Conflicting Objectives XXXII

- What did you notice, major? - sarge Szarak asked Marlow - Does it have something to do with these animals?

- Indeed, it is - John replied with a nod - I realized that these animals act normal at first and then suddenly start going crazy as if something was affecting them suddenly. We might have gotten used to it being stable after the events at Industrial Caves, but the electromagnetism all around the planet is varying. I suspect the planet's gravity field in the area may be the cause both for animals behavior changing and power cells failing. Certain waves may affect both electric signals in the brains and electric flow in various devices.

- Does it not mean that we are at risk too, then?

- That's a really good question. When we stopped, I asked everyone if they had their PECs fully operational since EMP strong enough to turn off our power cells would likely be able to also disable our implants. Because of that, I initially completely disregarded this possibility, but after observing the local animals, it occurred to me that specific frequencies and waveforms may affect only selected objects, which is why interference caused only our vehicles to stop functioning and animals with certain intensity of electric signals within brains to act abnormally. Still, such precision hardly seems to be natural... Though, if it was artificial, I wonder who could come up with something like that...

- Is there a chance this may be some kind of leftover from these aliens who built the structures on this planet?

Marlow shrugged.

- While it's unlikely, I cannot really exclude the possibility of this phenomenon being natural. Then again, if it is artificial... Well, I would honestly prefer if it was left by aliens rather than built by humans. After all, the latter would mean that either someone is intentionally messing up with the ecosystem or wants to interfere with human technology. It may also be that someone aimed for any of the two and the other is simply just a side effect. Either way, what matters to us the most is how we should handle that.

- What is the plan then, major?

John was focusing on using his PEC during the conversation, already drafting details about what he wanted to do.

- I will be sending details to everyone in a matter of minutes - he informed Stan - For starters, we need all the sensors that can pick up electromagnetic waves gathered. I'm the most interested in getting as many sensor rods as possible.

Sensor rods major mentioned were a type of multi-purpose tool applicable to taking variety of measurements. These could rely on picking up the electric signals within the ground or emit electricity on their own in order to gather data on the electric resistance. Looking at the charts created with said data, a specialist could interpret the readings, providing information on magnetic activity in the area or figure out the chemical elements within the ground.

Obviously, the aim in this situation was to figure out whether the electromagnetism in the area was strong enough to affect their vehicles and cause the wildlife to go crazy. Still, the chemical elements found could be also used for determining the possibility of extensive electromagnetic activity.

Following up on Marlow's plan, everyone was granted a role to play during the measurements - drivers and SVG operators were given guard duty, while John with support of mechanics and engineers was taking care of sensor rods placement.

The group was working within a radius of fifty meters around the spot where their vehicle stopped working. Within this area, they were to set triangle-shaped measurement zones, enclosed in between three rods. Since the group had total of twelve such rods at disposal, going with triangle shapes made the most sense, allowing them to set up four such spots, each covering a quarter of the circle around their vehicles.

Setup took the group approximately one hour owing to no interference from animals that seemed to be wary of them now.

After having all sensors in place, John went on to sync his PEC with the tools directly - in usual scenario, he would rely on a different, separate terminal, but none of these would turn on properly, hence implant was the only available solution, even though it required quite a bit of tinkering to code an app to support a new function.

He did have a decent expertise with this kind of work, thus preparing a new program from scratch with knowledge of rod sensors took him around fifteen minutes. Still, even with it ready, calibration was still needed, taking the next fifteen minutes.

Having all the sensors synced, Marlow could finally start gathering comparable data, which would ultimately provide the activity charts for him to interpret. However, even with that ready, it was hard to determine for how long they should gather the readings in order to get an objective conclusion.

- Okay, all we can do for now is wait - he informed others - We should probably stay inside the brawlers, even if it seems to be safe around now.

- Major, if I may - sarge Szarak spoke - Is it okay for us to do some scouting around this place? This area may be close to First Haven's location, yet we don't have that much of information about it. Only thing we felt to be secure were two routes that we are using regularly, but now one of them seems to be no longer optimal.

John could only agree that it sounds bad for previously safe route to be lost in such circumstances, so - while it was still possible for them to figure out the reason and fix the problem - it was reasonable to use the time efficiently instead of waiting idly.

- Permission granted - he replied to Stan - Just please, be extremely careful and never allow soldiers to go around solo, okay?

- Understood, sir - sarge said with a nod - Thank you.

Major got back to his original seat in the brawler and fit himself in it comfortably, focusing on the data flowing in through his PEC. At the same time, sarge Szarak sent two teams of two into the forest to scout.

