90. Her Frozen Majesty

"Gladius and Meri go to objective two.

Septen, Orien, and Occiden go to objective three.", Liam ordered, his tames without the tiniest amount of hesitation obeyed and began their travel toward those two points of interest to collect samples, do various sets of preprogrammed scans, and free Scouts from their inventory for further the collection of data.

Those two points were not random, the first was with a high chance a type of generator or battery that was but a portion of a bigger but destroyed whole of scale equally massive as this spaceship, a supposition as to what it probably was born out of the unique thermal energy radiated from it.

The second was in an even more deplorable state and of even larger size if it were intact by the information gathered, the point of interest was the most intact fragment of structure that seemed to produce weak but chaotic gravitational anomalies permeated with Hawking radiation.

A clear indicator of what it might have been once upon a time, it could have been a tool or a weapon based on the uses of gravity, though after this… The possibilities for its exact uses were vast, all potentially worse than the last for him if this species was less than friendly, which he was pretty certain they weren't going to be.

Weapons working on the principle of gravity were one of the most dangerous he could think of. There weren't many things one could do against a black hole or a white hole appearing in your face no matter if the gravity singularity was pitifully weak.

"We should begin the ascension to objective number one… These creatures are but pieces of a greater all. We must make sure of their nature.", Eywa said after a small sigh escaped her lips, the jetpack of her Tek Chestplate lighting as her boots left the icy ground.

"Agreed.", Liam spoke his brow furrowed slightly at the general mood of his mate but he didn't voice himself on it, this entire situation was serious and could lead to a threat so immense the RDA and UN were a literal joke not that with Tek and the current pace of development, those two were that big of a threat for his, Eywa, his adopted son and everyone else survival.

The technology gap with them even with the high end of his estimation was ironically not particularly that incomparable to that of the Na'vi with the RDA, the gap was even bigger. Technology evolved exponentially and not in straight lines. Thought they were still a massive threat until he built and placed the three Obelisks.

Was it arrogance? Maybe yes, maybe not, in any case, he wasn't underestimating anyone here. And the fight will not mainly be about destruction and death, or so he hoped.

And he hoped they saw reason but he knew that was a very naive thought, wishful thinking even and blood would flow no matter what. What mattered was to make it flow as little as possible, another wishful thought or he was just overly pessimistic. In the end, it didn't matter, what will come will come.

Then there was the rest of humanity as a whole, close to twenty billion and a half by the last census which means a few billion could be added to the mix to have the real number.

And this was another can of worms all on its own that couldn't be truly run away from and he wouldn't have done so even if he could have, he wasn't that kind of person, unless it would go directly against his survival.

He had long-reaching plans still in their budding phase for these potential futures, it was, to put it mildly, a headache of unfathomable proportion and intensity. Even if it wasn't going to be with the kiddy gloves.

Anyway, before he followed suit on the ascent Liam took out three volleyball-sized spheres, all fitting into one hand, their spherical bodies of living metal had on their surface deep grooves and glowing with intense blue veins.

Those three spheres were Scouts and he carelessly threw one of them in the air but before it even fell halfway it turned a bright blue and from the ball came out a full-sized Scout.

The living machine didn't stay idle for more time necessary than for Excursor to synchronize itself with it, then in a heartbeat, it hovered away to work upon its tasks, Element from his inventory wirelessly alimenting it in energy.

With that done Liam crouched down, faint crackling blue energy weaving between his legs, unlike the video game he could use his Tek Legging for more than running fast, the generation of kinetic energy was not exclusive to the gauntlets. He had legs and he was going to make good use of them.

The energy accumulated reached a certain level necessary for Liam and with the great control he possessed he flexed his leg and let out the accumulated energy without damaging the ground in any way shape or form.

This enhanced jump with lower gravity and his already superhuman strengths gave him a large push upward one so powerful he passed Eywa and only when the effect of gravity dragging toward the moon began to make itself known did he activate his Tek Chestplate.

