Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Day 0

I sat in a metal chair outside my commanding officer’s office. I hadn’t been there long, but my leg was already bouncing and I fidgeted my thumbs as I sat there. 

‘I know I’ll be ready for whatever my assignment will be, but waiting to receive it is always the hardest part.’

I glanced up at the clock on the wall that sat just above a poster for enlisting in the Space Ranger Unit. It featured a picture of one of Star Command’s top Ranger’s, Buzz Lightyear, on it. 

‘Everyone wants to be in the Universal Protection Unit because of him.’  

I glanced away from his image and focused on a nearby star chart that had been framed. It was a copy of one of the first star maps that was created after we left the Sol System. 

‘I know fighting Emperor Zurg is important…’ I let out a small sigh. ‘…but I’d rather be in the Exploration Unit. There’s so much of our galaxy that hasn’t been explored yet…so much more to see and learn. That’s where I’d rather be…seeing the stars.’ 

I absently began to play with my braid as I continued looking at the charts, the red strands of my hair discoloring slightly under the halogens. After another moment, I let out a sigh and swept my hair back behind me and out of my reach. ‘Don’t want to ruin it before I even have my meeting.’ Without anything else to fiddle with, I began playing with the silver locket around my neck. I looked away from the charts and opened the locket to glance at the picture inside.

‘Our wedding day,’ I thought with a smile. ‘My dear, sweet Andi, you were so beautiful in that dress. It was probably the only dress I’ll ever get you to wear. I can’t believe it’s already been a year.’ I let out a contented sigh before placing the locket back under my standard issue, green work shirt. 

Just as I did, my commanding officer, Lieutenant Lasseter, poked his head out of the door and smiled at me.

“I’m ready for you now, Ranger MacLane,” he said as he pushed his glasses up further on his nose.

I stood up and followed him into his office. He gestured for me to sit down in front of his pristinely organized desk. I glanced around at the posters of tropical paradises that had been discovered on distant worlds and moons. ‘Some of them I’ve helped discover,’ I thought with a smirk. 

Lieutenant Lasseter took his seat in front of me before he clasped his hands together and gave me another warm smile. 

“Thank you for meeting me on such short notice. I know you were still on leave from your last assignment, but something has come up.” He pulled out an astral projector and turned it on, revealing a planet with a moon orbiting it. “The survey team discovered this planet about a week ago.”

I tilted my head and watched it spin slightly on its axis. “Where is it? I don’t remember seeing a report come through about a new discovery.” I glanced at Lasseter then back at the planet. 

“It’s on the far brink of the Jeb cluster, just–”

“–just on the edge of the Empire,” I gravely stated. 

“Affirmative.” Lasseter zoomed slightly out on the image to show a sun and three other planets. “The planet is located in the Persson system. It will be designated in the catalog of planets as X-A113 when knowledge of the discovery becomes public, but you may refer to the planet as Mojang.” He zoomed back in on it. “We sent out a survey team a week ago to send probes to investigate the planet. Once the probes hit Mojang’s atmosphere, their signals cut short…simultaneously.” 

I quickly looked up at him as I said, “Were they shot down?”

Lasseter shook his head. “All indications from what data could be gathered was that they all malfunctioned at the same time from some sort of unknown interference.”

“And what about the survey crew? Did they send down more probes or a man-made vessel to assess the issue?” I could feel my leg beginning to bounce.

“Unfortunately, soon after that the survey crew and their ship were shot down by an Empire patrol. None of the crew survived, but the data they were able to collect was passed along.” 

We both sat there in silence for a moment. ‘Our jobs in the Exploration Unit are a lot safer than some of the other units, but there are always risks…and we’re at war.’

After the moment had passed, Lasseter zoomed in on the image. “From what intel the survey crew was able to gather before the probes went offline, Planet Mojang appears to be hospitable and meets the Goldilocks criteria. It most likely has breathable air, drinkable water, edible vegetation, and a temperate climate.”

I rested my hand on the control of the astral projector and turned the model of the planet around to look at it from its varying angles. 

“This planet does look promising, sir,” I said as I spun the planet on its axis, “but if it is so close to the Empire’s territory and has some kind of interference happening with technology, why is Star Command so interested?” Lasseter simply folded his arms in front of him. “There are many other planets in this sector that also meet the criteria and need further investigation, so why this one? What makes it so important?” 

Lieutenant Lasseter pulled several pictures from a file on his desk. “Before the probes went offline, they took these photographs.” 

I took the photos and looked through them meticulously. “Visible structures.” I went from one picture to the next. “Even, purposeful lines…symmetry. These were made by intelligent beings.” I set the photos down and looked back up at him. “Are we thinking there’s intelligent life on this planet? That they were the ones that took down the drones?”

Lasseter took the photos back and leafed through them again. “Everything we know is speculation at this point. With the Zurg Empire increasing their patrols of their sectors, it will make sending more probes down difficult.” He put the photos back in their folder before looking back up at me. 

“And that’s why you called me.” 

My commanding officer gave a small nod. “We need someone to go to the planet’s surface and you have the best record of success. You were the most obvious choice. I’m sorry for pulling you from your leave. I know your last assignment was–”

“–It’s ok,” I said as I shook my head slightly. “I understand the urgency.” I clasped my hands in front of me. “What is my assignment?”

He brought out a document from the same folder and set it in front of me. “Star Command is tasking you with going to the surface of Planet Mojang and verify if any of these claims are true. You must find out if the land is not only hospitable, but also livable; if there is any natural resources that can be extracted, and above all, if there is intelligent life on the planet.” 

I glanced up at the planet, taking in its size. ‘It looks to be smaller than Terra, possibly similar in size to the other Sol colonies. If Mojang has intelligent life on it, they will need to be protected from the empire. If not, the natural resources will need to be extracted. I guess, better for us to get them than Zurg’s forces. And, if nothing else, if the world is livable, we can set up a base to keep track of this sector. Best case scenario…Star Command wants all three.’ I looked back at the document as my lieutenant continued. 

“We will beam you directly to the planet’s surface and you will report your findings from there. Of course you will be given your normal exploration equipment as well as our improved oxygenated shelter, in case the readings about the planet’s atmosphere are wrong. We even have our new crafting station at your disposal. It should be able to take the resources on the planet and convert them into usable objects, better than previous models at least.”

From the folder, he pulled out the schematics for both the station and shelter. ‘Hopefully, neither of them explode like previous versions.’ I stared at the shelter with its tanks of oxygen. ‘Those only hold so much and the converters might not be able to convert the atmosphere into usable air.’ I looked back up at Lasseter and something in his expression had shifted. His kind smile was all, but gone. “Who will be on my team and how long will we be there?”

His lips turned up tightly and he wouldn’t meet my gaze. “Alex…” he said my name quietly. “You will have to go alone.” 

I looked down at the document that detailed my mission. 

“There are too many unknowns and too much risk to send more than one person. You are our most qualified and senior ranger…which is why I asked you first.” We both sat there for a moment and I must have been taking a little too long to respond to him, before he continued with, “If you’re uncomfortable with this, I can always ask–”

“–How long?” I asked as I interrupted him.

“One hundred days,” he stated matter-of-factly as he stared at me. “You will be on the planet for one hundred of their planet’s rotation. We calculated that one of their days is a little more than half of a universal day. There are plans to retake the sector, but the Protection Unit needs time. If I could make the stay shorter, I would, but Star Command needs time…and that planet doesn’t have it.”

I slowly nodded as I ran my own calculations in my head. ‘That’s the longest I’ve ever been planet-side alone. Heck, that might be longest any team I’ve been on has been without direct contact from Star Command. This truely looks suicidal.’ I began to absently touch my locket. “When would I leave?”

Lasseter zoomed out on the astral projector so it showed the solar system as a whole. There was a glaring red dot near the furthest planet. “The patrol that took out our survey team is far enough away now that we could slip a vessel in long enough to teleport you and your supplies without interference, but the window for drop off would be very short.”

I could feel Andi’s kiss on my check before I left for this meeting. It was so warm, so calming, that I didn’t want to leave her. ‘“Whatever happens, know that I love you,” she had told me. Whatever happens…’ I met Lasseter’s gaze. “How long do I have?”

“Tomorrow. We leave tomorrow morning.” 

I looked down at his desk as the weight of what he said weighed down on me. ‘Less than twenty-four hours. So little time…’  

I could feel Andi’s arms wrapped around me, safe and secure. ‘We had talked about possibly limiting the missions we go on now. We’re older and have already left our mark.’ 

I looked up at all the posters in the office. ‘I’ve already saved so many worlds from Zurg’s control. I’ve already done my part, haven’t I? Somebody else can do this one…right?’ 

I looked back at my commanding officer. He waited patiently for my answer, but there was a nervousness in his eyes. ‘No…there is no one else who can do this…That’s why he asked me. I have the highest probability of survival. But…is it worth it?’

I looked away from him as I felt my own selfishness creep in. ‘No…I can’t think like that. Not when we’re at war.’ I glanced at the wall of posters a second longer. ‘We’ve saved many worlds, but not all of them are up there. Not all the worlds could be saved.’  

In my mind’s eye, I could see a beach paradise, but everything was on fire. There were explosions everywhere and the local populace was screaming, trying to escape the invading Empire’s forces. There was a firefight in the sky, but they were wholly overwhelmed. Shots were being fired around me as I tried to get the populace to safety. Andi had been on the same assignment and she was healing and patching up as many as she could ‘But it wasn’t enough. It was never enough. The Empire won and Zurg decimated the whole population for their defiance. Star Command was too late. We couldn’t save them.’ 

My eyes shifted back to the astral projector and the image it displayed. ‘Planet Mojang.’ I remembered the pictures of the structures that had been captured. ‘If there are people on that planet…’ An echo of screams reverberated in my brain. ‘…they are worth fighting for.’ 

I met Lieutenant Lasseter’s expectant eyes. 

“I’ll do it.”

Chapter Text

Day 1

I checked my inventory tablet one last time as I looked over the crates in front of me. 

‘They’re sending me with a lot of material, but if I have any chance of surviving for a hundred days, I’m going to need…well, a lot.’  

I glanced up at the other technicians around me who were doing the same thing. 

‘They look nervous, but I guess, they have every reason to be. We’re far from Space Command on a rinky, dinky little shuttle, floating above an unknown planet in which Zurg forces could show up at any second and annihilate us like they did the other craft. I’d be nervous too.’

I lowered the tablet and let out a shaky breath. 

‘No…I am nervous…’

I pushed my braid out of the way before I pulled my locket out from under my uniform and opened it, glancing at Andi’s serene face. In my head, I could still hear her yelling from last night. 

‘She didn’t want me to go. Said it was suicide. That I would never return home to her.’

I smiled slightly as I looked at both of us in our wedding dresses.

‘I reminded her of the promise that we made that day. I told her I would love her for all time and that nothing would keep us apart ever again. I aim to keep that promise.’

I glanced up at the bayport windows that looked out at the blue and green planet, its size intimidating at this distance.

‘I aim to keep that promise no matter what this planet has to offer. I will return to Andi…no matter what.’ 

I looked away from the window before tucking my locket back into my uniform. I held up the tablet one more time for one last check.

“Everything looking alright?” asked a voice from behind me.

I turned around and smiled up at my commanding officer, Lieutenant Lasseter.

“Everything appears to be in order and accounted for.” I passed my tablet off to him. 

