by Drew Cordell
“The hurricane, it is protecting the temple,” Fen said. She was probably right. The storm wasn’t moving, it was fixated in place, and I had the feeling that this clearing was the only point of respite on this entire planet.
I took a good look at the planet’s distant star, materializing my EVA suit helmet on my head with a quick mental command and flipping the solar shielding so I could look directly at it without damaging my eyesight. It was unlike anything I had ever seen.
There were no truly green stars, but something in the planet’s atmosphere was making the starlight appear green. The star, what looked to be a rare O-type, was on its last stretch of life, burning violently. Strands of burning matter writhed away from the star’s surface like plumes of fire, forming the onset of rings that would lead to a supernova and the inevitable death of this entire system.
“It looks like an O-type star close to its supernova. If I had to guess, this system is dying, and I think our arrival might accelerate that process,” I said, reporting my findings to the group. Maybe each Strexian temple was unique to the player group who found it. It would make a lot of sense from a game design standpoint, that way information from a group who had failed wouldn't be as relevant to other parties attempting restricted content.
As Ether Rogue lowered to the ground, the true size of the temple was revealed. It was at least a kilometer tall and wide, and there were subtle runes carved in the rounded, weather-worn stone of the sleek obsidian, stacked high into a rounded pyramid. A large arch extended from the face of the prism nearest to us, leading to a rounded, circular door at least 100 meters in radius.
Gwen landed us, powering down Ether Rogue and giving the reactor a much-needed break. The electronics and AI were still in shambles, unable to function in the swirling nether of the violent magnetic fields of this strange place. Whatever was causing the shifting polarity was inside the temple. Our more complex electronics would be useless while we were here unless we could somehow find a way to disable whatever was generating the electromagnetic forces.
There was no sign that any other ships had followed us through the wormhole, but I doubted that was even a possibility with what we had been through. Without the map fragment, I doubted they would be able to get through the wormhole in the first place, and for now, that was the best thing we had going for us. We would have to plan our escape later—for now, there were more important matters at hand.
“Barely made it, but we did,” Gwen said, taking a deep breath as she unclipped from her chair’s safety restraints. I could tell she was ready to take a break from piloting, but who could blame her after that?
“Nice flying, Gwen,” Brandon commended.
“Agreed. Let’s gear up,” I said. There was no time to waste. It was time to explore the temple.
39
Thankfully, there was no damage to Ether Rogue other than some minor durability wear to the hull and some interior bulkheads. If everything went smoothly, we wouldn't need repairs even after a second pass through the hurricane if it was required. I wasn't thrilled about the looming possibility of having to brave the storm again, especially if Ether Rogue was laden with treasure from the temple.
Gwen was carrying a respirator helmet in her inventory despite the fact that all scanners that could still function in the electromagnetic field were showing that the air outside the ship was good to breathe without risks from long-term exposure. Suffocation or some kind of toxic gas would be a bad, and entirely preventable way to go—especially after making it this far.
I checked my equipment, making sure I had all of my stimpack injectors, that my utility belt was loaded up with charge packs for my blaster, and that I had weapon and armor repair kits ready to go at a moment’s notice if something went wrong with my gear. If I played my cards right, there was the possibility of acquiring new spells from the temple.
Satisfied that I was as ready as I was going to be, I attached my Chronicler to my shoulder like some kind of first-person combat camera. In a way, that was exactly what it was, and I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to work on my crafting profession passively and acquire more encodings to put to use later.
While our weapons and more simplistic electronics were still functioning, it was clear that Gwen’s drone wouldn’t be able to operate. Without the drone healing us, my support role in the party was crucial. Our remote communications didn’t work here, and we wouldn’t have Ether Rogue’s AI boosting our capabilities during the temple incursion. We needed to avoid getting split up at all costs.
