Chapter 1

“Any luck on the weird structure-thing?” A voice spoke out of a telecommunication speaker.

“Besides the unusual tattoos glowing in response to thermonuclear energy being close to it, I’d say that I have no clue what in god’s name this obelisk is.” Ajay replied to Kal, sitting in his office space overlooking the salvage operation the Allegiance set foot on Silawan, days prior to Ava’s voyage to find Athena.

“I’ve been doing some reading. That shit looks familiar to the mayan structures down at the amazon and like, pyramids.” 

“Kal reading. End of days, I reckon.” He responded with his legs resting on a table.

“I’m laughing, fuck you. I can’t help but notice that if that old fucker had a unit protecting this very thing, it could be something valuable.” Kal proceeded.

“No shit, sherlock. That’s why I’m here.” He looked over to a board he created just days being on the planet. It had charts of possible uses of the obelisk he had narrowed down to.

“Valuable not in the sense of an artefact or a building. But like, a weapon or some ancient ship or something, I don’t know.” Kal continued.

“I’ll admit, intuitive thinking.”

Kal proceeded over to a certain area on his board. His eyes zoomed over the word, transportation.

“Tried powering it up?” Kal continued.

Ajay immediately turned to the obelisk, seeing people from his research division experimenting on the obelisk’s surface with thermonuclear power.

“Good point.” He replied.

“Of course it’s a good point. Look who you’re talk-“

Ajay turned off the comms as he walked straight for the platform towering the entire operation. Beside him, a woman with a tablet stood idle.

“Yes, sir?” Violet turned over to Ajay.

“Can I get the speakers on?” He asked gently.

With just a few clicks, he got everyone’s attention.

“Ladies and Gentlemen! I have a new plan. I’ll need the man in charge of research operations-“

A man raised up his hand from across the site.

“Yes, Riki. Riki and his team will safely fuel the entire structure with thermonuclear fluid. Ms Frey will oversee the construction crew for possible contingencies and catastrophe that may or may not happen.” Ajay said so in a rush. 

Even with such a massive crew under his command, he treated them as mere people. He  presented himself informally and provided a friendly workspace in such a heinous working environment. In such a manner, work was done swiftly. The construction crew finished setting up the technical controls of the structure’s maintenance and Riki’s research division was able to begin fuelling the Obelisk.

Ajay looked to the obelisk as he noticed the markings around the entire surface began glowing. It went on to the extent of sheer brightness to the naked eye.

“Keep going.” He instructed.

Violet relayed the command over to Riki.

“Sir, some sort of mechanism is activating beneath the obelisk.” 

Ajay noticed. In such a dangerous situation that may result in total annihilation, he smiled. He orchestrated the revival of ancient technology that could have been out of human understanding.

“Aweso-“

A concentrated beam would shoot out of the centre of the obelisk, combusting the mountainous top it was under. The beam released a humming sound as it gave a slight roar before stabilising.

Everyone was taking precautionary distance away from the machine but for Ajay, he slowly neared it.

“I believe I know what it is.” He said so, walking past multiple workers in front.

His eyes glistened from the glow of the beam as he neared the obelisk. He never saw such beauty from technology that dated back to a time before. 

“It is a beacon.” He said.

He looked up to the sky, where the obelisk erupted.

“It is a gateway.” Slowly, he came to a realisation.

The obelisk stopped simmering. The beam slowly faded. The beautiful glow of the structure was greeted with daylight as it slowly faded away.

His eyes, mirroring the blue clouded sky, slowly faded from the shadow of a…ship.

“It's a deception.”

Countless missiles rain down on the entire fortress. The pads for ships to land were completely destroyed. The mountainous terrain was engulfed in explosive fire as the Allegiance operation base was wiped from the planet’s surface by the colossal ship.

Slowly, the ship hovered up out to the sky. The surroundings faded from the deep blue skies to dark cold space. The Colossus has a heading.