Barely one human fleet left the brown dwarf star system before another one arrived!
Emerging at roughly the same orientation as the first fleet, the second collection of starships immediately began to deploy mechs to secure the surroundings and respond to any possible ambushes.
Fortunately for the latest arrivals, they encountered no imminent threats, even though they half-expected their latest enemies to prepare another welcome surprise.
It wouldn't have worked. With the help of enough skilled drive engineers that Cenatus Prospecting had painstakingly trained, the entire fleet arrived considerably far away from any predicted ambush site!
That did not mean that the men working for Cenatus Prospecting could relax.
"Where is the Golden Skull Alliance?!" An aged but muscular man demanded from the throne installed in the middle of the bridge of his flagship.
His wild black hair and his forest-like beard made him look a lot more ferocious than the other men of his age.
While most people above the age of 200 years tended to polish their image so that they could come across as elder statesmen, Otrus Magrin eschewed all of this refinement in favor of making himself look formidable to his men and his enemies.
He understood all too well that an intimidating appearance would complement his powerful image. Weakness had to be avoided at all costs.
This was one of the reasons why he urged his fleet to enter this small and unusual star system.
After getting hit by a foul and sudden attack, Otrus Magrin had become livid!
The powerful leader turned to his subordinates. "Tell me your current findings."
"We are still in the process of mapping out SDDD-4343X-AER-232666410, my lord." An officer replied. "Most of our sensors and scanners have primarily focused on inspecting our immediate surroundings, but our long-ranged modules have yet to detect the presence of any starships or artificial traces, human or alien."
"Keep searching!" Otrus shouted at his men! "The fleet of the Golden Skull Alliance came here for a reason! Send a scouting unit to the planet. If those cretins have already left this star system, then I want to know what they have managed to dig up and in which direction they have left."
"Acknowledged, my lord."
As time passed by, most sensors detected nothing that looked out of place in a brown dwarf star system like this. Ordinary asteroids and space dust were not worth their attention.
It wasn't until one of the vessels sent in the direction of the brown dwarf star managed to pick up traces of refined alloys in the vicinity of the planet.
"My lord! We have a notable quantity of refined alloys on the surface of the planet!"
"Investigate! Tell our scouting vessels to hurry up! We need to gather clues as fast as possible!"
Though Otrus Magrin and many of his men found it rather suspicious that they had yet to find anything solid aside from what appeared to be debris from a starship, their desire to repay the Golden Skullers for their unprovoked attack drove them to take a closer look.
"Send the rest of our fleet closer to the planet." The leader commanded. "If we are to find anything that can help us figure out what the Golden Skull Alliance is doing, we have a better chance of succeeding if we don't stay in an empty region of space."
"My lord?" One of his deputies looked hesitant. "The Golden Skullers have already tricked us once. We are safer here where we can transition back into FTL travel as soon as we encounter a dangerous trap or ambush."
Magrin dismissed the man's concern with a snort. "Our sensors have yet to detect anything aside from chunks of debris in the distance. The Golden Skullers also aren't strong enough to ambush a second time now that we are better prepared. What we need the most is speed. We need to react quickly to whatever we manage to uncover from that planet."
"Understood. We will pass on the new orders right away."
Time passed by as Magrin's fleet moved towards the inner system. This did not take as much time as usual because of the comparatively tiny size of the star system.
No one took the brown dwarf star seriously. It was just a boring, weak little gas giant that just happens to be large and heavy enough to pretend it was a star.
Only a small team of astrophysicists studied the properties of the star out of habit. Some stars generated precious exotics or held clues that pointed towards ancient ruins left behind by fallen alien races.
Most scientists and specialists paid much closer attention to the asteroids clouds, the small moon-like planet and the strange debris that continued to capture their imagination.
"My lord? We have a new report. Our fastest scouting vessel has come close enough to determine the mineral composition of the debris found on the far side of the planet. We can almost rule out the possibility that it comes from a human-built starship or mech. We only have to get within touching range to confirm this theory. We can also conduct further studies to determine how long ago the debris has gotten loose."
Otrus Magrin looked thoughtful. "Is the debris composed of remnants of an entire alien ship?"
"There isn't enough to suggest that this is the case. We believe the Golden Skull Alliance or another alien force may have only managed to damage a part of an alien ship."
"Then get closer so that we can see for ourselves!"
Once his fleet finally neared the planet, his men were finally able to conduct a proper investigation.
Numerous specialized mechs and shuttles were already scouring the planet for any notable traces.
So far, the relatively tiny planet presented nothing interesting aside from showing signs that another mech force had already investigated the surface before.
There were no signs of mining, tunneling or retrieval actions outside of the debris that looked oddly out of place. This suggested that the alien ship did not emerge from the planet or that it emerged from a different space.
Otrus Magrin became disappointed by the lack of results from the surveys, so he set his sights on the alien debris that his fleet had managed to secure.
In order to see what the Golden Skullers had left behind, Magrin donned a protective suit and moved over to a spare cargo bay where a scorched and broken piece of the exterior of a warship rested under close to zero gravity.
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