Back on the ship
"How much longer until we reach Venus?" SRD asked.
"Oh, a few hours. Good thing the Martians have spaceships that are this fast. Back then, traveling to Venus was like a dream."
"Huh... Your technology must've been very bad."
"Compared to the current tech, ye-" The screen suddenly shattered into pieces, with a hole through it.
SRD Immediately turned back, noticing that the Martian was... awake? On top of that, he had a gun too. SRD launched himself up, taking a step back. "Hey- Clam down, Martian. Put the gun down."
"Who the hell are you people?!" The Martian exclaimed, pointing his gun at SRD.
"We're... Non-Martians. We need you to be cooperative wit-"
Another shot was fired at SRD, barely missing him.
"Who are you?! What are you doing on the spaceship?!"
"Okay- please, let me explain, Martian."
The Martian crawled back a little, before nodding to SRD.
"We're from Earth, and we're using your ship to get to Venus."
"W-what?! Why Venus?! Explain!"
"Well, we have to get to Venus. For materials."
"You make no sense, intrud-" The ship suddenly spun around, throwing both The Martian and SRD to the side of the ship, and M's old screen slightly slid to the side. The martian is violently slammed against one of the walls, leading to a blaring thud. Similarly to the Martain, SRD is also launched to the walls, yet he didn't seem too damaged.
The ship rebalanced itself, and M's display booted up. "Go tie him up, he should be knocked out."
SRD wobbled as he stood up, before nodding to M. "Okay. Nice save but warn me next time. What do I tie him with? "
M let out a small hum noise. "You know how he broke the big fancy screen? Try and take a shard from that glass. Pick a sharp one."
SRD walked over to the broken glass pieces on the floor. He picked up a few, turning back to M. "Then?"
"Uh... Those seats have seatbelts, right? Cut it and try to tie him up."
"Okay," SRD responded. walking to the closest seat and starting to cut out the seatbelt. He paused, turning back to M. "It won't cut, it's too elastic. Weird materials." SRD informed.
"Oh... well that ruins our plan. Alright... Uhm... Take his weapons, and check if he has anything else."
SRD checked the martian's body, finding nothing interesting besides for the pistol. "Just the pistol. He also has an odd rectangular device."
"That's bad. You can still move your fingers, right? Well, if he wakes up, threaten him with the gun. Also, toss me that device, I wanna have a look."
"Done." SRD took a seat, pointing the gun at the martian. He briefly turned around to M, tossing over the device to him. He then focused his attention on the martian.
"Won't you get tired like that? You only have to do it when he wakes up..."
"No, I won't. I'm a robot. I'm not designed to get tired. And you don't know if he's faking it."
"Good point... but I'm pretty sure he's not faking it." M had emphasized. He stared at the weird device. "This is interesting... It looks like a phone. Weird. It might be used for communication, or perhaps just entertainment."
"Entertainment is a strange concept." SRD mumbled.
"Well, you're 'not designed' to need entertainment, so it must be weird."
SRD gave a small nod.
6 AND A HALF HOURS LATER
"So, SRD, how much heat can you handle?" M asked.
"My metal, Suprium, can withstand 674C. Why?"
"Suprium, huh?"
"Yeah, it's an artificial material. But quite expensive to make, so there isn't a lot of it out there."
"And why'd you have such expensive material?"
"Well... I'm the head of the human termination program. We face some really strong and desperate defenses on the job. So I was thoroughly equipped."
"Huuh... That's nice... I was asking because we're approaching Venus. It's... very hot there if you didn't know. You'll be the one extracting the needed parts. I can't get down there because the whole monitor would melt down.
"Already? I thought it would take a month or so... I'm fine with going down on my own. I just need instructions."
"Yeah, this spaceship is way faster than I anticipated. And it also seems that Venus was close to Earth when we took off." M had answered. "Now, I used the security cameras to check the ship out, and there are some drills you can use for extracting the minerals. What we're looking for here is a white, hard material that should be found 20 feet in. Try to get as much as you can carry."
"Sounds simple. When do I get down there?" SRD asked.
