Project Haven: The snow

by Jakomi of the Rose

Chapter 4: Survey

Luminous looked around her section on the top of the floor. All around her was offices. Hundreds of desks that were undisturbed and collected dust. Being all alone was immoral, unjust and, according to her right now, really scary. The fact that it had desks meant cover and hiding for whatever could still be around. One desk made her halt. On it was a dusted picture-frame. She grabbed it with telekinesis and blew off the dust. Once visible, she opened her mouth in surprise; on the picture were three dragons. Two tall and one smaller.

One of them had a line of horns with the bigger on the nose and two smaller just above its eyes. It was muscular and gave a toothed smile with one hand in its pocket while the other rested on a smaller drake between. Said drake had two wings attached to its arms, similar to the drakes that inhabited the north. It gave a similar toothy smile like the taller on its left and gave the camera a wink. The last dragon was similar to the smaller but had a much gentle smile. And from what she could see; it had two mounds on its chest, indicating its gender as female. And judging by the way it had its hands on the smaller it had a motherly feeling to it.

Something that Luminous found odd was that the dragons on the picture, unlike their familiars in Equestria, were fully clothed. As if they had become civilized. The way they looked gave of vast intelligence. The way their body looked, the language it portrayed struck a chord in her heart. They were a family. It wasn’t like the ones she met or heard about. They weren’t brutes. They didn’t care for who was stronger and left their young. These cared and loved each other.

She gave a sad sigh as thoughts of her own family crept into her mind. A sudden buzz brought her back to reality. She raised her hoof to her helmet.

“Y-yeah, yeah?” She stammered, her brain not recovered from the image on the desk.

“We need you down here, Lieutenant. We found something. Lowest floor. We’re all down here.” Icy responded through the static.

She gave of a sigh and shook her head lightly to rid the emotion of freight Icy gave her.

“Yeah, I’ll be down in a few.” She turned off her com and turned around, giving the picture a final look.

---

The gallop down was tiring and she panted lightly. Who in their right mind designed their base to have so many levels? As she reached the final floor she felt sweat matt her coat under the winter-clothing. Like Icy told her she found her team and Mane’s in front of a huge metal gate. They just stood there, staring at it. She noted that a few of the earth-ponies carried metal-boxes on both sides not unlike saddlebags. Icy glanced her way and nodded. They stood there for a little longer until Inferno found it appropriate to kill the silence.

“Soooo, what do you think is on the other side?” He asked, his head tilting on the side to get a slightly better angle of the door.

The gate was barred shut with metal rods and thick locks only accessible if a source of power is active. As it looked right now, it was impossible. Icy looked around. There were several trolleys and equipment like a drill and what looked like a lift. Was it possibly a mining facility? What did they mine?

“Don’t now. And If I had to guess by the message I picked up and the lack of inhabitants I say that the less we know the better.” He turned to his team and a visibly nervous Mane. “We have a few clues on what existed in this place. Head to the surface and return to camp. Luminous.” She snapped to him. “I have something I need translated and you’re our best choice.”

She raised her eyebrows and scowled.

“You want me to translate something that never been recorded in our language?” She asked in heavy skepticism.

Icy simply looked at her and nodded. She hissed and through her helmet rolled her eyes. With a final look at the gate they ended many hours of work. Seeing the outside once more.

---

While the weather had calmed, the tracks now hidden awarded them with difficulty returning. At this point, Mane was glad that they didn’t have the typical Canterlot-armor. Having a spell that made all soldiers either white or grey would’ve been a nightmare in this situation. He could only follow the unicorns and hope that he could follow their light. Though every day he wished that he was transferred to his sister’s group. From what he heard; the planet they went to was warmer. Being stuck on a planet for two months, the snow quickly became tiring. At least in Equestria it was a minimum.

The second they entered the camp they basked in the warmth of inside. Icy turned to the group.

“Get those crates and weapons to R&D to find out their contents and function. Luminous, get started on those electronics. Find out what the message was. The rest can take a few hours off. Are we clear?” He ordered, not faced with the cold at all.

They all gave a collected: “Yes, Sir!” and dispersed to their objective. As soon as they were gone he went to the other side of the room. An opening showed a couple of unicorns working on their research. But most noticeable was an arcana circle in the middle. He walked to one of the unicorns.

“I wish to relay our survey to the princess. Can you start this thing up?” He demanded, voice cold and serious.

The unicorn gave a firm nod and lit his horn.

---

Luminous looked at the objects in front of her. Both the same but different color in gloves. She recognized the material but not the gear. She gave an irritated sigh, wishing that she listened to her mother that she should have been a librarian. She shook her head lightly and lit her horn. The glove on her left lit up and materialized into transparent armor. A rectangular screen lit up and played a broken message.

