The Record of Unusual Creatures

Hao Ren was driving his official ride, which could form-shift into anything but Optimus Prime, hustling on the desolate planet. Looking out at the ancient, old-fashioned but massive steel structure flew past made one could not help but feel depressed. They were now passing by an idle mega-thruster. The thruster looked like a weird extinct volcano; it had the shape of a peak like a mountain, and huge piping and steel structure on the outside, some old and mottled marks scattered on the ‘peak’, probably rust developed during the period when the atmosphere was still abundant.

Lily lay her head on the window frame looking out. She said, “The machine is alive, but the people are dead… Who made these things?”

“No advanced life is detected yet. Only a few microorganisms barely survive in the extreme underground environment,” said Hao Ren, checking the car’s instrument cluster, which should display various readings like oil level and mileage, was virtual cockpit instead fill with complex radar chart and a communication interface with the Petrachelys. “Humans may have died out on this planet… or they might be hiding in some shelters. Just that we haven’t found it yet.”

“The second scenario is less probable,” said Vivian, shaking her head. “It’s just my intuition.”

“You mean the thrusters run by themselves? Hao Ren turned to look at Vivian.

Still shaking her head, Vivian said, “I don’t know about the thrusters. I just feel that this place is haunted with a smell of death… The Blood Clan can sense it.”

They did not stay long at the idle thruster. After making a round around it and snapping a few images, they left the massive thruster behind them and continued their journey. After passing by more massive pipelines and steel structure, they began to see some other sporadic structure that looked like sentry towers and bunkers—one could not help but think of a military base. It seemed there had been war on the planet before the huge thrusters were even completed.

Only that thick snow had buried the traces, and only structure on the higher ground stood out of the icy layer. Unless they stop and do a detailed scan, it is difficult to know what lies beneath the thick solid carbon dioxide and normal liquid ice.

As the car continued to move on, the surroundings began to warm up. Three massive thrusters shooting out bluish white flares into the space on the horizon. The thermal radiation of the plasma flares was warming up the area, allowing carbon dioxide to return to the atmosphere. It even melted the normal ice and snow, exposing the dirt and gravel on the ground.

From time to time, sand and stone chips hitting the car producing some crackling sound outside as strong wind blew up the gravel and debris. The heat from the mega-thrusters had caused the nearby dry ice returning to the atmosphere, creating a convection process on this part of the planet.

The thrusters were so massive that they even caused weather-like phenomena during their operation. However, the scope of these phenomena was limited to space around the active thrusters. After crossing these ‘weather rings’, the air became quiet and dead again.

After driving for some time, they accidentally stumbled upon the remains of a city.

The city was situated on a high ground, and due to its proximity to an active thruster, the heat of the plasma flare had melted the ice and snow in the city. The Nangong siblings urged Hao Ren to enter the city. As they drove along the street, they saw high-rises everywhere. Though architecturally very different from that of the earth, one could know there had once been an advanced civilisation existed by looking at the exquisite and high-tech architecture here.

Unlike those dark thrusters, the city was once filled with colours—from the detailed decorations on the buildings, colourful arts like commercial billboards to roofs, squares, and streets. Hao Ren drove through a twin tower, which looked like a pair of symmetric sprouts of plant and connected by elegantly designed arch sky-bridge.

Such architectures were everywhere in the city. They were varied in style; some elegant, some rough like those huge thrusters, and some were unknown as to their uses. Lily looked at the old buildings, wide-mouthed, as she was imagining on a sunny day, a normal busy day in this alien city, buildings were full of colours, people walking leisurely in the streets, and flying crafts traversing the air between the high-rises.. All these imaginations suddenly receded like a tidal wave, everything turned into grey, and death.

Those empty buildings stood lifelessly in the darkness, silently facing the distant stars, and greeting the uninvited guests with their ghostly face.

In the background of the city, massive plasma flares piercing through night sky breaking the space in half.

“There is no signs of life,” Hao Ren checked the radar screen in his car. “The city has been abandoned for so long. Ten thousand years at the very least.”

What Hao Ren said was no drivel. He had the knowledge to back up his claim. He felt that the city was just a temporary settlement prior to the completion of the thrusters. As when the thrusters fired up, the planet would leave its orbit into space, and the inhabitants of this planet obviously had no ability to maintain the planet’s atmosphere after leaving the sun. They must abandon the city on the surface after the completion of the thrusters and move underground or into some hibernation facilities.

Had the thrusters not started ten thousand years ago, then everything would be simpler: the inhabitants of the city would have died in the catastrophe of supernova.

Vivian asked in a whisper. “Why do you think they wanted to transform their planet into this?”

“Obviously for survival,” said Hao Ren, gazing at the huge plasma flares in the distance. “I guess it was the First Born… if not the brain monster, which was responsible for the catastrophes. Apart from an extinction level of event, what else could make a race to embark on a run with their planet?”

Lily lied her head on the backrest of Hao Ren’s seat, eyes rolling in deep thought. She then shook her head and said, “Obviously something went wrong during their escape.”

Amazed by the husky quick wit, Vivian asked, “How do you know that?”

“Because this planet only started its journey a hundred years ago,” replied Lily, shaking her ears. “It was a hundred years ago that the vengeful spirit kidnapped the Nangong couple and sent them onto this planet, the sight of the stars in the vengeful spirit’s memory clearly suggests that the planet was still in its own solar system a hundred years ago while the catastrophic disaster of the universe had already happened ten thousand years ago. So this planet’s escape plan had obviously failed. Hey, didn’t you think of this, did you?”

“Whoa, honestly, I’ve not thought about that before, really, but you did,” replied Vivian, honestly.

“I’m not stupid, okay!” rolling her eyes, Lily flung herself into the seat, ignoring Battie.

Hao Ren smiled and watched the two quarrelling. “Lilly is right. If this planet was to flee, it should have set off before ten thousand years ago. So something must had happened that it was stranded in its own solar system for ten thousand years ago. It wasn’t until the Nangong couple were brought here that the thrusters suddenly fired up… The problem probably came about a hundred years ago.”

They lingered in the city for quite a while but disappointment eventually set in. There was no sign of advanced life form here, nor was there any trace of recent human activity. Although the city was in a relatively warm environment and liquid water and moss-like basic plants existed, Nangong siblings’ parents were not here.

However, the Nangong siblings were still holding on their hope: the environment in the city could clearly sustain life of sirens and demon hunters, though comfortable, but feasible. Furthermore, there might be more than one such ‘liveable’ region. Area surrounding each active thruster could provide enough life-sustaining condition. They could not find any in this city; they could still look into another.

Until they combed the entire planet.