Valterion: The Space/Arch? Mage

Location: Solar System; Above Venus; Valterion Shipyard

Dave shakes hands with the squad leader, who introduces herself as Shay. His friends follow him, and then they take in the small hangar bay. Time wasn't kind to the place. The once smooth surfaces are now ripped open, and sharp pieces stand out from every corner.

Shay seems to notice Dave's gaze and shouts out a warning. "Careful, those edges are no joke!"

Dave nods in thanks and takes a closer look.

I didn't know tristanium could suffer like this. Or is it a composite material? Might as well give it a try.

He focuses and casts a spell. His magic extends from his hands and starts to analyze a small piece of the rough wall before him. Slowly but surely, information enters his mind, and he is quick to relay his findings to Kylie, who taps along on her interface.

Interesting, it is pure tristanium, but somehow it reacted with something I can't identify right now, and then popped open like a ripe fruit.

His spell finishes, and he looks back up at Shay. "Can we take a sample?"

The woman shrugs. "Sure, go ahead and take this one," she points a bit to Dave's left. "That part is about to fall off anyway."

Toby steps forward and uses a small laser cutter to remove the indicated piece for further research. After that, the archaeologists turn back to the Peacekeeper squad and ask them to accompany them further into the shipyard.

Two of them take point and lead them out of the hangar bay while Shay and another Peacekeeper stay with Dave and his friends. The final two bring up the rear. Dave looks at what once must have been a door. He looks at Shay with a slight frown on his face. "Your work?"

I hope not, or we need to exchange a few stern words!

She shakes her head. "No, the door was already gone… There's another one further in that's still closed, but we haven't touched it yet. We wanted to wait for you guys."

Dave sends her an approving look. "That's great, thank you!"

They walk down the hallway until they arrive at the mentioned door. Dave beckons Fabio forward, who kneels and takes a close look at the lock. He casts a few spells and then takes out a few additional tools. Five minutes later, the door swings open and a grinning Fabio dusts off his hands. "I still got it!"

They continue down another hallway until they arrive at a bank of elevators. Dave tries to press the button, but the power is gone. He shrugs. "Was worth a try…"

Kylie laughs and points to the left, where a yellowed stair sign hangs on its last thread. The group continues and enters the stairway. They carefully make their way upward, as a few steps are halfway gone. Still, they manage to reach the top of the stairway and stop before another door. This one is in better shape, and Dave doubts that Fabio could have opened it. But he doesn't need to, as there is a gap between the door and the frame.

I wonder what made the door so warped… Lucky us, I guess.

The two Peacekeepers at the front stop at the door and lift their rifles. Shay nods at them and steps forward. Instead of pushing it open, she uses a Telekinesis spell to push against the door magically.

A scraping sound rings in everyone's ears when the door starts to move. Shay huffs and puts more and more power into the spell. The door is more warped than everyone expected. Still, the effort pays off, and after a minute, the gap is wide enough for a person to go through.

Before that happens, the Peacekeepers throw in a camera to take a look at things inside. When they find nothing, the first one enters and is immediately followed by the second. Shay goes third and then calls out for Dave and his friends. When they're inside, Toby lets out a low whistle.

The room looks like a command center of sorts. There are different stations arrayed before a big, outward-facing window. Dave frowns a little.

It looks like a command center, but I think it's too small. There's no way this is big enough to manage a shipyard that large. AIs weren't that much of a thing back then.

He looks at Shay. "Is the room secured? Can we take a look around?"

The black-haired woman nods. "Yes, but stay away from the stations for now. We have to check for additional security measures that could still be active."

"You heard her, look around and try to find out what kind of place this was," Dave calls out to his friends.

They swarm out to different corners of the room while Dave takes a closer look at the stations in the center of the room. A few minutes later, he calls them back, as he has discovered something. He points at the second station from the left. "That station here looks like what you see at flight control… I think this place was for coordinating the traffic around the shipyard. Hence the window, and everything oriented that way," he points toward the dark space outside.

Toby scratches his chin and nods. "Yeah, that makes sense. It would also explain the arrival and departure board over there," he points to where he's been just moments ago, and Dave notices what Toby must have meant.

Crazy that he recognized it as what he just said… There's barely anything left.

