Starborn: Origin of the Stars

While Landom was starting his investigation of the kidnapping attempt together with the Vlasov siblings and Niu was keeping an eye on the Hubble, two small ships raced over the waves of the Mystic Sea.

After only a bit more than 15 minutes, the Sentinel slowed down and began to land on an island below them. The Melody II followed along and soon the five people stood on a small plot of land that floated in the middle of the ocean. Not bigger than 30 by 30 meters and completely empty except for a bit of grass and rock. With each wave the island rose up and down, as if it was trying to shake off the unwelcome visitors.

“After only a few hundred meters into the ocean we lost all means of communication and many systems for navigation.” Keran said with a grim face and looked at Robin, “How is the Melody II holding… What the hell is wrong with you? Are you okay?”

Robin was pale like a sheet of paper and shivered all over his body.

“I h… hate this place! I wanna go ho-o-ome…” He whined and Timothy stepped to his side to explain.

“At the same time when the systems began to get affected by the storm, Robin also began to suffer from its effect. I don’t really understand why, because he obviously should be fine while not using his mutation, but he stubbornly refuses to explain. Somehow it must still have a severe impact on someone with an energy-based mutation.”

“You really look like shit, will you be okay?” Patience asked him, honest concern in her voice.

“Yeah, I… I think I’ll get used to it so-o-oner or later…” Robin stuttered. He was a freakin’ wreck right now. The storm messed with his stupid passive sense and he didn’t even dare to imagine how he would have reacted, if he hadn’t already trained tuning down the passive skill.

Ang’Tue already kneeled next to another plain looking stone that was probably an Eltaran’s Guide-Star.

“Are you up to this? Or should we try at another time, after you had some time to acclimate?” He asked.

“Nah… ju-just begin already!”

Ang’Tue looked at Keran who only shrugged and then cut his arm once more. Like last time, the blood quickly vanished into the stone and shortly afterwards a hum could be heard. Robin took over and sat next to the Guide-Star.

‘Burn in plasma!’ He cursed in his head, as the damn storm was making his whole body itch like hell. After he touched the stone with his hand, he needed many attempts before he finally could see a blurry image of an arrow in his mind. He quickly copied it to an analog notebook that Timothy had prepared and followed its direction with his eyes.

“Great, deeper into the storm…” He sighed.

Without further ado, the group packed up and continued their journey. The second island they visited was nearly the same and when they looked for the third, they landed on the wrong one first. It probably just happened to be on the way to island three.

When Robin read the new directions after they arrived on the third island, more than two hours had passed already and he finally began to get used to the storm with his passive sense a bit.

They had flown deep into the ocean by the time they reached number four. The islands became sparser but larger - the one they just landed on was at least 120 meters in diameter. The scenery however didn’t change at all. Still only a flat plain with a bit of grass and rock here and there. But at least the waves had now less of an impact than on the smaller ones at the beginning, making standing there more comfortable.

Ang’Tue, Keran and Timothy spread out to look for the Guide-Star, while Robin and Patience stayed with the ships and took out some picnic.

“How are you doing, Rob?” She asked him after they had sat down.

“Much better, just needed some time to get used to this fucking storm…” Robin mumbled, “But do tell, how are you doing? Is it the adventure you imagined when tagging along?”

“We are just beginning, right? The real action will start when we enter the Goya-System, won’t it?” She said with a grin.

“Yeah, but I think for the fact that we have only just begun, we already have some great stories to tell! Do you remember the dudes we met in the inn in Seka? The Weary Traveler? They would never believe this shit - traveling under the electromagnetic storm of the Mystic Sea and hunting for hidden alien relic sites!” He laughed and grabbed another fruit.

“I missed most of the action, though. I would have loved to see you in a bar fight!” Patience chuckled.

“Yeah, I noticed you are suspiciously often in training sessions with Sevastian lately…” Robin said with an impish grin on his face.

“What are you implying? We are just training!” Patience objected defensively.

“I wish you the best, you deserve every bit of happiness!”

“Ah come on… We are still just… testing each other out.” She said but the slight blush on her face revealed that she at least had high hopes for them to work out.

They could relax for quite some time and just as Robin feared they stopped on the wrong island once again, he heard Timothy shouting.

“Found something!” The young researcher yelled over the noise from the crashing waves and the endlessly raging storm, before he quickly sprinted forward to an unassuming spot on the island that looked like every other place. However, Robin was still quite a bit away, so he couldn’t see much.

What he could see, however, was the humanoid robot that suddenly crawled out of the ground a few meters beside Timothy.

“Oh shit!” Patience cursed and rushed forward before Robin could even process what was happening.

***

While Timothy was searching the island together with Keran and the alien, he mentally thanked Robin once more that he forced him on this trip - of course he would never let him know that, mind you, but he was happy nonetheless.

That was a real, living Eltaran and they had not only talked to each other, Timothy even had touched him once, when they squeezed in the small Sentinel. Now he was on a scavenger hunt in the middle of the Mystic Sea, looking for an alien outpost that even the UAS didn’t know of! At the beginning and after the training on Trov S, he was still skeptical about this excursion. But now? Holy shit, just imagine what they may find on Terulos…

With his studies at the Drel outpost he already began to climb the ranks in the UAS, but now he was combining his career with real field-research and even a bit of adventuring.

