Comparing with feats demonstrated by Mordecai and his pet, I felt somewhat... pale. However, if he really is the protagonist of this game, that's only natural. Protagonists, that's just the way they are.

  Admittedly, the way he was collecting trophies was a bit inconsistent with the status. A normal protagonist collects everything that isn't pinned down, and what's pinned down, he tears off and collects... on the other hand, we're in the real world here, and Mordecai surprisingly didn't have an ECHO with his inventory. He did, however, take a few of the cannons that had survived the singularity grenade, which were more valuable and not too bulky; I suppose he would have taken the shields, too, due to their compactness, but none of them had survived.

  Ammo, at least, was much better this time: the ammo blocks from the mangled weapons were recyclable (I recycled the weapons themselves for materials). For once I was able to feel like a normal white man with a thunderstick, rather than a bum saving every shot.

  And then, having finished with the bandit camp, Mordecai and I began to explore the rest of the archaeological site.

  The camp was somewhat less trashed and shitty than I'd come to expect from Pandoran bandits. (To be fair, the latter is figurative; I've noted before that toilets are one of the things on Pandora that can survive almost anything. And even maintain an acceptable cleanliness while doing so. Digitization technology rules...) To my surprise, there was even some of the equipment still intact; I suspect the bandits just didn't know what to do with the bulky and incomprehensible machines for extracting and sorting rock. My class gave me enough understanding that I could use them - but the machinery was only activated if I had a license. I seemed to have one, but only for the Vladoff's equipment.

  In principle, the defenses could have been opened, probably - such equipment wasn't usually heavily protected, for lack of need - but I didn't see the point.

  In general, this place wasn't really an archaeological site so much as a quarry combined with an archaeological camp. It also happens on Earth - they start digging, find something interesting, call archaeologists, they finish their work and digging continues. Or even continue digging aside, while the archaeologists are working; judging by a couple of abandoned quarry trucks, not as big as Belaz, but also not small, it was just the case here. In general, the question arises why these trucks with digitization technology are needed at all. Unless it is inconvenient to digitize directly at the place of extraction, and so they take it to the installation?...

  Anyway, there was a lot of... stuff here. Including various materials, which I hurriedly digitized for future use - I use up quite a lot of them, especially metal. If it were up to me, I'd digitize everything I have, but the ECHO has a limited amount of memory, and cloud storage is paid for, and they can be robbed, as well as track users. But it's worth adding memory to the ECHO if possible.

  Strangely enough, there was no sign of bandits in the small two-story building labeled "Administration" (with the "t" smudged over with something); even most of the furniture was still in place, though it was broken in some places, and there was garbage, mostly empty bottles and boxes, scattered on the floors.

  ...О. Not just trash.

  "External memory module detected," the female voice in my head reported. - "Perform localization?"

  - "Go ahead, - I said, and a white dot - or rather, a small white circle visible through the obstruction - pulsed in the corner behind one of the boxes. I, checking and making sure it wasn't booby-trapped just in case, pushed the crate away, and saw that the ECHO was pointing to an empty bottle.

  Well, not quite empty: I could see a memory chip inside.

  A message in a bottle, huh.

  - The audio diary of the Director of Archaeology and Chief of Eridiology, Patricia Tannis. First of all, you who are listening to this recording - listening to other people's diaries is unseemly! Stop it now!

  There was a pause, filled with background noises; some humming and distant grinding.

  - Are you still there? Have you no shame? Fuck you. This is Patricia Tannis... oh yeah, I already introduced myself. I've only just arrived on Pandora, but I've already made quite an impression. It's a hell of a hole, but it's a treasure trove of all kinds of Eridian artifacts!

  At the last words, the woman's voice became excited and joyful.

  - Just this morning, several artifact samples have already been obtained, - the tone changed to an irritated one. - Unfortunately, those idiots damaged them. I'll have to oversee everything personally.

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Hmm. I think I've found something interesting - maybe even a plot point. I continued listening to the diary while searching the building.