"A few minutes later, just go in that locker room over there, it should have the extraction devices," M answered, humming a little as he waited. "You know, I wonder what happened to that Martian. It's been some six hours since he kept that position... do you think he's still even alive?"
"I believe so. He still looks to be breathing. Maybe he has gotten a brain injury, it was a violent turn after all." M commented. "Now, remember the pistols we borrowed from those Martians we killed earlier? Can you leave one of them here?"
"Why's that? You can't use a pistol, can you?" SRD asked.
"Well... that is true. Just leave them here. That Slesium-like substance is something that I'd like to observe."
SRD stared at M. "Huh... Okay. I tossed them under a one of the chairs when I got on." SRD had informed. "It's the one to your left. Where I sat. There are 6 pistols, do with them as you wish." SRD added, before walking over to the locker room. The door automatically opened up for him as he got closer, revealing behind it a set of black suits. They had their own transparent helmets and overall, were high of quality.
"This looks interesting. Should I wear one of them?" SRD asked.
"No, no you shouldn't. It's designed for the Martians. Probably to protect them from the heat of Venus. I've no idea why, but it looks like they came here prepared to go to Venus. Weird." M had answered. "Anyways, you should find a sizable drill next to it. Take it and I'll beam you down to Venus."
"Okay..." SRD walked deeper into the locker room, finally finding the drills M talked about. Just how drills looked like. A cone with a spiral all the way down to the tip. It had a metallic grip with a few red buttons on it. The drill was generally a gray color, besides for the handle, which was a black color.
SRD strolled over to the drill, lifting it up with both of his arms. Clearly, he was struggling with its weight, and he couldn't give himself more energy as his wires didn't cool down yet.
SRD gave up on lifting the drill, and just dragged it out of the room with both of his hands. "I got it. Now get me down, please." SRD had announced.
"Alright... just uh... walk a bit closer to the front." M said.
"Sure...?" SRD took a few steps forward, now standing in the middle of the ship. Above him was a white circle, with multiple smaller circles surrounding it.
"Aaand bye!" the larger circle started glowing, before a pole of light fell on SRD. Not a second passed before the light disappeared, and so did SRD
-
The light pole fell on a reddish-brown surface, clearing up and revealing SRD standing where he light once was. "H m m." SRD hummed.
He turned his head around, taking notes of where he is. It was mainly a flat landscape, with only a few hills in the distance. The coloration was odd, and his heat alarms were screaming at him to get out.
BEEP, BEEP, BEEP
SRD sighed, internally shutting down his alarms. He already knew where he was. Venus. It has to be. It didn't seem like he had much time here. His exterior may be safe, but it's not long until his interior parts start melting.
SRD looked up, trying to spot the ship. There was sadly nothing to be seen. It probably has to do with Venus' thick atmosphere.
SRD dragged the drill to a flat location, positioning it correctly before pressing the button on its side.
The drill start to slowly spin, accelerating speed every few seconds. Once it was fast enough, SRD pushed it through the ground. The dust kicked up, blinding his vision for as long as he drilled. Going through Venus' surface wasn't too difficult, but not until suddenly, the noise changed. Instead of drilling through dirt, it switched to a hard metal.
SRD immediately pressed the button again, stopping the drill. "Okay..." He pulled the drill out of the hole, throwing it to the side. SRD walked over to where the whole was, kneeling down to grab whatever he just hit. "Hm-"
With difficulty, he pulled out a heavy bulk of metal. Seeing as he couldn't hold it for long, he threw it besides the drill. SRD activated his scanners to see what he had found.
UNKNOWN ONJECT DETECTED.
Type: ???
Name: ???
Properties: ???
SRD stared at the bulk. That scan wasn't exactly useful to him. He walked over to the unknown material, sitting on it and waving up at the sky. He wasn't informed of how he would return, but he hoped M was watching him.
As SRD waited for contact, his scanning systems started beeping.
A red display showed blurred out SRD's vision, and it only read a specific few words.
UNKOWN LIFE FORM DETECTED.