Chapter 9 - Anunna

Nightfall had enveloped the downed ship which had now become a makeshift camp site. Prince Lukyaza had introduced his two companions, Guardians Natal and Maxuun, who sat on a moss covered log which lay on the jungle floor adjacent to a small campfire along with the others, who took up various seats around the fire.

Their mech suits were now powered down and situated near a large tree ladened with vines. They wore tan robe-like uniforms and seemed to be generally refrained in conversation despite Jerro and Greg’s attempts to get them to open up.

Jerro could be heard nearby making his way through the ship and with the assistance of the disembodied voice progressing on repairs.

A few hovering lights moved silently through the trees, patrolling slow laps around the campsite. These were autonomous drones deployed by the two Guardians as they had been making camp.

Greg and Mari snacked on some pizza from their bags while talking with Prince Lukyaza. They had never had pizza before, and much like the ice cream were quite enamored with the experience. They offered the Prince and Guardians some which they had respectfully declined.

Phlip lay on his stomach near the fire and slowly grazed through foliage on the jungle floor, finding some enjoyable vegetation to snack on.

“So what are the three of you guys doing out here?” Mari asked as she chewed on a big bite of pizza.

“We are on a mission, in search of an ancient relic that was said to be hidden in these hills millions of years ago when our people first settled this system” the prince responded.

“Ohhhh cool, we’re actually looking for a key,” Greg said, looking at Mari for approval. “Yeah, but we don’t really know where we even are.” Mari added.

The prince looked at them both for a moment. “Where exactly did you say you came from?” He asked with a hint of intrigue.

“Well… it’s hard to explain, we sort of… just arrived here” Mari answered, shooting a quick questioning glance at Greg.

The Prince looked up at the full moon for a while, again slow to respond. “Hmm, interesting…what do you think of it, does it feel familiar?” He asked them and gestured toward the moon.

As they looked closely, they realized it was their moon. This was their planet, they were where they’ve always been. Greg and Mari’s gaze came down from the moon and met each other, clearly having the same realization.

They looked at Lukyaza and he let off a kind smirk saying, “You are in a familiar place, but an unfamiliar time I think.”

The two guardians chatted quietly to the side in a language which was foreign to the group. They made their way back and forth to the suits occasionally, tinkering and making minor tweaks. One time they opened a panel in the back of the helmet which exposed a compartment that ejected three parabolic disc like objects, which they rearranged and replaced.

“Tell me, what is your memory of this world?” The Prince asked.

“Well, we actually didn’t leave home a lot, The Burrow was our safe haven, our world was dominated by other creatures, sort of like these birds we just fought but also giant insects and aquatic creatures. We were forced into hiding. So I can’t really tell you much beyond that.” Mari told him.

“Fascinating, I believe you truly have bridged the temporal space, our engineers and scientists have never been able to do this fully, only in shards… like looking through a kaleidoscope and trying to discern the image on the other end.” he said while looking up at the moon again.

“We come from a place far from this one, but not dissimilar, our faction's specialty is navigating non euclidean space or what you may think of as spatial folding, allowing our species to travel vast distances. More challenging though, and what I believe you three have done, is to bridge time” the prince added while the two listened, completely captured by the prince's tale.

Jerro approached and joined them at the campfire. “Hey Jerro! Prince Lukyaza is telling us about his faction, they came from a place far away from here long ago and he believes we may have somehow bridged time. Look!” Greg said as he pointed to the moon.

“This is… this is… we never left?” Jerro responded. “Something like that.” Mari said.

The prince surveyed the three of them carefully for a moment and looked back to the moon. “When we came here those millions of years ago however, we did not come alone…” the prince said and continued after a brief pause, “We had been embroiled in an endless faction war that was carried from our home system, Anunna.” 

He paused again and reached out with his paw, tracing the stars which filled the sky. From his paw flowed a glowing particulate, which began to form a three dimensional visual field that reflected the words in the tale.

