Chapter 28: Through the Portal

  The day of departure had finally arrived. Marcus was giddy with anticipation and even the half dozen protective shots everybody had to get did not stop that. Everything went well, the nurse only needed help to get the needles in because apparently Marcus was made out of wood.

  The portal led to an area (on a different planet omg!) that was mostly arid and hot. In preparation they looked at maps and went through reports of local animals and plants. Monsters had also been sighted but only sporadically.

  The target of the expedition were ruins about 150 kilometer from the portal on a half island to the west. They had two cars and a large buss for transportation, enough food and water to last them a month and everybody was getting ready for action. Marcus showed off his “new” replacement armor that had finally arrived. Then Marcus saw Mason and his jaw dropped to the floor. Mason’s equipment was utter TRASH. “Sorry kid, some stuff happened and I’m utterly broke and lost all my equipment too. Have to earn it back the hard way.”

  Marcus understood now a few comments from the past and why the man was even in this group. He must have been willing to work for cheap, very cheap. “How long until we go through the portal?” Marcus asked staring at Mason. “A bit more than two hours, why?” Kou gave the answer but Marcus grabbed Mason by the arm and dragged him away.

  The base also had equipment shops for class holders and this is were Marcus dragged Mason. “I’m sorry about the trash I use but I can not change it. I told you I’m broke as fuck.” Mason looked unhappy and wanted to leave.”Buy what you need, I pay. And don’t give me crap about your dignity or pride. It is my job to keep the group alive and this will do exactly that. You can pay me back later.” Marcus said in a voice that left no room for arguments.

  An hour later they walked out of the shop, with basic equipment for Mason and Marcus a few 100k poorer. “You are far too trusting kid. This will get you killed.” Mason said but he looked a lot happier than his words sounded. Back at the group everybody was surprised and also glad Mason was no longer running around with a bow of hardware store level.

  Their “bus” was more a monster bus. Special reinforced wheels of 2 meter diameter carried a massive body with various survival upgrades and an extra trailer with even more supplies. The cars had massive wheels too but lacked any kind of armor or weaponry, they had been designed for civilian exploration in the end. Marcus was the co-pilot of the first car (he had never learned to drive) together with Kou. The rest of the team was in the second car that would drive at the end of the caravan.

  Inside the portal building all manner of weapons were aimed at the portal at any time. The caravan rolled to the portal, it was over 10 meter in diameter. Soldiers made a last check that only authorized people entered and then they moved through. It was like stepping through a simple door, there was no effect at all, at least no visible. One moment you are on earth and the next, who knows where.

  It was the middle of the night on the other side and they had to adjust their (expedition) clocks to a 27 hour day. On this side of the portal was also a small, manned based with a communication center. Even so it was night it was hot and the air was dry. Marcus could see sparse vegetation in the dark and little critters running through the cone of the bright headlights.

  They slowly moved towards their goal, with 20 to 30 kph at best. With no streets and in the darkness of night there was no way they could go faster. They made good progress and as the red-ish sun came over the horizon they had reached the water. Nobody knew if this was an ocean, a sea or just a very big lake. With no satellites in orbit, humanity knew next to nothing about this world. Scout drones had explored a few thousand square kilometers but that was nothing compared to the size of a planet like Earth. And this planet was very similar to earth, as were all the planets portals connected. Always a breathable atmosphere (in theory at least), size and gravity close to Earth and nobody knew why.

  This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  They had missed the entrance to the peninsula and so they drove along the shore at sunrise. The water was a mixture of blue, purple and red sun light. It was beautiful and alien at the same time. “Marcus don’t forget to put your sun blocker on. This sun is stronger than our home star.” Kou reminded him but Marcus was certain his vitality would protect him from sun burn, he still did it anyway. They entered the peninsula and heavy terrain made their progress slower, large rocks and hills and a lot more vegetation and wildlife existed here. Eventually they came over a hill and a large basin stretched out in front of them. Marcus could see lush vegetation and in between the signs of artificial structures.

  Not far from the structures they made camp. Kou had to stop the scientists from going to the ruins right on the spot. “First the camp then you can go play with the ruins.” He said half joking. At noon they finally arrived at the ruins and the scientist started their work. “This is not at all what I expected” Marcus said looking at the buildings.

