The 25 members of his squad joined him and Emily on the pad, filling it as he input the code and pushed the button that would initialize the teleport pad. After a bright flash, they found themselves standing on an identical pad, in an extremely dark cavern that was wide open around them. Just as they were about to turn thier flashlights on, the first light turned on, and began allowing them to see as more of them flickered to life letting them see what all was there. Some of the machines they had no clue what thier purpose was supposed to be, some of them clearly weapons, and other things that was clearly meant to supply several thousand warriors in a battle. Books, medical supplies, potions and all sorts of other things lined shelves that were on one end. It was clearly broken into different sectors for what the supplies were, as it was clearly meant to be a city for a force that never took up residence as the layer of dust that covered almost everything.
Very little of it wasn't covered in dust, and a computer terminal caught his attention as the men fanned out clearing the massive cavern. As soon as he pushed the button he somehow knew would power it on, it began flickering as the screens translated the data to English.
'Translation matrix initiated.' The bracelet addon said in his mind.
'What is all of this stuff?' He asked as he looked at the selections on the main screen he was looking at.
'Equipment, weapons, medicine and everything else needed for a Battalion of 15 thousand men for one year.' It replied as he pulled up the specifications for one of the more odd looking machines. It was battle armor that would make them even more deadly against the Krillin.
Airic kept looking through it all, when he found that it also had a personal section for the man who had spent who knows how many years on this planet alone as he pulled up a map of the planet and realized they were 500 miles from where thier base was.
"Base, this is squad 9, do you copy?" He said into the radio.
"Yes sir, loud and clear sir." Cane the quick reply.
"Lock down location if this transmission and determine if it can be reached by conventional means." He ordered.
"Location locked. It will take time to secure a transport road, but should be easily accessible once that is completed." Wolf replied.
"Contact home base and tell them mission success. Until we have fully catalogued this base, only Special Operations are to be allowed entry. We need a full Battalion to secure the planet as well as a research team to determine what everything is. Securing location now, out." He reported back to them.
They had been going through things for two hours when Airic found the code for the weapons bay, and opened it so they could see what exactly was there, when they were all stunned at the sight. Every type of weapon you could imagine, made from beasts and materials they had yet to encounter when Airic found the research files.
'Does this translate just for me, or will the next person be able to read it in this language as well?' Airic asked.
'Authorization would have to be granted first, however as you are now the registered Commander of this facility, that can be easily established. It will however require a small change in your wrist devices in order to be compatible with the technology required.' The device told him bluntly. 'My programming also contains the locations and access codes for the 6 other Evacuation Bases the Vornak built before the destruction of Vorna. Portal coordinates are contained within memory.' It told him as he looked at his men.
"Look around, if you find better gear you can use, claim it." Airic ordered them as they went looking through the different armors, guns, swords and every other type of weapon that was imaginable. 'Does your memory include the research files of this base, or are they here?' He asked the AI.
'My memory contains several teraquads of research data that your people would need to learn and Master before being able to construct the technology located here. The files in this base however are different and contain a complete record of the Vornak people.'
"Sir, Battalion has arrived to reinforce our position." Wolf informed him from the town that they had cleared.
"Bring the rest of our squads here, inform them to resecure the perimeter of the settlement, and begin clearing a path from the settlement to here." Airic replied as he found looked at a suit of armor. 'What is that?' He asked looking at it.
'Prosmatic channeling armor. It will likely be several times more beneficial to you than your current gear.' The AI replied as it opened the secure door it was behind.
'Why is it stored this way?' He asked.
'The Vornak were unable to properly utilize the armor as none of them were able to use the skills you currently have. Some of thier technology was built specifically for your abilities, and because they did not posses them they were unable to fully realize thier true potential.' The system told him as he began removing his own armor and put on the armor that he had located. It surprisingly came with it's own set of weapons, from swords, dagger, and knives to 3 different guns, grenades and something he couldn't identify.
'What is that?'he asked the AI.
'Explosive projectile launcher for eliminating hardened flying targets with sonic detonation sequences to penetrate armor.' It replied as he strapped it to his back and it latched on where it was supposed to go.