“We sought to escape this cycle of war and start anew, our faction known as the Borruki were first to this world. Our forward expedition brought the single moon several billion years ago, to stabilize the planet and shield it from external forces. Their effort was to guide the inevitable growth of life within this infantile system. We settled many of the nearby bodies and systems, but this planet held significance and we made every effort not to interfere with the life here. Our scrolls had foretold of a world that would one day become the sanctuary of our faction but that any direct interference would disrupt that fate.”

“Those original Borruki had attempted to hide the quantum signature from their folding wake, however they were not successful. The four factions all made their way here in time, following the remains of that signature. The one you just encountered are the Aviaki, feathered and capable of long distance physical flight. They were the second to come here after the Grishki, creatures exhibiting a reversal of typical anatomy, with exoskeletons and decentralized neural structures. Finally, the Ninurki arrived, with cold running blood and an insatiable desire for power.”

Lukyaza walked around interacting with projected images of each of these faction creatures as he continued his explanation while the glowing particulate continued to illustrate the story.

“In Anunna, the factions battled on a massive scale. Fleets of starships destroyed and entire planets won and lost in single battles, millions of lives lost, the costs to all factions were immense. Now, this planet has become nothing but a new front in this endless war, a sandbox where the factions experiment with new techniques to dispatch of each other, but on a smaller and more… intimate scale.”

He paused and stared through the flames of the fire as they licked the night sky. His eyes reflected the flames as Mari, Jerro and Greg awaited for the story to continue. The wood popped, kicking Lukyaza from this trancelike state.

“What faction were those large creatures with the armored backs?” Jerro asked.

“This planet was not a blank slate and by the time our follow-on forces arrived, life had already begun to flourish here, assuming the same prototypical forms associated with our factions. In all of our travels through the universe, we have identified a trend amongst celestial bodies of this type. They always produce the same fundamental design of life, as form follows function. Even on this planet, the same fundamental forms have evolved separately after mass extinction events reset the cycle.”

“So they aren’t of any faction?” Greg confirmed with Lukyaza.

“Correct, those creatures are of this planet, native organics” Lukyaza responded.

“Why do the factions war, what’s the point of it?” Mari inquired with a tone of sadness.

“I do not know how it begun, and I doubt anyone at this point does, but as far back as the Borruki trace our history, it has been a constant. Even before we took to the stars and learned to bend space to our will, war was the common thread. Resources, ideology, technology… merely existing, anything was a valid reason. Now they seek to find the meaning of this place, interpreting the scrolls for their own agenda. We kept them out of orbit for nearly a billion years. Generation after generation of my bloodline sought to protect this sanctuary but inevitably, our defenses were penetrated and they made their way to the surface. Now we fight here, while making our best attempts to adhere to the scrolls and cause minimal interruption to the natural order.”

“What do you mean by the scrolls?” Jerro inquired.

“It’s a bit of a misnomer, they are not actually written scrolls, but data storage devices, capable of tapping into void space. When the first Borruki came to this system, they crafted a series of scrolls which are said to grant the interpreter great knowledge and power. Originally they were held in the Thaullic Vault located within the original outpost of the Borruki.” Lukyaza gestured at the moon and continued, “However, they were stolen many years ago, long before my memory. We’ve only recovered two and without the entire set they are incoherent at best.”

Greg leaned over towards Mari and whispered, “Do you think these scrolls could be the key we’re looking for?”

“Could be?” She answered, truly unsure.

“That’s enough for tonight, we’ve got a long day ahead of us tomorrow” Lukyaza said as the glowing particulate returned.

“Lukyaza, what do you know about the hyrax?” Mari asked suddenly.

“The what? I’m not sure the translation disc picked that one up?” He responded

“The hyrax” Mari repeated.

“Hmm, you are saying h-y-r-a-x?” He confirmed as she nodded, and added “I’ve not heard of this word, so I must assume I do not know anything of the hyrax.”