At roughly ten kilometers (~6.2 mi) of ascension Liam stopped, his silver pupils glowing with the faintest of blue and purple within the capillaries of his sclera were exploring the kilometers-in-diameter oblate spheroid tip of one of the massive pillars.

What really was of interest wasn't the several dozen carved lines on top of one another that adorned the structure but what lay chaotically within and was held in equilibrium millimeter from falling; it was hundreds of flat and aerodynamic vehicles similar in shape to manta rays and of bulk equivalent to a small private jet.

'Those should be spaceships or some kind of transport to move in this vessel or both… Wonder how they function even if systems must be greatly damaged but they seem in relatively good condition on a surface level.', Liam noted pensively before throwing his second Scout in the void, its task not needing to be voiced out for the machine to dart toward its goal.

He didn't hope to get any deep detail though, everything until now was once upon a time partially organic nature. The molecular composition of the ice would and did damage the organic part beyond recollection and even if it had been mostly water, ice doesn't conserve organic matter in its original state well to begin with even less for an indefinite amount of time.

And the inorganic parts such as the hyper-dense hull were not immune to the effect of this alkaline ice and that of time, nothing was eternal and could stay in perfect condition for as long as it wanted in such harsh conditions. In any case, he would still be able to get the general plan of these 'miniature' spaceships from just the shapes of their 'insides', a bit like paleontology mixed with archeology but with machines in this case.

It would be fascinating, insightful, and very useful to know more about their bioengineered technology, how they developed it, what its strengths and weaknesses are, how it was designed for the users and so much more.

All vital tidbits of information and also a gate for him to learn through and potentially improve or change what he could do in his designs, he wasn't so arrogant to think nothing could be equal to his knowledge or at the very least a danger to him even with Tek on his side.

The massive source of gravitational anomalies and the original size of this destroyed spaceship were proof enough that those aliens were far, far more advanced than the current humanity and not to be underestimated in any given circumstances.

The total unknown about them hammered this fact further into Liam's heart.

In any case, it was beyond fascinating to glimpse and try to understand how a completely alien civilization worked around the principle of technology. Everything here was bioengineered to a large degree showing methods of working already far different from the humans of this universe and even the Na'vi primitive form of technology.

This aside after this stop Liam continued onwards only stopping at his destination. Gazing at the massive sphere connected by an untold amount of vein-like cables Eywa stirred closer to him as he felt her emotions intensifying, apprehension at the top.

"We must see the source of this deteriorated Psionic presence for a true verdict…", she said as her face hardened, she must make sure.

And so the atmosphere heavy they walked upon the bridge of frozen organic matter and metal toward their goal, each of their steps creating echoes breaking the ever-present silence of the place, not even the tiniest gust could be heard in this total darkness.

From the moment the two of them had arrived on the broken bridge leading to the sphere, the command room, they could glimpse at what was inside with their Tek Helmet there were a lot of things but what stood was a dead creature of size dwarfing all others alien seen until now by an excessively large amount.

And as they entered the command it was this creature that enraptured the All-Mother and All-Father focus, not the hundreds of regular aliens be they in or out of their biological exo-suit.

The massive creature was laid on the ground to the right of what was a large structure connected to hundreds of cables with bizarre objects jutting out that meant it could only be but one thing. The main control command and a throne fit for alien royalty, one that was growing downward from the ceiling.

And this dead alien royalty laid before them, a body almost preserved to the point of perfection. It held many similarities to its smaller brethren, four limbs, a comparatively large triangular head that fanned outward, and two small beady eyes but the similarities stopped there.

It was around forty meters (~131ft) in length, seven tentacles of which half were shattered or their tips dug into its own body grew out of its back. From what would possibly be its pelvis an elongated structure in the same essence as an insect abdomen adorned with ribs-like formation grew backward.

As for its limbs, the upper pair ended in two clawed digits as the lower smaller ones lively serving as legs as the ones should be in the center of its body were changed into small arms that possessed four digits on each end instead of two thereby forming hands with two opposable thumbs that were frozen clawing at it's more tapered head, digging deeply into the skull as it's jaws full of twisted teeth formed an eternal scream of primal terror, agony and despair.

