Planet Master

The space around the Cerulean Planet was under complete control of the Hinon’s Federation. But the area beyond that was only half done.

Even the Futuro, Bultar and Ghowul planets were not fully explored yet the Aerospace Division of the Federation controlled the space around those planets.

And at a certain time, the spaceship which was on the route to return to the Cerulean Planet, detected something through the sensors on its spaceship.

“What is that?” The captain, a Dwarf, stood from his seat as the sensors detected a large activation of energy from the detected entity.

At a distance, there was a broken sphere that let out a faint energy. The spaceship was detecting the energy which was slowly getting stronger, through the sensors installed in the spaceship.

“Captain, what should we do?” the adjutant asked with a grave tone.

The dwarf captain turned his head to look at the adjutant which was actually an Elf.

“We should see it firsthand. I am afraid that it could be what is known as a Scientific Inheritance. If so, we should not miss it. If not, then at least we checked.” The dwarf captain said with a serious and firm tone.

“Set to the location of the detected energy source!” the captain ordered.

“Yes, sir!” all the crews replied and the bridge and the rest of the spaceship became busy with the operation to direct the spaceship to the location.

The thruster then was activated as the spaceship got closer to the location.

The sphere was letting out an electric current which jumped from one part to another.

On the bridge, the dwarf captain finally saw the thing up close along with the adjutant.

“Report this to the higher-ups. We…cannot possibly cover this up even if we want to.” The dwarf captain initially wanted to store it for himself first but seeing the reaction from the sphere which was as large as a small moon, he realized that he could not hoard this.

Furthermore, the sensors from the other spaceship had probably detected the energy surge from the sphere.

But as the first to arrive, the dwarf captain knew that he had to check on the sphere first and foremost.

“Send in the drone to check this thing.” He ordered.

Soon, some drones were sent from the spaceship. The drone was equipped with the latest camera and wireless connection which would work even in distant space.

Through the drones, the captain and the crew could finally see what the sphere was all about. There were lightning jumping from one part to another and the drones had to be careful not to get electrocuted.

“From the looks of it, this thing should serve some purpose.” One of the professional crews commented when he saw the structure of the inner part of the sphere.

“But due to the damage it has sustained, its function is halted and all operations to restart it have failed.”

Hearing that, the dwarf captain frowned. All this time, this sphere thing had come to their star system at quite a constant speed and now they told him that it was damaged.

“We have already contacted the other spaceship about this sphere. They will arrive shortly.” The adjutant said after the information was relayed properly.

“At the very least, we will get some contribution for discovering and reporting on it. As for the rest, well let’s just hope that the scientists of the Federation can figure out what this thing truly is.” The dwarf captain said before he returned to his seat and sat again.

-

The Hinon Federation had received the news and prepared a spaceship specifically prepared to inspect and explore the sphere they found in the inner part of the asteroid belt, near the Bultar planet.

“Prepare for deployment.” One adventurer which commanded the entire operation now was on the dropship, ready to land on the sphere’s inner part.

“Commander, there has been some sort of communication interference inside. We will be the first to know but the spaceships around will take some time to receive our data. Do you confirm our landing site?"

"Yes. At point Charlie, near the damaged part of the sphere.” The commander adventurer said through his communicator.

“Go!” he shouted through the communicator.

The dropships then opened their hatch and the adventurer slowly descended to the inner part of the sphere where they could see numerous lightning jumping from one part to another at high speed and intensity.

The adventurers were wearing a protective suit since they were just a low realm transcendent which could not ignore the effect of the outer space.

A tremor could be felt when the adventurer landed right on the steel surface of the sphere.

“Alright, boys, let’s find out what kind of thing this sphere is.” The adventurer commander said spiritedly.

“Awooo!”

“For the civilization!”

The communication channel was filled with shouts and declarations. Whatever the case, their mission had just begun.

From the perspective of the adventurer commander, he could see two others landing not far from him so he decided to team up with them.

The commander patted the one who was looking at the innermost part of the sphere to announce his presence.

“Ah, it’s you commander.” The one before the commander was actually a Birdman. His wings were furled and he could not fly well in this outer space.

“What are you looking at?” The commander knew that the eyesight of the Birdman was amazing so he already assumed that the Birdman had seen something deep inside the sphere.

“Sharp commander. I was looking at the damaged defensive weaponry over there.” The birdmen pointed toward a certain part of the sphere where there was barely a trace of defensive weapons platform.

“There, huh.” The commander saw a small part of the weaponry platforms but could not see more.

“Let’s regroup. There is one more person in this area.” The commander said to the Birdman and they then headed to one more person.

