The Lotus
Indoraptor Year 1265, March, Adar Flam spaceport...
Hey, dad.
Sorry for not calling you or mom for weeks, but things are being hectic lately. I'd be happy to send back some photos or whatever, but I don't think my admiral will appreciate it. I promise I'll tell you everything when I get back.
With love, Raizex.
Four weeks went by since Raizex and his team returned to the Adar Flam spaceport from Lemuria. An uneventful second trip to the colony planet was carried out to help identify what relics were stolen by the robbers and where they ended up after being smuggled away. Whereas other teams were busy sniffing the crime scene for clues, Raizex led his little group to the museum's administration office, checking one document after another under the supervision of the museum's senior manager.
Stone tablets, jewels made of exotic gemstones, ceremonial daggers, pieces of old spaceships, broken electronic devices, Raizex took his time to read all of their names and descriptions, hoping to unveil some clues or unusual patterns that might explain why the robbers' unnamed client was infatuated with ancient relics.
One document in particular caught his eyes; a big, purplish item that could open like a lotus when pressed on the sides and revealed holograms on the top.
Only one other item shared the same characteristics; the white lotus-like relic in the young agent's possession.
"So, these two relics could be related in some way…" Raizex muttered. To avoid uncomfortable questions from his companions, he requested that all documents related to the missing exhibits be copied and sent to Adar Flam's Intelligence Sector for analysis.
When all was said and done, as soon as the group arrived at the spaceport after weeks of spaceflight, Raizex found himself busy studying the data and images of the relics until hours later, being left on his own as Vion went back to his previous post in the Grand Fleet and Lea already retreating to his sleeping bunk. Recalling that he had to clean up his tools, the lone Indoraptor stopped working as he strutted to the equipment locker, yawning along the way.
He never really liked assault rifles, Raizex thought as he opened his locker. He found their weight and accuracy being poor compared to the likes of shotguns and pistols. Sure, modern assault rifles nowadays used heat cartridges, cooling down after being used instead of using ammunition, but Raizex believed that the lack of accuracy to be detrimental. The privilege of having both firepower and accuracy belonged to sniper rifles, just like the one Vion carried during his missions. It used heat cartridge too, but in place for very high firepower and precision, it had to sacrifice a lot of weight. Even the young agent secretly admired the gun and wished he could devote some training time to familiarize his muscles with the rifle. Having a shotgun as a secondary weapon worked quite well for Raizex too, especially if he got ambushed by assailants in tight quarters. Expensive? Definitely. Deadly in close range? Absolutely.
Aside from keeping a handgun and a shotgun for self-defense, Raizex felt calm enough to walk in public places without wearing tactical gear.
Next came Raizex's cherished platinum glaive. He hadn't had much time to practice with it since he came back from Lemuria, but he liked the weapon's long-range capabilities more than he did knives or batons. While he didn't want to brag about his new melee weapon in front of his friends, he sure hoped to find some good use for the weapon.
And lastly, the spherical relic that Lieutenant Malia once gave him alongside the glaive. Three to four other agents in the sector were previously in charge of studying and safekeeping the relic, according to the older female. Presently, it was Raizex's turn to look after the artifact.
As the young agent reached out for the relic, he instinctively activated it, curious as to why the one in his hands right now was pretty much alike with the stolen one.
Just like before, the relic bloomed like a lotus flower, revealing some sort of holographic interface using a language unknown to him. Raizex pushed a button, and soon the interface transformed into a video-like presentation, portraying long-dead aliens that looked like the Sylvons experimenting on bacteria and other microorganisms using very advanced tools. Raizex pushed the button again, and the video shifted, showing the spindly aliens visiting barren planets on their Euclidian spaceships and performed what he assumed to be terraforming projects. The young Indoraptor then pushed the button a third time, and the video revealed yet a new scene; the terraformed planets were then seeded with the microorganisms they were experimenting on earlier. They then evolved somewhat rapidly, progressing into plants and animals in a short time frame. So the ancient aliens held the power of genetic engineering and planet-wide terraforming, it seemed, and the Lotus stored all records of their achievements.
