The team advanced cautiously into the complex, tunnels folding and splitting like a maze. Every step measured before being taken. The place held strange and lethal traps, which had already knocked down one well-trained agent. Whatever it was being held there must be very valuable or dangerous, probably both. Agent Zephyr extended his arm to a halt, and the team stopped, one of the men approached her, holding his blaster gun over his shoulder.

"What did you find there," Ivan asked.

The woman pointed to a symbol carved in the wall, like a letter 'S' with a dot in the lower half, some sort of alien writing. Her fingers slide over the symbol, and a humming started to resonate in her eardrums, a low frequency vibration.

"Here," she responded, grasping Ivan's hand, leading him to repeating the motion she had just done.

"A force field?" He inquired.

"Maybe." Their hands move aside and then back to the carving in the wall. "Can you feel it? There is something here that is triggered with the touch"

"Not a barrier, if it was a force shield it should be already engaged. This is emitting some kind of energy. It must activate something, but… What?"

Ivan took a light stick and bent it by the half, the fluorescent gel inside radiating a yellow-greenish color. It flied across the corridor and landed in the floor, illuminating more of the same cave, nothing different to what they had been already walking on. Then, he pointed the blaster gun to the front and advanced with stealthy while the rest of the team stayed behind.

Zephyr noticed another symbol, a different one, six foot ahead in the same wall. It was barely revealed as soon as Ivan walked pass it, the glow stick in his belt did the trick. The humming started again, but now everyone could feel it.

"Wait!" Too late, a beam of white light blinded everyone in the corridor, it feel like an explosion, knocking them to the floor.

"Agghhh!" Agent Ivan Pelt was on the floor, Zephyr could see he was crawling his way back. She throw herself to the floor and crept her way to him. His face was contorted in pain, the smell of burned flesh, his check skinless and bleeding. She tried to grasp his hands, but they were also a bloody mess, the suit melted in patches over his body, so she tugged him by the belt. Neymeyer and Lemman were already on their feet, they had been two steps behind Zephyr, and same as her they were unharmed. The shock wave had died exactly were the first sign was carved in the wall.

"Help me, we have to take him back, fast!"

"Jimmy, we need medical support ready, Ivan is hurt" Bethel spoke, pressing her hand to the comm in her throat.

The commotion lasted several minutes while they worked their way out of the caves and into the ship. The rest of the crew help them to transport Ivan to the medical bay. Jimmy and Dr. Pu, the physicians aboard, were expecting them and took in charge of Ivan's injuries. The remaining members of the team were left outside, waiting and cursing on their bad luck. Agent Zephyr, give them a look, she was worried as well but her despair face would not help the team morale, her team.

She had been First in Command before she left, but she was getting lost with nothing to do, so she was assigned to SHIELD headquarters. Six months later she asked to be reinstated in the SART, seconded by Neymeyer which fervently believed that the demands of field work will keep her mind occupied, allowing her to forget a bit, while offering again a sense of purpose. Fortunately she had kept up with the training as a routine, extenuating her body seemed to help her in avoiding depression. When Nick fury himself appeared at her home to ask for her return, she was surprised. Only had she the opportunity of see him once, when she was offered a place at SHIELD. That had been sixteen years ago, when she had nothing to care for, and no one that cared for her. Better to keep memories at bay, she thought, the mission was they priority and the team was her first concern. She decided to retreat to the team quarters to go check on Pierre, which had been cleared from the medical bay, but he was still in recovery.

The rest of the field team members, Andrea Bethel and Theodoros Lemman, waited outside the medical bay, doing nothing to avoid looking like a pitiful lot.

"Dammit!" Lemman complained with frustration. He was worried about Ivan, they had been together since the Academy after all. But he was also worried about Pierre and Smith, and the whole life threatening mission they have gotten into. At this rhythm we will be all incapacitated, or worse dead in that dammit cave, before we reach what we are searching for.

