by Florian Nagy
Chapter 10
The Skyrrnian officer’s heavy boots made noises in the hard red soil in his way. His long, strong legs moved with determination, and his arms stood holding an ion rifle poised to shoot. His uniform was worn yet acceptably clean, the sleeves rolled up above his elbows, and his hard light-gray skin showed beneath. The rough patchwork of pseudo-scales, softened through disuse over millennia, shuffled and moved as he walked. His legs were bulky, and his pants shifted and whispered with each step. Loud crunches accompanied each tread on the ground.
His protruding face was alert; his rocky nose darted left and right as his small, set-in eyes peered around him from behind massive, ridged eyebrows and cheeks. He wore a military cap, tilted slightly to the right, on his head.
The path he was walking on seemed to be, at first glance, simply a rough road on some country trail. However, the red soil was arrayed along in geometric forms at too many places, and the borders of the pathway were too well defined in some sections. The trail had once been a road of some sort. At closer inspection, one could see dull metallic plating resting just beneath the thin, fine layer of soil. The path was broad, but its edges were overgrown. Hidden in the side growth there were broken-down ruins. Barely noticeable artificial shapes and designs seemed to form just well enough to be observed. The route seemed to be a decrepit highway.
The communicator at his neck made an inaudible vibration that he only barely felt. He took one last look around as if expecting danger and then proceeded to quickly accept the incoming call with a tap to the small pad at the tip of his collarbone, beside his shoulder. When he had heard the other person’s inquiry, he began to speak in quick, excited tones. He offered quick explanations and was enthusiastic yet brief in his speech. He waited to hear a response and then addressed it in a level tone, yet urgency still lingered in his voice. Another brief exchange of ideas took place, and then the call was finished. The man continued to walk along the path with a brisk pace.
The ground was a dark red and brown hue, with shaded rocks populating all the area in sight. The small, drooping vegetation also kept a steady red color. The diminutive plants did not stretch out for the sky but limped around the ground. The few, tall tree-like plants carried the same color as their companions, but had darker bodies. These, however, reached quite high, extending outwards defiantly sideways, tangling among each other and forming small canopies here and there were they grew. They skillfully hid the odd artificial scrap of material mixed in with the growth.
Small patches of red-brown creepers grew on many rock-like structures that littered parts of the scenery like boxes fallen out of a transport. The sky’s few clouds echoed the reddish hue and seemed to float above the land as large pools of old blood. The rest of the sky shone pale gray, with a tinge of red in the light of a setting orange sun. Even the dome that seemed to encase the landscape still carried within it the glistening red.
The Skyrrnian walked along to a small clearing and looked up at the two stars already visible from the red planet. Around him there were very few animals, and the whole planet seemed to sigh with silence. An eerie ancientness gloomed among the vegetation, and even though it was evening, the atmosphere of the area was that of dark midnight.
The planet seemed to push on the man, and he seemed scared that something might jump out of the bush and force him off its home. Within a few moments a group of seventeen of his comrades came from another trail. After a few brief exchanges the large group joined with him and followed him to where he had come from. The band of men was all in uniform, yet all of them were with their sleeves rolled up and their bodies poised for physical action. They moved quickly down the path and kept their weapons ready.
Along the path, similar to a lot of the eroded litter in the area, there stood an artifact. A humanoid shape lay semi-preserved. The lower half of the body was all roughed out and stood as a dull, rock-like creation. The upper half had imprints on it from the rocks it had been lying under, yet the parts not crushed could be seen much more clearly. The relic had a well defined chest made out of some metallic compound; it had several tool openings along its chest and had two upper limbs that protruded left and right from the top of the torso.
These were designed for efficiency rather than looks as the arms were taken up with a manifold of interchangeable tools at the tip. A mechanism allowed for the rotation, orientation, withdrawal, or extension of the countless components. Its neck was set in a complex, 360-degree rotating system to the torso, and the head stood as a dull skull shape over the neck. The headpiece was wide and seemed to stare sadly and hopelessly straight forward as its gray eyes stood motionlessly within their sensor array. The head’s components were well incased in the gray metal that gleamed with a faint bluish tint.
The man spoke quickly in his native tongue, tripping over his words. One needed to comprehend only a few words to understand their meaning. “Discovered… can now find out… where are…?”