Since my job was to keep everyone else alive, I would have to focus on maximizing my mana uptime and carefully selecting when to protect my friends with Mana Shield. I could use Unstable Power for extra mana to sustain max-rank shields for longer, but quick mental math told me I could only hope to consume a little under 30 mana from the 48 available from Unstable Power before it would detonate and deal a lot of damage to me.
The timer displayed in my AIVO counted down to the time my alarm would go off in the real world, but I was almost certain Brandon and I would be taking the day off so we could complete our temple run and secure our treasure. Ideally, we could offload whatever we found on Cadan and get away clean with impossible wealth. This was everything, and we had staked our futures on making sure we were successful here. Now it all came down to execution.
“It would just insult us both if I asked you to stay behind again, wouldn't it?” I asked Gwen when we had a moment to ourselves.
She smirked. “Not a chance I’m letting you three take all the glory. I’m coming with you.”
“I thought you’d say that,” I admitted, feeling myself start to smile despite the anxiety I was feeling. I didn’t try to talk her out of it again, even if I was afraid of not being strong enough to defeat whatever was waiting for us in this strange place. Her mind was set.
Doing one final check to make sure we had everything we could possibly need for the temple run, we deployed the ramp to Ether Rogue with our weapons raised. We were only about 100 meters away from the temple and jogged across the slick obsidian washed-out in green starlight. I holstered my blaster, pulling out the map fragment as the others took up positions in front of the massive door as we reached the entrance of the pyramid, ready for whatever was waiting for us on the other side.
There was a stone console on the far side of the structure’s exterior arch, and it had a slot in the center where I placed the map fragment, watching it socket in perfectly and glow with green energy. The circular door groaned to life, and a small rectangular passage opened, sinking through the entrance and clearing a way for us to enter.
Whispers of the Strexian language echoed in my head, somehow foreign and naturally intuitive at the same time. I felt an instant synchronization with this place—a deep connection that my Strexian implant enabled, though I didn’t know if that was a good or bad thing yet.
The rectangular passage led to darkness, and it seemed to swallow the light. Exchanging a glance with the rest of us, Brandon toggled the blinding flashlight anchored to the side of his shotgun, stepping forward and leading us inside. I took deep breaths of the dusty air, feeling how stale and dry it was. Sensors in my armored EVA suit told me the air was still clean, but it was clear the majority of the electronics were struggling to function against the powerful electromagnetic field disrupting this planet, even inside the temple.
The narrow passageway opened up several meters through, bringing us to the first room of the temple where a humanoid-like figure waited in the darkness, long-dead as it stood sentry at its post, the decayed remains of the staff-like weapon it had probably once held discarded off to the side. The alien corpse was standing in front of the next door, guarding the control console.
The corpse was a ghastly being, unlike anything I had seen in Eternity Online. It was tall and slender, towering over Brandon, the tallest one in our group. Three sets of skeletal withered arms lined the remains of its insect-like carapace. It had a sharp angular face, with three
empty eye sockets. Long, dusty fangs extended from its mouth, and its face was resting in an expression of agonized pain or anger.
“Good Gesh, that's terrifying,” Gwen said as we moved cautiously into the lifeless room. I was ready to shoot enemies or shield my friends at a moment’s notice, but my heart was hammering away in my chest at the horrific sight of the alien and how lifeless this place appeared. It was clear no person or thing had been in this room for a very long time in terms of the Eternity Online timeline.
The jaw of the alien corpse cracked audibly, disconnecting from the other bones and shifting to the side before sliding back into place. It took a dry, forced breath of air, and tilted its head down at us.
My friends and I all recoiled in surprise, preparing to shoot, but I raised my hands, stopping them so we could see if this thing was hostile or not. Something here was taking control of the corpse, it was clearly still dead—and this might be our only opportunity to communicate peacefully with the occupants of this temple.
“Strif Avex srian vrekeck zix Ortonan crin. Strex Volatox,” the sentinel wheezed in its chittering language, the dry words grinding together in a wretched whisper that sounded like sand being forced through millstones.
