The Final Frontier

Chapter twenty-eight: A look into the past

There was a difference between this planet and the last one. There were no storm and no deafening winds. It was eerily silent. A decaying world that lost it's beating heart eons ago. The dust is so old that it seems to fade into nothingness when Prim take a fistful of it and let it fall back down. No ghost still hang around this wasteland, them too have faded. The silence is heavy, like a fourth person on their team. Mathea shivered and walked closer to the two other.

The star in the center of the system was a small red dwarf, it's light struggled to reach them and Mathea could feel the absence of heat even through the suit. This world was abandoned, truly and utterly forsaken, it's star too weak to even cast shadows. Everything engulfed in a perpetual twilight.

For a long time none could break the silence. The landing had been loud, only for the three of them, for there was no atmosphere on the crumbling rock, no warmth left to cradle it's broken hopes, evaporated, given back to the unforgiving space beyond the confine of the corpse. Perifel took the head of the party and began scanning the surface for any trace of an underground facility like last time. Gravity could not get them anchored on the surface, free of weight, they hopped around, floating down silently.

It didn't take long to get to the ruins, they had unknowingly landed close to them. A giant crack in the ground revealed one of its corridors, torn open by either the weight of the crumbling giant or the blast of a weapon back when this planet had made it's last stand. Bones are a sturdy thing, but as shown by the last site, enough time can erase all traces of life, and death. Prim let a tear roll down her cheek, maybe it was better, these people got their final resting place to be the immensity of space itself, she found comfort in knowing that. No dark and gloomy tunnels to be the last thing you would ever rest on. A better end, she thought quietly, not even fully listening to what her mind was saying.

They glided down silently and entered the facility. Only this time, it wasn't a facility, it was a city. As they made their way deeper they realized that even if it was modeled in the same fashion the old facility had been, this place had been repurposed into a settlement, it had probably lasted for a long time because it wasn't exactly spartiate, scans brought images forth. This crumbled circular thing over there on your right? That was a fountain, supplied by an intricate underground pipe system. This arch? The entry of a new district. The faded markings on the wall, was reconstructed and translated, Market district it read. This scratch on the wall, a clue about the attack on the site? No, it is a mere graffiti that reads "Marcus was here". This is a house built directly into the stone wall of a cave that was added later in the years of the settlement. This is an old magnetic cart. 

Perifel shook the uneasy feeling he was getting, this place was darker than the last, and more dead, yet it used to be brimming with life, probably even was a bustling city a long time ago. If only they had more time...He would take the time to pay respect to the dead. In lack of a better thing he cut his com-link for a moment to whisper a short prayer. Asking for safe passage, calling upon the names of the gods and of his ancestors to grant him and his team a safe path through the old tunnels.

Everything went swimmingly during all the time they stayed in the living area, but after what felt like an eternity the paths began to change, here the ground was smooth again, the black alloy was back into the scenery. They began their descent into the blind chasm the stairs were leading to. 

Their descent lasted for another hour, it was long enough to make them all regret the warmth of their suns, the light they provided them before they left. Prim hated being underground like that, she suspected that she was developing a phobia. Her hands stayed firm on her tablet, her eyes locked on the scans and what they could give them.