Shinju

I woke up from a quick nap finding myself sitting by the airlock door watching my partner, Echo - packing her traveling backpack with food, the massive medical kit, and the various weapons we were about to carry for miles in our trip searching for the Shinju. We were leaving the ship for a month-long expedition deep into the jungle of Six Gate, a small Earth-like planet orbiting Tau Hydrae, a triple star system in the equatorial constellation of Hydra, 59 light-years from Earth.

The local inhabitants of Six Gate had no idea we were there. No one ever visits this planet any longer. Guarded by massive military installations orbiting the planet at a safe distance, the planet was code black off-limit. Rumors were plenty but the fact that no one ever came back from an attempt to land on this planet was a good enough reason to not even try. Yet here we are, Echo - my military-grade cloned android and myself - once again, looking for trouble and glory in places no one dares to try their luck in.

My info was solid, straight off one of Tau Hydrae hacked military AI - claiming this planet is a host of two entities - the Wataru and the Shinju. Little was known but the info suggested both entities are reality engine shifters able to manipulate the building blocks of our holographic universe taking with them the whole planet from one reality to another at will. The hacked info included astonishing footage of the planet ship-shaping itself from a blue ocean to an ice planet in a brief second. The anomaly was observed from afar with only robotic flyby missions spying on the inhabitants and their tribal interaction with the two entities.

"Ready to go, sir" Echo was holding her thumb up, all packed up and suited. "OK, here we go!" I replied and hit the airlock door switch to open. Blinding bright sunlight filled the airlock and I shut my eyes quickly.

"Damn, that's bright" I said to Echo, looking back at her for confirmation. Echo was nowhere to be seen. "WTF..." --- I closed my eyes one more time, it was so damn bright as I heard a strange piercing sound growing all around us.

...I woke up finding myself sitting by the airlock door watching my partner, Echo - packing her traveling backpack with food, the massive medical kit, and the various weapons we were about to carry for miles in our trip searching for the Shinju. "Exciting day ahead" - I thought to myself, rising up and stretching my limbs.

"Ready to go, sir" Echo was holding her thumb up, all packed up and suited. "OK, here we go!" I replied and hit the airlock door switch to open. A strange dizzying feeling was taking over my awareness, it felt somehow familiar as if I have been here before. Blinding bright sunlight filled the airlock and I shut my eyes quickly. "Damn, that's bright"