Castaway Planet

Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 153 of 365. Sol standard year]

Days after of Crash landing/ 1

Uninhabited Island / Ruins/ Unknown Builder

Galactic Standard Time / 1100

Rodolphe blinked as the three of them looked through the door. The corridor beyond the chamber of horrors behind them was as decayed as the room they left. On the walls were burn marks of various sizes, most of them had holes in them, large ones. And beyond that at a height of about four feet up were round crystals a foot round. From them came a soft white light that lit up around five feet. Farther down the dark corridor were pockets of light that went far into the distance.

“So this is what was here? Not looking good,” Zane muttered as he looked from the corridor to the room of horrors behind them.

“I see only two choices here you two. We go and hope to find a way out, or stay and starve to death here. Any other ideas?” Rodolphe asked as he turned and looked at Zane and Bryce.

Bryce looked at Zane who looked away. Bryce looked at Rodolphe and pointed down the corridor, Rodolphe only nodded as he sighed.

“Good. I’ll lead. My team, my choice, my risk,” Rodolphe said as he walked on.

As he led the way farther in, his mind went dark places. He remembered the old fort on his homeworld, and how he had stayed there during his teen years. The fort had been the site of the last stand of a group of rebels who had hidden a chamber he had found. The walls there had been just like this, but there were no bodies.

But if the attackers were the creatures that lived here, that made sense. He’d seen scavengers fight over the bones of the dead before, here would be no different. All they needed to do was find a way to make it to someplace they could get back topside, then they could find a way back to the others. The Chief needed to know that this island had some kind of structure beneath it. If they had to explore this place, it could be the difference between life and death for them all.

Rodolphe just chuckled bitterly under his breath. He had been planning on scuttling the Spirit when his team attacked. He hadn't cared about who died in the rush and now he was helping them all live? Fate and the stars had strange senses of humor after all.

“You okay Rodolphe?” The voice of Zane from behind him caused Rodolphe to turn and look at both Zane and Bryce as they followed after him. He looked at them as he tried to think of how to play off his chuckle. He didn’t want to know what these two would do if they knew who he was, but he would kill them both.

“Yeah Zane, just trying to figure out what happened here,” Rodolphe said and Bryce swallowed loudly.

“Or when,” Bryce said with a haunted tone.

Rodolphe didn’t want to admit that he understood exactly what Bryce meant. Nothing about this place seemed to be normal. From the corpses in the cages back in the other room, to the way this place was setup. He had no idea beyond that whatever had happened here had been beyond terrible. The creatures must have rampaged, but why was the door that led into this place still closed? Could it have been automatic, but why?

“We need to keep moving. Our only chance is to find a way out farther ahead. And I really hope we can find one,” Zane said as she walked forward and looked around.

Rodolphe didn’t want to say anything, but something about Zane bothered him. He was a rebel himself, but Zane was acting like an old friend of his. Said old friend was a covert agent, one of the best spies the movement had. And he only saw every trick that his friend did in Zane’s actions. Like how back on the Spirit, he always stayed in the shadows, always sticking to the back. And how he always seemed to finish jobs in the middle, never the first or last. Everything about Zane seemed to be crafted to be ordinary, nothing that made him stand out. He might have just been nervous or scared, but something about him was….wrong.

As Rodolphe stopped to look at part of the wall, he let Bryce go past him.

Bryce took another step before he stopped and looked back at Rodolphe. “You okay? Did you find something?”

Rodolphe just shook his head and looked at the wall, sighing as he turned away.

“No, thought I did. Nothing here. But I think that this happened a long time ago. Maybe a few centuries at least,” Rodolphe said as he shrugged.

Bryce sighed and shook his head, turning away. “Yeah, I know what you mean. I mean those bones in the last room. But I hoped that this place was just abandoned ya know? That this place was still working.”

“Yeah,” Rodolphe said softly as he looked over his shoulder. He didn’t want to tell Bryce, but he was sure that something about this place was still active. The doors that opened, they had to have been getting power from something. It might have just been from a battery, but then it might not have.

He wanted to play as many cards close to his chest as he could, especially with those he couldn’t trust. In Rodolphe’s opinion, Bryce and Jinn were both massive unknowns. The way those two reacted to the simplest things even children knew, that told him enough. Wherever those two were from, they did not have normal upbringings. And that bothered him, he had no idea where they might be from. The planets that kept modern things away always had tells, and the two of them had none! He almost thought they might be Sleepers

The criminal underworld had tales and rumors, and Sleepers were among the worst of them. Sleepers were just the rumors called them, they always died. The stories said Sleepers always had a sense of awe for even the most basic things, and that was Jinn and Bryce. The stories said that Sleepers were mind-wiped before they were sent out. They would spend years sometimes with their targets, and then they got close to them over time. They said that Sleeper work effort was second to none, another product of their training. They always got promoted until they were next to their targets, and then they stopped. The stories said they made all kind of excuses, saying they were happy where they were or something.

