Neri’s extensive methane swamplands are one of the Planet’s most dangerous terrain types for a variety of reasons. The almost perpetually mist-shrouded regions bordering the Planet’s polar ice caps are not only full of life-threatening pitfalls, but also a wide range of organisms that would gladly make a meal out of an unwary interloper, given the opportunity. In spite of this, Explorers often make the perilous journey into the mists, for not only is there precious Trilium to be syphoned from the thick layer of silt beneath the murky waters, there are other exotic bounties to be harvested whose desirability warrant the risk.
One such bounty was the target of a trio of Aazinian harvesters as they paddled their small boat into the thick mists before dawn one autumn morning. The swamplands were home to numerous flying insects, and they were in search of the hive of one in particular: the bog hornet, whose larvae were considered a delicacy. They had been tipped off by a local Trilium miner about the possible location of a large nest after her team was swarmed by them and forced to relocate - and though it meant travelling deeper into the swamps than they had been before, they found such a tempting haul impossible to refuse.
Their boat slipped quietly through the inky waters, the two harvesters bearing paddles using a technique that caused minimal splashing or ripples so as to avoid drawing unwanted attention. The third sat up front holding a geolocator mapped with a circuitous route to their destination. Travel through the swamplands was never straightforward, and long term mapping of navigable waterways was all but impossible owing to the vast number of floatons - floating islands of densely interwoven vegetation - in slow yet constant movement, meaning open paths one month could be completely closed off the next. That was the second most compelling allure for the hunters: the miner had offered them her up-to-date waterway mapping data - for a price of course. They therefore had a limited window of opportunity to find and secure the nest’s precious larvae, a feat which would easily cover the cost of the data, and see their small community well-provisioned for the coming winter months.
Hours passed as they wended their way through the shifting swampland maze, the only indication of sunrise being a brightening of the mist that enshrouded them. At one point they passed an island bearing a building-sized mining rig, the thuds of piston-driven machinery reverberating mutedly. A tired-looking miner sat slumped in a chair at the water’s edge, a fishing rod gripped in one hand and a bottle dangling loosely from the other. The trio’s leader knew him and called out a greeting, the miner raising his bottle in response and wishing them good luck, wherever they might be going. The journey was otherwise uneventful; the waterway data was sound, and they arrived in the area indicated as dusk descended.
Mooring their boat to a makeshift pier jutting out from the island that the mining team had been forced to abandon, they found a suitable place to make camp. Bog hornet hives were actually easier to raid at night, but that was only possible if the exact location of the colony was already known. Thus they had resolved to scout it out the following morning, as whilst camping in the swamps without a solid, predator-proof shelter was perilous, blundering around in the dark was suicidal. After a cold meal and a quick game of straws to decide who got first watch, the loser settled himself with a view of the water whilst the others retreated to their pop-up tent to try to get some rest. Aazinians being a naturally skittish people, it was unlikely any of them would get any real sleep until the dangers of the swampland were behind them.
After a fitful night the trio decamped with the dawn, scrutinising the geolocator’s graphical map and deciding upon a suitable search pattern before returning to their boat and beginning their hunt for the hive. The weather was on their side, the mists having thinned compared to the previous day and allowing for visibility of perhaps twenty feet; a fact which buoyed their spirits. They set off in confidence, and after a scant few hours were rewarded with the sighting of first one, then a steady stream of bog hornets - unmistakable given they were the size of an Aazinian’s hand and bore vivid carmine strips - flying past overhead from a particular direction.
They paddled that way, doing their best to minimise diversions so as not to lose sight of the hornets, and growing ever more tense with excitement as the sight of vespids flying overhead grew in frequency. Eventually the rhythmic hum of the hive reached their sharp ears and they diverted the boat from its direct path to the source. From this point they would be able to track the hive’s location by the sound, and they needed to approach it from a direction other than its main entryway where larger, highly aggressive sentinels would be placed. The best way to raid a bog hornet hive was to use a non-fatal nerve agent to temporarily paralyse the entire swarm, and break open a section of wall to get at the larvae. The harvesters took a wide berth around the source of the humming, and once they judged that they would be approaching from the rear they started paddling towards it again, the Aazinian sitting in the bow keeping an eye out for the shore of the island that the hive would be built on.
The boat jolted suddenly and everyone braced themselves for balance, then came a loud grating sound as the bottom of the hull dragged over something submerged beneath the water’s surface. The craft ground to a halt and the three of them exchanged glances then looked over the sides to see what they’d run aground on. There was nothing but blackness, not even the sight of plant life - or any life for that matter. One of the Aazinians dipped his paddle straight down into the water, and frowned as it came up hard against something a couple of hand-spans below the surface.
The three had a short discussion, and then the one at the bow rose and hitched a leg over the side of the boat, carefully lowering his booted foot into the water. It came into contact with something solid, he nudged at it several times to see if it was stable, and then tentatively shifted his weight onto that foot. Nothing moved or gave way so he slowly levered the other leg over the side of the boat to stand shin-deep in the water. He began to carefully walk the length of the boat to the stern, until at one point just past his fellows he reached out a foot and felt nothing beneath it, and quickly withdrew it to safety.