He glanced at it quickly and back to me. “Excellent,” he said with a slightly strained smile. “We can begin preparation to have you beamed down then. He looked over at one of the crew members nearby and nodded to them. They nodded back before walking away to the transportation room. He turned back to me before he said, “We will beam you down close to one of the structures we saw in the orbital photos about a kilometer due west of it. There appears to be a large enough clearing by a small lake that’ll fit all of your cargo.” 

We both glanced over at the crates he was sending down with me. 

“We’ll send you down first with the initial load, and once we get the all clear from you, we will send down the remainder,” he continued to say. 

I glanced back at my commanding officer. “And what if there is a break in communication once I arrive? I know you said that there was a lot of electrical interference.”

He nodded absently before responding with, “If we don’t hear back from you, we will send the remainder of the supplies ten minutes later to that exact location. Hopefully there won’t be any issues though. You have one of the most technologically advanced suits Star Command has to offer. It would take an electrical storm the size of a solar system to jam your comms.” His smile changed to a warmer one. “You’ll be ok. You’re in safe hands.”

I glanced down as I nodded. “I’ll be ok.”

He rested his hand on my shoulder before saying, “Now that everything is squared away, let’s get you suited up and out of here before Zurg’s army shows up again.”

I nodded again before he led me to where my suit was being stored and primed for use. It took a bit of finangling on my part to get into it, but I would need to do it on my own once I reached the planet’s surface anyways, so it was well worth the extra practice. I quickly opened the control panel on the forearm of the suit once I was successfully in it.

“Oxygen level…at max capacity. Radiation meter…set. Environment reader…operational. Structural integrity…at one hundred percent.” I pulled up my other forearm where my weapon was located. “Lasers set to…stun. Distress beacon…activated.” 

I glanced up at Lasseter as he held my helmet for me. 

“Not that I’ll need that, will I?” I asked as I began winding my braid into a bun and pinned it in place. All he could do was shake his head no before he handed me my helmet. I quickly put it on and locked it in place. 

“Seal is…fully functional,” I continued to say out loud as I continued my checklist. I quickly opened the glass visor on my helmet, exposing my face. “...and interchangeable.” I pushed the button that sealed the visor back into place before I pressed the comms button on my control panel. “Ranger Alex MacLane to Star Command. Star Command, do you read me?”

“Affirmative,” said a voice back in the communicator in my helmet. “Reading you loud and clear, Ranger MacLane.” I nodded before looking at Lasseter. “And the hand held distress beacon still has access to comms as well?”

He nodded before saying, “Standard protocol.” He gestured to the suit. “How’s the fit feel? We obviously didn’t have time to get one made to your exact specifications, but the female model seems to be holding up well.”

I moved my arms around for a second and then jumped up and down in place before bending at the knees. “A little snug in the legs,” I did a couple jumping jacks, “and the arms are a touch too long,” I ran in place for a second, “but I can work with this.”

“I hope you’re right.” He glanced over to look out at the planet. “Because I’d hate to think of you in that suit for one hundred days if it doesn’t fit right.” 

I popped open the visor on my helmet. “I’ll make it work. I’ve been in tighter pickles before, even without this suit. You just make sure I get home.”

“Aye aye, Ranger,” he said with a smirk. “Then if everything is ready, let’s get you planet-side.”

I shut my visor as we walked the small distance to the transporter room. The room was relatively big, yet empty save for a large platform in the middle and a control panel tucked inside a secure alcove. High above the platform was the tractor beam that could send an entire squadron of troops to a planet’s surface.

‘Or in my case,’ I thought as I got up onto the platform, ‘just me and my supplies.’ I walked over and checked what would be coming with me right away. ‘Two crates.’  I opened one up. ‘A week’s worth of canned food and water, my Ranger bag, excavation tools, torches, flint and steel, crafting station.’ I opened up the other crate. ‘Collapsable oxygenated shelter and spare cot. Everything seems to be here if the worst case scenario happens.’ I shut and sealed the lid on both crates before looking up at the control panel. 

Lasseter was waiting there with a transporter operator, ready to beam me down. He hit a button and I could hear him in my ear.

“You ready, Alex?” 

I nodded before giving him a thumbs up. “To infinity and beyond.”

“I’ll see you in one hundred days, Space Ranger. Go make history.” 

The transporter operator began engaging the tractor beam before I heard her voice in my comms as well. 

“All systems are fired up and ready to go on your command, Lieutenant Lasseter.”

“Then let’s get started,” responded our commanding officer.

“Counting down from ten.” A light illuminated brightly from above me.

“Nine, eight.” A loud hum echoed throughout the chamber.

“Seven, six.” The platform began to vibrate. My body began to vibrate as well through the very suit itself.

“Five, four.” The light above me shone so brightly that it was hard to see anything beyond its rays.

“Three, two.” Now everything was a blur and my body was vibrating so violently, that it would make lesser Rangers puke. 

“One.” The very second after she finished the countdown, my vision went blank and my body became weightless.

In the time it took for me to register this new sensation, my body regained gravitational force and I hit solid ground beneath me. I was now officially on Planet Mojang. 

In the time it took me to open my eyes, a very stark reality hit me all at once.

‘My suit…it’s gone…’  

I immediately clutched at my chest and fell to my knees as the sun overhead momentarily blinded me. I then quickly felt all over my body as I held my breath in, but my suit in its entirety was gone, helmet and all. All I had on was my standard Ranger uniform. My eyes popped open and I looked around frantically until I saw one of the crates not a meter from me. I scrambled on the grass beneath me before opening the seal on it. 

‘Please be the shelter. It at least has oxygen.’ I threw open the lid on it and almost cried out. 

‘No…I need the other one.’ I nearly fell backwards as I looked around the clearing I was in, but the other crate was nowhere in sight. I was about to run out of the clearing to track down the missing crate, but the stress of my situation caused me to fall to my knees and take in a gasping breath that I had tried so hard to keep in. I took in one shaky breath after another until it finally registered in my brain.

‘The readings…they said the atmosphere might be breathable.’ I rolled over onto my back and closed my eyes as I kept taking in breath after breath until my heart rate began to lower. ‘I’m safe…I’m fine…this planet hasn’t killed me yet…’  

Once I had calmed down enough, I opened my eyes once more and stared up at the bright blue sky overhead that had hints of white clouds dotting the horizon. I slowly got myself up into a sitting position before I fully looked around at my surroundings. 

‘Now that I’m actively not dying, let’s actually see where we are.’ My breath caught for a second as my eyes widened. 

“It…it looks like Terra,”’ I said aloud as I stared in awe at the vibrant green grass I was sitting on as well as the lush trees and rocks that surrounded this clearing. In the distance, I could hear the trickle of water from a nearby stream or brook and the soft wind blew through the trees surrounding the clearing, both creating a quiet melody.

‘I…I can’t believe it,’ I thought with a high amount of disbelief. ‘This looks like Terra and all the other colonies in the Sol System.’ I let out the breath I had been holding in. ‘None of the planets I’ve explored have even looked close to this. There was always something foreign or different enough to make each planet unique in its own right, but this place…’ I took a hard swallow. ‘This place feels like home.’

I let out a soft, contented sigh as I took in everything around me. ‘Maybe one hundred days won’t be so bad.’

After another minute or two, I finally got up and began taking everything out of the crate that was next to me.

“Torches, flint and steel, pickaxe and axe, crafting station, canned food, water, but where is…?”

I dug even further until I finally pulled out my Ranger bag. Inside were my maps of the area, a universal translator, a rolled-up sleeping bag, a compass, rope, a flashlight, a pocket knife, and the thing I had been looking for the most…

“The distress beacon…” I pulled out the cylindrical contraption and hit the communications button. When I did, all I could hear was static.

“Space Command, do you copy?” I said through the static as I hit the button once more. I waited a few seconds, but no response came.

“Space Command, this is Space Ranger MacLane. Do you copy?” 

Again, I was only met with static. 

“Space Command, this is Space Ranger Alex MacLane of the Universal Exploration Unit. I have successfully landed on X-A113 Planet Mojang. Do you copy?” 

Static. 

I let out a groan as my head dropped. 

“He said there might be electrical interference,” I muttered as I felt my heart rate momentarily spike. I squeezed my eyes shut, trying desperately to hold on to my sense of control. “He said it shouldn’t be an issue. That my suit is…” I gripped the fabric above my chest tightly, but what I was trying to grab for was gone. “Why…why didn’t it beam with me…?” I asked myself with a slight hitch as panic began setting in. “They always beam with you, so why…?”

I shook my head violently as I let out several calming breaths.

“No…it’s fine…I’ll be fine.” I slowly opened my eyes before wiping away a stray tear that had escaped. “I’ll make this work.”

I stood back up fully and looked around, but the clearing hadn’t changed much. “It’ll be fine,” I murmured before I turned back around to the one and only crate I had at the moment. I brought up the distress beacon, which would now have to be my one and only communication device, even if it was only a one way conversation, and hit the button so I could speak into it. 

“Space Command, this is Space Ranger MacLane. Communication appears to be down on my end. If you are trying to send messages to me, I’m afraid I won’t be able to receive them at this time.” 

I fished through my bag until I found the map of the area. 

“I have made it safely planet-side at the rendezvous point. Only one crate beamed with me and my Ranger suit appears to be missing as well. I don’t know…” 

I cut myself off as the uncertainty in my voice ebbed it’s way in. 

“I’ll make it work. The air here is breathable, so the suit won’t be necessary for the completion of this mission. The crate that is missing has the shelter in it. Also unnecessary given the breathable atmosphere. If you can hear this, I would like a replacement shelter sent as soon as possible though, so I have somewhere safe to stay that is out of the elements. I can always fashion myself a shelter though using the crafting station.” 

I set the map back in my bag as I turned around to face the clearing. 

“I am ready for the rest of my supplies, Star Command. You may beam them down now.”

I let go of the button on the comm link and waited.

But nothing appeared.

I hopped up onto the supply crate and sat there, waiting.

But nothing appeared. 

I lounged on the crate and stared up at the slowly setting sun.

And still nothing appeared. 

After an obscene amount of timing waiting, I finally sat up and let out a very loud sigh.

‘I guess, I really am alone.’  

I lifted up the comm device and hit the button reserved for notes and mission logs as my hand began to tremble slightly.

“Alex MacLane mission log. Day one on Planet Mojang. I am to remain on Mojang for one hundred of the planet’s days. I am to try and see if the planet is hospitable…” 

I let out a small sigh. 

“…which it is. Though it is unclear yet if it is livable in the long term. I will need to see if the planet has extractable resources that Star Command can use and, if I am able, try to see if there is intelligent life here as well.” 

I tenderly patted the crate below me. 

“Only one crate has beamed down to the planet with me. Luckily the resources inside will hopefully keep me alive for the hundred days. A lot of things will need to be resourced, but that shouldn’t be a problem with the crafting station and my other tools.”

I jumped off of the crate and began walking around the small clearing. 

“I can definitively confirm Mojang is habitable as I am able to survive without my oxygenated helmet and protective suit. I’m not sure why my suit didn’t transport with me, but at least I have some of the gear I’ll need to complete my mission.”

I stared up at the sky as the blue gave way to hues of oranges and reds.

“After one hundred days, I will return to the rendezvous point and be beamed back to Star Command to review my findings and figure out a plan moving forward.”

I breathed in the crisp air and closed my eyes, enjoying the serene calmness. For just a brief moment I imagined I was back in the Sol system. Maybe in one of the forests on the Mars colony or standing in a meadow on Titan. Even the sound of rushing water made me think of the beaches on Europa. 

