[Monument to the Revolution of the people of Moslavia, Podgaric, Croatia, 10th of November 2024, 12:48]
The Podgaric Monument, in fact, is an interesting piece of art, an old stone sculpture, 10 metres high and 20 metres long, standing majestically on a hill surrounded by wide green fields and rare trees. One could say that this monument with its weird shape reminded of a spaceship. Maybe, that person also would be right about it, who knows.
A guy in a black hoodie and with a mask on was standing right in front of the monument. His hoodie had yellow symbols all along the sleeves and a big yellow logo on the back, his walker ID under it that left no doubt of who he was. Aurora, walker #62321.
A quiet music in his earbuds was playing, "Not you" by Alan Walker. He was in a mission but actually he was just enjoying a perfect moment of the day and beautiful lyrics which were making him overthink again. Suddenly the music stopped because of a call. He had to switch to the mission and his teammate who was waiting for him on the line.
"I am right in front of the monument." Aurora said automatically.
A clear voice started reporting to him.
"The monument was originally created from 1965 to 1967, so even though its style seems pretty much antique, it is only about 60 years old. Its artist has nothing to do with ancient walkers, obviously."
"Actually he has, and the monument itself is somehow connected to the walkers. We just need to find out how."
"The only connection is the Sun disk, a traditional symbol of ancient walkers... This familiarity is strange... We're definitely missing something. And I don't think we were asked to get the blueprints of the monument just to satisfy someone's curiosity. So you are right, the Podgaric monument has something to do with the walkers in general, even if it is not connected to ancients."
The voice paused for a moment. Aurora looked around, like the person who had been talking was there too. But he was all alone in the park and voice of his teammate was transmitted through his earbuds.
"Could you get closer to the monument and send some pictures? I need to check something." The voice continued. But no reply followed. "Aurora? Aurora?! Mateusz!!"
"There's no need for that..." He was thinking of something else while talking. "I'll send the blueprints as soon as my drone decides to come and get them."
"I know you are going to scan the monument anyways but I would like to get a preview." The voice insisted.
"Why didn't you come then? You know, I would be more useful in front of the computer and you would be more useful here."
"You know why I stayed in Germany. What would I say to my parents? 'Hey, mom, dad, I'm going to another country to complete a mission given to my team by a secret community of walkers'?" The voice on the line got a bit frustrated. "But it doesn't mean I am not interested."
"Sure, I'm glad to have you in the team, Luisa. But I'll send the blueprints." Aurora said in a monotonous emotionless voice, but it never meant he wasn't sincere, he was grateful for his team in some degree. And it wasn't his fault at all, that the team he organized was so chaotic and despite the productive work and contribution of each member never was gathered in one place.
Walker Database team consisted of the four: Aurora, walker #62321 - the founder and a hardworking leader; Melissa, walker #86295 - the community manager working from Siberia, Russia (she was suspiciously inactive for some time already); Luisa, walker #153330 - the vice leader of the team and a very passionate researcher, she had much of potential even though she preferred her room's safety and the computer to real action missions; and walker #100161, Eko - the main theorist and the investigator, who rarely showed up to others, especially now when she had got a mission somewhere else. So this mixed company had one of the biggest sources of information in the walker space, which played an important role for running the whole community.
Aurora sat on a bench not far from the monument and opened his laptop, it was kind of a controller for the drone. After running some system programs he looked up to the sky waiting for his drone to arrive. When it finally flew above his head - it actually wasn't an AVI-8 model, it was a different one with limited abilities that looked almost like a modern drone - he gestured making the drone take the same level as the monument.
The lenses this drone used were made by Aurora himself, basically, the whole drone was constructed by him. The AVI-8 drones were really rare still, even though their production spread widely among the walkers over the last months.
It took a while for the drone to do its job. Finally the data of the blueprints was transported to #62321's device after scanning.
"Here, I got it, sending." He murmured. "A huge piece of stone, nothing interesting." The more he tried to understand the real purpose of this monument, the more it got confusing.
"I'm already on it." Luisa said after a short time, downloading the files.
She was sitting in her dark room, in Germany. Lately she got really interested in programming, so she was spending all her time here, messing around with database codes and helping with the researching part. After a few minutes she already got all information related to the monument, its structure and familiar objects that occurred in human history. When all that data was loading, filling the computer's screen, it felt like a big puzzle coming together. Luisa got distracted just a little while turning the volume of her headphones up - it was playing "Levels" by Avicii, her favorite. When she looked at the screen again there was no doubt left...
"Oh my God." The only words Aurora could hear.
"Luisa? What's wrong?"
"Everything is just perfect." She started scrolling through the documents she'd just found by accident. They appeared so randomly and fitted so perfectly. "I guess, we've just found something incredible! But I need to make sure first."
"Huh?"
"The Spectre!"
"Wait, you mean the monument has something to do with The Spectre? It's a myth... Or... Maybe..."
"But the documentations from the Son Doong cave expedition describe the exact same structure and shape! It can't be a coincidence. And the blueprints... They include some parts that are different from the official version shared in public after its opening in 1967. It is not a piece of stone, it's an ancient machine! The Spectre misses some parts though."
"If you are right, it is definitely a big discovery. We need to investigate it further..." When Aurora looked up again to the monument, he noticed something strange. There was a car approaching him from the side. It was a black racing car to be exact. Aurora surprisingly recognized the Walkermobile.
The car stopped right in front of him. Then its door opened, leaving him even more speechless.
"Hi." Only word he could say after he saw that it was walker #0 himself sitting at the driver's seat, with a serious, masked face. There was a mysterious passenger next to him.
"Walker #62321?" The passenger asked, it was a girl in the age of 20, also wearing a mask.
"Yes, it's me." Aurora finally started thinking rationally again.
"What is happening? Who are you talking to? Don't ignore me now... are you in trouble?" Luisa tried to understand what's going on in there, but he politely hung up the phone just not to shock her until he himself finds out what's going on.
"I'm walker #100718. Glad we finally met. You've got something for us." Mysterious girl continued.
"Wait, the blueprints. Was that you who ordered them?"
"All questions will be answered inside the car."
"Are we going somewhere?"
"You and your team are invited to be a part of the SMTS mission in Honk Kong. Get into the car and we'll share more details, and you must inform your team members too."
All #62321 could do after hearing these words was to obey, and, of course, he shared some taken pictures with his team as a proof of their promotion in the community.
Luisa decided not to waste time, a cryptic message was sent to Eko immediately, as she needed another opinion about her discovery. She always managed to make #100161's curiosity grow by telling less details or not telling them at all. Now she just needed to wait for the reply, Eko used to disappear sometimes but always replied in time. Then she got Aurora's message what exactly happened few minutes ago. It made her think. She was invited to Hong Kong mission alongside with the others. Was that time to go out her comfort zone?