The shuttles all basically had the same crew as on the DP1 world, including the DP1 investigation scientists Colman and Gates aboard, and military members Rickman and Carter, and other scientists at the back of the shuttle behind him were trying to identify where they were, and with their new equipment, while testing it out.
It surprised him that the region they entered was so close to where they had been, where it had a warm region, and the area they were moving into was not only deep in snow but genuinely was a cold region, with a cold environment and vegetation, and they tried to discover why from higher satellite images they got.
Cold winds wildly blew about them and below and he wondered if there was a flaw in the world, and wondered if it was its rotation or orbit, or something was affecting it somewhere else, and he knew the scientists aboard the starship would be examining everything, and for causes.
What also surprised him was how the last world had made him cringe in his seat when the shuttle had shot through the endless snowstorm and had not actually been dangerous and now it was as the wind speeds were accelerating beyond anything they had encountered, and were far more powerful above, and they even had to lower the height, and it became so bad that they were slowly being lowered down more and more to the ground, and he started to sense something was going on, and that the flight could be doomed, and it felt as though something wanted them to land.
Chapter 12
Haunted World
Ripley was thunderstruck at what they had done and that they had gone from misfortune to catastrophe, and not only had they landed on the world, and lost all communications with the starship and other shuttles, and end up in such an environment, they were lost on the world, when they should have remained aboard the shuttle until the climate altered and allowed them to take off, or the communications return.
Ripley with Dan, Colman, and Rickman had left the shuttle to investigate an artificial structure near their location and had soon become lost when the blizzard increased, and blinding snow and tree formations of a dense extraterrestrial form of forest had made them lose their way, but the structure became visible and they had continued towards it.
He could not grasp if it was the strange dark wood formation, altered trees and landscape, freezing in deep snow, or the world they were on that was so strange, or something else on the world that was different.
The place confused him and his senses and he started to realize that just about anything could occur, and in the depths of space, and as he led the three members of the crew on he started to spot strange dark figures behind trees, examining them, and a mysterious distant light, which at first he had thought was a large star of the world.
Occasionally he heard distant things being violently smashed, but saw powerful wind surges blasting through the wood and that tree formations had been torn down by it, and many recently.
What staggered him the most was why they had left the shuttle, and not obeyed the rules, and that they never knew how to return, and as they rushed on, they held their belief that they would be saved by something and that there would be an eventual conclusion to the journey, but the snow grew thicker and shrouded everything everywhere, creating a deadly mind-bending landscape, and powerful winds even threw them over into the snow.
The sounds of life forms and other strange things in the roar of the winds through his spacesuit helmet mystified him and at times they came screaming out of the dark endless alien wood with such fury that they stopped staggered, trying to contemplate what they were dealing with, and at times sounded like they were coming out the ground, and that there were shafts in the ground.
Chapter 13
Haunted House
For no reason Ripley began to believe supernatural regions existed in the universe, and that they had entered something, and he was surprised that the others mentioned it, which left him confused as he did not know what it was, and he was not religious, and he tried to grasp how dangerous it was.
If it did exist how did it affect the other events that had occurred, and events in his life? Yet he could not grasp anything, and considered why it would only be there, and that there had to be something buried away there, which was not anywhere else.
He considered all the things he had heard of magic and black magic and other stuff trying to grasp what it was doing there. He was sure that they had discovered more than they realized and that it could prove the existence magical energies and occurrences in the universe, and he analyzed everything in a far greater degree, searching for answers.
Within the mind-bending landscape, at the side of his vision, through his spacesuit helmet, a colossal light emerged and beamed out beams of light through strange heaps of snow, where there were signs of strange undergrowth below, and it pulsated like a deadly living thing, magically illuminating everywhere and he stopped with the others, and wondered why supernatural powers were deadly and evil trying to grasp what it was and would happen, and it seemed to silence them and all the noises and life forms sounds surrounding them to their surprise.
Yet the light allowed them to see the structure buried away in the thick alien vegetation, and he realized that it could be an alien form of house, hidden deep in the landscape and wood, and they examined it astounded at its real colossal size and how it could be built in such a place, and he wondered why it was hidden away and how deadly the world was.
When they got to the front of the large stone structure the dangers of it collapsing became clear, as it was made of blocks of stone and thick vegetation without any cement or anything holding it together, other than gravity, and most of it was leaning over to its side, where some of it had crumbled away and collapsed over the ground.