"Is this the reason why the mollusk aliens desired to claim the artifacts?" Raizex tapped his claws in curiosity. Noises from outside the locker room shook him out of his confused thoughts.
He hastily turned the Lotus off and hid it inside his locker, hoping that no one else saw him tinkering with the object.
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Indoraptor Year 1265, August, colony planet Shrike (Nabradia system), North Point Research Post...
Raizex admitted, he wasn't exactly comfortable when it came to planetside duties. Sometimes it allowed him to get up close and personal to colony life; a chance to see how the Union's colonists fare while being so far away from Earth, as his father had been doing for years now. Other times, it bored him so much that he'd considered slacking off when nobody's looking.
Maybe the boredom could be explained by the young agent's fascination with the Lotus. He needed more time to see all of its contents.
Raizex had been taking stimulants now and then to keep his mind focused. Lea tended to find Raizex occasionally reading some weird books discussing long-lost civilizations on Earth, which intrigued him as the agent didn't present himself as a bookworm or a genius. Vion, sadly, wasn't there with them this time.
Therefore, by the time he was chosen to assist in a research station alongside three dozen Indoraptors in various capacity, the resentful dinosaur could do nothing but groan... until the mission briefing came in; the scientists on Shrike were in the process of exhuming more ancient alien ruins, at which point he enthusiastically volunteered himself. Lea in particular seemed to notice Raizex's total change in attitude.
"You know something, do you?"
"What do you want to know, buddy?"
"You've been reading books on history and archaeology and whatnot. Why? Are you still obsessed with the museum robbery case?"
"I am, actually. For the record, Admiral Ender and a female lieutenant made me sworn to secrecy. It's related to the missing artifacts."
"Fuck, if an admiral is asking his subordinate to keep secrets, it means something bad is going to happen."
"Don't worry about it. I'll show you something, but you can't tell anybody else, promise?"
Thankfully, Raizex kept an alarm in his smartphone to remind him to bring the Lotus before arriving on Shrike. He instructed Lea to find a room or hallway in the research post where people were less likely to walk in.
As promised, Raizex unveiled the relic to Lea in private. The young agent told his friend how the female lieutenant approached him one day to hand over a special weapon and the relic. He mentioned how the object contained holographic data on the ancient aliens' experiments with terraforming, much to Lea's excitement as Raizex activated the relic and showed its video-like contents. Finally, Raizex acknowledged his newfound curiosity in archaeology by speaking of his relic's similarity with the one being stolen from the museum on Lemuria. There could be more ancient relics like his Lotus out there.
"This is so awesome and confusing at the same time!"
"I know, right? Which is why I forbid you from telling absolutely anybody about this."
"Except Vion and your girlfriend?"
"Yeah, except them and possibly Admiral Ender. I could be wrong, but I believe there are more of these lotus-like artifacts out there."
And so, there they were, pretending to be guarding the North Point research station by walking around the second floor's roofless walkway. Raizex would either be keeping his sight on passing researchers or slouching a little on a wall. Lea would be gazing to the vast plains in the distance, where a herd of colossal bug-like things wandered peacefully. Both were quite anxious, wondering when they could start asking the researchers on their diggings.
Yes, the first time they heard the mention of enormous creatures living on Shrike, they tried to dismiss it as the Union exporting the sauropods back home to the colony, or the planet has its own equivalent of the long-necked animals. Raizex didn't think that the word 'Titanic' was to be taken literally. As Lea pointed out, almost all of the Union's citizens frequently mistook the terminology when it came to these beasts, as in not believing the beasts to be as large as skyscrapers until they saw it with their own eyes. Raizex agreed, seeing the titans for the first time reminded him of his childhood, when his dad took him to a zoo for the first time. That, and his first visit to the lush, beautiful planet that was Shrike instantly boosted up his spirit, if only a bit.
