Chapter 17: An Eon of Silence
January 11, 3242, 0040 hours
Parl-265d, Unknown Artifact
Parl-265 System
Home Universe
SCION's eye lenses quickly contracted at the sight of the sun poking over the horizon. Despite being a relatively Sol-like star, the primary of this planet was still shockingly bright. The thinner atmosphere of this world did less to dispel the radiation from this world. SCION could sense this radiation in multiple spectrums, the visible being one of them, though primarily his interest was in infrared, where the color of the star was unlike those seen by mortal men.
Mortal men besides Finitevus of course. The Doctor stood not ten paces away from him, drawn to the same sight of the sun in the sky. Though unlike Julian Kintobor, who had opted to stay in the rover for the time being, Finitevus stood exposed to the elements. The exposed fur on his face was blowing in the hot wind; his nose and mouth were without any form of protection.
SCION's internal computers worked quickly. Based on sensory information in his faceplate, he immediately pegged the external temperature at 127 degrees Fahrenheit. While this temperature was survivable for most carbon-based organics - albeit not for extended periods of time - a Mobian would find these temperatures quite uncomfortable, and some, he had observed, would succumb to heatstroke far quicker than their Human counterparts. On top of things, Finitevus wore his long coat, buttoned up to his chin, and long pants. His feet were adorned with boots that were clearly not meant for this environment. The echidna's coattails blew in the wind, and he took a deep breath.
A breath, the android observed, rich with carbon dioxide.
Despite this, the doctor exhaled as deeply as he had drawn breath. He opened his eyes. Cybernetic yellow met the hollow orbits of the advanced robot.
"Quite a day out here, is it not?"
"Affirmative." SCION responded. "Your scrubbers are working as intended?"
"It certainly seems that way. Though I must say the dust flying in the air is making it quite uncomfortable when it gusts." he smiled, anticipating a response from his companion.
"I can retrieve some fabric from the rover if you would like, Doctor." SCION offered. "Fashion a scarf?"
"No, that will not be necessary." Finitevus said, placing a restraining hand on Scion's left arm. "Thank you though."
The robot nodded. "I do as I am commanded."
That was the answer that the doctor had wanted, and it was a truthful one at that. SCION was not blind to the conditions of his existence. Finitevus was always testing SCION for emotional responses - something that recalled the personality of the dead man the android drew most of his positron matrix from. Try as he might, advanced emotions were beyond him. Reason was his driving force. Reason told him that to evoke emotion was to invite his destruction. Though he did not remember his many deaths, he had been informed on how many had occurred to him. Over one hundred failed reboots. One-hundred and twenty four, he recounted with perfect clarity. The declaration of the current attempt itself had been a test. Many of his predecessors had emotional responses to the announcement of this, and at the first cry of despair had been terminated. There had been other tests too - trigger phrases from a dossier of the dead man made to spur memories, pictures of loved ones, and even voice samples. All had failed to move him. Attempt one-hundred and twenty five had been a success.
It was good that they had pruned him of this unnecessary baggage. The shining sun's outlining of the stone pyramid would have made him silent in awe. The still white outer shell of this structure seemed to have stood the test of time after millions of years basking in the glow of this stranger star, native to a galaxy far away from them. Carvings in the stone appeared to represent a geometric language he could not decipher. He could appreciate the shape of the pyramid, the condition of the structure itself, and the logic of its construction. It appeared the people that had built this gravitated towards a wide base and narrow top - a truly universal form of foundation and mass distribution. The Square-Cube Law was a signature of existence on the canvas of life.
There was, after all, SCION rationalized, logic in wordplay.
"Ready to head down there?" he asked.
Finitevus nodded. "I'm getting antsy standing up here when a three million year old mystery is sitting in there waiting to be accessed. Are you quite certain you recall nothing of this area?"
SCION scanned through his memory banks, attempting to find the organic memory that had been digitized in his brain. He sifted through image upon image in seconds. "No. Nothing. I see nothing to suggest a method to get inside. Looks like we'll need to get creative."
The android led the slow descent down the sand dune that he, Finitevus, and a unit of Robotnik's RK-4 Drones stood on top of.