The Space Assessment and Recovery Team, a.k.a SART, which field of action were classified to all not level 9 agents, was in its fifth outer space mission. Officially, they didn't exist, and literally they weren't in anyone's territory, their operation base was located out of any country borders, in a deep sea facility referred as The Tank. For the rest of SHIELD, they were level 1 'Sea Life Antarctic Research Team' which was synonym for 'the not-fun-at-all and freezing-their-butts nerds obsessed with the interesting (not definitely) study of the krill's DNA, as part of a research on environmental friendly combustible', in other words, a bunch of crazy scientists that love solitude and spent half of the year in a laboratory located somewhere in the Antarctic coast. That place didn't exist at all, it was a facade, so it was intentionally that too many fake coordinates were leaked about its location.

The truth was that the SART didn't interact with the rest of the organization on regular basis, but it was SHIELD level 9 commitment and sole purpose to keep The Tank's existence and operations range in anonymity. The field team was assembled by six specialists, they were engineers and combatants. All of them recruited at young ages, attended to the Academy, trained in military tactics and piloting. They had been preparing to go to the space for years, confined most of their time under the sea in space-like conditions. All of them had spent at least six months at the International Meteorological Space Station, where SHIELD had managed to replace most of the international personnel with undercover SHIELD agents. The final step of their training was a mind blower, it was difficult to content the excitement when they finally meet the Zenith. They felt like privileged children when they boarded in the Link Shuttle to the ship, and as proud as they could be, they learned to pilot it, to repair it and became one with the ship.

The extreme secrecy blanket that SHIELD used to cover the whole Zenith project has very founded reasons. None government, not even the US, will gladly accept that SHIELD was under control of a functional space ship, correction, a functional alien space ship, loaded with alien technology and capable of fade from the satellite and radars and plain view in milliseconds. When the ship was found, it caused and amazing chaos, amazing because the potential was unthinkable, but chaos because it will only lead to war for its control, and the truth of the existence of extraterrestrial life will cause panic to the planet's population.

It was indeed, one of the motivating factors for the foundation of SHIELD. So and agreement was meet and the ship soon became the best guarded secret of the human race. It continued like this for years, before they decided what to do with the ship, when SART born as a vision, for the many years it took them to be able to do anything with the technology, and after the decided to assemble the SART. How the ship had been found was lost knowledge, out of any record, the keepers of that secret where long died. The truth about its origins gone with the live of one of the greatest scientists SHIELD had the opportunity to cross with, one of the last bearers of the secret, one that sponsor years of research to uncover the basics of its operation, and spend his life trying to develop a power source to fuel the ship to life. He had succeed but he never lived to see his dream come true, even today it was Howard Stark's money that untraceable continued nourishing most of level 9 and 10 activities. But it was his son, that has revealed Stark's achievement, and because of that the ship could be awoken, powered by nothing else than Stark's arc reactor, of course Tony Stark didn't knew of the ship existence, nor the SART, nor his father ultimate secret, because after all, Avengers were not level 9.

Director Fury has been devoted to the project, and now, even if Director Coulson was not fan of the Agency's secrecy, himself condemning the experimentation with subjects in lower containing facilities like the Fridge, he ultimately understood that it was necessary to keeps things at a limited range of action and an even limited range of knowledge.

SHIELD efforts for the planet protection, could easily be misinterpreted as global conquering schemes, but to deny the existence of super humans, mutants and aliens, and deny that they enhanced capabilities could be used with evil purposes, was to yield and condemn the humanity. So yes, they will use all the resources in their hands and go behind the backs of every country and government if needed.

Almost three hours had elapsed after the team returned from their third recovery attempt, they were still crowded out of the medical bay, trying to kill the time. Dr. Wei Pu, knocked on the door to catch their attention, Jimmy followed him. Lemman stood up in expectation and everyone turned to see the doctor.

"He will be fine," Dr. Pu said.

"Can we see him?" Lemman asked.

"You may go, but he is sleeping. I checked on Pierre thirty minutes ago, he is much better, and had been asking for you," he said the last part making a gesture to Bethel. Lemman entered in the medical bay and Bethel headed to the quarters. When they left, Dr. Pu addressed Zephyr and Neymeyer, as they were ones in command of the mission, which made them also responsible for the security of the support crew.

