Starbound: A Space Odyssey 158 Erchius Ghost 1

It was a desolated moon with anything in sight but the blue rocky terrain in front of him.

The surface was barely brightened from the giant sun in the distance, but it was more than enough for him to see without any other light source.

He was currently still wearing his Terrene Protectorate uniform, as his Scouter's Set was basically useless after his fight against the Ixodoom.

Strapped at his back was the a gray cylinder object, the Environment Protection Pack, or EPP, that protected John from the s.p.a.cial hazards and provided oxygen for him to live on.

John then looked at his PIPS and saw the raw a.n.a.lysis of the moon and its composition.

There wasn't that much useful information beside the fact that there was no atmosphere and the gravity on the moon was off about 0,90m/s^2, about 1/10 of Earth's gravity which is 9,807m/s^2.

Seeing that it was clear, John looked at the ground beside him.

John couldn't help but smile at the sight of Lenny sprawled at the ground like a corpse.

"Hey." John lightly kicked Lenny's rib, "Stand up, we have to keep moving. 2 hours until this moon will be covered in darkness."

"Urgh..." Lenny groaned in pain as he struggled to stand up, "f.u.c.king teleporters..." He complained as soon as he was on his feet.

John rolled his eyes and took the lead to explore the moon they were at.

Different from the cautious John, Lenny was casually walking around with his hands behind his head.

Lenny was treating everything like it was a walk in the park.

"Lenny!" John was annoyed at how dismissively Lenny was acting and berated him, "Be more careful and attentive, Lenny. We don't know what kind of danger might have around here."

"We're in moon, John." Lenny said without paying much attention, "What kind of dangers could be in a place without oxygen and low gravity?"

"Well, you know, maybe, METEORS!? MOONTANTS!? ERCHIUS HORROR!?"

"Ah, you didn't have to shout by my ear."

"Lenny...you don't have ears..."

"Meaningless details...'

"Lenny...you...ahhhh...forget about it, just do as you please..." John simply gave up talking with Lenny.

"John, Lenny, focus." John heard a voice entering his ears. It was Peri's voice.

"Oh?" John was surprised for a moment before saying, "I thought Forge would be guiding us from the sky, who come it's you?"

"What? You prefer her?" All heard was Peri's frosty voice coming from his PIPS.

"No! No! No! No! Don't misunderstand!" John immediately shook his head and denied, "I thought you were taking care of Saito, that's all!"

"Humph!" Peri let out an audible snort, "We switched places, she's too just too mentally tired to focus on guiding from up here. She rather take care of Saito."

"Okay!" John's cleaned up some sweat beads that formed over his forehead in relief.

"Hehehehe..." Lenny just watched and listened the situation from side while grinning like a perverted old man.

Looking over his shoulder, John saw that expression in Lenny's face and became even more annoyed and embarra.s.sed.

He swiftly accelerated his pace and created some distance between him and Lenny.

...

John and Lenny had been walking on the moon's surface for about 20 minutes.

On their mindless walk, John saw some purple crystals on the surface and didn't hesitate to take the Matter Manipulator on his hip and mine them.
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The purple crystals were none other than Crystal Erchius Fuel.

But the quant.i.ty they found were way too low to afford a Warp Jump at the nearest Ancient Gateway, friendly hub or outpost.

So, they kept exploring while listening to Peri's observation from the s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p above them.

"Huh?" John heard Peri's exclaiming, "What's that?"

"Peri, what are you seeing?" John asked after sending a glance towards Lenny.

Lenny also heard Peri and immediately dropped his relaxed stance and took the sniper rifle strapped on his back.

"I'm not sure." Peri said with some hesitation, "The electronic devices are malfunctioning when I try to focus on that region."

"That's strange..." John muttered as his grip over the Spitfire tightened.

"SAIL, what's that?" John heard Peri asking.

"Impossible to complete a.n.a.lysis." Immediately after Peri's question, SAIL answered her, "There's some kind of barrier around the specified region protecting from scanners and any other electronic device."

"Peri, send me the coordinates, I'm going to take a look."

"Are you sure?" Peri was slightly concerned, "It might be dangerous."

"Don't worry, at the sign of danger I'll immediately retreat." John said confidently.

"Worry miss Peri, I won't allow any danger-"

"I wasn't talking with you, Nov Lenny." Peri didn't even let Lenny start teasing her and John as she cut him off right at the beginning.

In response to Peri's actions, Lenny just quietly chuckled.

Of course Peri heard Lenny's chuckle through the PIPS, but she decided to ignore...for now.

John exchanged glances with Lenny, "Let's check it out."

"Oki doki, captain." Lenny gave a lazy and simple salute before following behind John with his weapon at hands.

...

"That's it?" John looked at the ma.s.sive building in the distance.

But even from such distance, John could see the some destroyed parts on the facility, and some destroyed and abandoned s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps in around the white and advanced-looking facility.

In fact, given the amount of s.p.a.ces.h.i.+ps crashed near the facility, it really looked like a s.p.a.ces.h.i.+p graveyard.

"It looks like the Mining Facility 12..." Lenny commented with a grim tone.

"Indeed..." John frowned at the sight of the clearly abandoned Erchius Mining Facility on front of him, "But there's something more... unsettling about this facility, haven't you noticed?"

"No." Lenny shook his head, "But I can feel something."

"Take a look at how it was built." John pointed at the ma.s.sive white facilities and building surrounded by fences towering fences and watchtowers, "Why would have fences and watchtowers in a Mining Facility in the middle of a moon without any living being other than the miners?"

"You mean...Moontants...?"

"The most reasonable explanation." John said as he tried to look at the facility using the scope at his Spitfire.

But, all he saw through the scope was a blur at the place where the facility should be.

The scope attached to his a.s.sault rifle was an electronic device that magnify images to give proper aim to the shooter, but the situation, the scope was only nuicense, so John took it out.

"The other explanation I can think off is..." John's face twisted and darkened, "It's fenced to keep those inside from getting to the outside..."