APOLLO thus reached the most nearby planet with lifeforms. The planet is called XO-45. It is a solid planet and a big one containing fauna and flora.
I deployed the ship at XO's atmosphere, and from there I jumped. SHARP followed me in the shape of a small flying droid.
Upon reaching the ground, I was struck by the view. XO is full of vegetation and mountains, but I see no fauna, yet.
Numerous trees are spread across a jungle biome, bearing lots of colorful fruits, and lakes can be seen here and there.
I decide to take a fruit from one of the nearby trees and eat it. Its taste is acceptable, but it was also poisonous. Thankfully no kind of poison would work on me.
Next, I walked around and saw giant rocks containing drawings that could only be made by rational creatures. It means they are close.
I searched for a high spot so I could gather a better view of the place. I climbed a giant 20-meter-tall rock. From there, you could see a good portion of the biome. There was what seemed to be a village not too long from here. It shall be my next destination.
"SHARP, show me the quickest route to reach it."
SHARP flew high up above and with its analysis it mapped the entire region across 10 kilometers. When it was done, it descended back to me and showed a hologram of that path.
So, I walked.
After a few minutes, I could already see the village on the horizon, but at the same time, I sensed some unseen presences coming in my direction at high speeds, and SHARP also told me about it. Looks like we got company.
They are 300 meters away from us and running silently. Even if one were about 5 meters away from them, they still wouldn't be conventionally heard. In addition, their breathing and heartbeat are being manually manipulated so as to diminish the noise. They must have trained for this.
But the fools picked the wrong opponent.