ARI's drones descended into the darkness in synchronized formation, their sleek metallic frames humming softly as they glided through the twisting corridors beneath the base. Their onboard sensors illuminated the narrow, oppressive tunnels with infrared overlays and millimeter-wave scans, mapping out the underground labyrinth in real-time.

  Above ground, the base personnel gathered around the headquarters’ central display, watching with quiet intensity as the drones relayed their feeds. On the screens, the subterranean caverns were jagged and uneven, with sections reinforced by mineralized growths. Shadows lurked in the tight corridors—shadows that moved.

  Then the first wave of hostiles surged out of the depths.

  The forward-most drone’s targeting reticule flared red, locking onto the incoming shapes. A burst of gunfire erupted from its rapid-fire pulse cannon, cutting through the first wave of beetles like a hot knife through soft metal. The creatures screeched and tumbled over each other in their mad rush toward the invaders, but the drones held the line, forming an unshakable defensive perimeter.

  Grenade launchers chuffed. Explosions rocked the tunnels, the concussive force ripping apart tightly packed enemies. The walls vibrated, sending loose sediment crumbling from the ceiling as ichor and chitin splattered across the rock.

  The drones advanced in perfect unison.

  From above, Mei flinched at the brutality of the footage. “They're—it's like watching an extermination,” she muttered.

  “That’s exactly what it is,” Maximilian said with approval, arms crossed as he watched a drone pivot mid-air and fire a small missile down a tight corner. The missile flawlessly traced the contours of the walls and detonated amidst a cluster of creatures attempting to retreat.

  Pom let out a low whistle. “This is the first time we’ve actually seen them fight in their element.”

  Hu nodded, watching intently. “No blind spots. No wasted motion. This is precision warfare.”

  The drones pushed deeper, encountering a wider chamber littered with the remains of carapaces—hulking beetle husks, long since drained of life. Strange crystalline tendrils slithered along the remains, feeding on their metals like hungry vines. The drones hovered at the threshold, assessing.

  “The crystals,” Sigrid said observingly. “Just like in the hive.”

  “They're feeding it,” Elisa said.

  “Then we know what we have to do,” Maximilian said flatly.

  ARI's drones surged forward. A barrage of incendiary rounds spewed from their weapons, setting the entire chamber ablaze. Crystalline tendrils recoiled, sizzling as they blackened and crumbled into ash. The remains of the consumed beetles, now unstable, cracked and collapsed under the heat.

  Then the real resistance began.

  From a lower tunnel, creatures bigger than the usual swarm emerged—beetles with glistening red carapaces, their limbs hardened with metallic plating, crystal-infected warriors. They shrieked, their bodies radiating a strange glow as they charged with unnatural speed.

  The first drone took a hit—a beetle lunging and tearing into it with powerful mandibles, sending sparks cascading through the air. But before the creature could capitalize on its kill, another drone fired a guided missile straight into its underbelly, blowing it apart in a concussive burst of energy and metal shards.

  “New variant,” Guowei noted grimly. “More metal plating. Stronger.”

  “They’ve been busy,” Tamarlyan said, watching with cold calculation. “Good that we hit them first.”

  ARI adjusted its tactics instantly, switching formations and deploying more explosives. The drones split into coordinated teams—some laying down suppressive fire while others advanced with precision strikes, using grenades to flush out entrenched enemies.

  In a narrow tunnel, another wave of spitters lurked, preparing to coat the advancing drones in their acidic payloads. ARI anticipated them. A targeted missile volley tore through the air, each projectile smartly tracking its target and detonating inside their gaping maws before they could fire. The spitters collapsed in writhing heaps, their own acid eating through their bodies.

  “Their tactics are useless,” Sigrid murmured, half in awe, half in horror.

  The battle raged deeper underground. The last defenses crumbled as the drones pushed into the final chamber.

  And there, buried in the cavern’s core, they found it.

  Another lodestone crystal, small and lopsided, but menacing with spiked protrusions.

  It pulsed with an eerie inner light, its jagged surface shifting with unnatural geometry, warping and twisting as if existing across multiple dimensions. The drones hovered cautiously, scanning it. Strange distortions flickered across the feed.

  Then the crystal itself reacted, and something else began to awaken.

  The cavern trembled violently as the walls themselves burst open.

  Massive, segmented burrowing worms erupted from the rock, their grotesque, writhing forms covered in hardened, crystalline plating and a multitude of flailing limbs. They struck with terrifying precision, their jagged, mawed heads lashing out at the drones like bladed traps.

  The drones did not anticipate the ambush.

