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// Home Base Files - #01: First Day of Discoveries 
// Story: Project New World 
// by NinjaMare 
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Once Rick and the rest of Frontier Bravo return to their side of the portal, the massive machine powering down, the soldiers and the Carrier unit’s operator were making their way to the barracks. While the researchers and scientist of Home Base, along with other personal of the compound watch the main screen monitor as R.O.V.E.R finishes its system check. But before the soldiers headed off, they gave the lead research a brief report, telling her about the surrounding location and that everything proceeded without difficulty. Once the brief report was made, the soldiers left the researchers to watch what the R.O.V.E.R might discover.

“So what do you propose ol’ R.O.V.E.R will find this time?” an older woman with a southern accent asked her colleagues, as she watches the mechanical beast scan its surroundings, before it turned to look at what looks like ruins.

“Well look at that!” a younger man said as his eyes widen. “We might actually have found a world with sapient life!” a taller African man placed a hand on the younger members shoulder.

“Calm down now. We don’t know if whatever created these is still around.” He said with a deep voice as everyone watches the R.O.V.E.R enter the ruins.

The ten or so people sitting at a large table continued to watch the large flat screen, watching the R.O.V.E.R scan everything it can see, while little blips pop up every now and then, and quickly scan anything that the machine focuses on whatever the on-board A.I decides is a prime subject. Soon enough the researchers saw the mechanical beast approach a large tapestry, or banner, that’s hanging on the wall. Despite its surroundings and the state it is in, the large piece of fabric actually looked to be in fairly good condition.

“Interesting.” One of the researchers said, a young ginger head woman says as she studies the image on the fabric. “It almost looks like a white unicorn, but with wings, standing on…the sun?”

“What do you suppose it means?” a very elderly man questions.

“It could be a coat of arms.” Another woman suggested.

“Possibly. Or it could be a family insignia, or the national flag.” A middle age man hypothesized as many ideas were running through his head.

The ten research continued to banter about the image, before they all noticed that the R.O.V.E.R was leaving the tapestry, and continue to explore the ruins. As the machine ventures through the ruins the staff observe everything it finds, so far the machine has come across a room that looks like a music hall, with some really rusted over instruments. The machine has also discovered what looks to be a kitchen, as well as several other rooms that appear to be living quarters which seemed to be to most run-down areas of the ruins. But along its travels through the ruins, the researches started to notice a few things, such as pieces of armor laying about, which all seem to be constructed for horses.

“Seems who ever lived in these ruins really adore their horses, with all the armor and pictures floating around.” The ginger haired woman says.

“Or…possibly, the ones who used to live in these ruins were…equine.” One of the researches suggested, causing the room to go silent for a bit.

“…it’s possible.” The elderly gentle says as he strokes his beard. “This is after all an alternate dimensional world we’ve uncovered, so who can say what lives there…the inhabitants could possibly be equine like.”

“He has a point.” A Hispanic woman said as she fiddles with her long black hair. “We can’t expect to find other intelligent life to be like us, bodily design that is.” Other members of the table nodded in agreement as they continue to watch the live feed.

After the large machine manages to clamber up a flight of stairs, which were too small for the machine to climb, the R.O.V.E.R unit comes across a large wooden door. Its twin laying on the ground beside it. When the machine looked through the door, every member of the table rose quickly in surprise, as they saw mountains of books, all seem to be in excellent condition. The lead researcher made her way from the head of the table, to the R.O.V.E.R units control system, and took manual control before making the mechanical beast approach one of the towering shelves, and used the R.O.V.E.R’s tail to grab a book and began flipping through its pages.

“Interesting. It almost hieroglyphic in structure.” One of the researchers commented as he looks at the pages contents that were being scanned, and uploaded to a different server monitor.

“We might be able to transcribe it if we run it through an algorithm.” A blonde woman says mostly to herself as she runs various programs and hieroglyphic dialects in her head.

“Miss Aynesworth…” the blonde woman jolts up as the head researchers voice, which was level and composed as she continuous to scan through the book. “How long can you get those algorithm’s prepared?”

“Umm…maybe within an hour, or so. But even with the program, I’ll have to design an encryption algorithm to try and decipher what we’ve scanned from the books.” The head research grabbed another book, and began scanning its contents as well.

“Then please begin work on it immediately. I want to know what this world has to offer to Mankind…and if it’s safe for us.” The blonde woman gives the head researcher a nod, before walking off to a different part of the large room, before sitting down at a table with four computers and began working on the program.

Several hours go by, and the head researcher has had the R.O.V.E.R scan every last book that was in the library, but the encryption program was barely scratching the surface of the mountain of data that was uploaded to the main server.

Once the business in the library was over with, the head researcher and the others returned to their seats, and continued to watch the R.O.V.E.R explore the ruins, but by the time it was high noon the mechanical beast has searched every inch of the ruins, at least, as much of the places that were intact. Leaving the ruins behind it, the R.O.V.E.R made its way into the forest and began documenting the various flora and fauna, some of the researchers were intrigued by the animals that they were getting to see.

Some were amused in how some of the animals looked, some were even amused on seeing a few birds actually riding the R.O.V.E.R from the machine’s tail camera. But when it came to the wildlife…the wooden wolves were certainly the highlight so far. When they came out of the woods, each one of the researchers were trying to get a better look at them.

“Look at them! Those things look like they’re actually made out of wood!” the African man said with enthusiasm, his mind bustling with questions.