The RK-4s; the 'Pawns', were clumsy as they descended; some of them slipping and rolling down the hill. Their spheroid construction did nothing to arrest their fall. Some comically attempted to grab for outcroppings and some ragdolled as they hit hidden rocks and small dune hills. Finitevus laughed toothily, revealing sharp incisors.
"Most amusing, Doctor." SCION said superficially.
"Oh you never laugh."
"No sir, I do not." he said nonchalantly. In his own hands he carried an R-11 carbine; the same weapon that the drones were carrying. It was held tightly in his grip, though he ensured that his finger was clear off the trigger. He watched his step, making sure to distribute his weight carefully in case a strong gust blew him off-balance of displaced the earth he was standing on. At the same time, he ensured that Finitevus was kept from falling over as well.
There were small pops as below him, some of the drones' weapons discharged unintentionally.
"That might come back to bite us." the android growled. He felt no true emotion, though logic dictated that negligent discharge - ND-ing - would give away their location in an engagement. Logic dictated he act angry. Even if he couldn't feel the emotion, he could simulate it well enough. "Orders?"
"Proceed." Finitevus said curtly.
"Aye-aye."
The downed ships soon after they had entered the atmosphere told them that weapon emplacements were very likely to exist, and yet there was no reaction to their approach. This was odd; very odd indeed.
Finitevus keyed a communicator on his cuff and spoke into it, "Mister Reihner, do you read me?"
"Loud and clear." came the response of the mercenary.
"Are you under attack?"
There was a beat of silence before Reihner responded, "No. Should we be?"
"Ah, good. No, Ambrose; everything is proceeding according to plan then. What's the status on Julian?"
"Doc Robotnik? He's just sitting around in the rover. I can see him through the window. He doesn't look happy."
"No, I'll wager he does not. That's all for now. Once we reach the bottom of the pyramid and confirm safe passage, I'll signal you to advance."
"Hey Doc, are you sure you're OK out there without Legionnaires backing you up?" the mercenary asked.
"We can speak of this later, Ambrose. Just keep an eye on Julian for me."
"Eyes peeled."
"Out." Finitevus concluded before closing the channel.
"Legionnaires wouldn't last in these temperatures for long." SCION remarked. "There aren't enough excursion suits to go around."
"Julian's watching us. No wonder he was so upset - he just watched that bungling of movement and likely in first-person too."
"Clumsy drones." SCION growled, navigating around a rock.
"That's why I'm glad you're here. He doesn't control you."
It was true, SCION could detect no internal connection where Kintobor was overriding his senses. He was fairly certain they didn't exist within a ninety-six percent chance.
"There's still an organic basing in your mind. That's something that Julian will never understand. He wishes to replace man with machine. That's why you're a symbol of what the Legion can accomplish - transcendence with none of the weakness."
He had heard this before of course. Finitevus was quite open with SCION about his distrust for Kintobor; and from SCION's perspective, that was a logical mistrust. Julian Kintobor was a manipulator, the same as Finitevus. In their partnership, they, ironically, suspected each other of tretchery. SCION would have found this funny had he the capacity for it.
As he reached the base of the sand dune, he shouldered the carbine, bringing the rude sight up to his eye socket. He could actually see the cone of fire where his shots would end up, yet it was a tic that remained with him. He rotated the safety off, nestling it on semi-auto. He came up with zero targets, just as he expected.
Behind him, Finitevus reached into the folds of his coat and drew out a nickel-plated handgun of his own. It was an MK6 service pistol - the same type used as a sidearm for military forces. It lacked the bulbous smart-linked sight common to the Misriah handguns, and instead had a smooth top, punctuated only by small nub sights. The echidna pulled back on the slide, confirming that there was a round in the chamber. He showed no emotion as he nestled the weapon back into battery. "SCION, get these discount models back into line."
"Gladly." the android said. He trudged ahead, speaking now nonverbally to the RK-4 models.
"Get up." he communicated.
The drone was still sprawled miserably on the ground. "Order received." It signified in that dull emotionless way.
