Free Web NovelChapter 176: Chiss Underground City
Approaching a massive door, deep inside a cave Syndic-Aspirant Nuruodo and her team had stopped just in front of it. Nuruodo took out a badge of sorts and held it up to a camera.
The camera scanned it, and after confirming that it was her, the doors slowly opened, revealing a long hallway that led to another door.
"Come on everybody inside" she said. The group slowly started to move in, with the wounded being carried in first. Nuruodo herself watched the path behind them, to make sure that nobody was following them. Even though they were helped by those strangers, she still didn’t quite trust them.
Once she confirmed that they weren’t being followed, she joined the others. The doors closed behind them once everybody was inside. At the same time, a scanner had activated scanning all of the people before the second set of doors opened.
When the doors opened, they revealed a massive underground city. The city itself was like most underground cities, it looked just like a surface city, except it was just underground and had a few additional systems to keep the city from freezing and the people safe and comfortable.
The lights of the city were spread out in every direction beneath the stone ceiling that rose hundreds of meters above the buildings. Bioluminescent panels had been installed along the stone ceiling that mimicked a pale sky, and the effect was convincing enough that a visitor who had not known they were underground might have believed they were standing in an open-air city.
The surviving members of her team moved past her into the receiving bay, where medical personnel in white uniforms were already waiting. The word was already spread when they were scanned at the entrance and a notice was sent, allowing the medical personnel to be ready for them.
She let her team go first as she didn’t have any pressing wounds that needed to be addressed at this time, nor was she in a rush. The wounded needed immediate attention, and her own debrief could wait a few minutes so that she could ensure everyone was accounted for.
When the last of her people had passed through, she stepped in herself.
A senior officer was already walking toward her from across the receiving bay. His rank insignia identified him as a Syndic of the Third Ruling Family, which placed him considerably above her in the command structure.
"Syndic-Aspirant Nuruodo," he said. "Your team was expected back six hours ago. We received no communication."
"Our equipment was destroyed in the engagement, Syndic." She responded. "I will provide a full account in my debrief."
"You will provide it now," he said. "My office. The medical team will see to your people in the meantime."
She followed him through the receiving bay and into the corridor. The city moved around them as it always did, Chiss going about their business with the particular efficiency that underground life demanded. Waste nothing, produce everything, maintain what you have. That was the way people lived their lives in this type of extreme enviroment.
The Syndic’s office was on the fourth administrative level, overlooking a secondary residential district. He sat behind his desk and gestured for her to stand. She did not take this as an insult. Standing reports were faster, and he clearly wanted this information quickly.
"Begin," he said. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
She began to describe the survey route, the outcast patrol that had cut them off from the secondary entrance, and then the engagement that followed. She described the losses plainly, without embellishment or excuse, because neither served any purpose in this room.
Then she described the strangers.
The Syndic’s expression did not change as she spoke. He was a man who had spent decades in administrative roles, and he had developed the particular skill of receiving unexpected information without allowing his face to show his reaction before he thought about the information.
But his stillness told her something. He was not dismissing what she was saying.
She described the weapons. The laser swords that cut through iron and steel. The way the strangers had positioned themselves between her team and the outcasts without hesitation. The size of the largest among them, the one who had spoken first and stood at the center of everything.
She described how he had spoken their language.
That was the detail that finally moved the Syndic’s expression. It was a small shift, barely visible, but it was there.
"He spoke Cheunh," the Syndic said.
"Fluently," Nuruodo confirmed. "Not a learned approximation. Not the broken phrasing of someone working from incomplete study. He spoke as though he had always known it."
"And yet he arrived from the sky."
"Yes, Syndic."
He was quiet for a moment. "You said he gave you a communication device."
She placed it on his desk. He studied it without touching it. The device was unlike anything produced in any of the underground cities. The material alone was unfamiliar.
"He explained its function to you." he asked
"He did. He said to press the button when a decision has been made." The Syndic picked up the device carefully, turning it over in his hands.
He examined the surface, the weight, and tried to figure out how it was made. There were no visible seams. No obvious power source. No mechanism that followed any logic he recognized.
He set it back down. ƒree𝑤ebnσvel.com
"You believe he was sincere," the Syndic said.
"I believe he had no reason to be otherwise," Nuruodo replied. "He could have let the outcasts finish us. He chose not to. He could have followed us to the entrance. He did not. He gave us a means of contact and then withdrew."
"That is either the behavior of someone who genuinely intends goodwill," the Syndic said, "or someone sophisticated enough to understand that patience produces better results than aggression."
"Yes, Syndic. Both possibilities lead to the same conclusion. He is worth speaking to."
The Syndic leaned back in his chair. She could see him thinking it through. The political implications alone were considerable. The discovery of an alien species with this level of apparent technological capability was not something that could be handled at the Syndic level. It would need to go up. How far up depended on what the ruling families decided to make of it.
"Your assessment of their military capability," he said.
"I only have a limited sample," she acknowledged. "But what I observed suggests they are operating well beyond anything we currently field. Their personal armor absorbed direct fire without visible effect. I didn’t get to see their weapons fire as they didn’t use them, so I can’t say much on that matter."
"Their leader," she continued, "used a laser sword as well, which he has told is called a lightsaber. I don’t know how it works since I didn’t get a close up look at it. But our standard penetration rounds would have no effect on them. The large aliens, the ones flanking their leader, did not appear to be using their weapons at all during most of the engagement. They moved as though they anticipated where every shot would go before it arrived."
"You are describing something that does not fit any category we have," he said.
"No, Syndic. It does not."
He stood up, which signaled the end of the standing report. He picked up the communication device again and held it for a moment before setting it carefully in the center of his desk.
"You will write your full report before the next rest cycle," he said. "Include everything. The smell of the air around them if you remember it. The way they moved. The precise words he used and the order he used them in. Everything."
"Understood, Syndic."
"And Syndic-Aspirant Nuruodo." He looked at her directly before continuing. "You did not panic. You did not make assumptions that got your remaining people killed. You brought back information, and you brought back a means of contact." He paused. "That will be noted in your record." She inclined her head and left. This was good for her as it was count towards a future promotion.
Meanwhile, at the Imperial base, the soldiers had successfully created a base and established a perimeter around it. Supplies were being constantly flown down from orbit and temporary landing zones were created for them to land.
Daimon was sitting inside the central building in a meditation chamber. Despite being away from Imperial space, he still wanted to see if he could find the Son or if the Force would give him more clues.
