Star Clusters: New Arrivals by Dalo Lorn

dust, displaying very little; just text written in a language that none of them could understand - it appeared as if the computer controlling this outpost was waiting for some kind of input. There were several doors leading out of the main chamber, one of which seemed to require an access code; sparks were flying out of the exposed power conduit where the keypad had been - whatever mechanism had reactivated the base was attempting to route power to something on the keypad - and the control panel above it was nonresponsive.
    “We should spread out, find out what we can about this place,” Lanis said.
    Hatos nodded. “Yes - I will investigate the damaged door and the consoles while you and the drones determine the size and location of this facility.”
    Everyone picked a door and opened it. Lanis found that his led into a corridor; another door could be seen on the far side, but it was locked. After he pressed the buttons on the control panel in a random order, the door promptly slid open, revealing a Xargan which immediately pounced at him. He cried out for help as the impact knocked his pistol out of his hand, throwing him to the floor as the creature attempted to use its claws to penetrate his shield and rip him apart.
    As the shield weakened, Lanis punched the beast in the jaw, followed by attempting to use his legs to kick his assailant across his head to get it off him; when it worked, he scrambled for his gun, placing a shot into the Xargan’s mouth as it tried to jump at him again.
    Hatos charged in while the Xargan collapsed dead onto the floor. “Too late, he’s dead,” Lanis told him.
    “This is most disturbing,” Hatos noted. “The drones’ analysis was clear; there should not be any Xargans here. I suspect that when the Xargan hives were bombarded by your fleet, a hole was breached in the facility’s walls - probably somewhere through that door over there.”
    The two of them went up to the door, which opened into a large chamber filled with Xargan biotech; its guardians were nowhere to be found, but it was unlikely that they would be far from their location. “Zeshaira, Herrun, it looks like I’ve stumbled upon a Xargan-infested section of the base,” Lanis said into his comlink. “Hatos is with me, but you two should probably get here and bring the drones along - something tells me there’s quite a few of them here.” He switched the comlink off. “We should probably get back to the door - if they see us, it’ll be a lot easier to defend the door than it would be to fight them inside the room.”
    “Agreed,” Hatos said. When the rest of the team arrived, there had been no Xargan activity yet - but shortly after they arrived, a small group of various creatures - two or three different breeds, Lanis couldn’t tell - entered the chamber. Herrun tossed a Petran grenade into the room; within seconds, the crystal detonated, killing most of the creatures - the rest were killed by the weapons fire that followed.
    “Sounds like we got all of them,” Herrun said.
    “Did any of you find anything?” Lanis asked.
    “The door I examined is sealed shut and heavily shielded - I doubt we could breach it without severely damaging the rest of the facility, including whatever is hidden within. As for the consoles, the only thing I am relatively certain of is that the computer is requesting some sort of input before it can proceed. Probably a password or an access code, but before we can even guess what it is, we need to determine what the symbols are and what they mean.”
    “Mine was a dead end,” Herrun stated. “Must’ve been for storage or something.”
    “My door led into a laboratory. Unfortunately, what it was for is impossible to discern without knowledge of the language.”
    “Well, I guess we’ll have plenty of time to study this while the Eagle’s being refitted… Come on, let’s see if there’s anything more interesting than a breached wall on the other side of that door,” Lanis