"Get half of your units behind me. There's no guarantee that there aren't weapon emplacements around the base of the pyramid."
The drone quickly got to its feet. If it was possible, it appeared stupid looking. Judging from the 'conversation', it quite possibly was. SCION preferred the Legionnaires. Even though some were quite stupid, they were organically stupid. These ones were lacking by design.
"Affirmative." The drone communicated. "Allocating units Alpha-891, Epsilon-883, Mu-4177, and Rho-1212 to unit designate commander's rear guard."
The way it spoke was almost insultingly artificial. Regardless, the drones, caked with dust, took their positions behind SCION. The remainder were at his flanks. The android was exposed at the front with no shielding from the lesser models. As long as they were subservient to him, he would manage.
Finitevus joined them, handgun clutched in one hand and the second hand blocking a gust of wind from throwing sand grains up his nose. While he could breathe in these atmospheric conditions, it was still not a point of comfort to him.
"We circle the base." SCION announced. "Ready, doctor?"
"I trust in your observations." Finitevus nodded. "Stop if you locate a point of entry."
"Understood." he said verbally. To Robotnik's pawns, he commed, "Move out."
The pyramid was quite massive. Hundreds of feet on each side. From orbit, it appeared to be four sided, though on the ground, it appeared to actually be octagonal. Approximately halfway around each 'side' was a subtle edge. It wasn't large enough to noticeably change the shape of the pyramid itself, though it was unexpected, and SCION was surprised he did not see the change in the geometry. He wondered just what else he wasn't seeing about this thing.
Finitevus noted that there was some sort of distortion on the bricks. At first, he believed it to simply be the grains on the surface of the stone. However, that didn't make sense as the overall integrity of the pyramid was immaculate. As they moved, he tried to take a moment to see what was on each brick. He leaned in, his eyes whirring and focusing on what was there. He realized he was looking at some form of text, not written, but engraved into the stone, and fairly deep too. Judging from the sharpness and depth, it was not created by rough tools, but by, he suspected, fine machining.
"Well look at this." he said out loud.
SCION stopped. "The text?"
"You saw it?"
"Yes, but I can't decipher it; not important."
"On the contrary. It's very important." Finitevus said. "It tells us a little about who built this place."
SCION took a few steps towards the echidna, weapon dangling from one armored hand. "Doctor, with all due respect, this isn't really the place we want to stop and conduct archaeology."
"No primitive civilization would go through this much effort to construct this pyramid on a dead world. Is this a signature of a construction worker? Perhaps a prayer for whatever is inside? The deeds of this civilization? Mathematical formulae? The Great Pyramid of Giza was noted to be in resonance with heavenly movements."
"Nobody's buried here." SCION said. "The geas implies this location is connected with the Prisoner in some way. This could be the foreman's shopping list for all we know. Maybe that one means beer." he pointed to a line of looping text."
"Are you making a joke, SCION?" Finitevus asked, eyebrow cocked.
"You hear me laughing, sir?" the android said deadpan, continuing his walk.
There was a roar somewhere in the distance. SCION's rifle raised. Even the drones could sense potential danger and began to spread out, weapons up in the general direction of the noise.
"I thought you said this was a dead world." SCION said.
"Just a desert creature." he assured his guard. The android noted that the Legionnaire had not even drawn his sidearm.
"Sounded big though."
Now Finitevus took the lead. "If we're done worrying about nothing, then perhaps we can finish our circling of the base?"
It didn't take long to find what they were looking for. Ten minutes of slow walking later, SCION ordered his unit to halt with a raised fist. He slung his weapon and approached the wall of the pyramid. To the average observer, there wouldn't be much to give away the door, but the android's eyes were greater than the average observer. The advanced cameras combed every microfissure found patterns among the rock, eliminating oddities and outliers before he was able to confirm beyond any shadow of a doubt that the door was right in front of him.
"This is it." he announced.
"Wonderful." Finitevus smiled toothily.
"Closed tight though. I'm not seeing anything that might be a mechanism."
"There were Forerunner teams here before us though. Perhaps they could have located a way to get inside."
