Chapter 87: The Grave of Dreams VI

  After the last surprise and shock, they finally moved out of the bountiful building and along the large plaza, in search for more treasures and knowledge. All the time Marcus could not help it and glance at the Mule with the horrific object, and he was not the only one. A numbness had befallen the whole raid. Nobody really talked and their steps were powerless, they were still processing the implications of the crystal arm. “For fuck sake! You are all too fucking depressing! Do I have to start shooting people just to get your heads out of your asses?” Janette shouted out of the blue, swinging her machine gun around. The outburst was so comical that Marcus could not help but laugh, Achara and Kou joined him, followed by Grace and eventually the whole raid laughed hard. After that little event, things became brighter again and Janette was awarded the title of “Raid Motivator”.

  For several hours they searched, but had no luck at all and by now everybody was worn and hungry. They decided to make a big rest and to move on tomorrow. They chose the ruin of a small building as their hub and fortified their position for the “night”. With so many people they had the luxury to have two men guards over night and Marcus shared his time with Janette. They fantasized what they would do with their share of the money but it was all stupid stuff like a pool full of jello. The night stayed quiet and after a nice breakfast the raid moved on in high spirits.

  They continued their search for riches but eventually they had checked most buildings they could reach. The way further down was blocked from this area and the raid had to go back up at least a level or two, to find another way down somewhere else. An hour later, and two levels up they found something of a transit level. Large corridors and halls connected the whole level and they made fast progress. “This was most likely used for transportation of goods for the production levels we have seen.” Kou theorized. “At least it allows us to make quick progress.” Rita said and scanned the surroundings. If they used this level to get around the hollow sphere they could get to any quadrant in a few hours.

  “What is that smell?” Candis asked as they moved into one of the larger halls. Marcus opened his helmet and now he could smell it too. “It smells burned and something else.” he said and the rest sniffed too. “Monsters?” Hammond asked and Rita shrugged her shoulders. “SHIT” Marcus heard Janette saying and already knew things were bad. She aimed her light towards an area fifty meter away and walked towards something on the ground. Marcus ran up to her and kept an eye on the surroundings until he saw the human corpses. Heavily mangled, dismembered corpses of humans in armor littered the floor. “It is the other raid group! I recognize that guy.” Carlos said and it was true.

  They carefully moved through the remains of the other raid and counted the corpses. “It is all of them? Some must have tried to run.” Rita said while she examined the corpses. “What did this to them? None of the monsters we have seen…” Achara said but Grace called everybody to her position.

  Grace stood in front of a weird looking area of the floor. It looked blackened and burned. Inside the area was something that could have been a human or two if they had been made out of wax and stood too long in the sun. They, their armor and weapons looked melted. Marcus walked closer and looked at it from close distance “This was done with tremendous heat. Even the weapons have melted.” he said and Achara shivered, she had a special fear of being burned alive. Kou took her hand and led her a bit away from the horrible scene. “Rita, gather up their identifications and also what equipment can still be used. Their families might need the money.” the old lord said with a heavy voice. Marcus was a bit surprised, in a positive way. Many would have just taken the equipment to sell it. He helped and together with the rest they gathered everything up in minutes.

  “From now on we need to be even more careful. Janette stay vigilant, you are our best hope to avoid such a fate.” Rita said and Janette nodded in agreement. “I think it is only one thing. A big thing, very strong and it also has fire.” Hammond said after he had finished his examination. “That at least means we do not need to be worry about every shadow in the ruins.” Carlos said taking his friends word as gospel. Hammond had a set of strange skills Marcus realized.

  If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

  The raid moved on, tense and worried. Once they found a large staircase, that led them down to another level, they felt a bit safer. Smaller hallways and buildings meant no giant monster could rip them apart. Hopefully.