‘But nothing will ever replace Terra.’ I listened to the delicate music of the wind. ‘I miss Terra.’ 

When I opened my eyes, I let out a small shriek as I was now face to face with a woolen creature. 

‘A sheep!’  

I instinctively reached up for my laser on my wrist, only to realize I still didn’t have my exploration suit on. It didn’t seem to matter much though as the sheep, unfazed by my sudden movements, walked past me without a second thought to continue grazing on the grass surrounding us. I whipped around, trying to pull myself from the shock of the confrontation. 

“Alex MacLane, Space Ranger, Universal Exploration Unit,” I said to the creature as I extended my hand to it. 

It stared up at me for only a second or two before walking away as if chewing on the grass was vastly more important. I quickly grabbed my Ranger bag and brought out my universal translator before I slung my bag on my back and ran back over to the sheep. I pushed the translate button just as it let out a long baaing sound in my direction. 

“Language unknown,” the translator said back to me in its mechanical voice. 

I flipped the switch to translate back into the unknown language the sheep was using. “Alex MacLane, Space Ranger, Universal Exploration Unit.”

The sheep didn’t even look back as the translator let out a long series of baas in its direction. I let out another long sigh before I put the translator back in my bag and pulled out my comms. 

“Alex MacLane mission log. I found a sheep-like creature near the rendezvous point, but it doesn’t appear to be able to intelligently communicate in any fashion. I doubt it is intelligent.”

Just then I heard a loud mooing sound and saw a cow that was about my height wandering through the trees. I began following it through the trees with no luck trying to communicate with it as well. Once we were out into a greater meadowy area, I nearly dropped my translator as I saw a small herd of cows this one seemed to be ambling towards. On top of a small hill nearby I saw a black polka-dotted mother horse playing with her foal. Near a small stream, a couple chickens were pecking through the water for something tasty to eat. 

‘Life…there’s life here…’  

I grabbed my comms again.

“Alex MacLane mission log. This area of Mojang appears to be teeming with potential livestock.” 

I could see the sun’s last rays as it dipped below the hill where the horses were. I walked up to each animal in turn and tried to communicate with them with no luck. After bending down and trying to communicate with the chickens, I stood fully upright again.

“I tried to communicate with all the animals I encountered, but none were capable of intelligent conversation. They all treated me with indifference, so either they refuse to communicate or they have never been in contact with a humanoid before through domestication or hunting. Either way…” 

I glanced down at the chicken near my feet. 

“It doesn’t appear like I’ll be going hungry any time soon.” 

I slowly made my way back into the trees to get back to the rendezvous point when I heard a moan through the trees. I quickly turned in that direction and saw a bipedal humanoid shambling towards me. They wore clothes that appeared to be severely tattered and worn and their skin had a mossy tint to it that made them look green in complexion. From what I could see from how far away I was, they didn’t have any hair or fur that visibly covered them.

“Alex MacLane, Space Ranger, Universal Exploration Unit,” I said aloud as the humanoid continued to shamble towards me. Speaking to it only made the person move faster in my direction. 

‘This…doesn’t look good.’

I fumbled for my translator and brought it out, making sure to catch its moans, so it could decipher what language it was using. 

“Language unknown,” was all my translator said. I relayed my same message translating back using its same moans and groans, but there was no recognition once the translation went out, it just kept shuffling closer and closer. 

Once it was close enough, I held out my hands, the universal sign that I was unarmed and was peaceful.

‘Dang, I wish I had my space suit right about now. At least then I could have some protection. Hopefully this will be enough.’  

The creature completely ignored my sign though and kept coming closer and closer, moaning as it did until it was only two meters away, then one. 

‘Years of training at the Academy, they always told us never to back down, hold your ground, never show fear. But…I don’t…think this is going to end well. And I don’t have a weapon on me.’

The creature bridged the gap between us with its outstretched hands and hit me with its arms, sending me backwards by about a meter, landing me squarely on my butt on the soft grass of the forest floor.

I quickly jumped back up and took a more defensive stance as the humanoid continued to approach, its hands outstretched like it had before.

“I am Space Ranger MacLane of Star Command!” I yelled at it. “You will stop your assault immediately or I will have no other choice than to use force!” 

It kept shambling towards me with zero recognition of my words until it was just before me once more. When it reached for me this time though, I grabbed its arm and flung it over me, so it would land squarely on its back. This only seemed to momentarily faze it as it gnashed its teeth and tried to get itself upright. I quickly flipped it over and pinned it to the ground, so it couldn’t continue its assault. My pulse pounded and my breaths came out shallow and ragged.

“You will stop this assault this instant or I will be forced to detain you for my own safety,” I told it as I began rummaging through my bag, looking for the rope that I was sure I saw at the bottom of it. I quickly cut a small section of it and bound its arms together, so it would at least be detained. 

I took several frantic breaths as I tried to push my adrenaline back down, then I brought out my comm.

“Alex MacLane mission log.” 

I stared at the creature that was bound on the ground in front of me. Its teeth kept gnashing and chomping at my feet near its head. 

“I found a possible humanoid, but it appears to be incredibly hostile. Will continue and try to calm it down so I can establish communication at a–”

Just then I heard it in the trees behind me.

‘Another moan.’  

I whirled around only to see another creature like this one ambling towards me. This time I did begin to back away from it and towards the clearing behind me. 

As I backed away, I said “I mean no harm and will free your companion if you–”  The new creature passed by its fallen comrade though, giving it no attention or consideration as it continued to shamble in my direction. I was about to grab something from my bag when another moan rang out to my left, but this one was much louder, closer. I ducked just as another one of the same creatures tried to swipe for my head. I crashed to the ground and saw that there wasn’t just three of the creatures in front of me, but five, in fact, that had come from different directions. 

‘Nope, we’re not doing this today,’ I thought as I bolted towards the clearing of the rendezvous point. 

By the time I made it to the clearing I could hear the moans from all around. Before any of the creatures emerged into the clearing though, I quickly scaled the tallest and sturdiest tree near me. By the time I was out of arms’ reach on a high branch, several of the humanoids approached the tree and reached up to me, but I was too far away now.

I watched them with a high amount of fear and a small amount of fascination as it dawned on me. 

‘They can’t climb the tree.’

I watched as their mouths gnashed and moaned out. They hit the tree over and over with feeble effort, but none of them could get to me. This kept up for over an hour with no signs of stopping. Finally I pulled off my bag and rechecked my inventory. 

‘I do have a small knife in here, but I wouldn’t be able to use it on all of them. Likewise, I have rope, but I wouldn’t be able to detain them all either. I could try a fire with my flint and steel, but I would rather not damage the rendezvous point if I can help it. Other than that…” I hung my head down. ‘I don’t really have a whole lot of other options, but to wait them out.’ I put my bag up against the bough of the branch I was on and leaned against it, getting myself as comfy as I could be. 

While the creatures below me continued to moan and reach and hit, I stared up at the full moon as it crested the horizon. There was a small amount of peace in that too as I grabbed the locket from around my neck. I glanced down at Andi’s picture and smiled as a small tear fell down on it. After another moment or two, I pulled out my comm again. 

“Alex MacLane personal log.”

 I shut my eyes as I felt my tears begin to fall now. 

“My dear, sweet Andi. I know you didn’t want me to come. I know this is a suicidal mission, but I had to.” 

I paused for a moment and took a steadying breath. 

“I still hear their screams at night and I know there was more I could have done to save them. They may be gone, wiped from existence, but it doesn’t change that feeling of guilt, regret. There are people here, there has to be, and if I can save them…” 

The moans of the creatures continued below me. 

“…then maybe I’ll finally be free of these nightmares. Maybe it’ll be enough.” 

I opened my eyes and looked up at the night sky as all the stars twinkled above me. 

“I will come home to you, Andi. I promise you that. I love you more than all the stars in the galaxy.” 

Chapter Text

Day 2

When I opened my eyes again, dawn’s light had finally crested the horizon. I hadn’t slept all night though. 

‘And I doubt I will until I find somewhere safe in this Hellscape, but at least I was able to rest my eyes for a little while.’  

A groan echoed out through the clearing. I slowly lifted up my head from where it had rested on my arms, carefully unfurling myself in the process. 

‘Would hate to fall out of this tree.’  

I glanced down below me and saw two of the green, humanoid creatures still trying to claw their way up to me; arms outstretched, mouths chomping and moaning, never tiring, never stopping.

‘At least a few of them got bored and wandered away.’ More groans echoed in the distance, disturbing what would have been a beautiful morning. ‘They’re not far though.’ I let out a sigh. ‘I need a plan’

I held up my hand, my knuckles white from holding the knife. ‘I wish I had something better.’ The crate on the ground was in eyesight, but on the other side of the clearing. ‘If I can reach it, I might be able to craft a better weapon.’ 

My eyes drifted back down to my captive audience. ‘But I won’t get far with them on my heels.’ Another groan echoed through the forest. ‘And even if I dispatch them, there’s always the ones waiting in the shadows. I don’t know if I’d be able to craft a weapon quick enough…’  

I set the blade in my lap and flexed the muscles in my hand; the tingling sensation working its way up my entire arm. ‘I do also have my excavation tools too, but I don’t want to use them as weapons unless I have to.’ Another moan. A snapped twig. Mandibles gnashing and chomping. Gnarly hands grasping upwards, unrelenting. ‘I might not have a choice.’

I grabbed my small knife and straightened up fully, my spine popping as I did. ‘And I didn’t grab any rations from the crate before I left. I’ll starve if I try and wait them out. I could maybe hold out here for another day or two, but by then I might be too weak to fight them off. I’m better off trying to take care of them now while I still have the strength to do so.’ 

After a bit of finagling, I readjusted the straps of my Ranger bag and slowly began to climb down the branches. The rays of the sun seemed to follow my descent. I made it down to the lowest branch that I could while still remaining out of their grasp and crouched down. I pulled the distress beacon from my pocket and hit the record button on the comms. 

“Alex MacLane mission log, Day two on Planet Mojang.”

My eyes met the hollow voids of the creature just below me as it tried to reach me in vain. 

“The humanoids I encountered earlier appear to be Terran-like in nature, but like many of the fauna on this planet, seem to be devoid of any rational thought or self preservation.”

I reached my hand that held the blade all the way to my left and then to my right, but the empty nothingness I saw in its eyes never wavered or shifted. 

“These…mon– These hostile life forms have been trying to attack me for hours without end…”

Dark green ooze was gushing out of small cuts and tears the creature had all over its arms from where it had endlessly bashed into the tree that had been housing me. 

“…to the detriment of their own health.”

The handle of my knife felt warm in my hand as I tightened my grip. ‘It’s now…or death…’ I secured my footing and made sure that the other creature was far enough away that it couldn’t get to me right away once the one in front of me had been dealt with. I raised my comms one last time.

“I am going to try to get my supplies now. If this device is found–”

Before I could finish my message, the creature directly in front of me burst fully into flames. 

“Holy shit!” I yelled as I scrambled up the tree as fast as I could. I turned my head just in time to see the other one also alight, both still desperately clawing at my tree haven. “How the f–” My head whipped back to the first one, its flames at least a half meter above its head. “They’re going to bring the whole tree down!”

I sheathed my knife and prepared to jump. ‘It’ll hurt, but at least I won’t be roasted alive.!’ I tried to calm my breathing and count down, but before I got to one, the fire was gone and the ceaseless moaning had stopped. 

