Demise

[Boss]

Along one wall of the R&D lab was a line of sealed test chambers, some of which were closed and active, others open, with technicians readying experiments and devices for insertion. One in particular held a single panel of battleship armor plating bolted in place before a stand on which rested a roughly spherical device festooned with protrusions and indicators. A pair of researchers were fiddling with something, both covered by clean suits that matched those worn by most of the others in the facility.The adjustments made, they stepped out of the chamber, which closed and locked. Several others nearby made space around the chamber as one of their number tapped out the start sequence on the control board.

A faint hum began to vibrate the chamber, steadily increasing in tempo and pitch until it passed out of the range of human ears. The observation ports shone with an otherworldly light for a moment, and then the chamber powered off. A few moments later fire suppression drones moved in and foamed the entire area. After it had been declared all clear, a man waded through the foam and dug around for a moment. He came back up with a strangely shaped shard of metal, which was given a quizzical glance, then placed on a table for later review. After he left, the others pulled the entire plate out, along with more shards, and cleaned them. The shards and plate gave the impression of large bite marks.

Further down was the smoldering wreckage of a weapons test target which had been fired on by one of four extremely complicated devices. Powered by fuel cells, supplemented by a jKzpT-44 reactor core, modulated by one of the artifacts recovered by L-047, and focused by the materials brought home by the Korekuta. Four massive weapons of destruction, and each the size to fit in a hangar pod. Two were complete, one was in testing, and the last was already being installed on the Reliant. Soon, very soon, would the refits be complete, and Spectrehome would be ready to fly.