LV 5775...
Dr. Genevra Hofspatzer looked at the stones, "well, it's similar to pre-roman celtic inscriptions and I see elements of pre-roman germanic...but this is fairly straight forward." she frowned, "The table is a sacrificial altar."
"What did they sacrifice?"
"Probably animals, we can hope it was just animals." she climbed up onto the stone and examined it, "Of course, hope is overrated, sweet jesus."
"The proportions are right for tying a human being down and bleeding them out, and the table is sized in a way that it would support restraining a human during the ritual...I can think of that as a possible motive for a massacre." the Professor was thoroughly dispassionate as she examined the setup. "The other rituals described by Katya's testimony-the offerings of food to 'the good folk' and the fear of discovery, even the boy telling them that visitors are unwelcome and they should leave?"
"there was supposedly a facility on-planet the Trinary were looking for."
"Well...if i were betting, I would suggest it's..." the academic got to her feet, and pointed, "Thataway. based on the orientation of the stone circles. Now, I can't imagine what the SLDF navy would be researching on a planet settled by religious lunatics, but who knows?"
***
It took some work with shuttles, running sensor scans, and the clue only turned into a clue-and an arrow pointing in a direction, after someone decided to look for sensor distortion-dead spaces.
the Dead Space was nearly five kilometers wide, and centered high up on one of the large, rolling hills.
It hadn't been apparent, because it wasn't expected.
Once it was, it was easy to tune around the jamming-which was SLDF standard jamming as provided by an older model Guardian suite.
They took a shuttle instead of trying to walk it, and found their way to a point that was too flat, because it was shaved off the top of the mountain, fused solid, and capped with ferrocrete.
a set of stairs led down from the exposed landing pad, to a sealed and locked set of blast doors, and those doors were marked.
Authorized Personnel Only
THIS IS A STAR LEAGUE MILITARY FACILITY
NO ENTRY.
VIOLATORS WILL BE MET WITH LETHAL FORCE.
"Nice!" Maurise had been thoroughly creeped out as they surveyed the town-sites and looked for bodies and evidence, the poor man had also been sweeping with his EMF device and finding various shades of absolutely nothing.
"Nice?"
"This scanner, it's set up for biometric readings, no keypad, no card slot. they really meant it back in those days, if you weren't authorized personnel, the door simply wasn't going to open no matter whose identification you swiped or how good you are at lockpicking."
"Can you open it?"
"Star Captain, this is a gene-coded biometric lock, probably with a spoken code-phrase unique to each authorized person, it's a locking system more complex than you see on a modern neurohelmet and the only reason you don't see 'em on Brian Cache sites, is that there are no guarantees that the right person with the right codes can be found."
"So...?"
"Yes, but I want you and the rest of the Warriors and techs here to understand just what kind of super-entry hacking awesome ristar I really am. Give me a few minutes before you break out the crow-bars and cutting charges."
"If you are such a ristar, why would we need them?"
"Because...I might not be." he admitted, "the difficult done immediately, but the impossible might take a few hours. Especially since the power is on here."
Tamar City Manuever Range, Tamar, Wolf Clan OZ...
The Grand Melee this year would be the last time Yuri could try for a bloodname-he was already technically too old, but he'd managed to pass the physical testing and he wasn't the oldest competitor-Zerah was older by a full three months.
He pulled his boots on, and looked up into a mirror. I can do this.
the assertion felt...hollow.
the air chilled in the ready room, and he saw a puff of breath.
He looked around, the others didn't seem to notice it. show offs. there was a rumble just below his hearing, and a young warrior walked past, clapping him on the shoulder, "Good luck, Star Commander."
"Yeah...you too."
he checked his kit in the door-mirror, and noticed someone standing behind him, a woman's alabaster hand... he turned, but there was nobody there.
Nervous. settle, settle, it is just nerves...
He turned, and she was standing in front of him in the mirror. Lank, dark hair, white skin, rags like robes, crossed with patterns of red...
in his mirror, in front of him, looking at him.
The memory of LV 5775 flooded into the front of his mind, and he heard the sound of baying hounds, as she reached up, and scratched something into the mirror...
Kin lladdwr, roedd hi'n feichiog pan wnaethoch ei llosgi.
and the mirror changed background, as he watched himself, his younger self, in scenes-the local girl he'd coupled with the night before the false test triggered the massacre.
her dying under his flamer-up close...
The girl in the mirror reached out, and he felt icy cold wrap his heart, and then, Darkness.
the medical examination showed a pattern of frost damage on Yuri's heart, in the shape of a young woman's hand.
the blood he coughed up, formed a pattern on the mirror that almost concealed the words scratched on the wrong side of it.
mae calon oer yn dod â marwolaeth oer.
Yuri never got to compete.