---[ POV: Flynn ]---

Flynn’s eyes ran across the putrid mound of waste and bones composing the shrieker’s nest.

Now that he was not in the middle of life-threatening combat or focused on the prize of this entire night expedition, he started to notice everything that had previously eluded him.

Strewn all around were the remains of humanoid creatures. Some seemed all but identical to that of a human, while others had slightly different proportions or shapes.

The young man did not know what to think of it. If there really were humans on this planet, he should have been rescued a long time ago.

Since the conditions on this world are so similar to that of Earth, maybe convergent evolution has resulted in humanoid life forms really similar to humans? It’s a stretch but it’s a possibility…

He picked one of the most human-looking skulls lying around and had the bio-scanner of the armor scan its genetic code and analyze it.

"Matching homo sapiens genetic code at 99.9997%." indicated JAX.

Flynn stared at the information displayed on his HUD in disbelief. Not only was it matching, but it was also proper DNA. As far as he was aware, DNA was a genetic code unique from Earth. It had been exported on hundreds of worlds by now but all DNA living creatures should ultimately trace their origins back to an Earth organism.

The young man brought back the data he had stored in his stack about the shrieker when he wanted to know if its meat was edible or not. He had not looked at the specific genetic code signature of the monster at the time because he was convinced he was on an alien planet but he was now burning to know.

Flynn let out a small sigh. It was not DNA. It was a very similar acid molecule, but not the same.

So it is an alien world after all. But why is there traces of human all around? Nothing makes sense on this damned planet! Flynn scratched his head in a frustrated manner.

Maybe this world has been a target for a failed colonization attempt in the past? That would also explain the fauna that looked like that of Earth. If creatures similar to the shrieker are numerous and invasive on this planet, I can imagine simple colonists would have a hard time dealing with it without the help of proper military support.

Flynn let the skull fall on the ground and walked toward another one. This one seemed a little bit larger, with a somewhat flatter head. He launched a scan.

"Matching homo sapiens genetic code at 99.01%."

The humans of the Empire were not all of the same, unified, genetics stock. In fact, the modern humans called homo sapiens had little in common with the one that lived on Earth long ago. Some scientists even argued that modern humans should be called neo sapiens because they had diverged enough from their ancestors to be considered different altogether; they had been genetically enhanced over the course of millennia in order to become stronger, smarter, tougher, or simply to adapt to life in space or alien environments.

You would be hard-pressed to recognize some genetic branches of humanity that now existed on some far-flung and exotic planets of the Empire. Nonetheless, despite their differences, all of those variants shared a somewhat similar DNA structure with only marginal differences.

The fact that those remains shared a common DNA but were clearly of different species or subspecies only comforted Flynn about his 'colonists' hypothesis.

He laughed cynically. Is fate toying with me again? Is there no end to its cruelty?

Being aware there had been people here at some point but knowing there were none anymore was somehow more painful than thinking he was alone.

For a moment, he caressed the hope that maybe there were still colonists somewhere on this world but the fact that no rescue shuttle had come for him and that none of those humanoid skeletons seemed to have died recently convinced him that there was probably no one left.

Planets that proved too hard to settle by mere colonists were abandoned while waiting for further interventions, which could take decades, sometimes centuries. For the last two thousand years, the Empire had focused all of its efforts on the war against the Mind Eaters rather than colonization and expansion.

The only positive thoughts Flynn could get out of this was that maybe there were some abandoned colonist facilities somewhere with communication equipment able to reach the Empire.

It was at that moment that Flynn discovered something even stranger; one of the humanoid's remains that looked like a human had his torso clad in a rusty piece of torn steel. It did not look like anything Flynn had ever seen and did not seem of Imperial making at all.

The young man crouched to excavate the half-buried corpse. The twisted piece of metal had seen better days but he still recognized it as some form of rudimentary and primitive steel armor. Steel had never been used by the Empire to manufacture armor. It was too inefficient. It was both heavier and less resilient than any military-grade composite materials.

Flynn had heard that the civilizations of primitive Earth used steel and other metals or basic alloys for their battle suits, their vehicles, or their infrastructures but the practice had been abandoned long before the Empire was even a thing.

The more he learned about this place, the more confused he was.

He looked around some more and discovered other parts of "armors", or even some long and dull metal blades that must have been some kind of weapons or tools. Are those supposed to be swords and spears? wondered Flynn. They were probably made of inferior materials, just like the armors, because they had been easily bent or broken and were now rusting away in the damp cave.

Flynn was at a total loss for words. It was like he was looking at a scene that should only have taken place thousands of years ago. The technological level displayed here was not even worth being called primitive. It was nothing short of prehistoric.

Aware of the heavy burden on his back, he decided to leave those thoughts for later.

He collected some bones and pieces of equipment to study them later and put them in his storage.

