Free Ancient Relics (Shadow of the Ancients Book 1) by Ellema Ummia Page A

surface, Logan steps out of the shuttle and
takes in his first view of the forgotten wasteland.
    “This is going to be a rough search,” Logan says
indicating that the planet is so barren that ground search will be extremely
difficult, if not impossible.

Chapter 10 – Oni Sanura
    With Orsen II’s desiccated state, ground search is
all but impossible. The majority of the research team assigned to Logan remains
aboard The Wayfarer to conduct geologic surveys of the surface to identify
possible locations of ruins.
    After many hours of scanning and fruitless flyovers
of potential spots, Logan calls to The Wayfarer to inform them that preparation
is underway to build a camp for the night.
    The ground team sets up pressurized habitation pods
and support equipment.
    As the team on the surface readies for bed, a call
comes from the science team aboard the ship.
    “Wayfarer to away team, readings show a
high-resolution signature in zone Charlie-Four,” the voice of one of the
researchers calls out on Logan’s communication device.
    Logan reaches over from his seat to a makeshift
night table made from a packing crate to grab the device and respond back.
    Pressing the channel lock button to initiate two-way
communication, Logan responds to the researcher, “Understood Wayfarer, search
zone Charlie-Four.”
    The Wayfarer signals back to indicate reception of
confirmation, “Roger, copy reception of transmission. Wayfarer out.”
    Placing his communicator back on the box it
originally laid, Logan lies down in his cot and pulls the sleeping bag over his
head and settles-in for the night.
    At dawn, Paige awakens Logan from a hard, deep
slumber, “Rise and shine, sleepy head.”
    Logan grumbles to himself as he groggily starts to
wake.
    He removes the sleeping bag from over his head and
with heavy eyelids looks to the objectionable early morning voice to show signs
of life and awareness.
    Paige steps into Logan’s pod, and hands him a
freshly brewed cup of Cava and says, “No excuses from you. We have a long day
ahead of us.”
    Logan smirks at the thoughtful gesture of providing
his morning vice, and then remembers the last evening’s transmission.
    Logan thinks for a minute, trying to remember the
grid location pointed-out to him while taking a sip from his cup.
    “Last night the crew up top sent word of a new
search grid. They received a high-resolution signature from zone Charlie-Four.
We should start there,” Logan relays to Paige.
    Paige pulls out her DataCom and plots the new grid.
    “Zone Charlie-Four,” she repeats slightly under her
breath as she enters the information into her DataCom pad.
    “Got it. I’ll let the others know. We’ll begin
loading the data into the drones and have them start scouting,” she says while
heading out the door.
    With her marching orders for the morning in hand,
Paige heads off to the operations pod.
    The operations pod, called the Ops Center, is a pod
larger than most of the other pods.
    Its use is to coordinate operations and transmit
communications to teams outside of the habitation modules.
    Like a mini-headquarters, soldiers or explorers can
use the Ops Center for command and control for tactical military operations, or
non- military operations such as the exploration of planets.
    When Paige enters the Ops Center, the crew is
already diligently working.
    Paige walks over to the operations sergeant and
begins uploading the new coordinates for the first search of the day.
    As she sends the data file, Paige explains the
update to the sergeant, “This came in to Logan last night. It’s a new search
coordinate they believe is very promising.”
    The ops sergeant glances briefly at the data file
before loading it to the explorations drones, acknowledges the information, and
then uploads the data file to the drones.
    Drones come in a variety of forms.
    Specially designed for exploration of rough and
dangerous terrain, these drones come equipped with sensitive sensor packages
used to