Almost two hours later they came upon a clearing cut through the forest. They were about to cross straight over it in to more forest. Heather brought the APC to a stop.
Hale examined the monitors. "Looks like a road."
"It's not even overgrown," Adams agreed.
The three of them checked the digital map. Looking at the left cameras monitor, Heather could see that the dirt road curved to the right further down.
"If we go left, we can follow that curve further down," Heather recommended. "If it goes straight from there, it'll take us direct to our marker."
They agreed and once again the vehicle moved off, rocking its occupants gently as it left the forest and moved on to the smooth dirt road.
"Shouldn't it be overgrown?" Hale wondered.
"They must've wanted it to stay clear without maintenance." Adams said. "They were probably planning on being here a long time."
"But they didn't want to be out in the open," Hale considered. "Just like us."
They followed the dirt road as it curved towards the right. It straightened up as Heather had anticipated. A few hundred metres ahead lay a discernible structure. The three at the front examined the view shown in the monitors.
Heather slowed the vehicle and approached gradually. Coming closer, they could now see high structures covered in green moss and plant life on either side of the dirt road. The road itself continued unimpeded between them.
"Those look like walls," Hale pointed out.
The original drab military grey of the walls came through in patches far and few between.
"There's no gate," Heather added.
Now just a few metres away from the supposed entrance, they could see that something had been torn forcefully from the surrounding walls. The sides of them were jagged; big chunks missing.
Amy, Gustav and Smith joined in watching the monitors over their shoulders. Callum stretched his sleep away and took a sip of water from a bottle. Arthur was still paying full attention to his own monitors. Kra'tak and Tol'din stayed sitting in the back of the vehicle, having finished with their equipment repairs.
Heather eased the vehicle up to and past the high walls. They came upon a large clearing that continued ahead and on the left. In the distance they could see the crumbling remains of a perimeter wall, now mostly green with overgrown plants. To their right were a number of buildings, the fronts all arranged neatly to form one larger facade.
"They look connected," Amy observed.
A few metres past the high walls the road was blocked by what were the remains of the gate and large chunks of the high wall. The gate was almost as thick as their own and made out of solid steel.
"How'd the gate end up here?" Hale worried.
"Maybe something big hit it from outside," Gustav suggested jokingly.
"They blew it themselves?" Smith suggested. "It got stuck?"
"It'd be outside then, wouldn't it?" Hale countered.
"Enough!" Heather admonished.
The others went quiet.
"What's the plan?" Adams asked.
"We'll go round the debris, find a place to park up near the buildings and scope it out." Heather planned. "Where's the ship supposed to be?"
Amy went over to Kra'tak. "Can you tell us where the ship is?"
Kra'tak, currently without helmet, spoke to Tol'din. "We can show you outside."
Amy noted that his voiced had changed slightly. He still mimicked Toms but was beginning to be influenced by the growls, grunts and clicks of his own language.
She smiled at Kra'tak, not knowing if the gesture really meant anything to him. She walked to the front, placing a hand briefly on the side for balance as Heather turned the APC to go around the debris.
"He'll show us outside," Amy relayed.
"Don't see it in the clearing," Hale noted.
"Probably inside," Amy replied.
"They made plenty of room to land ships here," Adams took notice. "Didn't do the same for us."
"Wasn't it because our base was hastily built?" Smith wondered.
"That's what they said," Amy added, "That's why we had an orbiting ship until recently."
"What did they say the reason was for the ship leaving?" Gustav asked, interested in the direction of this conversation.
"Doesn't make sense..." Smith trailed off in thought.
"Enough!" Heather said again, this time more forcefully. "Forget the theories for now. Let's see what we can find here and whether or not we can salvage anything first. We've got less than an hour of daylight left."
The others listened and kept further thoughts on the topic to themselves.
"Everyone except Arthur and Amy, gear up," Heather ordered. "We go out in five."
