Secrets in the Soil

The air inside Cain's helmet was thick with the sound of his own breathing, the rhythmic rise and fall filling the silence as he knelt beside the strange metallic structure embedded in the rock face. The device pulsed with a slow, sickly green glow, its surface marred with timeworn etchings that looked eerily... human.

Cain ran a gloved hand over the smooth, cold surface. It felt wrong—too familiar in an environment that should have been utterly alien. He glanced over at Elara, who was furiously scanning the artifact with her handheld device, her lips pressed into a thin line of concentration.

"What's the verdict, Doc?" Cain asked, his voice crackling over the comms.

Elara's eyes flickered to meet his, a rare flash of uncertainty in them. "It's... impossible," she muttered. "The materials—this alloy—it's of human origin."

Cain felt a chill creep up his spine. "What?"

Elara exhaled, tapping at her device. "The isotopic signature matches Earth-based metallurgy techniques—ones that haven't been used for at least a hundred years."

A heavy silence hung in the air.

Commander Ryker, standing a few feet away with his rifle lowered but ready, frowned beneath his visor. "Are you telling me we've been here before?"

Elara shook her head. "Not officially. No records indicate any missions to Exo-9. This shouldn't be here." She paused, staring at the device's pulsating glow. "But it is."

Reyes, who had been quietly watching, let out a nervous chuckle. "So... what? We stumbled onto some ancient government black project? You know, 'Oops, we forgot to log the secret space mission'?"

Cain didn't smile. His gut told him this was something far worse. He turned back to the artifact, his fingers tracing the deep grooves carved into its surface. It wasn't just an abandoned piece of equipment. It was a message.

"Look here," he said, motioning Sasha closer. She crouched beside him, her rifle strapped to her back, eyes narrowing as she studied the markings.

"What do you think?" Cain asked.

Sasha ran a gloved finger over the strange symbols. "Looks like some kind of serial code," she said, her voice thoughtful. "But it's been eroded... I can only make out a few characters."

Cain leaned in closer, squinting through his visor. Among the faded engravings, he could barely make out the sequence:

"VX-19... U-EX..."

Then something clicked in his mind. He'd seen those markings before. Not on Exo-9, but back on Earth—during his time working black ops. Those codes were used by deep-space reconnaissance units.

His throat tightened.

"This is military," Cain said grimly. "Old, but military."

Ryker stepped forward, his expression unreadable beneath his helmet. "How old?"

Cain hesitated. "At least seventy years. Maybe more."

Reyes whistled lowly. "Okay, that doesn't make sense. We didn't even have deep-space capabilities back then."

Sasha stood up, checking their surroundings warily. "Officially, we didn't."

Cain met Ryker's gaze. "You knew about this?"

The commander's jaw tightened slightly. "No."

Cain didn't believe him. But before he could press further, the ground beneath them shifted. A low, tremulous vibration rippled through the soil, sending loose rocks tumbling down the canyon walls.

"Shit," Reyes muttered, backing away from the artifact. "That thing just did something."

Elara's scanner beeped wildly. "The readings are spiking. Whatever it is, it's reactivating."

Ryker's voice cut through the comms. "Pack it up. We move, now."

Cain stood, eyes still locked on the artifact. He didn't like leaving it behind, but he knew better than to argue with Ryker in the field. The team began pulling back, Reyes shoving his scanner into his pack with shaking hands.

They had barely taken ten steps when the ground collapsed beneath them.

Cain felt the world give way, and for a split second, his heart slammed against his ribs before gravity took him. He fell hard, tumbling down into the darkness below, the sound of crumbling rock and shouts echoing in his ears.

He hit the bottom with a painful thud, his suit's impact dampeners kicking in just in time to save him from serious injury. Dazed, he blinked through the dust cloud rising around him.

His comm buzzed with static, then Sasha's voice came through, sharp and concerned. "Voss? Status?"

Cain groaned, rolling onto his side. "I'm alive." He coughed, shaking the dust from his visor. "Mostly."

The others' headlamps flickered through the dust as they rappelled down into the chasm.

Reyes landed beside Cain, breathing heavily. "Man, you just had to touch the spooky alien stuff, huh?"

Cain ignored him and looked around. They had fallen into what appeared to be an ancient underground chamber, the walls lined with strange metallic structures. And there, half-buried in the soil, was something that made his blood run cold.

A human skeleton.

Clad in a faded, tattered flight suit bearing an old Earth Exploration Corps insignia. The fabric had decayed, but the emblem was unmistakable.

Cain knelt beside the remains, brushing dirt away from the chest plate. His breath caught in his throat. The name tag read:

"CPT. ADRIAN VOSS."

His eyes widened.

"No," he whispered. "That's... that's not possible."

Sasha crouched beside him. "Voss, you okay?"

Cain swallowed hard. Adrian Voss. His father. A man who had disappeared decades ago, lost during a classified deep-space expedition.

And now he was here. Buried on Exo-9.

Sasha touched his shoulder. "Cain..."

Before he could answer, the artifact behind them pulsed again—brighter this time, sending out a low-frequency hum that rattled their bones.

Elara's voice came through, panicked. "Guys... we're not alone down here."

Cain turned sharply, raising his rifle as something shifted in the darkness beyond. A silhouette. Unmoving. Watching.

The whispering returned, louder this time.

"...turn back... you are not ready..."

Cain's pulse thundered in his ears.

Ryker's voice barked through the comms. "Weapons hot! Whatever's down here, we're not taking chances."

Cain's grip on his rifle tightened, his father's name still burning in his mind.

This mission had just become personal.