Beneath XYZ-15: Ben's Courageous Rescue

There were two ways to get from point A to point B. Straight line, and shortest distance. In this case A was our ship, the Endurance, and B was a set of coordinates we'd discovered on our last mission. The coordinates had been locked for a long time, and after our recent encounter with an alien force on the planet Dessus, we'd decided that any sign of life on XYZ-15 would be worth the risk.

The fact that B was marked as "Unknown" made me nervous. It could have been a trap, or it could have been paradise. The only way to find out would be to check it out ourselves, so I took my team through the caverns towards what I hoped would be a new home for us.

We travelled in silence, each of us too busy thinking about what might await us at the end of the journey to make conversation. We'd already discovered enough life on XYZ-15 to make our stay here more than worthwhile; we didn't need more. Luckily, as I thought this, we arrived at our destination.

A large room lay ahead of us; at its centre was what looked like an altar or perhaps even a shrine of some kind. It was covered in glowing symbols which had only just started lighting up as we approached them. As they did so, I noticed how they were slowly moving around the altar by themselves, shifting into different positions which would somehow make sense when they stopped moving although I couldn't say how exactly. There were seven symbols in total, one representing each member of my team - myself included - as well as one which seemed to represent something else entirely. The last symbol was very strange indeed; it wasn't anything like a person's handprint or anything like that - in fact it didn't look like anything recognisable at all - but nevertheless it seemed to move faster than the others and always remained in the centre position between the other six signs whenever they stopped moving before spinning around again once all seven signs were back in place.

"Captain?" asked my first mate, Tomlin. "What do you think it is?" He pointed his laser pistol at the altar but quickly lowered it again when he noticed that none of the lights on his gun were blinking anymore. Apparently there was no power left in his weapon and he'd forgotten to charge it before leaving the ship; typical Tomlin! Luckily for him I still had my trusty laser pistol with me, meaning that I could take out any potential threats without having to worry about running out of ammo mid-battle (as if that could ever happen!). As I raised my pistol I noticed another light blinking away on it: low ammo warning! All right then! Time to use some strategy!

I motioned for the rest of my team to hold their fire while I approached the altar alone (I'm not stupid enough to split up my team against an unknown threat). As soon as they were in position they followed my lead and stepped forwards until we were all standing right next to each other again, just far enough away from the altar to avoid getting caught by whatever trap may have been waiting for us there (then again maybe whatever lay inside wouldn't be able to get past Tomlin's massive bulk!).

"We should go back," said Jack - a man who always seemed too afraid of everything that surrounded him even though he always ended up doing whatever needed doing anyway when push came to shove; despite myself I admired him for his bravery even if he never recognised it himself! "This is too dangerous." He pointed further into the cave where darkness began encroaching upon our small circle of light cast by our lamps (it wasn't too bad yet but who knew how far away from our ship we may have wandered into these caves without realising?). "There must be something hidden inside there!" He waved his hands around erratically and jumped backwards a little when he realised how close he'd gotten to me already! "It's probably dangerous!" He fell onto the floor and immediately began pushing against Tomlin's feet in an attempt to free himself from danger while pointing at his own face in an attempt to communicate just how dangerous he thought we might be facing (we've all got problems like this but Jack is definitely worse than most).

Tomlin sighed loudly as he moved over and sat down next to Jack who immediately stopped struggling against his mighty mass but continued pointing frantically at *something* (probably nothing) inside his mouth instead. Meanwhile Tomlin pointed back at *someone* behind Jack (me) with his thumb and smiled proudly before saying: "He will protect us." His voice boomed throughout the cave and echoed off the walls around us until finally dying down again leaving only silence between us once more; unfortunately for Jack this gave him time enough to focus on Tomlin's loud announcement instead of whatever threat had supposedly been following us ever since we entered these caves (we haven't seen anything though). The result? Well let's just say that there wasn't much left of poor old Jack after he went back home with Tomlin later that day... Although nobody else will admit it now (except perhaps Ben), but nobody else ever really minded that much either... Oh well! Better get back on track now shall we?

As luck would have it there was no danger lurking behind us just now either so after taking a deep breath I returned my attention towards what lay ahead instead (Tomlin put Jack down gently behind him [he wouldn't want anyone seeing him acting so rough now would he?] before following suit). As I stepped forward towards what appeared to be an altar however I noticed something strange happening among my crew: they all started backing away from me! Why? They didn't know why themselves but instinctively each member of my team felt drawn towards those lights on their arms instead which moments earlier had been spinning restlessly around their wrists until suddenly stopping dead still with their lights shining brightly once more before returning once more into their original positions (although this time with a few exceptions). Of course by doing this they ended up spreading the group even further apart; sadly this meant that those few members closest towards me suffered greatly when great waves of energy suddenly burst forth from within them and knocked them unconscious cold onto their backs while those furthest away managed somehow not only remain standing but also escaped injury completely! Of course if things kept going like this then soon enough everyone would be falling over unconscious anyway... Hopefully though someone would manage not only stay conscious but also figure out what was going on before everyone died inside these caves during our first expedition here... Otherwise things might turn out quite badly for us soon enough...