Kra'tak put on his new helmet, which hissed as it connected, and gathered his equipment that now included a shoulder mounted cannon.
Five minutes later, they were all standing guard around the APC; weapons ready, eyes and ears alert. They had parked in front of the central building of the facility.
"You hear that?" Smith whispered. He was listening to the sounds of what he assumed were the natural life on this planet.
"Yeah, never heard anything like it before," Adams answered, whispering too.
"No bugs around here, that's probably why," Callum hoped.
They were all talking in low voices, not wanting to attract unwanted attention.
"No more talking," Heather instructed. "We split in two groups. My group will go further ahead and scope out the buildings."
She turned to Kra'tak, thinking up a way to ask rather than order him.
Kra'tak spoke before she did. "Tol'din and I will do as you say."
Heather mouthed silent thanks. "Ok. Adams, Smith, Kra'tak and Tol'din. You work your way back to where we came. Check the buildings and see if you can find a way in."
They broke in to the two groups. Amy watched the groups move off as instructed and promptly closed the APC door. She turned to Arthur who was watching the monitors.
"I'll stay on the turret," Arthur said. "Let me know if you spot anything on the other monitors."
"Will do," Amy nodded, checked her radio, then took up a seat in front.
Heathers group moved away from the entrance they had come to, towards the wall on the opposite side. Looking at the area around them, they could clearly see the signs of battle that Tol'din had mentioned.
The ground close to the buildings was strewn with the odd pieces of equipment: machine guns broken in pieces, torn body armour, a couple intact helmets, and long dried stains, in faded reds and greens, dotted along the ground. There were also small craters spread further out in the clearing.
The fronts of the buildings they were passing contained no windows. The lower halves were being overgrown by a vine like plant. Unlike expected these vines were not rooted in the ground rather they seemed to grow out of the building itself. There were chunks missing, obvious signs of explosives used, and bullets and more stains marked the top halves of the buildings which weren't yet overgrown.
Further along, close to the perimeter wall now, Heather and her team came across a tall structure that looked very much like a hangar. Though the two huge doors were bent inwards, they still held fast, with no visible gaps for them to fit through.
Heather brushed away vines from the smaller access door for the hangar. She tried to push it open but it was locked tight.
"Let's go back," she ordered quietly.
Adams team worked its way back towards the entrance they had come through. They moved between the buildings and the giant piece of the gate that had blocked the APC. The last building they came to contained empty windows further up. All others were windowless. This one was four storeys tall.
"The ship is on top of there," Kra'tak told the group.
Adams looked up on top of the windowed building.
"Great!" Callum exclaimed, still whispering.
Adams looked at Smith doubtfully. They were thinking the same – this building would be the most dangerous as it was open to the outside.
"Ok, let's head back," Adams ordered.
The day was beginning to fade into twilight. Darkness would follow soon.
The two groups met up again at the APC and reported their findings.
"Looks like the hangar is the best bet then," Heather proposed.
"How do we get in?" Hale asked. "Climb in through the windows?"
"No," Heather replied. "Too dangerous."
"Tol'din and I can enter the broken building and make it safe," Kra'tak said.
Heather thought for a moment. "Okay, do it."
Kra'tak tried activating his cloak. Electricity crackled along his body, startling some of the others, but again it failed to activate. A low growl signified his displeasure. He then quickly ran through further diagnostics: his vision modes were now working, but the tracking on his shoulder cannon was intermittent.
The two of them moved off, Tol'din activating his cloak and once again becoming an almost undetectable blur.
"Do we wait?" Callum asked.
"No choice," Heather said. "These doors look solid, grenades probably won't work and we don't want to ring the dinner bell."
They stood near the APC. Amy opened the door to join them in listening to the sounds of what they assumed was the natural life on this planet.
"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Amy asked, standing next to Smith and Adams.
"Wish Caley could hear this," Smith replied.
