The sand still sizzled as Elara's boots hit the dune. Heat radiated off the crater like the breath of a furnace. Her visor's filters dimmed the glare, but it couldn't block the stench of scorched metal and something else—something biological.
Behind her, Rho and two security officers fanned out, weapons drawn, scanning the area.
"Lifesigns?" Elara asked.
Rho paused, his irises flashing blue. "Inconclusive. There's movement, but no consistent pattern. Might be damaged tech… or injured."
Elara moved closer to the impact zone. The thing—whatever had come through the rift—lay half-buried in the crater. It was roughly humanoid, but wrong. The surface of its armor shimmered like liquid glass, constantly shifting colors. Wings, now folded and cracked, jutted out from its back—more like blades than anything natural.
Then it twitched.
"Stand back!" Rho shouted, raising his rifle.
But Elara stepped forward, hand raised. "Wait."
The creature opened its eyes.
No—not eyes. Lenses? They glowed a dull teal, flickering like a dying beacon. It tried to rise but collapsed again, letting out a series of sharp clicking noises.
"Is it… communicating?" one of the officers asked.
"Maybe." Elara knelt beside it, heart pounding. "Translate, Rho."
The android's processors whirred as he tried to decode the sound pattern. After a few seconds, he shook his head. "Not in our database. Not any known galactic dialect."
"Then record it. Everything."
Suddenly, the creature lashed out—not to attack, but to give. It pressed something into Elara's gloved hand before its body stiffened, shimmered, and went still. Its form collapsed in on itself like folding paper, leaving behind only the object and a pile of glass-like dust.
Elara looked down. In her palm lay a small device—cylindrical, etched with symbols that pulsed faintly in time with her heartbeat.
Then her comm crackled.
"Captain—this is Watchtower Nine—we've got a visual on a second rift. No, wait—multiple. All over the planet."
Elara's breath caught.
This wasn't a one-time event.
The sky was tearing open.