Y:6 D:2

Argos

A well-organized search party of five left Argos to go straight to Alpha City. The

camera they had left had not seen anything other than passing animals, and

therefore the city was considered empty.

Upon arrival, the team proceeded to move close to the center, where it

expected to find more buildings of importance. Parts of the city had been overtaken

by vegetation, giving a magical feel to the already alien environment. The team sat to

rest on a wide opening, probably the location of an old park. They still needed a few

hours of walking to reach the center.

“It is pretty magical to sit here,” said Juuda, opening his backpack to get his

food out.

“I think Helen’s hypothesis is right,” said Anais. “This city must have been the

capital of this world.”

“I think so too,” added Steve over the communicator. “The city gives the

feeling that it was made with multiple architectures. We find similarities to the ones

we have seen from the spy planes, but this is the only one that combines them all.”

“They moved by air a lot as well,” said Juuda sadly. “What could have caused

them to destroy themselves?”

“Why do you find that strange?” asked Bara.

“So many species managed to coexist for long enough to build buildings with

docks on almost every floor. We have not found a landfill yet, which might suggest

that they managed their trash to keep the environment safe. Now we invaded them,

and yet they have shown no signs of aggression. I can’t imagine what could have

destroyed such wonderful creatures.”

Emile, who was a sociologist and history enthusiast, although he rarely

spoke, decided to add his own input in the conversation. “This has me really

confused. We see that they have almost no connection now. In fact, if you observe

them, you will notice that they are on alert when they are near the borders of other

species. They are not living in peace, and obviously they had war at some point. The

question then arises, how did they manage to coexist so well for long enough to

reach these technological achievements, and why did they fall?”

“We will find answers for all those questions soon enough,” said Juuda. “For

now, let’s finish our meals and continue.”

A couple of hours later, the team had reached the area with the tallest

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buildings.

“This looks like a good choice,” said Juuda, pointing at the largest building he

could see. “Let’s head in.”

Bara stood at the front, and Anais sent in two small drones to scout the area.

“It’s empty,” she said and began walking in through a window.

“The room is quite small. One window, one door,” reported Anais while

walking through. “The door leads to a very large open room with many doors

connecting to many small rooms around it. The ceiling is much higher than you might

initially expect. The walls and floors must be quite thin. This entire floor is like a large

square with many small squares around it. There is a wider room on each side. Yes!

This is the access to the other floors.”

“It looks like they had a few ways to get from one floor to another. There are

stairs very similar to what we would use, but there are also thinner shafts with metal

extrusions. Helen’s hypothesis is increasingly valid,” said Juuda while reporting back

to Argos. “There are many ways to go to the floors. Probably for the different species

to use.”

“I am proceeding to the floor below, lights on,” said Anais. After a few

seconds, she reported, “Clear. Same as above. All seems empty.”

“How many floors down does it go?” asked Juuda.

Anais sent her drones down the shaft. “I am counting … wow, eleven floors.

There are more, but they are flooded. I need a different drone.”

“Check for any that do not look the same as the rest,” said Juuda.

“The second floor down looks like it was the ground floor,” said Anais and

continued to make rough scans floor by floor, while keeping everyone updated. “The

seventh floor under seems to be very different.”

“Check that the others further below are clear as well, and let’s proceed to

that one.”

“They are all clear. No movement. Same as the ones we have seen.”

“Then let’s go down to the different one straight away.”

“Everything seems to be empty,” said Bara while going down.

Steve added, “This makes sense. If their collapse was so many thousands of

years ago, they would slowly take everything.”

“It does not explain why it’s deserted. They should still use it as a base, just

like all other cities we have seen with the spy planes,” added Juuda.

“I am at the seventh floor down,” said Anais. “It’s clear. Come.”

“It’s like a sewer network of the old Earth cities,” said Steve. “The larger

openings seem large enough to have a vehicle pass through. It looks like the whole

city was interconnected from underground.”

“Shh!” said Anais suddenly. “Something is coming.”

They all froze in place and focused their attention to one of the tunnels, where

light started appearing. It was two Goblins. The Goblins froze when they saw light

coming from the room and proceeded to walk slowly and carefully without talking

anymore.

“This is it!” said Alex through the communicators. “This will be our first

contact. Make sure you stay calm and friendly.”

Juuda moved to the front and stood with his head high. When the Goblins

moved close, they had their shields high and their spears pointing at Juuda.

“Their shields and spears are made of glass,” said Anais.

“Hello,” said Juuda, raising his hand and showing his palm to them.

All the lights were shining on them. Gakuto, who had thought that they must

be nocturnal, tried to warn them, “Don’t shine your lights on them!” but it was too late.