With the purpose of the room now clear, the archaeologists get to work and start using their spells and equipment. The Peacekeeper squad also finishes their checks and allows Dave and the others access to the stations. Not that they are of much use without power, but Kylie and Lena still check everything. It pays off, as they discover a rough schematic of the shipyard's layout in one of the drawers below a station.

They call out for Dave, and he joins them to look at the schematic. "Nice, that will help a lot!"

Hours later, the group finishes with the room, and they collectively decide to head back to the Hunchback
for the night. There, they'll finish up today's report and plan for the next day.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The next morning comes bright and early, and after breakfast, everyone is back at the shipyard. The archaeologists are accompanied by the same Peacekeeper squad, and today they plan to follow the route they found that should lead towards the real command center.

The journey starts with another hallway that starts at the airspace control center and leads further into the shipyard. Along the way, they discover multiple rooms, which they spend a few hours investigating before continuing.

Around noon, they stop at an intersection. The hallway they've been traveling through ends and is replaced by a gigantic tube-shaped tunnel that extends to the left and right of them as far as their eyes can see. But according to the schematic Kylie and Lena found yesterday, the group has to continue straight ahead for almost another kilometer. The only problem is the closed gate at the opposite side of the tunnel they just entered.

"What do you think, Fabio?" Dave asks after a moment of silence.

The tall boy frowns. "I can try… That's all I can say right now, but I wouldn't hope for too much. It might be better to look at where this tunnel leads."

Dave nods. "Let's take a break and eat lunch… We'll see what you can do afterward. Maybe we're lucky."

Turns out they are lucky! While Dave and the others check out a bit of the tunnel after lunch, Fabio works on the closed door. Three hours later, Dave receives a communication request from Fabio, who tells him that he managed to open the door. Excited, everyone quickly packs up and they rush back to the intersection where a broadly grinning Fabio presents a freshly opened door.

"How?" Lena asks, a bit out of breath.

"It was easier than expected… There's no power left, and they didn't engage the locks when they left the shipyard behind. Finding that out basically took most of the time. Once I realized that, I just had to figure out the mechanism of the door. As you can see, it slides up instead of swinging open, so I had to ask our Peacekeeper friends to help me move it upward. But the most important thing is that it worked, and we can now continue onward," Fabio explains with an excited voice.

Dave nods in thanks and moves forward to enter the new hallway. Two Peacekeepers are already waiting inside to lead the way. The group continues walking until the hallway ends with another upward sliding door. Now that he knows how to do it, Fabio makes quick work of it. Then the group enters a much bigger open space that covers multiple levels. The archaeologists just entered on the second lowest level, as Dave immediately notices.

That's some kind of hub… Where a lot of things come together. From here on out, it should be easy to find some interesting locations! Wait, is that?

Excitement fills Dave, and he points down to the lowest level where a sign shows the words "Auxiliary Power Plant."

"Guys, we have to check that out! Maybe we can power this place."

His friends' gazes follow his outstretched arm, and they start bubbling in excitement too. The young archaeologists barely wait for Shay and her Peacekeepers to secure the area before rushing down a set of stairs and opening the door that leads to an auxiliary power plant. They stop before a mid-sized fusion plant and try to figure out the controls.

In the end, it's Toby who manages, and he presses a few buttons in the right sequence. Surprisingly, a shudder goes through the plant, and a small screen next to it powers on and indicates that the power plant is currently in its cold start phase and will be ready within the next hour.

The group cheers, and they start imagining what they can all do now that they have managed to get power back on. At least to the office parts of the shipyard, as it's only an auxiliary plant. In the end, they decide to keep on pushing for the real command center and start things from there.

It takes them the whole hour to find the right place, but just a few minutes after they entered the actual command center, the few lights that still work turn on, and some screens start to power up.

"Jackpot," Dave exclaims and walks closer to one of the screens that shows a startup sequence.

The young archaeologists start digging through the ancient command center and bring their whole equipment to bear. For the next few hours, a permanent grin is on Dave's face, as the group manages to collect so much data that their requirements for the course at FBC are pretty much already fulfilled.

Suddenly, Dave catches every single Peacekeeper stiffening up. Within seconds, their rifles are hefted, and he feels a hefty dose of magic being cast. "What's happening?" He asks, uncertainty suddenly filling his voice.

