Chapter 24: No Technology?

Rayleigh’s heart thumped steadily in his chest as he scaled over a small boulder in one seamless jump and landed behind it and buckling his knees slightly.

He stood straight, his eyes searching the empty desert filled with nothing but craters, boulders the size of an armored truck, and sparkling dust that shimmered under the sunlight. If this was Earth, one might as well refer to it as fairy dust.

It was fabled that fairy dust had the magical capabilities to grant an individual the power of flight. Conceivably, it explained why the gravity on this planet was weaker, but Rayleigh knew better than to associate himself with fairy tales and myths.

He preferred the logical explanation to every situation, and in this case.... he actually had no idea what the logical explanation was, to be honest. In all fairness, he was never science guru. Tris was.

Rayleigh had traversed over a reasonable distance of the wasteland within a five-hour period, and he was yet to find any sign of life—intelligent or otherwise with otherwise referring to a ferocious beast ready to claw his face off.

Intelligent life, however, was not the only thing Rayleigh was yet to discover. Those huge craters he could see on the planet’s surface, the same ones that spanned a few square kilometers, were something he had yet to stumble upon. So far he had only been seeing the small ones.

Just how huge is Mulka? Rayleigh pondered seriously on that question.

For some reason, Rayleigh found himself rethinking his choices; from jumping into this star system, to descending on this strange planet, and settling his ship far away in the desert.

The system’s warning about hostiles in this star system left a cryptic dent on Rayleigh’s mind. He hadn’t received such a warning on Earth, unless he came into contact with one such as Cassandra Moon.

The case here was vivid in its distinction. Whatever threat resided on this planet had to be dangerous enough for the ARS to deliver a prior warning. Hence, why he decided to land the ship far away from any sign of biological interference.

The last thing he wanted was getting his only means of transportation being destroyed.

"Perhaps, landing the ship far away was a bad idea."

Even after acknowledging that fact, Rayleigh knew he couldn’t turn back. He had already covered a reasonable distance, and turning back now would be a complete and utter waste of time. For all he knew, he was already close.

He was probably already—

"Whoa—"

Rayleigh gasped as his feet slipped off the ground, his body pitching forward into open air before falling down a slope but fortunately for Rayleigh, he successfully found his footing, gratitude to the gravity and his fall stretched into something lazy.

He skidded the rest of the way down in a controlled slide, dust kicking up around him as he came to a stop at the bottom, upright and barely winded.

Rayleigh dusted his clothes, cursing under his breath.

He stood upright, scanning his surroundings. His jaw dropped open in awe as he spun around. He had just fallen into one of the huge craters.

◇◇◇

The bottom of the crater was inconceivably warm. The surface itself was cold, so cold that Rayleigh needed a coat, but this crater was warm, almost like there was a fire burning underneath it.

The drastic change in temperature was uncanny and impossible to miss. The warm crater had an explanation, and Rayleigh would discover it soon enough when he arrived in the middle of it.

"What the hell happened here?" Rayleigh muttered as he noticed it.

The stone was cracked from an unknown impact, and the land was burned; a massive black scorch mark radiating out from what must have been ground zero with tendrils of charred rock reaching up the slopes like frozen lightning.

Once again, Rayleigh was suddenly reminded of how unsafe this planet was. Fortunately, he was not planning on sticking around long enough to find out.

Creating momentum using his weight, in addition to Mulka’s gravity, Rayleigh pushed off the ground seamlessly, emerging from the 30-foot-deep crater.

He circled around the crater, continuing his journey, all whilst preparing for the worst possible outcome.

The further he traveled, the more Rayleigh began to notice the strange features of Mulka. There was something that stood out the most; the moons.

First was the fact that it was daytime, and he could clearly see every single moon hanging in the sky, second was that they were in the exact same positions as they were hours hours ago.

That was strange enough and that could only mean one thing: Time moved slower on Mulka than it did on Earth.

Rayleigh stared at the moons for a few seconds before shaking his head. "This planet gets stranger by the minute."

He continued walking and not long after, he stumbled upon an upward slope.

"Of course." He groaned dramatically as he started climbing.

The slope wasn’t particularly steep, but walking for hours made Rayleigh less inclined to climb anything.

But he had no choice so he climbed. Rayleigh continued upward until he finally reached the edge and behold, before him was a settlement.

A few small houses were stacked against each other in symmetrical lines, forming what looked like a village. The structures were simple, with no visible signs of advanced technology anywhere in sight.

The houses were made of wood and clay. Not one single sign of metal could be seen.

Rayleigh stood there, dumbfounded.

"What in the world? This planet still lives in the fucking Stone Age?!"

Rayleigh was visibly perplexed. Based on the house structures and the settlement itself, it was obvious these people lacked any form of technological advancement. So how was he supposed to get fuel?

Rayleigh decided to pay them a visit regardless with hopes that if his guess was correct, those craters hadn’t formed by themselves. Something had caused them and whatever it was, it looked like some kind of bomb, and bombs didn’t work without technology.

That meant these people had to know something. At the very least, they might know where he could find a source of fuel.

◇◇◇

As Rayleigh approached the settlement, he finally got a closer look at its inhabitants.

The Mulkans were humanoid in shape, but their skin came in different colors. Some were blue, others red, white, green, or orange, while only a small number possessed skin tones similar to humans from Earth.

They moved around the settlement wearing robes and traditional-looking outfits, their clothing were simple and modest.

Rayleigh sighed wearily. These people really did look like they were from the Stone Age. He continued walking through the settlement, trying not to draw too much attention to himself.

That plan lasted for about ten seconds when a scream suddenly tore through the air. Rayleigh stopped and suddenly, every eye in the settlement turned toward him.

People began pointing in his direction, screaming as some of them immediately started running. Rayleigh raised both hands defensively. "Whoa, whoa. Calm down. I’m not here to cause trouble."

Nobody listened and the screaming continued.

"Is this your first time seeing an alien? I promise I don’t bite."

His words only seemed to make things worse as the Mulkans did not stop pointing at him. Their screams and expression were filled with fear. "Kaiju!!" Someone screamed all of a sudden.

Rayleigh immediately got confused. ’Do humans look like monsters? What the hell was wrong with them?’ Rayleigh wondered, slowly lowering his hands.

That was when he noticed something; they weren’t actually pointing at him. As a matter of fact, they were pointing behind him.

A low rumbling suddenly traveled through the soil beneath Rayleigh’s feet, freezing him in place.

He didn’t need to turn around to know what that was; a fucking beast.