GM IC:

[i]<<Nnnno,>>[/i] one of the scientists, Dr. Harding, began over the comms. The scientists were all tied into their own network, of course; setting aside the problems with having so many people on the same frequency, the whole lot were so excited that the chatter would never cease. It hadn’t, in fact, since the moment the shuttle touched down. Twelve men and women, the foremost experts in their field, speaking a mile a minute about what they were seeing, hearing, reading, guessing, thinking. It was enough to make their supervisor (the aforementioned, infinitely patient Dr. Harding) wish for military comm discipline. [i]<<No, I don’t think it’s geothermal.>>[/i]

Naturally they all had the capability to tap into the pilots’ frequency, as well, though under protocol only [i]she[/i] was supposed to do so on a transmit [i]and[/i] receive basis. The others were free to listen, not that they [i]were[/i] listening to [i]anyone[/i]. Dr. Harding felt the ground give under her boot, and despite the danger she wished she could take her helmet off to see and hear the world without a filter. Their suits had been designed for this moment; self contained life support, temperature control, biomedical sensors, GPS positioning relayed through [i]Pandora[/i] above. Unlike the usual space suit, and much more like the suits some of their watchful protectors were wearing, their gear had been built for resistance too. A non-Newtonian layer for resisting impacts, a top layer of tough enough weave to stop a small caliber bullet… The mission’s architects had no way of knowing what they would encounter, so they had prepared for everything.

[i]<<I suppose it could be. Our scans of the area are pretty incomplete, but we haven’t seen any sign of substantial geothermal activity in the area. And why would they be distinct but overlapping signatures like this?>>[/i] She took her hand away from her visor, after a few moments outside it had polarized against the sun’s glare. [i]<<I’m not sure what they are, yet, but->>[/i]

[i]<<Doctor?>>[/i]

[i]<<Yes?>>[/i] She asked, turning her attention again to the scientists under [i]her[/i] watchful eye. [i]<<What is it?>>

<<Well, ma’am, it’s just…>>[/i] The scientist speaking shifted on his feet, the slightly nervous tic carrying through despite the suit he wore. [i]<<We got the relays in the ground like you wanted. Three of them, north, southwest, southeast evenly spaced for three points of reference. Soil readings, of course, but also our ultrasonics.>>

<<To map what’s below the surface, yes, I know the plan.>>

<<But you don’t know what we’re[/i] getting.[i]>>[/i]

Harding frowned at the change in tone from eager to apprehensive, and brought the data up on her HUD; it was preliminary, the devices hadn’t even gotten through a quarter of their cycle. But the approximations…. Hard, geometric edges. Some not far below the surface, irregular masses that were hard to make out. But further down, fifty, seventy, a hundred feet down. A solid plane of a metallic nature. Just the edge, whatever it was extended further north past their LZ. And there was a lot of debris. But…

[i]<<Orbitals,>>[/i] She began again. [i]<<Be advised that we’ve got some pretty unnatural looking stuff under the ground. Nothing to worry about yet but it could be in your wheelhouse, so I’m patching the sensor take through to you guys.>>[/i]

One of Odyssues’ drones moved further away from the scientists, and the transport, to the strongest heat source. Their depth, now that the additional sensor data was being correlated, varied as much as their spacing. Some were as deep as forty meters down, others as shallow as ten. No other readings, really, but the heat signature was strong and consistent… And familiar.

If that was…

[i]<<One of you on the ground, I need you to do something.>>[/i] She pinged the heat signature closest to the surface, estimated at about nine meters down. [i]<<We can’t reach the stuff all the way down, not until we get more gear down here. But before we do[/i] any [i] of that we need to dig this one up. Carefully.>>

<<I don’t know about any of you, but accounting for diffusion through the soil that looks a lot like an Oberth Reactor in standby to me.>>[/i]