Chapter Two

“Curious.” We mused to ourselves.

“The void was not as unkind to us as we had thought.”

The stellar system we found ourselves in at the end of our long journey was most certainly more then we could have expected.

There were 6 major solid planetoids large enough to accommodate an entire hive complex, maybe two.

The star was intense, radiating in a far bluer spectrum then we were used to, but the excess energy was more than welcome.

The only thing left to decide was which planet to choose as our staging ground. We only have enough mass to land on one, not to take off again, and asteroid mining in this system would probably not be as fruitful as making planetfall. So, we had to choose.

Upon closer inspection however, the choice became almost meaningless. There was only one option.

One of the planets had a distinct spectrum reflecting off of it. The bands were highly indicative of the planet holding a significant amount of oxygen in it’s atmosphere.

While this, on it’s own, would not at first seem to be a very good candidate, as the very atmosphere would be reactive to anything it came into contact with, especially some of the materials we are currently composed of, it would make the act of building up a sizable hive there trivial, as there would be an abundance of free potential energy, in the form of chemical potential energy between the very air, and the materials below the surface.

With our mind made up, we began our descent.

As the gasses began to compress around our being, a great plume of fire erupted around us.

We may have… miscalculated… the surface gravity, and atmospheric density… we hope this causes no problems with our plan…

“Um… She’ll probably be fine… right?”

“It has been days, little Qeth” Dirge said. “I don’t think she’ll be saying anything meaningful any time soon. Only swearing, lots of swearing.”

“FUCKING BULLSHIT!” I shouted. For what felt like the hundredth time.

“YES! WE GET IT!” Keith yelled back. “You’re going to attract the attention of some predators, if you haven’t done already.”

I just glared at him in response.

“If you’re going to lament your situation,” he continued, “do so silently.”

“Fuck you, and fuck that stupid-ass guild master.”

“It’s not that bad, is it?” Qeth offered. “None of the nobles I ever talked too were mean to me.”

“Qeth, nobody’s mean to you. I think it’s literally a sin to be mean to you.” Keith supplied.

“As much as I want to admonish her for this, I can certainly relate to not wanting to deal with nobles. It’s usually a sure-fire way to get killed, enslaved, or worse.” Dirge said.

“Then why did you accept the quest!?” I shouted. “I know you have some leeway with George! I know you could have talked him out of choosing us!”

“That is that, and this is this.” Dirge defended himself. “He made it very clear that he had no choice in the matter, the ones who issued the quest made it very clear that Idra’s wings was who they wanted to take care of it. Probably due in no small part to Qeth, I think they believe her connection to The Might of Dawn might allow for some clairvoyance in finding their missing charge.”

“On that note…” he continued, “what does She think of this? Has She given insight to our situation?”

“Idra is… I am unsure… or maybe she is unsure? I do not know, but it is very confusing.” Qeth lowered her head, no doubt wishing she could be more helpful.

“Well next time we camp, you should take some time to pray. It is not a good idea to go unprepared into a situation we know almost nothing about.” Keith suggested.

“On that note, we should set up here, we need to assess the situation. We have not found the caravan on the main road thus far, and we have made it over a quarter of the way to it’s point of origin.” Dirge said. “We should make plans on what we should do next. There are a few areas around here known for banditry, and I do not want to make our presence known. Naphrashi, if you are done fuming for the time being, please work your magic to keep us hidden.”

“Fine.” I said. Knowing how to set up a camp correctly was most certainly not magic, but after the last time I let them set up, we got ambushed by wolves. That was not a fun night.

“Keith, do a bit of recon, make sure we are not being watched, or tracked.” Dirge said.

“Got it.” Keith vanished.

Casting minor invisibility on himself had become second nature to him, though he likely did not need it. If Keith did not want to be seen, he would not be seen.

“Help me with the preparations Qeth, I may need some of your magics.” I requested. “Dirge, can you go find me a large fallen tree? An old one, one that is mostly hollow, but not just bark?”

“Will do.” He replied.

We began our preparations to make camp.

If we’re being honest, this was not our most glorious landing.

We had done orbital drops before, and this was certainly not our finest.

Surveying the crash site landing zone, we discovered something very unexpected. We found life.

Not just life, but life that is known to us. There are trees, and lots of them. We do not know what the chances of these trees evolving independently on this planet as well as the creators planet, but it had to be astronomically low. Something was not right.

We began shifting ourselves into a form appropriate for ground traversal.

Another strange thing, is that not all of the wood in our immediate surroundings was natural. A not-insignificant amount of it was obviously processed. What’s more, there was even some processed silica, in the form of what was obviously glass.

First hypothesis. This was Terra.

It was most certainly not a good hypothesis, but the anomalous data was quite encouraging. The Humans, along with their home-world. were destroyed many millennia ago; we were their last creation, to help fight off the enemy.

We had failed in the end, but we were not their only project.

This brings us to the second hypothesis. This was Project Arc, or at least it’s remnants.

This was more promising, as it was more likely that the Humans discovered lateral-reality travel then bringing their home back from destruction. This was still a bad hypothesis however, as it was almost certain that Project Arc was destroyed as well.

Finally, the third hypothesis, and the worst one of them all.

This planet not only independently evolved trees, pine trees to be precise, but also a species intelligent enough to process those trees into wooden structures the same way as Humans, that were inclined to do so, and were intelligent enough to discover and understand glass-forming in the same way as Humans.

This was so unlikely we should dismiss it as impossible, but the only other two hypotheses we have are also impossible, so if we’re being honest, we’re at a bit of a loss here.

WARNING! ACTIVITY DETECTED!

The alarms I set to notify me of any unaccounted for activity started blaring.

There were very few things this could mean. Under these circumstances, the only possibility being that life in the form of fauna was detected nearby.

We began to focus on the data from that part of our awareness, and saw something wonderful.

A living Human.