Airic picked up the helmet just as the last if the other squads used the teleporter pad, and came over as instructed to begin outfitting for thier current mission. 'Would the Vornak be willing to become allies with us?'
'Unknown, Dirin was the only one I ever interacted with. He always said thier mission was to find the one he called the Elemental, so that they could have a chance to win the war. What exactly that means is not easily discernable, as each Colony was to remain isolated for 250 years once established to reduce the chance of detection by the Krillinites. He was on this planet for 112 years according to thier timeframe, and thier portal opening may be seen as a threat.' It replied to him.
'If we open it to one of those planets, will it be tethered?' Airic asked as his men found just about everything in this room was far more advanced than what they had. Each of them was quickly changing out thier armor and gear as he took his helmet and walked into the main area.
'No, all portal stands were ordered in standby mode in case an attack did occur. It will be the same randomized pattern of any portal technology of within 10 miles of where the controller is.' The AI said as his radio activated again.
"General Falcon, the research team has arrived and is ready to transport to your location." A voice he did not recognize said over the channel.
"Send them here." He said as he found several crates full of ID bands just like the one that the Vornak had been wearing. 'Are these compatible with Human physiology?'
'Yes, the differences between the Vornak and Humans are minimal. It may be possible that thier is an Ancient common ancestor delivered to both world via comets or asteroids. It was widely believed that 2 Primordial Comets and 1 Asteroid were responsible for the creation of life on 25 different planets. Although they never encountered Humans during the past 100,000 years, the genetic match is nearly 70 percent suggesting different evolutionary paths from one of the 3.' It replied to him as Airic put one of them on just above the bracelet he already had. It lit up much the same way his other was, but it was clear it was far more capable than the ones they made as the device automatically detached from the Human made one and attached to the other.
What it was telling him was extremely intriguing, as he never would have guessed that it would even be possible for a comet to travel between the stars. Most of the ones they knew of were stuck in the solar systems that created them, unable to escape into deep space. However after seeing the Virnak physiology he knew that it might just be possible. He heard the transport pad activate, just as he took his Earth made band off, and tossed it in what looked like a recycling bin as he walked to where the Researchers were looking at everything in awe.
He had brought the box of wrist bands with him, and the system explained that the marking on the side indicated rank, and he ensured each of them got one with the appropriate rank as each one hissed when the probes entered thier system injecting a smaller dose of nanites than what he had received.
"Ladies and Gentlemen of the research team, for the foreseeable future this will be your posting. As you can see the civilization that built it was more advanced than we are, and those new bracelets are your access keys to the computer terminals here. If you find a portal device, under no circumstances are you to open it. I have reason to believe it goes to a very nasty place that the Krillin have already conquered or has been destroyed by means unknown." He told them as he authorized each of thier bracelets for full administrative access. "Be extremely careful when activating systems, because as you can clearly see, we have no clue what some of this stuff does. I expect weekly reports delivered to General Kerrigan weekly."
He watched as they all ran off and another squad of security personnel came through the teleporter with Kerrigan himself leading it.
"Holy shit, what is all this?" He asked looking at the 2 platoons that were now fully geared out in the alien tech as well as thier own weaponry.
"You saw the body sir?" Airic asked making the man nod as he looked around. "Apparently his people meant to use it as an emergency evacuation colony, but were unable to do so before they destroyed thier planet by unknown means. He said some interesting things, and told us how to access this to aid in our fight against them." He reported giving him the short version.
"It will probably take years for us to be able to replicate some of this stuff." Kerrigan said looking at it.
"For now it needs to be a military operation only, classified to the highest levels."
"Agreed, and I will ensure it remains that way. Seems like this planet had more to offer than we thought." Kerrigan replied to him.
"Yes sir, much more. From what I was able to glean from the computer already, the Vornak knew of 27 different worlds, other than thier own." Airic told him as he knew they had only discovered 7.
"Well, your vacation didn't seem to take as long as we thought it would. I look forward to your report on this, and hope your next mission this year goes as smiothly." Kerrigan said as he began walking around.
"Let's go home for a 72 hour cooldown. Everyone will be required to have thier reports finished and submitted within that time." Airic said to them as his squad walked to the teleport pad and began the journey back to Earth.