36 Dr. Melange

The crew of the Yuki was suddenly plunged into chaos as they heard one of the researchers were in trouble. They never expected to face such situations. Although they had escort mechs with them as a security arrangement. But till now they didn't see any signs of alien life on the planet. All they found in the forests was the huge trees and the energy lines. There were no organisms of any kind in there.

That didn't mean they could assume that the planet didn't have any alien fauna. Just cause they didn't encounter them yet, didn't mean that they couldn't be out there. So Everyone was still on-guard against any potential threat.

"I want these mechs off the ground ASAP. Go to her location and bring her to safety." Dr. Helen commanded. She was in charge of this whole mission to this planet. So if anything happened to anyone while on this trip. She'd have to bear the responsibility.

She watched through her helmet as 3 mechs took off towards the direction of the researcher. They knew where she was currently so it wasn't a problem to reach her. But what was a problem was that they didn't knew what was around her. As the scanners showed it was an ocean, the mechs were going in blind. That wasn't really a problem, As they were robust enough to navigate the terrain by themselves.

As the mech kept flying towards her location, They came across heavy interference from the energy lines. The lines produced quite a bit of electromagnetic radiation. So as the amount increased, so did the interference.

"Maintain formation. We need to reach her as soon as possible.", Captain Hrox said as he lead the formation of the 3 mechs. When he heard that someone was in danger, he decided to intervene personally.

The mechs zapped over the forest in blazing speeds. As the researcher was by herself. She wasn't too far away. But she wasn't close anyway. She had completely drained her Grav backpack. Although her vac-suit carried enough supplies to keep her alive for over 3 months. But that didn't mean they could leave her stranded for over a month.

As the mechs got closer to her location, they experienced greater interference. Some of the navigation equipment began to malfunction.

"Just follow me, We're almost there.", Captain Hrox said as he saw the others were facing problems.

As they almost reached her, They saw the Monolith. At the first glance, The way it morphed into itself was quite alien to see. But there were things that humans didn't see before. But from the aerial view there was one thing that was obvious. All the energy lines in the forest beneath them gathered under the Monolith. And every-time the monolith morphed into a cuboid, they pulsed with energy. It seemed as it was doing something. Something that it had been doing for a millennial. It looked more like a machine than any alien. But that couldn't be ruled out. It was shown that the trees were alive in a sense. And they were built out of metal. So no one could say if this Alien Monolith was alive or not.

That was for the researchers to decide. All the mech pilots needed to do was go in, and get the researcher out. They soon saw her, She was sitting beneath a tree. She shaped herself into a fetal position and laid on the ground beneath a tree.

The mechs landed near the tree as soon as they located her.

The arrival of huge mechs added to her fear. But soon, Captain Hrox came out of his mech and approached the frightened researcher.

"Dr. Melange, are you okay?", He said as he could see the way she looked at him. But after recognizing him, she soon got up and ran towards him. Yelling.

"Get me out of here. I don't want to stay here for a second. That cube. It's dangerous."

"Yes yes, We'll get you out of here right away. He said as he opened up his cockpit." There was an additional seat for a passenger aside from the piloting seat.

After making sure Dr. Melange was seated properly. Captain Hrox said through the comm.

"Successfully secured Dr. Melange. Coming back right now." He said as his mech took off. The other mechs also followed. As they came back to the base, Dr. Melange didn't speak a word. She was really frightened out of her wits.

But why? What was so dangerous about the Cube that caused her into this state? It didn't make any sense. The pilots had also seen the Cube. But they didn't feel like it was as dangerous as She said. Maybe they were missing something. But that could be figured out later. Right now, they needed to get her back.

As soon as the mechs landed back near the Yuki, A team of medics were on standby. They took Dr. Melange out of the cockpit and took her to the medbay. They needed to run extensive tests on her to make sure she was okay.

As the Medics were busy with Dr. Melange, Dr. Helen gave Hrox a call.

"What did you notice about the Monolith? Why is Dr. Melange so scared?"

"We…. Are not sure about that. We saw the Monolith in question. And it certainly is an weired construct. It was morphing into itself. And we could see all the Lines from the forest and the general vicinity congregate under it. Surely there's more going on than what meets the eye."

"Did you manage to capture the whole thing from the Air?"

"Yes we did. But the interference in the are was really heavy. The footage isn't too good.", Hrox said as he transferred over the footage over to her comm.

Helen opened up the footage and took a look at it. All the energy lines really did congregate under the monolith. And either it was providing the energy to these lines or it was the other way around. There was only one way to be sure. They needed to go check it out.

"Maybe this was the reason the energy activity in this are is so high.". Dr. Helen thought to herself.