On the morning of departure the group gather at the starport and Wilhelm takes them out to the landing pad where the Aurora is sitting waiting for them. After showing them to their staterooms and the group have unpacked their belongings Wilhelm shows them around the ship, the ship looks old but everything seems to be working fine and Wilhelm has equipped it well for most situations. He also says that the destination is Regina, as he has a bit of business to conclude there.
During the countdown to take off a large seismic tremor rocks the ship, though take off proceeds normally, once in orbit Wilhelm requests that everyone checks the ship for damage. No damage is found but through a break in the normally dense clouds the sensors detect an anomaly on the planet surface, about 1,000 Km from the starport. Computer enhancement shows it to be some kind of structure, Wilhelm is intrigued by the structure, which appears to be a pyramid complex, as it did not show up on his survey of the world and none of the planetary officials have mentioned anything in his interviews with them. Wilhelm decides it is certainly worth investigating and tells the others that they will head to Regina shortly, but first he wants to return to the planet for a little field trip to examine the pyramids.
As the Aurora is on final approach to the pyramids an energy blast passes within meters of the hull, Wilhelm quickly puts the ship down behind some sand dunes which mask the ship from further fire, but are about one Km from the complex. A computer analysis of the attack indicates that the energy blast originated from the pyramid complex and that there is an 80% chance of the ship being disabled if the energy blast hits the ship. Wilhelm says that the weapon is going to have to be put out of action before he will risk taking off again. The computer also determines that the corrosive atmosphere of the planet will breach the integrity of a vacc suit in about eight hours, so speed will be essential in finding the weapon.
(Image from: http://scarecrovv.deviantart.com/art/Yorbund-Pyramids-Exterior-454522879)
The crew suit up and set out from the Aurora towards the pyramids, except for Oliver Skyler who is going to stay in the ship and provide radio support to the group. The walk to the pyramids takes about twenty minutes and Tommy and Bucky quickly discover that the alien statue at the top of one of the pyramids can be moved to reveal a deep shaft leading into the heart of the structure. It is at this point that Bucky realises that they have no way to get down the shaft, Wilhelm tells him that there are some fifty meter cables back at the ship. Bucky and Vann trudge back to the ship to fetch a couple of them back, returning about an hour later they hastily tie the cables together and attach it to the statue, which looks strong enough to support the weight of someone descending the cable.
Bucky is 'volunteered' to be the first one to descend into the depths, after about twenty meters the shaft opens up into a large dimly illuminated chamber, Bucky though carries on his descent. At just about the end of the first cable he finds a ledge where the shaft seems to have been fractured by seismic activity, on the ledge he finds several small skeletons of a snake like creature. As he is about to swing off the ledge his torch beam catches on a small gold coin, engraved with a flame, which he pockets to examine later. Rather than descending further he decides to climb back up to the chamber he passed earlier. After swinging over to the chamber floor he finds that there is nowhere on the metal floor to attach the cable, so he decided to keep it attached to his belt and begins to walk down the wide faintly illuminated corridor. Suddenly, out of the corner of his eye, he sees something scurrying around a corner into what appears to be a side passage, drawing his revolver he proceeds cautiously to where he saw the movement.
Looking around the corner he sees eight small creatures huddling around some stairs leading up to a metal door. One of the creatures suddenly rushes at him, baring its teeth, Bucky fires at it and it is thrown backwards, dead. The noise seems to frighten the remaining animals causing them to rush past him and into the darkness of another side passage. Bucky climbs the stairs and examines the door, apart from a small slot off to one side, he tries to open the door but fails, so he calls for someone to come and join him. Vann agrees to come down and begins to descend the cable.
Meanwhile, Tommy and Wilhelm have continued to examine the exterior of the pyramids, but they cannot find any sign of the weapon that fired at them and the only other feature is another shaft near the base of the largest pyramid, but they do not have any way to descend it.
Using brute strength Bucky and Vann manage to raise the door, it leads to a small chamber filled with boxes that contain some organic material. Further examination of other side chambers reveals more boxes and also some sort of plants growing in some soil, Bucky carefully picks a sample of the plant for later study. Further down the wide corridor they find another large chamber with a shaft leading down in the center, attached to the ceiling is a cable running down into the shaft . Tommy and Wilhelm are called to come and join the others and to help with the exploration, by the time they arrive it has been discovered that the cable is swinging slightly as if it is attached to something loose further down the shaft.
After taking some careful measurements using the electronic sight on his laser rifle, Wilhelm realises that the cable seems to be located under the apex of the largest pyramid in the complex, though there is no obvious reason for it to be there. Off the chamber there are three other large chambers but they are all empty except for some faint markings on the walls, when Vann and Wilhelm examine the markings using their IR goggles striking murals are revealed. Two of them show the pyramids being used for some sort of social or religious gathering by reptilian aliens, whilst the other one shows the energy beams shooting from the faces of the pyramid to attack some sort of flying creatures. Back in the cable chamber Tommy discovers a panel concealing a doorway, when it is opened four flying creatures burst out and begin to attack the group. Wilhelm manages to down two of them with shots from his laser rifle, while Tommy gets one with a carbine shot and Bucky kills the final one but not before it manages to bite him and make a small tear in his vacc suit. After patching the tear the group decide to head down the passageway where the creatures came from.
