Beneath the Red Sands

Chapter 13: Beneath the Red Sands

The tension in the command center was suffocating. The last drone had been destroyed in seconds, and the video feed—though brief—had confirmed their worst fear: something was alive beneath Mars.

Not just alive. Active. Aware. Watching.

Analyzing the Threat

Ethan stood at the head of the room, eyes locked on the final frozen frame of the drone's footage. The blur of metallic limbs and glowing blue eyes sent a shiver down his spine.

Michael Reyes replayed the last two seconds in slow motion. "Whatever that thing was… it wasn't just some dumb automaton." He enhanced the image, zooming in on the moment before the destruction. "Look at the way it moved. It didn't just attack—it calculated."

Laura leaned closer. "That's strategy. It waited underground, stayed hidden until the drone got too close, and then struck with precision."

Ethan's mind raced. This was no accidental encounter. They had been ambushed.

He exhaled slowly. "EPS, run a full analysis on the entity's structure. Compare it with known Earth-based robotics."

The system processed for a moment before displaying the results:

[Entity Composition: UNKNOWN METAL ALLOY]

[Heat Signature: VARIABLE, POSSIBLE ENERGY-BASED CORE]

[Movement Pattern: NON-HUMANOID, MULTI-LIMBED, ESTIMATED HEIGHT: 2.7 METERS]

Michael whistled low. "That's almost nine feet tall. And look at this alloy—it doesn't match anything we've ever seen before."

Laura frowned. "Meaning it's not just some relic of an ancient civilization." She looked up at Ethan. "This thing is functional and dangerous."

Ethan clenched his jaw. We poked the hive… and the hive responded.

Underground Movements

Before he could speak, another alert blared across the control room.

[WARNING: SEISMIC ACTIVITY DETECTED]

Ethan snapped his head toward the main display. The heat signatures they had tracked before? They were moving.

"Michael?" Ethan asked, his voice edged with urgency.

Michael was already scanning the data. "Multiple life forms detected beneath the surface. They're shifting position—" His eyes widened. "—and they're heading straight for us."

For a moment, the only sound in the room was the hum of the monitors.

Then Ethan spoke. "EPS, estimate time of arrival."

[ETA: 1 HOUR, 12 MINUTES]

Laura's expression darkened. "They're not waiting for us to make the next move. They're bringing the fight to us."

Retreat or Stand Ground?

The entire base was built to remain invisible to Earth's satellites, hidden beneath layers of Martian rock. But clearly, that wasn't enough.

Ethan turned to his team. "We have two choices. We retreat and fortify deeper underground, or we hold our ground and prepare to engage."

Michael sighed. "If we move deeper, we might be able to lose them in the tunnels. But if we stay, we risk a direct confrontation with something we don't fully understand."

Laura met Ethan's gaze. "You know what I think? We don't run. We learn. If they're coming, we need to observe—see how they fight, how they think. If we ever hope to survive here, we need to understand them."

She was right. If they ran now, they'd stay in the dark. But if they stood their ground, they might just uncover the truth about what lived beneath Mars.

Ethan took a deep breath. Then he made his decision.

"We hold our ground," he said. "But we don't fight blind."

He turned to Michael. "Deploy Sentry Drones at the perimeter. Full scanning capabilities—infrared, sonar, electromagnetic fields. I want every detail of these things before they reach us."

Michael nodded. "On it."

Ethan faced Laura next. "Prepare the defense grid. If they attack, I want options—stun weapons first, lethal force if necessary."

Laura gave a curt nod. "Understood."

Ethan looked back at the display. The signals were growing closer.

Time was running out.

A Hidden Enemy Awakens

As his team worked, Ethan stepped away for a moment, staring at the dark Martian surface on the external monitors.

Beneath that silent red dust, something ancient had woken up.

Something that had been watching them from the start.

And now, it was coming.

For the first time since stepping foot on Mars, Ethan felt it deep in his bones—

This planet was never uninhabited.

It was only waiting.