To Hell and Back (Hellworlder pirates)

Ch 82 The Mark

The Mark

Pandemonium was not what Alwen had been expecting, she had long since pieced together that the pirates had a base on another planet. Over time her mental image of what the base was changed over time, for awhile she imagined a camp surrounded by purple leaved trees, then when Astarte talked about how the Terrans needed a real colony she had imagined something a little more substantial. But what she saw before her was something she wouldn't have ever imagined on her own. It was a massive ancient looking city, massive step pyramids rose hundreds of feet out of the green water with massive bridges connecting them to one another. Each layer of every pyramid teemed with people.

"This was not what I was expecting." Alwen muttered.

Astarte rose an eyebrow "And just what were you expecting?"

"Some basic housing, few warehouses, maybe a port, not this. Who even built these?"

Astarte frowned "So that wasn't a dream, I really did tell you about Pandemonium back in Clancy's pub. As for who built these we don't know, whoever they were they were long gone by the time humanities earliest ancestors left the trees. The stone these pyramids are made out is some sort of crazy advanced material, we can't even study this stuff. Its indestructible, completely grime resistant, and blocks off any signals."

Alwen looked at the stone below her in astonishment "Why would an advanced space faring civilization build a stone city in the middle of a lake?"

"That's the crazier part, they didn't. We can tell from the rock records that this world used to be a lot drier, with life concentrating around various inland seas. Then about 50 million years ago a crap ton of water suddenly appears out of nowhere, the planet's gravity got a little stronger, and about a thousand new species of flora and fauna appeared that are genetically dissimilar to any of the native species. There are huge concentrations of metal and plastics scattered around the world, lots of iron and rare earth metals in concentration's not normally seen in nature, indicating that they're the remains of massive cities. And none of the planets natural mineral reserves shown any sign of being mined either. We believe that for some reason this planet was chosen for both terraforming and mass colonization, and we estimate that there might have been anywhere from a hundred billion to a trillion people living here. And then, they just vanished. We jokingly refer to them as Demons, you know since we're on Pandemonium and all."

Alwen listened to her story with awe and a growing sense of terror, the idea that a civilization like that could just arrive out of nowhere and then vanish mysteriously scared her. She looked around the world with a new found appreciation for what she was standing on. "How did you find this place?"

"We didn't, Greyson and his band of thugs found it, we just liberated Temple city of their presence and renamed the planet."

"And how did Greyson find it?"

The Captain shook her head "I don't know, maybe he stumbled across it, or heard it through the grapevine. As his power and infamy expanded he needed a place to hideout, store his treasure, and repair his ships. He found a world nobody knew about, with an empty indestructible city, and made himself home. I got to learn about this place after a few years of working for him."

"So this is your base outside of Sol, where you go to lay low?"

She smirked "Its more than that, this world is humanity's first successful extrasolar colony. Everything we do is to help this place grow and thrive, over there on that pyramid is the University of Temple city, down that waterway on the edge of the city is Temple drive yards and some manufactories, that's where we'll repair and refit the Astaroth. Outside of the city there are little farmstead cropping up along the coast, and inland just past that ridge is a major mining operation. Come follow me, I'll give you a tour."