The Creator's shipyard lay not far from the Origin Sanctuary, in the most desolate region of the Thousand-Year Sea of Sand.
In theory, there was no way such a huge facility could remain hidden in the boundless desert. But the Creator's black technology was always coming up with one marvel after another.
According to the royal engineers of Sangha, a special device outside the shipyard could camouflage it. Once activated, it rendered the entire base unobservable. This wasn't mere optical concealment—even psionic and elemental forces couldn't detect its location.
It was the most outrageous of all the Thousand-Year secrets of the Sangha Empire.
Its secrecy was so important that only each successive Pharaoh and the commanders associated with the Sunships knew about it. The Desert Underworld oversaw the oaths of secrecy, and if anyone leaked information, the Ancient Kings would send soldiers to launch every suspect into the sky.
Under such ironclad secrecy, the Creator's shipyard had survived through the ages.
But after Murphy formatted the Creator system's control program and the Creator's power withdrew from the Thousand-Year Sea of Sand, the shipyard's defenses had activated automatically, preventing even the Sangha from entering.
Worse still, the Underworld Cerberus had been towed into the shipyard for repairs, trapping some of the engineers inside as well.
Nearly two months had passed. Who knew whether those unlucky souls were all right? Still, the shipyard had complete life-support systems, so they probably weren't in danger of starving to death.
As it turned out, the Creator's facilities really did take good care of people. When the Origin Vanguard descended and slowly entered the area covered by the reactivated cloaking device, Murphy looked down from the captain's observation deck and saw a group of Sangha engineers in Creator-style repair suits, hugging their countrymen and sobbing.
After