Progress on the FOB on Vostea was slow but thorough. Without telling the rest of the squad, Gatrie and Sam had managed to focus them on building the main structure first, delay setting up the RRS, and ignore scout missions, all without raising any suspicion. At least for the first full day it worked because they finished the base by the evening with enough time to set up the RRS. Gatrie and Sam begrudgingly helped get it ready but made an excuse to wait until the morning to fire it up. That morning, Gatrie woke up early, got some coffee, and reviewed the information they knew about Myrrh in the command center. He just sat down and pulled up the notes when the door slid open behind him. "Still haven't figured out what you're going to say to Shepherd and the rest, have you?" Sam sighed as she walked in, also with a coffee in her hand.
"Let me guess, you couldn't sleep either, could you?" Gatrie smiled wryly, "No, I haven't figured out yet. After all, what do we really know?"
Sam put her finger on her chin, "The entity we encountered calls itself Myrrh. It communicates through telepathy over an unknown length but has only talked to me. Jask's scans indicate all life on the planet is plant-life, and everything is probably in the same taxonomy family."
"Also, we're pretty sure it's super powerful because it changed the landscape in moments," Gatrie groaned, "And while we're pretty sure it's one of the plants, we don't know where it is. I'm sure that'll go over well."
"But we have the FOB built and even attached the RRS and crafting station with plans to add on the research center. That must count for something, right?" Sam tried to remain positive, but Gatrie shrugged and returned his attention to the information on the screen. Vostea had several good qualities: breathable air, temperate weather, pristine water. Gatrie thought he would probably try to concentrate on the good qualities and accomplishments thus far, rather than Myrrh. Still, he couldn't get motivated enough to make the call, so he decided to have another cup of coffee and breakfast. Finally, around eight o'clock, he had exhausted all his stalling options and trudged to the RRS. From an outsider's perspective, it appeared that Gatrie was so lethargic that he had become a sloth, yet it was because he was worried about the call. While he had no problem talking around his friends or peers, he tended to spurt off at high-ranking people. Since he had been disciplined for this behavior a few times, he would hold his tongue around those types of people which wasn't a good trait in a frontier squad leader. With this thought firmly in his mind as he turned on the RRS, his knees were slightly trembling as he stood on the platform. A few minutes later, Nephenee, Shepherd, and Tethys all stood before him in hologram form.
Shepherd grinned, "Gatrie! Good to hear from you. My advisors were starting to get a little nervous, but I knew they were being negative. How are things on Vostea?"
"In many ways, things are very good here," Gatrie smiled nervously, "We've completed the FOB and are starting on the research center. The conditions are very habitable, and we've only encountered plant life here. However, we have come across one possible issue; please look at the report headed your way now." A few dings from the participants' speakers indicated they had all received the information which made Gatrie act a bit more skittish.
"I'll be the first to admit that I really don't know what I'm looking at here. Can you go into a little more detail?" Tethys asked after finishing reading the report first.
"Well, I'll tell you what we know. The entity we encountered calls itself Myrrh and is most likely a native plant with advanced intelligence. Myrrh has used telepathy only to talk to Samantha, but Jask's scans show that the plant life on Vostea is exponentially more complex than the plants from the Sol System," Gatrie explained sheepishly, "The most frightening feature that could trace back to Myrrh is the ability to terraform on large scales almost instantly. Right now, the FOB is in the middle of an undeveloped area ten miles in diameter, yet when we first arrived on the planet, there was no undeveloped land."
Shepherd scratched his chin, "Have you or other people tried speaking to this Myrrh character? Also, do you think the terraforming is a magik ability or a physical power?"
"No one else has tried; in truth, we haven't left the ship or FOB since we hooked up water," Gatrie admitted, "We haven't had enough dealings with Myrrh to determine if the terraforming or the telepathy is physiological or magik. As you can see from Jask's analysis, all life forms on this planet are of the same family, meaning they could all be connected somehow."
"Gatrie, if you have the drill operational, try mapping the underground. My bet? The roots are how they are all connected to each other," Nephenee suggested.
"Good point, Nephenee," Shepherd commended her, "Gatrie, find out everything you can about this Myrrh character. It seems they can't leave the planet, but it doesn't mean it couldn't destroy us."
Gatrie solemnly nodded, "Yessir, we will."
"Congratulations on completing the base, Gatrie. We'll reconvene once Tana's squad sets up the RRS. Tethys, please have Emory check in as soon as possible," Shepherd grunted before his pixelated figure disappeared. Gatrie, a little shocked by Shepherd's abrupt departure, bowed slightly to the other two and turned off the RRS.
"Is he normally like that or is he upset about something?" Gatrie wondered, "At least he seemed okay with the current lack of information we have. But why wasn't Emory there?" His wrist chimed a few times, indicating that he had a few reports to read from the other squads. Even though the RRS had been set up for about half a day, it wouldn't send and receive information until it was started for the first time. Once this was done, Jask would be reconnected to the other bases and allow instantaneous communication between any site with the RRS. Gatrie pulled up the first report which happened to be Nephenee's and began reading while he walked back to the ship's command center. As soon as he walked past the sliding door, he read the part about them discovering Mantoan technology and froze.
Sam, still sitting in the command center, asked, "Gatrie, what's wrong? You look like you saw a ghost."
"Did you read the reports they sent yet?" Gatrie uttered squeakily, "Specifically Nephenee's report."
"I started with Emory's first report about her planet. Why? What's going on with Nephenee?" Sam's pitch went up a couple octaves in distress.