“But are they really living creatures, or are they some kind of forest construct, or golem? Like in a video game?” an Italian woman mumbled to herself as she tries to study the wooden wolves.

“Or it could be that the wolves are actually wearing the plant life as armor?” one of the middle-age men said as he strokes his chin.

The researchers continued to ask questions, as they watch the three wooden wolves began to close in on the R.O.V.E.R, which was priming its own weapons. While the R.O.V.E.R is mostly meant for field exploration, it is capable of being a deadly weapon if it has to be. The researchers then watched as two of the wooden wolves were tossed aside, like little ragdolls, while the third one was blasted in the chest, showing the researchers that it was indeed completely made out of wood.

“Incredible…it is completely made out of forest material.” The Latino woman said as the R.O.V.E.R’s tail camera starts searching the wolves insides, seeing noting but vines, bark, branches, and a lot of tree sap. And some strange green ooze.

“There is some kind of strange energy signature coming from the body, what do you think it could be?” the southern accented woman asked as she looks at the screen EM reader.

“Not sure, we’ll have to run the data through an in-depth analyzer.” The Hispanic man said as he walks over to a single computer at a nearby terminal, and actually starts to analysis the energy data.

While the excitement of seeing indigenous life was dying down, the group watched as the R.O.V.E.R re-entered the forest to continue its mission. But as soon as the machine delved into the thicket of trees, the motion tracker picked something coming its way, but the researchers were more focused on the violet light that was being captured by the tail camera.

“What in the world is that?” the middle aged man mused as he looked at the odd light.

“Maybe it’s a will-o-wisp, like from folk lore.” The ginger head woman says.

Before any of the other researchers could say a word, something came out of the bushes and bumping into the R.O.V.E.R, and like with the wooden wolves the researchers all balked at what they saw. Staring at the R.O.V.E.R, with a bright light emitting from the top of its head, and dawning a look of pure shock and horror on its oddly human-like face…was a small lavender coated…unicorn! The creature was so small, the scan from the mechanical beast showed the researchers that it was around 4ft tall, and has a rather plush stout body, almost looking like a stuffed animal. The light emitting from its horn was drawing many of the research to theorize, and wonder how it is doing that…however the jovial moment was interrupted by brilliant flash of light, and watch as the small unicorn just…VANISHED!

“It vanished!” the Lantin man half-shouted. “How did it do that?”

“It’s not showing up on the R.O.V.E.R’s motion detector, so it didn’t run away.” The elderly man said as he looks at a monitor tied to the machines system.

“So…it, teleported?” one of the researchers said unsurely.

“It must’ve, otherwise the R.O.V.E.R would’ve picked the unicorns movements on its monitor.” The African man said.

The researchers continued to banter back and forth, more and more question being asked with very little actual answers rising up to answer them. as the researchers continued to banter, they all started to feel hunger and thirst drift in as they haven’t had a decent breakfast today, as they were too excited to get a glimpse of the new world. So the men and woman of the room left the Home Base main chamber for lunch, but the only one that remained in the chamber was the head researcher, she continued to sit in her chair and kept her dull green eyes on the screen.

Her face remaining perfectly neutral as the R.O.V.E.R continues to explore. Even when it came across a small children’s tree house, and even came across a trio of foals. Although, when the R.O.V.E.R began examining the foals, the head research actually leaned forward in her chair and her gaze seemed to have intense slightly, her eyes looking over the foals as she takes in every detail they had.

“…whatever these creatures are, they certainly are an unusual species.” The head researcher mutters to herself as she watches the foals run off.

The middle-age woman fiddles with her long brown hair as she watches the R.O.V.E.R leaving the clearing, tracking where the foals have gallivanted off to find them and maybe their herd. But after some time the machine came across a road, and as it was just about to travel down the path, the R.O.V.E.R was attacked by one of the equines. The fight wasn’t as spectacular as what one would see in a sci-fi action movie, but the head researcher was still amused at seeing a blue pegasus try to attack the mechanical beast, but ended up being pinned to the ground. after the little tussle, the woman found the trio of foals with another adult, this one was wearing a cowboy hat, and was about ready to attack the R.O.V.E.R. but it seemed that the foals managed to stop the adult.

“Shame I still can’t understand them…if they even have an actual language.” The woman says as she watches the pegasus be taken away, while the R.O.V.E.R was being lead back to the club house.

For the next hour, the woman just watched the foals play with each other, and trying to get the R.O.V.E.R to play with them. but their efforts were in vain. The silence of the chamber, and the head researchers viewing was disturbed when the doors to the room opened. But instead of the other researchers returning from their long lunch period, a tall slender woman wearing a sharp suit came strutting in, a clipboard in her arm as she made her way to the large table.

“Miss. Augustine.” The woman said to the head researcher with a very leveled tone of voice.

“Yes Miss. Burner. What is it?” the brown-haired woman says to the taller woman, who re-adjusted he glasses as she spoke.

“The prime minister is waiting for an update on the World Exploration committees latest escapade.” Augustine sighed as she rose from her chair as the R.O.V.E.R unit caught the sight of several new equines, one in particular being far more intriguing than anything she’s seen so far.

“Let’s get this over then.” The head researcher said as she turns to leave the room, with Miss. Burner following her after taking a quick glance at the main screen, and seeing a large white unicorn with a mane like a living aurora borealis.

“Otherwise that man won’t stop pestering me until I report to him.” With that the two woman left the room, and what it is that the R.O.V.E.R unit is documenting, as the doors to the chamber closes behind them.