Captain Duval and his team traversed around the perimeter of the structure cautiously.
They did not really need to be so careful, as nothing approached them after that freakishly strong cat had failed its attempt earlier, but better safe than sorry.
The grouchy old man still stayed a few paces behind the rookie from before though. Mostly to tease him.
'Oh come on, one time lacking and he's gonna joke like thi...Oh hey! They found something!'
The rookies attention was snapped back to the front of the pack.
They had ended up circling the building halfway before the head of the security's attention was drawn to a hidden door. Adjacent to the door stood a small pedestal, overgrown with twisting vines that snaked their way upwards.
The team's science officer Tassel diligently approached the pedestal, his keen eyes assessing the intricacies of the ancient terminal. With a small device securely fastened to his wrist, he prepared to initiate a scan of the doors control panel.
The crew all watched intently as Tassel calibrated the device to process the information it was going to gather. A moment of suspense hung in the air before a beam of light shot forth from the device, scanning the much older piece of technology.
A string-thin beam of light connected from the pedestal back to the scanning device on his wrist, the device emitted a soft glow, signaling a successful analysis and override!
'Nice! There isn't a damn thing I can't open.' Tassel thought to himself while turning his attention to his devices ongoing report. Now that the door had been activated he wanted to check out the data as it rolled in.
He pushed his big round glasses up the bridge of his nose a bit with one finger as the rest of his hand cradled his chin. The hand then moved up to his grey hair and he gave it a shake, making him truly look like a mad scientist.
'Hhhmmm where have I seen these symbols before?'
With a mechanical groan, the door began to slide open, revealing a staircase hidden in shadow that descended into the depths of the structure below. The musty scent of age and mystery wafted up from the depths, beckoning the team to venture further into the unknown inside.
Captain Duval's pulse quickened with excitement and slight trepidation as he prepared to lead his team into the underground passageways that potentially awaited them. Duval wasn't a fan of mazes.
'I wonder if there will be anything worthwhile down there...Something is weird about this whole electromagnetic shield.'
Captain Duval and co descended the shadowy staircase, emerging into a vast laboratory like room at the bottom. There were no other paths to take.
They stood near the entrance while starting to evaluate the room. It was filled with all manner of strange apparatuses, some whirring and blinking, some had glowing control panels and there was other large looming machinery which sat absolutely silent and dark.
What they all had in common was a heavy layer of dust covering them.
The air was thick with an otherworldly musk, the scent of dust, and an palpable metallic tang. Energy buzzed wildly from a spire in the middle of the room, it was sparking with that same electro magnetic energy and traveling upwards, presumably feeding the shield that was covering the planet currently.
While they were taking in their surroundings, a member of the away team took a few steps forward, eager to get a better look at the spire like device. She had a curious look on her beautiful face, the electromagnetic energy and her growing excitement reflected off of her exquisite, almond shaped, bright blue eyes.
After looking around everywhere and not seeing any danger, she kept moving forward deeper into the lab.
Duval turned away from one of the other scientists he was chatting with while surveying the room and glanced at the woman with the fantastic body who had ventured out by herself.
'Yeah that ass is worth wrecking a galaxy for...later I better invite her to my quart...wait, what's that!?'
The captain was checking out her perfectly thick backside until he sensed something...his sharp, grade A red eyes darted up into one of the shadows cast by the energy racing upwards, homing in on and piercing something hiding in them...the fierce man scowled after getting a general idea of it's outline.
He looked back over at the gorgeous white and dark grey haired team member who had made it close to what looked like the control panel for the spire fifty feet away, whose butt he had been admiring before. She was directly underneath that shadow now.
"Shona! Fall down and back!" Duval suddenly yelled out and everyone froze, their eyes all shooting to the female member their captain was hollering at!
Without looking or thinking, Shona circulated energy through her legs while dropping backwards under gravity's influence. She thrust her head backwards at just the right moment of her fall to slightly accelerate her decent with the added momentum.
Metal groaned as she dug her heels into the ground and then pivoted her ankles so the soles of her feet were planted flat on the floor with plenty of grip. Her leg muscles rippled with energy and power!
She launched herself away when she had nearly become parallel to the floor, breaking the air and leaving a shockwave behind!
The sturdy alloy floor of the lab had even been slightly dented underneath her feet as she rocketed away!
Shona was a grade B pugilist that had a mostly human appearance, with the exception of her far above average height, her far above average looks and two toned grey and white hair color.
Shona was without a doubt one of the best looking space humans out there. Most other females that came into contact with her were jealous of Shona's curvy, tall body and all the men wanted to be with her. She was the lead officer of the security team on Duval's ship as well as the Captain's woman.