The stories said they were normal people before they activated. People were friends to everyone around them, pillars of their communities. For years they worked until they were sent a code message and then they were activated. Once that happened they were said to study their targets for a few days. then they killed anyone in their way, not caring who died. And if they survived killing their targets, then they fought until they died. The stories said they were always used as Assassins, but who on the ship could be their targets? And there were never two sent after the same target, and on a cruise ship?

He doubted it, so that still left the question, who in the name of the stars were Jinn and Bryce?

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Bryce tried to keep what he was thinking off his face, he didn’t want anyone to ask questions. He knew his past was different, and he had a hard time getting closer to people. But even with what he knew, he had to say that something was wrong with Rodolphe. The man was always trying to get some of the hardest and most isolated jobs. Most people hated them, but then Rodolphe seemed to love them. He had seen a lot of people since he escaped, but there was something about Rodolphe that bothered him. And he knew why, Rodolphe acted like the people who tried to kill him growing up. Always seeming to make themselves small, always alone. At least, they were alone until they struck and tried to kill others. And their Teachers let them do it, saying that it proved they were superior product lines.

He wanted to believe that only the Teachers did what they did, but were there others out there? Ever since he had gotten his identity on that world, he had always thought he had been just one step ahead of the Hunters. But after buying three new IDs on three separate worlds, he had thought he escaped them. That was the only reason he had signed onto the Spirit really. He had planned to finally escape them somewhere in the Frontier Regions. Once he found a cheap ship, he could then find someplace to hyper-sleep the years away. If the Hunters lost his scent, then all he would need to do next was make sure they didn’t find him for a few decades.

Once about fifty years had passed, he had planned to come back to civilization. Depending on the way the Federation had devolved would decide just what he would do next. Part of him wanted to tell the truth and find a few people who would believe him about his past. And then find a way for the entire galaxy to know about the Teachers. To somehow. But if the Teachers took over, then he would have charted a route into deep space, and spend his years free.

“So nothing back there?” Zane asked softly, and for a moment he wondered just how Zane thought Rodolphe had heard him.

After silence for a few moments, Bryce looked up, seeing Zane look at him. He blinked as he realized that he was being talked to, and tried to figure out what to say.

“Rodolphe thought he found something back there,” Bryce said as he shrugged. Zane almost took a step towards Rodolphe only for Bryce to stop him.

Zane looked at him before he sighed. “So he was wrong then?”

“Yeah, so you found nothing up here?” Bryce asked.

Zane only shrugged as he pointed ahead of them.

Bryce looked and saw nothing ahead of them but dark patches with spots of light beyond them. Bryce just looked on, his hope falling. From the creatures to this abandoned complex, he was getting confused. This planet was so beyond anything he thought possible, and then there was this place. The cages back there…they were so wrong.

This place….. was almost like his old School, but so different. The cages seemed to have no way to watch whatever was within them from the station they found. There was no way to feed them, what with how they were stacked on top of each other. And the sheer number of them, that was even more wrong. The old Classrooms only had at most ten Bunks, and Watchers in the corners. But those things…… he didn’t want to think about them, what they might have been.

Zane just sighed and shook his head, before turning around. He walked off into the darkness, and Bryce kept his face blank.

Thanks to his abilities, sometimes he could see far beyond anything that baseline humans like Zane and Rodolphe. More to the point, he could see heat. Farther ahead of them, well at the edge of his sight was a mass of heat, mechanical heat. Whatever it was, it was large and big, that much he could tell.

“Don’t worry, we’ll find a way out of here. I mean the air’s good. That’s something at least,” Rodolphe said as he caught up to them.

“Yeah. There’s that!” Bryce said bitterly. As Rodolphe moved to lead the way, Bryce looked at him. Rodolphe was another problem and one he didn’t want to solve. Back at School, some of the others tried to take down their fellow Students, not the beasts. Rodolphe had that air about him, and part of Bryce wanted to kill him. But Rodolphe wasn’t a Student, he didn’t have any of the tells. But he was acting like anyone around him was an enemy when he was on the Spirit, why Bryce had no idea.