“Challengers, you have arrived at Ortonan. If you are worthy, our treasures are yours,” I translated, understanding the alien’s ancient language.
“Who are you?” I asked, only I wasn’t speaking Standard anymore, I was speaking Strexian, unaware until I saw the looks on my friends’ faces. I quickly relayed my question to them in Standard.
“Ortonan val Kilthra,” the sentinel responded. “Gonvik sric.”
“The Architect of Ortonan. Welcome to your trial,” I said, following up with a question for this self-proclaimed Architect. “Are you still alive?”
The alien sentinel’s rigid jaw slackened, and what remaining breath it had dissipated in a dry exhale of finality. This Architect of Ortonan was here, and it didn't have anything else to say to us—at least for now. Whether it was an ancient coded response to pre-programmed stimuli or an actual conversation with a living entity, this temple was aware of our presence.
“Well, at least we know there will be a challenge. I'm glad I didn't blast that damn thing when it moved,” Brandon said, moving forward and prodding the sentinel with the barrel of his shotgun to test if it was really dead. His weapon punched a neat hole through its chitin-like carapace as if it was made of thin paper. The sentinel’s body collapsed into a heap of fragments and skeletal, insect-like remains as its body finally gave way to the toll of time. Brandon shrugged. “I guess it's really dead.”
“This one is all you, Kyle,” Gwen said, moving out the way so I could access the console behind the extra-dead sentinel. “Take your time and try not to trigger any traps, yeah?”
Fen and Brandon stood in front of the door with their weapons ready, and Gwen faced the entrance we had come from, watching for an ambush. Without a signal connection to Ether Rogue, we’d have no way of knowing if another ship had followed us through and made it through the storm. We’d have to be prepared for anything on our way out of the temple if we made it that far.
“Yeah. I'll see what I can do.” Accessing the console, I pressed the rune keys on the side, powering it on. The console used an ancient analog screen, lit by burning gas tubes in the back as Strexian runes materialized on the distorted surface, coated in layers of heavy dust. I wiped away the filth from the center, able to read the screen now.
I entered a command to open the door, and the system complied, passing code to the neglected mechanics in the slab of obsidian serving as the door to the next room. The door slid to the side with a pressurized hiss, echoing through the darkness beyond. Fluorescent light fixtures along the walls ignited with faint green light, similar in shade to the harsh sunlight of the Ortonan planet. Neat, geometric furrows in the walls of the building diffused the light, filling the room evenly with a green haze.
Moving inside, it was clear that the large room, nearly 100-meters across, was built as some kind of triangular arena. As we walked in from one of the triangle’s points, the true vastness of the room became apparent. It was filled with the same green haze of light toward the bottom, but as the interior climbed into a hollowed darkness, it was clear that anything could be hiding in the darkness above, even as we swept our flashlight beams upward. They just sort of stopped mid-air, swallowed by the void and the improbable height of the arena’s construction.
A shape swooped down from the upper shadows, surging toward us with frightening speed. It was a humanoid, shaped more like a human than the insect-like creature we had seen in the first room of the temple. A baggy hood concealed its face, and a robe of shimmering obsidian-adorned fabric concealed its body as it flew toward us.
Brandon yelled out in surprise, firing off his shotgun with a deafening crack. Impact splintered across a translucent hexagonal orb protecting the robed humanoid from harm as it slowed to an abrupt stop that seemed to defy physics, hovering only a few meters in front of us. It was just suspended in air, tilting its hidden face and studying us with unseen eyes. It didn't seem to have any intention of attacking us—at least for now.
As the figure pulled off its hood, I could see a glass-like crystalline mask similar to Fen’s carved with sunken cheeks, sharp, inquisitive eyes, and a grinning smile. As the being hovered, I could see that the mask was actually a full helmet and wrapped all the way around, connecting to the humanoid’s neck with some kind of armored mesh that trailed down beneath its robe. “Sric varth ra jin. Ortonan Klexla. Tix sra giv.” It floated away, disappearing into the shadows as quickly as it had arrived. We scanned the ceiling of the room with our flashlights, but the figure was out of sight.
