Their sphere powered along the rails towards a massive set of blast doors which molded around the rails at a narrow spot. Automated cannons tracked their approach. It looked like they were going to crash, but at the last possible moment the blast doors shot open and they swooshed through. Some nervous laughter washed over the front of the carriage.

“I don’t think so. None that made it into the public record, anyway.” Freyr shook her head, carrying on the conversation. “There have always been [i]rumours[/i] though…” Dr Apalkov leaned across her to talk to Vreta, his breath smelling vaguely of boiled cabbage. Freyr leaned back and away from him. “Like why the first colonists chose Outremer, when we’d been allotted a much closer, more [b]viable[/b] planet in the first place. They must have noticed something.”

Six months ago, Freyr would’ve scoffed at this kind of conspiracy theory, but now she wasn’t so sure. “Yes, but that could’ve been the biosphere.” She reasoned. Apalkov shook his head strenuously, leaning back. “Not visible over that distance - not three hundred years ago.”

They passed through another set of blast doors, and then arrived at a security checkpoint outside an even more imposing metal door with an older design. Guards on the platforms either side of the rails questioned 595 while floating droids scanned each person in the sphere. They lingered on Vreta for almost a minute, beeping and honking to each other before eventually giving everyone the green light. It sounded like the guards wanted to take Vreta’s weapon, but 595 eventually smoothed things over before returning to the sphere. Freyr suspected the Agent would secretly be delighted if Vreta made himself look threatening, even if it was by accident. She smirked.

The doors in front of them opened much slower than the rest, with loud mechanisms unlocking within before the viewing beyond became clear. They were heading into the Vault chamber, a brightly lit dome-shaped cave, about a mile high and a few miles in diameter. In the centre of the chamber sat a solid metal cube of Outreman design, a few hundred metres across. The sides were crisscrossed with gantries and viewing rooms, and on top was a baffling array of communications equipment.

Surrounding the cube and taking up most of the floor area was the mythical Vault command complex. Modern now, but with a few elements stretching back to the first few years of Outremer’s colonisation, a geometric town of research buildings and barracks rippled out from the Vault in concentric circles. Freyr spotted ant-like figures moving around below them as they glided into the cave, along with tanks and mounted gun emplacements. “Wow.” Freyr murmured. She’d been here once before, years ago, but the air of wonderment hadn’t worn off.