It was as if this creature had been turned insane after having seen and suffered through horror no mortal could begin to comprehend and started to try and kill itself. A fact not shared by any of its smaller brethren who seemed to have all died instantly as if a switch was turned off.

Eywa, not saying words hovered without the use of her Tek Chestplate toward the corpse, her fingers trailing the massive head before she plunged it in deep and closed her eyes before taking her arm out.

Liam had approached her and thrown his last Scout while at it and awaited her verdict with barely hidden anticipation, the answer already known to him but concise words needed to be said, and that is what she did.

"We are the reason behind the death of every living being on this vessel… This creature was the Queen, the figment remaining till this present day of her Psionic death scream of deserved torment is unmistakable. She was the master of this vessel and all of the drones, and she was but one of thousands more equal to her in status. We can feel them weaving within the far distant stars, planning and tinkering for what should be done next.", she announced calmly drawing upon her memories and what she could sense, her gaze focusing onto the visor of her mate where she could see his face just as he could do as well.

"These are both good and bad pieces of information.", Liam said with a frown but at the same time he felt a sense of relief to a very slight degree but it was squashed just as rapidly as it was born.

It changed the unknown factor but also the fact of a potentially friendly species to almost nothingness, biased as it may be Eywa's opinion was one to not diminish in any circumstance.

This Queen had led to his mate reacting in a way so violently it resulted in a massacre scaling everything in the spaceship with the intent of going beyond that of simply killing, ending a threat. It was to mark, to impact, to traumatize, and to warn the entire species as they were deeply Psionic and it seemed to have worked but for how long?

Eywa had spoken to him of how she could sense traces of Psionic, and so life and that every time a Queen came to appear the life disappeared soon after.

It was a pattern, but Eywa couldn't sense what was material behind as such she couldn't know what was happening, she didn't know what they were even using to move themselves but deductions were possible. And deducing that the appearance of a Queen would lead to the death of everything close to but that of the alien was something even a toddler could do.

The fact there was a seemingly 'abundance' of life forms was of little importance to Liam and it didn't mean much in the grand scheme of things. Even less so for him and his personal experience.

Adding life adapted to a particular environment decided beforehand was not a hard task, the opposite in fact, and he was with how statistically rare it should be that it had been planted artificially far and wide by a civilization advanced enough.

One that seemed to predominantly target celestial bodies with life on it. He suspected those dead aliens were the ones planting the life, to then let it grow to a point Eywa could feel their minds from light years away, a fit that wasn't insignificant but moot at the end as they will be harvested.

This theory was based on little evidence but it was one possibility besides many more about this nameless alien species, a state of namelessness Liam was going to fix.

"They are harvesters of worlds, yes, Harvester let's call them so. A threat that can be fought on an immaterial plane by you… But it was one Queen and her Drones, not an entire space-faring civilization.", he announced as he ordered Excursor to begin the scanning protocol on the newly named Harvester Queen's fossil of base-rich ice.

"We can't win in the long term if they decide to start a vendetta or simple natural response to a threat with our current resource, because such a thing will eventually evolve into a full-blown war between us and their species. Killing another Queen is a simple task for you and me, two or three up to a dozen conceivably if they do not adapt or change tactics and it will lead to great loss, but a hundred, nevertheless a thousands or more? We can only hope it doesn't evolve in such a way, and we can only hope time is given to us. And we must use it to haste ourselves and our preparations for such a possibility as it will happen. It is inevitable if not in the hundreds of years to come in the thousands more it certainly will.", he spoke out the grim reality they were in to its fullest scope, his eyes hardening gazing into the ones of equal emotions of his mate.

Liam wasn't going to run, the mere mention was the highest of insults. He was with Eywa, his lover for the better and the worse until death, or more appropriately utter destruction of their entire beings set them apart. And it was of equal measure for Eywa.

The discoveries and revelations of today will not be without effect.

*

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