Space Odyssey: Spectre

"Coming out of Warp." Jace announced as his hands moved and flicked some switches and clicked some buttons. He could hear some shuffling in the back as people moved to secure positions or their seats. Then a very slight jostling as they came out of warp and the stars that were bending turned into dots again.

They arrive in the system in question. If the label from the Victorium was right it was called… the Tribani System? The Tribani System was a colony system. The third planet from the sun had the only easily habitable planet, it went by the name, wait for it… Tribani. Tribani had a mixed population, it lacked both a military and a trade importance. The one interesting thing about Tribani was that they had practically covered the planet in farm land and they would export the food to other systems.

There were six planets in total in this system. Then there was a belt of asteroids. As he skimmed through all of this information he moved the ship to a position behind a moon of one of the planets on the edge of the solar system. They specifically did not arrive at this system to announce their presence. Jace instead wanted to stay hidden for as long as possible, just as a precaution.

Jace began tapping a few buttons on the controls. "The signal is coming from…" Jace clicked his tongue in annoyance. "The asteroid belt."

"Is that going to be a problem?" Asana, his copilot asked. She had been learning quite a bit about how to fly this human spacecraft.

"Possibly," Jace nodded in confirmation. "If the signal is bouncing off minerals and metals it could mean us spending a while trying to track down the source of the signal" Jace explained as he adjusted the ship's engines and flight path. Going right into the asteroid belt that was in the system. He was taking a path that would keep planetary bodies between them and Tribani.

"What?" Asana quietly murmured to his side. It was so quiet he did not even process what she said for a moment.

"What is wrong?" Jace asked as he was busy taking a route to the asteroid belt so he could not focus on everything. Which was why Asana was acting like his copilot in the first place, to assist him. Well to assist him and to learn how to fly the Guardian-01.

"Um… sorry it was just for a moment but there was a blimp on our long range scanners. It might have been a false reading. We do not know if Masilla's adjustments to the sensors might not have problems." Asana explained, making an explanation more likely for herself than him. Jace turned slightly toward her. She could not see his eyes but she probably understood what he was not saying. "I will keep an eye out for it just the same."

Jace turned back to what he was doing and continued flying a route into the asteroid belt. Once they were inside he slowed his speed and started scanning for the signal. His fears were correct when he was getting the signal from several different locations. He slowly moved through the asteroid belt. Deciding to prepare his squad just in case. "Get your armor on and seal it up. I will start decompression in a few minutes."

He got several grunts in confirmation. "Our systems will not pick up anything on the long range sensors for the moment. The minerals in the rocks around us are reflecting signals." Asana declared as she began quickly moving between controls.

Jace thought for a moment as he slowed the spacecraft's speed. Then he made a decision. "Adjust our sensors first so we can eliminate false signals. Then adjust our long range sensors using that manual director to your right." Jace told her. "Humans have adjustments for their systems exactly for situations like this."

Asana nodded and began doing what he asked. As she started making adjustments to the long range sensors he began eliminating the false signals in the asteroid belt. The signal was on a very specific radio range that it was operating.

But as he made his way through the asteroid belt he had to do a double take as the signal he just accounted for coming from a rather large asteroid popped up again. He slowed the ship and then stayed right by it as he eliminated it again and waited while watching. Then it popped up again.

"Bingo!" Jace called out while smiling. "We found the source of our signal." Jace informed them as he checked and confirmed they had all put on their armor and were sealed up so they would not die in the vacuum of space. He began the process of pulling air out of the spacecraft to prepare for them to leave the ship. "Secure everything for the time being." Jace told them as he slowly circled the asteroid until he stopped at a large crack that was on the side of the asteroid.

The crack was not large enough for them to fly the Guardian into. But they could manually climb down into it after landing on the surface of the asteroid. Jace contemplated for a moment before they continued moving around the asteroid, trying to find any other crack or break in the asteroid.

The result was that there were no other cracks or brakes in the asteroid. It was not smooth; there were plenty of jagged surfaces and craters. But it was not filled with holes. The asteroid seemed almost solid all the way through except for that crack he had spotted.

Jace began taking them down near the crack but as he began landing he frowned as the ship jostled and then landed. He used the landing gear's anchors to secure the ship to the asteroid. "Uti, Asana, and Vana. You are staying with the ship." Jace informed them as he spun out of the pilot's seat. We are going to need the climbing gear, this asteroid appears to have a gravitational pull." Jace informed them as he moved to the bundles of gear they had.

"How strong is it?" Charlie asked as she stood up and helped him go through the gear to grab some climbing gear.

"I turned off the ship's artificial gravity generator and you still have not noticed the difference." Jace declared with a chuckle before pulling out a rope.