There had been no hesitation when she heard Duval cry out in warning!
A silver bolt flashed towards right where she had been from above, missing the fleeing Shona by a second and making a large dent in the alloy floor where she had been moments earlier!
Seeing it missed it's target, the new threat scuttled between the spire control panel and the team faster than most of them could follow with their eyes or senses. It was blocking their path forward, clearly trying to prevent them from reaching the control panel Shona had been near. It's eight mechanical limbs were now poised for attack!
Shona rotated 180 degrees so she was facing the ground and slowed her escape flight speed by using energy to press her hand against the floor as she flew by, creating a screeching sound like rubber shoes on a wood floor. She clenched that hand into a fist and then flicked her fingers out violently, rotating her body so she was in an upright position again while bringing her knees up to her chest, then shooting them down again, skidding to a stop on her two feet near the rest of the group.
"Thanks Captain!" Shona called out to Duval while looking over and winking at him, grateful for the warning from her boss and overpowered boy toy!
Her voice prompted the robotic like sentinel that had revealed itself to turn its attention back towards her!
"Oooopps!" Shona realized her new mistake and started to retreat towards Duval immediately!
The creature launched itself at her as soon as she moved, the two meter large robot spider was as fast as Shona was and started to turn into a silver blur again.
She noticed the attacking creature was half organic and half tech. The gleaming armored sections mated to its nasty looking meat and carapace were similar to the rest of the machinery in the room, as well as similar to the alloy floors underneath their feet. It had many tubes and pneumatic lines running back and forth across it.
The parts that the tubes ran into that were visible gave a hint to how old this thing was, its once sturdy body was starting to degrade and fester around its implanted tech.
The tangy smell the team had all smelt earlier was extremely strong now, almost enough to make one cover their nose! It clearly was coming from this metallic spider bot!
As the unholy union of machine and beast lunged towards the beautiful woman, closing the distance rapidly, Shona should have looked scared, instead, she slightly smiled.
With lightning like reflexes and speed that surpassed the spiders by a large margin, Captain Duval drew his blade slightly by flicking his thumb up and then flashed forward, leaving an stream of after images as he went!
His movement looked strange for a moment. He looked like an inanimate object as his body's posture was static while shooting forward at a ridiculous speed. Moving yet not moving.
The Illusion of him floating or gliding forward rapidly was made because he covered the distance in one motion with one foot simply kicking off the floor. Some of the stronger members of his crew could barely make out that it was just a bit of lower foot movement that propelled him forward. He was in the disgusting robot's face in an instant, slipping past the guard of its deadly limbs.
By the time the 8 lenses on the metal arachnids head focused on the man, Duval's muscular arms had moved and unleashed a series of precise strikes that sliced through the robot's metal frame in a blur of motion. He kicked off of the spider like robots' body as the rest of it, now in pieces, fell to the floor.
Captain Duval returned to his original stance, the last inch of blade gleamed in the dim light while being sheathed.
Click.
It was in the scabbard now. The Captain wielded a six foot long, four inch thick katana like sword, the thing was, when in the scabbard it shrunk down to a mere three feet long. Or was it three feet long normally? Growing in length when unsheathed?
Even Captain Duval wasn't quite sure, as he picked the weapon up in a battlefield one day long ago. Some of his fellow captains were convinced it was a "Totem", an item that had belonged to a magical 'Oracle'.
Captain Duval was known across many systems for his wild red hair and eyes, his quick draw style and the second-hand growing blade he used.
"I could have handled that. Captain."
Shona shoved herself, hands on hips into Duval's line of sight after he had relaxed his pose.
She leaned in and puffed up her large chest while sticking out her tongue.
"Thank you though..."
Duval pushed her away while grinning. "I know you could have handled that gross abomination, but no worries...you can thank me later, in my quarters. Get back to work."
"No fun!" Shona protested and giggled, then turned to the rest of the team.
"You heard the man, get back to work!"
Some of the crew laughed and others rolled their eyes. This kind of thing happened every time the chief of security and the Captain went out on a mission together.
With the threat neutralized neatly by their dependable, over powered, 'Apex' grade captain, the team set about restoring power to the lab, activating dormant machinery and unlocking hidden cabinets after scanning the room with multiple devices and energy detectors. One switch in particular got a result none of them were were expecting!
A massive section of the wall suddenly illuminated, revealing itself to be a huge viewing screen. Several glyphs and images kept scrolling past. It was on a loop and repeated itself over the period of several minutes.
