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CHAPTER 14 The Blue Comet Part III

In the ever dark control bridge of the Retcan ship R105, Captain Silver observed the operation very carefully on the screen. A few minutes had passed since the rest of the team had landed on the comet, and they finally started to organize themselves to commence with the mission.

"The defense squad is positioned, Captain." The blue female Retcan informed from a secondary monitoring station a few meters behind the Captain's seat.

"Good. Tell them to keep a close eye in the area. I want a flight team assembled to keep surveillance from above the surface." The Captain firmly replied without making any movement as she stared directly to the main screen.

"Right away, Captain Silver."

That structure-like figure found minutes before Titan left to the comet still bothered them. Silver was taking no chances.

"Captain, may ask you something?" The blue Retcan asked.

"Yes, Cobalt?"

"Now that we have identified what it might be a built structure, what are we going to do? If there were intelligent life forms involved in those mineral crops, wouldn't be correct if we leave all that mineral where it is?"

"We still don't know that for certain. If we come to the conclusion that there's in fact an operating mining outpost in that comet, then we will leave immediately."

Minutes after, Silver's first assistant, Bo, informed her of an incoming message from the comet. Titan was ready to follow with planned and he needed confirmation.

"Titan on screen, Captain." The white Retcan said from a closer station also behind the Captain's seat. Immediately, a still picture of Titan appeared in one of the corners of the bridge's main screen.

"We are ready to proceed, Captain. What are your orders?" Titan confirmed his status.

"Cobalt has just informed the defense squad to keep a look on you. As for now, I want a group assembled to head for the mineral crop and examine it. I want full details on how that large quantity of mineral grows freely in that specific spot. But no one is to start the recollection until I give the order."

"Right away, Silver."

"Wait. I am not finished... Take one of your fellow scientists, a couple of warriors and the D.E Team with you. You will go to where that strange structure is."

"As you wish, Captain." Titan replied. He didn't sound too convinced.

"Titan, I want you to listen to me very carefully. As for now, that possible structure is the only clue that we have about this place. I need you to verify if that place has evidence of intelligent life form activity. If you are not able to find anything, then head back and we will do further planning."

"I'm not surprised about us going to that place, as that needs to be done. What I'm surprised about is that you want the D.E Team to join me."

"They might encounter situations like this in the future, Titan. We might as well give them a first glance of what's coming to them. Besides, I know that Captain K9 and his crew will be of much help."

"I understand, Captain. It will be done. Titan, out."

Back in the Blue Comet, we were surprised that we would join Titan in this very delicate assignment that he was given. Excited as we were, we felt anxious of what we could come across with.

"General Zonda, I need some escort. Please send a couple of your defense squad members." Titan communicated with the leader of R105's Defense Squadron.

"I will join you myself." The Retcan known as Zonda decided to join us.

One of his team members, a female Retcan known as Tech joined as well. As for the rest of the group, Titan ordered one of his fellow scientists to join us. He was a male Retcan that went by the name Doko. Storm also joined us as he would fly us to the place.

A few minutes after waiting for the General and Tech, the group was assembled. We boarded a small transport ship and set coordinates to the mysterious place.

"I need everyone to be very cautious. We don't know what we will encounter, if we do in fact find something." Titan ordered. We were flying at a low speed and attitude in a small ship that had two sliding doors at each side. These doors were open, and we just held tight as we admired the landscape beneath us.

"First time outside an environmental ship, right?" The sophisticated audio system in my helmet made it clear that this deep and paused voice came out of one of the fully armored Retcans. The emblem on his chest was evidence that he was the General. Not only that, but my visor displayed his name on top of him, as it did with the rest.

"Yes." I replied. Having no idea who was he directing to. "I've been out of the D.E cruiser to do tests on its haul, but that's about it."

"This will be the first time we set paw in foreign ground, as a matter of fact." K9 got in the conversation.

"I've seen many strange places. But I must admit this is my first time in a comet." Zonda responded with a very intimidating tone. Though you could feel kindness hidden behind.

"Approaching target, Commander." Storm indicated from the cockpit.

"Acknowledged." Titan immediately responded. "Set a landing point one hundred meters away from the area."

"Understood."

Almost immediately, the ship started slowing down and changing course. It wasn't long until the ground beneath us was close enough for us to jump outside. We where finally out. Immediately, Titan gave orders to Storm to return to the main operations base. We were alone now.

"Because we are not sure of what we will find, we need to be very cautious not to attract unwanted attention. Storm will return in 120 minutes. Lets get moving." Titan ordered. We followed him through a path of large boulders of ice. Thanks to Cobalt over at R105, the path that we needed to follow was uploaded to our localization systems and displayed on the visor's HUD.

"You have any idea what that might be, Titan?" Zonda asked.

"It might be just an optical illusion created by shadows casted on the ice surface, but we need to make sure this place does not belong to someone else before proceeding."

"I find it very hard to believe that any civilization would build a mining outpost in a comet. Yet, I heard about that planet in the nearby solar system that you also found."

Something about a solar system grabbed our attention. That meant that there could be an inhabitable planet nearby. We didn't thought about it too much at that moment though.

"That could be a very plausible scenario. They might know about the presence of the Blue Mineral in this comet and might be taking advantage of it. If this comet passes by an inhabited planet close enough for them to reach it, that is." Doko, one of the Retcans replied.

"If that would be the case, then we should leave this place immediately. We are not invaders, and do not want to start any unnecessary conflict." Zonda asserted.

"I know, my friend. I already suggested that to the Captain. We will be very cautious."