My breath caught in my throat as I looked over the many branches between me and the creatures, but there was nothing there besides two smoldering lumps on the grass below the tree. I listened, but heard nothing through the forest. It sounded empty when only a few minutes ago it was a cacophony of disjointed moans and groans. 

‘It can’t be empty…’ I murmured to myself as I let out my shaky breath. ‘There were so many.’  

I slowly made my way down the tree again and, with each new branch reached, I would listen for any sign of life, but it was as silent as a funeral. When I reached the lowest branch once more, I stared down at the lump below me where the creature had been. ‘Could that…be it?’ I pulled out my comms from where I had shoved it in my pocket.

“Communication log update. The two creatures that had actively been trying to attack, they…” I continued to hold the button down, as I stared at the lump. “…they spontaneously combusted. There is no accelerant visible or any nearby culprit. I will have to investigate further to find the source of the ignition.” 

I glanced around the clearing once more, but it was still vacant. I gripped the branch tightly before slowly lowering my body down to ground level. All was still and quiet. ‘I don’t know which one’s more disturbing: the cacophony or the silence…’ I had landed close enough to the first lump, so I bent down to get a closer look. 

“Where the creatures had been standing are now lumps of what look to be…” I picked up a stick and poked the charred, dark green substance and ooze seeped out of it where the stick had made contact. “…burnt flesh. The fire happened so quickly and it looks like it was snuffed out just as quickly.” I used the stick and nudged the flesh pile one way or another, but it didn’t move. “The piles of flesh don’t respond to outside stimuli and are generally unresponsive.” My face scrunched slightly as the smell of it finally wafted up to me. “I think I can thoroughly conclude…” I glanced at the other pile of flesh a couple of meters from me and it appeared to be in the same state. “…the creatures have expired.”

‘But how?’ I reached out and moved my hand over the grass where the creature had been standing. ‘Slightly warm, but not for how intense the fire had been.’ I craned my neck to look up at my tree haven, but the only mark on the wood itself was from where the creatures had clawed into it. I stood up and walked over to the other side of the tree where the other creature had been. 

“Although extremely hot and destructive, the fire seems to be localized…to just these creatures, adding further evidence to my spontaneous combustion theory.”

The sigh that escaped my lips felt almost deafening in the encroaching silence. 

“Guess I’ll go take inventory again” I began walking across the clearing to my crate of supplies. “And maybe rustle up some breakfast.” 

A moan finally broke the silence as I neared the crate. I paused and listened, fearing taking even a breath would send another horde at me once more. After another moment or two, another moan quietly echoed to my right. I felt a chill run up my skin and all the way down to my shaky hands. ‘And here I thought I finally had luck on my side.’ I unsheathed my knife and crouched down before I began to carefully follow the sounds of my lone counterpart. 

I had passed many trees before sudden movement on my periphery to my right made me jump and nearly slam into a nearby tree. I shakily held my knife, ready to strike, when I saw a large black and white cow pass by a fallen log, directly behind it was a baby cow that was softly mooing after its mom. 

Just as softly, I said, “So they didn’t eat the nearby fauna. They were…just after me.”

Another moan echoed much closer to my left, pulling me back to my original task. I continued to follow its call through the trees until I neared the edge of the forest and there it was…

‘Exactly where I left it.’  

Before me, laying against the moss covered forest floor, was the same creature I had tied up with rope. As I approached, it continued to try and pull against its restraints. Its moans became louder and more needful as it saw me. Though I had tied it where its clothes were, it had shifted and writhed so much that the rope had begun to dig into its exposed, green biceps. Dark green ooze covered the rope where it hugged its skin. 

“Such a pitiful creature,” I whispered as I crouched down in front of it. Now that I was closer though, I saw a slight amount of smoke emanating from it, but only near its feet. 

“I managed to find one of the creatures alive,” I said into my comms. “It was the same one I had managed to restrain early. I don’t…I don’t know why this one didn’t catch fire, but there is a small amount of smoke coming off of it. The only thing near it is…sunlight…”

I pocketed my distress beacon once more and stood up. I glanced back into the woods, but there was nothing there. I turned back and looked past the creature and into the nearby meadow. There were now several animals up and about in the morning light. 

“Bees, chickens, even a…pig, but not you.” I looked back at the creature, its pure black eyes staring only at me. “One sole purpose…violence.” I tipped my head slightly as we continued to stare at one another. “You won’t stop, will you?” A groan was all it gave as a reply. 

The morning light was just on the cusp of its muddy boots and smoke continued to waft through the still air. My eyes drifted back from its boots to its eyes. 

“On Terra,” I began to say to the creature, “there are legends of creatures, Terrans, who have died and have come back to life.” Its fingers endlessly reached for me, though it was still securely bound. “Their sole purpose is to infect others, turn them into creatures like them. They are violent, thoughtless, and…relentless.” The creature gnashed its teeth as a moan left its throat. “I thought they were only a story until now. But here you are…” I sheathed my knife and stood up. “...a zombie.” 

I glanced once more at the sunlight as it nipped at the creature’s heels. 

“There were several ways the Terrans recommended dealing with your kind, but I’m guessing one of them is more effective than the others.” I looked back in its direction. “Let’s put it to the test.” 

I grabbed the rope that bound it and, with great effort, pulled the zombie upright. It tugged and twisted, trying to break from its restraints, but my grip on it was stronger. I guided it with extreme force to the edge of the woods, its boots smoking more as they broached the edge of the light.

“If you had been cognizant at any point in your existence, please find peace in death.” 

I pushed the creature out into the full sunlight and it instantly caught fire, bursting into flames as the other two had done before it. It fell to the meadow surface and continued to writhe and struggle as it was consumed. Its mouth opened, but instead of a scream like I expected, a silent sound left its lips as its lungs collapsed. My eyes met its eyes, but even in an all consuming death, it didn’t show pain or fear, just an endless yearning. 

I continued to watch it as the fire took its body whole. In less than a minute, it had been reduced down to nothing, but a mound of smoldering flesh. Even my rope could not escape the fire’s destruction. The forest was quiet once more, save for the soft animal noises that radiated through the meadow. I brought out my communication device and held it up to my lips.

“The humanoid creatures are zombies.” I looked away from the fleshy mound. “Sunlight destroys them.” I swallowed hard as I tried to calm my heart down. “Further tests are required to see if that is their only weakness.”

Chapter Text

Day 2 (cont.)

As dawn’s light continued to shine over Planet Mojang, I made my way back to the clearing I had teleported to. 

‘My new home for the next ninety nine days.’

Once in the clearing, I gazed at the scorched grass and meat chunks that lay near the large tree across the way. I quickly looked away as a shudder ran through my body. 

“If I’m going to stay here, I’m going to need a shelter.” I turned my attention towards the crate of supplies. “Preferably before more of their buddies show up.” I glanced at the items next to it, my eyes finally resting on the crafting station. “And without the collapsible oxygenated shelter in the other crate, I’m going to have to build one.”

I sat in front of the near cubic, metal piece of equipment and booted up the flat screen interface.

‘Now hopefully I can remember how to use this thing.’

With a bright flash, the station came to life and the display rested on the home screen.

‘Not that these things are supposed to be terribly hard to work,’ I let out a sigh, ‘I’ve just never used them before…or at least one of the newer models. Hopefully it’ll be less pyro prone.’

I clicked on the Craft setting and was brought to a whole new page that resembled more of a catalogue of sorts.

‘From what they told me in training, you can put up to a cubic meter of raw material into the opening of this and the machine will be able to craft things using that.’

I sat up on my knees and pressed the button on top that opened the meter-wide, metal hatch. Inside it was empty, but it looked like it could indeed fill a cubic meter of materials in it. I glanced around the clearing.

“Raw materials, huh?” I mumbled, before my eyes finally rested on my Ranger bag next to me. “Nothing more raw than dirt.” I unhooked the latrine shovel from the side of the bag and reassembled the pole before I stood up and began to unearth a large heap of dirt. When I had what I guessed to be about a meter’s worth, I began dumping it into the station, making sure to fill it without going too much over or too much under. Once finished, the lid slid shut and a message popped up on the screen.

“Cannot complete action. Heartbeat detected.”

“Heartbeat detected?! What do you mean ‘Heartbeat detected’?!” I quickly pushed the hatch open and glared inside. “There’s nothing in here, but dirt!” The lid slid shut once more.

“Cannot complete action. Heartbeat detected.”

“You piece of shit!” I yelled a little too aggressively. “There is nothing in here, but…” It was then that a small, fleshy body wriggled its way to the surface. “…worms.” My head fell down as my voice lowered to near a whisper. “Of course there are worms on this planet too. Why wouldn’t there be?”

The next several minutes I spent meticulously sifting through the machine, pulling out every insect I could find until I had a nice pile on the grass below, though they quickly fled once the opportunity arose. I wiped my brow before I pushed the button and the lid closed once more.

“DIRT detected. Here are the items that can be crafted using the material, DIRT.”

Below the message was only one item.

“Dirt…” My lip curled slightly as I glanced down at my dirt-caked Ranger uniform. “No, really? I had no idea that dirt would make dirt!”

I pushed the button anyways and, after a couple of seconds, the machine gave a soft ding and the lid slid open. Inside was a ten centimeter cube of dirt. I carefully lifted it out and was relieved it still held its cubed shape.

“Hard to believe this machine can compress something to one one-thousandth its original size.” I stared at it a moment longer. “It’s heavier than I thought…dense.”

I turned it around in my hand until I saw the little red button on it that lay in the center of one of the sides.

“There you are.”

With a small smile, I turned away from the machine and took several steps into the clearing before setting the dirt cube down on the grass. I pressed the button on it twice in quick succession before backing away slightly to allow it to decompress. Within the span of a blink of an eye, the small cube was now a cubic meter in size, but retained its same shape.

“A cube…”

I walked around the shape, inspecting it as I did so. Although the object itself felt very unnatural.

“It’s going to be my key in surviving this beautiful hellscape though.”

I brushed a few loose and frayed strands of sun-kissed bronze hair away from my face and kept checking the cube until I found it again.

“The button that compresses it and decompresses it.”

I found it in relatively the same spot on the cube, but its size had not changed and was dwarfed by the object it was attached to.

“Helpful if I ever need to move it.” I let out a sigh as I rested my hand on my hip. “Going to need a lot more of these if I’m going to build a shelter.” I nudged the dirt cube with my foot and small flecks of earth fell down. “Probably going to want to build it outta something stronger though.”

I walked away from the strange shape and came back to the crafting station, kneeling just in front of it, so I didn’t have to bend over. I clicked on the crafting icon on the station’s screen once more and a more detailed list popped up with six options.

“Raw materials that almost every habitable planet has.” I sneered once more as I looked at option one. “Dirt. Of course there’s dirt.” I glanced over at the cube. “Unless the computer added it to the list after I cubified it.” I shrugged slightly before looking at the list. “Wood…mhm. Stone…makes sense. Metal, minerals…” My eyebrow raised slightly. “Textiles?” I hit the button for it, but there was nothing in the catalogue for it. “Cool.” Another sigh. “So much for changing my threads any time soon.”

I glanced at the blank screen for far longer than I had intended before the thought that had been brewing under the surface finally made itself known. 

“Most planets have some form of textile capacity, but they all vary in what can be made into textiles.”

A soft bleat echoed through the nearby trees, reminding me of how unalone I actually was.

