down. Adam was mildly curious about the tools there and would have liked to have a poke about. Libby said she had made a detailed record using his LCD sense and he could have a look at it later. They tramped on through the room which had a larder but now was bare and then again came up against a dead-end.

Of course Libby could tell it was another spell and before Adam had to even think anything Libby had dismantled it. There in front of them was another passage way, stacked with a large amount of meats. Thawain exclaimed about this but Adam just walked on. Down the passage way and onto some stairs and…

Thawain and Adam looked around the great chamber in awe. Now this was more like it. Adam had been on one crappy planet after another. First one that was nothing but desert then one nothing but trees and grassland. But this was more like it, something worthy of being called an alien civilisation. Before him was a great white tower, within a cavernous space enough to easily encompass Wembley football stadium five times over. And that was just the width, it went up and up but mostly down and down into a bottomless pit. But not a boring one, it had lights like hundreds and hundreds of glow flys. And spiralling staircases, to give it an even grander look. Are and kids.

He made his way across a bridge spanning to the central tower, a huddle of kids crouched low. They had clearly either heard or seen they’d been spotted.

Adam looked to Thawain. Tell them we mean them no harm, Adam said in faltering Relite. Thawain nodded and made his way a little way onto the bridge. He shouted across the abyss below. The kids halted clearly unsure what to do.

Then he saw they had found a way to get across to a stairway below and had merely been stalling. He and Thawain ran across the bridge. He hoped the ancient structure was strong enough for his bulk. Then Adam stopped. He could see where they were heading and that they might scatter like mice in this place.

“Libby, could you shadow jump me in front of them.” Adam said hesitantly. He was surprised she had not automatically done it when he thought about it.

“There is something very unusual about this place. That seems to be interfering with the abilities. But I think I still can.” Libby said helpfully.