"The polar stars of two planets, it can hardly be a coincidence."

"Admiral, Polaris can be seen by plenty of planets in the milky-way its hardly a coincidence."

"Yes but two habitable planets sharing the same polar star in opposite directions is a little more than coincidence.'

The group of them stood around the table in the "War room" Adam leaning into the projected star map, which cast thousands of tiny pinpricks of light all around the room. He hadn't needed to do it, but he wanted the visual representation, almost as a way to assure himself that he wasn''t simply harboring some hopeful delusion, but no, there it was Polaris Earth and Anin, locked together in a spinning spiral dance.

"I grant you it is a billion to one chance but still not impossible."

"It is." He insisted, "Especially if you consider Polaris is showing evidence of life."

"Yes we know that sometime in the distant past SOMEONE traveled to Polaris to set up this contraption, but that isn't the same as there being life here."

Lord Celex adjusted his position from where he sat on the table. He was looking tired, and his son was hovering nervously at his side, though he made no move to intervene lest he insult his father's honor, "I agree with the Admiral."

The room turned to look at him, going quiet.

Lord Celex shifted, "If nothing else, I think it is highly likely that whoever made the contraption at least knew that Earth and Anin existed if not had soemthing to do directly with the two planets crossing the way they do."

Adam was nodding pleased to find his opinion supported by, who he considered to be, the expert n ancient civilizations. After all, The Celzex as a species were the longest lived species in the Milky way.

He turned to look at Lord Celex with that thought.

"And the Rundi were the first species that you were aware of?"

Lord Celex nodded, 'As far as I can recall of our history, yes. We were aware of them as soon as they bothered to step out of their own atmosphere and go foraging for pretty space rocks in their backyard."

"Even with them being in another galaxy?"

Lord Celex nodded, "Yes, after all during that time neither of your planets had managed to make it past primordial soup at that time, though they were on our lists of likely habitable planets.

Adam's eyes widened slightly, "So you knew that we were there before we knew?"

Lord Celex shrugged, "We were aware of you when all earth had was big ugly lizards."

This new information was both interesting, shocking and very exciting, but he was blocked from asking more questions as Sunny began fidgeting with his star map. There was a sudden burst of light as little green dots appeared throughout the space.

"What are-" Adam began, but Sunny held up a hand to stop him.

She didn't need to tell him for a second time as Adam froze seeing something he had not expected to see.

"IS that?"

"I believe it is, It didn't come up on the scans earlier."

Adam hurried forward eyes wide mouth hanging open as he leaned in to examine Sunny's discovery, "No..... is that?"

The group of them watched in silent awe as little green lines traced their way through space branching from Polaris to Anin To earth before branching a second time to the Celzex homeworld, and one other location marked with a green dot.

"All the stars in the sky." Lord Celex muttered.

"Where is that?" Sunny demanded looking over at Adam.

He tapped on the planet with a finger and a thousand images exploded around the room, to reveal.... The planet of Red mists and towering black monoliths. The planet that had been abandoned by time.

"Ill be damned." Adam muttered

He waved a hand and the images disappeared, along with the remaining stars. Leaving only Polaris and her four orbiting companions. Earth, The Celzex Homeworld, Anin, and the Planet of Red mists.

"What does this even mean?" Lord Avex said his voice barely managing to top a whisper.

"I don't know but-"

"Admiral!"

Adam turned on his heel towards the door, "What now!"

Simon was standing I the doorway again shaking a lock of long dark hair from hr forehead and adjusting her glasses, "We found something."

"Yes I know we-"

"NO, we found something else. A planet."

Adam turned to look at the rest of the group who were exchanging incredulous glances, and together they followed Simon out of the war room and up the hall, clustering together on the bridge, where an image from one of their short range telescopes was being projected onto the front screen.

The planet glowed a dull red.

"Saints!"

Adam didn't bother to point out how invoking her own title was marginally amusing to him, for at that moment all he could do was stare.

