Chapter 1380: Chapter 1379: Observatory

On the desolate wasteland near the frontline base, that ancient facility whose structure remained intact stood silently in the sunset. As the Purification Devices continued to extend across the wasteland, the foul clouds that had once coiled over this area were gradually dispersed by the changing energy field, and for the first time in several centuries, normal sunlight shone upon this land—under the setting sun, the mottled, age-old buildings were like giants standing in mute silence upon the earth, casting long shadows towards the depths of the wasteland.

An all?armed command vehicle and two heavy tanks were parked in the shadows near the buildings, while Soldiers had set up several temporary outposts around them to monitor the wasteland. Inside the command vehicle, a clear image was being displayed on the holographic projection before Sir Philip.

The squad led by warrior Sara was approaching the only entrance at the base of that structure. The ancient great door was already damaged, its crooked door panels toppled into the dust nearby. The space beyond the door was like a dark, gaping cave, quietly opening its maw in the dusk, as if waiting for some reckless soul to draw near; and in the background audio of the transmitted feed, Sir Philip could hear the heavy breathing of the warriors coming from beneath their full?coverage helmets.

"We have reached the entrance. Heat-source alarms and life-form detection show no response," warrior Sara’s voice sounded from beyond the image. "No active targets within visual range. We have not come under attack."

"Sweep around the entrance—get every angle into the feed," Sir Philip spoke into the comms. "Then advance in a guard formation, and watch your safety."

"Yes, General." The warrior’s voice came through, and at the same time the holographic projection began to pan. Those mottled, timeworn outer walls and the building materials that had fallen from them slowly moved across the eyes of those in the command vehicle. Then the view began to shift toward that dark "mouth" of a cave; a scout flicked on his light, and a bright beam pierced into the doorway.

Just then, the middle?aged scholar standing beside Sir Philip suddenly spoke: "Hold on, go back to that last spot—right there, in the middle of that pile of rubble where the light hit just now, isn’t there something?"

As the expert finished speaking, the image from the comms shifted. A pile of shattered objects scattered on the floor, and a thin rectangular plate half?buried in debris appeared before Sir Philip and the others. A Soldier pointed at the wreckage: "Yes, that looks like a signboard... There seems to be something on its surface. Should we take it out? It looks very fragile."

Sir Philip spoke in a deep voice: "Take it out. Handle with care. There are letters on it." "Yes, General."

The thin plate half?buried in the ruins was carefully extracted. Dust and fragments fell from its surface. The Soldiers gingerly turned it over, placing the side that seemed to bear writing in the center of the image—its patterns were already heavily worn and weathered, indistinguishable to the untrained eye, yet one could still tell they were script of the Gondor Empire. Sir Philip immediately turned to the middle?aged scholar at his side: "Can you tell what it says?"

"We’re working on it." The middle?aged scholar furrowed his brow, and the other experts also leaned in. These people, well?versed in Gondor Relics, carefully distinguished the symbols on the display while occasionally discussing in low voices. Then they took out a map of the ancient Gondor Empire and began tracing upon it, apparently trying to confirm this facility’s historical location. After fussing over it for quite some time, one of the scholars finally spoke in a thoughtful murmur: "Could this be the Wepland Observatory?"

"Wepland Observatory?" Sir Philip’s brows lifted at once. He vaguely remembered hearing that name somewhere before. "It does sound a bit familiar..."

"It was one of the largest astronomical observation facilities of Gondor’s time, located in the northern part of the ancient empire. It’s said that thousands of years ago, an Extra?Terrestrial Object fell in this region, so the observatory also served as a research facility where Gondorian Scholars studied such ’Extra?Terrestrial Objects’," the middle?aged scholar explained. "Most of the characters on that signboard can no longer be made out, but we can still discern the word ’Observatory’. We just checked against the ancient map—our current location is near the Wepland County of the Gondor Empire..."

"I remember now! The King mentioned this place to me." Sir Philip revealed a look of sudden realization, nodding as he spoke. He did indeed recall the knowledge associated with this name, and also remembered that Gawain Cecil had once said that after the Gondor Empire’s destruction, the northern pioneers had passed near this ’Wepland Observatory’. The King’s legendary shield of the protector of Anzu Kingdom had been obtained by the pioneers from some facility in the Wepland Area—according to rumor, that shield was even one of those so?called ’Extra?Terrestrial Objects’...