  The owner of the diary was clearly an emotional lady, with violent mood swings, but very passionate about what she was doing. And some of the things she wrote about were very interesting.

  - Basically, the finds should be divided into four groups. First, "artifacts" are simply things that we have no idea what they really are or what to do with them. This could include even the walls of the Eridian buildings with those mysterious lines. There's too much work and too little of me to deal with it, and we don't have the finances for a clone army. Perhaps it's for the best - this world isn't ready for this amount of genius on one planet. - Pause. - What was I saying? Ah, yes, the categorization of the Eridian heritage. The second group is the simplest, most primitive, and useless - Eridian weapons. The nitwits in the finance department consider this area the most promising, so let them do it, I ordered to send all found weapons to them immediately, and let them shoot each other... but not all of them, someone must stay to send me money. Either way. The third and fourth groups - something that is of real interest, and I do not mean financial interest, but interesting... I wonder if a hypothetical outsider listener will even understand what I said here....? Anyway, to the point. The third group includes what I call "relics". These... devices at first glance look like small polyhedrons made of some stone-like material, similar to that of the eridian structures. When approached by, and especially in contact with, living beings of the "animal" class, they exhibit fluorescence similar to, again, the walls of eridian structures. Unlike the latter, however, relics have a markedly stimulating effect. Effects include, non-exclusively, such manifestations as increased physical strength, increased endurance, increased aggressiveness, accelerated regeneration, physical mutations, obscene compliments... though some of this is probably due to some socio-physiological trait of homo sapiens, or to toxins in the water. Note to self: make sure the water and staff are filtered, and stock up on antidotes and sedatives. Group four...

  There was a heavy, long sigh, and I suddenly imagined a slender, pale woman with short, dark hair. I shook my head, warding off the delusion, and Tannis continued.

  - Writings. Eridian writing exists solely to drive normal cabinet scholars crazy. Well, figuratively speaking. I hope so.

  She sighed again, this time shorter and less gloomy.

  - In fact, the eridian lithography we know is not really writing at all. It's a kind of memory device. If not for a chance discovery, we would probably still be wondering about the meaning of pictographs and searching for longer records... However, a few symbols and lines in the stone left by this mysterious species can contain a substantial amount of information in the form of a mental imprint. Unfortunately, this information cannot be copied directly, the pictographs themselves have no meaning. Fortunately, I am one of the few who are able to read the knowledge imprints left by the Eridians. Unfortunately, I have to personally digest them, decipher them, bring them into acceptable form, and write them down. While fascinating, it's not the easiest job even for a genius. Especially since these packets of information are often fragmented and inarticulate. Victories, defeats, the Vault... it's a headache.

  The voice went silent. I waited, but instead of continuing.

  "Recording ends. No new files."

  Well, that would be enough for now.

  If it weren't for the audio diary, I probably wouldn't have thought that this stone lying in a pile of pieces - samples? - of stone is anything of value, much less what I'm looking for. Even relatively smooth facets don't mean much - pyrite, for example, which was also present here, has that. Thanks to Patricia Tannis, however, I paid closer attention to it, and after a couple seconds the ECHO confirmed, "An Eridian relic."

  Thanks again to her for the warning. I didn't touch the potentially mutagenic crap - I carefully digitized it from a distance as best I could. Given that digitization is a technology of the same Eridians, it shouldn't ruin the "relic".

  Unfortunately, neither Mordecai nor I were able to find anything else of value, at least in itself, much less in terms of an assignment from the corporation. Of course, the hunter could have clutched what he had found, but I doubted it, especially since he had no ECHO in which to hide his find. Still, the visit was a success; the fact that I'd found another artifact already covered the cost of time and effort, but it also gave me a lot of resources (plus a point where I could get more if necessary, at least from the same trucks), bandit weapons that Mordecai wouldn't take for himself, ammo, and a new acquaintance.

  Given that he is almost certainly the protagonist of this story, the latter may prove most valuable.