Tempest

10 - Echoes of the Past

Four's Logbook

We sent Gates and the rest of the crew back home a message. I gave them what info I could, though I'll admit that I dumbed down the overall message. Somehow, I don't think they'd be very comfortable with the idea of me being here if they knew exactly what that message had detailed.

Assuming we get the response in several hours, I've made the decision to land us down on the planet early. That way, Gates can't tell me to not explore it.

I've scanned around the planet, or and found anomalous structures all over the planet. It seems that most of them are buried or under the large amounts of snow and ice that has accumulated over the many years since their creators lived here.

What is it with snow planets? Why do we have to freeze our asses off every time we go somewhere? The amount of bad luck we must have is astounding, but whatever ...

Obviously, those aren't of much use to us, but there's one site that seems promising. It looks like a massive temple or something, definitely important to some degree. There's still a lot of snow there, but not enough to bury the site. There's a lot of interference from the storm, so we don't know everything we're getting ourselves into, but I think it's our best bet.

Let's see what secrets this place holds.

...

KT looked through the external monitors of the ship, having accessed them from her station in the vehicle bay. There were so many clouds generated by the flurries of snow and wind in the atmosphere, it was hard to make anything out. Fortunately, as they descended, it seemed to be clearing up a bit.

"Anything yet?" came Tobias' voice through an open channel.

She silently responded, Not yet. When we get through the cloud layer, it should be better; but this wind definitely isn't-

As if on cue, the ship began to shake a bit more violently from the air resistance it was having to push against, and she could hear Tobias grunting slightly as he tried to remain in control.

As I said, the wind isn't helping.

"Dammit, it's ... it's really strong. We should be fine on the ground, but it's giving us a real beating up here in the air."

Suddenly, something began to appear in the distance. There, I see it! Starboard side of the ship.

"Got it. Trying to bring us over there now."

The gray tips of something peeked out at her from the cloud layer, and finally they were low enough to see the rest of the structure.

It was a massive spire towering over the land. It definitely had the same sort of architectural design that the ruins on Erebus had; simple but monumental. Much of its lower portion stretched down to the ground below, and some of it went straight into the ground, with mounds of rock climbing its sides. On the upper half, the tip of it seemed to split into two before reaching high into the air. There was some kind of connection between them near the top, but she couldn't discern exactly what it was.

Roughly two hundred feet above the large snow banks was a bridge, or landing pad of some kind. It stuck out from the rest of the structure, attracting the sight of any who would approach it. Obviously, whoever designed it knew that it would need to avoid getting buried like the rest of their structures.

She called attention to it. I think I see a landing zone, tagging it for you on your HUD.

"Yeah, I see it. It's pretty wide, should be large enough to hold the ship."