It didn't take us too much to reach the designated spot. There was a lot of wind and dust flying around, lowering the visibility. But it wasn't that difficult to see everything. We soon found what we were looking for.

"That has got to be it." Titan said as we all went down a small hill. He didn't need to point it out, we saw it too.

"One thing is for sure, that is no optical illusion." Tech, the female Retcan said.

A few meters away from us, partially buried underneath of many layers of ice, a structure could be seen clearly. It was some sort of building with what seemed to be two bare metal framed towers coming out of it. One tower was barely standing, twisted and corroded by time. The other one had fallen and was covered in ice. It was a long time since someone had been there...

"There is no movement, according to the scanner." Doko informed.

"I don't think there will be. This place seems to be completely abandoned."

"Inform the Captain. Tech, come with me." Zonda told Titan. He and Tech carefully went to inspect the area while we communicated with R105.

"We found it, Silver. It is a built structure." Titan informed Silver. A sigh of disappointment could be heard from his earpiece.

"Return to the base." Silver ordered with hesitation.

"Wait, Silver. The damage that this structure presents has been caused naturally, which means that this place has been abandoned for at least a couple of hundreds of years. There is the possibility that no one inhabits this comet any more."

"I do not want to risk it, Titan."

"But you know that if this place is abandoned, we can't leave all that mineral there. We have to make sure. Please let me find more clues of what might have happened here."

Silver was having problems giving up with the mission. That energy source was good for at least fifty more years worth of travel. She then thought again of the idea of her ship returning to Lusceonis for supplies without fulfilling their primary objectives. It was her first mission as a Captain; she didn't want to give a bad impression to the council. She knew she had no better choice.

"Do what you believe is necessary. Proceed with caution, Titan."

"You can count on me, Captain."

It was a difficult decision, but Titan confirmed that we would proceed. Zonda and Tech didn't find anything threatening in the perimeter of the structure so we finally got close.

"It is so strange that such a small building would be built in this place. If this whole area is in fact a mining outpost, then you would expect other structures." Doko suggested.

"Looks might be deceiving, Doko." Titan answered as he looked around suspiciously.

"This building might be bigger than it seems. Those towers are there for a reason, and they don't seem to be connected to any external source other than this building."

Cobalt was monitoring the conversation and quickly replied to Titan after his deductions. "You might be right Titan. Remember that we detected a very large energy source in that area. This might be an entrance to an underground facility."

"Or a mine!" Titan enthusiastically interrupted Cobalt. "Group! We need to find a way to get inside this building."

Titan decided to try and get ourselves in that building. It wasn't going to be easy as there was no way of telling where the entrance was. Doko did a full scan of the structure and came to a conclusion of where the entrance might be, so we quickly moved to that area.

It was very difficult to tell what was ice or what was part of the structure, so Titan gave us the order to help melt the ice from it. Doko carried a plasma cutter, as Kala and Zulu also did. The three of them started to make their way trough the thick ice. It wasn't difficult to cut through it and after a couple of minutes, they hit solid metal.

It looked like a twin door gate. The rest of the ice was difficult to get rid off so only a passage big enough for everyone to go through was made. Now we needed to make ourselves a way through those doors.

"This door is too thick for the plasma cutters. It will take us hours to cut our way through it." Doko realized. "There might be a pressurized environment at the other side of this gate. We should ask for a larger group to help us cut through this."

"That won't be necessary." Zonda replied as he got close to the gate, drawing his Lanthracit blade.

Though the center of the blade, through the whole length of it, a blue glare suddenly appeared. Without thinking it twice, Zonda trusted the blade through the solid metal door, cutting trough it like if it was butter. Although we had already tested the capabilities of the blade, it was nothing short of impressive.

At first we had doubts of doing this because if Doko was right and there was a pressurized environment at the other side, we would let the pressure escape. Titan decided that we needed to take the risk as it was highly unlikely that any life forms could still be there.

It took a full six minutes to cut a hole big enough for everyone to pass. Carefully, he pushed the chunk of metal that he just cut.

"Be alert, group." He said as the chunk was about to collapse inside the place.

It took a few pushes and kicks until the chunk of door finally fell through the other side. There was no evident decompression, which immediately told us that the place was no longer pressurized. That gave us some relief.

Zonda inspected through the hole very carefully.

"Decompression chamber." He said. "The entrance is five meters from this gate."

That didn't sound ok, but later he confirmed that the secondary gate was compromised. We finally got in that decompression chamber and quickly notice what Zonda just confirmed.

"The place's atmosphere was already compromised. It wouldn't made a difference if we cut through those sealed doors or not." Zonda said.

"You need to see this, Commander." Doko called for Titan. He was at the end of the chamber, looking through a gap between the gate that gave access to the inside of the building. "It's hard to see, but this place is definitely abandoned. I can see ice formations and debris all over the place." He confirmed while setting his visor to light enhancement mode.

"That's what I though. Quick, we have to make ourselves through this gate."

It wasn't too hard to cut through these twin doors this time as the ice covering them wasn't much. Plus, they weren't as thick as the main gate doors. A few cuts and they were loose enough to slide them open.

Finally, we gained entrance to the mysterious building. We could see a medium sized room. It was dark, but slightly illuminated by a blue glare that made its way through the widows covered in the thick ice. The floors and walls appeared to be fused in an asymmetrical way due to the ice that was formed inside. There were also smaller structures that looked like tables or control panels, also fused to the natural flowing formations of ice.

We were about to enter into the unknown...Would this place consumed by time give us the answers that we needed...?