The Sparrow

Chapter One

The Orange Gem
Layla Lancaster

My speeder powered down as I pulled the key out of the hole. One leg at a time I climbed off of my speeder and adjusted the blade I had holstered over my back, adjusting the plasma pistol strapped to my side. I looked at the ruined structure before me, made of ancient stone and covered in thousands of years of dust, this was a temple said to contain the Orange Gem I was hoping to find.

When the old man told me to drive all the way out to the middle of the desert just for a glowing rock? I thought he was crazy, till he told me the price for getting it, he better cough up the dough when I get this, because I'd never get all this shit out of my hair, let alone my speeder. Being stranded on the desert filled planet of Drarh was not exactly my idea of a vacation, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

I grabbed a flashlight from my bag and walked up the steps to this ancient temple, rumor has it that the temple was built centuries ago by an ancient race known as the Mutants, who visited this planet, talked about some future prophecy that never came into truth, and vanished without a trace. According to researchers temples like this one were stationed all over the universe, but that's far above the pay grade of a thief.

Vines and cobwebs were all along the walls of this place as I stepped inside the damp, cold temple and turned on my flashlight. I spotted several vermin and insects all along the structure. I kept a hand on the handle to my blade just in case, I've heard that Drarh is home to hundreds of poisonous creatures, and being bit by one of those fuckers is that last thing I would need.

I continued my way deeper into the temple, entering a long unlit hallway, the floor and walls built in the same stone as the rest of the structure, cracks in the stone gave way for moss and mushrooms to take over this place, as I walked down the hallway I passed what appeared to be paintings of old aliens, perhaps the Mutants I heard so much about, below each painting was words in-scripted on gold, written in a language I didn't understand. 

I continued my way down the hallway and entered a large meeting room, quartz pillars extended from the high ceiling. In here there was a skylight, perhaps unintentional judging from the structure damage below it, but still, I could see better now.

large stone chairs circled the center of the room, in scripted on each chair was more of the foreign language I didn't understand, but I assume these were name plates.

Why did these aliens have a meeting place in the middle of a desert? Especially on a unimportant planet like Drarh? I looked up and on the wall, carved into the temple's wall was one sentence written in English, pretty much the only language that wasn't totally foreign to me

"Matter Crystal Temple" I spoke outloud. I looked around the room again and thought to myself. What the fuck is a Matter Crystal? Could it be the Orange Crystal I was searching for? I started wandering around the room, typically with these old temples all the jewels are kept in some kind of secret vault or safe room that the builders figured everyone would've been to stupid to check for. 

After spending somewhere around forty minutes this entire room ended up with nothing, on the way in I didn't see any other rooms. Could it be possible that the old man who wanted the crystal had no idea what he was talking about? He seemed pretty nuts, but then again he planned to sell it off to some millionaire hotshot so who knows, and frankly who cares. 

I was wasting my time with this shit. 

I walked back over to the center of the room and stopped at a large pillar, I didn't notice this before but it had words written on it in English.

It appeared to be a list of names, at the very top was one named "Krolock"

Wasn't that the boogy man? I remember hearing that name growing up, he was some sort of Darth Vader type who wanted to rule the galaxy, mainly used a way to scare little kids out of doing something they shouldn't. Pretty sure if this Krolock guy every existed, he's dead now, which would line up with the age of this temple.