At first, for initial fifteen minutes, Marlow was not seeing anything peculiar, no readings that would show any unusual behavior. Then, out of nowhere, he could observe sudden spikes of electromagnetic activity in each of the triangular zones enclosed between the sensore rods.

What was especially interesting was the range of energy flow as it encompassed the whole radius John set as initial parameter, meaning the area affected was wider than he expected.

Of course, it was not something unusual since major made the setting that way based on the position of the herd of animals feeding nearby as they seemed to lose control when breaching into the area - this seemed to be connected and, in the end, confirmed that the intensity of electromagnetic radiation was lower the farther it was transmitted from the source.

Either way, owing to investigation of these readings for the next hour, Marlow managed to determine where the source of interference was located. Surprisingly, when he more or less set the area where the source was supposed to be, a report came in from sarge Szarak that his men stumbled upon an obelisk, which turned out to be within the zone major expected to be the centre of interference.

- Show me the way, Stan - John ordered immediately after hearing about the obelisk - It'd have been too much for a simple coincidence.

Afterwards, sarge led major into the woods - the trip took them about half an hour on foot, yet Marlow quickly decided this walk was worth it. The very moment he did a scan of the obelisk, it became obvious the object had high compatibility for conducting energy, and subsequent tests made John pretty sure it was there to act as energy transmitter.

Following this discovery, major decided on yet another set of measurements in the area, this time using the obelisk as a centre point. Moments later, he could already tell this system was not performing well - the way he saw it, it felt to him that the setup was lacking and was far from being efficient. The way it was seemed unusual, which made Marlow feel that the whole system was somehow missing the elements.

Having a lot of data gathered so far, he decided to run some simulations based on models he could create with the pieces of structure he managed to learn about. Spending the next thirty minutes on running the simulations, he ended up with several conclusions.

First of all, it was unlikely that this system would rely on a single obelisk acting as a transmitter - looking at the readings John was getting and all irregularities, it was clear the energy balance was off. Second, related to the first one, the energy was supposed to be transferred into ground rather than spreading in circular radius around the obelisk, and subsequent checks allowed him to notice a wide route hidden under the soil. This led to third thing - obelisks were likely working in groups in a way that their transmission's circular ranges would overlap above the route Marlow identified, making this route absorb the created energy.

Ultimately, John came up with a theory that this was an energy transmission line. He was not sure how exactly was this used, but based on the shape of the route and its size, it was not impossible for this to be an actual road providing the energy supply to vehicles. Or maybe even having both functions at the same time.

Whatever it was, based on the direction this line led to, it could be connected to a pyramid located in the area. If that was the case, Marlow expected there were many more connectors like that around the planet, and any of their vehicles could end up being overcharged by the passive energy intake. Still, if his theory was right even in the slightest, there were some easy fixes for making their vehicles operational again.

- So, what are our options then, major? - Stan asked after John shared his findings with the rest of the group - If I understood it correctly, shouldn't getting rid of this obelisk stop the energy flow?

Major nodded with a smile.

- That's one brutal solution, but I can confirm this is one of the options we have. However, I believe the second one is better, especially since we may need such lines at some point, so I would rather keep the current structure intact for as long as we can. Either way, the idea I have is much simpler. All we need to do is to turn off the passive energy intake systems manually. If my idea here is correct, the batteries simply got overloaded so as long as they did not burst off, we may still be able to use them afterwards.

Looking at the people in the group, Marlow could notice their uneasiness, most likely connected to turning off the passive intake as this system was responsible for keeping the batteries at optimal charge, so there were some concerns about keeping such system disabled.

- I get you are worried about this idea - John continued speaking - Still, I'm betting on this second option for the long-term gain rather than fast solution destroying of the obelisk would bring. Please, trust me on this one.

- You don't need to put it that way, major - Stan said it out loud - You've got higher rank, so the trust should be a given. I apologize for my squad.

Ultimately, no one complained about further steps Marlow wanted them to take and - in a matter of minutes - they proceeded with adjusting the system settings manually. Initially, there was a bit of panic when the engines were not turning on, but then first of SVGs managed to move and remaining vehicles followed, causing everyone to shout "hurray!"

However, while the main issue was resolved, there was still one thing John wanted to take care of - since one of the animals affected byt the electromagnetism ended up dying, he ordered the team to collect the remains for further investigation. Who knows, maybe they could used some of local animals as a resource? Major could easily bet that science team members would be thrilled at the thought of being able to examine these creatures and learn about options of controlling them.