USD: 72 Days after arrival at Fort Glisson

Location: Nu Crateris, Outer System, Hades, Infiltration Tunnel, SRS Heaven’s Fire

It did not take long for the Heaven’s Fire to plunge through the tunnel. Amy watched with growing alarm as they approached the Magma line on the display at a high rate. Before she could comment, the ship’s retro thrusters kicked on, slowing their plunge.

Heeler slapped a control with a tentacle and suddenly the hardened crust of the wound that A31 had dug turned a glowing red, then yellow, and finally white as the battlecruiser still approached. The optical cameras dotting the ship’s hull swapped slowly between feeds before all suddenly cutting out at once.

Wyles tapped the arm of his seat nervously. “Did the cameras just fail?”

“The light threshold of the optical sensors was exceeded, and they have been shutdown and shuttered to prevent degradation.”

“Oh, that’s just great.” Wyles muttered.

Amy cleared her voice. “Heeler, since the optical feeds are out, can you show us a different display type? We’d both appreciate being able to see our progress.”

Heeler growled or sounded like he growled. Amy realized it was just the noise when he made to signal an affirmative. The screen flashed back to life, showing a diagram of the tunnel and the ship. A glowing blue field around the ship shimmered to life.

Wyles leaned forward to examine the screen that was mirrored on his half-console. “How long until we reach the magma layer?”

“We will reach the magma line in thirty seconds.” Heeler announced. A small timer blinked to life in the display's corner, showing the ETA. As the time ticked down, Amy watched the blue ellipsoid bubble around the ship come closer to the solid yellow line.

There was no physical sensation when the ship pushed into the molten material below them. All around the ship, the stratum was pressed away from the hull by the highly pressurized field of particles formed by the ship’s D-field.

Amy watched as they maintained their course, dropping through the super-heated material straight for where the internal tunnel was supposed to be. A second ETA clock displaying a ten-minute timer appeared. She assumed that was how long until they made it to the other side.

Things seemed to progress normally, and Amy almost found it in herself to relax as the clock passed the halfway mark. A bead of sweat dripped off her nose and she realized it wasn’t just from stress, but from the temperature of the room rising sharply.

Amy wiped her face. “Heeler. It’s getting hot?”

A display above Heeler’s head blinked, a yellow bar going off the side of the screen. “The layer’s temperature gradient does not follow the expected curve.”

Wyles didn’t look happy. “You bragged about how the field would protect us from the heat of a star, much less a puny magma layer.”

“That was true for a standard yellow-type star. However, the temperatures outside the hull are exceeding those of a blue hyper-giant. It is possible there are some active processes in play that are attempting to prevent our entry.”

Amy looked back down at her console. The clock was still ticking down.

Heeler let out another low noise that she hadn’t heard before. “Our forward energy array has been disabled, as there is no need to heat the material any further. We are continuing to dive toward the inner edge.”

Amy flipped the page on her console that Heeler had designed for her and started shifting through the ship’s systems. Although the specific screens weren’t anything she’d studied or seen before, the way starships worked was about the same. It looked like Heeler had stolen the operating system from some human ship anyway, and she quickly found what she was looking for.

“I’m increasing the ship’s life-support cooling to 200% and rerouting excess heat through all ship systems into the laser battery heat-sinks.”

Heeler growled annoyance. “All the heat is already being stored in the primary heat sinks. The laser heat-sinks are meant for quick heating and cooling, not a sustained containment. These levels of heat will melt them.”

“The primaries are about to reach saturation, and when that happens, what happens to the D-field? The lasers might be slagged, but that’ll buy us enough time to make it through.” Amy countered.

Heeler made his accepting growl sound, but otherwise remained silent. Despite over ramping the life-support cooling, it continued to get hotter, and Amy’s suit whined as the cooler’s motor reached its maximum rpm. On the main screen, the field continued to hold and the clock finally reached zero.

“We have reached the edge, the temperature has dropped by 25%.”

“75% of melt anything you can think of is still fucking hot.” Wyles interjected.

“The tunnel has been sealed off by a magnetized plate and vacuum. I have activated the forward energy caster to disrupt the system.”

Amy watched the screen. They passed through the second yellow line without slowing or any physical sensation, but almost immediately there seemed to be a slackening in temperature around them.

She checked the life-support read out. “LS reports internal conditions dropping 10c per minute from 220c air temperature.”

“I am afraid some of my brothers in the outer sections have suffered heat-damage.”

“You should look into providing them skinsuits.” Wyles commented.

“Thank you for the suggestion, human. I will consider it.”