Mari, Jerro and Greg all looked at eachother, unsure of this response. Lukyaza sensed the unease and drove the conversation forward. “At sunrise, Natuul, Maxun and myself will head out to trace a signal we picked up in the hills not far from here. You are welcome to join us, and after we investigate the signal we will bring your ship back to our forward outpost where our mechanics and engineers would likely be able to make repairs.”

“Well it’s not like we have much else going on” Greg said in response and Mari and Jerro nodded in agreement.

“Let us all get some rest then, good night to you all, it was a pleasure to converse” The prince gave a small bow and deployed an elevated platform which expanded and hovered similar to Jerro’s disc, however it then expanded slightly more as if it was taking a breath and opened at one end exposing a small but comfortable chamber where the prince climbed in and prepared to sleep. Natuul and Maxun had deployed similar sleeping pods and were already dozing off.

The three friends and Phlip went back to the ship where they had a small bunk room that was setup for them within the ship. It was a bit off level as the ship was merely sitting on the jungle floor, without any sort of landing gear deployed, but it would work for the night. The beds were surprisingly comfortable for their modest appearance, Philip found a spot on one of the bottom bunks and Mari climbed atop. Greg and Jerro took a set of bunks just on the other side of the tight space. Two empty bunks lined the back wall which curved slightly as it seemingly flowed into the ceiling.

“Good night friends” The monotone voice said, surprising all of them except Phlip, who was already asleep and wouldn’t have understood it anyhow.

“Uh goodnight house voice…” Mari mentally communicated in the shared mind space as she made eye contact across the room with Jerro and Greg who were also surprised, shooting glances at each other around the bunk beds and then at Mari.

They all gave a sort of nod towards each other and got comfortable in their bunks as the lights gently dimmed and turned to a deep shade of maroon.

Mari found herself in an unfamiliar setting. She stood at the edge of a large circular open air building with a tall ceiling and ornate white stone columns that lined the outer perimeter defining the space.

The sky was burnt orange and the sun sat firmly on the horizon, in a setting position, but still. White steps led down from where she stood to dry cracked earth which stretched a distance where it finally met dark shadowed mountains.

She felt a pull, something internal to turn around and give her attention towards the center of the building.

The floor within this temple structure was segmented into slices that joined at the center, similar to the chronoarch pad from Station. However, instead of the sleek gunmetal grey, this floor was ornately decorated with a mosaic.

As she examined it, she realized it was a map, detailing the continents and oceans of a planet she wasn’t familiar with.

A distant rumbling drew her attention back outwards away from the mosaic floor. The sky turned a deeper shade of red as dust kicked up. She grasped a pillar with one paw as the rumbling grew louder and the dust wall approached her position from every direction.

She looked back towards the center of the room and was again drawn to it. The floor shifted and started slowly opening downward, revealing nothing but the vast void of space.

A sense of urgency and panic came over her as she assessed the situation. She only had a few moments to make any sort of move, with the world beyond being consumed and the opening floor forcing her outwards.

From the void, emerged the top of a tree, which completely consumed Maris focus. This tree was distinctly beautiful and also unique in that it simultaneously embodied all four seasonal elements.

On the far side, it was barren and dormant, while the side facing her was vibrant and green. The two sides captured the transition with buds going from winter to spring and brilliant colors from summer to fall.

As this tree emerged, its massive trunk drove roots down into a chunk of rocky land which floated up now out of the opened floor.

Mari looked over her shoulder and saw the dust had completely blotted out the sky casting a shadow over the entirety of what remained. Only seconds separated her from her demise.

The temple ceiling began to pull apart, ripping into pieces and crumbling around her. Sand whipped at her face, forcing her eyes to squint.

The same draw came over her and she made her move. With three swift steps she ran towards the floating hunk of land and tree and lept.

Everything around her crumbled into darkness as her paw grasped a root that extended from the underside of the island.

Serenity and silence overtook the rumbling as Mari looked out into a void. The night sky, the ceiling from Station, space. Stars filled the void, so many stars. 

She felt like a grain of sand, an individual particle existing in an endless sea. A part of the whole, connected in a singular experience.