Space Shift Stories: McGuffin 45

Just A Normal Day At Work

Yakron is an abandoned military moon base. It could be mistaken as an asteroid due to its debris around it. There's also a red dust cloud that concealed something. The abandoned and demolished Military base. A ship approached it at a cruising speed. The debris that surrounds the moon would make any inexperienced pilot nervous. Or anyone with a severe midlife crisis rethinks their life choices before plunging in. But this ship and its pilot are not afraid to weave through the debris. The ship looked like it was glazing through the cornfields. As the ship heaves and banks avoiding every floating rock it meets.

As the ship approaches the surface it encounters a new problem, the dust cloud. But the pilot seems to know this moon base like the back of his palm. He set the thrusters not to move the ship against the current. But against the direction of the dust cloud. Letting the thrust become a knife cutting the dust. Which made maneuvering to the surface easy.

Yakron's surface is calm and cold in contrast to the harsh and aggressive route going in. Being on the surface gives a feeling of advancement and abandonment. The ruins of a military base, reduced to rubble. Yet you can still see its former glory as an incubator of soldiers. Soldiers that would defend the planet the moon is orbiting to.

The doors of the spaceship opens, the accommodation folds out. A person walks out of the ship wearing a space suit with a heavy tinted helmet. It looks more of a hazmat suit than a space suit. He was careful as he took his step surveying if the land would sink in, and to see the gravity of the surface. He checks them with care, and he raises his arm to signal whoever is inside to get out. As another person walks out of the ship, he rolls up his right arm so that he can see his holowatch. He taps his holowatch twice and a holographic HUD pops out in front of him. He shuffles through the menu and clicks an 'eye' icon. He took something from the utility belt of his suit. Something shaped like an oblong that's made out of metal and plastic. He clicks the icon on HUD and the oblong transformed into a drone that flew away from his hand.

He looks at the man who stepped out. He was wearing a zipped up worn-out leather jacket body bag with his helmet on. He glances at his watch displaying 'Scanning Please Hold'. He looked back at the man and said "You weren't kidding when you told me we don't need a guide to get inside here"

"It saved us a good amount of credits didn't we?" I replied

"Well the drone just finished scanning and I think we should get going." He said looking at his holowatch that displayed 'Scan Complete Proceed to Route'.

He grabbed the HUD and threw it at me. My holowatch beeps, I turned my palm over and flicked it to reveal the passage way the drone mapped out for us. We proceed taking the path. As we walk we see nothing but rocks and small canyons along the way. But as the map tells us we are getting closer more elements of a military base reveals itself. From the wide runway of the troop carrier, to fuel towers. You could see a lot of history happening to this place, full of memories now reduced to scraps. This scene is not new to us but it doesn't keep the awe about the place.

The HUD beeps and displays '10 Steps Left'. We halted and saw what looked like a trailer with a door in the middle of it, I approached it and took a door opener. This looks like a small cube and works by placing it against a keyhole. Pressing it will allow the door opener to go inside the keyhole hitting all the pins inside the lock. Once all pins hit, a circular button will pop-out. Pressing said button will turn the key opening the door automatically. Hence the name door opener.

I removed the door opener, and we entered in. My partner looks for a power box. It was placed on the lower right corner of the room. He opens it and fixes the busted wiring inside. as he closes the power box the door closes automatically and the room lights up.

"Decompression and Oxygenation begin." the speaker roared as it released a white smoke paired with a loud hiss of air. "Descending to Base." the speakers stated and we felt the room going down, as soon as it touched the lower level the doors opened. The lights turned on showing what was left of the military base.