"He is sedated now, the burned area is ample," Dr. Pu informed, not without concern. "What caused it, it was intended to disintegrate the flesh, his right hand was much damaged… I'm sorry, Ivan was a great pilot."

"Why are you talking of him in past tense. He is not dead, just injured and he will recover, he is a strong man."

"I'm sorry Agent Zephyr, but the wounded area expanded eating the flesh upon his arm, we… I remove it to avoid the propagation."

"What are you saying?"

"This is more than a burn, it continued damaging the issue at a fast pace, like an alien flesh-eating bacteria, it could be contagious. We need to start quarantine protocol immediately."

"No, we are exposed here, whoever built this, we don't know them, and we don't have enough equipment to fight them, we need to go back. We will activate the protocol once in Earth orbit."

"I'm sorry agent, but it is already done." This time it was Jimmy who spoke, making his way back in the room. He had sneaked to the command room while the doctor spoke. "Whatever threat is here we cannot risk to take it back home."

Zephyr's jaw tighten, she knew the protocol by heart, but now she was in the wrong end of the sentence. Now they were stranded in Mars for 120 days, until Earth send an extraction team in the Link Shuttle. They will have to wait at the abandoned space station, where the extraction will confirm the secure isolation or non-existence of whatever pathogen they may have been exposed to. They will be cleaned up like lab rats, and if a pathogen was positive and dangerous, the ship will be discarded. They will have to spend an additional 90 days in isolation, and only if the test results were negative for every single person on board, they could have clearance to go back home. Life just sucks.

She couldn't think clear, it was too much already, they were eons far from home, with a potential alien threat to recover that they cannot yet reach, two agents injured and now all of them were stranded, anything could happened in 120 days. So much had already happened in just 9 days, since they had landed on the planet. They cannot enter in Earth's orbit, but they cannot remain there waiting for something uncertain to happen. Her fists pressed too hard to avoid her hands from shaking. Perhaps they can still secure the 084, and then move the ship to the planet's orbit.

"We still have a job to finish," she said determined, but Neymeyer objected immediately.

"Oh, for Christ sake! Be reasonable Zephyr, you cannot take them back in there."

"We are already in quarantine, and that will cover for whatever other alien bug we may catch."

The doctor bowed his head and left the room, following Neymeyer's hint. Then he stepped closer to Zephyr and spoke with a calm but firm voice.

"It could had been you, not Ivan. The safety has been compromised, you don't have to kill yourself to complete the mission. If not for you, think on the team."

"That I'm doing, Hans. What if the alien that built this knows we irrupted in? We are outnumbered. What if they are on his way here now? At least we should know why are we dying for, or maybe use it in our defense."

"We are not… dying here, we are not!"

"Listen to yourself, you are terrified!"

"No, you are the one that is terrified. One of your own crew just pass over you to set a quarantine and you are in shock."

"We are a stuck here. We cannot remain sitting crossed arms next to a potential threat and do nothing. We have a mission to complete, and so we will."

"You have changed"

"You too, you used to be fearless and bold and cunning. What happened with that man?"

"That was before… then you left and I had to step in your boots. You said that I'm afraid, well I am, I don't want to lose you again. And if I have to stop you to go outside the ship, then so be it."

"Don't you dare to blame the fault on me. Did you step in my boots when I mourned alone? I didn't came back for you, but here we are in Mars, stranded, in quarantine, with two men hurt. I won't allow this mission to fail, nor anyone in this team to be left behind. Do you think I care to be thrown out the SART when we get back in… seven months? Oh, I do have changed, maybe it is my time to be the reckless one."

Neymeyer stormed to the door, his face pure rage, his body tense. He stooped and turned half the way out, his arm shaking, a fist closed tight with the index pointing, "You want to continue the mission, fine by me, go ahead, but whatever happened from now is on your account not mine." Then he left.

Exactly nine hours after a crew meeting where the concerning news about the quarantine were exposed, the rest of the standing members of the SART were on the garage preparing to go back to the cave. Denver and Bethel had already suited up, and were checking the equipment and the packs. Anderson checked the communication support with Lemman. With two men down, the remaining field team got reduced to four. Neymeyer stepped in the garage, he grab a blaster and fit a pad that Anderson handed to him in his suit pockets. He throw a glance at Zephyr but said nothing, then he stomped pass her to the gate. Lemman followed, unlocking the safe gate to open the area to outer space. This is totally wrong, that freaky cave is making us insane.