  One of ARI’s combat units was immediately impaled, a massive mandible punching through its chassis, sending sparks and metal shards flying as it was dragged into the shadows. Another drone was crushed mid-air as a worm coiled around it, its sheer mass deforming the drone’s sleek frame before snapping it in two.

  The base’s command center erupted into panicked shouts.

  “What is this—?!”

  “They came from the walls!”

  “We're losing drones!”

  ARI’s voice, however, remained unnervingly calm. “Adjusting tactics.”

  The surviving drones adapted instantly, engines flaring as they split into evasive formations, dodging and weaving between the snapping maws and lashing tendrils. Their weapon systems recalibrated—pulse cannons switched to high-intensity bursts, micro-missiles reloaded and locked onto new targets.

  The cavern turned into a killing field.

  Explosions lit up the darkness, sending chunks of worm-flesh and crystalline shards flying in all directions. A drone executed a corkscrew maneuver, slipping between the jagged, convulsing body of a worm and unloading a full grenade volley into its midsection. The beast twisted violently before exploding from within, its remains slamming against the rock floor with a wet, metallic crunch.

  Yet the worms kept coming.

  They moved unnaturally fast, their exoskeletons shimmering with shifting geometric patterns, as if the crystals had twisted them into something beyond organic. A new burst of tremors rippled through the chamber—the lodestone pulsed brighter, the flickering glow intensifying as if commanding the creatures.

  “They’re defending it,” Sigrid breathed, gripping the control console.

  “Of course they are,” Maximilian growled, watching another drone be snared mid-air and crushed like a tin can. "ARI, pull back some of your drones—see if you can split them up."

  “Affirmative,” ARI responded.

  Half of the remaining drones began a tactical withdrawal, boosting back through the tunnels to preserve their numbers, worms screeching and trailing behind them. But the rest—the ones that remained—had a new priority.

  Destroy the lodestone.

  The assault shifted in an instant.

  Every remaining drone coordinated in a synchronized attack run, weaving through the chaos with deadly precision. Their pulse cannons fired relentlessly, bathing the crystal in a cascade of energy that sent ripples across its unnatural form.

  The lodestone retaliated.

  A sudden, violent discharge of energy, something unseen, something wrong, lashed out like a tendril of distorted light. One of the drones was caught mid-flight, its systems fried instantly, sent spiraling into the cavern floor.

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  “Scat!” Pom shouted, eyes locked on the screen. “It can fight back?!”

  “Analyzing,” ARI stated.

  The remaining drones adjusted their flight patterns, recognizing the attack delay before the lodestone could strike again. They swarmed it from all angles, moving in erratic, unpredictable vectors—forcing it to divide its defenses.

  The lodestone flickered violently, its fractal structure bending and distorting reality itself, as if struggling to hold itself together. Its glow dimmed, then intensified, as if it were trying to fend off death.

  But it wasn’t enough.

  The drones did not let up.

  Micro-missiles blasted into the core, pulse cannons ripped through its structure, and the crystal itself began to splinter.

  Jagged shards broke off in unnatural ways, their edges folding over themselves in impossible geometries before vanishing into nothingness. The light within the lodestone pulsed erratically, then weakened, then died.

  And then, it collapsed.

  The entire crystal imploded inward, its very substance folding into itself in a way that defied physics.

  The cavern shook violently as the last remnants of the lodestone shattered in a silent explosion—fragments blinking in and out of existence before dissolving into the void. The air itself felt lighter, the oppressive energy vanishing as quickly as it had appeared.

  Above ground, the crew stared at the screens in silence.

  “…Is it dead?” Mei whispered.

  A beat of silence.

  Then ARI spoke.

  “The anomaly has been neutralized. The cave system is secure.”

  ===

  Elisa leaned against the workbench in the engineering bay, watching as Casimir gestured at the console, his fingers tracing its etched paneling like he was reading a puzzle written in steel. Mei stood beside her, arms crossed, still bruised from the recent battles but too absorbed in the conversation to care.

  “So,” Elisa said, cutting to the point. “What are we looking at?”

  Casimir exhaled sharply, his breath fogging up the surface of his visor before he wiped it away. “Something we shouldn’t be looking at,” he admitted. “This isn’t alien.”

  Mei frowned. “You mean it’s not from the Provider’s people?”

  “No,” Casimir shook his head. “I mean, it’s not alien at all. It’s human.”

  Elisa and Mei exchanged glances before Elisa leaned in closer. “Say that again?”

