A sleek silver battleship slid through the slithering space...silently. Its polished battlesteel reflected the void back unto itself like an unspoken challenge against existence. No marks marred its surface save for the glyphs etched into its side, emanating a baleful aura:
THE AGE OF SILICON AND STEEL.
Truly a name for the ages. It echoed powerfully in the minds of whoever gazed upon it, no matter the language or customs. Surely such a ship would carry an incredible story: one of triumph against incalculable odds, of protecting the dying flame of civilisation from the harsh, cosmic winds of an unfeeling universe. Any Scholar of Lore worth his weight in paleo-argonian pepper could tell you such a name was destined for more than greatness.
Pity, then, that this story is not about them. As such, there was no need to focus on the fact that this behemoth deposited a tiny, cylindrical capsule containing a few living beings onto the surface of the red planet below.
Their landing on this planet would surely be inconsequential to us, and to the wider universe and even wider multiverse. Their action was merely routine and unimportant. As such they failed to notice a small cricket chirping with the insatiable hunger and bloodlust unsatisfied even by consuming a billion billion souls.
They also failed to notice that the pod squashed it unceremoniously as it collided with the ground and terminal velocity. This was unfortunate for them, considering that Ziriothrax, Devourer of A Billion Souls never EVER forgets a grudge. What was fortunate, however, was that he was currently insect paste.
Unbothered of the blood feud that had unknowingly entered into that would eventually plunge not just this galaxy but a huge swathe of every universe in existence into war, they exited their contraption wordlessly.
Without an atmosphere, their silent steps left only footprints on the red sand to mark their passage. They walked with purpose as they approached a cliff that wasn't there before. On the face of the cliff that wasn't there before, there was a cave that definitely wasn't there before.
One of the three beings felt a vague sense of unease, that he dismissed as it simply being that time of the decade when his internal digestive organs moult. This was the last straw as countless oracles and diviners across the multiverse wept tears of sorrow uncontrollably. The point of no return had been passed.
Of course, this was not important to these three beings, part of such an inconsequential and boring mission with no wider consequences whatsoever.
As such, they continued walking and entered into the cave that definitely wasn't there before with the sheer boredom only encapsulated by beings called for overtime on a national holiday.
Inside the cave that definitely wasn't there before, on the face of the cliff that wasn't there before, there was a mural that had been there forever.
The beings took out a clipboard and biro and began to write down what it is they saw.
"Aww man, my pen's out of ink"
"I told you to get a new pen coz I'm not sharing mine after what happened last time"
"Come on, that was an accident, you know that"
"Thirty four trillion civilisations now have moustaches drawn on their most sacred figures"
"Such a killjoy"
"Whatever. Shut up and let me finish this so we can get back. Can't believe they're not even paying us overtime for this"
"We're in it for the love of the game"
"I already submitted by voluntary resignation form, Captain's finally killing me and harvesting my soul as fuel for the Hyperspace Engine of Eternal Torment (HEET) tomorrow."
"Lucky guy, I've still got 3 elysian cycles left before my voluntary execution"
It was unsure who of the three beings was speaking which lines, but it mattered not because this was all normal, and boring, and nothing of any consequence. So they left the mural that had always been there behind, exited the cave that definitely wasn't there before on the face of the cliff that wasn't there before, boarded their dropship and returned to THE AGE OF SILICON AND STEEL (whose name still echoed with the weight of myth and so forth).
A single insect leg stirred in the crater of their ship and a squeaky voice sounded out despite the vacuum:
"I shall have my revenge! By the twisting Time Pig and 'His' Bumtato, I shall not rest until my hunger is sated!"
This wasn't important either because it was just a cricket at the end of the day. What could it even do? Regardless, THE AGE OF SILICON AND STEEL (whose name was capitalised even in thought) departed without so much as a backwards glance.
Not because it was a ship and could not glance backwards even if it wanted to. Such a statement could be considered as discriminatory all naval vessels and would NEVER be published OR insinuated. Any attempts to prescribe such meaning will be pursued as defamation and lawyers WILL be involved.
ANYWAYS, the ship didn't look backwards not because it couldn't (because it could) but because it didn't want to because what happened was insignificant and boring and there definitely was not a nexus event of giga-astronomical proportions enveloping the strings of fate around them.
Perhaps the ship thought that if it denied what had happened strong enough, that what it had seen from the rough drawing of the mural was nothing but the scribbles of its boredom-addled workers, then everything would be fine.
[̶I̶f̶ o̶n̶l̶y̶ s̶a̶y̶i̶n̶g̶ i̶t̶ m̶a̶d̶e̶ i̶t̶ s̶o̶....]̶
As such, this particular visit was stripped clean from its log books and a chrono-fire was staged in the very heart of its memory circuits to wipe all evidence of this occurrence from every causality stream.
The ship and its captain promptly put these event behind them and moved on. Of the three workers who had personally been involved with the perfectly normal and routine inspection, one was voluntarily executed the next day, one was thrown into a black hole for cheating at a game of uno while the one with the most gruesome fate of all was found guilty of Grand Astrological Defraudment of the 35 Billionth Degree and sentenced...to 12 hours community service.
Well all of that was pretty pointless and boring anyways because nothing happened at all and its coincidence that all those involved met an untimely demise.
Now that's out of the way, let us return to the mural that had been there forever. For this is where the true story begins...