When the light in the trees shifted the whole structure lit up and radiated throughout the whole region, through a mass of strange vegetation and foliage formations, and its colossal powers staggered them, and they examined the colossal size of the light and saw it was some form of life form, and tried to see what it was and was doing, and it eventually shifted away through a thin fog and slowly vanished into the distance and snow covered objects.
Chapter 14
Ghostly
On entering the building, through a thin tunnel gap between two boulders, going through the solid outer wall, he saw a dim veil of mist ahead but ignored it and led them in and into a room, where he stood examining the roof, made of some form of vegetation woven into a thick solid block.
Once in they settled down and Dan began trying to make contact with the shuttle and the starship, but was unsuccessful, and Ripley wondered what the hell could block the signal.
It was agreed that they should remain there until the outer storm or snow stopped falling and check out what was there, and Ripley began taking filming, with his spacesuit camera, what was there and recording a message of what they had encountered on the world, and programmed his spacesuit to transmit it if a gap in the storm appeared and if it detected the signal could be transmitted, and he began a detailed investigation of the structure, determined to continue with their mission.
Colman, the scientist, continued taking samples of everything he found, and also filming and documenting things of interest and were new.
Ripley could not believe the structure was so large and made of the materials it was, and regularly examined the roof could support their weight, if they climbed up forms of steps going high up above, where he was sure there were many floors, going well over the outer vegetation, and he decided they should move up there, and wondered briefly if there was anything still living there, but he was sure there would be signs of it.
Somewhere above he thought he heard something, and while examining further along at the side of structure they heard powerful movements of something rapidly moving, and for a second Ripley thought he saw a faint ghost shape where there was deep blackness over at their side, and he saw there was a gap in the wall where the blackness was and he rushed over to it and saw that it entered a form of corridor going through the structure, and
that there were other rooms going along it, and he thought he saw a black shape floating through the darkness.
It felt like he was on the edge of reality, on the bounds of something, which he could not grasp.
Outside he heard the hideous storm now raging, and howls of something through winds, and he tried to grasp how deadly it was, and he was sure it only seemed deadlier.
An explosion sound came from something high above them, and he wondered what could explode, and they decided to investigate it, and they climbed up the form of steps there, going up the building, and as they climbed up he realized that something had to be there, buried away above, and saw that the others were getting ready to confront it.
Chapter 15
Extraterrestrial Tower
At the top, after passing many floors with different types of corridors with different types of rooms, it turned into a tower, and Ripley stopped suddenly, tired and startled by something, and he felt a vibration through the wall of the tower, and as he moved close to it with his ear to it he heard something whirling somewhere, clearly from somewhere overhead.
Ripley sat and hid at the edge of the entrance to a room he found at the top, while the others rested just below him, staring upwards, examining what they saw and heard.
He stayed for a long time staring into the dimness unable to recognize anything he could see, and gasped for a few seconds when he thought he was being watched by something in an area of darkness at the side, and kept examining the central region where he felt and heard deep swift vibrations, which he was sure was some form of early electrical device, and he considered putting on his light, but the problem was he could not see what was there and going by the deadliness of the place and what he had seen he remained there, where he could swiftly withdraw and move down, and defend himself.
Eventually he saw shapes and objects, and he remained trying to identify them, and an energy formation emerged and brightened and he watched it float over the floor, and he recognized it was in an energy bubble, rotating swiftly over the floor of the room, and he felt the vibrations from it increasing and he sensed it had enormous power, and he tried to find the source and how it could be created.
In the energy sphere he spotted a formation, which he was sure was not there before, or had not been visible, and he studied it and was sure it was a humanoid, and he started thinking of how he could make contact, and decided he could treat it like a form of intelligent animal, or perhaps someone with another language.
Its shape looked like an intelligent being, and even human, and he filmed it through his spacesuit camera, and checked if the starship was capable of receiving messages, but found it could not.
He studied its formations and colors trying to put meanings to them, and studied its shapes and watched the others on the stairs watch the images he was filming in their spacesuits, and considered moving down to check what they thought of it, and he sat watching it glow brightly, with beams of light.
When was sure something was going to happen, and a conclusion occur, he spotted a skeleton formation and that it was only a few feet high, and it stare outwards, and flashes of light appear, and it disappear, and the whole formation seemed to vanish, as though it had seen him and had vanished to where it was, and in the blackness left there he sat considering if it was a form of teleportation, and if he could get the technology behind it, and the value it would have.
Chapter 16
DP3 Artifact
An inaudible whisper came from the dark confines, from something, which Ripley thought was trying to communicate, and he studied it trying grasp it and where he believed it was coming from and would be, and never saw anything and wondered what it was, and when he turned his light on illuminating the room he thought he saw its red glowing eyes appear and vanish.
