They couldn’t find anything of value in this room, but there were several passageways leading to other places on either side of the entry room. Despite the wreckage in the initial room, these chrome-colored hallways remained very preserved, though their lighting was totally shot, forcing the men to rely on their Codex lights. They moved together as a group, keeping their eyes open and on the lookout for whatever it was that ransacked this place.

  After hours of searching, however, all they found was broken tech and trashed office space. The other smaller rooms resembled conference spaces, meeting rooms, or individual offices. They found some worn placards written in Aneala, the speaking/writing system of the Aeterna, which gave them hard proof that this genuinely was an abandoned Aeterna facility. But it was proving itself totally barren of any genuine valuables.

  The Pioneers steadily made their way further into the facility, systematically checking each room, but they grew more and more antsy with each trashed office room they came upon. Eventually Daniel called for them to take a breather in one of the meeting halls. While the other Pioneers brought out some food and even some sleeping bags, Daniel decided to sit cross-legged on the floor, taking the time to train his Hunter’s Domain. He let a trickle of power flow into the ability, feeling his senses expand into the hallways and rooms surrounding them. The darkness was no impediment, though it did mean that his fuzzy “sight” was colored by a purplish haze. Once he got his bearings, Daniel began to experiment.

  The Domain reached its limits rather quickly, expanding no further than the rooms adjacent to them, but Daniel felt he could push those boundaries. He sent more power into the ability, feeling the sensations grow sharper, more vivid, but before sensory overload could rear its ugly head, Daniel pushed the boundaries of the Domain even further. His vision and senses within the boundaries of the Domain fuzzed again, growing weaker but expanding in their range. Now he could see into several of the rooms surrounding them, but more importantly he’d gotten some valuable information on how this thing worked. He could expend more Mental Energy to either increase the range or the power of his senses within his ability’s Domain, making it both a useful weapon in combat and tool for scouting.

  Daniel poured on the gas, casting his senses even further all around them, careful to focus on only a certain subset of images at once to keep from being overwhelmed. He still felt a headache coming on as he stretched himself to his limits, juggling a constant stream of imagery and sounds. Then he saw it.

  With an exhale, Daniel dropped his Domain and looked up to see Jordan examining him questioningly. Daniel nodded to his friend, then stood up, announcing to the group: “Break time’s over, men.”

  Standing up, the other Pioneers followed Daniel out of the room and back into the winding corridors. Instead of sweeping each room systematically, he led them directly to his discovery. In a spacious conference room, a few doors down from their resting place, there was a hole in the wall. It was the height of a man, but much wider, its gaping maw a dark void that led into a dirt tunnel beyond. There was a similar hole in the floor nearby, jagged scratches marking up the surrounding metal. Whatever had ransacked this floor, it hadn’t stopped here.

  “Well, at least we have a way out if the lift breaks!”, Jordan spoke brightly, alluding to the fact that the tunnel likely led to the surface, but it didn’t change much. The group grew somber, digesting the further confirmation that something dangerous was in the facility with them.

  “Whatever this thing is, it seems to have some sort of obsession with destroying tech.”, Mubarik observed in a measured way, frowning at another wall panel that had been totally smashed and continuing, “At this rate, we won’t find anything worth salvaging. And we always risk an encounter with whatever made that.”

  He gestured at the hole in the wall. Surprisingly, it was O’Riley who contradicted him now: “Whatever made that was a Xeno. Could be long dead by now, or it could turn into good salvage if we find it and kill it. I say we keep going.”

  There was a bit more discussion but, lacking better options, the group decided to keep moving. But everyone agreed that their current floor wasn’t yielding anything useful: “How many other floors are there, sir?”

  “8. There’re 9 total.”

  “Let’s explore another one! This place has been picked clean.”

  Daniel agreed, and they went back to the elevator. This time, Daniel decided to select the third floor. They could always come back to the second floor if they wanted to, but he knew for a fact that the unknown enemy had burrowed into the second. There was no guarantee that they had reached the third.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  Elevator doors opened on a long stretch of hallway, flanked on either side by an array of rooms. The men eagerly scouted out one such room but were disappointed to find little more than a large space filled with more electronic debris. Daniel spared a look at the plaque and saw a symbol that looked like a paddle. He looked over and saw Stanoslav fiddling around with what looked like the remnants of an electronic racquet. A game room, then.

  It turned out that all the rooms on either side of the hallway were recreational spaces. Game rooms, sitting rooms, a bar, even a pool. Most of it was barren of anything valuable, like usual, but that thankfully changed at the bar.