He looked out at the floaton-scattered swampland then turned around, noticing for the first time that there were no floatons ahead of them; that instead they appeared to stop abruptly in a line that stretched into the mists to both the left and right of the boat. Whatever this obstacle was it was enormous, and the straightness of the line of floatons implied it wasn’t a natural phenomenon. Another brief discussion ensued with the trio deciding to carry on on foot, and once they were all out of the boat they found it was buoyant enough to clear the floor and float freely, so they pulled it along behind them. They moved carefully at first, conscious of hidden pitfalls, but the floor beneath them appeared to be smooth and unbroken so over time - and as the sound of the hive grew louder - they quickened their pace.
The mists thickened until visibility was but a scant few feet, and they slowed as they came to what appeared to be an impenetrable wall of airborne vapour. The oddness of it made them all uneasy, but they had a community counting on them so they hardened their resolve and stepped forward as one - into daylight. The brightness was such that they all had to shade their eyes until they grew accustomed to it, but once able to look around the vista spread before them was both wondrous and unnervingly strange. It was as if a huge cube had been cut out of the swampland mists and there, at what was presumably the centre, stood a quartet of tall rectangular pillars.
All thought of finding the hornet nest fled - until one of the harvesters noticed it nestled between two of the pillars and pointed it out to the others. They were still perhaps a hundred paces distant, so judging by the size of it from afar it was the largest hive they had ever encountered. It was also constructed about halfway up the pillars, the bulk of it spanning the distance between the two like an organic bridge. This would make it challenging to deal with, but they were committed so they had to try. Regardless, the locational data of the site itself could prove lucrative to the right people, along with any other information they might be able to glean.
They made for the base of the pillars with a renewed sense of caution, sliding their feet forwards to minimise splashing and concentrating to avoid any sudden movements that might attract the attention of the hornets flying to and from the hive. It was fortuitous in a way that it was built so high up, as they were unlikely to encounter any low flyers that could set off the others. The suits that they were wearing - with sealable hoods bearing breathing filters that they would equip once they were ready to gas the hive - were capable of withstanding the stings, but the main concern was being swarmed by angry hornets and having them chew a hole with their powerful mandibles.
They arrived at the base of the pillars without incident, and up close they were able to better judge their dimensions at around sixty feet tall and fifteen wide, the pillars placed equidistantly with gaps of perhaps ten feet between them. The hive above was equally impressive - even larger than they had anticipated - and they couldn’t help but wonder at the innate ingenuity of the hornets, capable of suspending a sizable load-bearing structure crafted purely of wood pulp and saliva between two pillars the way they had. They would no doubt end up debating the engineering capacity of vespids over shroomwein with their friends at a later date, but for now they had to find a way of climbing up to the hive - one that wouldn’t get them noticed.
The pillars were made from what looked like single enormous slabs of black granite, their smooth surfaces spider-webbed with what appeared to be cracks at first glance, but upon closer inspection there was a pattern to them indicating that they had been carved. They walked slowly around one, searching for a likely path using the carved grooves as handholds, eventually settling on a way up on the opposing side to the hive that would hopefully allow them to ascend unseen. The leader tested inserting his gloved fingers into one of the cracks, then shook his head. They were going to need to remove their protective gloves to make the ascent, so he took his off and tucked them into his belt, telling the others to stay where they were whilst he made the climb to gas the hive by himself. They reluctantly stowed their own nerve agent canisters in his pack and bid him be careful, to which he responded with a grin then turned and put a hand on the pillar.
He felt a sharp stinging sensation like an electric shock and pulled his hand away with a yelp. The carving where he’d placed his hand was glowing green - a glow which rapidly spread and then dissipated. He shared a look with the others and then with a frown tentatively reached out again, placing his hand flat on the surface of the pillar and gritting his teeth as the strange shock-like sensation engulfed his lower arm. The glow began to spread again, tracing out the pillar’s grooves in celadon-tinted light. A sudden vibration occurred seemingly from deep below, causing the water to dance and the air to shiver, and a loud alien voice spoke in a language that was both unknown to them, yet vaguely familiar. The leader pulled his hand away once more, but the glow continued to spread instead of dissipating, and the vibrating pulse came again, then again like a heart beating its way into life.
The other pillars had started to glow as well, and as the tracings of light reached their zeniths it suddenly brightened to incandescence and exploded outwards, forcing them to shield their eyes against the glare. As the brightness faded the Aazinians looked around in wonder; they now appeared to be standing in a settlement crafted from pure light, complete with buildings, walkways - even trees and plants - all etched from the same celadon green that suffused the pillars. This, they thought in unison, was the find of their lifetime…
Far above one of the geostationary orbital land scan satellites registered an unusual energy signature located in the northern swamplands, transmitting the data to the central processing station orbiting Neri flagged for the immediate attention of one of the on-board analysts. The analyst to whom it was assigned sighed when the notification popped up on her screen, thinking it was likely just another swamp gas-related phenomenon - of which she had investigated several in recent months only to be bitterly disappointed by the mundane results.