“Luckily for me, this planet has sheep…for some reason.” I chuckled ever so slightly. “A shelter made entirely of wool cubes is kinda ridiculous though, so let’s go back to something a little more reasonable.”

I backtracked to the options and clicked on wood instead and groaned when that category was also empty.

“Guess, I’m gonna have to do some experimenting.”

My eyes glanced over to the box next to me. 

“Is a thought, but I’d rather keep it for storage.” 

Then I shifted my gaze upwards at the tree directly behind the crafting station. An exhausted sigh escaped from my lips before I rolled my shoulders and my neck. I stood up fully and my bones creaked in their exhaustion.

“Why’d I think a suicide mission would be easy?”

I grabbed the axe from where it rested, the weight of it familiar in my hands. I walked around the clearing, and found a tree that would be tall enough, but not so wide that it would need to be trimmed down to fit in the crafting station. After I had cut out a notch in the tree facing the clearing, I went to the back of it.

‘Five hits.’ My eyes drifted down to the metal tool that had traveled with me through the vast expanses of space. ‘The best Star Command has to offer…let’s get to work.’

I hoisted the axe back and let out a calming breath, preparing my muscles for the eventual reverberation. With one heavy swing, the blade met the bark of the tree, sending a shockwave not only through my body, but also through the very air, slicing through the silence of the woods.

With each whack, the quiet around me was shattered, but sure enough, after five strong hits, the tree and I were both groaning and I backed away from its path of entropy. Gravity won out and the old giant aggressively crashed into the clearing.

I took in a sharp breath and listened, the pounding of my own heart a minor distraction. There were no groans or shuffling of underbrush. The silence had been restored and I let out my shaky breath. I walked around the fallen behemoth and finally took stock of my yield.

“Fourteen…no, fifteen usable meters.” I leaned against my axe and gazed up.

‘Sun’s farther on its rotation than I’d like.’ I wiped my brow with my arm and looked back at the downed tree. ‘It’s half of a universal day. Gonna have to work twice as hard then.’

I spent the next several minutes stripping the tree of its branches, then I chopped the log into meter chunks, fifteen sections like I had thought.

I was in the process of rolling one of these logs to the crafting station when something skittered quickly through the trees in front of me. My hand slipped in that brief moment and I face planted straight into the semi-soft grass below. 

I could hear the skittering now and I scrambled to get back to my feet, only to see a large, black mass scampering towards me. My head whipped around to look for my axe, realizing too late that I had propped it against the crate and this creature was between me and my only available weapon.

There was no time for anything else, but to take several steps backwards. It was moving too quickly to be able to outrun it, so with only a couple seconds to spare, I raised up my arms to block the incoming attack.

But nothing happened.

After a few seconds of waiting, my wild eyes gazed down at the intruder and slowly widened once I realized what it was.

‘A spider! A really freaking enormous spider!’

The black arachnid had stopped a couple meters away from me and, since it only came up to my waist, it was staring up at me with eight, beady red eyes. It made soft chittering noises as we observed each other.

‘We definitely don’t have anything like you near Terra.’

I slowly lowered my hands after a minute or two passed. And then, just like that, it scampered around me, giving itself a wide birth, and continued on its path through the forest. I stared at its retreating form for longer than I would have likely ever wanted to admit to, picked up my jaw from where it metaphorically hung, and walked back over to the log I had been pushing.

I was finally able to finish rolling all the logs over to the crafting station, with several small breaks in between to look over my shoulder for any more giant arachnids. And then my stomach growled so loudly I thought I was in the presence of a Terran bear.

With a deep sigh, I stretched my arms and back, relishing in the small joint pops, then walked the short distance to the supplies crate. My face dropped slightly with disappointment when I saw the pouches of food that had been packed.

“Only thirty…ten days worth.” I picked one up and inspected the label. “Chicken Alfredo, my…favorite.” I glanced over at the liter-sized bottles of water next to it and pulled one out as well. “Only ten.” Another heavier sigh. “At least these ones can be refilled and filtered.”

When I sat down on a nearby log to enjoy my prepackaged sustenance, a rooster perched itself on another log, the farthest one away from me. I gave it a few side glances before twisting off the cap to my food and taking the first swig of lumpy, nutrition-packed sludge.

“Yup,” I gave a small grimace, “definitely the way mama used to make it.”

The rooster mocked me with a loud crow. My eyes slanted in its direction as I took another swig.

“Can always make it from scratch.”

Once my “food” break was finished, I got back to work by heaving one of the logs up the side of the crafting station and into the machine itself. When the lid slid shut, another message popped up onto the screen.

“WOOD, OAK detected. Here are the items that can be crafted using the material, WOOD, OAK.”

Like before with the dirt, there was only one option, but unlike dirt making dirt, it looked like wood made planks.

“And four of them at that. Helpful.” I glanced at my axe, before looking back at the screen. “I would like to not become a part-time lumberjack.”

I pressed the crafting button and pulled out the four miniature cubes that looked like slated planks of wood. I brought them over to the dirt cube I had made before and rested one on top. I double clicked the button on this one and, just as instantly, a much larger version of the planked cube was in its place. But not only did it rest there without falling apart, but it was perfectly lined up with the block underneath it. I briefly inspected it, but it seemed more than structurally sound.

“More than I can say for you,” I said to the dirt block below before I gave it one passive aggressive kick. Unfortunately, my kick was a little too aggressive as the entire cube completely crumbled into a pile on the grass. I rolled out of the way of the crashing wooden block now that it didn’t have anything holding it up.

But nothing happened.

The grass caught my fall as I tumbled and when I turned back to look at what had caught the wooden cube, I could only stare in complete bewilderment.

The wooden block was suspended in midair.

With a heavy amount of struggle, I got back onto my feet, then hesitantly pulled out the distress beacon and hit the button for comms.

“Communication log update on day two on Planet Mojang.” I started down at the dirt pile and then back up at the free-floating block. “I remember most of what was taught about the new crafting station.” I waved my hand under it, but still it did not move. “I don’t remember our instructors saying anything about it producing antigravity creations.”

I walked around the block, tapped on it, nudged it, flicked it, and finally pushed on it, but it refused to budge. My efforts caused minor scratches and minuscule dents on the surface, but otherwise it remained unscathed.

“I know the Protection Unit claims to be able to fly, but they ain’t got nothing on this.”

I pressed the small button on the wooden cube, causing it to instantly shrink into its miniature size and drop onto the dirt pile below.

“More like falling with style”

I pushed my copper-tinted braid out of my face as I picked up the cube. With a new sense of intrigue I began to experiment with the new feature, but no matter what configuration, including placing it adjacent to a block with nothing underneath it, it still stayed put.

After a weary glance at the midday sky, I began to work with a little more urgency. I first came up with a shelter design, a five meter by five meter layout.

‘And since the zombies couldn’t climb higher than about two meters,’ I thought as I lugged another log into the crafting station. ‘I will make my shelter three meters high.’ I pressed the craft button, then took out the four mini wooden blocks, to continue building. I glanced at the remaining two logs. ‘Will need fifty-seven blocks. Good thing that tree had just enough.’ I glanced at the forest. ‘Would hate to waste all my daylight on chopping trees.’

The sun was just beginning to set by the time I had my shelter mostly constructed. I lit one of my torches and stepped into the shelter. My crate and crafting station were on one side and my sleeping bag was on the other.

After the torch was secured to the wall, I dug out the final two cubes I would need to finish off the front wall when a twig snapped in the woods close to the clearing. A moan echoed out just as I pressed the button for the bottom block. I saw the creature, the zombie, emerge with one more close behind it.

I placed the second mini cube in its spot, but before I could push the button, green, gnarly hands were reaching through the opening, but the zombies themselves were too big and too uncoordinated to make it all the way through the gap.

Completely frozen in my spot, I stared as yellow teeth gnashed and void black eyes hungered. They would never stop.

‘Not until the sun burns them to ash…’

I exhaled a shaky breath before I plunged forward, pressing the small cube’s button before the zombies could grab me. The decompressed cube filled the space entirely, pushing out my voracious attackers.

I stood in complete silence as I listened to the banging, and scratching, and gnashing, and moaning. It really was ceaseless, but still, my shelter endured.

After I catalogued the rest of my day's findings into the communication log, I walked over to my sleeping bag and got in. With a deep sigh, I glanced over at the crate next to me.

‘Could have slept in there, for added protection I guess, but I think it would feel like a coffin.’ 

I got more comfortable in my bag on the grass-soft earth and stared up through the one opening I had left in the middle of the ceiling. I gazed in wonder at the night sky before I hit the comms button once more.

“Alex MacLane personal log.”

I smiled for the first time that day, though it felt heavy and strained against my lips.

“My dear, sweet Andi, despite this planet’s efforts, I’m not dead yet. Even though the neighbors aren’t really that welcoming, it’s not all bad, I guess.”

The softness of the bag was warm and inviting, my ragged body almost instantly melting into it from exhaustion alone.

“It’s not the same without you though. We traveled the stars together.” 

The starlight overhead distorted slightly as I blinked away a stray tear.

“I’d like to think that you are at one of the ones I can see right now.” 

I pulled the sleeping bag close and imagined for a moment that it was her arms wrapped around me, holding me tight, keeping me safe.

“Andi…” I whispered out. “I love you more than all of them combined. I…” 

My voice cracked and I could no longer contain my tears. I dropped the distress beacon and rolled over onto my side. The sound of my quiet sobs intermixed with the moans and wails in that clearing almost seamlessly.

Chapter Text

Day 3

The light of dawn slowly crept its way in through the hole in the ceiling, illuminating the small, wooden shelter I had built now that the torch had more or less burned out. I could feel myself being pulled away from the dream I had been having; the caress of arms slowly becoming phantoms as my consciousness returned to me. We had spent so long in each other’s arms as we woke up, but now she was nothing more than a whisper on my lips and empty space where her body fit so easily. My eyes slowly lifted as the last sweet tendrils dissipated. 

‘Where…where am I?…’

Before I could figure that out fully, a loud crowing sound reverberated through the small space. I jolted up from where I had been laying as my eyes widened in panic. I reached for my knife, but it wasn’t there. As my eyes adjusted, I quickly realized I was alone in the shelter, until another crowing sound screeched from above me. I shot my eyes upwards and saw a rooster perched at the edge of the open block in the ceiling. He met my gaze and cocked its head slightly.

‘I recognize those markings.’

He hopped off the edge and landed on the top of the crate.

‘You were the one who mocked me when I tried to eat my chicken alfredo yesterday.’

The poultry averted his eyes and hopped into the supplies crate. I silently took a couple of steps before peering inside.

“What you up to, Alfredo?” 

He was near the food, pecking at one of the food pouches. While I avoided being poked by his beak, I reached inside and grabbed the container he was pecking at. I looked between him and the food bag as my eyes slanted slightly.

“Scrambled eggs? Really?” I let out a sigh as the bird hopped out of the crate. “You really are a weird one, Al.” I twisted off the lid and let the sludge slid down my throat. After a minute of eating it, I shrugged. “You’re right though. It’s not that bad.”

Once I was finished with my nourishment, I headed over to the “entrance” of my safe house and listened. Since I had been awake, the only sound I had heard had been the rooster, but chickens weren’t the only things lurking in these woods. I listened for another moment or two before hitting the button on the cube and shrinking the wooden plank block that was eye-level with me. From the bit I could see, I saw small tendrils of smoke and nothing more, but the scent that wafted in was enough to make me want to regurgitate my breakfast. I almost immediately jumped away as a surge of feathers bolted past my face and out of the opening in the wall. 