Then they regrouped. The commander was a human while his immediate teammate was a Birdman and a Dwarf.

“There’s a weapon platform, you say? Count me in. Let’s go there as soon as possible.” The dwarf said.

The three prepared so many things before they even landed there. They wielded their assault rifles in case this sphere posed some risks to the people who landed.

Although most of their weapons were kinetic rifles, they were trained for outer space exploration. After being trained in the asteroid belt, they also needed to be able to reach a proficient marksmanship to be part of the adventurer team.

Along the ruins on the inner part of the sphere, they could see many debris landed on the inner part of the sphere.

“Looks like some rocks and comets hit this sphere and caused some damage to the surface and opened its inner part.” The Dwarf commented after seeing the damage and hypothesized.

“We are getting closer to the weapon platform site, right?” The commander had to make sure that their direction was correct.

“Yes, commander. This is the route that should be able to get us reach there.” The Birdman replied. He had seen the weapon platform and had planned the route to get there.

He used the shortest route to get there and the commander and the Dwarf followed behind him.

After walking and even jumping in the zero-gravity space, they finally arrived at the site.

“This is your commander, I and the two members of the team have arrived in what we assume to be a weapon platform. State your general position, everyone.” The commander used the communicator to relay his order.

“I and the three others have arrived at what we assume to be the dock for the spaceship. There are traces of some parts that we assume to be from a spaceship.”

“We have arrived at what looks like a subunit of the energy flow. The end of this should be the energy core which supplies the energy to the entire sphere.”

Numerous reports were coming in. The commander knew that they had landed on different parts of the sphere but so far, they did not know what to call it other than the sphere.

“Commander, if I may say something.” The Dwarf suddenly interjected.

For the commander, he knew that when this Dwarf spoke, it meant that something important had to be done.

“What is it?” the commander asked for clarification.

“This sphere looked like a big fortress with even spaceship docks and weapon platforms. I suggest we name it Fixed Planet Fortress. Of course, we also need to find a residence for the people to prove it.” The Dwarf said.

“Since we found most of this thing is related to technology, perhaps this Fixed Planet Fortress is truly a Scientific Inheritance.” The commander affirmed by saying this.

“Exactly. But we need to venture deeper.”

-

Venturing deeper, the commander found out what looked like to be a residence unit inside the Fixed Planet Fortress.

“This is a place to let people reside.” The commander could tell from the bed and the ornaments that were remained in the room.

Now, they were inside a corridor which was partially broken due to a small asteroid when it was separated from the main ones and hit the corridor causing the isolated room to be exposed to the outer space.

“But strangely enough, there are no remains of them. I mean, none at all.” The Birdman saw it and found that to be puzzling.

“Be cautious. We don’t know what had happened to this place after all. According to the astronomers, this thing was pulled into the Virya Star System almost two decades ago and cut through the asteroid belt. The damage is as expected but there should be something like records remain.” The commander said while carefully looking around.

They did not even find a record that could help them in understanding what had happened. All the rooms they had visited were empty in the sense that none of the remains and the records of the race were there.

Only decoration and some essential items like beds and a wardrobe were remaining.

The others find similar thing on their end and reported it to the commander.

“Strange. But we need to continue. Head deeper into the facility.” The commander ordered.

When they were exploring the sphere, Dian also gained a view of the sphere through them. The area that was not visited was pitch black but the area that had already been visited was displayed while the area with the people turned into a colorful display.

“This is actually something that drifted to the star system.” Dian commented.

Dian felt that this was actually one of the encounters he had to face along with his Core Race and Acquired Race. This time, he was faced with the Scientific Inheritance in the form of the ruins of some sort of Planetary Fortress.

Whoever created that had a high degree of technological expertise as well as a high level of engineering.

He could only continue to watch over them, hoping that they could unravel the mystery behind it.

The progress of the exploration was increasing as the adventurer team headed to the center of the Planetary Fortress.

But still, they did not find a trace of life inside, only cold remnants of the technology left.

“Be careful, there is an energy surge from the center of the Fixed Planetary Fortress.” The commander said this since the detector was beeping, signaling that the energy activity in the place was increasing.

Then there was an unforgettable scene. The energy flow from the center of the Fixed Planetary Fortress came in the form of lightning that jumped through the cables; some of them were cut off.

“Did you all feel it?” The commander tried to contact the others regarding this. He was afraid that this would affect the entire place.

“Commander, we saw it. The energy that should supply this place is flowing throughout the entire place.”

“There is a small tremor here. But we have arrived at the energy core. If you want us to gather, that is the most suitable place.”