  Casimir tapped the console with a gloved knuckle. “This thing was fabricated using material close to Company standard, but it’s not from the Dolya. I’ve compared its polymer casing to what we use in our own equipment, and while there are minor deviations in synthesis, the process is nearly identical. I'd say it was assembled by a fabricator of human origin.”

  Elisa stiffened, her mind racing. “Then where did it come from?”

  “That’s the real mystery.” Casimir turned the device over, exposing its gutted internals—a series of intricate circuits fused together in a way that looked almost improvised. “This is a control device. It was meant to interface with something, but whatever system it was built for isn’t here. There’s no data storage, no operational logs, no power source beyond a basic capacitor array.”

  Mei exhaled slowly. “So we found the controller… but not the machine.”

  “Exactly,” Casimir nodded. “Which means there was something else—something important enough for humans to build this for.”

  Elisa narrowed her eyes. “And the signal?”

  Casimir shrugged. “Hard to say. It’s possible this device was linked to it somehow, but I don’t see any transmitter components. If the Provider’s people found the beacon and this thing, then it stands to reason that the signal is also of human origin.”

  A heavy weight settled over the room.

  Elisa tapped her fingers against the bench, her mind working through the implications. The Dolya had been drifting through space for nearly seventy thousand years. In all that time, the assumption was that humanity either never reached this world or had perished trying.

  Mei folded her arms, her expression unreadable. “If this console isn’t from our ship, nor from the Provider, then who made it? And where are they now? And why did they leave this behind”

  Casimir pondered. "If there is another structure in the northern region, then that might hold the answers," he thought out loud.

  ===

  As the vehicles rumbled through the canyon, a stiff wind blew coarse sand and dust across the barren landscape, reducing visibility to a ghostly haze. The sky, a washed-out gray, barely hinted at the sun that was rising behind the storm. The convoy had taken the long way around, carefully navigating through treacherous terrain for days in order to find a path the hauler could safely scale.

  Now, finally, they were here.

  The Provider's settlement emerged through the dust like a mirage. The alien structures, coral-like and bizarre, stood unmoving against the wind. The central plant-like building, its spines and ridges rising from the earth, seemed more alive than before, as if anticipating their arrival.

  Maximilian drove the lead rover, keeping one hand on the wheel and another near his rifle. Pom, riding in the hauler, adjusted his visor and squinted through the blowing dust. Qian Shirong mumbled about the delicate nature of their cargo and how absurd it was that their first trade with an alien species was liquid sugar.

  Behind them, two corpsec officers— Kucugur and a broad-shouldered man named Bayo Odunlade—kept their weapons ready, watching for any sudden movements.

  They approached slowly.

  A group of robed figures emerged from the settlement. They moved with purpose, their forms silhouetted by the weak morning light. The wind tugged at the fabric of their garments, making them seem like shadows unfurling from the ground.

  The black-robed figure stood among them. This time, instead of mere neutrality, its posture conveyed a sense of formality and gratitude. It raised an elongated arm, gesturing for them to proceed.

  Elisa nodded to Maximilian, and he rolled the vehicle forward. Pom slowed the hauler behind them, keeping a careful distance as the group was guided deeper into the settlement.

  Elisa brought the rover to a stop, then glanced at her team. “Let’s move in carefully.”

  The group disembarked, their boots sinking into the soft red soil. The wind carried the scent of something earthy and rich, like a forest after rain, though there was no moisture to be seen. The black-robed alien approached, its face obscured by the reflective mask.

  It bowed its head, a gesture that, for the first time, carried genuine gratitude.

  “You have brought life.”

  Mei glanced at Elisa, surprised. This was the first time they had heard anything resembling emotion from the figure.

  Elisa nodded curtly. “We kept our word. Let’s see if your Provider wakes up.”

  With a series of intricate hand movements, the aliens signaled toward the hauler. ARI’s quadruped drones moved in, their metal limbs clicking softly as they delivered the vats of sugary liquid. The aliens received them reverently, guiding the drones toward the central plant-structure and disappearing inside.

  Shirong crossed his arms. “I still don’t like handing over resources without knowing what they do with it.”

  Pom, standing stiff beside him, let out a short, dismissive breath. “As long it finally gets us some answers, I don’t care if they bathe in it.”

  “The Provider awaits,” the black-robed figure replied. “Come.”

  Elisa, Mei and Ervin exchanged a glance before following, leaving Maximilian, Qian Shirong, and the two CorpSec officers behind to watch over the delivery.

  They stepped into the cave-like interior of the giant plant, a damp, organic scent filling the space. The robed figures were methodically pouring the sugar solution into large, root-like basins embedded in the ground, where the liquid was slowly absorbed. It became warmer inside, the walls pulsing slightly as if the entire structure had come alive. The glowing veins they had noticed on their last visit were brighter now, flickering with a deep, slow pulse. Stalks laced with bronze and decorated with multi-colored gemstones slowly swept upward, refracting the light between them.