"What does it mean?" Lord Avex asked Adam and his father both shaking their heads in confusion.

"I think there is only one option."

"You're going to say we have to go down and explore."

"We have to go down and explore!"

***

This was not the first time that Adam had landed a shuttle through clouds of billowing red mist. In fact it wasn't even the second or third time. The only difference was, this time, it was on another planet. Adam would have gladly gone to the planet by himself, but the marines insisted they be there for support, and of course they had to have a few tag-along scientists who weren't about to miss out on the mystery the foremost among those being Jack Wilson, a recent addition to their crew, who had practically bodily forced himself onto the team with so much excitement that Admiral Vir could hardly disapprove.

He would have behaved the same way.

Thick red fog rolled around their shuttle as they descended into the atmosphere. The Atmospheric readings from his dash supported a similar readout to the other red mist planet, mostly CO2 with some other unknown substances as well.

It was.... Strange.

They knew of course that the red mist WAS toxic, though that hardly narrowed down what it might have been.

He kept the descent slow, and so noticed the ground approaching as a great black mass before plowing all of them into it's surface unceremoniously.

They landed on uneven terrain, the supports of the shuttle groaning under their weight.

The lights I the main cabin flicked off, and the shuttle was filled with a red ambient glow, which lit up their faces but kept most of the shuttle in shadow.

Restraining belts clicked open, and the crew stood, grabbing their weapons and their gear as they stacked up on the door.

When Adam walked the Iron eye armor whirred with the movement of his body.

Narobi had made the suit for him, repurposing one of their older models to fit around and integrate with the Iron eye armor, so he could wear it even while in an EVA suit.

It was good work, like all of Narobi's work tended to be.

When the door hissed open, the Red fog rolled in like a wave, slightly thicker than air, splashing against the floor and bouncing upward into the chamber, only to fall back towards the ground again.

Adam stepped out through the doors surrounded by a group of marines.

His feet squelched against something wet. He looked down to find one of his boots submerged in a puddle of stagnant water.

He stepped back, looking around to find they had landed on a moor of some kind, made up of uneven hills covered in.... something that resembled plant-life, but was primarily black in color. The ground around them was wet and boggy, and it took some doing to pick their way across the little marshland without ending up halfway submerged. Ramirez got caught in a puddle almost as deep as his thigh, and had to be helped back up by sunny, who pulled him from the bog with a squelch.

Dr. Krill hovered at the back of the crew, only there In case soemthing horrible went wrong.

Dr Wilson bent over one of the strange plants examining it with his strange set of tools he said he had designed himself for just such occasions.

Overhead the light of Polaris filtered down through the red haze, lighting the land around them in an eerie hellish glow. The only thing the scene was missing was the cawing of crows or the croak of ravens to add to an already dark and otherworldly ambience.

"What do you see?" Adam asked Dr Wilson.

The man didn't answer at first, pulling back after a few seconds of examination, coming away with a small vile containing the plant matter, "It isn't alive."

"That isn't surprising."

"No, but it is remarkably well preserved. The natural coloring of this planet WAS originally black, though I have never seen anything like it from a biological standpoint."

They moved slowly over the hillside coming in contact with large tree-like structures, bare of leaves if they had ever had any, fossilized after thousands of years. Looking up Adam couldn't help but shake the eerie image of the trees branches as bare blood vessels against the backdrop of red that was the sky.

"Does it..... seem oddly similar to Earth trees, or...."

Dr. Wilson shook his head, "No, that shape you are seeing is actually very common in nature all around the galaxy, especially on planets comparable to earth gravity. Take Anin for example, it has the coiltree which I would compare to a palm tree in many instances. Conclusion is, I am not surprised to find a tree like structure on another planet."

He turned to look at Adam as if reading his mind, "We already see the pattern occurring in similar states, the vascular system, the nervous system, all of them in some way resembling the branches or roots of a tree."

He had a point, but there was still soemthing about the familiarity that made Adam nervous. Almost like the Uncanny Valley of planets so similar to earth, but not quite.

