7: Alpha Centauri

Author: Chaoseternus

Chapter 10: Breeching the Cavern

RSG-1 watched with eager eyes as the miners dug the last few feet into the cavern. Felix had chucked them out at the two and a half meter mark to conserve their strength. If any hostiles were in the cavern, they would need it. So now they waited, eagerly for the miners to finish their work. Then with a clatter of falling rock, but no sound of rock hitting bottom, the bottom fell out of the shaft, the rock and earth falling down into the cavern below. The miners breathed a sign of relief, their work largely done as they walked further back, away from the edge of the scaffolding, hanging above the cavern below. They were in, now it was the Royal StarGate Teams turn to lead the show.

"RSG-1 calling Mine control, cavern breeched. Get the probes out here ASAP please" Tobias casually flicked her radio off, and waited.
"Copy RSG-1, about time, the Alphahead has been ready for three hours now"
"Next time we'll get you to do the digging shall we Control" Tobias snapped, annoyed. The miners shared amused looks, "sounds like its Ravens shift on the radio" Dayfies commented, "acts like a total A-hole, but he's always there if you need him"
"Right, well you guys take Five hours, well set up the probes for the initial survey, and join you in about an hour"
The miners nodded, and wearily trudged off for the tents as RSG-1 waited for the slowly approaching Alphahead and its precious cargo of probes and sensors.

Williams rose his glasses to his face as one of the small flitting specks to the north broke off from the rest, and began growing, filling out into the lines of an Alphahead, with a bulky underslung load.
He turned his head to the resting RSG-1 team-members "Probes are here"

Groaning, they rose to their feet as the Alphahead slowed, finally coming to a stop right above the breech into the cavern, its engines whining with the strain of hovering in place. The first probe was lowered as the team, joined once again by the miners turned to their laptops and began monitoring the slow descent of the sensor pod into the cavern. "Can we pause, and take a look at the cavern side a moment?" Felix asked.
Nodding, Pickstock tapped at his laptop, the probe image quickly slowing and turning to face the cavern wall.
Felix whistled, "Artificial, that wall is way too flat and level to be a natural formation"
"You sure?" Pirate asked, worried.
"Hell yeah, there is no way that is natural"
"Hey Felix, check out how shiny the wall is? Is that glass?"
Felix half turned at the wondering tone in Tobias's voice, then turned back to the laptop as the words hit home. "Could easily be, it's reflective enough, but it's not consistent. Its almost as if they slapped wet glass levelly against the whole wall and then hit it with an intense heat burst, melting the sand into glass instantly" Pickstock commented, running the complex sensors suite on the probe over the wall, "yup, high infra-red absorbance too, though again not consistent. It reads like low quality glass"
"Drop the probe" Tobias ordered, as the investigation of the wall started to run on. They had much more to investigate before they could enter.