After weeks of speculation and searching for more ruins on the abandoned planet, the Buro & MND had finally come across something that seemed worthwhile for investigation. A derelict building of some sort, the difference being that it was still functioning. The building was shielded however, putting any sort of expedition at a halt.
"Scan and download as much as you can, it looks like we'll have to bring it down to enter." Viper said to the research team after taking a look herself. The crowd dispersed and began sending more probes to scan the shield and pylons that powered it.
A couple of the lead scientists in the Komissarat followed Viper as if they were her shadow. "You think what we're looking for is in there?" One of them said.
"The ruins we've found here nearly mirror the descriptions from Pygar. Whatever Dom'Kavash artifact they found there was inside. I'm willing to bet we'll find something similar." Viper replied.
"That artifact was uncontrollable though, when Edison Trent and the Order brought it close to the Dyson sphere ruins, it acted on its own." One of the other scientists intervened.
"Then its a good thing we won't be bringing it near any other ruins. I've no intention of tampering and reactivating these ruins at all. But I do need that artifact." Viper replied.
After a few hours, the MND managed to bring down the shield through sheer force. Severing a few of the supply pylons surrounding the structure allowed for easy entry.
The Ruins were certainly more lively than all the others the MND had seen up until this point. Several intact devices were lurking throughout the facility, as well as literature that the MND could only guess belonged to the Dom'Kavash. Despite all of this, the Direktor maintained a fixed eye on finding the power source she was looking for.
The facility quickly went from a plethora of historical insight to a labyrinth with one objective lying at the end. It would take days, maybe a week to unearth everything inside, never mind figuring out its use.
Hours had passed, and the Direktor had begun taking a look at some of the smaller live ruins around. One in particular that caught her eye seemed to be some sort of map or travel guide. The connection points it highlighted were vast, and to her surprise - some were familiar. One or two were located deep in the Omicrons where sightings had been previously recorded by humans. However, there was another blip on the map, one that appeared in the Omega cluster near a system that had been thought abandoned. "Can we transfer this data to our own?" Viper said to one of the other scientists analyzing the ruins nearby. "It'll take time to figure it out, but at the bare minimum we should be able to interpret what we've seen on this chart." He replied. "I've already interpreted it, if these are all gates or active ruins..." She paused for a second before pointing to the location that caught her eye previously. "That has to be near Omega-58, unless I'm not remembering this correctly." She finished. "It could be, I guess we'll have more problems if we're not careful-" The sound of another MND scientist running into the room caught their attention. "Direktor! We found it!" He intervened. "Take me there." She replied.
-Minutes later-
"Well, not quite what I imagined, but if the energy readings are there... we'll make it work." Viper said aloud to the survey team nearby. "Is it safe to move?" She asked.
"We should be able to move it, but it may very well affect the power supply to the rest of the ruins. If we extract it now we might not be able to retrieve the data we've uncovered." He replied.
"Prioritize the data, download as much as you can this week. We'll begin extraction in 4 days, you know the site it needs to be moved to yes?" She asked. "Yes, Direktor." The crowd got a little quieter after hearing her tone soften toward the end of the sentence. "I'll keep the military off our backs once we begin transporting this... relic. But we must keep this here and nowhere else." Viper said as she turned toward the relic one last time.
Kat grunted after finding that her message to Erich Klugmann was still silent. Did Civil Servant get to him first? Was he dead? Overthrown? No matter at this point, the longer the topic at hand waited - the worse it would likely get.
"Enfield of all people being twisted... Just when I thought I was as much an enigma as those fucking Lane Hackers."
Kat leaned back in her chair, tabbing back over to an old MND report on Outcast Fusion reactors seen during the war with Liberty. The read was lengthy, easy to be confused with hieroglyphics to the average person - but not to a scientist in dire need.
"I already have a Valor coming into drydock why can't I manage to snatch a Ranseur... hmm."
The GNI being so ready and willing for the MND to host one of their most prized possessions in secret - they must really need something aboard the ship, or they have something important to hide.
The Gallic Navy discontinued the production of their ship's design for the cruel and unusual power of the Warwolf, maybe that was it? No, so many of the current models possessed the same weapon, right?
Either way, the front row seat to view it was coming in a matter of days, and Kat still hadn't told anyone about it.