When the devil beetles were first conceived by our ancestors they were used in the great war that cracked the crust of the earth and brought civilization to the brink. The survivors of that war buried the monstrous machines deep beneath the surface and built a city atop of it in hopes of never unleashing them again. They slept for many centuries, until that fateful day the city was overrun and something within their computer brain awakened the machines and brought them under the control of the Commissariat.
We had only heard stories of their destructive power and didn't take how serious the ramifications of unleashing them on the Artesians. It was a greater mystery why we chose to release them a second time to make quick work of them.
It was all by mere coincidence as the device that allowed us to control and give commands to the beetles was considered lost and was only recently discovered on a scientific expedition to the northern Arctic sea. Within the ancient ruins of a long forgotten military installation lay the control card to the beetles. It sat undisturbed in a large ante chamber a mile beneath the ocean turned a quarter to the right and a yellow light blinking every three seconds indicating it was listening and waiting to receive a command.
The scientists could decipher and read the ancient language and understood the importance of their discovery and removed the control key along with a small brief case that served as a mobile docking station. It languished for decades within the warehouses of the Montresor, touched by numerous hands and nudged and dropped a few times, none the wiser.
And it fell on Ingrid Glikmann, who for no reason to care for the Politiburo or the Commissariat and an ardent diehard Artesian to make them aware of this device and place it in the hands of the Commissars. During their greatest hour of need, the device was their salvation. In seven days, the tide turned and the war ended.
Edgar commissioned me to hide the device and place it back into the Arctic vault then permanently seal it away. He wanted to destroy it, but the scientists who studied the devil beetles cautioned that it may initiate a fail safe. Reluctantly, he conceded.
The team was split into three groups. An advance team arrived by air and assembled a base camp and awaited the overland and sea teams to bring the heavy explosives and additional supplies. The advance team surveyed the miles of tunnels and planned the placement of the explosives as well as continue further archaeological studies as it would be the last opportunity to study the arctic vaults before they were sealed away.
The entire superstructure was built with a similar material as the devil beetles and couldn't be destroyed, nor penetrated by conventional means. Only the concrete tunnels that spiraled around and downwards towards the midpoint could be reasonably destroyed. The tunnels were already in a dilapidated state and had been reinforced on previous expeditions.
The archaeologists determined that the tunnels were younger than the vault and were likely built by later generations, but were unsuccessful in entering the vault. Some of the tunnels were haphazardly designed as if by someone trying to determine an alternate route. Ironically, the key in opening the vault was the Rosetta Stone that figured prominently each year when the Montresor stood.
Dr. Glikmann's obsession with that artifact and its culture was critical in determining the sequence in opening the vault. To everyone's dismay the vast internal cavity of the vault was largely empty, although there were numerous smaller rooms and storage compartments with numbering and writing that were intended for various valuables. The vault was meant to be for a doomsday scenario that unfortunately arrived before they could transfer items within. Only the control unit for the devil beetles that caused the end times was preserved and Dr. Glikmann surmised someone may have accidentally triggered it eons ago when they placed it within the vault. Their accident however, left the device in the launch sequence so it was made clear how to activate the devil beetles.
We returned the device to a pedestal and ensured the controls were set to an inert state. We left manuals and instructions indicating what we knew about the device and what devastation it caused in our time to hopefully warn future generations. We added to some graffiti on the wall in the control room that indicate the last date and time the device was activated.
I paused to run my fingers across the old paint and small bits flecked off. I could still feel what the original author must have felt when they realized what had happened. What struck Dr. Glikmann and multiple other expeditions afterwards was the failure in finding any trace of the person who must have been locked away in the vault all those ages ago. The bare and empty rooms left little room to hide and they wouldn't have survived long as there was no food or water. Even bones could have lasted millions of years. Nothing.
The only evidence was a partial fingerprint on the old paint.
After several weeks of archaeological studies, we agreed it was time to seal away the vault and destroy the tunnel works. To our shock, we discovered we were not alone and several members of the sisters led by Ninya had been observing us all this time and made their presence known when it was time to close the vaults. They provided some helpful advice on adjusting the placement of some explosives.
Ninya and I walked one last time within the main vault floor and she shared with me that Dr. Glikmann was the not the first person to enter the vaults since they were first sealed away. The tunnels were built centuries before by another group of people who had entered and cleared the vault of anything valuable, but left the control unit, knowing its importance. The existence of the vault and how to open it was well known by a select group of survivors and kept secret until in desperate times they agreed to extract the valuable treasures within.
She smiled and placed her hand on the floor of one of the empty rooms and said this once housed heirloom seeds that we now know and use to grow our crops. Another housed medical books and supplies and many more rooms that were used to rebuild our civilization.
Shortly after, we sealed the vault. We made no mention of the sisters in our official report and to Edgar's satisfaction we estimated it would take years to rebuild the tunnels or find another means to enter the vaults again. For added measure, we shattered the Rosetta Stone and crumbled the bits into gravel. After some thought, Edgar and I both commented that it might have been that simple and all we had to do was destroy the Rosetta Stone.
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