The predecesor of mankind (1)

Archeologist Tom Bringer POV:

In a distant system, a small fleet of science vessels could be seen moving about and approaching a small moon-sized planetoid orbiting another planet.

So basically a moon.

This moon, however, is different. Specifically, it's habitable and has ancient ruins on it, more on that later.

As the ships began entering the atmosphere, I looked at my phone to see the happy birthday wishes my family had sent me moments ago.

This day marks the first hundred years of my work as an archeologist, and also my second hundred year alive, and what other way to celebrate it than to go to work?

That being said, I don't mind, since they did inform me that I would be given an extensive break in remuneration, so I'm pretty happy right now.

Currently, we are on Sempl II, the second habitable planet, or moon, in this system, which is a rarity, and more so are the ruins located here.

Surface-level scans show door-like mechanisms that lead inside the crust of the planet, which have advanced jamming technology beyond anything we can currently create.

This may have been a colony from some ancient nation, the discovery of which may lead us to more breakthroughs in technological understanding and allow us to pull ahead of the Xenos that surround us.

The ships settled down in a clearly artificial clearing in the middle of the thick foliage, where tens of vessels settled down next to one another.

The nearest major settlement is three days away by car, so it's pretty far away, meaning we had to bring our own supplies and everything we could possibly need.

After everyone exited their ships with protective gear on and gave all their more vulnerable equipment to their helper robots, the large group walked to the location where the door was first detected.

"Hey, Tom!" Tom turned to see his friend, Alex, running up to him. "Happy birthday man! Also, are you excited for today?" Tom gave a gentle smile. "Thanks, man! And you bet I'm excited for this, who knows what we might uncover?"

"You two make sure your excitement doesn't get you killed." Their boss spoke up after overhearing their conversation, which killed the mood a bit, albeit for a good reason.

"Dont worry, we aren't stupid." His friend immediately saw the opportunity to make a joke and said "Are you sure about that?"

The group moved through the thick foliage and encountered a few animals, most of which ran on sight when they saw them.

They learned the hard way that these creatures aren't to be trifled with.

Now in front of them appeared a large hole covered by a thick metal door that stretched on for tens of meters.

The group took the measuring instruments from their robots and began measuring energy fluctuations.

However, as they activated the machines, they were surprised to see the door open and a very human-sounding voice ringing out of ancient, and mostly broken speakers.

"Welcome to the Surium II city!"

Everyone got ready to run or fight if anything hostile appeared, but after a few seconds, they were only met with silence.

"Should we go in or...?" A random member spoke up with uncertainty, and shortly afterward their boss responded.

"Team A, stay up here and keep measuring, me and Team B will go in to investigate."

Team A was made of the scientists, while Team B were the soldiers and archaeologists, and unfortunately for Tom and his friend, they were both in Team B.

'Welp, off to hang myself!' Tom joked in his mind since this could potentially be his last mission.

Well, every mission could be his last, investigating potentially trapped, hyper-advanced ruins is never a safe endeavor.

The team went in, while Team A wished them good luck, as always.

The sight before them was a large expansive cave network, with no technology in sight.

Most likely, anything of further interest would be hidden deep in the cave behind multiple layers of decoys and safety measures.

These ancient nations always seemed to know their end was coming, because they hid everything about their cultures and their historical artifacts deep into these small, remote worlds beneath layers upon layers of security.

After a few hours of wandering through the cave network, and checking for traps as well, of course, they were met with another dead end.

"Of for fucks sake..." Someone muttered, probably a newbie, since expeditions could sometimes be months long.

The wall, however, seemed to not be a regular wall and promptly opened up.

Everyone stood back and ready as the walls of the cave rumbled to life, advanced components our machines couldn't even detect flared to life as a huge dark cave revealed itself.

Lights flickered to life as a massive city of gargantuan proportions seemed to come alive, droids activated and began carrying packages again, robots cleaned the streets and security droids glowed with an ominous red light.

The city itself stood in a valley below them, a pair of stairs stretched about two kilometers down where they connected to the city proper.

The city seemed to stretch on and on, the large cave seemed tens or even hundreds of kilometers high, with massive pillars supporting the whole structure and stopping it all from collapsing.

The buildings were all high, with skyscrapers, whose name is now a bit out of place considering there is no sky, could be seen everywhere, special towards the center of the city which was out of sight for now.

A droid suddenly appeared behind them, and spoke, surprising them.

"Welcome honorary citizens! I am guide HA-1, would you like me to guide you through the city?"

Everyone looked at one another.

It would be dangerous to trust the possibly malfunctioning AI, but with those armed robots down there, their only hope of exploring without possibly destroying a vast majority of the things down there was to trust it.

So the boss spoke up with a simple "Yes." It would be better to keep responses short and precise to minimize the odds of errors.

So the expedition soldiered on, down the stairs, and into the mysterious underground.