"So this observatory is still here, and its main structure shows no sign of collapse at all..." Realizing that this ancient facility might be of extraordinary significance, Sir Philip’s expression instantly grew even more solemn than before. "We must report this up the chain..."

"General, should we continue deeper?" At that moment, warrior Sara’s voice came through the comms again. "There’s a very wide space inside, but the magical surge is still further within the facility. Should we look for any passage that leads farther in?"

"...Continue the operation," Sir Philip ordered after a brief consideration. "Keep constant watch on the readings from the detection gear."

Having received their orders, the Soldiers resumed their advance through the ancient facility, which had lain silent for several centuries. In the returning feed, they could be seen entering a roughly circular hall first. All equipment within the hall was already destroyed and dead, clearly impossible as the source of that mysterious energy reaction. The facility’s lighting system was entirely defunct as well. After examining some of the remaining power lines, the technical experts reached a conclusion: the observatory’s own power source had completely shut down.

"We can still sense an energy reaction from somewhere inside the observatory when measuring from outside, and this reaction is extremely stable, showing no response at all to the scouting teams’ movements," one technical expert said. "So this energy reaction is likely unrelated to the observatory itself. I suspect it’s some kind of external power source... perhaps an ancient relic stored within the facility, and it’s been running all these years..."

"Something that can continuously release energy for seven centuries—whatever it is, the only word for it is ’astonishing’," Sir Philip muttered, brows knitted as he shook his head. "Even the cutting?edge technology left by the Gondor Empire back then would barely..."

"General, we’ve found a way up to the upper level, on the side of the hall. It looks like a backup staircase," Sara’s voice suddenly cut in from off?screen, interrupting Sir Philip’s murmuring. "We’re heading up now. There seems to be a door ahead..."

Sir Philip’s gaze immediately returned to the holographic projection. He saw two Soldiers walking up a rather steep staircase whose time?worn steps were, surprisingly, still fairly sound. At the end of that steep stairway, a small platform could be seen, and on the wall opposite the platform a dim?colored metal door was set into the structure. It was tightly shut, and on its frame there was a rust?stained signplate.

The signplate was clearly in much better condition than the one at the facility’s entrance, and its characters were faintly legible. The middle?aged scholar standing beside Sir Philip quickly recognized the script on it: "Upper Star Observation Platform—the section behind that door should be the most important part of the observatory."

"We can try opening the door," another scholar spoke up beside him, "theoretically there shouldn’t be any traps behind a door like this. This is a research facility; there’s no reason to install weapons near the star observation platform."

The Soldiers who had entered the Observatory received the order. One of them stepped forward, placed his hand on the metal door that looked quite heavy, and gave it a gentle push—on the very next second, a layer of flowing dim light suddenly rippled across the door’s surface!

The dim light streamed over the surface, as if some "will" that had lain dormant for untold years had suddenly awakened deep within it. The Soldier who’d gone to push the door couldn’t help letting out a low exclamation, and Sir Philip and several technical experts monitoring the scene through the communication devices were also startled—this door still had power?!

Immediately after that, before anyone could speak, the dim light flowing over the door rapidly gathered together, turning into a light curtain floating in front of it, with clear characters flashing across the curtain.

Sir Philip immediately looked to the expert next to him, and the latter translated before the general could even ask: "Identity authentication failed—General, this is an access control system. It’s still operating properly, and you need authorization to open the door..."

"This stuff is seven hundred years old—where are we supposed to find door authorization?" another scholar beside them said at once. "Looks like we’ll have to find a way to crack this antique... Since this door still has power, the facility structure behind it very likely still has power too. If we force the door open, who knows whether it’ll trigger some kind of destruction protocol? Facilities handling classified research usually have automatic data purge settings..."

"Wait," Sir Philip had been frowning in thought since earlier, and now he suddenly spoke up, cutting off the scholars’ discussion. "Don’t be in a rush to provoke this door. We’ll report the situation here up the chain. As for authorization... there may actually be a way to solve that..."

...