Hopefully they weren’t on the wrong island again. They had skimmed through nearly the whole place and there was only…

“What’s that?” He muttered when he spotted a strange looking rock formation, not even 5 meters from the shore of the island away.

“Is that the Guide-Star we are looking for?”

Quickly he informed the other about his find and sprinted forwards. It came to quite a surprise to him, when the whole rock formation suddenly vanished into the earth, leaving only a dark hole in the ground.

“What the…?” He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw something move in the darkness. Only seconds later a humanoid robot jumped clumsy out of the hole and looked around, assessing the situation.

It was made of a silver metal and about 1.5m tall, walked on two legs and had two arms, one had a blade welded onto, the other had a claw that held a strange tool. Noteworthy was that the robot didn’t have a head and what he assumed to be its sensors were integrated in its torso. It staggered a bit, age hadn’t passed by without a trace. The metal was rusty, screeching noises were made with every movement.

Timothy didn’t recognize the model, but it was probably Eltaran-technology, not exactly his field of expertise. His Class D - Eidetic Memory however did at least help a bit, as he recognized the tube-like tool in its right claw as a energy weapon.

He took a slow step backwards, always watching where the gun was aiming and made sure to gain some distance.

He heard someone running behind him and saw that the robot, too, focused in that direction.

“It has an energy gun!” Timothy yelled - it was better he took risk of getting its attention than letting the others rush into this unprepared.

And its attention he earned. In a slightly stuttering motion the robot raised the weapon, took aim and fired a shot. Timothy jumped hastily to the side and was surprised when the expected pain didn’t come, instead he heard his comrades shouting and coming closer.

“Did it actually miss?” Confused, he opened his eyes and looked towards the robot. It was only a few meters away and the gun was raised once more, aiming in his direction. Since he was lying on the ground, he had no chance to quickly jump out of the way again.

“Fuck…”

Just when he thought it was all over, an energy projectile hit the robot’s bladed arm and shook him enough to miss Timothy once more. The shot impacted the ground a few centimeters to the left of his head and dirt and rock splattered in his face.

Quickly he scrambled to his feet and prepared to run away, when Patience shot past him like a flash. With a flying kick to the robot’s middle, she catapulted it into the air for a good 15 meters, after which it fell into the water with a loud splash and sank like a stone.

“That’s how it’s done, motherfucker!” Patience yelled at the crashing waves before she turned around and inspected Timothy.

“That was close, mate! Did you shit your pants or is it just dirt?” She laughed and he quickly patted his dirty trousers.

“Thanks a lot, Patience…” Timothy huffed, only slowly did it dawn on him how close he had escaped death just now.

The others also arrived and while Ang’Tue inspected the hole where the robot came from and kept an eye on the ocean at the same time, Keran and Robin made sure he was unharmed.

“Good dive roll for a dusty research guy!” His friend patted his shoulder after he made sure that everything was still where it belonged.

***

Everyone needed a moment to calm down and only after they were sure that the robot couldn’t swim and there weren’t more of them hidden, did they sit down next to Timothy.

“That was close, man. Don’t scare me like that again, will ya?” Robin said, happy that his buddy was still in one piece. He had seen the hole left by the shot that missed him - no walking away if you take a direct hit from that.

“You probably won’t believe it, but it wasn’t by choice…” Timothy scoffed with a grin.

“I’m sorry that I couldn’t warn you upfront. I really didn’t know and…” Ang’Tue began but his voice trailed off, when he lost himself in thoughts.

“Hey!” Keran poked him, “What ‘and’?”

“Hm, I’m not sure. But this is the fourth island, the first ones were all pretty straight forward - was it luck or did my ancestors raise the difficulty? If so, what do we have to expect on the next islands?”

“Yeah, that sucks.” Patience said, “My stunt from before isn’t something we should bet on, how well are we armed?”

“Well, we didn't expect any hostile encounters, that's why Landom and his squad were allowed to stay in the town. But Keran has an energy weapon and Ang’Tue’s gun is also on the Sentinel. Does that thing work?” Robin looked at the Eltaran.

“Yes, it should be comparable to the one from Mr. Bex.”

“Could we have killed the robot with that?” Patience asked.

“Probably. My aim was a bit off and only impacted the arm. A proper shot to the torso should have done the job.” Keran said and Timothy nodded in agreement.

“Where is my Disruptor when it is needed?” Robin muttered with a pout.

“What was that?” Keran asked.

“Nothing. I have a ballistic pistol on my ship that we could use. But I’m not sure how much it’ll help against these robots.”

“So do we keep going or are we heading back to rearm and get the others?” Ang’Tue asked.

Probability of finding the same way once more: < 20%

Probability of finding the way in such direct manner: < 15%

Most probable scenario: A second attempt will take much more time and effort

Robin saw that ROMAS analyzed the situation and agreed. They were lucky that they had only one ‘wrong’ stop till now, next time it could take them days to get here.

“Let’s test the next islands and if the difficulty is rising, we go back. But for now I would like to continue - we were lucky to find the way that easily. I imagine that it would be possible to get many distracting islands on the way to the next marker, like with the 3rd one.” Robin explained, “We’ll be more careful and better prepared on the next island. Let’s give it a go.”

Keran nodded in agreement and the rest also seemed to be fine with that plan.

After resting a bit, they activated the Guide-Star, which was next to the hole where the robot jumped out, and continued their hunt.