It presented a matte metallic texture, with the spindle-shaped hull exhibiting sharp, aggressive lines and covered in power-infused geometric patterns and unidentified protruding structures, completely distinct from any design style utilized by humans or Na'vi.
The hull was roughly fifteen meters long, resembling a slumbering metallic behemoth. Portions of the ship were cleverly embedded into the rock face, apparently leveraging a natural recess to conceal itself.
Just as Maine's prior reconnaissance had stated, a conspicuous access hatch stood open at the stern of the starship, projecting a cold, unnatural light from the interior. That low-frequency hum was precisely emanating from inside the hull.
"My god..." a Hellfire soldier who had followed them inside could not help but marvel. He had never been in such close proximity to a creation from an extraterrestrial civilization.
Osiris's gaze swept past the crowd, locking directly onto that open hatch. He stepped forward, but Maine extended an arm to check him.
"Sir, allow us to conduct a safety sweep first."
Osiris nodded, not insisting otherwise.
Maine, Dorio, and two Hellfire soldiers instantly formed a tactical vanguard, cautiously approaching the starship. Utilizing the cover at the threshold, they rapidly swept the interior of the hatch with the tactical flashlights mounted on their weapons.
"No visible threats detected."
"Air composition is... complex, but non-toxic. High residual energy signatures present."
Only after confirming baseline security did Maine signal Osiris that it was clear to enter.
Osiris walked to the hatch and paused his advance. He noted distinct energy-scorch marks along the rim of the hatch, as if it had been forcefully breached from the inside via some high-temperature cutting or detonation. Yet, these traces were very "fresh," contrasting sharply with the weathered weathering across the rest of the starship's surface.
"It wasn't opened through standard protocols..." Osiris murmured to himself, the memory fragments in his mind belonging to Celtic surging once more. He closed his eyes, attempting to overlay these fragments with the sight before him.
A few seconds later, he opened his eyes, a glint of realization flashing within them. He turned to Maine and said, "The hatch was forcefully opened at the exact moment we terminated Celtic, triggered by a specific command or signal issued upon his demise. This is a... preset emergency protocol."
This deduction sent a chill through the crowd. It meant that the Predator technology was not only advanced but also embedded with some hidden cultural or security logic.
"I require a more rigorous examination," Osiris said, taking the lead as he stepped into the interior of the starship.
Maine and Dorio immediately flanked him on both sides. Asuka hesitated for a split second before curiously tagging along inside as well, leaving the rest of the personnel behind to handle external vigilance and maintain the blockade of the cave mouth.
The interior space of the starship was tighter than anticipated, packed with various unintelligible control interfaces and display monitors flashing bizarre symbols. The air carried a mixture of cold machine oil and some biological pheromone.
Ignoring the complex control consoles, Osiris walked directly toward a primary command station situated at the forward section of the cabin. There sat a bizarrely shaped interface that appeared to require specific biological signatures to initialize. Instead of attempting to manipulate it manually, he placed his hand gently upon a seemingly ordinary metal panel adjacent to the primary console.
His psychic power extended like invisible tendrils, slowly permeating inside, attempting to establish a link with the starship's core logging system which might not be completely locked down. He needed to validate his hypothesis and ascertain what other ripples that terminal signal had set in motion.
Inside the starship, the low hum of the machinery and Osiris's steady breathing reverberated within the cramped space. Maine and Dorio stood guard just inside the hatch, keeping a vigilant watch over the interior and exterior perimeters. Asuka curiously surveyed the surrounding interior aesthetics and equipment, which were saturated with an alien style, but she was intelligent enough to refrain from casually touching anything.
With his eyes closed, Osiris focused his entire attention onto that invisible connection forged through psychic energy. The memory fragments belonging to Celtic acted like a skeleton key, helping him bypass certain baseline identification barriers to access the core data stream of the flight logs and recent event archives.
A massive volume of information stored via a peculiar encryption algorithm flooded his perception. He filtered through it rapidly, bypassing the routine data regarding interstellar navigation vectors and energy readings, focusing his crosshairs strictly on the window surrounding the cessation of Celtic's life signs.
The visuals unfolded before his "eyes"—not as optical sight, but rather a perception grounded in data reconstruction:
He "saw" Celtic, this young Predator, lurking and tracking through the Pandoran jungle, engaging in a thrilling, perilous game of wits with the Toruk, testing his weaponry, and... coldly observing the friction between the Na'vi and the RDA, evaluating both factions as potential honorable prey. The perspective of the memory was entirely saturated with a hunter's calculation and assessment.
Then, the critical timestamp arrived.
The logs indicated that the moment Celtic's vitals monitoring system detected fatal trauma and his consciousness rapidly dissolved, a preset, highest-priority emergency protocol was automatically triggered.
First was the starship's internal system. An encrypted command was transmitted to the berthed vessel, forcefully overriding the baseline security locks and initializing the emergency opening sequence for the stern hatch. A side-note within the log annotated the significance of this behavior: "The Hunt's End, The Vault Unsealed."
This was a traditional custom within the Predator culture, implying that when a warrior confirmed they could not survive, they would fling open their vehicle to any potential "successor" qualified to inherit their wargear. It served as a twisted form of validation for a formidable adversary, or perhaps... a final trial.
Seeing this, Osiris verified his first hypothesis. The hatch had indeed opened automatically upon Celtic's death.
However, the emergency protocol had not concluded there.
Almost the exact same instant the hatch release command was issued, another far more covert signal, possessing a much higher tier of encryption, was activated and beamed outward. This signal was not directed at the starship; instead, it pierced straight through Pandora's atmosphere and shot into the deep cosmos, tracking toward a distant coordinate marked on the star chart as the Predator homeworld or a vital colony.
Osiris's "gaze" focused squarely upon this signal. His psychic perception penetrated the outer encryption layers, touching the core payload of the transmission. It was not a lengthy narrative, but rather a highly compressed data packet laden with specific cultural imagery:
"Hunter Celtic, Young Blood of the Blood-Blade Clan, has fallen upon this foreign world (Pandora, coordinates attached)."
"The fatal wound originates from an unidentified weapon, not the hand of an Honorable Beast (referring to powerful indigenous fauna like the Toruk)."
"Assessment: Suffered a dishonorable ambush; honor defiled."
"Request: The clan's honor must be cleansed in blood. Vengeance Hunt, initialized."
Appended to the tail of the signal was an exceptionally brief, processed snippet of combat data, highlighting the signatures of the energy weapon utilized to kill Celtic, along with a crude scan of the surrounding topography.
The transmission status: Delivery Confirmed.