"Surprising," Lea said as he watched some of the planet's herbivorous titans grazing on forest treetops. They moved gracefully despite their immense size.
"Surprised to see me watching huge monsters alongside you, buddy?"
"No. Look closer; can you see those spire-like structures in the distance?"
"I think I can... Hey, do you think those spires belong to a ruined ancient city?" Raizex raised his eyebrows as he looked.
"I know right? Maybe that's where the scientists work when they go outside the station."
"In my opinion, I should be more astonished to see the scientists moving back and forth without being stomped by those huge things," the baffled young agent replied as he slouched on the wall behind him again. Raizex thought his mind could be playing tricks on him using a false image, but he swore, in the faraway mountain range, he saw something immensely big crawling on its belly across the mountain peaks... ah, forget it.
Four days later, Raizex still hadn't built up the courage to ask the scientists directly regarding the ruins and what they could've unearthed from it, so the young agent decided to ask them about the titanic creatures and other topics.
Lea, for example, interviewed a male researcher this morning and obtained new information; the astronomers from Terra Prima claimed to have found signs of a recently-spacefaring species, some kind of grassland-roaming mammals that walked on two legs, they said. Whatever species it was, they have made their first attempt at space exploration by sending manned spacecraft at their neighboring planets within their home system.
Raizex, meanwhile, overheard female scientists gossiping about how the Union was outlining drafts on large space stations with artificial habitats. He intentionally stalled for a few seconds before leaving, long enough to hear words like 'orbital hydroponic farms' and 'interstellar listening array. This likely had something to do with the Indoraptors' expansion projects.
And recently, the young agent received word of a new project the station was working on; bio-electric implants. Yes, he heard that right. Somebody on the lower floors claimed, if somewhat controversially, that the titanic insects over there held internal organs which discharged electricity, and by studying the effects of said biological organs, they could potentially create special cybernetic implants that allowed the user to utilize bio-electricity. From what Raizex could remember, the debates were still ongoing on how to design and put the implants inside the test subject's body.
None of the news had anything to do with the digging project. Raizex was almost ready to give up on the meaningless spying endeavor just as three scientists walked past him on the fifth day on the second-floor walkway, talking about a red spherical object they received from the field workers.
Could it be another Lotus?
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EXTRACTING SPECIES PROFILE: RAGNYR
Species Name: Ragnyr
Scientific Name: Titanus mundus lacerta
Classification: Arthropod / Reptilian hybrid (titanic organism)
Homeworld: Shrike, Nabradia system
Preferable Habitats: Saltwater swamps, kelp forests, and tropical forests
Lifespan: ~400 years
Length: ~355 meters
Height: ~78 meters
Weight: ~100 tons
Diet: Omnivore (primarily herbivorous)
Locomotion: Hexapedal
Ethics: N/A
Special Attributes: Two small arms for grasping food, fully-evolved lungs and gills as respiratory organs, immensely thick scales and carapace, four pairs of double-pupil eyes, ability to understand whistling sounds, mutualistic symbiosis with lesser life forms, bio-electric organs as a self-defense mechanism.
Overview :
Among the countless titans who roamed the vast seas and landmasses of the planet Shrike, Ragnyr is perhaps one of the most docile gargantuan species thriving on it, if not the most benign species of all the titans.
The species is known for its insect-like body, possessing six pointy legs plus two small arms and metallic-colored carapace, making them almost similar in nature to beetles. However, reptilian features such as scaly underbelly, spiked tail, and lizard-like mouth structure have been found in all cataloged specimens (the mouths in question are sauropod-like filled with teeth of varying size and shape, as well as mandible-like structures on the side). The creatures' head shape might vary from specimen to specimen, with some having longer heads full of short spikes and others having short but wider heads, but all specimens are acknowledged to possess four pairs of eyes with twin pupils. The Ragnyr are plant-eaters, one of the few titanic species that forage on the lush vegetation on Shrike, and can be spotted feeding in or near the planet's rainforests, swamps, or even kelp forests just off the shorelines.