Colman moved up the stairs first, followed by Dan and Rickman, as he stayed silently studying the room, and where the energy had been, searching for anything to explain what the hell he had witnessed, and as the others arrived near him he shifted into the room, listening to them silently conferring, trying to explain what had been there, but never really explained anything.
“But there has to be a source that created it?” Colman asked, studying his reactions, watching him shrug his shoulders.
“There should be somewhere!” Ripley replied.
“But how dangerous do you consider the extraterrestrials ...?” Colman asked firmly, searching everywhere, and started searching in types of container boxes about the edge of the room.
“They do not look that advanced!” Rickman continued, searching through everything he came to, and discarding everything as rubbish.
“It could be of two states!” Ripley added, still searching the floor region, where the energy sphere had been. “It could be of an early state and a later advanced state!”
They nodded, seeing his point, and that it could have an advanced technology.
Ripley played back the recording he took and stood trying to identify the altering energy formations and what could create it and shapes in it.
“Was it trapped in that energy field?” Rickman asked, watching the recording, and Ripley for a few seconds considered if it could be a type of ghost, considering the region they were in and what they had witnessed there already, and mention of supernatural occurrences, and eventually shrugged showing he never knew.
“Why? How did it get trapped?” Colman asked curiously.
Ripley picked up a pole and started jabbing it into the roof material overhead, proving there was nothing there, and began ripping out the material from the floor, directly below where the energy sphere had been, still convinced that there was something that directly put it there.
“How do you reckon it was activated?” Dan asked.
“It had to have detected our presence here …” he replied.
“That bang sound we heard up here could have been activated by it!” Rickman continued, searching the material Ripley was ripping out and throwing out across the floor.
Ripley knew they were disorientated by the new world, and the last world, and all the occurrences they had encountered, and knew they would be left confused by most of the occurrences but he wanted to grasp the technology as it could be valuable, and he could even make the visit to the DP3 profitable.
“We could put a team of experienced scientists down here as soon as we get back aboard Starship S1!” Colman replied, watching Ripley at work on the floor, ripping everything he could out of the compact mass of materials woven into the floor, and he occasionally tested it to see it was still safe, and occasionally tried to imagine what had created it.
“We can bring down equipment to detect it or check it out!” he eventually replied, wondering if they had something.
Ripley finished his search once he had proven there was nothing there, and started to consider the being he had seen in the energy bubble and the size of it and realized what he was looking for might be smaller, even though the building itself was large it had things like entrances smaller, and in the mess of pieces he had removed from the floor he spotted something, and reached out and grabbed it.
At first it looked like nothing and just a tool to build the floor, but after examinations he found marks on it that were symbols and realized the object was far more advanced and made of some form of unknown material, and in the end shoved it into a pocket of his spacesuit and continued searching the room with the others, and he moved around the room examining the room from different perspectives, seeking a long awaited clue.
On a wall faint drawings were sketched, which surprised them as there was a chart of nearby stars, and they found ancient food remains in places, and there were ancient marks with drawings of creatures and symbols beside them, and one with a diagram of a form of telescope, and he looked out a window gap and found and saw the world below and all the tree type formations covered in deep snow and gasped at the depth of it and wondered if they could get trapped there.
He examined the horizon and reali
zed that it was also a watchtower, and perhaps for other uses, including scientific work, even though he never found any equipment.
When they turned all their spacesuit lights up and on full intensity Ripley spotted a very faint diagram of something marked on the center of the floor, over the point the energy bubble had been generated, and they found symbols around it, in accurate measured distances, and all carefully placed, and Ripley knew it had to be something of importance and filmed it as well as he could from as many angles as he could.
While he tried to grasp everything that he could, and filmed as much as he could, he spotted it appear brighter and faint energy trails whirl around it, and them accelerate, and sparks of colored light emerge going through the fringes, and saw thousands of miniature transparent star lights emerging around them, going around the room.
Ripley shifted over to where Colman, Dan, and Rickman went, and as light and energy blasted out of the central region of the room they rushed out the entrance and filmed the occurrence and the whole of the middle region exploding with light and altering objects, creating intense blinding light, as energy blasted out, leaving them staggered trying to grasp what was there, and what was going to happen, and Ripley thought he saw the small being he had seen before faintly emerge and vanish in an energy sphere at the center.
The air from it blasted out against their faces, and Ripley heard silent, almost inaudible, chants from the central region where the being in the energy bubble had been.
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