Star Force: Hamoriti (SF62) Read Online Free PDF Page A

direct attack had been unlikely, but
what had worried the Trinx more was an infiltrator sneaking past and gaining
access to the artifact, with these weapons emplacements, troops, and sealed
doors intending to deny them even sight of the Ancient prison.
    There were a number of procedures to
pass through, time locks and such that prevented any quick access, with Nesfa
waiting patiently while the Regents handled all that was required. Once the
last measure had been passed the doors behind them closed, obscuring the final
defensive emplacements from view, before the much smaller opposite single hatch
pulled open revealing one of the actual entrances on the shell’s surface.
Initially they had been nearly impossible to find, but after the Sety had
unwittingly damaged theirs when trying to cut their way in the Trinx had made
sure not to make that mistake again and had spent many centuries looking for a proper
way inside before finally finding one.
    Two of the Regents stayed in the
defense cupola while Nesfa and the other walked inside, transitioning off of
Trinx infrastructure to the floor built by the Ancients so long ago. In all
this time no one had learned what had happened to them, and the Oracles only
possessed knowledge regarding the Hamoriti and their imprisonment. They had not
tried to directly access the Ancient computer systems for fear of unwittingly
releasing the creature, so it was possible that the Oracles knew more than they
said. Nesfa wasn’t going to risk unleashing this monster, but he was going to
try and get whatever shreds of an answer he could out of this one.
    A short hallway led to a series of
maintenance shafts that spurred off a central command area, with other
redundant structures spread around the gap between shells. The Oracle could be
accessed at any of them and many other smaller stations, and as the pair of
Trinx approached its hologram appeared in the center of the chamber and ‘flew’
towards them, speaking in the native Trinx language that it had deciphered long
ago.
    “ Greetings,
Regent and guest ,” the tri-tipped icon said aloud, with all three spurs
spinning around their focal point and looking like an eviscerated pyramid. “ This facility’s status remains unchanged
since your last visit .”
    “ I
am Prefect of the Trinx ,” Nesfa identified himself, “ and I have questions .”
    “ You
may ask .”
    “ How
many Hamoriti are there? ”
    “ Seven.
All were neutralized and imprisoned in separate facilities ,” it said,
flashing up a slice of the galactic map beneath it with seven pinpricks pulsing
with a pink glow. “ This one is known as
Rigall and is unique from the others. They are called… ”
    “ Only
seven? ” Nesfa repeated, cutting off the long spiel that they’d heard many
times before.
    “ Correct
in number, but not significance. A single Hamoriti is powerful enough to
decimate the galaxy if unchecked .”
    “ We
have discovered another, and it has been released from its shell. How is this
possible? ”
    “ Location
please ,” the Oracle said, creating a solid holographic control board in
front of Nesfa for him to manipulate the map with.
    The Trinx set its two-fingered hands
onto the energy-based floating panels and worked the Ancient coordinate system,
first identifying the local region and scaling the map down to it, then
manually picking out the correct system by sight rather than imputing the long
numerical code.
    “ There
is no facility located in this system, nor is it a possession of the Ancients .”
    “ Mere
months ago a Hamoriti was released from a prison built akin to this one, though
of smaller size. The Hamoriti is also smaller and of a shape unlike the seven
you have shown us .”
    “ There
are no other Hamoriti beyond the seven .”
    Nesfa glanced at the Regent, who
took the data device he was carrying and walked it over to a station in the
command center. It had taken a very long time to be able to build a device that
could interact