  “When I heard ruins I thought old temples and pyramids and not…”, “Modern buildings?” Carmen the leader of the scientists laughed and stepped next to him. “Yes, people think old equals low tech but we think the civilization here was actually further developed than us humans. The ruins are at least 100000 years old.” Marcus jaw fell. 100000 years? And there was still so much left? The ruins had withered away but you could still see basic forms. How advanced were they and what happened to them?

  “This was most likely a city, we hope to find clues about their culture and language here. All boring things to certain people. If there is no alien device or some “magic” weapon, nobody is interested. We nearly did not get the funding for this.” She sounded bitter but let her gloved hand move over the outline of the ruin. “This might be less exciting than fancy tech but we might be able to learn a lot about the universe and about our selves. Ideally.” She laughed and Marcus could see why she had become a scientist in the first place.

  While the scientist put down claims, started digging and cataloging, the security team set up a perimeter including cameras and motion detectors. While Marcus adjusted a camera, the ground started the move. An earthquake! It only lasted a few seconds and was not that strong. Quickly they returned to the scientists and checked if everybody was okay. “I though the area was stable.” Achara said. Marcus had read that there was a volcano nearby.

  “It is, relatively at least. There have been measurements of the magma layers in the area and serious eruptions only happen every ten years or so.” Malcolm answered, he was the geology expert. “And what is a not “serious” eruption?” Kou asked squinting his eyes. “Maybe earthquakes in the area of 5-6 on the scale and mild lava flow.” Malcolm answered without realizing the sarcasm in Kou’s question. “Great.” Mason spit on the ground. “I must have missed that detail in the briefing.”

  “But, but, the peninsula is fairly safe, or the ruins would not be here anymore.” Malcolm quickly added. Everybody returned to their work and for an hour or so the world was fine. A scream of a woman echoed over the ruins. Marcus started running towards the source and the rest of the team was right next to him. A female scientist passed by them screaming and something big moved through the underbrush. It had the size of a car and a green exoskeleton, a large forked horn and six legs. Several dark insect eyes stared at the team, arm sized mandibles clicked at rapid speed.

  Marcus was about to say something but Kou already gave orders “Marcus bind it, the rest look for weak points. Try with the eyes.” Kou had a handgun and opened fire together with Achara but the beetle moved too much and all attacks failed to hit the eyes. Marcus moved close to the beast and tried to get its attention. A monster leg shot forward and swiped his upper body, Anchor stopped him from getting blown away but the impact was massive. Marcus lost his breath and stood still for a second and the sharp mandibles quickly tried to tear off an arm. An explosion on the head of the beetle made it screech and step back. The explosive arrow did not do much damage but bought everybody a few seconds.

  The team circled the monster and delivered minor damage while Marcus tried to stay its closest target and be up in its “face”. The beetle started to shiver, as if angered by the puny attacks of it’s enemies, and the horn began to vibrate at extremely high speeds. It made a high pitched sound that moved up and up until it was outside of human hearing range. The horn looked displaced, it vibrated so fast that it created fake afterimages. “MOVE!” Kou shouted and Marcus dropped Anchor and got into gear. He jumped to the right and could feel that Kou gave him “a hand”. It still felt weird but he covered more than three meter in one large step. He felt an air disturbance at his neck, a large rock behind him cracked and shattered. The beetle’s horn had stopped vibrating but in the same moment the monster started to shiver again, getting ready for another blast.

  “We need to stop its movement or turn it on its back.” Kou’s voice on the com. “Marcus let’s try to hold it down together.” Marcus jumped forward and grabbed one the legs. Even so he held on to it, it still moved, throwing him around like a doll. He tried to reduce the movement and put Anchor to the max. and the beetle clicked angrily. It slowly dragged Marcus around until Kou also put pressure on it. Now it was at a snails pace and Mason moved at super human speed in front of the monster putting penetrating arrows into each eye. Marcus could feel the strength of the beetle fading and after a few seconds it dropped dead.

  The scientist clapped and cheered but Kou told the team to secure the perimeter first. “Marcus how are you holding up, you did take a massive swing there.” Kou had joined Marcus as they checked the area. “Not too bad. Should be back to full in an hour or so.” Kou was not convinced. “Still you should let Mrs. Russell treat you once we are back. Marcus nodded and asked something that was on his mind. “Kou, what are the chances that the earthquake had nothing to do with the appearance of that monster?”, Kou gave him a look that confirmed his own fears.