  The bar was largely untouched by any animals, but it had certainly seen better days. The wood countertop and tables had rotted away, leaving only metal skeletons in their wake. Most of the booze had spoiled as well, but not all of it. In backroom storage, behind the bar, were three small metal crates. The men gathered around and opened one, the slight hiss of air a promising sound as they broke the preservative seal: “Cuu’leel Whiskey. Recovered from various Aeterna facilities. High in alcohol content and beloved by some for its unique taste and novelty. Value per Bottle: 250 Credits”

  Everyone let out a small round of cheers to discover 40 bottles in this crate. They opened the others and found a variety of expensive spirits contained within those as well, for a total value of 27,250 credits for all three crates. It was impossible to split evenly, so each man took away 3,000 credits worth of alcohol for salvage and they all agreed to share a single bottle of whiskey once they left the planet. Daniel would hold onto it for now. These three weren’t the only containers in storage, but they were the only unopened containers. Everyone gave one last wistful look at the rows of metal containers, now filled with spoiled alcohol, before they left the bar behind.

  After they finished searching all the rec rooms, there was only the final room at the end of the hall. The Pioneers emerged into a cavernous square space; small blue Codex lights the only tiny glimmers of light in the otherwise enormous darkness. They were flanked by row after row of chrome benches, passing them by as they walked the center aisle of what was clearly a massive cafeteria once. The emptiness was suffocating in a massive space like this, their footsteps the only sounds to ominously echo around the gargantuan chamber. Daniel’s breathing quickened in the eerie atmosphere, but somewhere in the back of his mind he realized something. Where there was a cafeteria, there was food.

  They eventually approached a central lunch counter, and Daniel stepped over it without hesitation. The men followed his lead as they crept through the back doors, sneaking through the kitchen with all the self-consciousness of burglars dreading discovery. As they approached the back of the kitchen, however, Daniel’s steps quickened with anticipation as he found the place he was looking for.

  The freezer’s mechanical door, like most of the other mechanical doors of the facility, was wide open. This was likely due to the fact that most of the facility had lost power, causing the automatic locks to fail. But all of that was far from Daniel’s mind as he walked into the enormous icebox that was the facility’s food storage room. Tragically, most of the meats and cheeses and other delicacies had been left out or stored in bags that were only designed to keep the food for a limited period. Like the alcohol, most of it was long spoiled, but Daniel’s Hunter’s Domain was able to spot their quarry after a few seconds of concentration.

  In the back of the room were two, large, shiny silver crates. They sat alongside several others, though they were unique by virtue of the fact that they remained totally unopened and thus had preserved their contents perfectly. The men followed Daniel as he led them toward this succulent prize. With a small beep, the lid came off, revealing the contents within: “Unit of Sparkhoof Meat: Weight 20 kgs. Value: 560 Credits.”

  Several rows of compact, square packages lined the inside of the box, and the removal of one revealed more below the surface. Opening the second crate presented the same contents, and the men let out a few whoops of excitement before getting down to counting their bounty. The final tally was exactly 200 units of Sparkhoof meat, with each man getting 22 units or 12,320 credits worth of the stuff. They decided to give the remaining two to Daniel, putting his count at 24, or 13,440C. Daniel checked his inventory values to see where this brought him:

  Value of Personal Storage:

  86,093 Credits

  Value of Group Storage:

  605,005 Credits (49,133 Recoverable)

  Group Designation: Group 53

  Group Size: 9/20

  Group Quota: 1,257,788 Credits {Less Recovered/Credited Val} (NOT MET)

  Personal Quota: 139,754 (NOT MET)

  Total Time: 65 Imperium Standard Days

  Though far from rolling in dough, they were making great progress. They still had plenty of time left until they needed to leave. Daniel’s anxiety loosened with these thoughts as the Pioneers moved on. As they were walking out of the kitchen and into the oppressive darkness of the cafeteria, however, he heard something strange.

  “Everyone, halt!”, Daniel whispered hoarsly, putting the entire squad on high alert. Staring all around them, the men tightened their grips on their spears. Somebody next to Daniel gulped nervously, and everyone was suddenly aware of how loud their breathing was. Heart hammering away in his chest, Daniel prepared to use his Hunter’s Domain, but before he could he heard the noise again. It was the scrabble of an animal’s paw over stone, the scratching sound louder now and growing closer. Daniel barely had time to let out a yell before his world was bathed in a sudden, electric blue glow.

  The blinding light illuminated the warped, snarling face of a four-legged creature, leaping up to tear his face off.