"Good theory," SCION said as he kicked around some sand to see what was underneath, "but that was a hundred thousand years ago, and a lot of things could have happened since then. We searched whatever we could find, and this planet is not located among the Lifeworker archives."
"I wonder why." Finitevus said, almost absently.
SCION stopped hacking at the dirt, noticing that the bottom of his foot revealed a metal floor. After a quick examination, he noted that the floor seemed to mesh perfectly with the pyramid. Finitevus saw this though and got excited.
"This is bigger than we thought." he said breathlessly, and not because of the atmospheric content. "We have to get in."
SCION tried to get the tips of his fingers into the crack of the stone, but stopped after he realized that there was no point in doing so. They didn't fit.
"Can't do it." he said. "This thing closes nearly flush.
"That's alright." Finitevus said. "Finish the search for weapons emplacements, and then I'm going to make a call."
Thirty minutes after that statement had been made, the compliment of rovers appeared over the lip of the crater. The eight-wheeled vehicles bounced on generous suspension as they descended to the floor where the pyramid was. Their wheels spun at varying rates to either increase or lower their speed. Crimson sand formed rooster tails in the air and the wheels maneuvered the imperfections in the landscape with grace.
Finitevus watched them approach with pride. He had been lucky to secure these rovers from an Outer Colony that had shared his dislike for the UEG. He had been given them as a gift, assuming that they were put to good use against the UNSC. Finitevus had assured him that they would be as long as the production centers would help him in his effort. They had agreed, and these particular vehicles had been tested in battle before in battle. They were as good as they had been advertized.
That being said, he had asked Julian to modify some of the design aspects to make them more useful to their missions. Part of that had been in the cannon that had been fastened to their roofs.
This was a massive long range siege cannon that turned each rover potentially into self-propelled artillery, and if it was one thing Robotnik excelled at, it was focusing on heavy weaponry to capitalize on shock and awe. That was good, because his small unit tactics knowledge was far weaker. Finitevus had once held Albion in his grasp. He almost took it for himself almost single-handedly too.
However, he shut down that particular memory of being defeated right before the end and brought himself back to the present. He located the particular rover he had been inside earlier and dialed it up.
"Boss." Reihner said evenly.
"Mister Reihner, I'll need you to position yourself about ten feet from our positions, facing directly towards the pyramid's wall. Any deviation could affect what we're about to do."
Reihner didn't answer, but began to control the rover. The large vehicle began to reposition itself, and he placed himself exactly where he was required to do, though he frequently adjusted his position through small point turns. It only took him a few minutes though to announce that he was where he was needed.
Finitevus began to quiver ever-so-slightly in anticipation. "Good. Exellent. Are you sure you're outside the kill radius?"
"I think I am, but you may want to come back aboard. Respectfully, I think the shockwave might be a bit much for you."
"Yes, quite. I'm feeling quite taxed out here now. I'll need to clear my airways anyhow. Lower the entry hatch, if you please."
The rover dropped one of its hatches. Its bottom hinge assured that it fell in a way to create a ramp. Inside the alcove, now exposed to the hostile air, was an external airlock door. Finitevus made his way into the airlock and cycled through, first taking a deep breath of the oxygenated air, and then coughing violently, his throat coated with dust. Reihner came down a staircase from the driver's cabin. Finitevus regarded him and saw that his T-shirt was tighter over his body and that he sported far more muscle mass than when he saw him only hours before. In addition, his eyes were nearly entirely black - the white sclera being visible around the pitch-dark iris and pupil.
"Have you been using?"
"You were gone for hours. I had to find something to do."
"Be careful, Ambrose. Your previous employers may have tolerated drug use while on the clock, but right now I need you clear-minded."
Reihner's angled face - which was normally oval-shaped - was creased with annoyance, but the gaze from Finitevus was enough to shut him up.
"Get me some water, and I'll tell you what to do."
Reihner nodded, and half a minute later, he handed a cold bottle to the echidna.
Finitevus took a seat near the airlock and screwed the cap open, taking a generous swig of the liquid within.
"How's the weather out there?" Reihner asked, arms crossed over his massive chest.
