They inhaled. A strong white noise buzzed in their ears slowly moving them into consciousness. Sierra slowly dug her nails into the soil, then caught the side of her head. It hurt. She felt dizzy. She groggily fought to maintain her posture, but her body failed and she fell to the ground, her little face getting covered in dust.
She slowly turned to a side and opened her eyes, blinking incessantly, trying to gain focus on her vision. She saw figures. Like her, their team was lying on the ground- breathing.
"Guys?" she squeaked. "Why do I feel so... weak?" she murmured to herself, her voice barely giving way to the words properly. She looked at her hand that was lying by her head; she saw white. A white drapery. "Huh?" How did she get into it? She and all the others had been wearing suits previously. Spacesuits.
She felt light. Light as a feather. But still she couldn't overcome her weight and sit upright.
Then, slowly, her mind registered the prognosis. She gasped, slowly through the little opening she had amid her lips. Am I.... dead?
She looked towards them, their bodies lying peacefully, wind batting by their white garments. Are they also... dead?
She closed her eyes tightly at the thought. She had felt nothing. Not even a diminutive hint of pain. Was this how dying felt like? No. It must not. She and the others were lucky to have recieved such a death. Such a peaceful one. But still, she was perplexed at her situation. The reality was inconceivable. Was this even what she was thinking it to be? Was this all, but a dream? A really long, long dream?
She was in a trance. And so were the others. Aghast from their present being. The moments passing by were so unpleasant... yet soothing.
Her hair blew lightly at the breeze. It was warm, but cool. She felt like as if she were on a beach, sitting by a rock and looking at the waves crashing and the droplets of water sprinkling across her face. She could almost smell the wet soil.
Just then she saw it. It wasn't any ordinary soil; it was violet.
Like a very deep purple powder. But it felt like any other natural soil. She knocked everything out of her head. It must be a dream, a very distant one... I just need to wake up. Thinking that, she slept.
__________
"Sierra?"
She felt a rocking action on her body. She looked up. "Sir Sanduo?" She could make out his countenance clearly now- a culmination of almost all the negative emotions. He didn't say anything more, and got up.
It seemed like they had found their strength back and so had she. She got up to her feet, her bare toes sinking into the violet soil. She rubbed the sleepiness off her eyes and looked ahead.
Her friends were all sitting in a line, legs crossed and hands laying on top of their knees, seemingly delusional of the situation. So this isn't a dream after all...
Drio looked here and there and sprayed a handful of the soil, "This can't be natural, and the amount is too large to be artificial...." he spoke to himself. It looked as if he was loosing sanity.
"What is happening?" She looked straight into the eyes of Sanduo, fear quivering her delicate voice and giving her otherwise innocent and childish eyes an unnatural grim.
"That is the right question, my dear. We don't know." His small eyes fumbled to keep focus, and she could almost spot a tear building up there somewhere. Sanduo wasn't actually a human, but a sub species bred from other compatible alien life forms. His skin was a bit more yellow than any average human and his body features were a bit more rough and his voice a bit more gruffly. His stature was medium- one and a half metre. But when agitated, it prolonged into something more imperative. At present, though a lot of emotions waved through his head, he was maintaining his normal stature.
Another strong wind careened, but this one was different than the ones before. It carried an insinuation; not suffice for any conclusions. It said, "Calisto..."
"You hear it?" Lily said faintly, her eyes scurrying the firmament.
It repeated and repeated and repeated. The eerie whisper chilled them to the bones. The air was no more warm but instead, had an unpleasant cool to it.
"Calisto... Calisto... What does it even mean?" Markus looked at his sir who seemed to be in a daze. "Sir? Sir!"
"Oh, this can't be happening," he saw Sanduo fall to his knees.
__________
"I recognise this pack. It's the same bunch we provided the IMG with. Their program disks seem to be missing. Who were those beings exactly?"
Due to gravitational time dilation at their part of space, already a day had passed, if not more.
The admiral gulped at the remark of his lieutanant. "You sure? Like a hundred percent sure?"
"They were marked sir. I now notice them clearly." He pointed at the emblazoned numbers which indicated their involvement with the group. "What is it, sir? Who were those beings?"
A notification ringed. They looked at the monitors. It's from them! Oof! They are safe then.
But a little marking at the bottom indicated otherwise. The time was a day back. "Oh, this can't be happening."
He played the message. It ended about a minute later. So this is before they encounter the Gods. Seemingly, they were heading quite near to those coordinates. Let's wait and see what comes up next. The conversation footage might help to draw a conclusion.
But it never came. About half a day later they got a second message stating the IMG's encounter but nothing else. Another day passed, then another. Slowly they got a grasp of what might actually have happened to the team. There was no turning back. The IMG had failed; terribly so. On their very first mission.
The Gods themselves had handed the robots over- dead in their own way.
The media blasted as the tragic story radiated throughout the galaxy. A permanent frown got etched on the face of the admiral everafter.
__________
"What is it sir?" Jayden's troubled voice registered in Sanduo's head. He held out a hand indicating them to wait.
"I don't know what to do. What to think of anymore. I don't know ANYTHING! My life's most important possession has gone. Frozen in darkness, it's probably drifting into nothingness at the moment. What do you expect me to say? I don't know what this spooky voice is saying! I don't even care! I WANT MY NORMAL LIFE BACK!!" He cried. For the first time, the IMG saw their sir cry.
They all stood there for a moment, in silence. The voice kept hushing by their ears.
"I- I'm scared," Sierra stammered, holding her hands close to her body and swaying side by side, cautioned and alarmed at the unfamiliar and unpleasant consistent whisper.
"Me too." Drio's hands vibrated indicating he too was frightened at the sound. Their foreheads dripped in tension, showed their true selves. They were mortals. Mere mortals- unaware of the greater world; of the greater truth.
"Calisto is the name of the woman who was turned into a bear by Zeus in Greek mythology. But, it's not being meant that way I think," Sharlotte spoke all of a sudden after remaining silent this whole time. "Our home planet, Earth. In its solar system was a planet called Jupiter, a gas giant- it had a moon named Calisto."
"Yeah. You're right, I have heard of it before. But, are you sure? What is its importance in this particular situation? We are stranded- probably marooned on this strange planet. Where are we anyway?" Lily said, rubbing her fingers on her temples.
"I don't think you all know or not but there is a crater on that moon- the largest to be precise- called Valhalla."
All of their faces turned pale. Valhalla was the place where the Vikings thought their brave soldiers went to, after they died. But it was merely a name, not the actual mythological place, right?
"What are you trying to imply?" Lily asked in a voice as calm as she could manage, withstanding her inner emotions.
Sounds of footsteps like galloping, entered their ears. They looked in the direction the sound was coming from. An odd creature stopped a metre away from them. The creature was somewhere between a human and a bug. "I have the answer to that."
They looked in a queer manner at the strange being. "Who are you?" Sierra said in a raised tone, one that conveyed her inner panic.
"Your escort. Follow me and I shall explain everything."
They looked at each other, confused.
After a while, Sanduo sighed and looked up to the being, his small eyes filled with determination. "Show the way."
The being smiled in an eerie fashion and reversed his path, now galloping with it's eight legs away from the forlorn group. They all sighed and looked in his direction before following the being- the only one who could provide them with some answers at that moment. They marched ahead with the being silently.