Destiny Among the Stars - Scifi - LitRPG - Adventure

"I got that one," Luca whispered, his plasma rifle tracking across the canopy above them.

"Which?" Zoe asked, her own weapon trained on the cluster of Vexillari Skyflayers circling overhead like overgrown wasps.

"Top left."

"The yellow one?"

POW!

The rifle's discharge was barely a whisper, but the Skyflayer tumbled from the sky, its chitin cracking as it smashed into the undergrowth.

"Five points for me," Luca said with satisfaction.

"Oh yeah? Check this out," Zoe replied, her finger finding the trigger.

Two plasma bolts fired in rapid succession. The first bolt caught a hovering Skyflayer center mass, and as it exploded in a shower of bug guts, the second bolt punched through the mess to nail the creature directly behind it.

"Two! Haha!" Zoe grinned behind her rifle scope. "That's what I call efficiency."

Chris's voice crackled over the comm. "The signal's steady, coming from about twenty meters below ground level. No surface disturbances visible from here, no signs of immediate hostility in the area."

Through their scopes, Luca and Zoe could see the Centurion hovering at a safe distance. The rest of those idiots would be clustered around the sensor displays, trying to make sense of what they'd found.

"Buried?" Danny's voice carried obvious curiosity. "Could be an underground structure."

"Why can't things be easy?" Ryan muttered through the comm. "Nothing's ever simple on this fucking planet."

Luca adjusted his position behind the moss-covered log they were using for cover. Three more Skyflayers drifted between the trees, but they seemed more interested in whatever was giving off the energy readings than in hunting for scouts.

[+51,428 XP]
[+18,000 credits]

[Item Acquired: Power Cell]

"Area's clear from our position," Luca reported. "Whatever's down there isn't actively trying to kill us. Yet."

By midday, the forest had gone quiet except for the soft hum of the Centurion settling into position by the Specter. Luca climbed out and immediately started stretching. His back was killing him from being cramped in that cockpit.

The coordinates looked like more alien wilderness at first. Trees, moss, the usual collection of shit that wanted to eat them. But as they spread out, details started jumping out that made Luca's pulse spike.

Stone. Actual worked stone, jutting up through the forest floor. Dark and covered in symbols that were definitely not natural.

"This is Varnathi construction, just like that road," Joey said, kneeling beside one of the larger stones with his scanner out. "Look at these glyphs. Same writing we've seen in the portals."

Danny crouched next to him, running his fingers over the carved symbols. "How old you think this is?"

"Hard to say without proper equipment, but based on weathering patterns, centuries at least."

Zoe crossed her arms, staring down at the ruins. "So the System just brings these people back as NPCs in our portals? That's fucked up."

The comment hit Luca weird. He found himself thinking about the Varnathi they'd killed in portal runs. Had they been based on real people? People who'd lived here, built this place?

Chris was running his multitool over the stonework. "Signal's definitely coming from below. And it's strong."

"Running for centuries," Ryan said, kicking at a piece of carved stone. "What kind of power source lasts that long?"

Emily was examining what looked like an entrance. "Only one way to find out."

Chris was already moving toward an intact archway. "The entrance is clear. No digging required."

Luca stared at the archway Chris was pointing toward. Stone steps led down into shadow, but they were clean. Perfect. Like someone had been sweeping them every fucking day.

"That's not right," Ryan said. "This place should be completely overgrown."

But there it was. A perfectly preserved entrance leading down into something that should have been buried and forgotten, giving off signals that they could pick up from subspace.

What the fuck.

Danny approached one of the massive statues flanking the entrance. A Varnathi warrior, twice human height, carved with such detail he could see individual fur patterns on its muzzle. "How the hell is this still intact?"

"Because they were that advanced," Chris said, his multitool going crazy with readings. "We're looking at technology so far beyond us it might as well be magic."

Emily stayed close to Luca, staring up at the towering architecture. "This isn't a ruin. This is like they just... left."

Zoe traced her fingers along symbols carved into the entrance. "Maybe they did. Question is, why?"

The archway stood open, leading down into depths.

Stolen novel; please report.

"Let's go see what real Varnathi engineering looks like," Luca said, checking his tomahawk.

The moment they stepped down the steps and into the entrance, Luca's brain tried to process what he was seeing and basically gave up. The corridor stretched ahead of them, but not in any way that made sense. The walls curved upward into impossible geometries, and the ceiling seemed to extend infinitely above them, past where the forest floor should have been. It was filled with slowly rotating symbols that cast shifting patterns of light.

"Holy shit," Danny whispered. "This place is still running."

The air hummed with power, with the steady pulse of systems that had been maintaining themselves for millennia. Thin lines of energy traced along the walls, feeding data to crystalline nodes embedded in the stonework.

"Look at these carvings," Emily said, running her hand along a relief depicting Varnathi figures in flowing robes. "They're not just decorative. They're functional. Like the entire wall is one massive computer."

"Ryan, you getting this?" Luca asked, turning to their designated photographer. "This shit needs to be documented."

Ryan was already adjusting his camera settings. "Already on it. These reliefs are incredible. The detail work alone is worth a fortune to xenoarchaeologists back home."

Chris's multitool was practically screaming. "The energy readings are off the charts. This isn't just preserved, it's actively maintained by systems I can't even begin to understand."

They moved deeper into the complex, their footsteps echoing in the vast spaces. Every surface told stories in flowing Varnathi script, images of their civilization at its height. Cities that floated in the sky. Ships that bent space around them.

"They were advanced... very advanced," Chris said, staring at a holographic display that flickered to life as they approached.

The corridor ahead of them was a masterwork of Varnathi architecture, its walls lined with crystalline formations that pulsed with soft blue light. They needed to cross to reach the far side, where another archway beckoned.