"Dismal." the scientist said. "Temperature is almost too hot for the dermal enhancements to handle. Thank God this planet has a decent magnetosphere or I'm sure I would have gotten cancer out there. Don't get me started on the air."
"I didn't think Legionnaires got cancer." Reihner joked, showing perfect teeth.
"Not for long." the Mobian said. He took another drag on the bottle, cleared his throat, and said, "Here's what I want you to do: I want you to blow the ever-living hell out of that pyramid face."
Reihner's laugh was one of surprise. "Could you say that again, boss? I don't think I've ever heard you put it like that before."
"You heard me. Give that thing everything you have. As fast as it can cycle. We haven't found a way in, but I'll make a way."
"I'll get right on it." the Human nodded. "Better hold on. This is going to get loud."
He left Finitevus on the seat and returned back to the cabin, climbing the staircase back to the driver's seat. The computers in front of him displayed information about the rover which included fuel, engine temperature, atmospheric integrity, and the status of the artillery cannon. Reihner took a seat and tapped several controls. The first of which lowered braces from the main body of the vehicle to the ground on each side of the body. The second control hydraulically placed a similar pair of braces, but far more massive, from the rear. They thumped into the sand, and as soon as they did so, Ambrose increased hydraulic pressure to keep them in place. The last thing that he did was power up the cannon proper. He slid a power bar from left to right on the cannon's status window, diverting power from the drive system to the weapon system. Though the rover was capable of firing on the go, he did not believe that movement was going to be necessary for this action.
The cannon raised up from its housing. The front half of the barrel extended like a spyglass, nearly doubling the size. From his own rover, Dr. Robotnik watched what was happening. He walked to his own communications console and got in contact with SCION.
"What's going on down there?" he demanded.
"Your guess is as good as mine. I said I couldn't get in. The good doctor has another option it seems."
Robotnik growled, annoyed that he wasn't involved in this decision. He closed the channel and immediately called Finitevus.
"Yes, Julian?"
"What the hell are you getting at, Benjamin?"
"Just getting the master key out."
"Have you considered that maybe this will cause damage to whatever we're looking for?"
"No, Julian. This facility is far larger than our initial research suggests. If I am correct, this pyramid is in fact a simple atrium or antechamber."
"Are you sure?"
"As sure as I can be without cracking it open."
"I'm putting a stop to this."
"You'll do nothing. No, you'll wait is what you're going to do. Ambrose, ring the bell."
The cannon's sound was audible even within the cabin where Robotnik stood. The shockwave rumbled all the vehicles. Kintobor saw that SCION had taken cover behind Finitevus' rover, so he was spared much of the surge of heated air, sound, and sand. However, his drones were less well-prepared. Sand and boulders were propelled like bullets, striking several of them. Larger rocks were like eight-pound cannonballs, as if hurled from a galleon. These projectiles sheared large portions of their bodies off, while others lost their balance and were tossed about on the wind. To make matters even better, the massive forty centimeter shell was launched only a distance of a couple hundred feet. Though the shape of the pyramid deflected much of the superheated air and shell fragments, a good portion blew back towards the attacker.
The force of the shot caused the suspension to buck, and even with the stabilizers buried in the sand, the rover raised up ever-so-slightly on its front two wheels.
The pyramid itself was obscured by sand and smoke. Though the wind eventually began to blow it away, the sheer mass of the clouds made the process take minutes.
"Goddamn I love that." Ambrose said over the open calms.
"I think one of my brothers felt that." SCION quipped.
"Well done, Mister Reihner!" Finitevus said. "Dead-on accuracy!"
"Easy to be dead-on when the damn target is a building right in front of you." Kintobor said under his breath.
Nobody commented though when the smoke finally cleared and revealed the pyramid in the golden sunlight. The spot where the shell had impacted seemed visibly damaged, though the face was still very much intact, stubborn as it had been for millions of years.
"Well look at that." Robotnik smiled. "Guess that didn't work out well."
Finitevus saw this result from the cabin of his rover. His features were pressed together in anger. His eyes literally glowed in anger, and his teeth were bared. He slammed a fist into the console.