The massive creatures, gradually evolving over thousands of years, developed spectacular forms of defensive mechanisms. The first one is their near-impervious carapaces, supposedly able to withstand impacts from intense gunfire. By collecting shredded parts of the Ragnyr's shell, scientists were able to discover how to construct tough armor suits for the Indoraptors to utilize, as well as creating armor for spaceship hulls. The second defensive ability is revealed to be two pairs of special, electricity-discharging organs, located somewhere just behind the creature's massive twin hearts (the scientists weren't able to properly locate the organs for fear of angering the subjects if they poke them too much). These bio-electric organs could be channeled through the titan's mouth and pointed limbs, giving it the ability to protect itself from predatory titans. The Union is currently studying the chance of replicating this latent power into their technology.
The Ragnyrs are astonishingly docile and patient. In a shocking turn of events, three or more individuals of the species have been noted to treat the colonists gently, even going so far as to allow the colony's researchers to climb on their backs and study them. The event was considered to be a good sign of the colony's future, as the titans are now shown to carry a form of miniature gardens on their backs wherever they go, which contain all forms of ground-fertilizing organisms useful in farming crops.
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EXTRACTING SPECIES PROFILE: MIDASOMIR
Species Name: Midasomir
Scientific Name: Titanus terrarum python
Classification: Reptilian (titanic organism)
Homeworld: Shrike, Nabradia system
Preferable Habitats: Mountain ranges and ocean depths
Lifespan: ~700 years
Length: ~500 meters
Height: N/A
Weight: ~200 tons
Diet: Carnivore
Locomotion: Hexapedal (theoretically)
Ethics: N/A
Special Attributes: Six clawed legs to help them traverse treacherous terrains, fully-evolved lungs, and gills as respiratory organs, impenetrable scales, two pairs of eyes, neurotoxin venom, trident-like spikes on tail tip, longevity, and bio-electricity for offensive uses.
Overview:
Aside from a handful of long-range observations, not much is known regarding the great serpents which roam the vast mountains and deep seas of Shrike. The name 'Midasomir' is actually a twisted/shortened version of 'Midgardsommr', the name of a giant snake in one of the extinct human's ancient mythology.
In almost all observations, the Midasomir is seen feasting on other titanic creatures, either alive or dead. These gargantuan serpents are capable of both swallowing their victims full (if the victim is small enough to be eaten in a single bite) and twisting the victim's corpse into smaller bits before eating (if the victim is too large to swallow whole). The Midasomir's venom also plays an important factor in subduing prey; while it's not fully understood what type of toxin the Midasomir possesses, traces collected from their victim's uneaten parts indicated a form of powerful neurotoxin, so potent it can kill a smaller creature by simply getting covered in a single drop of the venom. Later observations witnessed the great reptiles fighting against other titans whether for sustenance or nesting ground; one recorded event chronicled a colossal battle between a male Midasomir, a purple crocodile-like titan, and an elephant-like titan with three trunks and winning.
The serpent's preference in high altitude areas is one of the few reasons why the colonists on Shrike are forbidden to settle their residence in the mountains. All travels to mountainous regions are also heavily controlled to prevent detrimental events.
Despite having six clawed legs that they use to pass through the rugged terrains of the highlands, the Midasomir largely relies on slithering their long, spiked bodies to navigate their way. It is unknown if said legs are of any use, offensively or defensively.
The Union's researchers found that young Midasomirs tend to shed their skin at least five times before reaching adulthood, like the snakes back on Earth. While the shredded scales themselves aren't exactly treasured, they provided interesting insight on the creature's defenses and an opportunity to synthesize durable material that mimics the scales' sturdiness. Strange minerals and crystals are also found embedded all over the scales, implying that some or all Midasomirs regularly feed on underground minerals to fill their nutrient needs.
