The seventh floor brought something unique to the party. The chamber the lift opened into was another broad and open space, but there was no floor this time. The Pioneers walked out onto a black metal bridge, roughly the width of the elevator itself, that was the only thing between them and the nothingness below. Daniel walked over to the railing and peered into the void of a long, vertical shaft leading deep into the ground. The walls were lined with the same chrome metal as the rest of the facility, leading up to a curved ceiling. It gave the appearance of a long tunnel, with the bridge running down the center of it. The walls of this tunnel were far from the edge of the bridge and perforated with various smaller tunnels and strangely shaped indentations at regular intervals. The Pioneers watched each of these carefully before doing anything, wary of another ambush, before Jordan spoke up: “I don’t think those tunnels were made by Tempus Hounds.”

  He was right. The tunnels were lined with chrome metal and interspersed throughout the tunnel at regular, artificial intervals: “I think they’re a part of security in this place.”

  He was right. Those strange indentations and tunnels likely once housed turrets or other weapon systems meant to vaporize any would-be intruder. They would be sitting ducks on the exposed bridge. That fact made everyone antsy, but most of the facility had lost power, including the security systems. Also, whatever was at the end of this bridge had to be pretty good if it was worth guarding this heavily. Cautiously, the squad began making their way across the bridge and through the tunnel, heads swiveling from one potential threat to the next.

  Nothing terrible happened, and they made it across the bridge without incident. On the other side, they came to numerous, heavy blast doors, fortunately wide open, that ultimately led to a normal, modest-sized atrium. Two more passageways branched to the left and right. The atrium resembled many of the rooms on the first and second floors, just more office space ransacked and stripped of its tech. The Pioneers moved on but were quickly relieved to find something new.

  They checked the leftward passageway first and were interested to find a long hallway filled with doors that led to several large, open laboratories. The Pioneers went inside and examined the strange apparatuses that staffed it. Massive rectangular presses, circular centrifuges, and horizontal chambers made for suspended animation were among the simplest. Daniel ogled a particularly goofy-looking machine with three arms and a central laser, unfortunately missing the Diamond, before a notification popped up on his Codex: “Unknown Machine Found. Examination Requested.”

  Daniel did just that, quickly opening the back hatch of the machine and peering inside. Unfortunately, the power system and battery had been destroyed, as per standard, and the valuable materials that had made up most of the machine’s innards had been taken away. Still, he poked around, giving the Codex a good look at the internals and externals of the machine: “Calculating…Examination Complete. Limited Blueprint Created. Value: 22,000 Credits.”

  Now that was a step in the right direction. This machine’s design was so valuable that even a limited version was worth good money. A few exclamations from across the room told him that some of the others had found out the same thing. They excitedly told everyone, prompting an exhaustive search for semi-intact machines to examine. Not all of them were unknown, and not all unknown machines were in good enough shape to provide a limited blueprint. But by the time everyone was done running around the labs, the final value of their blueprints was 320,000. This qualified as salvage gained from information, which was automatically evenly distributed throughout the group unless someone objected. That meant Daniel’s account was credited 35,555, meaning he could now pay for Lucy’s first year of school after just this mission, even if he did nothing else. On top of that, the Group Quota was now easily exceeded, though several men were still beneath their individual amounts. They couldn’t relax yet, but morale was at an all-time high. And it only soared higher with the subsequent discovery: “Hey, boss, come take a look at this!”

  Ramirez called out to Daniel from behind one of the machines, in the corner of the lab. Daniel walked over, eyes widening to see Ramirez pointing at a door. A closed door. Its keypad and biometric scanner emitted a faint white light, a low humming sound buzzing around it. Daniel felt the men gathering behind him as he approached the door, another flash of golden text manifesting in the corner of his eye:

  “Error: Clearance Insufficient. Access Denied

  Invoking Emergency 3. Calculating…

  Calculations Complete: Access Granted”

  With a faint beeping sound, the door slid open with a quiet whirr. A little dazed, Daniel walked into a small, chrome-plated room, overhead lights flicking on as he did.

  It was circular, with room for all of them to stand, but most of its floor space was taken up by a large disk right in the center. It looked like a SmartGram, but much bigger. It came up to their knees and was ringed in a silvery metal that shone brighter than the walls. Its center sported a shining blue surface, similar to their Codices’, but as they filed into the room, that light blinked then turned a brilliant white-gold. Then, a figure appeared.

  Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

  It was humanoid, though not quite human, with a bizarrely long face that was almost triangular, jaw jutting out in a pointy tip. Its eyes were narrow, pupils thin horizontal diamonds that nearly seemed to glow. The rest of its body was basically normal-looking, besides the torso and arms, which were unusually thin, and its hands, which were less bony than a human’s, sporting six dexterous fingers. The hologram was projected in gold, but Daniel knew from old pictures that this thing’s skin would be a dark grey were it still alive and in person. Soon after appearing, the Aeterna began to speak.

