Project Codename: PILLAR

[Thexare]

The installation known among the Octavarium Intelligence Commission as "the Pillar" was a truly massive structure, formerly (Note: Current status undetermined.) occupied by an unidentified "cultist" faction. The cultists were, as far as the Minister of Intelligence could determine, nowhere to be found, acting instead through mechanical proxies.

Given the canisters of biotoxic nanobots salvaged from their wreckage, this was probably for very good reason.

A lone Ahoudori-class exploration corvette slowly worked its way through the Makassar field, carefully keeping emissions minimal to avoid drawing attention. This was not the Victoria they had hoped for; Octavarium shared the space with Crayter, the IMG, and Unione Corse. And other things best left unmentioned. That corvette, OCS Save Yourself, was staffed by fully double the usual crew, and her hold had unusual cargo.

At the bridge, a blonde woman looked over the structure. "Fuck me that's a big base," she said, her accent clearly betraying her Bretonian roots. "I'm not sure the signal will carry far enough."

Behind her, the pale Minister of Intelligence stood utterly still, watching the base intently. "This will take a while, Eve," he said in his typically cold, some would say almost dead way. "We must be thorough. The Yersinia-type nanobots we seized likely originated on this station. Nothing can be left to chance."

Evelynn Fairfax had been with Natio Octavarium on their previous colony in Kansas, where she got to know Victor as a calculating plotter, unaccustomed to working for the benefit of others. Their exile to the void had changed him... somewhat. "Bring us in," she said to a red-haired woman at the helm. "We need to get ready for the operation."

"Understood Be careful."

Evelynn and Victor silently made their way to cargo access, where a series of consoles had been added and modified. As they arrived, the proximity alert beeped, beeped again, beeped a third time, and then rapidly beeped three more times. "We're in range. Deploy Drones 1 and 2," Evelynn ordered as Victor activated the consoles. Each had four monitors, arranged in an inverted T shape. These corresponded with the four cameras mounted on the Aquila Defense Systems RD-3 Mellori drone - forward, left, right, and rear. The two black drones gracefully made their way out of the airlock and approached the base, sending a docking signal as they did. The docking bay dutifully complied, and a followup signal upon entry closed the doors and, approximately thirty seconds later, opened the way into the base.

The completely black base.

"That's odd," Victor started. "There's clearly power..." he muttered, cycling through the Mellori's vision enhancements. "Thermal isn't helping much, light-amp is coming up completely blank. Didn't want to draw attention, but turn on the lights."

"The drones tending this base may not need vision, if they're programmed with the layout," Eve mused, following the Minister's lead. "Or there may be a central administration office where we can turn on the lights. I doubt it'll be that easy though."

"Unlikely. Activate mapping, we'll work our way up. It's a shorter trip than the rest of the base."

The entry level of the Pillar was vast and utterly empty. Huge rooms flanked the airlock, and seemed likely to be meant as cargo warehouses. A bit further in were a series of identical smaller rooms - temporary visitor lodging? Offices? Those were the most likely explanations, but neither could be completely sure.

"Could be a shopping mall," a voice from behind Evelynn said suddenly.

"Darren, what the hell are you doing here?" she asked, her hand resting on her electrolaser pistol.

"Oh, did I forget to tell you?" Victor replied, completely focused on the drone's operation. "Wilson here is on the Pillar project. We need a competent engineer, and he's the best Jones has. Even with that little... arm problem." He paused, and his drone came to a stop. "Shopping mall, though... there's an idea. Unlikely, but... a useful one in the future, maybe."

In the center of the structure, the two drones reached an elevator shaft, and neither drone operator could find a gap for access. Eve chimed in, "If we could get some sort of manipulator arm on these things, an inverted vice setup might work."

"Doubt it," Darren responded, shaking his head. "The Mellori platform can't support the weight of a hydraulic spreader and retain power efficiency. Probably need a miniaturized thermal cutter if we can't get the power restored from this level. A light manipulator arm would be good anyway, safer to interface with the station's equipment that way."

Victor nodded agreement and resumed mapping, quickly realizing that the 'back' half of the entry level was completely identical to the half already mapped. That was no excuse to not be thorough, but the entire floor was completely, utterly, worryingly empty. The suspected warehouses had nothing in them, not even an empty box. The floor had nothing but a thin layer of dust. There were no furnishings, and the only light fixtures were those built into the walls and ceiling. The station was nearly pristine, as though it had just been built and was waiting for a new owner.

But the drones that had departed from the Pillar a few days prior made that seem... unlikely.

"Wilson, call Jones, get the Fort Resolution out here. Now. I want full scanner coverage all around this station - thermal, etheric wake, light-amp, electric flux, signal interception, everything. If we're lucky enough to have intercepted a convoy supplying a new structure, we need to keep it from getting occupied."

Evelynn spoke up immediately. "Idea. Leave the Melloris here. We'd have to run them through extreme decon to retrieve them safely, and if we leave them on the base..."

"... then we'll know if there's any onboard activity. Wilson, can the Mellori be armed?"

Darren scratched the back of his head with his artificial arm. "It'll have to be kinetic, and low-recoil, but yeah. Worried about them being weaponized?"

"It's a legitimate risk. If we get back and those two drones are gone, I want to be ready."

A few hours later, ADSV Fort Resolution arrived and began deploying detection satellites, and the Commission left the two Mellori drones inside the base. Without the drones powered on, signals wouldn't be able to get to the satellites, but it was the best option they could come up with.