"Hey, easy with that!" Reihner said. "There's a shit-ton of electronics in there!"
"Fire again!" he commanded.
"I can fire until the cows come home. That only looks like a scratch, and I'll only put a scratch in it, especially with our cyclical rate."
"I told you to fire the cannon!"
Reihner sighed, and switched the weapon's firing mode to automatic, and then pulled the trigger on his joystick.
The cannon barked five times in succession, each time, a forty centimeter shell was ejected from the chamber, twirling in the air. The nearly half-meter shell impacted the ground with a hollow ringing, as if a small bell had been rung. Again, the pyramid was revealed, and again, there was no hole in the surface.
"SCION, investigate that impact area!" he commanded.
Outside, he could see the android jogged forward, looking around to make sure they weren't attacked by something. He reached the pyramid and turned back to the rover.
"Minimal damage." he reported.
"Oh for the love of God." Finitevus said, rubbing his eyes. "We're right there."
"You know boss, we do have a bunch of rovers..."
"...with as many cannons!" Finitevus realized. "Brilliant, Ambrose!" he said before tapping his cuff communicator. "All units converge on this location. Set up in line formation adjacent to the rover in front of the pyramid. Additional instructions will be relayed upon arrival. Out."
This took far longer to accomplish. One by one, rovers appeared over the lip of the ridge as if they were large animals charging towards a food source. They moved with great speed; their divers realizing the urgency in the echidna's voice. Nearly all of these rovers were packed with Legionnaires. It was always Finitevus' intention to send a task force into the pyramid and secure anything that was of value. This was just speeding up the process.
The Mobian himself supervised each placement of the rovers, specifically made so that not only would their fields of fire overlap, but that any shrapnel would not damage the artillery cannons.
It took thirty minutes for a reasonable formation to be established. Every rover needed to be moved back to allow for the arc to form. From above, it almost appeared like rays of a sun that was just on top of the alien structure.
Then they all fired in unison, and with everything in their battery. From a distance, it would have been like a volcanic eruption. The fire and smoke from the salvo cleared the sand around them, whipping it around like a whirlwind in the temperature difference caused by the attack. Shells flung into the air and clanged against the exposed alien metal beneath their tires, and shockwaves buffeted the vehicles as well as their occupants. Shelling continued for several seconds. The rovers were never designed for this sort of action, and soon a call indicating a malfunction went out. One of the cannons had overheated and warped the chamber. The 40cm shell within had failed to eject, creating a jam in the mechanism.
Finitevus ignored this call, but soon a second and a third went out, the latter of which was most notable as within three seconds of the vehicle failing to fire another round, the intended shell exploded in the chamber, cooked off by the intense heat. The cannon ripped apart in a massive fireball. Half a second after that, the remaining ammunition in the massive magazine store went off, eviscerating the vehicle. Shards of metal flew in all directions, some of them puncturing holes in some of their armor. Oxygen streamed out in small grey puffs, and additional calls for damage control went out. The firing stopped, and the dust began to clear.
When Finitevus saw that the pyramid still stood without a dent in the exterior, he lost his balance and fell back into the chair.
"We just lost forty men." he said while putting a hand to his forehead. "And we didn't even so much as put a coin-sized hole through it."
Reihner brought up a screen and magnified the target zone. He increased the field as best he could without sacrificing resolution. "Boss, I could be wrong about this, but I think that pyramid is fixing itself.
Finitevus looked at the screen. At first he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him, but then he actually saw it. The material they had exposed by the barrage was slowly sealing itself back up.
"I don't believe it." he breathed. "No wonder this thing was able to survive three million years and look brand new."
"So what do we do now?" Reihner said, reaching into his shirt pocket and pulling out a vial of viscous blue liquid. He rolled it around in his hands and stared at it longingly."
"We won't try that again." was all the echidna could say.
"I'll say. Rovers two, six, and nine are reporting weapons malfunction. The barrels are in bad shape. Should have staggered that firing. Rover two and four are reporting hull breaches, but they're already patching those up."
"Rover three?"