They walked, blasters guns in hands, crossing the dusty landscape, fingers ready on the triggers. The hole could be seen on the ridge, hidden, barely visible. It was the radiation signature that the place emitted which had made possible its detection, only that… it was not the place, it was something inside of it. Over the last year, two satellites and three exploration probes had been sent. The first estimated area was narrowed to one third of the planet and luckily after 6 months the pathfinder located a tentative entrance. It took 6 months more to prepare the ship and the team to carry the task.

This was their first mission that land in another planet, the first two missions had been in earth orbit, while in the next two they had made it to the moon. Actually, installing the cosmic radiation monitor in the moon had not been exactly a retrieval, and their two 084's turned to be ancient pieces of an Asgardian ship that was drifted away, thousands of years ago, technically space floating garbage. Now, this mission had promised to be something more excitement, the 084 object, was in the surface of Mars, and the radiation signature was similar to the ones recorded when the attack of New York had occurred. The pathfinder images showed a cave entrance, but no sign of life was detected near it. Of course they were armed, and prepared to confront any menacing that may be protecting the object, but they were blinded to what they may encounter there. The emitter may be a machine, a weapon, a material or any holdover left by ancient alien settlers or passers. They only hope whatever it was could be contained and loaded safety into the ship.

The second time, it had been easier to navigate in the tunnels. They had traced down the route with the pad. Not a Starkpad, no, that damned Stark toys had always back doors that the inventor can use, and frequently did, to hack on SHIELD. All the technology they carried with them or in the ship was SHIELD developed at the Project Pegasus facility, tested and adjusted later in The Tank. After all, Stark was not the only genius in the planet, no matter what he believed. He was indeed a pompous one, the narcissist billionaire used to get things his way. Besides Hydra wasn't the only one who liked to tamper with alien artifacts.

They reached the same spot when Ivan had been hurt, it was a dead end.

"We need another route," Lemman spoke pacing uneasy like a caged dog.

"There is no other path"

"Then we make a new one," Bethel intervened pulling the digger adapter for the blaster gun.

"Wait, we don't know what is behind these walls, it can cause an explosion or something, we can end trapped here."

Bethel held the scanner to the walls, walking along, until it beeped. "And here is our winner spot! The density of this area is less than the rest of the wall across the corridor, maybe there is another empty space in the other side, it can connect to another tunnel, or a room."

"What do you think?" She asked to Zephyr.

"I think it's worth a try"

"Hands on then." Lemman attached a second drill and he and Bethel started the task.

"Go easy on it, we don't want the wall to collapse."

Two hours later they had carved a window size patch to let a person slide through it, a little tight but it was something. The walls were a thick sturdy rock, nothing that you can find back at home. Home seemed farther now with the quarantine situation, but that was something to be worried later, first they had a mission to complete. Bethel was right, they had dig into another tunnel, one that had been sealed with the same material the cave was carved in, melted by an intense heat or explosion. They all went through and follow the tunnel which was as wide as the main passage. Scanners took the lead followed close by blasters ready to shoot.

"We are getting close to the origin of the energy signature, it is stronger but it seems to scatter, to the-" Neymeyer paused to move the scanner to his left and then to his right.

"Of course it couldn't be easy, there are probably two emitters, in opposite sides. We'll have to split," he said, separating a smaller screen, the size of a credit card, which was attached inside the pad.

Zephyr took it and looked at the screen, the bigger pad screen splatted in a second camera view, coming from the mini Pad is Zephyr hands.

Zephyr and Lemman followed the hall to the left side, Neymeyer and Bethel to the right.

"The signal is stronger, here"

"What the…. duck!"

Total blackout engulfed them, two laser cannons popped out from the rock wall, aiming for them.

"Lasers?" The two rays bounced trough the space between the walls, scanning.

"Don't move, I think they have range sensors."

"Neymeyer, do you copy? I think we cannot advance more at this side."