She pulled up the data and skimmed over it, a frown creasing her grey-skinned brow as she noted an intense burst, followed by the steady emission of alpha radiation from the site. She felt a sudden thrill of scientific curiosity course through her, so pulling up the satellite’s control panel she readied one of the on-board atmospheric probes, sparingly used the thrusters to aim the launch chute in a better direction for entry, and sent it on its way. The probe was designed to automatically breach the atmosphere and autopilot to a site a thousand feet above the input location before establishing a connection with the processing station, and the analyst waited tensely for the notification. When it came, she immediately flipped on the probe’s birdseye camera, her mouth opening at what she saw: a clear, glowing square surrounded by swampland mist, with a set of four smaller dark squares at its centre. Taking full control of the probe she manoeuvred it downwards, watching with growing excitement as details in the light began to take shape.
This city sculpted of light was unlike anything she had ever seen, and she continued to move the probe towards it whilst staring at the viewscreen in almost child-like wonder. Stopping its descent a dozen feet above the rooftops she engaged the other cameras, giving her a 360 degree view of the area. It was breathtaking to behold, and she found herself immediately wishing that she could be on Neri experiencing it firsthand. Remote viewing and analysis would have to suffice however so she set about gathering data, activating the probe’s scanners and piloting it manually around the site.
Her interest was piqued briefly by the bog hornet hive which she judged to be unusually large for that particular species, but it was the pillars to which it was attached that she found truly captivating. A penetrative scan determined that they were constructed of a triple amalgamation of granite, titanium and oddly waxon - which was incredibly rare on Neri - and her breath caught in her throat as Trilium showed up on the readout in sizable quantities, threaded throughout the pillars with a network of it just below the surface that traced the glowing carvings. She didn’t understand the mechanism, but the Trilium was the source of the intense alpha radiation and the holographic city surrounding the pillars.
Completing her initial analysis she packaged up the data and video recordings, and sent them to the Federation PDN (Planetary Data Nexus) for further review. It would take hours for the relay network to transmit the package, and likely days before she heard anything back from the nexus, so she settled into her chair and continued her explorations with the probe. Perhaps this find would finally garner her enough attention that she could secure a promotion and a place on one of the interstellar research vessels that she had been longing for. That said, she thought of Neri with renewed interest, for there was clearly more to the frontier Planet than deserts, giant mushrooms and little green people. Speaking of which, she frowned as she noted three figures and what looked like a small boat near the base of one of the pillars, and sent the probe down to find out who they were.
The Federation PDN was abuzz with activity; unusual data was coming in from the six frontier Planets referencing “cities of light” and evidence of Trilium-infused technology. Though the layouts of each city differed the overall similarities in the data were beyond coincidental, leading the researchers to assume that they had been created by the same advanced race. While the orbital Planetary data network had proven incredibly beneficial to both Trilium miners and scientists, these findings were on a whole other level.
Rigorous cross-analyses were performed, and symbologists brought in to review the carvings made the shocking determination that they were actually lines of code matching the language used in the creation of the Aioshi holoform. The news of the discovery spread amongst the scientific community like wildfire, excited researchers inevitably leaking information that would have been better kept from public eyes and ears - for at least a while anyway.
The Federation quickly determined that they needed to secure these sites, lest other interested parties got there first and destroyed them in their bid to rapidly extract the vast quantities of Trilium laced throughout each city’s underlying structure. Whilst they could send security and research equipment to each site via faster-than-light cargo craft, manpower would be lacking - and it would take time to secure release of Trilium in the quantities necessary to power all of the necessary machinery. Mulling the problem over they decided to turn to the frontier Syndicates and Explorers for help, relaying a message via official comms that read as follows:
“The Federation officially announces the discovery of sites of great interest on the Planets of Eyeke, Kavian, Magor, Naron, Neri & Veles. Cargo vessels are being dispatched containing the necessary equipment to secure each location, facilitate more in-depth analysis, and gain access to what we have determined to be large Trilium reserves sequestered at the centre of each site of interest.
We request the assistance of the Planetary Syndicates and interested Explorers in this endeavour, to provide manpower and more importantly the Trilium required to operate the equipment. We therefore ask that communities increase the amount of Trilium in each Planet’s storage vault, and once the sites of interest have been properly secured, analysed and their Trilium vaults accessed, we will share a generous portion of those reserves with each Planet’s Syndicate.
There is no time limit on this endeavour, however the faster the Trilium threshold is met the better, as there are already indications of other non-Federation entities taking an interest. Together we can gain a greater understanding of the mythical holoforms!”
The story, all names, characters, and incidents portrayed in this article are fictitious, do not represent actual events, and is simply meant to be enjoyed by those who wish to dive deeper into the lore of Alien Worlds.