They stepped up another rise, and Adam was surprised when his boot impacted soemthing hard.

He paused and looked down only to find his foot pressed against a large octagonal tile, the first of four or five which spanned across, what he could only assume was a roadway. Little black plants had carved their way up through the black tiles concealing the roadway from view at any sort of distance, but up close as he was, there was no missing it.

He looked to his left and saw the road vanishing into the distance. He looked to his right.... And saw a black mass on the horizon.

"Look." He said, pointing with a hand.

The group of them turned to look.

"What is this." Sunny muttered

Adam raised his weapon, both nervous and excited.

The group of them inched forward down the roadway, spread out in case soemthing were to happen. The scientists clustered at the back of the group next to the rear guard while Adam and Sunny took point, flanked closely by Maverick and Ramirez.

As the dark shape grew closer, it grew more and more apparent until the edges resolved themselves into the crumbling façade of a structure. The roof sagged towards the ground as if pressed on by the weight of the world, some of the walls had been knocked down and the ground around was strewn with rubble. A shallow pool of water lingered at the side of the house disappearing into darkness.

Something tapped Against the outside of Adam's helmet, and he looked up just as the sky opened, and it began to rain.

The red mist receded slightly as the rain shower poured down on them, but the fork of lightning that rent the sky was still tinted a hay red. The shuttering boom came only a millisecond later as the rain plunged down in earnest, coming in great rolling sheets.

"GET INSIDE." Adam ordered, and the group of them hurried towards the sagging structure their feet splashing through knee high puddles as they made their way into the first room as the rain drummed on outside.

It was a large room, and the structure itself was rather large.

Adam tilted his head to the side, listening to the structure creak and rattle as the elements battered at it's walls.

Adam held a hand back to the scientists and took Sunny and Ramirez with him towards the dark opening of a nearby hallway.

Lord Celex rode on his shoulder, while Lord Avex sat on Sunny's, and together they flashed their lights down the hallway.

The interior of the alien building was surprisingly well preserved In comparison to the exterior, and as he shined his light down the hallway, Adam was given the distinct impression that no one had walked here in a very, very long time.

Taking a step further into the hallway, their lights sweeping over the walls and the floors, they followed forward shining their lights in decrepit and decaying rooms, cluttered with Debris. They followed a short ramp up into the second floor where many of the rooms had been overrun by moisture and decay. They treaded carefully as their boots squelched against ground . At the end of one of these hallways, they came to the last room. It was small, tucked under the sloping eves of the building. Part of the roof had caved in leaving it open to the sky, and water slowly filtered in from above to leak in a red tinted puddle on the floor.

Their flashlights glowed blue over the scene, and Adam paused his light falling on a strange shape in one of the far corners.

It stood out from the rest of the debris somehow as having more order than the rest, some kind of recognizable pattern or shape.

He reached out a hand, fingers griping around the object and pulling it from the detritus. There was a soft rustling and a pop a small flakes of rust or paint came away. He held the object in his hand, rubbing it with the finger of his glove. The skin below the grime was smooth and black, and as he shook off more dust, he realized why it seemed so familiar.

This, was an animal.

Or not an animal per say, but the recreation of one captured in wood or stone or metal of some sort.

A toy perhaps?

He didn't recognize the creature.

It was tall and four legged with a tail that had been snapped off halfway down. Its neck was long, and its head, though partially marred by centuries, was in the shape of something that resembled a feline.

He turned it over and over in his hands.

The others looked on in wonderment.

He kept the object held tightly in his hand as they made their way back and down the hallway to return to the scientists beneath.

The rainstorm had already abated and the thunder was growing distant.

Light ran over the walls, and for the first time Adam was beginning to see this place as what it once might have been.

A home.

As the rain let up the red mist leaked back through spiling in through the opening and onto the floor.

Adam held the strange alien animal to his chest as they ventured back outside following the path of the road further onto the surface of the red planet.

Searching for answers