Danny took point, stepping carefully onto the pristine floor. But as his boot touched a specific tile, the air around them shimmered.

Thin beams of silver light lanced out from hidden emitters in the walls, creating a deadly grid across the causeway. Ryan, bringing up the rear, was clipped by one on the arm.

He just... stopped.

Frozen mid-stride like a statue, completely motionless, but his eyes still tracked movement. Temporal stasis. His body was locked in that instant, invulnerable but helpless.

"Ryan!" Emily called, but he couldn't respond.

"It's a stasis field," Chris said, already analyzing the beam pattern with his multitool. "He's not hurt, just locked in time. But I need to figure out how to get us past without—"

A soft chittering sound interrupted him. From hidden panels in the walls, small insect-like maintenance drones emerged, their metallic bodies gleaming. They moved toward Ryan's frozen form and began systematically dismantling his armor, harvesting it for raw materials.

"Oh, fuck no," Luca growled, raising his blaster.

But the drones were too close to Ryan. Any shot risked hitting him.

"The pattern!" Chris shouted, focusing on his scanner. "The beams shift in a sequence, but it's complex. I need time to—"

More drones appeared, working faster now. Ryan's shoulder plate was already half gone.

"We don't have time," Danny said, hefting his shield. "I can draw them off, give you space to work."

"The beams will lock you too," Joey warned.

"Maybe. But my armor's heavier than his. It'll take them longer to strip me down."

Danny charged into the beam grid, his shield blazing at maximum power. Two beams caught him, but his momentum carried him forward before the stasis fully took hold. The drones immediately swarmed toward him, drawn by the energy signature.

"Got it!" Chris yelled. "The pattern repeats every eighteen seconds. Move on my mark!"

They raced across the causeway, dodging between the shifting beams. Luca grabbed Ryan just as the stasis field flickered, hauling him to safety as his armor sparked from the drone damage.

But Danny was still frozen in the middle of the causeway, drones swarming over his shield generator. By the time they reached him, the device was completely fried.

"Shit," Danny muttered as the stasis released him. "There goes my main defense."

"You saved our asses," Luca said, helping him up.

"Yeah, well. That's what the tank's for, right?"

Emily let out a frustrated huff, finally grabbing Luca's arm. "Luca," she murmured, keeping her voice low, "slow down a bit, yeah? "

Beyond the causeway, they entered a series of four-way intersections that all looked identical. Crystal formations lined the walls, pulsing with that same soft blue light, and Varnathi statues stood at each corner.

Zoe took point, as usual. "This way," she called, turning left at the first intersection.

The team followed, but when they rounded the corner, Zoe was gone.

"Zoe?" Luca called, his voice echoing in the empty corridor. "Where did you go?"

Her voice crackled over the comm, distorted with static. "I'm right here with you guys. What are you talking about?"

Luca spun around, scanning the hallway. No sign of her. "Where are you? I can't see you."

"I'm... I'm looking right at you, Luca. You're standing next to Emily, about ten feet away. Ryan's taking a picture of one of the statues."

But Ryan was right beside him, his camera focused on the wall carvings, nowhere near any statues.

"The space is folded," Chris said, his multitool going haywire. "She's on the other side of some kind of dimensional rift. Same physical location, but separated by... fuck, I don't even know how to describe this."

Emily grabbed Luca's arm. "Can she get back?"

Static burst over the comm, then Zoe's voice came through in fragments. "—can hear you but—breaking up—something's wrong here—"

"Zoe, what's wrong?" Luca demanded.

More static, then: "The statues. They're... they're moving when I'm not looking directly at them. Every time I check, they're in slightly different positions."

Ice ran down Luca's spine. He looked at the statues in their corridor. Perfectly still, carved faces staring straight ahead.

"Talk to me, Zoe. What do you see?"

"Four corridors, just like yours. But the lighting's different. Dimmer. And the statues..." Her voice dropped to a whisper. "I swear one of them just turned its head."

"Ryan, get this shit documented," Luca said, his voice tight. "Whatever's happening here, we need proof."

Ryan was already recording, his camera capturing the apparently empty space where Zoe should have been standing. "This is impossible. She's transmitting from our exact coordinates, but she's not here."

"Options, Chris, Ryan," Luca said. "How do we get her back?"

Chris was frantically working with his multitool, trying to map the spatial distortions. "The corridors are overlapping. Same space, different... layers? If we can sync our movements, maybe we can—"

Zoe's scream cut through the static.

"Zoe! What happened?"

Her voice came back, shaky but determined. "One of them moved. Actually moved. It's facing me now, and I swear its eyes are tracking me. But when I look directly at it, it's stone again."

"Get out of there," Luca ordered. "Move to a different corridor."

"I can't. Every corridor I take leads back to the same intersection. I'm trapped in here with these fucking things."

The static was getting worse, her voice fading in and out like a bad radio signal. Luca felt panic starting to claw at his chest. Zoe was alone on the other side of reality, being stalked by animate statues, and he couldn't do shit to help her.

"Talk me through your surroundings," he said, forcing his voice to stay calm. "Every detail. We'll figure this out."

"Okay... okay. Four corridors, crystal formations on the walls, but they're darker than yours. The statues are... shit, there's six of them now. I swear there were only four before."

Chris looked up from his scanner. "The dimensional overlap is shifting. The space is reconfiguring itself."

"Luca," Zoe's voice was barely a whisper now. "I don't think these statues are decorative. I think they're guards. And I think I'm trespassing."

Through the static, they could hear something else. The soft scrape of stone against stone, like ancient feet taking slow, deliberate steps.