  The area was, once more, a bit more posh and the buildings had nicer ornaments (what was left of it). They peeked into some of the buildings but by now they had learned this was more or less a waste of time. A completely different story was a large building that they found towards the end of the area. It was many stories high and had several wide doors as an entrance. “This looks like something a lot of people were meant to go through.” Grace said and inspected the doors and the first room after it. “I’m getting large mall feeling here.” She said with a smile. Marcus could imagine that there was something worthwhile in a large mall and the rest thought the same way.

  “It is shopping time, baby!” Janette said and walked right in.

  The layout did seem to fit the idea of a mall, smaller rooms next to each other with large entrances. The problem was, of course, that everything in here was long gone. They checked a few rooms but nothing was even remotely intact. Then they followed some staircases up and down “HERE! Come down you need to see this!” Grace called and Marcus’ group quickly followed the call.

  As they moved down the staircase they saw what the others had found, a large sculpture covered with transparent crystal. The sculpture showed a man, a woman and child holding hands. They had beige skin and dark eyes, their hair was thin and short but they welcomed the raid with a wide smile. “There is also some text down here but we will have to wait until the scientists can translate that.” Grace pointed down. “So this must be them. The people who built all this?” Alistair said and carefully inspected the aliens. “They look so much like us. I mean the skin color looks a bit unhealthy but besides that, they could be humans with bad taste in clothing.” Kou said and Marcus chuckled.

  Carlos and Hammond, who had gone a bit further called out “Here is more!” and they all quickly moved on. They found another sculpture and this time it was even more impressive. Four people, two men and two women stood in a semicircle and held hands. One of them looked like the people from before but the rest were all different. “Each of them represent another species I bet. It is not just some color variations. Look this one has a thicker skull and that woman has pointy ears and barely any nose.” Marcus said, who had changed into scientist mode. “And down here four words, each with a different set of symbols. FOUR languages for four species.” He nearly lost the ground under his feet. “An alliance of species! Imagine that!” It was a massive find for sure. They made photos and a set of short videos to describe their find for the scientist who would eventually be all over this place.

  Marcus was totally absorbed with the find and analyzed every detail until he was exhausted and took a big gulp of water. “Imagine what things they must have been able to do together. The science and engineering they shared. The cultural exchange!” He was still hyped but Alistair next to him had a somber look on his face. Even Marcus eventually recognized it and Alistair said with a dry voice “You are right Marcus. It must have been incredible and they must have been full of hope and dreams. But what has come of it, you can see around you.” and from one moment to the next Marcus tasted ash in his mouth. He looked around the ruins and recognized that lord Cromwell was right. “They built all this… and it was not enough.” Marcus said.

  “We do not know if there were other places like this that survived what ever happened here. It is possible that this alliance survived on a different planet.” Alistair said to cheer Marcus up but the damage was done. Marcus’ brain could not hide from the truth of the situation. What ever technology and power they had gained in their alliance of four species, it had not been enough to survive. “How are we going to survive this universe if four races did not manage together?” Marcus said with a faint voice. “By learning from their demise and finding a better way.” Rita stood behind them. “I think we have gained what we could from this place. We should move on.” They left the sculptures behind and walked back into the ruin filled underground city. Now that Marcus had seen how the people here had looked like, how human they had been, the whole place felt even darker to him.

  “The ginghi survived until now, and they were around when this fell, I would guess.” Janette said walking next to Marcus. He looked at her and smiled, she knew him well. “We have to be smart and underground cities might not the best solution, long term.” She continued with a grin. “I’m more of a floating city guy.” Kou offered his opinion too. “A city in the treetops of super large trees. Gaia style.” Achara said and now Marcus laughed. “Okay, I take a city inside a giant asteroid and space ships draw in minerals and metals from other asteroids. Also space pirates.” He said, now with more hope for the future. “A magical kingdom hidden in a different dimension, you can only enter through magic portals, if you have a pure heart.” it came from an unexpected source. Marcus turned and saw Rita with a smile on her face. Who had thought? “That sounds great, but then Janette can not come to visit us, she is a demon after all.” Marcus said and the demon kicked him against the shin.