  It was nonsense to the Pioneers’ ears, none of them having been trained in ancient Aneala, but Daniel heard the voice being translated into his head. It was different from the smooth, powerful tones of the Archangel System, the voice thoughtful and academic:

  “Greetings Explorer,

  I am Doctor Marlo No’Trak, Head Researcher of Facility 749. If you are listening to this, then I have likely perished.

  My death, while unfortunate, is certainly predictable. After the recent attacks and the deaths of certain high-ranking Immortals, this conflict is inevitable and likely to be highly deadly. There is no guarantee our civilization can even survive, much less thrive in its wake.

  We have been called to aid the war effort, though this was not what our weapons were made for. We only ever sought to create the means to destroy the Kharnidd, should they ever one day return. Whether I live or die, I will ensure this hope lives on.

  I have placed my magnum opus, the Archangel System, within this facility, made dormant so it does not attract attention. If you have found this room, you have been chosen as its User. Whether that was the deed of one of my surviving colleagues or a consequence of an Emergency Protocol, I congratulate you. Whether you are Aeterna, Elucid, Bucharin, or even Andrako, I pray you use this system for good. In time, I am sure you and the System will grow into a duo to be proud of.

  But stay on the watch for the Kharnidd. They remain the most significant threat the Galaxy has ever faced.

  Keep the Flame alive. May El’Homah guide your steps.”

  With that, the transmission cut off, and the Aeterna scientist disappeared. The Pioneers were left stunned, only broken by a typical wisecrack from Jordan: “Anyone here speak pointy head? I slept through that class.”

  A chorus of negatives and a vibration from Gon rang out before everyone looked at a silent Daniel, who shrugged sheepishly: “I don’t understand Aneala, but I did get a translation of that.”

  The revelation set off a chatter of interested remarks, everyone demanding to be told what the Aeterna just said. Daniel relayed everything, watching the others process the new information. Eventually, Daniel himself was the first to float a question: “Have any of you guys heard of the Kharnidd?”

  More negatives from everyone, before Jordan spoke up again: “Doesn’t sound like anything I’ve heard of in history class. Though it’s not as though our group is the most educated, now is it?”

  That got a round of chuckles out of everyone. Most of them had either been homeschooled, like Daniel, or were dropouts from public education. Their training sought to rectify gaps in their knowledge, with limited success. That said, they did know a few significant things about history. Ramirez was the first to broach the next obvious topic: “But what sort of war was he talking about? Was he a part of the Collapse?”

  The Collapse of Aeterna’s dominance as a civilization was a poorly understood subject, but everyone at least knew that it was a civil war that had roped in nearly every sapient race in the Galaxy—every sapient race besides humanity, of course. Humanity had only recently been discovered at the time, and it was still grappling with the new technologies and ideas it had been introduced to.

  Mercifully, they were basically left alone as everyone else fought it out. Several races had gone extinct in the fighting, including the Aeterna, and the ones that remained had been set back so far that they spent centuries recovering and becoming advanced again. Humanity had no such weaknesses, and it roared onto the galactic scene largely unopposed when the fighting settled down. The only downside for humanity was that the Aeterna hadn’t shared all their technological secrets with them, only the basics. Thus, an enormous amount of knowledge was wiped out alongside the trillions of living people. The Galaxy was still picking up the pieces of that terrible conflict, even after the passage of nearly a millennium.

  Daniel realized that Ramirez was right. That Aeterna, Dr. Marlo, had been talking about a war he was called to aid in, though he was obviously unhappy about it. Why hide something as potent as the Archangel System in the facility, rather than take it to battle? Presumably, the answer was that he didn’t want his magnum opus used to kill his own kind: “…this was not what our weapons were made for…”

  Or so he’d said. It certainly made a noble kind of sense. And it finally solved the mystery of how Daniel had bonded with the system in the first place. Both the doctor and the System had mentioned some emergency protocol that could be invoked to make him the System’s User. The question of what the Kharnidd were, exactly, remained an unknown. From what the good doctor had said about them, Daniel hoped to never find out.

  There was something else he was interested in discovering, and it had nothing to do with what the doc had said. Something was powering this room, and it would likely be in there with them. Daniel and the others put the strange message out of their mind and started to search the walls and floor. Daniel soon found an interesting-looking panel on the side of the large SmartGram and began working on opening it. It wasn’t long before the thing popped open, revealing the treasure within: “Meta Battery: Charge: 83.4%. Value: 1,550,000 Credits.”

  A forearm-sized, cylindrical container glowed with a brilliant, alabaster light, exuding an almost tangible power from within its resting place. Meta Batteries couldn’t be recharged with heat treatment, like Meta Diamonds could, but they could store Meta power after being charged by the Diamonds themselves. Mouth agape and lost for words, Daniel reached out to touch it.

  Then something happened.