“Stupid bird!” I yelled at the future menu item as I tried to calm my racing heart. Once I had calmed down enough, I shrunk the plank block below the first one and gathered them both up and stepped out into the clearing. Near the shelter were three hunks of smoking flesh, but nothing else in sight. I brought up my communicator and hit the button.

“Alex MacLane personal log. It is day three of my mission. Today I plan on finding higher ground, so I can establish where the nearby lake is or the structures that were observed in the aerial photographs. Hopefully, with any luck I will find my missing crate along the way.” 

Before I could put the communicator away though, Al wandered over to one of the carcasses and pecked the ground near it. He was about to peck the flesh, but turned abruptly and pecked around it instead.

“Interesting,” I said with a cock of my head, then hit the button once more. 

“For future reference, the zombie meat is not edible.”

After relieving myself and shoveling the carcasses away from my camp, I went back inside to get ready. I took the two compressed plank cubes from my pocket and put them into the crafting station, checking to see what I could make with them that I might need for my trek. I stared at the menu screen as several options popped up. 

“Well at least it’s not DIRT,” I mused as Al wandered into my wooden shelter. “Let’s see, STICKS, obviously. Oooh, a BOAT. A CHEST.” I glanced at the crate next to me. “Don’t need one of those for a while. TRAPDOORS and STAIRS; pretty standard.” Al migrated over to my bed and laid down on it. “BUTTONS and BOWLS.” I let out a sigh as I kept scrolling. “CRAFTING STATION?” 

I stopped for a moment and cocked my head as I looked at the side of the machine I was using, then back at the screen again. The image shown was for the same device. “Huh…” I tapped my fingers against its metal siding. “Very strange.” I shrugged my shoulders before brushing a loose strand of red hair out of my face. “Might come in handy if I ever need two of them.”

After scrolling a bit more, I finally found the thing I was looking for. “A door. And it looks like I will have just enough planks to make it.” I hit the crafting button and pulled out a ten by twenty miniature looking oak door with a button in the center. 

“So…not a cube…” I glanced over at Al, but he had fallen asleep on my bedding. I gave another deep sigh before going over and placing the miniature door inside of the two meter hole the removed blocks had created. I hit the button and it expanded until it perfectly fit inside of the space. It retained its oaken color with four wooden panels on the bottom and four small, windowed panels on top. 

After a moment of stunned awe, I turned the knob and opened it as the hinges stayed snugly in place. I opened and shut it a few times before shutting it once more and heading back to the crafting station. 

“Now, where are you?” I muttered as I searched the back end of it. Once I found the compression button, I pushed it and the station shrank down to a cube. I put it, along with some food, into my Ranger bag. I grabbed my axe and pickaxe and attached them to their straps on the bag. Finally, I grabbed my utility knife and pocketed it.

‘Not that it’d do much against the zombies, but it’s something.’

Once I had everything ready to go, I side-eyed Al. He was making contented chirping noises as he slept. 

“You’re cute, but I don’t need a pet,” I quietly said as I crept over to him. 

Once I was close enough, I lurched forward and grabbed him. With a flurry of feathers and shrieks, I wrestled him to the door. 

“You can’t stay!” I shouted at him. “I can’t have you eating my food!” I threw him out the door and slammed it shut behind me. He flew a sizable distance away from me before squawking in my general direction. 

Once I was sure he wasn’t about to attack me, I took out the aerial map and tried to figure out where there would be high enough ground.

“When I landed here a couple days ago, there was a large hill near the meadow. I think that was eastward.” I pulled out my compass, but all it did was spin and spin. A deep sigh escaped my lips before I glanced up at the sun’s positioning. “Hopefully this planet runs counter-clockwise or finding higher ground might take awhile.” 

I turned towards where the sun was rising and followed it until I found the meadow again. It was a lot bigger than I initially thought with flowers blooming everywhere. There were two pigs screaming it out over a lady pig nearby, but otherwise this area was very tranquil, completely different to its nightly counterpart. I followed the meadow northward as it started to drastically steepen into a tall hill, the same one I had seen on that first day. 

As it inclined more and more, the grass gave way to rocks and then to boulders as every muscle in my legs screamed at me that I shouldn’t have skipped leg day last week. When I looked back, the forest that had my shelter in it was still very much visible, with the clearing I had landed in making a nice indentation toward the center of the trees. 

The forest seemed to go on for a while, but to the very North of it, the trees seemed to clear out massively. I pulled out the aerial map and looked it over, glancing at the various things I could see from my vantage point. ‘According to the map, the lake is there in that clearing, but I’d rather verify than waste my time.’ I tripped on a stone and nearly lost my balance. ‘At least more so than I already am.’ After climbing up an incredibly tall boulder, more of the area was becoming visible. The meadow seemed to taper off into more sharp hills to the South and East. What lay beyond them was impossible to tell from this height. To the West of the forest I was sheltered at, it appeared to become more dense and steep. ‘It looks like this valley and part of the forest are in a bowl.’ 

I tucked my map away and backed up as the area to the North was coming into view. As I saw a smidge of blue in the distance, the ground beneath my feet gave way and I was plunged into darkness.

I remember the fall and banging into several things as I went down, but then all became hazy as I hit the ground hard. There was a sharp pain in my head before my vision went completely black.

“Get up, cadet.”

It was Andi’s voice, but distant…young.

“You’re never going to complete your training sprawled out on the ground like that.”

Her brunette hair was short then, but so was her temper. We had just met and I was already so transfixed with her blue, stormy eyes; a tempest I would gladly let pull me under. She had reached out her hand to help me up. It was unexpected, kind.

“Let’s go to infinity.”

I reached up my hand to grab hers.

“And beyond,” I mumbled as my hand grasped the chilled air around me. She was gone, distant like the memory I tried to cling to. My hand hung limply, craving her warmth, her softness. 

I opened my eyes, but the darkness remained. At least it wasn’t as constricting as the blackness before it. My head throbbed as I tried to orient myself. The ground beneath me was hard; pebbles and loose dirt shifted as I tried to sit up.

‘I remember…falling.’

I tipped my head upward, and, even though I was still dizzy, I saw beams of sunlight from way high up. 

‘Where am I?’

As my bruised muscles screamed at me, I rolled my backpack off and dug through it until I found my flashlight. It flickered on, the brightness near blinding for a moment. Once my eyes adjusted, I swept the light across the space and took in the pit I had fallen in.

“Looks like a cave system,” I mumbled as I sat fully upright. The pit itself wasn’t very big, but there were several tunnels that led out into unknown destinations. I tipped the light upwards to where I had fallen in. Even though the light didn’t reach up that high, I could see the slope of loose rubble that had swept me this far down. 

“Guess,” I let out a groan, “I should be grateful it wasn’t a straight drop.” As I tipped my head, I felt something ooze down my forehead.

‘Is there…water down here?’

With shaky hands, I reached up and touched the liquid before bringing my fingers down into the light. Shimmering red reflected back like rubies. I let out another groan before reaching into my bag for the med kit inside. After pulling out gauze and the med gel, I quickly sealed the gash in my head that I got from the fall. I took out another food bag from my supplies.

‘Mm, pork chops and baked potatoes.’ I quickly guzzled down the sludge. ‘At least, if anything, Star Command was smart enough to put rapid healing ingredients in all their food. That’s why it tastes so…good…’

I quickly finished off the delicious meal and got myself back onto my feet, the medicine in the food already kicking in. Once I was situated, I grabbed my compass and glared at the steel contraption. 

“Of course it won’t work on this planet. Probably because of how it’s calibrated.” I tipped my head slightly. “Maybe I can make one using this planet’s resources, that might work better.” I pulled several beacon tags out of the hidden compartment in the back of the compass and turned one on. It lit up immediately and so did a small light indicator on the outer ring of the compass, pointing in the general direction of the beacon. “At least something flipping works around here.” I adhered the beacon to a boulder near the area where I had landed after my fall and the light indicator continued to track its location. 

“It appears that Space Command issued compasses do not work on Planet X-A113. This is not surprising as the strange magnetic field on this planet has interfered with more than one of our instruments. However, the beacon tags still work. My hypothesis is that it’s because they are localized. I will report back in if there is any new information.”

I put away my distress beacon and grabbed out a torch. I set it on low power mode and stuck it in the ground near the beacon tag, before turning to one of the tunnels that hopefully led out. With a reaffirming breath, I headed down the left-hand tunnel, the flashlight illuminating the path ahead of me. I glided my hand along the near smooth tunnel wall as I traveled along.

‘This feels way too even. Maybe someone dug these tunnels out. I would say they were water-made, but I don’t see any rivulets flowing anywhere.’ I lightly kicked a rock further ahead as small dust particles stirred and floated across the light’s rays. ‘Maybe they all dried up.’ 

Before I could think anymore about it, a moan echoed down the tunnel and I instantly froze in my tracks. The sound of it reverberated through my entire being as the blood in my veins turned to ice. 

“But it’s daytime,” I mumbled and the zombie moaned back as if in response. Less than a couple seconds later, the lumbering mass of flesh appeared further down the tunnel. It was shuffling toward me, its black voids for eyes were solely fixed on me.

‘I could run, but there’s only the pit and one more tunnel and I’d rather not blindly head into an unknown area.’ I slowly reached for my axe and unclasped it from its hook and, as I did so, my flashlight beam veered up and directly shined on the creature. But then something unexpected happened. 

‘It…it stopped…’ With wide-eyes, I stared at the creature as it had completely stopped in its tracks. It still gnashed and moaned, but went no further down the tunnel. ‘Huh…’ I thought as I pulled the axe in a ready position in case it did lunge at me. I was several meters away, but it wasn’t worth the risk not to be prepared. ‘I wonder what would happen if…’ I slowly lowered the beam of light off of the creature, so it rested a meter or two in front of it. Not even a second later, the zombie shuffled forward once more, but immediately stopped once it touched the light again. 

“The light doesn’t burn you like the sun does,” I murmured as I watched it try and lurch forward, but was unable to. “But it doesn’t look like you like it either. Very interesting.” Axe in hand and ready, I cautiously walked the short distance between me and the zombie and stopped just out of arm’s reach of it. “It may not be the sun or fire, but at least it’s something. Now, if the Terran documentaries are to be believed…” With a fluid motion, I raised the axe and brought it down hard on the creature’s skull. It dropped almost immediately as green ooze spilled out of the large crack in its head. Not too dissimilar to my own wound, but I actually survived mine. 

“Looks like the documentaries were correct,” I mused as I quickly wiped the blade on the creature’s shirt. “Aim for the head.”

I stepped over its corpse and continued down the path it had come from. As I made my way further down, the rock gave way in small chunks from gray to black. 

“Is that?…”

I stopped just in front of one of the clusters that sat along the tunnel wall and brought out one of my torches, securing it to the wall nearby, but not so close that it could get damaged. After unclasping my pickaxe from the bag, I scratched along the black cluster and a dark, powdery residue fell down onto the tunnel floor. I touched the residue and it was gritty to the touch.

“Coal…”

Without any hesitation, I set up my crafting station next to the wall and began hacking away at the black clusters in the stone wall, putting the debris into the station as I went. Once it was full of the ashy material and clumps or rock, the lid slid shut and a new message popped up on the screen. 