"The First Legion under Sir Philip’s command has discovered the Wepland Observatory in the elevated terrain southeast of the magic scorch mark," in the study lined with blue velvet carpet, Gawain set down the report he’d just received and said to Amber, who was helping sort documents nearby, "and the condition of that Observatory is unbelievably good. Its main structure is entirely intact."

Hearing that, Amber’s eyes immediately went wide. "No way! Then they’ve dug up something big! Sir Philip’s got talent for this line of work too, huh?"

"...I suspect the ’talent’ you’re talking about isn’t quite the same thing I’m thinking of right now," Gawain cast a glance at this former Outstanding Tomb Thief, "but as long as you’re happy."

"Eh, that’s not important," Amber waved her hand carelessly, then her eyes rolled as a thought came to her. "Right, I remember your shield was picked up somewhere in the Wepland Area... that’s what you said before."

"Correct, the shield of the protector of Anzu Kingdom was indeed found in an underground facility in the Wepland Area," Gawain nodded. "Strictly speaking, though, back then Charlie and I only found a very tough metal plate. Later we really couldn’t figure out what the thing was, and since its size, shape, and hardness were just right, we welded on a grip and used it as a shield..."

What Gawain was telling her was indeed the origin of that legendary shield that was as famous as the Sword of Pioneers, but there were many more details he didn’t mention:

The core of the shield of the protector of Anzu Kingdom—that unknown, ultra?hard metal plate—was in fact one of the fragments that had fallen to the surface during the "meteor shower" incident in Wepland, and those fragments were debris cast off from Firmament Station when Amon struck it three thousand years ago. In the Ancient Era, the Gondor Empire regarded those fragments as Extra-Terrestrial Objects. As Gondor civilization developed, scholars established a series of research facilities, including the Wepland Observatory, to study those remnants. As time passed and Gondor was destroyed, one of those fragments from Firmament Station happened, by sheer coincidence, to end up in the hands of Charlie the First and Gawain, who were then leading their people northward, and was later crafted into a shield. The whole sequence of events was like an invisible thread, stitching together three thousand years of history.

And sometimes, when he thought of the White Starfall three thousand years ago, of the "meteor shower" in the Wepland Area, and of how the pioneers forged those fragments into Gawain Cecil’s shield, Gawain couldn’t help following the chain of association even further—was it precisely because he had spent years in such close contact with that fragment from Firmament Station that the Gawain Cecil of seven hundred years ago underwent some kind of "change", forming a certain link with the Voyager’s legacy in space, and indirectly connecting to the "self" that was then acting as a satellite spirit? Gawain Cecil, strongest Knight of his age, died in his prime and left behind an undying body; the self hanging high above in orbit gained rebirth on the surface, occupying this very body that had once borne a fragment of the Voyager... the whole thing felt as though it had been a deal struck long in advance.

To this day, many of the mysteries surrounding Gawain Cecil and the Voyager’s legacy had already been brought to light, yet this most critical link alone remained a complete blank in Gawain’s memories.

"Hey... hey, hey," just then, Amber’s voice suddenly came from beside him, snapping Gawain out of his daze. "You okay? Your eyes suddenly went all unfocused... spacing out again?"

"Nothing, I just accidentally thought of some old things," Gawain shook his head and spoke casually. "Where were we?"

"We were talking about how your shield was looted out of some basement in Wepland, how it was originally just some metal plate no one knew the use of, and then you welded a grip on it and used it as a shield..." Amber chattered on, then flicked a glance at the report Gawain had tossed on the table. "So how are things going on Sir Philip’s side now? What have they found in the Observatory?"

"They’ve found an ancient access control that requires some form of authorization to enter. The upper star observation platform of the Observatory is sealed off by that thing, and the scouting Soldiers can’t get in," Gawain said in a deep voice. "The access control system is still operating, which means there’s very likely other systems on the upper levels still running as well. Forcing the door open could very well cause the facility’s data to be destroyed, so Sir Philip is currently waiting for further orders."

"Damn, a seven?hundred?year?old tomb and it still has a lock, then..." Amber was shocked for a moment, then suddenly reacted. "Wait, authorization... I remember..."

"Yes. I need to get in touch with our neighbors now," Gawain smiled slightly. "Emperor Rosetta Augustus might have exactly that kind of ’authorization’, and they should be quite interested in that Observatory as well."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.