//------------------------------// // Discovery (Update/Rewrite) // Story: Project: Mars // by Whirl Hoof //------------------------------// Goddamn dust. Those were the only two words having a gladiator duel in Amanda's mind while she promised a thousand curses and tortures upon this stupid rover. Of all the problems she could've been having, it couldn't have been a simple issue like recalibrating the douser for the trillionth time, or something exciting like a hole in her helmet, leaving her to suffocate, in pain and despair. It would've been a pleasant relief from this. The blasted rover had, for reasons she could only assume were a concealed, malicious intellect and sapience, decided to inhale as much red sand as possible betwixt the axles and tires. She could roughly guess the rover's plan: bring her and Justin out here, break down, and leave them stranded to die of thirst or asphyxiation in the wastes. It was all coming together. The perfect murder plot, if not for the fact Amanda had done this dozens of time before, and knew how to most thoroughly abuse the rover until it behaved like a good girl. Speaking of Justin - the supposed "field mechanic" - he was being so unhelpful, that the helpful stats went into the negatives. He was currently taking photographs of the landscape, as if every bloody dune didn't look exactly the same on Mars. Oh sure, there might be the rare rocky outcrop, depressed cave, or sandstorm with a caffeine addiction, but things on Mars were more monotonous than... well, she couldn't think of a comparison, because it beat out everything. Point was, he was taking pictures of red sand. Because the base gallery needed more among the thousands, of course. Her dispatcher and base commander, Omega, had elected to send the duo to this random "field", because there were apparently ice traces and some unidentifiable metal reading. Amanda understood the former- obviously one would want a source of water closer than a hundred miles away, and not having to worry about the purifying plant spontaneously combusting or having a worker revolution. The latter, though, was the only reason Amanda wasn't on autopilot this entire time. Unidentified metal? Sure, it could just be zinc again, that for some reason the distance scanner couldn't pick out if it were nailed alone, stationary to a wall. But it might also be a metal that humanity genuinely hadn't discovered yet, which would actually make sense- different planet, of course there'd be things never seen on Earth. She had to actually fix the damn rover first, though. A few sweaty, angry dustings and pickings later, along with verbal abuse only she could hear, and the rover was once again able to have an athsma attack before taking them to this apparent anomaly. Technically speaking, her job title was "field analyst", a disgustingly vague term that gave her a headache. It could be used in so many ways by her dispatcher, from finding the tiniest of mineral sands, to searching for water traces in the driest places on the planet. Oh yes, Omega loved using Amanda as a not-really-glorified scavenger. She personally preferred the term "explorer", if only because it'd sound better and make the jobs slightly less agonizingly boring. If only for the fact she didn't keep finding everything, it might not be an issue. Both Omega and Amanda learned swiftly after her first days that she had a supernatural talent for finding the most absurd and hidden things. The first bacteria? No issue. Underground ice deposit the size of a small house? Easy peasy. Justin had once joked Amanda could discover a cave full of pristine gold and diamonds if she tried. Then she did. It would've been comical, if it weren't slightly unnerving. She knew the real reason Omega wanted her at this specific area: one of the other "field analysts", when not on one of his drugged up fantasy history lessons, had said he'd dug up a bucket in a cave around here. Obviously he hadn't brought it back because 'there wasn't room in the rover', but it had intrigued Omega nonetheless, so here she was. Looking for old, sand-eaten buckets. Or whatever old artifacts could potentially be here. Omega had been and still was a fervent believer of a previous civilization on Mars, and since she technically couldn't be proven wrong, here Amanda was. Looking for anything that might indicate life, especially intelligent life, had existed previously. One would think the bacteria corpses already proved that, but nobody cared about bacteria; they were the unloved middle child in the family of discoveries. Except for Doctor Steffan, anyway- his fascination with the buggers borderlined on creepy. Kicking the rover one more time, she clicked on her helm radio, to the only other living being in the area- though she'd rather there be none. "Hey ass, the car's back and running. You were a big help. Get in and start it up before I stab a hole into your suit." The response from the alleged 'human' was characteristically lazy, smug, and dripping with latent sarcasm. "Sure sweetheart. A pic beside the rover, though? Just for the memory?" "I will personally take that phone, shove it up your nose and pull it out your other hole. Get in." He mumbled something not directly aggravating, like 'sure sure', and made his way back to the vehicle- but not before snapping a photo in what he thought was a