The air was crisp. The mountains rose on either side, their peaks were snow-capped for a moon with a thin atmosphere.
The cohort moved through the valley, pushing their weight against the heavy fog that pressed onto their shoulders.
Amanda shivered a little, the suit was fine, it was made of the finest of material in the cosmos but there was a psychological coldness to the atmosphere that affected everybody.
Her eyes wandered to look for Vesper amidst the fog but to her dismay she could neither spot him nor clearly look at her subordinates nearby.
His voice however reached their ears, "I have reached the dead end. It's a steep hill climb from here onward."
Jimeneus's voice followed quickly after.
"Good. All according to Adam's calculations. Any dangers to it?"
"Not particularly. The storm's getting thicker though."
The dewflower comms were silent for a moment before Adam spoke.
"We will have to push through. We are already late on course. We won't be able to reach the mark on time and this storm is only going to get worse… and there's no way it's ending in a few hours or days."
"Alright then." Jimeneus said, "let's move at full speed away then. We'll climb the hill before the storm gets any worse. Danisque be wary, no beats should hinder our progress from behind."
"Aye." Danique's voice resounded.
"Vesper is the path ahead clear?"
"Aye. No beasts or monsters."
Half beat a second later, Jimeneus whispered.
"Lets move."
""""Aye!!""""
~
Soon the cohort reached the end of the valley
The fog thickened as the ground began to slope upward.
The mountains that had once loomed proudly on either side were now little more than faint silhouettes behind curtains of mist.
Amanda could barely see the cadet walking two steps ahead of her.
The wind rose slowly, dragging the fog in long ghostly streams across the valley floor.
Her boots crunched against frozen gravel.
"Keep formation." Jimeneus's voice echoed through the dewflower comms. "No spreading out. The visibility's dropping faster than predicted."
"Acknowledged." Several voices replied in overlapping murmurs.
Amanda tilted her head slightly upward.
The hill was steeper than she expected. Jagged stone jutted from the snow like broken fangs. The climb would be slow.
Her gaze searched the fog again.
Still no sign of Vesper.
Only his voice existed in this storm.
"Beginning ascent," he said calmly. "Surface is stable enough. Watch the left ridge. Loose ice."
Amanda placed her hand on the rock face and began climbing with the others.
For several minutes the only sounds were the wind, boots scraping stone, and the faint static of the comms.
Then Adam spoke again.
His voice carried a quiet tension.
"Everyone… hold position for a moment."
Jimeneus immediately responded.
"What is it?"
There was a pause.
Longer than anyone liked.
"The storm isn't natural," Adam said.
Amanda felt a chill run through her spine that had nothing to do with the cold.
"What do you mean?" Jimeneus asked.
"The atmospheric patterns… they're wrong. The density shift doesn't follow any planetary model I calculated."
Another pause. Then Adam finished quietly.
"Something may be generating it."
The fog thickened again. So thick that even the ground seemed to disappear.
And somewhere ahead of them, unseen within the storm… Vesper stopped climbing having reached a certain vantage point.
The wind howled past him, dragging sheets of fog across the slope.
For a moment he said nothing.
"Vesper?" Jimeneus asked through the comms. "Report."
Amanda froze halfway up the ridge, gripping a slab of ice-slick rock.
Static crackled.
Then Vesper's voice came through again, quieter than before.
"…I was wrong."
The entire cohort went still.
"What do you mean you were wrong?" Jimeneus demanded.
"There are no beasts," Vesper said slowly.
Another long pause. At this point, the cohort was slowly getting used to the pauses but it did not help that the tension made their bones shiver more than the cold winds.
"…but we are not alone. There are footprints. Another cohort."
Amanda's breath fogged the inside of her visor.
"What do you see?" Adam asked.
For several seconds there was no reply.
"Finish the climb," Vesper said.
"See it for yourselves."
Jimeneus gave the order immediately.
"Move."
The cohort pushed upward at full speed.
The incline steepened until they were nearly climbing on all fours. Frozen stone scraped against their suit.
The storm thickened with every meter they gained and the winds tried their best to throw them.
Amanda could feel something strange.
A low pressure with a high pitch. Not something physically… it felt old… it felt like… Aura. Pure Aura.
However, it felt more nuanced than the one Ullysen Paul displayed in the ceremony as though it had wanedwith time.
The slope suddenly ended.
Amanda hauled herself over the ridge and froze.
The fog thinned just enough for the shape to emerge.
It wasn't a mountain.
It wasn't rock.
It was architecture.
An enormous structure stretched across the plateau beyond the ridge covered in snow and dust.
Black stone towers rose from the ground like jagged spears, their surfaces smooth yet impossibly ancient. Vast arches connected them, each one tall enough for starships to pass through.
The structure disappeared into the storm in every direction.
Amanda whispered involuntarily.
"…what the hell…"
Even Jimeneus sounded shaken.
"This… wasn't on the scans."
Adam's voice came through the comms, trembling with excitement.
"That's impossible."
Vesper stood several meters ahead of them, a pale silhouette against the fog. He hadn't moved in the slightest, quietly observing the structure.
Amanda stepped closer.
The ground beneath her boots changed texture. It wasn't stone… but rather, metal. One that was buried under centuries of ice.
A low rumble rolled through the plateau.
Everyone looked up.
The storm above them was spiraling… not randomly but it was centered directly above the structure.
Adam spoke again, his voice barely controlled.
"The storm… it isn't natural… we are standing on the source."
A massive shape suddenly loomed through the fog to their right. The soldiers raised their weapons instinctively… but the shape didn't move.
Amanda realized what she was looking at. It was a statue. A colossal humanoid figure carved into the side of one of the towers.
It was half buried in ice and it's head was tilted downward toward the plateau, as if watching anyone who entered.
…But the most disturbing part wasn't its size.
Two colossal wings arched forward from its back, covering the face entirely.
Frost had gathered along their edges, forming pale ridges that almost looked like feathers.
Silence spread through the cohort while Vesper wondered what lay beneath the wings… the face.
It felt as though the sculptors had deliberately hidden the face, burying its identity.
'Is this symbolic? Or deliberate… as if to hide the face?'
Then Adam whispered the one thing none of them expected to hear.
"…I think this place is older than the first expansion era."
Jimeneus turned slowly toward the endless black structure disappearing into the storm.
"…How old?"
Another pause.
Then Adam answered.
"Older than our species should have been capable of building anything."