"Nephenee found Mantoan technology on their planet!" Gatrie shrieked, "The Collective is sending a formal army. What the hell?"
Sam murmured, "That's not good news because Emory's report indicated signs of higher intelligence on her planet as well. We went to four different systems, all of which were supposed to be uninhabited, yet so far, we're batting a thousand on finding life."
"Emory found people too? What in the literal hell is going on?" Gatrie yelled, "You've got to be joking me!"
"Let's read Emory's special report about the Mantoan. Maybe that will explain why they're sending a whole army. Did Nephenee say anything about it on the call?" Sam questioned.
"No, we just talked about Vostea and Myrrh," Gatrie calmed himself a little as he made his way to his chair, "But, strangely, Emory wasn't on the call; Tethys stood in for her. Wait, Nephenee's report talks about a backup plan that Emory's working on. Any ideas what that means?"
Sam frowned before shock rushed over her face, "I only know of one sort of backup plan that could help get support to Nephenee faster. But there's no way the Council would have given her that."
"What are talking about?" Gatrie looked confused, "How could she help when she's twice as far away as the army?"
"Teleportation. The Council never shared the secrets of teleportation magik with the rest of humanity. It's a little more complex than normal magik, and in the wrong hands, it could be deadly. If Emory has a plan to support Nephenee's team, it must be via teleportation," Sam replied in a hushed tone.
"How would she learn it from millions of miles away?" Gatrie pointed out, "After all, she didn't learn it before we left, so there's no one around to teach her."
Sam glared, "You dope, there's a spellbook for it. What amazes me is that the Council let her take it with her. It's one of their most sacred treasures and guarded secrets. Sir Morris was the only person I've ever heard of without a connection to the Council that knew how to do it."
"Well, I have no reason to doubt Emory's abilities, so we better assist however we can," Gatrie nodded, "Do you know what we can do to help?"
"Teleportation requires a conduit with glyphs, so we need the crafting station which is already set up. But without the inscription, we can't go any further at this point," Sam explained. As if Jask had heard their conversation, a message came through on their wrists. The message was from Tethys and had an image attached to it of symbols written around an empty circle. When Sam looked closely at the picture, her jaw dropped, "I can't believe they actually let her take it. This is a teleportation circle without a doubt; I couldn't remember what all the symbols looked like, but seeing it in this form, there can be no mistake."
"Like I said before, I have faith in her abilities," Gatrie smugly smirked, "So what? We put this somewhere and enchant it or what?"
"In theory, yes. I'm not sure exactly how the master circle works, but you need to create a network of sorts. All circles except the master circle only teleport you to the master circle and from there you teleport to another circle in the network. This is clearly a partner circle since it only has one row of symbols," Sam described carefully from memory.
"I'll take this to the forger then," Gatrie stood up, "The faster we can get this going, the faster we can support the others and get help ourselves." Sam nodded as she returned to reading the special report on the Mantoan while Gatrie headed off to the crafting station. Located on the second floor of the FOB, the crafting station created enough residual heat even in its dormant state to lift the temperature at least five degrees. As he walked up, a brawny, masked figure hurried to the counter to help the commander. Gatrie showed them the photo and instructed them to brand this onto a large piece of metal. When that was finished, they needed to enchant it as well. It was an odd request, especially with the enchantment, but the forger agreed and set to working on it straight away.
With a little pep in his step, he decided to grab a snack from the café, a little treat for himself, before slowly making his way to the command center. When he walked through the doors, however, everyone except Sam filed out of the room quickly and silently. Gatrie coughed uncertainly, "Sam, why did everyone just leave?"
"I didn't want to scare them when we were talking," Sam dejectedly said, "I finished reading the special report on the Mantoan. Did you have any problems with the forger?"
"No problems at all. It should be ready in a day or two. What did you find in the special report?" Gatrie cautiously asked.
"Emory has a source that said the Mantoan are just one part of a larger threat, the weakest part of this bigger group," Sam breathed, "Three races are a part of this enemy group, with each level being many times stronger than the level below."
Gatrie's jaw dropped as he yelled, "Are you fricking kidding me?"
"According to her report, it takes a level three sphere just to injure the middle group," Sam continued, "It takes a level five sphere to injure the top group. But we could forge weapons that act as a poison to them as well."
"Still, even if we have another way of fighting them, they're still stronger than the Mantoan, right? If that's the case, the enemy wouldn't have to send very many to get rid of twenty-five kids," Gatrie groaned as he slinked along towards his chair.
Sam rubbed her temples, "Even if Emory went to the battlefield, there's still a good chance we could lose the whole squad, including her. We need to either become stronger ourselves or find some stronger allies."
"Wait! What did you just say?" Gatrie hopped up quickly, "We know a strong person!"
"Who? We don't know any… wait, are you saying what I think you're saying?" Sam's eyes grew larger as she realized who Gatrie meant.
"I know it's a lot of pressure, but maybe you could ask Myrrh," Gatrie meekly suggested, "She is incredibly powerful; she might not be able to help directly, but you said she didn't seem to like them either. That may be our opportunity."
Sam frowned, "I suppose you're right. I'll go check it out." She headed straight for the cargo hold since most of the exploration gear remained inside the ship and grabbed a few small supplies in case she was out there a long time. Once she got outside, though, she transformed into her direwolf form and stretched her limbs like she was going to run a long distance. Then, like a furry lightning bolt, she sped off to the woods. In this form, it only took a couple minutes to cover the five-mile stretch of undeveloped land and head into the wooded area. Just as Sam predicted, a sweet voice began to chat in her mind as soon as she was on the grass.