Tassel also happened to be a linguistics enthusiast, recognizing the symbols as 'Atlas' text now that they were large and easy to look at, unlike what he had gotten from the door outside. He focused his attention on translating the words and mumbled a few phrases he could make out.
Shona looked over and noticed Tassel had some idea.
"You know what this stuff means?"
"Well, it goes into some details about 'Oracles' and 'Cosmic Curators'…those symbols appear quite a few times….its an Atlas version of the Curators tale? The Atlas are ancient, the only thing we know for sure is that they are the source of all human type bipedal."
"There's a couple lines about the five Curators and the five realms…I thought there was only 4 universes?....The Atlas race gets mentioned several times in the main passage...Akashic Record is mentioned several times too…."
Duval tilted his head at the man who was currently getting lost in his own thoughts instead of sharing with the rest of the team.
"So are you going to read it out or not?"
"Right away Captain, sorry….er hmmm.."
He cleared his throat and then read out loud:
"A Knight of a Hundred Helms and Faces
Rider of Dragons and mighty engines, golden protector of the Fields.
Last Son of Atlas, Psychic prowess like no other
Perfect recollection, Imagination is his armor.
A King of Beasts, Dragon Bird of heaven
Reborn as an egg, burden, then mount and friend, ruler of teeth, fangs and talons
Elements are a multicolored dress, plumage on display
No mystery of nature can escape his instincts.
A World Tree, Leaves flush with Arcane might
Ancient sentinel, keeper of all Magics flame.
Countless circles of the spell, within her trunk do spread.
Mana spread to touch and understand all things be they living or dead.
A Battleship from future far, travelled to the past.
Born of unbreakable metal and solar light, forged of 1 trillion lives plus one
In circuits and steel it finds its strength. Beacon in the cosmic storm
Constantly searching for truth. Databanks endless and incorruptible.
A shadowy Demon Lord born twice of the void. Record twisted upon itself
A whole realm trembles under his martial prowess.
Commander of many yet walks alone. His supreme fist oppresses.
The touch of his power and hand comprehends all things."
"There's a bit more to read but its way more complicated...I'll have to go over it back on the ship…the part I read would have been more like a simple poem…sorry it didn't rhyme when I translated it to basic...
...HHHmmm some stuff that seems to mention 'chosen' and 'random' Oracles and one more part that seems extra easy to read for some reason...weird"
Tassel cleared his throat again and read the last four simple lines that were formatted like the 'poem' about the curators at the bottom of the message on the screen, before it started replaying anyways.
"The time for the second to last curators birth is at hand and he will beget the last, Not by blood but by way of brotherhood.
Sayeth Magus of Atlas, Oracle Prophet of the Great Tree
As you read these words servant of the Lord, know that fate has moved by thy lips.
GODS GARDEN, GENESIS NEXUS."
As he finished reading aloud, the final four words leaving his mouth triggered a subtle shift in the room, causing a device on a small circular platform off in the far-right corner to flicker to life with a low hum. The device looked like a door frame with a half circle arch at the top of it.
The team watched in awe as the ancient contraption whirred to life, casting a mesmerizing, glowing blue light between the doorframe as it swirled and solidified into a sheet of light! The strange device had become a portal!
The glow was dim at first and then the electromagnetic energy that was being shot out to envelop the planet changed that.
Strands of energy connected to the doorway and the entire planet shook!
'BBBZZZT...Captain come in...BBzzztt...The time/space fabric of the region is....BBZZttt....folding....BBz.'
The First Mate had tried calling from the ship to Duval as soon as the ship's AI noticed a disturbance but had now been cut off!
The glowing light from the smooth and peaceful blue doorway was reflected into Duval's eyes. Shona, Tassel, the rookie, the grumpy vet and the rest of his people standing there were shocked for a moment before everyone looked to their Captain for further instruction.
Duval pondered about what he had just heard and had a weird feeling about the last verse, the one about the 'Demon Lord'.
It reminded him of someone he knew very well. Not to mention that a 'Servant of the Lord' had caused the portal to appear. Was it a coincidence? Very doubtful. He had heard tales of god-like beings called 'Curators' and now believed that his boss was one.
Captain Duval scanned his peoples faces, lingering on Shona's for a second before activating his personal light mechanical battle suit and unsheathed his blade an inch. Not one of them looked doubtful or fearful while waiting on his commands.
He walked towards the glowing gateway as the suit started to cover him from the emblem on his chest outwards. He gave his order right before his mouth was covered up by nanomachines and his own energy.
"Follow me."