The commander knew that and ordered them all to gather at the designated location.

After a few hours of rushing to the designated location, everyone in the team finally gathered together.

“Looks like everyone is here.” The commander knew the headcount of the people under him and it was exactly like before they were sent to this place.

“This is…” The Dwarf saw the source of energy for this Fixed Planetary Fortress and was mesmerized by its design.

“I can feel an enormous energy inside that is trying to empower the entire facility.” The Birdman said.

“Should we try to connect them at the very least?” one suggested.

“That is for the latter matter. We are only here to explore and gain potential treasure. But looks like there is not even a trace of treasure here.” The commander said.

“What a pity. But at least, we know that the energy core of this place is the most prized treasure. Unfortunately, we cannot bring it since the size is too big.”

“Then we need to return. There is nothing we can gain other than the promised money from the Federation.” The commander sighed inside his suit but was satisfied since there was no threat whatsoever.

-

The civilization was then informed about the Fixed Planetary Fortress near Bultar Planet. Scientific vessels began to visit there to conduct research.

So far, they had discovered the control command center in the facility. Furthermore, the engineers started to repair the broken cables that supplied energy to every part of the Fortress.

Then the Fortress was functioning once again and the scientists and engineers had to learn to control it. It took one hundred days for the repair to be completed, and the Fixed Planetary Fortress was fully functional again.

Some of the weapon platforms still existed and were the very thing that was activated.

Then the artificial gravity before the direction of the Fortress was changed to be going to the Cerulean Planet.

They even used their own Star Chart to map the route of the Fixed Planetary Fortress to orbit the Cerulean Planet. To all the races who lived there, Cerulean Planet was their bastion. They would make sure that the mother planet was well-protected.

Maybe this would be the weapon needed to win the future Star Battle.

The scientists and the engineers then retreated from the Fixed Planetary Fortress and returned to their own duty. The people on the Cerulean Planet would be the ones who would deal with it.

It took over two years to reach the Cerulean Planet according to the navigation in outer space.

That moment marked the appearance of the large celestial object in the sky of the Cerulean Planet.

“According to the news, the Fixed Planetary Fortress will arrive at midnight.”

News related to the object was relayed to the civilization on the Cerulean Planet, causing them to look forward to it.

“The Fixed Planetary Fortress is actually what the expert called Scientific Inheritance. Maybe because it is created by another race, but only its remnants remained.”

At the time when this news was spreading, Dian was opening the Star Chart, which he had to know the direction from which the Fixed Planetary Fortress possibly came from.

One-hundred-light years radius became visible, exposing some star systems near his planet. Although the races on the Cerulean Planet only began their planetary colonization, looking for something nearby was not wrong since it could be useful intel.

“Whoa, I can see the trajectory of the Scientific Inheritance. So it came from beyond the visibility of the Star Chart.” Chikara commented when she saw that the one-hundred-light-years area around the Cerulean Planet was exposed.

“This can be useful in the defensive battle in the Third Rank Star Battle.” Frie said.

“It is about who can gain superiority in the outer space.” Smirth tapped his tail behind him while analyzing the future potential of the Third Rank Star Battle.

“You are right. That is why the space-faring capability of our races needs to be improved. Otherwise, a war of attrition will be the end of us first.” Dian commented while agreeing with Smirth.

“So we need to stockpile so many resources from the colonies as well as the asteroid belt, is that right?” Mazdari tried to clarify.

“In the current situation, there is no way I will let our races participate in the Star Battle. At least not yet.” Dian replied honestly.

“Can we use the Fixed Planetary Fortress as a weapon?” Leif asked.

“Maybe but it will be a costly matter and we don’t have that much resources. We need to gather more.” Dian said with a pained expression.

Since expanding, the civilization truly needed an enormous amount of resources not only to create spaceships but also to expand the current fleet as well as to do some planetary resource-gathering.

But this meant that the civilization needed more time. Dian also realized that the civilization needed to develop some more just like when he had become a Second Rank Planet Master.

“In the end, the beginning is no different. Patience is the key to be able to move forward farther.” Dian sighed as he looked at the Star Children in one of the system panels.

The concentrated destiny power and the fortune of the planet caused them to be able to develop so many things. Even after attending their child’s affair, they were still productive.

Now, even Ame was entering the Afterlife Arena and it was still registered. Dian could only accept the strange fact and move forward. If he thought about it every moment, it would probably drive him insane from overthinking.

Therefore, Dian put the matter at the back of his mind and achieved inner peace. But the entities around him were not as calm as him.