“STONE and COAL detected. Begin Centrifugation process?”

I clicked the “YES” button and waited as the machine gave a light humming sound. As it processed, I glanced around, a small shiver running up my spine as I listened and waited. Luckily the process took no more than ten seconds.

‘But with darkness surrounding me, it’s hard to say what might slither its way into the light.’

When the machine beeped, there was a moment when all of my nerves screamed to jump, but, luckily, my years with Star Command had steeled me to remain calm under duress…for the most part.

Inside the crafting station were two circular lumps of coal about the same size as everything else that emerged from the machine, but these ones had no buttons to them. This was as small as the machine would make them apparently. Also in the station was one block of stone, the same material as the tunnel itself, but it looked different somehow, more…bumpy and blocky to the touch. I took it out and put the coal lumps back in, curious what I would be able to make with it. 

“COAL detected. Here are the items that can be crafted using the material, COAL.”

A list of available recipes popped up and I arched my eyebrow for a second at the limited selection.  “A block…of coal?” I stared at it a moment longer. “Okay, Alex, it’s fine. Would make terrible building material. Just gonna build a whole house out of it. What could possibly go wrong?” My sarcastic tone dropped and I hung my head down, the red of my hair illuminating near translucent through the light on the screen. “Plus side: if the cube has a button, it can condense down to a more reasonable size I guess.” I shook my head and continued to look at the other recipes. “Looks like there might be more options that aren’t being shown, but in the meantime, it would appear that all I can get with it are TORCHES and a CAMPFIRE.”

I opened up the machine and took out the pieces of coal, placing them in a special pocket in my Ranger bag. I grabbed the stone cube again and placed it in the crafting station as well. 

“COBBLESTONE detected. Here are the items that can be crafted using the material, COBBLESTONE.”

A small smile spread across my lips. 

“Lots of these are similar to the wood planks; SLAB and STAIRS. WALLS and LEVERS are new, but still in the same vein.”

I flicked further down to more options and my smile instantly beamed. 

“A FURNACE?!” 

Leaning closer, I stared at the picture that the machine provided, or I did until my hair fell in front of my eyes. I cursed slightly before putting my frazzled hair up into a standard-issue bun. I looked once more and smiled wider at the furnace.

“It looks like the one I had on Tangea! Maybe a bit newer, but it’s almost the exact same!” I patted the pocket that held my newest acquisition. “And now that I have coal, I’ll be able to smelt any precious metals I find.” My smile dipped slightly. “It requires eight cobblestone cubes and I have…one.” 

A sigh escaped my lips. It traveled through the dark of the tunnel and farther down, a scraping sound echoed lightly back. My eyes whipped in that direction, but through the darkness nothing appeared to move. After longer than I cared to think about, I looked back at the machine. 

“Best not to waste materials for now until I have something worthy of smelting.”

I continued to scroll through my options for COBBLESTONE, but, like with COAL, there were many options still hidden from view. Near the bottom though was a subcategory for tools. 

“Weapons, those could be useful.” My eyes quickly glanced back down the dark tunnel that lay before me. “A sword wouldn’t be a bad idea.” I tipped my head slightly. “Though with how slow they are and that nifty little light trick, maybe I won’t actually need a sword afterall.” I kept scrolling. “Already have a pickaxe and axe, but it’s good to know that I can replace them if something were to…”

A small screech permeated through the very wall I was in front of. I instantly backed up and shot my flashlight in that direction, already reaching for my axe as I did so. The sound dissipated and I let out my breath very slowly. 

‘Feeling a little exposed right now. I would need to mine more to make the sword and this tunnel doesn’t feel very secure.’ 

I glanced in both directions before shrinking the crafting station, grabbing the torch, and continuing on my way down the tunnel. Several meters ahead, there was a bend in the tunnel that I couldn’t see past.

‘It’s where the noise was coming from earlier, the scraping sound.’ I turned off the torch and brought out my flashlight, not wanting to take any chances. I crept up to the corner and very quietly peeked around the edge. The darkness that greeted me was consuming. I steadied my hand and shot the light into the tunnel, but what greeted me was not what I had been expecting.

“It’s…a dead-end.” I straightened and walked further in, but the tunnel completely tapered off a couple more meters in. “But I heard…” The flashlight lit up the back wall and part of it reflected back with a brownish yellow sparkle. “Well, blast me to Zurg, that looks like…” I walked over to where the wall shimmered under the light and scratched at its surface. “…iron.” 

I secured the torch to the wall once more and set up the crafting station just below where the iron vein was and got to work hacking at the stone. Once all of the deposit was in, I centrifuged it once more and inside was more cobblestone blocks, but now there was a lump of pure iron, something that I had seen on countless worlds as the cornerstone of what would be used to classify the beginnings of civilization. I held it up to the light of the torch and admired its metallic tint. 

“Guess Planet Mojang just skyrocketed from the Stone Age up to the Iron Age in one fell swoop.”

Chapter Text

Day 3 (cont.)

“Star Command is tasking you with going to the surface of Planet Mojang and verify if any of these claims are true.”

The meeting with Lieutenant Lasseter seemed almost a lifetime ago, but little more than a couple days had passed since then.

“You must find out if the land is not only hospitable, but also livable; if there is any natural resources that can be extracted, and above all, if there is intelligent life on the planet.”

I stared at the iron ore a moment longer as my commander’s voice lingered in my brain.

‘Guess I can mark off the second of my tasks and it’s only day three of my stint here. Maybe I won’t even need the hundred days.’

With a bolstered morale, I pocketed the precious metal and packed up my stuff once more, heading back towards the main cavern. I stepped over the corpse of the zombie I had slayed earlier and continued on to the main room without a secondary thought. After quickly finding my torch and tracking beacon, which, unsurprisingly, were in the same spot I had left them, I continued on through the second tunnel. I peeked in and the scraping sound could be heard further down the tunnel, but it was so distant that it was hard to place exactly where it was coming from. 

Standing at the entrance, I listened to the noise, trying to place what could be making it when something from behind pushed me forward with a great deal of force. With a thud, I caught myself on the wall and whipped around fast enough to see a zombie shuffling towards me, its outstretched hands way too close to grabbing me. I fumbled to grab my flashlight, but there was no room to get away from the lumbering mass of molding flesh. I ducked under its reach just as I unclasped my axe. It’s gnashing maw jutted forward as my back hit the opposite wall. I was able to lift the axe handle in time to block its attack, but it had me effectively pinned in place.

“I…killed you already!” I screamed at the creature as I pushed back with as much force as I could muster. It continued its assault with no recognition of my confusion.

‘I hit it in the head! I watched it crumple to the ground! And it was still there when I passed by a minute ago! What is going on?!’

With an exceptional shove, its head twisted enough that I could see it more clearly and it was missing something.

‘The head wound…it’s not there! This is a different zombie!’

I snarled in its direction before pushing my weight against it as much as I could. Then I raised my leg, making sure I placed it squarely where its stomach would be.

“The day may come when I give in to the darkness,” I groaned as I placed my hands equally apart on the handle of the axe, “but today is not that day.” I kicked as hard as I could against its tattered shirt and it flew back into the opposite wall. It tried to scramble back toward me, but before it could, I raised the axe once more and swung it to the side. With a thump, its head hit the ground and rolled further down, followed quickly by the rest of its body. My heaving breath was the only sound that could be heard in this enclosed space. 

Once I had collected myself once more, I stood up straight, brought out my flashlight, and examined the head of the zombie. 

“No head wound.”

I glanced back to the cavern that it had come from. 

“But it’s not possible.”

With a brisk trot, I ran back into the first tunnel and the first one I had killed was in the same spot I had left it. Shaking my head, I walked back into the cavern.

“I examined this space completely.” I swept the light around for emphasis, but there were no more openings or entrances, just the two. “Except…” My light flicked upward to the hole I had fallen in. “Maybe.” I swept my boot across the gravel that I had landed on earlier, the sound of which left a light echo through the small space. “I didn’t hear it at all though. I would have heard it if it had fallen.” I looked away from the entryway and back toward the second tunnel where the creature remained decapitated. “It’s…not possible.”

With a high amount of contempt, I groaned, which didn’t sound too different from the creature I had just murdered, and made my way back over to it. I dragged it and its head back into the pit, leaving it unceremoniously in a corner to rot. I took out my torch and secured it on an inside wall near the entrance of the tunnel, so it would light up both spaces. 

“At least I’ll be able to see if another one is coming.” My eyes continued to survey the dark corners of the pit, but the light of the two torches here were simply not enough. “And I only have two left.” I hummed to myself and thought for a moment. “I don’t want to risk being attacked from behind again,” I rambled out loud as I stared at the torch secured to the wall, ‘but I need to keep going, so I can find a way out.” I glanced down the pitch-black tunnel before me and thought for another moment. 

After all the gears in my head had a chance to spin fully on their axis, a new thought popped its way in.

“I wonder…” I took out the four cobblestone cubes I had managed to collect so far and stared at the tunnel entrance. “Looks to be about two meters wide to me.” I set one of the cubes against one wall and expanded it. It sat flush between the wall and the ground and when I gave it a light kick of my boot, it moved not a millimeter away. “Same mechanics as the wood planks. This should do nicely.” I set the second cube next to the first and expanded it; it fit perfectly between the first one and the opposite wall. A slow smile spread across my face as I set the third block on top of the first. It aligned perfectly with a small space just above the roof of the tunnel. “They can’t reach that high and it’s not enough room for them to fit through,” I muttered as I set the fourth block in place, essentially sealing off the entrance of the tunnel. 

I stepped back and admired my cleverness for a moment.

‘Least now they can only attack me from the front.’ I made sure the torch was securely in place near the blocks. ‘And if I need to make a quick escape, I can at least see where I’m going. Then I can shrink one of the blocks and expand it behind me, keeping the creepy, crawlies out.’ I patted the newly made wall and brought my flashlight forward, preparing myself to travel into the all consuming darkness.

Like the tunnel before it, this new one also had smooth walls with no evidence one way or other of how they had been made that way. I found one more patch of coal and mined it out, carefully collecting the precious resource as I went along. This tunnel appeared to be longer, but had many more twists and turns, but stayed on its singular path without branching out like I expected it to. 

‘Maybe this had been dug out by…something.’ I rested my hand against the smooth surface as I walked. ‘Could be volcanic tubes. Definitely looks like one, but again, there’s no evidence of igneous rock anywhere. So many hypotheses…’ I removed my hand and let out a sigh, ‘but no evidence.’ 

I rounded the next corner and completely dead-stopped.

“Guess my hopes for finding an escape have plummeted to zero now,” I remarked as I stared at the wall of stone before me. “And to think, I was having such a good day today.” 

I turned around and began heading back the way I had come, my shoulders slumping a little more downwards than I would have liked. As I walked, I could hear the scraping noise again, but it seemed to be coming from through the wall itself and not from the other tunnel. I followed it along until I saw something about halfway back to the pit; it was a small shimmer in the crack between the wall and the ground.

“Must have missed you,” I murmured as I crouched down and inspected the iron deposit. It wasn’t very big on the surface. “But there’s no way to say how big they can get.” I unhooked my pickaxe. “Heck, on Tangea, with the Grounders help, we dug out an iron deposit that was a hundred meters deep. Hopefully this one won’t be as big, would hate to dig up that beast alone a second time.”