  Mei hesitated. “It's... responding.”

  Elisa nodded, scanning the chamber, looking at the still figure of the Provider that rested amidst the red plants.

  The black-robed figure stepped forward and knelt, pressing its hand against the central stalk of the structure. The air shifted, and a low vibration filled the room.

  The walls trembled.

  Elisa felt something stir, not in the air, not even in the ground, but in the very core of her thoughts. A presence. Something ancient. Something aware. The feeling she had felt the first time she encountered the red plants returned with an overwhelming intensity.

  It was looking at them, and for the first time, they could look back.

  Elisa found it impossible to focus on the being that sat opposite her. The Provider bathed in otherworldly light while the intricate patterns of its headgear blurred and blended into the walls. It felt as if the room itself had become strangely alive. When the Provider raised its head, Elisa could feel it look straight at her, even though the iridescent reflective faceplate lacked both eyes and expression. Then, the head turned slowly, and it looked at Mei, and lastly at Ervin.

  A deep pulse ran through the chamber like a slow, measured heartbeat, vibrating through the plant-woven walls and resonating deep in Elisa’s chest. The glowing veins along the surfaces of the structure brightened, shifting into intricate patterns of luminescent script, unreadable yet strangely familiar.

  Then, a voice—not merely heard, but felt—bloomed within their minds.

  “You have aided me. You have restored me. I will return this gift a thousandfold in life.”

  The warmth of the voice was overwhelming, an almost parental benevolence infused with impossible certainty, awe-inspiring charisma, and an ancient weight that pressed against their every thought.

  Elisa's mouth opened, but no sound came.

  Before she could even form a question, the Provider’s presence enveloped them, its awareness piercing through her mind, as if dragging words and thoughts from her before she could voice them.

  “You have seen the anomalies. What do you know of them?” “How many people do you command?” “How long have you been here?” “What resources have you brought?” “Can you sequence genetic structures?” “Do you have an energy source? A fabricator?”

  The questions came rapid-fire, like pulse waves, so fast that she barely processed one before the next.

  She tried to answer, to push back, to gain control of the conversation, but the Provider already knew.

  Somehow, it already knew.

  She felt exposed. Understood. Weighed. Judged.

  Ervin tried to step forward as if to interject, but even he seemed momentarily lost in the presence of the entity before them. His usual rigid defiance seemed to wilt, his posture stiff yet obedient, as though his own body had betrayed him. Even Mei, typically pragmatic and analytical, stood silent, her breath caught somewhere between reverence and awe.

  And then, the final revelation came.

  “I know where you come from. I know your world. In this form, I have walked on its soil.”

  A cold certainty gripped Elisa’s chest.

  “Proxima.”

  The word hung between them, an ancient weight, something impossible yet spoken with absolute conviction.

  She felt the ripple in Ervin’s mind before he even spoke. His thoughts whispered through the shared mental space, half-formed, unfinished: What has become of humanity? Are they still there? Are they still... alive?

  The Provider responded without hesitation.

  “One day, you may reunite.”

  It was not hopeful. It was not cruel. It was simply fact.

  Elisa tried to push through the fog in her mind, willed herself to question, to demand more—but the Provider was already moving onwards, as though time itself obeyed its will.

  “Your colony is unsustainable.”

  Elisa’s mind reeled, but she knew—knew—the words were true.

  She had denied the undeniable. The scarcity of metals. The energy deficit that even their new reactor could only delay. The hostile ecosystem growing more aggressive with every step they took.

  It had all been inevitable.

  “You will comply,” the Provider declared. “So that you may live.”

  A part of her resisted, a small ember of recalcitrance, of human defiance that stirred in her core. But the moment she felt it, the Provider anticipated it.

  “I must return to my empire,” it continued, unperturbed. “I must relay what I have learned of the anomalies.”

  “In return, I will give you all that I possess.”

  The words echoed, as if they were a decree written into the very fabric of reality.

  Mei stirred, as if awakening from a trance, but she said nothing.

  Elisa's pulse hammered.

  “I will share all of my technology. Unconditionally.”

  “You will leave one of your drones. Through it, I will give you the schematics for a neural interface. Through that, I will give you everything.”

  For the first time, the Provider hesitated, but it was not uncertainty. It was deliberation.

  “Your survival depends on this.”

  “You must live.”

  There was no malice in its words. No threat.

  Only certainty.