Over the next few days, the students put their all into digging through and recording everything that they found in their assigned zones within the work region where the rare minerals were found.
Among the finds were many bits of melted rare minerals, a number of large pieces of thermal glass, which would indicate that something reached the surface at an extremely high temperature, and then finally one single flat plate of Duratanium with a piece of wire melted into its surface. That was the hope that they had all been waiting for, proof positive that there had indeed been a piece of advanced technology on this planet.
Now, that didn't mean it was going to be useful for anything in the future, tens of thousands of planets used that same combination over the last hundred thousand years, but to the students, this was a huge deal.
They had found something, not just a bit of thermal glass, but a piece of what might even be a space vessel.
The entire ship was in celebration mode as the students diligently worked away at their stations, hoping that one of them might come across the next piece of whatever that plate came from. Of course, they had already found parts of it, in the form of melted metal and glass, but that didn't stop the optimism that they would be the ones to make the real breakthrough, not the professionals, who had chosen other dig sites.
Those dig sites were mostly forgotten by the passengers aboard Terminus, who were more interested in the reality TV level drama among the students on a daily basis, but they were still working, and they had found more than just the one crystal.
The team by the wall had spread out, looking for more crystals and any signs of the alloys that would normally be associated with a ship's communicator, and they had lucked out. Only two kilometres away, their grid search had found a cavern in the rock, buried under a dozen metres of sand, and they were about to start opening it up to see what might have survived inside.
The humidity level here was extremely low, so if there had been a survivor, they were likely to be mummified inside, which should not be shown to the general public until they had at least identified the origin of the body.
But even if they found a single bit of intact technology from whatever species had carved the world "Desolation" onto the rock wall, it would be enough to solve the mysteries they had found here.
Max had just begun making plans to head to the surface of the planet for a nice photo op and a chance to scan the area with his System enhanced sensors when an urgent message from the Anomaly Fleet caught his attention.
There had been an attack by the Great Enemy fleet, more specifically, the Myceloids had attacked a random planet far away from the previous battlegrounds. Everyone there was preparing for the war to go back into full swing again, and that meant that Max's time here was going to be limited.
Once the attacks really got started, they were going to expect him and his fleet back to help someone out, and that would be the end of his chance to investigate new worlds, though Terminus and her staff would surely keep to the routine that they had planned unless something unexpected happened all the way out here on the fringes of the universe.
The messages and strategy making was getting intense, ruling out Max leaving for the surface any time soon, but it shouldn't be a big loss. The students were the real stars here, and they were doing well for the cameras, even though they tended to bicker and fight a lot when there was anything at all to be found.
[Report from the Command Ship Celia's Love reads as follows: Enemy forces amount to thirty-four destroyers, three Colony Ships, one colonized meteor, and an unknown number of small vessels. The target is the Rylan home world, currently defended by sixty-one Destroyer Class vessels, and an orbital defence ring.
All those with experience and insight into the actions of the Myceloids armies, please send your observations to the Anomaly Fleet for dissemination by the coalition Command Group.]
Max immediately began to compile a list of observations and reports from their time with the Hunters on a Myceloid held planet, and then added a personal note at the end.
[This species enjoys combat for the sake of combat. They will have attacked the strongest enemy that they could detect with their sensors, in order to find the best fight. I advise that you prepare other strongly defended star systems in the region for incoming attackers.]
Hopefully, they would take that warning seriously, and they would be prepared for the next wave's arrival because that was far from the extent of their fleet's firepower, and the others would not sit idly by while there was a good fight going on. It was just a matter of where they were now, and if they knew that there was a fight.
Max waited a few minutes for his message to be processed, and then a request for a virtual meeting was sent through to his Command Channel, directly from the Admiral aboard Celia's Love. The leaders of the species who had chosen to ally with the Koleska were requesting that he join them in holographic form for a meeting as soon as was convenient, since they didn't know what ship time he was on.
[I will be online within the hour. I would recommend that you pass along my warning immediately though, as the rest of the fleet is unlikely to wait for you to prepare.] Max agreed, then started to clear items off his calendar in preparation for many more such meetings in the near future.
[Thank you, Commander Max. We appreciate your time and expertise on the subject. Will you be immediately returning to the area?] The Coalition Commander asked.
[Not just yet. I have an investigative mission to complete, and then a weapons development program to fine tune before I head back into battle. But if things get really bad, I will send a substitute Commander for the Android Fleet.]