"That meaning we have our noses stuck to floor, with an evil laser pointing at us! Lemman said as calm as he could, showing a hint of sarcasm."

Bethel pocked Neymeyer slightly, making him look to the end of the corridor, it seemed to turn left.

"Zephyr, show me the corridor in front of you." A mirror image displayed, another corner, but this turned to the right. "I have an idea, a crazy idea." And a grin attempted to display in his face.

"Listening!"

"I think the center of the complex is a square, which left the cannons located at the corners. Maybe we can split and approach them from both sides. It cannot shoot in two directions at the same time, so one of us will have chance to blow it."

"Sounds reasonable, but we cannot know which side will shoot first, we need to be ready to react fast, either for shot or for duck."

"Maybe we can force it to shoot to a specific direction. If each of us stand in the middle of the side just a step closer to a side, and everyone step to the same side at the same time-"

"Then we can take down all the lasers at the same time. It may work only if we coordinate ourselves in exact timing to fire the opposite cannon while avoiding the shoot of the closer one.

"Sounds like a plan.

Lemman crawled slowly below the corner and to the other side, while Bethel did the same, their position monitored in the pad while Neymeyer guided them with the communicators to get perfect positioning.

"Lemman ready!" He whisperer to the voice sensor over his neck.

"Bethel ready!"

"Neymeyer ready!"

"Zephyr ready! At the count of three everyone stand up one step to the right, we are expecting attack on the front and target on the rear. Now positions… and… one ...two... three."

The motion was sudden, followed by a loud boom, the lasers burst and exploded in seconds. Eight pairs of cannons were neutralized, and he team lost accounted was the Pad, which protected Neymayer's arm like a bracer, taking a fraction of the laser impact.

"Is everyone fine?" Zephyr inquired, sitting up to regaining his breath.

The team stood together, while the frustration increased. The have walked the 268 feet square perimeter several times, just to realize that there wasn't a way to reach the center of it, not even a denture of a sealed entrance or opening. They had dig into the rock walls to found a second wall, a metal one, still no way in.

"Ok, I'm out of ideas," Neymeyer stated, followed by a loud crash and bang. "What are you doing?"

All eyes looked toward Bethel, a dismounted cannon at her feet. "I wanted to know what powers it on, is not like there is electricity here"

Bethel and Lemman took hands on the task of disassembling the laser, to find inside a small glowing sphere. It can be fitted in a hand and glowed an intense bright pink.

"Don't touch it," Zephyr warned.

She tried with a pair of pliers she had took from the equipment bag. As soon as he tried to grasp it, the cannon rotated. "It still works, the sensors…"

"Let me see. Yes, the sensors are destroyed but the laser still works, maybe we can -"

"Use it to cut a hole in the metal. That is brilliant Bethel! Can you make it shoot the laser again?"

"Give me ten minutes"

"Do it in five. Neymeyer, Lemman, help me get the other cannons here."

Before they finish their task, Bethel had managed to get the cannon to work producing a perfect laser bean. She pointed it to the exposed metal in the wall, where they had hollow out the rock.

The metal vibrated like a wave of energy bouncing at the surface, the ray was absorbed.

"Hey guys, you do want to see this"

"Interesting," Neymeyer said standing by her side.

"Can we try to overload it, concentrating the four lasers in the same spot?" Zephyr inquired.

"That's our next step, allow me"

It took Bethel another ten minutes to fix the rest of the cannons, helped by Lemman who was mesmerized by the energy spheres.

"Ready guys, let's do this." The cannons were activated by Bethel, as the others hold them one by one. They were heavy so it was like holding a baby elephant, the position was uncomfortable with the arms stretched around it. They barely managed to keep the beams focused, inducing a faint melting in the target surface. It was not enough.

"It's not working," Neymeyer said.

"I beg to differ boss, it is making the material's atoms to vibrate, with enough energy the molecular structure can be affected and we can have our hole."

"This is all we have!" Neymeyer complained.

"No, the blasters!"

"What? Zephyr, we already tried them, that didn't work either"

"I actually wasn't thinking on use them on the wall. Their power source is also alien, it may not be the same, but we can try to empower the cannon crystals."