stealthy manner. She mentally promised to reset his phone to the factory defaults later. It was protocol to do an area survey before exiting; something the rulebook said about 'missed opportunities' or 'hidden obstacles'. She was 110% certain there were no sandworms about to rocket up the dunes and devour her - unfortunately - but she made a perimeter patrol anyway, scouring roughly fifty feet outward and around the rover. Bleep. "Not to rush you, but I think the ice caps are melting. Maybe step it up a little." Of course. Responding bleep. "By all means, take the rover back by yourself. I'm sure you'll last at least five minutes before it flips over a pebble and folds your spine in half. Seriously, how are you a 'mechanic' when you couldn't even name all the engine parts?" As Justin threw back something in his native dialect of 'asshole', Amanda was just about ready to speed back to the Bubble and take a well-deserved nap, until she noticed something actually interesting. A small hole in the ground. Actually, calling it a 'hole' did it a disservice- it was an entrance. It was perfectly round, and looked to be lined with some kind of metal. Metal. "Stop whatever stupid thing you were about to say, and look at this. There's a hole." Despite the inevitable lewd remark about 'her hole', Justin did in fact join her at the anomaly. "And then you'd- oh, that actually is a hole." "A hole with metal walls, perfectly smooth and round, and a very specific diameter. You know what that means? It's deliberate." She could feel the exploration blood beginning to boil. "You know what else it means? Call Omega, tell her about it, and have an actual dedicated team check it out. This isn't our job." "Now's when you're being cautious and smart?" "I just don't want to try to explain to Omega why her little prodigy of an analyst disappeared into the fucking Upside Down." "Firstly, that is an incredibly old reference. Secondly, fuck that." With that, Amanda clicked on her headlight, and took a closer look at the hole, leaning on her knees to peer into it. It was giant, for one. It could easily fit the entire rover in any orientation, solar panels included. It was at least a couple dozen feet across, and had absolutely zero dust, rust, or markings of any kind. It was pristine in every way, it was strange and unexplored, it could be dangerous, and she had to check it out. The headlight didn't reveal anything except more of the bizarrely perfect, greyish-purple metal. "The trademark Amanda luck. You found a weird metal hole. Great job. Can we leave now?" She turned, and stared at him. "There's a ladder on one side." She knew he could see her grin through the helmet glass. "I swear to God-" She began climbing down the ladder. "This is the first remotely exciting thing to happen in months. Besides, I'm doing exactly what Omega wanted. Checking out the weird metal. Not to mention the sand just outside of it was damp, so there's the water too." "I am not helping you if you fall down, or you discover Cthulhu or some shit." "Good, all the more fun for me. Have fun with your rover with a seething hatred for humans, I'll be down here checking out something cool." The ladder was, as to be expected, strange- aside from the fact there was a ladder at all, of course. That indicated someone, or something had to construct it. But it was also bizarre because it didn't seem designed for humans- the rungs were curved at an odd angle, and the entire ladder slanted slightly, like whatever was climbing needed extra leverage. Like they didn't have hands or fingers. Electing to just slide the rest of the way, she clamped down onto the bottom. Unlike the entrance, the place she currently found herself was a deep grey stone she couldn't identify. It looked a little like someone had thrown concrete and granite into a blender, then made it depressed. Scanning her light across the room, it was fairly tight, roughly the size of a decent living room. She noticed an indentation, and a doorway on one side, and began walking towards them. Crack. Until she felt something snap under her boot. Lifting it, she saw something... wooden? She picked up the apparent stick, and inspected it closer. Yep, definitely wood of a sort. Again, nothing she could recognize by name, but it had the definite visual texture. This was all the more odd- unless this bunker thing was constructed very recently, which she doubted, this wood should've been rotting and disintegrating by now. How was it so preserved, like the walls and ladder? Then she realized, it wasn't just a stick. Looking at the other end, it was a spear. That was absolutely a spearhead, there was no doubting the shape. It looked to be made of a dark rock, and was smaller than she would've expected of a human spear. For that matter, the entire spear didn't seem human- it was shorter, smaller, lighter, and had a slight curve to it, in a way that gripping it with hands would be uncomfortable at best. As she was just about to radio Justin and head back up the ladder, her light panned over something white. She picked it up. "Justin, you'll definitely want to call Omega. Tell her we've got something a lot more important than any bucket." Amanda couldn't contain the shock, excitement, and slight disbelief in her voice. For in her hand, was a skull. A horse skull, with a pointed horn out the forehead.