Once it was done, he left the shrieker's den by the main entrance and started his slow trek back to the corvette. He was tired, having not slept last night and having spent all his energy to fight instead. The long walk back was particularly gruesome. Nonetheless, he finally reached his destination as the sun initiated its slow descent for the night.

Getting the box at the bottom of the ravine required him to go and get one of the hover trays in the corvette as he knew he would be taking unnecessary risks by just trying to climb down with it on his back.

Once he was done securing the crate on the tray, he activated it. With a faint humming sound, the repulsion thrusters beneath the tray activated, and the metallic platform started to float 30 centimeters above the ground.

Flynn used his feet to push it toward the cliff. It glided silently and once it had passed the edge, it started to fall down gently. The hover tray was not capable of proper flight but it would stabilize and slow the fall enough so that its cargo would not be damaged.

In fact, the crate was so resistant that Flynn could probably just have thrown it below without worry but just imagining himself unceremoniously tossing an important minister of the Empire or some family of the Emperor down a cliff made him sweat nervously.

Once he had sent the crate on its way, he followed suit and climbed down.

He then recovered the crate and brought it back to the corvette.

It felt good to be back. The young man eyed one of the bunk beds with expectation but he knew it was not time yet. First, he had to open this damn crate.

JAX helped him design a very basic communication device and he started to work right away on its construction. Almost all the parts he needed could be scavenged from what was laying around but since he had already used a lot of communication equipment for his earlier transceiver, he still had to produce some pieces with the fabricator.

It took about 1 hour to smash up something functional. It was basic, ugly, but functional. Flynn did not want to waste time on something more complicated that would have a chance to get neutralized once he would try to connect it.

He picked up the small, palm-sized device from the engineering table and went back to the crate placed in the cargo haul.

Standing in front of the box with a somewhat nervous air, he manually composed the code to synchronize the device frequency with the crate system and link it with its communication program.

There was a moment of silence, then he could hear some static coming from the speaker of his rudimentary device. The link had been established and for the moment there seemed to be no defensive action taken. Flynn pressed the button that would allow him to talk since this system was so simple it could only allow one-way communication at a time.

"I am ISF Lieutenant Valerian Flynn. Latest assignation, ISF Starfall, hangar 12. I have been charged by Starfall high command to escort and protect you. Everything is fine now. Can somebody hear me?"

Flynn released the speaker button to allow the other party to reply, but silence was his only answer.

He waited for a moment then he spoke again.

"I repeat; ISF Lieutenant Valerian Flynn here. The situation outside is safe and under control. You may get out."

Still nothing.

Flynn was quickly losing all his morals and countenance. Am I too late? Is she dead? He had no way to answer those questions or to know what was happening inside of the pod. There could have been any kind of malfunction since the crash. The young man’s heart hurt imagining the poor thing dying alone and confined in the dark, completely oblivious of the outside world or what was happening to her.

"Get... get out?"

Flynn was about to throw the device against a wall in frustration but quickly stopped his arm and brought it in front of his face instead. The voice seemed lost and confused but it was the same he had heard in the emergency message.

"Yes ma'am. We had to force-land on a planet and there have been a number of unfortunate events since then, but everything is under control now. I apologize if it has caused you distress or discomfort."

"I see... I... I thank you for your efforts, Lieutenant."

The voice still seemed confused but this time there was also a form of malaise in her tone.

"I know you might prefer to stay inside for security reasons ma'am, but I would advise against doing so. For the moment, our vessel is unable to take off and there is probably no one coming to get us in the near future."

Flynn kept silent about the fact that they were in reality stranded on a dangerous and abandoned planet as he wanted to avoid causing more distress for the girl. Those facts could be explained later, once she was out.

"I... I don't understand what you mean, Lieutenant. I don't know what I should do?"

"You don't want to get out?"

"It's not what I mean... I, um... It's not that I don't want to..."

"What do you mean?"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence and Flynn thought he might have accidentally frightened or startled the girl inside. He was about to apologize when she started to speak again.

"Well, it will be easier and faster to show than explain."

Flynn could hear the metallic sounds of heavy lock mechanisms disengaging and pressurized air being released. Multiple interlocking pieces untangled themselves all around the crate lid and a final crackling noise buzzed faintly before fading away, indicating all internal force fields had been deactivated.

The lid raised by itself so that he could lay his eyes on what was resting inside.

There was no girl. There was no one at all, in fact. The crate was not a stasis pod as he had believed all along. Instead, in a cavity of the padding material used to protect fragile and important cargo, there was a containment cylinder about the size of a small bin can.

Through the glass wall of the cylinder and the transparent solution that filled it, the young man could see a mass of blue and gelatinous fluid that moved and pulsed, changing its form and shape at every moment.

Even though he had never seen it with his own eyes, he had heard of such things before. Although, he had never heard of one so small it could fit in a simple box. Those usually occupied entire rooms on a spaceship or a military base.

It was the brain matrix of a 'true' AI.

The blue matrix distorted and rippled.

"Nice to meet you, Lieutenant."