Ten minutes later they heard a muffled explosion coming from the windowed building. They all looked worryingly in that direction, unsure what to do.
"Should've given him a radio," Gustav said in response.
They could do nothing but continue to wait. Another ten minutes passed. The light was really starting to fade now and darkness was taking over. Amy went back inside the APC and shut the door, stopping the interior lighting from illuminating the outside.
"Woah! Look at that," Hale pointed towards the centre building.
They all turned to look. Hidden behind the vines near the door leading into the building they could see a faint red glow.
"What is that?" Callum slowly enquired.
Heather moved up to it. Brushing away the vines, which broke easily and fell to the ground, she revealed a control panel below the strong red light. The display was glowing a faint blue, highlighting Heathers facial features. The screen simply displayed:
– – – – – –
"Must be a passcode," Hale whispered, standing next to her.
"Any guesses?" Heather asked rhetorically.
In response, Hale began brushing away vines around the console as if hoping to find an answer there. Heather watched quizzically, about to ask what he expected to find, when Hale revealed a set of numbers hastily etched into the wall above the panel.
"I'll be..." Heather exclaimed. "Everyone, form up on me."
The others came up and took positions around the doorway. Slowly, Heather punched in the numbers one at a time. The final number was accompanied by a low confirming beep and a sound emanating from the door. It popped open a little.
She opened it quickly, Adams and Hale immediately moving in, the others following rapidly. Before the door closed, Gustav placed a chunk of concrete to stop it from closing all the way.
"Good thinking," Callum commended.
Inside, the room responded to their entry by turning on emergency lights. The room was bathed in red light, leaving deep dark shadows where anything could be hiding.
The room they were in looked like a large foyer. Up ahead was a reception area with a large desk. Behind that was a corridor leading off to various areas. To the right of the room was an open stairwell leading to the next floor up.
In contrast to the outside and from what they could see, it looked almost impeccable.
The group moved cautiously inside, looking for any signs of movement. Heather motioned for them to move together to the desk. On the other side, they came upon a number of computer terminals, none of which seemed to be powered on.
On either side of the corridor behind the desk there were signs pointing to different areas:
GROUND FLOOR:
LABORATORY 1
LABORATORY 2 (CRYOGENICS)
OPERATIONS
VEHICLE HANGAR
UPPER FLOORS:
BARRACKS
LIVING QUARTERS
CANTEEN
Heather quickly made plans. "We'll check out operations first. If they've got power, maybe we can get communications and some other systems running."
They moved into the corridor leading off behind the desk and turned right at the end of it. There was only one door ahead of them: OPERATIONS.
Again they took notice that there were no signs of battle at all inside. Etched into the wall above another actively glowing console was a different set of numbers from before. Heather punched them in and again they moved as one to enter the room.
Outside, Kra'tak and Tol'din, uncloaked, moved towards the APC. Amy dimmed the interior lights, opened the door and called over to Kra'tak. "The others have gone inside that building."
She pointed towards the open door. "Did you find anything?" she added.
"We found eggs. We have destroyed them."
The two of them moved into the building. They detected the low sounds of talking and followed them towards the operations room. The others watched as Kra'tak and Tol'din joined them inside the room and reported their findings.
The room itself was quite large and contained equipment along the walls and large consoles and displays throughout the room. There were seats for a dozen. Heather sat at one that was surrounded by a number of large displays.
A single screen was blinking with a cursor. She pressed a button and the system beeped to life. The screens came on, adding further colours of light to the currently red room, and began displaying various diagnostics. A lot of the lines flashing red as they scrolled by.
The group, having had enough of sitting in the APC, ignored the seats and stood spread around the room watching the displays curiously. Callum and Gustav stayed in the corridor, outside the only door to the room.
Eventually the log in screen came up and to everyone's surprise the username and password filled themselves in and booted up to what looked like a main menu of sorts.
"We need Amy in here," Heather realised, this being outside her and the teams realm of expertise.