“...t has *kzzzt*…ficed! Ev-v-v*krrzt* the *brrst* now!”

She closed her eyes and focused. The words came more and more fluently to her and she smiled when she lit her horn. She couldn’t fix the glove. But she could tell what the message told her. Levitating a pencil and a paper she wrote it down. The smile died on her face once she wrote:

It has surfaced! Evacuate the control room now!

She hummed. What had surfaced? And was it the reason they evacuated? She continued with the next glove and lit her horn. It folded out and the line danced like a worm free in dirt.

“*kzzt*--ep it-t-t a-a-a*bzzzrr* M-m-us---le---*kzz*”

She once again focused her hearing. Less static went through her ears and became clearer the longer she listened. She wrote down the message from what she could interpret.

Must keep it at bay! Must not let it out!

She put the pen down and pursed her lips. Again, it was a message to keep whatever away. The next message gave her little insight.

“*bzzt* ---th---ead-d-d*tzzz*-osed!”

She concentrated through the static and wrote down the message. It gave very little:

Go before we are both dead! We must keep it opposed!

The voice sounded masculine in a way the former glove didn’t. It was the voice of a high rank soldier, used to battle and struggle but whatever they encountered put him through his limits. She put the pen down and rubbed her eyes when they started to sting. Having already been assaulted by bright color wore her down. As she opened them they blurred on something on the still active glove. It seemed to be blinking red spot. Gently touching it with her hoof, the dancing line returned but the male voice sounded calmer, bored even.

“*bzzt* Work damn you… I swear, Carbon needs to get these fixed. Journal 067, year 7 since I was transferred to this planet. The mineral we managed to excavate proved to be what we were looking for. The mining-teams have been down there for Kristal knows how long and they came up with far more than we anticipated. The planet was so rich with platinum we might have enough to repair our equipment and still have enough to trade with those creepy Giga Gaga-whatever-they’re-called. I can’t be the only one who think that they look creepy, being cybernetic and all. Anyway, we will send some home with the next transport. Hopefully, Amethyst won’t have my head; those mana-swords scare the crap out of me.

“Still, we have a lot more to dig out but what Beta told me they’re getting scared. Apparently, they’ve been hearing noises in the tunnels. And it’s been getting louder the deeper they’ve gone. Maybe we need to get less dracos who are afraid of the dark. Poor Mira was never the same after Steel jumped out in an attempt to scare her. Joke’s on him; she had a hell of a kick.

“I should wrap this up. I need to get this report to Jade when his team arrive here. At least he’s more reasonable than Amethyst. This is Captain Axinite of the Mining team Alpha, signing off.”

The message then cut off in a burp of static. Luminous sat there in stunned silence, her jaw hanging slightly from what she had heard. Not the situation itself. But the fact that these dragons were capable of speaking in such complex manner. Were they smarter than they looked? Next message looked early. And from what she could determine it was by the same creature. She couldn’t read the text but considering that it was on the top of the list it gave little doubt.

“My first journal on this mission. I was transferred to this facility by Amethyst as a joke. How do I know? He knows I hate the cold and this planet is a Kristal-damned ice-cube! If it wasn’t for Zircon’s talent for making good coffee I would’ve asked for another transfer. This planet was chosen for being rich on mineral but I have yet to receive any news on it. I mean, they have been digging for how long? Anyway, Steel has given me results and so far we’ve been getting a lot of mana-stones and gems the size of peas. Nothing that fills us up. *Sigh* I really miss Equestria. The gems there were tasty and bigger. But so far we can travel from planet to planet in order to get lucky. I’m 3234 years old, I should be doing better things than guarding a huge facility that mines various metals. But as long as we get results I’m a happy draco. Maybe if I stop being scolded by my superiors for being a whiner… you know what? Never mind. I’m a sniper, not a guard. Fitting how my first journal is bitching and moaning. Anyway, I do a proper journal once my body stops shivering from the cold. I’m a dragon, I’m not meant for cold. This is Captain Axinite, signing off.”

She stared at the glove in silence as she heard. This “Axinite” was the grump of the group but the first message spoke of something that was heard in the mines. Was it related to what they were trying to hold back? And what did he mean by 'missing Equestria'? She kept on with journal, hoping to get more clarity.

Author's Note:

Rather short, I have to admit. But we get more intel on what they were. There will be more info on this species in the next chapter. But what connection do they to Equestria? I will try to get these chapters out but I would rather have an editor to help me out.