"Just a few more steps," Sera thought, her heartbeat quickening with each passing moment. The towering structure loomed ahead, its silhouette larger than anything they had seen so far. Every step brought them closer to the massive bulk of the forgotten landship, hidden for so long under the embrace of nature.
Step by step, the group moved in awe, the trees parting to reveal a ship that seemed out of place in the middle of the forest. Tall—no, colossal—it stood taller than any of the surrounding trees. Its rusted, worn exterior was smothered by vines and thick overgrown vegetation, a relic long forgotten by the world. The sheer size of the landship was overwhelming, and for a brief moment, the ragtag crew stood in silent amazement, unsure of what they had stumbled upon.
Despite its massive presence, the landship was clearly run-down, the years having taken their toll. Vines crawled up its sides, and rusted patches and missing sections hinted at the ship's age and disrepair. Birds had made their nests in the crevices of the ship's hull, and the forest had long since claimed it, wrapping the ship in green.
Sera's tail flicked back and forth as she surveyed the scene, her mind racing. She glanced over at Ava, who seemed to be having an entirely different reaction. While Sera's mind was filled with questions about what to do next, Ava's eyes were practically sparkling. The small engineer was entranced, barely able to contain her excitement as she touched the rough metal of the landship, craning her neck to take in its full height.
Ava was the smallest in the group, and from her perspective, the landship seemed to reach the sky itself. She ran her hands over the weathered hull, eyes wide with wonder. "It's amazing," she whispered, almost in disbelief.
"Say, Ava… could you do anything with this? Salvage it? Fix it?" Sera's voice broke through Ava's moment of awe.
"Huh? Oh!" Ava snapped back to reality, her face lighting up with excitement. "Absolutely! There's so much we could do! We could salvage parts, maybe make it operational again! Ah! But we'd need tools... and equipment... and..." Ava's voice trailed off, lost in her own thoughts as she paced around the ship, babbling excitedly about all the possibilities.
Sera sighed, watching the energetic engineer flit about. She's not going to stop anytime soon, is she? Sera thought, rubbing the back of her neck. "Might as well take a closer look at the outside," she muttered.
As she scanned the group, her eyes landed on Zyra, who had been watching Ava with amusement. With a single swift motion, Zyra delivered a playful smack to the back of Ava's head, knocking her out of her fervor.
Ava yelped, stumbling forward before turning to glare at Zyra. "Hey! What was that for?!"
Zyra grinned. "You were getting carried away. Relax, genius, we'll get to all that later."
Ava pouted, rubbing the back of her head as the other engineers watched, uncertain of what to do next. One of them shrugged and approached the landship, running his hand over the surface of the hull.
"Sigh... it's not like we had anything better to do, right?" Sera muttered to herself as she glanced up at the sky. The sun glared down from its mid-morning position, but there was still plenty of daylight left.
"Alright, Ava!" Sera called out, getting everyone's attention. "We'll check the damage on the outside first, see what we're dealing with."
Ava perked up, her enthusiasm returning almost immediately. "Right!" she said, her vigor restored as she darted toward the side of the landship. She motioned toward two openings they had found while exploring. "Mmm… maybe a hangar? And this other one, maybe a jump zone? The big one is probably for supplies. Oh, and there are two cranes up top, though cranes like these aren't used much anymore… this must be an old, maybe legacy model!"
"Legacy landship?" Sera asked, glancing at the cranes Ava mentioned.
Ava nodded eagerly. "Yeah! Legacy landships were experimental models back in the day. They set the standard for the newer, more modern landships we see now. This one's definitely been out of commission for a while, but you can tell by the design that it was cutting edge at some point."
Zyra raised her hand mockingly, as if she were a student in an academy. "Uh… yeah, quick question."
Ava blinked and tilted her head. "Yeah?"
"You're actually smart?" Zyra asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Ava flushed red, sputtering as she tried to respond. "W-Well, I'm an engineer, you know! I know a thing or two about landships!"
Minutes passed as the group continued their exploration. On the opposite side of the ship, they found another section—though it didn't seem to offer much apart from a large portion that was missing entirely.
"Huff… okay then, let's see what we're dealing with," Sera muttered as she wiped sweat from her brow.
As they moved around the ship, the sheer size of the landship became more apparent. It was huge—nearly as long as a city block and towering over them like a behemoth. The hull was riddled with damage; sections had caved in or rusted away completely, leaving gaping holes in the once-impressive structure. Cracks ran along the length of the ship, some of them so deep that entire trees had sprouted from within, their roots snaking through the landship's skeleton as nature reclaimed what had been left behind.
Despite the damage, the ship still held a certain majesty. It was as though it had been a titan of its time, long ago, but now stood as a forgotten relic of a bygone era.
Ava walked slowly along the length of the landship, her hands trailing along the weathered metal as she whispered to herself, assessing the state of the ship. "We could definitely salvage parts… maybe the engine's still intact... we could strip it for armor plates, or... well, no, we'd need better tools. But... maybe..."
Sera watched her, a faint smile tugging at the corners of her lips. Despite the ship's ruined state, she felt something stir inside her. Hope. This wreckage, this decaying giant, could be more than just an abandoned relic. It could be something they rebuilt, something that would help them survive in this unforgiving world.
But she knew they were far from being able to repair something like this. They didn't have the tools, the manpower, or the time. For now, it was just a dream—a dream of turning the past into a future.
Unbeknownst to Sera and her crew, this landship—massive as it was—was considered small by the standards of the current era. In the future, they would eventually salvage what they could from this forgotten relic and build in a way—something new, something that would carry them forward.
But for now, the landship stood as a reminder of what once was, and the potential of what could be.