Flying low to the ground in true Scout fashion, Hanno dropped them off in "touch-and-go" fashion. He then pulled away into the night sky, running fast and low to avoid detection.

There wasn't much cover on the floodplain other than a few hills with brush and copses of evergreen trees. The dome itself loomed darkly above them blotting out the stars. It was really one of the few landmarks on the mudflat, even though a lost city lay beneath it.

Ken led the group (all using night vision) towards the dome. They still had several hours of night left to explore the ruins. Then dawn would come. They could see a few gaps in the massive ancient permacrete structure, probably hardened to withstand orbital bombardment. These would allow access to the inside.

In reply to GM (msg # 2):

Lorrain stopped to take some low-light holopics. She allowed herself some wonder that she normally suppressed as an academic.

"Wow! The Tomb of the First Comers, per the inscription. We could be entering the final resting place of the Sky Raiders and their culture."

Ken led the way carefully, threading through the ruins.  He scanned the area around them carefully for sign of pursuit or enemy movement.  Looking up at the dome he shook his head.  "I'd say we found it for certain Lorain.  What do you think killed them all off.  As much as they were barbarian raiders this," he gestured to the ruins spread around them, "is an ignominious way to end a career of ruin."

He headed to the dome.  "Let's find a way in, night is speeding away quickly."

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 4):

The massive dome was on some kind of low, brush-covered hill rising slightly from the muddy plain. Relatively close to them was an crack-like opening two metres above the level of the ground.

Lifting himself up over the lip, Ken determined from the sides of what appeared to be a fissure leading deeper inwards that the reinforced permacrete dome was perhaps forty metres thick. It seemed this crack was the result of some kind of ancient weapons fire, possibly some kind of ship-mounted weapon. If he had to guess, high-energy like a bay-mounted particle accelerator or plasma guns. Maybe some kind of early fusion weapon. Probably not a nuke or conventional explosive.

thank heavens for no nukes, although any residuals may have shown up on scans.  Blake looks about, trying to keep track of their location and the way back.  He'll give the prof a boost up and then pass along her gear.  He starts to feel a thrill going thru him, real ancient's stuff.  OK, there's Ancients and then these guys,any scout would give half their lifespan for a find like this ...

"Do you think this crack goes right through, or do we still need to look for an entrance?" asked Linus, looking up at the crack.

In reply to Blake Renfield (msg # 6):

Lorain performed some measurements.

"Just a slight amount of background radiation. Fallout from a typical nuclear strike, an airburst, is mostly gone in weeks. The preliminary mapping made by Dumaer didn't show any cratering here from ground-bursts or subsurface bursts. There are some kinds of bomb designs that are intended to leave long-duration contamination, like cobalt-jacketed weapons, but I don't think they were used here on Qarant due to the lack of traces."

She looked up at the flank of the dome. "See those pits with rust stains at regular intervals all over the place? They look like attachment points. I think at one time the entire dome was covered by some kind of metal cladding. Probably decorative in nature, possibly precious metals of some kind. Megacredits worth if the entire dome was covered. All long gone, either from the elements or, more likely, tomb raiders.

"So to answer your question, Linus, I think this might not be a weapon strike but a deliberate penetration to access the interior of the dome. Some time in the last five thousand years grave robbers have been here. Probably someone from a local starfaring Vlazdhumecta culture not long after the Sky Raiders disappeared. Or later, using Zhodani Jump Drive technology. One day when we're not always at war with the Zhodani I'd like to get a crack at the Consulate's archaeological records. I bet we'll find more about the Sky Raiders in their records.

"As for what ended the Sky Raiders, there are theories. Internal warfare, mutually destructive clashes with some as-yet undiscovered starfaring culture, technological regression. Here on Qarant I'd bet on large-scale climate change. Qarant used to be a lot warmer and wetter. It's currently in a period of high glaciation. As evidenced by the ruins on Mirayn the Sky Raiders seemed to not rely on a robust technological infrastructure. If a plague caused a collapse of their civilisation and the crops suddenly stopped growing, there could have been a massive die-off. What few survivors remained could have scattered using what Sky Raider starships were starworthy."
This message was last edited by the player at 06:55, Mon 20 July 2015.

Ken pulled Lorain up into the crack in the dome as Blake boosts her up from below.  He shines his light at low power down into the dome with just enough intensity to illuminate but not wash out his LI goggles.  "Let's hope that whoever cracked a hole in the dome left enough behind for us to tell what happened to the Sky Raiders here."  He listened as Lorain made her assessment.  "So this must have been their capital, the base for raiding?  If so none of them seem to have survived at least here."  Ken thought for a bit more.  "It doesn't seem like they must have originated here though.  How else can we explain the Vilani influences?"

In reply to Ken Jenkins (msg # 9):

Ken's red illiminating diode showed him the cylindrical tunnel stretched for dozens of metres sloping downwards a little, then ended in blackness. Call it 35-40m. There was melted slag that had collected and pooled on the floor, then hardened. It was rather like being in some cosmic worm's gullet.

In reply to GM (msg # 10):

Lorain stopped to help the others up.

"I sure hope there's enough left to give us a clue what happened. I hold out some hope that more inscriptions will be burned in the walls using the Vilani script, which we can now translate. Otherwise I'm not that concerned about valuables and electronics would be long corroded and useless.

"You are right, that seems to be a reasonable hypothesis. First, we'll try to find conclusive evidence this is indeed a Sky Raider colony, not just a base like Mirayn. Then we might get an idea what happened to them. Lastly, where they came from, of which the direction of the First Imperium is highly probable due to their language."

Ken nodded to Lorain as she spoke.  "Well, let's get going as time is not our friend here.  We'll have to leave the valuables to the Hegemony."  Once everyone was up he moved cautiously down the tunnel still using his light carefully.

The party made their way through the tough outer shell of the immense dome. The done was the size of a medium-sized stadium, and the walls were a good thirty metres thick.

Their footsteps echoed in the tunnel-like breach.

Eventually, they found themselves at the mouth of the tunnel. It was some three metres above the rubble-strewn floor of the dome. The empty space at the bottom of the dome was some 250 metres across but unlike a stadium there were no seats or bleachers. Much rubble had fallen down from the sides and roof and carpeted the floor with gravel, dust, sand and chunks of permacrete up to small vehicle size. What remained of the inner wall layer was covered with intricate mosaics and abstract shapes.

The double-hexagon of the Sky Raiders was a very common feature.

Blake looks for a way down, he looks over the floor, building debris on an empty floor ??  He looks upwards, a dome that opens ??  A hangar bay ??

In reply to Blake Renfield (msg # 14):

The beams of your lights play up and on the inside of the dome. It seemed to be solid, or at least not open or retractable.

It seems that over thousands of years chunks have flaked or broken off the inwards-sloping walls and fallen down. Some from breaches, others from cracks and fissures due to seismic or other shocks. Over time much such debris has accumulated on the floor.

In reply to GM (msg # 15):

Messandi checked the lip of the tunnel, shining her light down, then across the floor.

"Maybe at one time ropes were attached? But they've rotted away if natural fibre and I wouldn't trust a synthetic line after all this time.

"One thing is for sure there is some kind of drainage underneath the dome. Otherwise it would have filled with water from rain and snow after five thousand years."