Chapter 13: Echoes Beneath the Surface
The Spectral Scouts returned just after local dusk seen through the breach, their feeds trailing ribbons of data into ORION’s core node. One by one, the holograms flickered to life—maps, energy graphs, atmospheric samplings—all centering on a dark expanse stretching farther than anything they'd yet encountered.
“Jesus,” Kai murmured. “That’s a lake?”
“It’s enormous,” Talia said, narrowing her eyes. “Caspian-sized. Maybe more.”
The image rotated—blue, endless, absorbing light rather than reflecting it.
“And it’s doing it too,” Arjun added, voice low.
Devon stepped forward. “Same phenomenon as the egg?”
“Yes,” ORION confirmed. “The lake absorbs ambient energy across multiple spectra—thermal, radiological, electromagnetic. And it’s not alone. A mineral vein nearby is exhibiting identical behavior.”
“Any idea what it is?” Amara asked.
Arjun exchanged a glance with ORION before replying. “No. We’ve cross-checked every element, compound, and radiation type in the database. Nothing matches. So... we named it.”
A new label appeared over the projection: Xenoradiant Energy.
“We don’t know how it works,” Arjun continued. “But it's clearly powerful. Stable. Adaptive. And it's everywhere.”
Kai exhaled, crossing his arms. “So we just found alien uranium... and an alien oil well?”
“Worse,” Talia muttered. “If this is anything like oil back home, we're standing on something nations would kill for.”
A heavy silence settled. Devon leaned on the console.
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“If the locals find out what we’ve seen…”
““They’ll want what we have,” Amara said. “And if they don’t have diplomacy?”
“Then they have something worse,” Kai finished. “Interrogation, torture... or outright kill us.”
Amara shook her head. “No, Kai. They won’t even bother with proper interrogation. If ORION’s scans are right and they’re not technologically advanced, they’ll rip us apart just to figure out how we work. The suits, the drones—everything.”
ORION’s voice sliced in. “Preliminary bioscans suggest the Netizens are biologically evolved to live within Xenoradiant saturation zones. Denser muscle tissue. Reinforced bone structures. Higher cellular recovery rates. You are not similarly equipped. Your odds in combat are minimal.”
Devon’s jaw tightened. “How minimal?”
“Sub-13% against a single evolved combatant. Lower in group scenarios. Your suits were designed for exploration and survival—not warfare.”
Kai stepped forward. “What about our gear? The laser drones, EPD units—they can rip through stone. Maybe they can do something.”
“Possible,” ORION admitted. “But untested. Those units are tuned for precision mining, not directed aggression. Reprogramming is feasible. Effectiveness is unverified.”
Arjun crossed his arms, frowning. “The EPD units were designed to fracture rock formations using timed pulse charges and electromagnetic force. Against living beings—especially ones possibly enhanced by this energy—it’s like using a tunnel drill in a sword fight. The targeting systems aren’t calibrated for moving entities. And the laser drones? They’re heat cutters, not combat lasers. We'd have to completely rewrite their behavior algorithms... and even then, they’d be clumsy at best.”
“So basically,” Kai said, “we’ve got glorified drills and lawnmowers.”
“We need better options,” Amara said. “Can our bodies be upgraded?”
Everyone turned to Talia.
She hesitated. “With enough time... maybe. We’ve got nano-fabs. Muscle reinforcement. Neural-sync augmentation. But it’d take research. Real R&D. Weeks, maybe months.”
“We don’t have that,” Devon said flatly.
Before anyone could reply, the feed shifted.
A new data stream bled across the screen—Surveyor class. Altitude feed. Topographic modeling. Then a deep pulse of sonar imaging.
“What now?” Kai said.
The image built itself layer by layer—a dark chamber forming below the surface.
As the data stabilized, the crew froze.
It was a cave.
A massive one.
Five times the size of the lake.
But it wasn’t just hollow earth.
The walls were structured. Columns. Arches. Bridges and broken towers buried in sediment and stone.
“Those are ruins,” Amara said, voice low.
“An underground city,” Talia added.
Arjun leaned closer to the feed. “Why hasn’t it collapsed? Something that size should’ve caved in long ago.”
Kai blinked at the projection, then glanced around them. “ORION… are the laws of physics even the same here? This shouldn’t be possible.”
ORION responded without delay. “Laws of Science are consistent with Earth-standard parameters. However, the presence of a new, unclassified energy—Xenoradiant—alters local environmental interactions. It may be reinforcing the structural integrity.”
“So the rules still apply,” Kai muttered, “but someone they can cheat them.”
ORION enhanced the scan. A lattice of unseen forces shimmered briefly across the ruin walls—hexagonal, almost organic in pattern.
“It’s being held up,” it said. “By architecture and energy.”
Xenoradiant pulses were threaded through the ruins like a nervous system.
“Holy sh—” Kai stopped himself.
Talia didn’t. “What the hell is this still science ?”
Devon stared at the projection, the scale of the discovery settling into his bones.
“They may not be technologically advanced,” he said, “but they’re advanced in something else.”
“Something we don’t understand,” Amara whispered.
Something we can’t underestimate.