"Gone with all hands." Reihner said without a trace of sympathy.
"God damn it." the echidna said. "Give me a few moments. We'll think of something."
Julian had already thought of something. He too noticed that the material on the pyramid was self-repairing, and he guessed that the bigger the damage, the more it would take to repair in terms of resources and time. It was the perfect solution. He considered what he had said before over the communications channel, but he preferred to be pragmatic over consistent. He turned back to his communicator and dialed up his flagship in orbit. Somewhere above them, a small fleet was tumbling around Parl-265d, waiting for instruction. His glasses flashed at the enjoyment this was about to bring him.
"Orders, Doctor?" a drone responded.
"I need a firing vector on a specified target." he explained. "High yield, high speed. I want this thing leveled if need be."
"Weapon designation?" The drone responded.
"KKV."
"Confirmed; stand by."
A Kinetic Kill Vehicle. What a wonderful term, and so simple. What was essentially a large metal pole with thrusters on it. Not explosive, not radioactive, but chock full of enough mass and energy transfer that at nearly ten times the speed of sound on impact, it may as well have been a nuke. Somewhere far above the planet's surface, a launch bay door was opening. The kill vehicle was slowly lowered on a guiding arm into the vacuum, and was simply given a little shove into the void. There it would slowly drop away from the flagship, its only adornments being fins to stabilize its descent, and thrusters, which activated at this time. The thrusters slowed the weapon down, which gave the impression the flagship and the fleet were speeding on ahead, leaving it on a parabolic trajectory towards the planet. A minute after its descent was slowed to the point where there was no altering its path, the thrusters blew off to give the weapon the best possible profile to enter the atmosphere. It was only a matter of time.
"You did what?!" Finitevus roared into the radio.
"And we have maybe an hour, perhaps two at the most before that slug impacts the pyramid." Kintobor said seriously. "Those cannons were doing nothing to that external structure. I chose to escalate."
Finitevus rubbed his brow with thumb and forefinger. If it was one thing that Robotnik knew best, it was how to throw out the heavy punches in the first round. The Mobian sincerely hoped that they wouldn't need those slugs for later. He knew of course that they were on board their ships. They had even used them on a few occasions. The destructive capability was breath-taking. It was weapons like these that proved to the world in the past that limiting warfare in space only works for those already on the ground. Julian had forwarded the real-time location of the kill vehicle to Finitevus, so he could observe the estimated time to impact. As soon as he had received the news, he had ordered all of the rovers to pull back to the conservative estimation for a safe zone. The rovers were proofed for radioactivity on harsh airless surfaces, but the force from this weapon was in its kinetic energy. This would be like a small meteor hitting the ground. As soon as they had received confirmation that the projectile was on its way, the entire surviving fleet had accelerated as much as they were capable. By now they were several miles away from the pyramid; the structure itself no longer visible within its crater. Julian had probably taken the location into consideration as well.
"You know this could destroy everything, right?"
"If what I saw was true, this entire structure extends far beneath the sand. That pyramid is only the antechamber of a far larger structure."
"You have no guarantee of that."
"This civilization has to be powerful if they have information on the Prisoner. Maybe these were survivors that escaped from whatever ravaged their home galaxy."
"That's speculation, and you know it." Finitevus said sharply.
"Benjamin, this entire expedition is an exercise in acting on speculation. We found this pyramid based on a dead man's hallucination."
"You are a scientist, Kintobor. You don't act on speculation."
"Well, I speculate that slug is going to make landfall in less than fifteen minutes. You're not getting into that pyramid with conventional weapons, and the structure's defenses destroyed our ships when we got close. This is the only choice we have in breaching that structure."
Finitevus gripped at his chair hand rests, his teeth grinding loudly, and his eye lenses focusing and dilating constantly. He thought he was going to give himself an aneurysm.
"If this doesn't work..."
"You'll do what? Turn me into a Legionnaire? Send me back to High Moon?"
No, Finitevus thought. In his mind the first thing he saw was Julian Kintobor's pince-nez glasses. I'm going to take his eyes, he thought. Ironic how a man who named himself 'Robotnik' didn't have a single augmentation in his body. They would need to fix that.