"Wait, wait there, we don't know how they will react. That can create an explosion, I'll not risk to blow the whole place, ourselves within!"

Zephyr gave a thought to this argument, even if this was the only idea they got, it was a reckless move. She was really considering to pause the quest and return to the ship. They could all use some rest and try to analyze the situation with fresh heads. But that was not happening, it was Lemman that acted impulsively, and came accidentally with the solution. The energy wave generated by the explosion throw them back and they hit the rock hard on their backs.

Lemman had kicked one of the blasters into the beam target. Yes, the blaster power source had been overcharged by the laser and it indeed exploded. The explosion leaving a small hole, the size of a plate, in the metal wall.

"Damn it Lemman, you could have killed us all!"

"It worked, didn't it?" But he right away noticed the disapproving look in Zephyr's eyes, so he didn't commented anything else.

They set into the task to disassemble the rest of the crystals and attach them to the hole borders, and set themselves in a more safe range before activate the blasters at the same time.

The explosion was bigger, and stunned them a little bit. But they looked satisfied at bigger hole in the wall, the edges melted and fuming.

Zephyr step inside, being careful to not touch the borders of the makeshift entrance, blaster up and front. She saw a big rock, standing in the middle of…the metal sheltered room.

"The floor!" Bethel jaw was about to drop. "The metal melts with the rock." The cave itself, the tunnels were carved in the planet's ground, but the pathfinder analysis of the planet surface earth an rocks never detected any unknown materials. This undetected alloy that formed the room walls was embedded in the planet's core itself, intermingled with the rock, separated to create a safety box in the middle of the complex. This is impossible.

The space inside the room was limited, but there was enough space for them to walk in. The walls were a foot thick of pure metal, while it melted with the rock itself on the floor. In the center of the room a peculiar structure of solid rock was erected from the floor like an old cedar stump, leaving scarcely 3 foots free to the roof, it was wide enough that a person cannot embrace it with open arms. The explosion has left a charred mark in the floor and metal shavings and chunks were encrusted in the rock obelisk. Zephyr got close to examine it, her first discovery was that the floor got stickier closer to it. The color was darker also, at it looking like the substance leaked from the rock like sap from a tree, scurrying over the trunk. The second thing was a crack in the stone, several indeed, where the metal shards had hit as a result from the explosion. A closer look revealed that the substance leaked from the top of the rock.

She touched it, with her gloved finger, it was sticky and dark, definitely the same substance that was on the floor. A thin trail was slowly running down. It was thick, but not black, red, it looked like… No it can't be.

"This looks like… blood." All the faces turned to her, as in a cue the team stood in formation behind her, guns ready.

"Zephyr, come back." She turned to see Bethel pointing at the top of the rock.

She traced her steps back without losing visual connection to the stone.

"Holy shit!"

There was something on the top, something black and dark red, attached to the stone with metal restraints. The thing move slowly revealing fingers, it pulled, trying to tug free from the... Shackles?

Zephyr hand reached for her mouth in stupor. Neymeyer touched her shoulder and she shuddered, but composed herself immediately and made a sign for them to split and make advance. They circled the rock, two by each side. The creature was stretched over the rock's side in a painfully looking position. Arms totally extended, dangling from shackles, legs shackled to the floor by the ankles, the ties forced it to remain kneeled, but the body was suspended and the shackles cut nastily in the limbs articulations causing them to bleed. The position didn't allow it to rest the weight of the body over the floor, on the contrary it obliged for it to support against the rock, embracing it. They came to cover a 084, but this was a life form, and despite the horrible condition it was discovered by them, it was most definitely alive.

What was most perturbing, was to see it moving slowly but desperately, like a mouse in a mouse trap, dying from the exhaustion of trying to free himself.

This was definitely not good, new questions arise in the four agent's minds, what it was and why it was here. Why it was even alive being as it was, fixed in its position by the blade of a sword. The curious sword was inlaid in the rock, pretending to be Excalibur. Only that, in the middle of the blade, the creature chest lied impaled, trapped between the sword handle and the rock, covered in fresh and dried layers of grime, a mix from his own sweat and blood.