For a time, he thought to confront him about it, but he decided he shouldn’t. Why he had made that choice, he still couldn’t say. But his feelings and snap decisions had saved his life before, and he would always follow his guts. Still, this whole place was making him more worried, there was just something there. He didn’t know anything about why, but this place made him think of his birthplace.

And with that terrible thought, he hoped that sooner or later they would find a way out of this horror.

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Zane looked ahead into the darkness as Rodolphe walked ahead of him. When they had started going down the path, Rodolphe had inserted on going first. The way he had said that he should, that saying, it stank of them. It was all Zane needed to know to figure out who Rodolphe was. And he kicked himself for not noticing. Every action Rodolphe took, they were just like his kind, they always did that. Why or how Federation military schools made their students to act that way, he couldn't say.

Part of him wanted to try and break the hold on him, but part of him wanted to kill him. The Federation was the perfect conman, they brought people in and broke them. Once they built them up into people who would happily kill their own families if ordered to. He still remembered the pain from when he got his scars. Some of them were from when his parents died when they were killed. He knew the Federation told everyone that the people who burned his world were pirates, but he knew. He was there, he knew the truth!

The scum who killed his parents had used Federation drop armor, the newest type from back then. They used them to kill his world, from the logs he found it was a live fire test of all things. And every minute he was with Rodolphe, the desire to give the man some scars of his own grew. But the only reason was that he didn’t want to tip off the bastard's handlers, and he didn’t know their plans. They might have sent him in because of the few rumors the underworld heard about the Spirit, but really? The very idea was insane and needed to

The only reason he didn’t was that it wouldn’t mean anything, Rodolphe was too young. There was no way he was one of the ones who had planned the destruction, or been part of it. No, he would obey Grandfather, grow stronger and more trusted. One day he would find out who had ordered it, and then he would call in every marker he had and visit them for a good long talk.

“I don’t know what this place could be. I mean the research idea is possible, but look at this!” Rodolphe said as he looked over his shoulder at Zane.

Zane looked at Rodolphe and barely kept his voice calm. “Look at what?”

“ The corridor, it’s as wide as the door. And look at how tall this is! I mean, I can see bots or drones up there, watching whatever moves down here. But what? And why would whatever built this place make it so tall?” Rodolphe asked as he pointed upwards.

Zane looked from Rodolphe to the top of the corridor, only now paying attention to it. Looking up all he saw was darkness, no sign of a light up there beyond ten feet. Just by looking up, Zane felt that wherever the ceiling was, it was a lot farther up. His mind went into his memory, thinking about why it was built this way. He was about to say something when a roar echoed off the walls. A roar that came from behind them.

“What was that?” Bryce asked after a few moments. As one they looked back towards the chamber, wondering if one of the creatures had survived after all.

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The creature roared as it finally broke through the boulders with its new arms. As it looked around, it saw the door to the Creator’s Den open and ready for it to raid. It had lived near the falls for a long time and never did the new ones come from it. The chance to raid and take Power from the strange bipeds was almost not enough. But the Strength it smelt from one of them made it take another sniff. But it went still as its senses detected not one strong scent, but many!

The scents were enough, it charged ahead. It didn’t know how, but each of the other scents smelled of such Strength to take. And each one smelt so easy, easier than anything it had ever sensed before.

As it came into the chamber of cages, it stopped and looked around. It had taken food from others, but this place was amazing. Just by another sniff, it sensed all manner of life here. From Walkers, Simmers and Flyers, there were so many! With this and the other strong one, it would become a Ruler, no. Not a Ruler, but the Ruler! With the Strength these ancient ones had, it would grow so strong!

The scent of just one of them was enough to make it so much stronger!

With a roar it charged at the rightmost row of cages, hunting for the best Strength to take first.

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Report; Templates of 10049 gene line of new sampling have been detected within abandoned complex. Watcher Units

Units seeking Templates 99850 have found recharge location. Template 99850 group has made ingresses into abandoned sector near Template 10049.

Alert, Bio weapon template broken into abandoned facility. It has stopped in the abandoned specimen observational area. Actions show it has ability of Evolutionary Consummation.

Only one Bio weapon template released with Evolutionary Consummation, within last 72 hours. Template with Evolutionary Consummation retreating to far nolog section of test grounds.

Confirmed, template with Evolutionary Consummation within facilities not one of the released Templates.

Possibilities two; 1; Template weapon of other one of the minds. 2; Template hunting Templates 10049.

Send directives to hunter Constructs to bios-can Template 10049 group before other actions. Send Hunter Templates to deal with Rogue Bio Weapon. Bring back Rogue to main gene lab for genetic dissection.

Orders confirmed, Constructs moving towards section of Facility.