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CHAPTER 2 -THE GREAT FIND

today is a big day for all the citizens of Velthuna. for, today they were going to witness the history being made. for the first time since the rise of the civilization, Velthunians as they called themselves, were working together.

after centuries of fighting and competing among themselves, even in space. the whole species was now working together. they were born in a universe nearly stripped of light, in darkness, with only a dim star by their planet. it was so dim that a nuclear blast could outshine it. hence, the result was a civilization created out of darkness and ruthless coldness. 

despite having a matchstick for a sun, the fauna and flora of Velthuna was highly diverse, creating a beautiful scenery of a starless, everlasting, moonlit night. the species that ruled the planet looked more like humans in appearance. the same bipedal physique, with eyes and nose and pretty much everything same exactly like a human, except for the beautiful berry blue color skin, black pupils covering the whole eyes and slightly pointed ears.

while humans were born in light, Velthunians were born in dark. and much like humans, they hunted for food, wore animal fur to warm themselves and shared and created stories. and, now Velthunians traveled among stars, although dimly lit, but they were stars. they traveled from planet to planet seeking warmth, seeking for a place where they could live in warmth, even for a few days, without having to continuously caring for fire. they could create fire, but in the harsh cold surroundings, it was impossible to keep it lit up even for a few minutes, someone was always feeding it to keeping it from dying.

Velthunians developed exactly like humans, divided in kingdoms, countries and conflicted with each other. and somehow in the midst of all this competition and conflict, they created space flight, and hastily rushed toward the stars hoping to find warmth, maybe a brighter star, something anything to rid them of the everlasting cold and darkness. instead they found friends, living in the same darkness as the Velthunians. and not exactly sentient beings, but friendly beasts. still, Velthunians were glad they found something, even if animals, for they found strength in knowing that they were not the only one to live in this cold fate, they had someone else to share it with.

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Arixium was slowly hovering in the orbit of this strange new planet. this is the farthest any ship has ever been from Velthuna's home system. but then, this was an exploration ship and it was it's job to venture into the unknown.

the crew of the Arixium was combined of nearly a dozen soldiers, few scientists and engineers, just like any other common exploration ship. the difference was, this crew found what no one else had ever managed and only dreamt of finding. they had found a planet with the usual dim star and mostly covered in ice. 

but, upon scanning the planet for any kind of signs of life, they picked up something else. the planet had life like other planets, mostly animals. but it had something else, it had architectural ruins. ancient buildings made of metal and stones. the scans showed them to be mega structures buried deep beneath the layers of ice and still standing tall on top of it. 

and this could only mean one thing, they had found a sentient and ancient civilization, which by the looks of the ruins was long gone.

this news has spread throughout the entire velthunian civilization. every nation, fleet and citizen was talking about it. even though Arixium had found this planet, still it was not yet allowed to land on it. nations were still discussing among themselves.

and, finally an agreement was made. 

Arixium was going to land on the planet, examine and observe it. and, the crew cheerfully made its way toward the planet. with a hope in their hearts and a little bit of fear in their eyes.

this was after all the great find.