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"Hello?!" Garbo yelled out. "Anybody out there?!" The only answer she received was the crackling of leaves and sticks underneath her foot and the dead silence.
Oh, fuck, I really am lost, she despairingly thought. How am I supposed to get back to the others now? She stumbled over a stray root and fell to the ground. Silently cursing to herself, she stood back up and dusted herself off. Then, she looked around her, scanning her surroundings.
As far as Garbo could see, the dark, vast forest surrounded her. Trees with thick leaves blocked out the light of the moon, casting deep shadows over every inch of the ground. Luckily for her, the problem of the darkness was mostly mitigated by her visual enhancements. Still didn't stop her from tripping every now and again. She sighed before pressing onward, carefully making her way through the rotting, moist undergrowth.
Garbo and her fellow HEPs were currently situated in one of SaFeL's numerous bases. The one that they were staying at happened to be located at the edges of a dense forest in a valley. Frankly, it was quite a miracle that it was still intact. Due to its remote location, the destruction of the old wars hadn't reached it, making it one of the few remaining locations on Homeworld that still held echoes of the long, distant past; several historians called it the Before.
According to some of the workers permanently stationed at the base, the valley used to be a camping ground before it got abandoned a long time ago. Some say that it was because the owners died, allowing a company to buy the land. However, they wouldn't utilize it, due to complications with costs, natural disasters, and heightening political tensions. As for others, they think that it was because a tragedy occurred in the camping ground, shutting down the campsite permanently and scaring off the clientele.
Regardless of the truth, the forest was now owned by Anthlow, a company who's mission was to "preserve, protect, and provide nature's last gifts to every being" (that was their slogan). That was the only reason why the valley hadn't been stripped of its resources by now. There's a reason why SaFeL and Anthlow aren't on the best of terms.
Despite Anthlow's objections, legally speaking, SaFeL was allowed to use their aforementioned base. That would be because it had belonged to another company, which just so happened to be an ally of Anthlow. Then, SaFeL did a hostile takeover of them, allowing them to obtain all of their assets, including the base.
Anthlow had long since given up on kicking out SaFeL. Instead of taking them to court, they had resorted to observing them from a safe distance. Sometimes, when Garbo looked through the base's windows, he would catch a glimpse of light refracting off of a pair of lenses. His teammates had also reported seeing shifting shadows swiftly maneuver through the trees.
Speaking of his teammates, their group had been sent to survey the nearby land. Several weeks ago, SaFeL and Anthlow had signed a temporary contract, detailing numerous agreements. One such agreement was that SaFeL could extract a reasonable amount of resources from some of Anthlow's territories. In exchange, Anthlow could use some of SaFeL's mines and oil rigs. However, there was a catch to this particular agreement; the companies were allowed to pick which assets the other could use. Of course, both of them decided to be petty and picked some of the worst locations they legally could. One such option was the forest Garbo was currently lost in.
As for how he got into his particular predicament, he wandered a little too far from his team and whoops, he was now in Lost Woods (apparently, it was a name of a place in a very popular video game series way back then. Garbo tried looking for the original source, but it was like all traces of it had been erased…strange). Once he realized his dire situation, he tried accessing SaFeL's network to see if he could locate Diablo. But for some reason, it was glitching out horribly.
Garbo may not know where Diablo was, but he was fairly confident that the Festi-Bot wasn't in the middle of the ocean.
Anyway, it seemed like the forest was very determined to swallow them whole. The chaotic mess of the undergrowth entangled their legs and gnarled branches scratched and pulled on their clothes and backpack. Regardless, they kept moving forward.
Garbo checked the status of their battery. Fortunately for them, they had charged up a bit before heading out, placing their energy at an adequate 53%. Still, they should find shelter as according to their internal clock, it was currently 3:43 AM. That and also the fact that they really don't want to be stuck outside when their battery runs out.
Up ahead, Garbo spotted a break in the trees, causing their eyes to brighten. Could there be something up ahead? They quickened their place, eventually breaking out into a sprint when they spotted a structure through the thinning leaves.
Finally, they made it into the clearing, stopping to take in their surroundings. Garbo was at the foot of a hill covered in grass and clusters of dandelions. At the very top of it was the building they had spotted, spotlighted by the moon. The main part of it had a rectangular shape, with a cylindrical offshoot capped with a dome. An adjustment of their visual settings revealed that there was a deliberate rectangular hole in the dome.
Looks mostly intact, Garbo thought to theirself. But the hole is concerning. After a moment, they concluded, shelter is still shelter, no matter how crappy it is. With that thought in mind, they started trekking up the hill.
Very quickly, he noticed other signs of the past. There were two, broken up lines of rocks that detailed where a beaten up path once stood. Occasionally, he would spot a slate of stone in between the boundaries, vegetation peeking through the cracks.
Hmm, maybe these are remnants of the camping grounds? Garbo looked back up at the structure. Now that he was much closer, he could see the marks of time. Ivy crawled up the walls of the building, coating patches of it in leaves. The unaffected parts were covered in splotches of grime and rust. Peppered throughout were sections of peeling or crack paint, exposing the weathered bricks. Faded outlines of past decal could barely be seen underneath the mess. Miraculously, the roof hadn't collapsed yet. And yet, despite all the wear and tear of it, somehow, there was an underlying beauty to it.