“Your first trial begins—time works against you. Meet the Metalbound of Ortonan,” I translated, knowing the mysterious figure was the Architect that had spoken to us in the first room of the temple through the sentry’s corpse. The door behind us closed, sealing us inside the triangular arena with the heavy thud of locking machinery.
Something shifted in the opposite wall, pulling my attention. Another large door opening and sinking into the frame. Something emerged from the other side, and it was colossal—standing at least five meters tall and wide. It looked like some grotesque hybrid between an organic creature and an archaic machine.
The exterior of the monster was covered in dense, rusted metal stacked in angular planes with crude spot-welding all the way up to a small, angular socket where a single milky eye covered in a film of gooey slime was centered. The eye wasn't moving, and from its appearance, I doubted that the horrible creature had vision. From what we could see, the Metalbound of Ortonan had no mouth or face visible, and its small embedded eye was the only outward-facing organic component to the mechanical monster. The horrible thing looked more like it was imprisoned by the mass of armor rather than protected by it, but I couldn’t tell if that was a good or bad thing for us yet.
The creature shrieked, a horrible, deafening sound coming from inside its armor as long blades of obsidian-like metal expanded on its blocky arms with spring-loaded action. It dragged the edges of its blades together, producing a shrill screech and a vibrant spray of sparks.
Powerful mechanical gears in the monster’s joints groaned to life, exposing themselves and whirring in both directions with chattering strain as the creature stretched from its long slumber. There was no mistaking that we would have to fight this monstrosity if we wanted the treasure of the temple.
“We’ve got this,” Gwen said, toggling the fire selector on her blaster carbine and keeping her voice surprisingly level. “Aim for the eye.”
“I hope you're right,” Brandon said, readying his massive shotgun and slapping the side of the drum mag to make sure it was locked into place.
I took a deep breath, preparing to execute our strategy and adapt to overcome this enemy. My Mana Shield was a powerful spell, but this enemy looked insanely powerful, and my shielding might not
be enough to protect one of us from even a single hit. The Architect had told us that this was our first trial—and it could very easily be our last.
Something shifted underneath us, a subtle grinding sensation as the arena itself started to lift slowly, rotating clockwise in a slight corkscrew to complement the movement. A blinding green line of light erupted on one of the other walls of the arena, starting to expand outward at a crawling pace. If I had to guess, it was some kind of timer, one that we probably wanted to beat.
The monster in front of us shrieked again and broke out into a shambling run with heavy metallic thuds as its feet came into contact with the arena floor.
40
We attacked the massive enemy from range, maintaining our ideal formation with Brandon and Fen in front while Gwen and I hung back, dealing damage. The mechanical monstrosity lurched toward us, surprisingly fast despite its bulk. It heaved its blades to its sides as it sidestepped, rotating and forming a dark cyclone of bladed death. It might not have been able to see, but seemed to be using the impact of our weapon fire to guide its twisting path.
“Stay out of range!” Brandon yelled over the thundering cracks of his shotgun. The boss’s health bar was visible now, but there was no health to show, only a massive block of grayed-out armor that we’d have to get through first unless we could find a way around it. With so much plated armor, we may as well have been shooting at the best starship in the Dalthaxian fleet. We had to hit the creature’s eye, and it couldn’t have been more than 10 centimeters in diameter—no bigger than my balled-up fist.
“I will draw it away,” Fen said, chanting something under her breath in a smooth, melodic language. The edge of her katana glowed a vibrant blue then shifted to green as she rushed the boss. My heart hammered away in my chest as she gracefully sidestepped and ducked under one of the monster’s massive blades as it passed over her head. She lashed out with her katana with two blinding strokes, so fast my eyes had trouble registering them as they impacted with the creature’s armored leg.
