journey of the AELSU ch2

"The ruins would hold great archaeological importance" Rebecca mussed "and we might even gain a lead on where the source of elder magic is located, and how much it has interacted with the people" 

Slowly the AELSU descended until they could look into the windows of the higher buildings through the AELSU's 360° magical observation projected onto any screen aboard, the scenery was nightmarish, a society had flourished here, clearly, unlike their own, which was built upon magic and science in equal measure, the ruins showed almost purely magical roots, with very little technological advance, almost as if their entire evolution had been magically jump-started under influence of the vast magical power, the only issue was, the numerous decayed corpses where human, how could they have ended up here, and built a society from scratch?

Henrietta had finished cleaning Lizzy and stared at the scenery from within the cockpit "L-Lizzy, any records on the arcs that left Origin Earth? she asked, referring to mankind's true home, a planet left behind well over six thousand years ago.

Lizzy was silent for a while "i... know about the old ark systems, further refine your question please" she said, as if she where a computer working with vocal commands.

"Was there any ark that, in the event of a landing here, would leave it's people without any noteworthy technology?" Henrietta asked.

Lizzy fell silent for a long time "no specific data remains, however, space travel under cryostasis was populair at around the time the arcs left Origin Earth, given the situation, it is likely a system error on the arc necessitated the cryo pods being dropped here, which would lead to colonization depending purely on magic" Lizzy answered, Henrietta patted her on the back.

"Good, good, come back sweetie" she said, as she guided Lizzy back out of her half-trance, a side effect of six thousand years of history and knowledge being magically imprinted in her head, if Lizzy accessed this wealth of information she became what basically was a biological computer, Henrietta hated it, she greatly valued what little emotion her slave had left, and every time she was forced to turn it off, it hurt.

"Well, that's fine, but how'd they all die?" Djura said "i can see corpses left in the middle of things, dead people at a table for example, as if they all died before there was time for panic"

Marie nodded "yeah, i see very little signs of panic, no corpses bearing any significant burden to signify an attempt to flee, it points to a handful of possibilities" she said.

Elvea interrupted "indeed, maybe they where eradicated by the elder magic?"

Djura shook her head "they built a city here, and we have reason to assume it flourished, there must be thousands of dead in the streets alone, possibly twice that number in the buildings, the old arcs where built with very old tech, they could never house such numbers, even in cryo pods, i'm pretty sure they lived here for a few generations, if the elder magic did it, then i'd say they disturbed it first"

Marie brought on the final two possibilities "or, it was a cleansing of sorts, no doubt living here granted magic users far greater power than we have, perhaps there where other civilizations nearby, and war broke out, or, maybe they founded a religion, maybe even based upon the elder magic, and this was a religious purge"

"Lets stop with the if's and but's" Rebecca said as she firmly took the controls "there's a rather large building up ahead, seems like a castle, it has a small courtyard, we can touch down there and set up a camp, once we're down, Djura, you Elise and Ciel go for the main gate, Elise seals it up with ice, then she and Ciel seal up any other hole in the courtyard you can find, Djura is on recon, if anything seems suspicious, raise an alert, Elvea and Marie, get the lab ready, we'll be taking specimens and logging it all, Sakura, scan the building, get us a 3D map, i want to see if we can find a library or anything similar inside, we'll get to the bottom of what happened, Henrietta, instruct Lizzy to stay near the AELSU and have her prepare for combat, you take up position near the door, i'm going to get EVA masks ready so we can get inside after our perimeter is up"

Once the AELSU touched down it generated a large one hundred meter dome of synthetic atmosphere, providing the team with everything they needed to breathe and operate, Djura Elise and Ciel quickly made their way to the gate and while Elise sealed the entire structure with ice Ciel took a sample of the wood.

"It's similar to oak, but not entirely the same, i'd say seeds from the ark got scattered to make a more livable environment before they unfroze the people, but the trees where influenced by the elder magic, i'd say the arc was lost soon after, or else they'd have been a tech based society" she said "as for age, it's old, whatever happened here, happened at least three hundred years ago"

Djura meanwhile ran the perimeter and placed small beacons near any structural weakness, once the ice-seals where placed, the whole courtyard would be locked down, she then took position near the main entry into the castle, it was pitch black in there, and she didn't like it one bit, too bad the courtyard took up the entirety of the synthetic atmosphere, or Djura would have taken a quick peek inside.

"I don't like this" Sakura said as she scanned the building "it stretches underground, very, very deep, i can't scan the whole tunnel network Rebecca, no idea what's down there"

Rebecca replied "neither do i, but it's too late to get back up, the magic storm's over us, until it dies down we can't take off, at least nowhere near high enough to get out of the city"

"Tell Elise to hurry up with the perimeter sealing, i'll be much more at ease" the brunette technomancer said "i'm diving into the computer, maybe i'll get more out of it boosting it that way" she said before she entered her magical trance to insert her spirit into the AELSU's scanners.

Ciel and Elise finished their perimeter and joined Djura at the entrance "Rebecca, you got the EVA masks?" Djura asked, as if timed, the brunette captain carried the masks out to her team.

"One mask, a spare, and three oxygen cells each, three hundred minutes of oxygen, keep radio contact at all times, once you're down to the last cell, get your asses back here, steer clear of the underground tunnels, Sakura hasn't mapped them, if you find the entrance, ice it over, we're looking for books, scrolls, logs of any kind, try taking samples of the bodies if you can, male and female"

The entry team nodded and slowly made their way inside, Elise and Djura switched on the flashlights on their firearms, and all three activated the mask-mounted flashlight as well, several corpses littered the entrance, most of which where armed with metal swords or spears.

"Magic based society alright, no firearms to mention, maybe further inside" Djura mumbled "Ciel, gather samples for the labrats, Elise, seal up all doors except the central one across the entrance" she commanded as she herself took position in the center of the room and slowly spun around to keep an eye on each of the entrances, maybe her mind was playing tricks on her, but she heard more than three pairs of moving feet? must be her imagination, she's jumpy, Djura took a deep, somewhat aggressive breath and told herself to calm down, she's the damn senior combatant! she had to keep her calm!

Back at the AELSU Henrietta and Lizzy where sitting near the door to have a chat, Rebecca was making preparations for dinner, Sakura was out cold due to her trance, Marie and Elvea where doing prep work at the lab, none of the women paid any attention to the motion sensors of the ship, why would they? the courtyard was sealed and the only entrance led to a room containing their security team, what could go wrong?