Even though the garbot preferred the crowded streets, flashing neon lights, and liveliness of a bustling city, he had to admit that there was an alluring quality to the sight. Something about the imperfect, yet picturesque facade instilled a sense of fragile peace in him.
Garbo's thoughts were interrupted by a thump. Looking down, he found himself standing on a pair of stairs, with patches of moss clinging to it. Ahead of him stood the closed door. Spell-bounded, he climbed the rest of the stairs, grasped the rusty handle, and turned it.
As if in slow motion, he watched as the hinges freed themselves from the rotting frame, emitting a violent CRACK, CRACK, CRACK, before the door fell inward.
THUMP! The door's impact on the floor caused a flurry of dust to rise out from underneath, momentarily clouding the entrance.
Garbo stared, stupefied at what just occurred. After several minutes, he registered that he was still holding the doorknob. Looks like it also detached itself from the door.
…Well, that solves the problem of getting inside, he optimistically thought, ignoring the despairing preservationist part of him. He carefully stepped over the door and entered the threshold, taking in the view.
Several posters hung up on the walls, depicting star charts and little info-graphics. Meanwhile, several unique rugs laid on the floor, following a general theme of space. The one that stood out to him the most pictured the solar system. Looking closely, he noticed that the names of the planets were different from the ones being used now. For example, Opportunity apparently used to be named Mars and Homeworld was called Earth. Also, Earth was depicted with bright swathes of green and blue, a stark contrast to the dull browns of Homeworld. Quite interesting…
Pulling his attention away from the rug, Garbo spotted that among the several doors in the room, one of them was cracked open. He made his way over to it, stopping briefly to pick up the solar system rug, shake off the dust, roll it up, and stuff it into his backpack. It's not like anyone was going to come back for it. Besides, he plans on displaying it after giving it a good wash in the bathtub (with permission from Mari-Anna. She's the only one who has a bathtub. Unfortunately for everyone else, they had to wash in the communal showers).
Pushing the door open revealed that it led to a set of stairs hugging a wall, going up in a gentle, curling pattern. As if something was pulling Garbo, she climbed the stairs, and when she got to the top…she finally realized what type of structure the building was.
A gentle beam of moonlight passed through the hole of the observatory, spotlighting the grand telescope in front of her, facing the opening. Patches of long forgotten stains spotted its gleaming, silver exterior. Dead leaves clung to the various grooves and holes that lined it. On its side, she could make out the word RABBIT, lettered in rustic gold. And at the lowest point, there was a small stand, with stairs leading up to where the eyepiece stood.
Logically speaking, there was a high chance that the telescope would show nothing. Even if it was pointed towards an actual celestial body, something internal could have broken during its years of abandonment. Despite this, Garbo still went up the steps, following the thread of hope that tugged at her core. Once she was at the top of the stand, in that moment, something possessed her to peer into the eyepiece.
And when the garbot did, she gasped.
In the center of a black void, there was a ring of light. It constantly shifted, flickering like the tongues of a roaring fire. It constantly shot out thin rays of life that were quickly devoured by the ravenous darkness. The ring itself had a blend of sunset orange and fiery yellow, like a striking resemblance to a total solar eclipse. In the upper right corner of it, there was a pronounced dent. Momentarily, it evened out at unpredictable intervals, forming a perfect circle, before inevitably collapsing. In spite of this imperfection, the beauty of the display remained unhindered. One could argue that it even enhanced it, showing how one could still be wonderful despite their blemishes…
…But that's not important right now. What does matter was that Garbo was looking at a star. A fucking STAR! Who knew that such a tiny pinprick of white in the sky could be so magnificent?! So wonderful?! So…beautiful.
She gazed at it for several minutes, or was it for hours, days, years, centuries, mere seconds?! Time was both slowing down and speeding up at the same time, but she wouldn't know, for she was utterly transfixed, her world narrowing down to that one, shining star.
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…I wish the others could see this, Garbo thought to herself. How can I even describe such a sight to them? The only one who could possibly comprehend it was Mari-Anna, and even then…would she even understand what it was like to see it?
Afterall, how can one explain the sheer emotion of witnessing such wonders to one who had dwelt, and breathed such things for nearly all of their life?
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…
…I'll record a video so that I can show it to Diablo later, she decided. Even if he never gets to see it in person, at least he will get a glimpse of it…
After recording a short video, Garbo eventually pried theirself away from the telescope. They had noticed that their battery was at 24% now. If they don't conserve their power soon, there's a big chance that they'll run out of charge in the middle of the woods. And that would definitely be bad.
They went back to the first room and found a small corner to tuck themselves in. After making theirself comfortable, they huddled into a ball and closed their eyes, drifting to sleep, the last thing on their mind the singular star.
Garbo woke up to their body being gently shaken. When they looked over their shoulder, they saw a colorful hand covered in crepe paper.
Ah, looks like Diablo found them. They looked up at him.
'Let's go. Matador is waiting for us.'
As the two made their way down to the bottom of the hill to where the rest of the team was, Garbo couldn't help but sneak one last glimpse of the observatory. In the daylight, it didn't look impressive. It just looked like another forlorn remnant of an unreachable past, one marred by death and destruction.
With a sigh, they turned around and ventured back into the forest, leaving behind a fading memory.
