Chapter 01

INTERLOPERS

PART 2

“Potential Native Sentience In Proximity. Suspending Drone Recalibration.”

Logging the shift in priorities, the Obelisk ceased its scouting experiments until it could quantify its unknown oppressor, sealing itself to the point it looked to be nothing more than an oddly shaped chunk of stone protruding from the water.

Internally however, its plasma-consciousness was brimming with activity, reviewing the petabytes of information it had amassed and running a suite of analysis on the numerous samples it had harvested from the local environment.

Given the limited sample area it had access too, there proved to be a startling amount of biodiversity in the fauna and aquatic life, but the reason why became fairly obvious, if highly improbable, as the initial batch of lab reports began to pour in.

“Triplex-DNA Found In All Life Forms. Mutations, While Rampant, Appear Non-Cancerous.”

Paradox after improbable paradox, the Obelisk found itself firmly planted in a world that seemed intent on perplexing. Triplex-DNA wasn't stable, it normally only occurs in rare cases during biologic reproduction, yet here it was, prevalent in every sample without fail, regardless of age of genome.

On top of that, the solar arrangement negotiating itself in the sky wasn't just improbable, it was nigh-on impossible. The resource cost alone to keep such a spatial anomaly stable was stupendous, yet the Obelisk’s sensors couldn't find any sign of gravity warping technology.

Beyond that, the space between the atmosphere and the binary pair was absolutely swamped with solar radiation, almost a tempest in itself, but the several hundred kilometers of atmosphere remained untouched by the storm due to heavy magnetic fields emanating from the ground that teased the dark nights with wisps of aurora throughout.

Unless the crust of the inverse-sphere were hiding a layer of molten iron swirling at an improbable rate, the levels of magnetic distortion recorded didn't make sense. Just like the gravity, the magnetic fields fluctuated in strength without cause or correlation.

The ‘planet’ itself was a gargantuan beast in its own right, fifty six million kilometers in diameter, and somehow inverted. It was clearly artificial, yet boring attempts had only revealed rock and more rock at boring depths more than twenty kilometers down, with no sign of the mechanisms behind the unnaturally strong attractive forces to be found.

Every data point at the Obelisk’s disposal seemed intent on proving itself contrary, frustrating the plasma-consciousness as none of it came close to even explaining the immediate issue with the drones. No matter how complex or simple a drone had been made, it seemed doomed to malfunction past the immaterial limitation of six kilometers.

Even the equivalent of a flying toaster turned back around at six and a half kilometers out, as it attempted to run down the surveillance drone sent to observe it. It didn't even have the capacity to add numbers, yet it seemed to be no less susceptible to the intangible corruption that bordered on hostile intention.

“Intranet Compromised At Range Of 6KM. Laser-Comm, Hard-Line, And Encryption Have Failed To Resolve. External Force Assumed, No Intrusions Detected. Imposed Containment?”

Ruling out resolvable fault in the drones, and failure in lines of communication, the Obelisk had to settle with the fact that something seemed to be trapping it. A truly unlikely event, yet here it was, caged within a sphere perfectly centered on its position.

There were only two explanations for such a circumstance, both equally hard to accept. If it truly was trapped in a perfectly positioned prison designed to thwart any and every attempt at expansion, then its unknown assailant must have known where the impact would be, or the they already had unilateral control over the impact area.

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For all the science and progress it was worth, the Obelisk was fairly certain its arrival was beyond unpredictable, it was an honest-to-God intrusion from a realm beyond this one. So the only rational explanation was the latter, but no sensor could pick up who or what might be at cause, let alone how the drones were being corrupted.

On the ninth day, for a change of pace in its subroutines, the plasma-consciousness found itself overlooking the scraps of its near-total devastation, contemplating what it could do given its circumstances, rather than what it couldn't, when something new found its way to the charred shores.

That morning, a small wooden craft with a shimmering sail had made landfall less than a kilometer away, and as it watched from afar, four upright creatures were making their towards the Obelisk’s crater-turned-bay.

Without drones, the Obelisk was left to rely on its hull sensors, and while its vision was limited, it was enough to make out the bipedal creatures’ garments and armaments.

The one leading the trudge across the sandy beach was the biggest and burliest, and happened to be wearing the sparsest of garments. Brown leather slacks and massive black boots were accompanied only by a set of leather-fur straps wrapped up and over the muscle-dense torso to holster a shield on his back as broad as the man’s shoulders. The expression he wore was one of perpetual annoyance, and his skin was as tanned as the maroon of the many scars decorating his bald visage.

Behind him were two walking in parallel, likely female based on form. The one closer to the ocean wore light brown capris that reached her mid-calf and topped it with a loose fitting white blouse, sleeves fixed just past the elbow. Paired atop her gray hair was a stereotypical pirate's hat, beneath which the woman bore a giddy expression on her pale complexion.

To her left, the blonde held a more cautious expression and wore what a suit crafted of foliage, cut to a comfortable silhouette that was clearly both limber to move in and functional as camouflage. Carried in her right hand was a bow as long as she was tall, crafted out of a luminescent blue wood and strung tight to draw at any moment. Additionally, her step was as light as her complexion, a gait more prowl than walk, barely disturbing the sand beneath her feet and indicative of a powerful hunter.

Trailing them by a considerable number of paces was a man in full-length black robes trimmed in solid white ribbons. He would have cast a priestly figure if not for how casually he wore his garments, the robe hanging loosely at his shoulders, exposing his lean and polished physique down to his bare midriff. Even darker than the robe was his hair, a deep black bearing a deceptive sheen that seemed to fluctuate between purple and green in the glint of the sun.

Watching the group advance, the Obelisk noted multiple examples of complex behaviors present in the life forms, including battle strategy and obtuse motives.

As the group progressed down the beach, they would stop intermittently and split up. The largest one would place himself between the most obscured areas and the group, while the one in black robes would keep his distance and watch the horizons. Meanwhile, the two women would set to work, with the blonde digging through char piles while the gray-haired one scribbled away in a notebook.

Due to their constant stops, it took the group a little over an hour to traverse the stretch of beach between their wooden ship and the bay where it lay in wait, giving the Obelisk plenty of time to assimilate their language and thus, the leverage to glean more about its new world.

Now able to understand their speech, the Obelisk watched as the bald one’s metal-plated boots sunk into the water-laden sand at the edge of its bay before he called out to his colleagues.

“Don't suppose that's a dungeon do ya? Looks a little chiseled to just be rock.”

The raven-haired man in the back stepped up on a dislodged tree stump with a gaze that could spot a field mouse in a prairie.

“Might be. Hard to tell with the sediment in the water, but if it is, I'm not inclined to tackle a submersion without some rest.”

Turning away from the group to walk a few paces back towards the remnants of the tree line, the blonde girl threw in her two cents.

“From what we've seen, most of the char is a few days damp at least, so whatever happened here isn't an active threat, but we should still be wary of a large-scale A.O.E. spell, a trap like that might only go off a few times a week.”

Joining the bald one at the edge of the beach, the gray-haired girl seemed indifferent for a moment, then ‘locked eyes’ with their silent spectator, staring it down as if she could actually see it.

The moment between them seemed to stretch longer and longer, until the woman pivoted back to the others as if she'd seen nothing. Tugging her pirate-hat to fit her mop of gray, the smallest of the group gave them all a nod and a half-smirk.

“Agreed on all fronts. We'll pitch back at the ship and scout our approach tomorrow.”

Getting a grunt, nod, and an affirming ‘hm!’ in response, the gray-haired captain set off back to the ship, leading the other three in tow.