"Is a quick death what you seek?"
In the void of space, stood two deities. There stood a massive creature made of nothing but astral dust. It had a human-like face, with stars twinkling in its eyes.
The other was a blob of flesh and teeth, with tentacles reaching out in all directions. Its eyes blinked in all sorts of colors, and its mouth opened and closed, dripping saliva.
The astral deity looked at the monstrosity with disgust. "You are an abomination, unworthy of existing in the same reality as me."
The conduit stared back with its many eyes. "My death is something you must earn."
"Very well." The mainline conduit raised a hand, and a ray of pure energy shot out from its palm. The monster screeched and lashed out with its tentacles, but the attack hit it square in the center.
As the creature began to melt away, the astral deity smiled. "It's done."
But as the mainline conduit turned away, the blob of teeth and tentacles parted his lips. "My wrath prevails over my being." He uttered with a smile full of malice as he melted away.
***
In the distant space were two extraterrestrial beings, tasked with travelling to Earth in order to gather more information on why the planet has been radio silent for over a month.
"Anne, I'm telling you, there's nothing wrong. Something must have happened with the communicator on Earth, we go and fix it and get out, simple as that!" Seren spoke.
"I know, I know, but I think this is important. What if something has gone wrong? We can't just abandon them!"
"Anne, you're overreacting. Sometimes you just need to chill every once in a while." Anne scrolled through her datapad.
"We have the mission orders." Anne replied, holding out the datapad, "We were asked to return and check on the situation. I'm worried."
"This isn't like you, Anne. Are you alright? We're going to get through this."
Anne sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I'm sorry, I'm just stressed about this whole thing."
"Hey, it's okay. Just don't let it get to you. Let's go check out the planet. Maybe it'll even be a nice vacation. You can go on about the local fauna and flora."
"Yeah, yeah, you're right." Anne replied, smiling. She turned her attention back to the window.
"Alright, we should be entering the planet's orbit in a few minutes." Anne said, checking her watch. "Let's hope that the people on Earth are okay."
The two of them sat in silence for a few moments, before the ship jolted and shuddered. "Seren, what the hell was that?" Anne asked, grabbing her head.
As Anne tried to wrap her head around the situation that was unfolding, Seren was skimming through all the errors that the interface was displaying. "It's bad." Seren muttered.
"What happened?" Anne asked, panic evident in her voice.
"The power's gone… the engine is dead. I can't radio back to Elyndra for support." Seren's eyes flickered over the red cascading text. "And we are falling pretty fast."
"Why is this happening?"
Seren shook his head. "I don't know, I've never seen anything like this before." He answered. "Whatever it is, it's not good."
"We're going to die." Anne muttered, tears forming in her eyes.
"Don't say that, we can figure this out." Seren replied, putting on his best smile.
Anne wiped her tears, she knew that it wasn't the right time to be doing all of this. She took a deep breath and put on a brave face. "Okay, so we're in a ship without power, and we can't communicate with anyone." She summarized. "What do you suggest?"
Before they could think of anything, the ship was beginning to pick up speed, and the g-force began to take a toll. "Brace yourself, Anne." Seren called out, grabbing his seat.
As Anne reached for the safety harness, she found herself unable to hold it and was soon flying towards the front of the ship. She braced for impact but passed out before it could come.
Suddenly, everything went black.
***
"Anne, come on. Something is wrong, and it's freezing out here." Seren whispered, shaking his friend awake.
Anne groaned, "Five more minutes mom." She mumbled.
Seren chuckled. "Anne, get up. I'm serious." He replied, trying his best to not lose his temper.
"What is it, Seren?" Anne asked, annoyed at the interruption.
As Anne rubbed her eyes, all she could see around her was ruin and devastation. The ship was in shambles and the windows were shattered.
"Where the hell are we?" Anne asked, looking around in shock.
"We must have crash landed. I don't know what's going on." Seren scanned his surroundings quickly. There was nothing.
Anne got up and walked over to the nearest window. The sky was a dull grey, and the ground was littered with debris.
"Holy shit." Anne muttered. "This is unbelievable."
"I know. This place looks like hell."
As the two of them began to walk around, it all made less and less sense to them. They both had the same question: how could any of this happen to such a peaceful planet?
Anne turned to Seren. "Any idea how long we were out for?"
"Not sure. A couple hours, I'd say."
Anne looked out at the world around her and saw a thick fog that blanketed the landscape. It looked like something straight out of a horror movie.
"What do we do now?"
"I don't know. I think we should try to find someone, maybe there's a survivor or a camp somewhere."
"I don't know Anne, I'm not really seeing anything promising out here."
Anne sighed, "Yeah, me neither."
They both looked up at the sky, still unsure of what their future holds. The air was thin and the sun was overwhelming on their skin. Due to the weak Elyndran physiology, the two of them struggled to adapt to the environment of the ruined planet.
"Alright, let's move." Anne ordered, stepping off the ship.
Seren followed her closely behind, the two of them walking side by side. As they walked, they both noticed how eerily quiet it was. There was no wind blowing through the trees, no animals chirping in the distance. The only sound was the soft crunching of their footsteps on the ground.
"This is creepy."
"No kidding, it's like a ghost town."
"Let's not stay here too long."
"Agreed, we have to get out of here."