Shay gives him a quick glance before she looks back at the door behind Dave and replies. "The Andala is under attack. I don't know much, but things don't look good. The last info I have is that they had to retreat to avoid simulated destruction."

Oh shit! What's happening? Who would attack us and why so early in the competition?

Dave quickly tells his friends to start packing up their stuff, just to be sure. The next ten minutes pass in tense silence, and at Shay's request, they leave the command center and start their journey back toward the hangar bay.

Suddenly, there is a massive flash of magical power about a hundred meters before the group, and Shay's Peacekeepers stop in their tracks. They reinforce their Shield spells and point their rifles and precast Attack spells toward the intruders. "Identify yourselves!" Shay calls out.

Dave recognizes three people opposite them, slowly walking closer. The dark-skinned man in the middle is flanked by two others. Another man and a brown-haired woman. The one in the middle wears a lazy grin and still leaks a massive amount of magic.

Why does he seem so familiar?

"Don't come closer!" Shay warns.

The man's grin never wavers, and he stops about thirty meters away. "My my my, who do we have here? Some Peacekeepers and a team of… Archaeologists? Interesting. If that isn't a part of Lisa Song's team. I can see now why she kept you secret," A hint of anger enters his voice. "Still, you shouldn't be here, and now I have to teach you a lesson!"

"This is your last warning. Identify yourself or we'll open fire!" Shay's angry tone interrupts his monologue.

He laughs. "You want my name? Well, I am Prince Kai Opalia, and I'm here to take what's mine! Lisa Song crossed me, and now it's my turn."

Oh shit!

Before Shay can reply or even react, a wave of magic shoots down the hallway and impacts the Peacekeepers' Shields. They immediately shatter, and the spell continues onward. The suits of two Peacekeepers shine a bright red, and they fall over, their whole body locked up. Then the spell finally dissipates.

The group falls into panic and tries to retreat. Dave's team is right in the middle of things, and before they are even turned around, the next powerful spell reaches them. Dave stumbles over another dropped person and recognizes her as Kylie while falling down.

What the hell?! How powerful is that man?

Ten seconds later, every single Peacekeeper is down. They have all entered their respawn timer and are banned from taking part in any contributing activities for the next 24 hours.

Dave sits up and looks around. Both Kylie and Fabio are down too, the red light around their bodies clearly identifying them as eliminated. Toby, Lena, and Dave are the only ones left alive. Prince Kai and his two lackeys loom over them.

Holy shit. Everything happened so fast! What can I do now?

The grin is back on the Prince's face. "Now, here we are…" He focuses on Dave. "You look like the leader, correct?"

Dave manages a weak nod, and the Prince continues.

"Good, so you will carry my message while I keep your friends as collateral. This is my place now. When you're back in the game, tell Lisa Song and her retainer that I hate liars! They will know what I'm talking about. Now farewell."

Magic gathers in his hand, then everything Dave knows is darkness, and unconsciousness claims him.

Dave awakens a few hours later with a notification calling him dead on his interface. Below that is a timer that shows when he's allowed to return to the competition. He looks around and notices the six Peacekeepers discussing something with Kylie and Fabio. He lets out a groan, which causes everyone to look at him.

"You're back!" Kylie exclaims and rushes over to help him up.

"What happened?" Dave asks and notices the now closed door to the command center.

"We lost catastrophically," Shay sighs. "Prince Kai wiped the floor with us."

Things come rushing back to Dave, and he suddenly remembers. "Shit, Lena and Toby!"

Kylie nods. "Yeah, he took them… But then something happened. I saw it in the corner of my eye while lying on the ground. He got a message and then instead of leaving with Toby and my sister, he took them into the command center, gave them a bunch of food, and then eliminated them too. After that, he pulled down the door, and then the trio vanished."

Dave immediately starts walking toward the closed door, but is stopped by Toby. "Don't bother. It's locked now. And I mean locked locked… Us turning on the power reactivated the security functions."

"Shit!" Dave exclaims. "Have you talked with them yet?"

Kylie nods. "Yeah, otherwise I'd be a wreck right now. Both of them are fine, just bored. Prince Kai activated some kind of intruder alert, which means they can't get out, and we can't get in." In the end, she still lets out a slight sob.

Dave puts an arm around her. "We'll find a way. I'm going to call Sara as soon as I'm allowed to!"