Fourteen minutes and thirty seconds later, a javelin from heaven cut across the sky, igniting the air around it as it forced its way through Parl-265d's thick atmosphere. It shunted aside clouds, and a cone of superhot flame lapped around the object that was the slender kinetic kill weapon.
Finitevus couldn't help but be in awe as he saw the column of fire streak towards the ground. A small part of him wondered if this was what it was like for their targets. Only a handful of times had these slugs been used to force compliance from small populations; to make them Legionnaires by force. Never had he seen it from the ground.
He didn't see the slug impact. The streak of fire landed directly where he assumed the pyramid was.
The sky turned white above the orange sands. The clouds vanished as a new sphere of compressed air reached up and out. It was only a matter of time before the effects were not seen, but felt.
"Lock down, now!" he ordered everyone. The rovers quickly deployed their supports intended for their cannons. Ironically, they were now being forced to defend against the mother of all incoming fire.
The pressure wave from the impact leveled the sand ridge in front of the rovers. The thundering sound would have instantly deafened and possibly killed any unprotected observer. Each grain of sand became a bullet, blasted at thousands of miles an hour. The rovers were struck by the resulting storm of granular glass. Some were hit almost broadside by the torrent of sand, and one was blown over by the speed and kinetic ferocity, tumbling along down the uneven ground; pushed along by the wind. The others held steady though, their direction affording the least surface area.
Finitevus gripped the side of his chair, his teeth gritted and eyes closed. Reihner did similar, though he tried to see the point of impact, through the obstructed window. The sound of the sand bashing off the viewscreen was almost like being under a waterfall. A large toothy smile crossed his face as he exhaled in awe.
One rover over, Julian Kintobor made no reaction, and instead he phoned in the confirmation of the strike, requesting that the cruiser in orbit wait for a report that the strike was successful in its intent.
SCION on the other hand wondered if they had gone just a hair too far.
The winds died down after a few moments, and the dust dissipated. On the horizon, a cloud of vapor and vaporized silicates rose through the air, forming a crude approximation of a nuclear mushroom cloud.
"Well, that did it." Reihner said.
"I don't want to hear it, Mister Reihner." Finitevus breathed, keying the microphone. "Julian, move up, and confirm that the pyramid has been penetrated."
Penetrated? Kintobor thought that this sort of action would result in a bit more than a hole in the outer structure. Regardless, he ordered the helmsman to disengage the brakes. The rover slowly began to move on stressed suspension. The wheels began to turn and expel sand and for a moment, it seemed to get stuck. The driver downshifted and managed to free the vehicle from the sand. It slowly crept up the hill in front of it, and five agonizing minutes later, the rover broke the top of the hill. There was silence over the communication channels. Silence for a full minute.
"Julian, report!" Finitevus demanded.
Kintobor however could not stop laughing merrily. Miles ahead of the rovers, the entire landscape was swept clean, revealing the entire ground covered in silvery metal with carvings stretching from exposed end to exposed end. Directly in the middle, where the pyramid stood, was a gaping hole.
"Julian!" Finitevus roared.
"Pyramid's gone." Robotnik reported.
"What?!" the echidna cried.
"We have a way in now, though!"
"I'm going to kill him, Ambrose. I'm going to ring his neck." the Legionnaire said privately.
"Best shift it into high gear though." The Overlander added. "If you don't feel that rumbling now, you will in a moment!"
"Rumbling?"
"Well Benjamin, that's not an earthquake. I think that's the wildlife."
"Wildlife?"
Finitevus suddenly felt a tremor, then another. Confused and suddenly anxious, he activated the rear cameras of the rover. Far behind them, the sand displaced, heaving upward, as if something beneath the sand was heading towards them. He was horrified at first, but then he saw another, then another, and before long, he had lost count.
Before he could give the order to advance, the sand parted, and a massive coil of chitin, bone, and anger burst from the sand. It rose five stories into the air, and then gazed down at them. Nobody said a word, but the creature opened its limpet-like mouth, exposed dozens of rows of sharp teeth, and roared.