The optical feeds blinked back into operation, and Amy gawked at the sight. Molten material flowed around the ship’s field dripping downwards into the darkness below, causing lines of light to highlight in rings as the material fell in globs.

As the molten liquid thinned around them, holes appeared in the covering, showing that they had emerged into a massive cylindrical hole. Several cameras activated their zoom function, and in the dim light cast by the molten rock, she could see the walls were completely encased in layers of metallic protrusions and buildings.

Above them, the hole that they had dug through the mantle rapidly seemed to heal itself, cutting off the dripping flow that had escaped along with them and then cooling from a bright white-yellow to a dulling red.

“That explains why this is all still here. It actively regenerates somehow.” Amy commented.

Heeler agreed. “The system is not as dead as first appearances show. From what I can determine, the increase in temperature was an active response to our intrusion.”

“Controlled activity should show some signs somewhere.” Wyles commented.

A single loud ping echoed in Amy’s ears as the ship’s sensors came to full life.

“An active EM and sonar scan is underway. A low-band communication buoy has established communication with A31.” Heeler stated.

A communication screen flipped to life, showing the worried face of Abbey. “Amy! Heeler! Are you all okay? I saw higher energy readings than there were supposed to be!”

“We have emerged intact, but damaged. Our laser systems are rendered inoperative until repairs can be made and several of my brothers have been harmed by high temperatures inside the hull.”

A pained look appeared on Abbey’s face. “Oh no, not the doggos! I knew I should have added atmosphere control to their pajamas! I will work on a redesign immediately!”

Heeler let out another growl. “I have established a constant data-feed of our sensor data. It would be advisable for you to help analyze our findings now and work on other projects later.”

Amy nodded. There would be time for Rexxor nestling spacesuits… later.

“We’re still dropping deeper. Shouldn’t we pause and see what we can figure out from here?” Wyles said.

Heeler waved a tentacle in response. “It is unlikely we can return through the mantle line without repairs and improvements to the heat management systems of the ship. These have been planned, but will take some time and require resource acquisitions. I am detecting a transient power source active thirty kilometers below and have set it as our destination.”

Amy checked the readouts on her console and played with one of the optical sensors. “The tunnel is nearly twenty-five kilometers wide in diameter. There are extensive shelves of construction and buildings along the tunnel walls. We can likely find a ledge or landing area large enough to support the ship.”

“Those are large enough to land on? They look tiny.” Wyles asked.

“They are far away, so they look smaller than they really are.” Amy explained.

Several blue lasers expanded from the battlecruiser’s hull, scanning the tunnel as they descended deeper. “This must have once been a great nest, the entire moon riddled with tunnels. There is evidence that many of the structures were once habitations for the owning species.”

“How do you know that?” Wyles asked.

A picture on a monitor flashed to life, a strange skeleton appearing in focus, causing Amy to almost flinch. “Is that… one of the inhabitants?”

“It appears they did not survive whatever caused the failing of their moon.” Heeler theorized. As the battlecruiser dipped deeper into the tunnel, they passed the first intersection. The hub had tunnels going in six directions, and the construction of habitations and other buildings disappeared into the darkness in every direction.

“That’s not the skeletal system of any species I’ve read about before.” Wyles commented.

“I have searched the IFRB database. There are no records present of this species. We will need to take physical samples for dating to confirm or deny any relation to certain Rexxor beliefs relating to the ‘Skygods’ and their arrival on Dedia IV.”

Amy looked up at Heeler, or at least the back of his shell; his tentacle eyeballs were wholly focused on moving between the half dozen of displays around his seat.

“You think they might be related? That these are ancient Rexxor?”

Heeler growled, “The imaging of the skeletal remains does not resemble any Rexxor biology that I am familiar with. However, it could be an ancient form of it that is no longer seen. It is also possible these were enemies of the Skygods and Rexxor, or that those who delivered us to Dedia were not Rexxor at all.”

There was a moment of silence, as no one had anything to add to that statement. The other humans on the team signaled to Wyles they were fine and ready for an away mission, and he left the CIC to join them in the shuttle bay. Amy worried at how the security personnel and Heeler’s ‘brothers’ would get along, but they hadn’t killed each other yet, so she put it out of mind.

“Heeler, the transient energy source we are picking up, do you think it might be a control point of some kind?”

“That guess is as good as any. If the area seems stable, we will attempt to land and begin repairs to the ship. It should provide an excellent opportunity for the away team to examine relics and acquire samples as well.” Heeler answered.

Amy nodded and swallowed a bit of anxiety. She hoped whatever had caused the failing wasn't still around to hinder their repairs.