I began hacking away at it, making sure to centrifuge all the material as I went. I had a ridiculous amount of cobblestone cubes and about seven iron ores to show for it. In the destruction, I had etched out a small hole in the tunnel. It was still a small vein, but enough to leave me exhausted. I still had one last small patch to dig out, but it had been a very good haul regardless. 

With tired muscles I lifted the pickaxe one last time and brought it down on where the rock shimmered. My tool and the rock gave way and I almost plummeted forward in the small hole that had been created. Luckily, I braced with my hands and hit the ground hard, but without falling through a hole for the second time that day.

A cool air hit my face as I stared down into the near darkness. There was a small amount of light that could be seen, but it was a great distance away it seemed. 

‘How big…is this hole?’ 

I reached behind me and grabbed my second to last torch. I lit it up on its highest setting, nearly blinding me for a brief moment and lowered it into the hole. The light only reached so far, but what I did see was enough to make me drop it.

The space below was expansive. The cave system I had found myself above was at least a kilometer deep and several kilometers wide in every direction I could see. It was intimidating, but so beautiful. There were several waterfalls down here that I could see and what looked to be lava in the distance, which explained the small amount of light I had seen earlier. Flitting between the stalactites appeared to be bats, but unlike several things on this planet, these appeared to be roughly the same size as their Terran counterparts. But what had really caught my eye, that made me drop the torch, was what was on the cave floor. 

All across the rocky crags were mounds of movement and groans that echoed in the monstrous cavern. There were hundreds of these creatures down here. And, on top of the groans, the scraping sound was more clear here and much louder, both in volume and in number.

‘It’s not a scraping sound though; not really. More like…creaking,’ I thought as my torch finally landed on the ground below. The light, even on the highest setting, did not produce much of an illuminated circle, but several creatures scattered away from its glow.

I watched them move about the intrusion, but not being able to get close enough to it. But then my eyes continued to move along the ground with what little light the torch gave. 

“There’s more than zombies down there. Probably should have made that stone sword when I had the chance,” I whispered quietly as I tried to focus on the other things moving about. “Let’s see…White, and that one’s green, I think, but a different green than the zombies, and…purple? Black? I…I don’t know anymore.”

One of the white things moving about finally came close enough to the glow of the torch and a small scream wanted to escape my lips as all my breath escaped my lungs. 

It wasn’t possible. The white creature moving about couldn’t possibly be real. In all of the science I had studied, this thing should have been incapable of being upright, let alone movement. 

“The creaking is coming from the skeleton, bone against bone.” My voice came out monotone, unable to comprehend the creature in front of me. I watched as it, and others like it, moved about looking, searching for…something. Each turn and step released the sound, a small cacophony that added to the orchestra of the masses of groaning bodies below. 

‘Even if I had made a sword…’ A shiver ran up my spine. ‘…it would have been no match for this…army,’ I thought as I lay there, completely transfixed by the creaking and groaning; unable to leave, unable to even move. 

It was impossible to tell how long I had been laying there when I heard the creaking sound very close to where I was. Just as I turned to look at the creature, something flew past my face at a high speed. I couldn’t focus on what it was though. There wasn’t time. I spotted the skeleton on the edge of a cliff about ten meters away. 

Now that I could see one better, what sent another chill down my spine was the fact that the creature was made of bone, just bone. There was nothing holding it together or manipulating it.

‘It’s not…possible…’ 

I locked eyes with it, or at least where its eyes should be, but now there were just empty sockets. There was no spark of life there, just darkness, like with the zombies and they were looking right at me. It shuffled towards me faster than I thought possible for a thing with no muscles or ligaments. I was trying to scramble out of my hole so I wouldn’t be so exposed, when I saw it lift up its arm. Within its bony grasp was a primitive bow. It drew back what looked to be an arrow as it came charging at me. I pulled myself out of the opening just as an arrow whizzed past my head. I stepped back and tripped on the arrow it had shot at me seconds prior.

My heart frantically tried to beat out of my chest as my breath hitched. I turned and tried to scramble out of the hole I had dug, but it was hard for my feet to find purchase as all of my instincts told me how much my training had actually been worth. Just as I clambered my way into the tunnel, I could see the skeleton poke its way through the hole. 

‘It’s not going to stop! It’s going to kill me!’ 

I sprinted down the tunnel as fast as I could, only vaguely aware that my Ranger bag was still attached to my back. I almost ran right into the wall I had made. The creaking echoed in the dark behind me. There was no time. 

In one fluid motion, I pushed the button on the cube next to the torch and hopped over the vacant spot. I had just pushed the button on it once more to decompress it when another arrow whizzed past my face. My cheek burned, but I couldn’t focus on that. I backed away from the cobblestone wall just as the space refilled, but not before seeing the skeleton closing in with two zombies close behind it. 

I stared for a moment at the intact wall and finally let out a very shaky breath. The large green brutes were bumping and pounding into the stone, but all that got through were their groans. Once my heartrate began to settle to a more reasonable pace, I turned around and stared up at the hole I had fallen through originally. 

‘If I can’t find an exit, then I’ll ascend.’

Near the torch and beacon, I set my Ranger bag down on the ground and opened it up. There was a sizable cluster of cobblestone cubes I had collected when I dug out the iron vein. I glanced up at my exit again.  

“Looks to be about…twenty meters.” Then I looked back in my bag. “Should…be enough.” 

As the groans and creaks continued behind the wall, I took several paces back with my bag in tow, placing my first cube near the center of the room. I placed the second behind it as they lined up perfectly. The groans behind me seemed to be getting louder. I quickly placed the third block on top of the second, creating what I hoped to be pseudo-stairs up. I reached in my bag and pulled out the fourth cube and stared at it for a moment. 

“I’ve seen zombies apparate out of nowhere and skeletons move without their bodies.” I tossed the cube up in the air and caught it as it descended.  “What's one more anomaly?” 

After stepping up on the first block, I reached behind the third one and pushed the button of the one in my hand. It decompressed and aligned perfectly, literally hanging in midair behind the third block. I smiled for a brief moment. 

‘Science is a beautiful thing.’ 

I placed the next several blocks in the same fashion until I was several meters up from the floor of the cave. When I was about fifteen meters up, the groaning got significantly louder. I looked over just in time to see two zombies emerge from the first tunnel. My breath instantly hitched as I realized that I had just built them a stairs right up to me and I couldn’t escape them if I wanted to now. 

Without a lot of time to think, I ran down the stairs until I was near the first several blocks. I systematically pushed their buttons until the first three layers of blocks compressed. I caught a couple of the cubes, but had to instantly scramble back up the steps as the zombies reached my stairs. Without the first couple of steps, they were unable to follow me up. They tried to scale the slope nearby, but kept falling back down.

As I ascended, it was not lost on me that I was on a set of stairs that were literally suspended in midair. The creatures below kept trying to reach me as I continued to build, only to slide down every single time. As I reached the hole I had fallen in, I could hear the creaking getting louder too. With only a couple cubes to spare, I pulled myself through the entrance and rolled on the rocky slope nearby. 

For a brief moment, I stared up at the night sky and breathed out several deep breaths. My moment of relaxation was ruined when I heard another groan, but this time it was coming from topside. I frantically reached in my bag and dug out a torch. I slammed it into the ground near the hole and set it to its lowest setting. 

With a quick glance, I saw a zombie moving about further down the hill, but it hadn’t noticed me yet. I grabbed my flashlight with one hand and my axe with the other. Another groan echoed out above me. This zombie had seen me and was stumbling down the hill to get to me. 

I didn’t give it a chance to reach me as I began my own ascent. The other zombies in the meadow were far enough apart to make them easy to avoid and when one did get too close, I shone my light at it, gaining myself enough distance for my own comfort. 

As I neared the woods, the calm I had just gained was shattered when a skeleton emerged from the forest. It had seen me first though and was already drawing its bow. I hastily flashed the light at it and it did freeze. 

‘But for how long? Once the light’s not on it anymore, It’ll shoot.’ 

I walked in a circle around it, but its gaze never left me as I made my way to the edge of the trees. The groans on all sides seemed to increase the closer I was getting though. 

‘Death. This is a planet of death.’

I tightened my grip on the axe and prepared myself for what I would have to do. I neared the closest tree and spun behind it. Now that the light had left the skeleton, an arrow flew past me into a nearby tree. 

‘Time to show all these creatures why I won gold in cross country at the academy.’ 

I kicked off the tree I had used as protection and sprinted into the woods with all the speed I could muster. Many hands reached out for me, but they were too slow and there were too many trees blocking a direct line of sight for any arrows to hit. 

Just as my clearing came into focus, something black scuttled in front of me across the forest floor. It took me by surprise enough to have to completely stop. Red eyes looked up at me as I stared back at one of the giant spiders. It had been heading across my path, but once it had seen me, it had also stopped. I gulped as I waited for it to turn and continue on its way, but it didn’t. Instead it let out a low screech and charged in my direction. 

“Oh, shit,” I murmured as my eyes widened with its assault. I tried to move around it, but one of its legs caught me, tripping me in the process. I scrambled to my feet and ran, but it continued its pursuit much quicker than my other assailants. 

I had just reached my clearing, when I heard a low screech once more. I turned just in time to see the spider slump over with an arrow in its abdomen. The skeleton that shot it had been aiming for me, but the arachnid had gotten in its path. 

‘Lucky me!’ I thought as I hit the bag of bones with the light of my flashlight. I continued to retreat backwards until I backed up into the wall of my shelter. Groans echoed out all around me as I rounded the corner to where I had placed the door. 

There were several zombies approaching though and the light would only stop one of them at a time. I reached the door handle and threw it open. I slipped inside and slammed it shut just as the sounds of several creatures hitting it at once reverberated through the small space. 

With careful steps, I backed away, waiting for the door to give. A shuffling sound behind me caused me to spin about and scream. I whipped my flashlight around and raised my axe just in time to see feathers fly by. 

“Stupid bird!” I yelled at Alfredo as it flew to the supplies crate and perched on the edge. 

After several deep breaths, I dropped my supplies on the ground and dug into my bag until I found the fourth and final torch. I set it to high and replaced the one that had died overnight. 

Now that the room was lit up nicely, my anxiety began to melt away. The bangs, and creaks, and moans didn’t dissipate, but at least enough time had passed that I felt confident that they wouldn’t break through the door. 

I set up my crafting station once more and used my remaining cobblestone to build a machine I had been very familiar with, the FURNACE. Just like the crafting station, it was ten centimeters cubed when compressed. It was the same hardness and composition as the blocks that had been used to make it. I pushed the button on it and set it up right next to its creator. 

In the bottom opening of the square machine, I set two of my coal down into the fire pit and used my flint to light a fire. Once the fire was self sufficient, I dug through my bag and pulled out the iron ore I had collected. I popped open the top of the machine and dumped the precious iron inside, then shut the lid. 

“Unlike the primitive furnaces the Grounders used on Tangea” I said as I glanced at Al and he cocked his head in return. “This puppy will do all the work for me; smelting whatever’s inside into usable material.” The machine began to make a low hum as it got to work. I turned to look at it with a small smile on my face. “Still not as advanced as most machines in Star Command, but it’s never let me down yet.”

Al made soft clucking noises as I put all my equipment away. I quietly reported my day’s findings to headquarters as my neighbors continued to bang on the walls outside. Once I had completed all my tasks, I turned my torch to low and laid down on my sleeping bag, every bone and muscle in my body screaming for rest. Without pomp or ceremony, Al jumped off the storage crate and laid down near me and we both watched the fire of the furnace work its magic.