It was nearly thirty minutes of gliding just above treetops before we saw the tower that Benjamin had seen and just as he'd said, it wasn't showing up on any of our equipment.

"What do you think's up with it?" Carrie asked as we flew closer to the structure.

"I don't know," I told her. "It could be anything really. A field of nano-machines that act as a cloaking device. Lasers bending light so it doesn't show up. A massive hologram to lure us into a trap. There are too many possibilities and we'll drive ourselves nuts trying to pick one, let's just get there and deal with whatever's coming."

"That was the plan anyway," Carrie said. "Should someone go ahead and act as a scout?"

"I considered it," I said. "Unfortunately, I don't want to risk it when we don't have any backup."

"Fair enough," she sighed. "I kind of want to explore this place."

"Why?" I asked. It was a false planet and it was full of sentient creatures that we could communicate with. Talk about nightmare fuel.

"It's a planet that was built!" Carrie exclaimed excitedly. "Who knows how the plant and animal life interact with each other! There could be nothing but predatory creatures here and they're starting to evolve into herbivores or something. The tree that's poisonous back on its world might have an animal here that thinks the poison it has is spicy and won't stop eating its leaves! This is all so cool and all we're seeing is a bunch of places where people want to kill us. It's unfair."

"Tell you what," I said. "If we can successfully knock out the engines, then we'll take the scenic route to the shuttles. We'll have to wait for them to find somewhere to land anyway, so we can sightsee for a bit."

"Yes!" she pumped a fist. "I am so finding a friendly monkey!"

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the tower that we were approaching. At a glance it was easily over two hundred and fifty feet tall, circular, and the only signs of an entrance on it where what looked like windows near the top.

"Cai, let me see heat," I told my Cyber. "Please account for the natural heat of the surroundings."

As my helmet's display changed into a series of blobs colored by the amount of heat that was surrounding me and being output by the jungle we flew over, I turned my attention to the top of the tower and winced. Those windows were putting out enough heat to melt a starship's hull accourding to my display. That meant that we weren't entering there without turning into charcoal.

"We need to find somewhere on the ground that we can enter this thing," I told my squad. "Assuming we can even go inside of this tower."

"What's wrong with those windows at the top?" Micheal asked.

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"They're giving out too much heat," I answered. "Enough that we wouldn't survive trying to use them."

"Is this tower just one big thruster?" Sarah asked nervously.

"I don't think so," I said. "According to the scans from the fleet, the engines we're looking for are gravity drives like our wings but on a scale that makes them capable of moving this planet. Gravity drives don't have a flare that's output as they go. It's likely that this tower is used to help regulate the temprature of this world and the drives."

"Do gravity drives overheat?" Bunny asked glancing at her Seraph Drive.

"When they're larger like this, it's a pretty big risk," I told her. "Smaller ones like ours are able to adjust their output and activation well-enough that heat production isn't an issue."

"Let's move to the ground and start searching for somewhere to enter this place," Carrie said. "Our Cybers can scan for any hidden corridors or entrances with the equipment that we have while we use our eyes."

"You heard the lady," I told the squad as we watched Carrie descend as soon as she finished speaking, "let's get to the ground. We're close enough that they've probably got a maintenance shaft or something somewhere closeby."

As we touched down on the jungle's floor, Carrie began to divide us into pairs and sent us scattering in different directions.

"Any idea what we're looking for, or is it more of a 'know it when you see it' kind of day?" Carrie asked me as we moved through the jungle.

"I have no idea for either choice," I told her.

"Horseman Applewood's Cyber has detected a subterranean tunnel," Cai told me. "She is now overlaying the tunnel's direction on your displays."

"Looks like Touka just gave us somewhere to start looking," I said to Carrie as the tunnel's dimensions and directions spread out beneath us.

"Since my Cyber found the prize, I'm taking point," Carrie said as she picked one of the two directions and began to follow it.

"No arguing here," I muttered, swiveling my head around to hopefully find anyone trying to sneak up on us.

We followed the tunnel for about ten minutes before the tower loomed directly in front of us and a door on the side of it stood in front of us. The tree we'd followed the tunnel to was much larger than the others and had another door set into its trunk.

"That tree's totally artificial," Carrie said. "Call it a gut feeling."

While she was making bad jokes, I sent word to the rest of the squad to converge on us and approached the door into the tower.

"We going to wait for the others to get here before we open it?" Carrie asked as she followed after me.

"Yes and no," I answered her. "We're going to peek inside and then we're going to wait for the others before we go in."

"Cool," she shrugged. "You want to open it or do you want me to?"

"You found the tunnel, so please, I insist that you allow me to open this door for you, your Highness," I said stepping forward and grabbing the doorknob.

"About time you finally figured out that I'm above you socially," she said as I pulled the door open.

Cautiously, she peeked around the frame and looked into the hallway that lead into the tower. When nothing jumped out at her, she reached to her belt and grabbed a glowstick, breaking and throwing it into the darkened corridor that stretched out before us. Nothing was illuminated by the stick and it came to rest on the ground eventually.

"Looks like it's clear," she said. "Do we still wait, or do we explore?"

"Wait," I decided. "If there's something down there that we can't see or some sort of motion sensor that the stick was too small to activate, then I'd rather have the whole gang here when it all goes wrong."

"Fair," she nodded. "Can we play a prank on them all?"

"No," I shot that down quickly. "We need to make sure that nothing shows up and sends out some sort of warning that gets whatever soldiers they have after us."

"I'm never getting Sarah back for Hacksaw," Carrie grumped.

"That was nearly fifty years ago, I think you can let it go," I told her.