Tomb worlds were never pleasant to visit. Some, like Agara VII were irradiated balls of wasteland, the only remnants of a long forgotten, world ending war. Others, like Michelo II, were nothing more than clumps of rock, their atmosphere destroyed by some quirk of solar physics, leaving nothing but fossilised remains and the odd structural remnants. A select few, though, like Regatus III, were very much alive.

What makes them tomb worlds then, you may wonder, and the answer is simple. ‘Living’ tomb worlds had an active biosphere, albeit one that was usually incredibly (or even fatally) damaged or was in the process of recovering from some catastrophe. Most of these worlds were in the latter category, having been bathed in the cleansing fire of nuclear war (or some other global crisis) which wiped out whatever sentient life was unfortunate enough to have inhabited the planet, leaving the few surviving fauna and flora to rebuild the planet and all evidence of the previous sentient inhabitants destroyed or buried.

Ragatus III, though, was unique even amongst this select group of ‘living’ tomb worlds in that the biosphere in this planet was very much alive and kicking. Biodiversity was through the roof for a normal planet, yet alone a supposed post-catastrophe one. Ragatus was, according to scans, a full-on garden world that seemed better suited for Hextic life than even their own home world of Alfa Kenturae.

None-the-less, Ragatus was most definitely a tomb world; the desolate and decaying cityscapes, traces of industrial and nuclear pollutants, and other signs of past civilisation made sure of that. The question on everyone’s mind, though, was what exactly killed the natives? Sure, there was evidence of recent rapid rise (and subsequent fall) in sea level, but that should be nowhere near enough to have wiped out a species. The Hextic had gone through a similar cycle on their own planet when their own industrialisation went overboard, and while to took some work they had adapted to the change and rebuilt their own world back to what it was once the temperature lowered and the poles re-froze.

In order to answer the all important question of ‘where are the natives’, the ship that had just discovered this planet, HSS Acantus, had sent landing parties to several points on interest that had been detected from orbit; several extremely well preserved buildings doted throughout what seemed to be major cities, a single radio single that was still pinging from somewhere high in the mountains of the largest continent on the planet, and three extremely primitive launchpads.

Arriving at one of those launchpads via shuttle, Hedonius Macdecan, a tall man of thirty years, and his team of twelve began to search the pad and the compound surrounding it.

“Surelia” Hedonius beaconed one of his engineers over, “what do you make of this?” He gestures to the launchpad, which was little more than a huge slab of concrete with snapped metal girders sticking out in odd places.

“If I had to make a guess, sir” Surelia scratched his neck as he gathered his thoughts. “I’d say that this be a launching platform for one of those old-timey spacecraft, the ones we used to build on the planet surface back on Alfa Kenturae-like, although it’s bigger than any I’ve ever laid eyes on, sir.”

“Peculiar, don’t you think?”

“Wha? Oh! Ay, sir, it is right peculiar like.”

“Do you think they managed to build whatever was meant to be launched here?”

“I don’t rightly know, sir, but I would wager that If they were gonna build it they woulda built it here. That’s the way we used to do it back home, see.”

“So they never got round to starting then?”

“I wouldn’t righty know, sir. They coulda built ‘er and launched ‘er sir, or they didn’t built ‘er at all. Those be the only options I be seeing.”

“Don’t you think we would’ve detected something that big in orbit?”

Surelia shrugged noncommittally. “It’s possible we misidentified ‘er as an asteroid, or maybe she crashed on one of the planets in this here system. Heck, she could be floating through the void even as we speak, sir. There’s a lot of space to hide In space. All I know for sure is that if she was built, they launched ‘er.”

“Thank you, Surelia.” Because of his thick Lodnor accent, most people assumed Surelia was quite simple-minded, when in reality he was one of the smartest people who served on HSS Acantus. “This is Officer Macdecan to Officer Luentia.”

“This is Luentia, what can I do for you, Officer?”

“We’ve got evidence that the natives may have launched rudimentary spacecraft before their extinction, Id like to request we release probes to do a complete survey of the system and the surrounding space for any signs of them.”

The communicator was silent for a couple moments. “The Megart has granted your request, probes are being deployed now. Good day, Officer.”

“Good day.” The communicator disconnected with a soft beep, before a ping signalled someone was trying to contact him; he pressed the button to accept the call. “Macdecan here.”

“Sir! We’re in the compound on the western edge of the site, we’ve got something we’d like you to see.”

“On my way, Macdecan out.”

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