Marion opened his eyes, in the white expanse he had closed them in,
'what a weird dream'
Looking around, he realised once again that this was not a dream and indeed the reality he found himself in,
He resolved himself, he had to survive, whatever came his way, he would survive and get his revenge,
''The first step is survivng here,''
''Vessel, we are entering Asana while slowing down, estimated time till arrival is 2 minutes, prepare for landing'' the voice declared,
''How do i 'prepare'?'' Marion questioned,
''Mentally, it is recommended that you start prepping your mind for what is to come, once you arrive the shard will go into hibernation mode and dissapear inside of the vessel, we will be unable to produce assisstance nor shelter, the vessel will be left to fend for itself, fortunately the most widespread civilisation on Asana resembles the civilisations of earth, so you will not find a difficulty understanding their hierarchy or system of rule''
Marion breathed a sigh of relief, at least something was going to be familiar to him,
''i didn't know there were other Humans out there, this is a groundbreaking discovery, at least i won't be alone...''
''i believe the vessel has misunderstood, what i meant by resembles the civilisations of earth, i meant the most widespread civilisation, which would not be Humans but the civilisations of ants,''
The silence spread for a while, no words were spoken,
''Ants?'' Confused Marion asked,
''to be specific, they call themselves the Mchuwaji, yet their biological functions and hierarchy resembles that of the ants of earth''
Marion focused on only one thing the voice had said,
'They call themselves?'
Marion was stupefied for a moment, he didn't know how advanced these ants were, how much they had evolved, how different they were, just that they had developed enough civilisation to be able to have consciousness and a sense of self, individuality, that was dangerous, deadly.
''What are my chances of surviving here?''
''close to 0%, the atmosphere will not kill you, but the fauna and flora coupled with the environmental events will in enough time almost surely result in your demise,'' The voice said as a matter of fact,
''Jesus Christ...''
What had he gotten himself into, why had he survived, was his luck good or bad?
'It doesn't matter, i'll find a way to survive, they have individuality, good, i can make use of that, far more than i could make use of animals without a sense of self'
Marion braced himself, he wasn't one to hesitate, he would just solve things one step at a time,
The shard entered the atmosphere, Marion had disabled the obstruction of view, he wanted to observe his surroundings,
What he saw reassured him somewhat, a familiar view, forests, a green landscape as far as he could see, with rivers interspersed in between the greenery, it was a welcome sight,
He could also see birds flying in the sky, with rich distinct colors,
At a second more careful glance, there were many colors spread on the horizon, from reds to purples to blue, far more than you would see on earth, yet the most dominant color was green,
The shard grew closer to the ground, and Marion grew more ready, his heart palpitating and his forehead glistening with sweat,
Yet the closer he got to the ground the more things seemed different, he noticed more colors, rivers of different colors, things moving around beneath him that he just couldn't catch,
Suddenly it became dark, Marion looked upwards only to find the same bird he was previously looking at, yet it turned out not to be a bird at all,
Marion looked up and saw a massive pterodactyl with feathers of yellow and gray covering half of the sky flying above him, flying with rage as it spotted another one of its kind in the distance,
Marion looked in the distance to see another massive pterodactyl like creature flying at a speed that didn't make any sense, if not for the amount of distance between the two, he would never have caught sight of it,
The monster above Marion squawked and screeched so loud the wind around them moved as if a bomb had been set off, and Marion's eardrums were almost torn apart,
Marion yelled covering his ears, the sound was abruptly cut off,
Marion looked up and removed his hands slowly from his ears,
''sound has been temporarily cut off from reaching the vessel for the vessel's safety''
Marion breathed a sigh of relief and looked up, the predators were about to collide, he was sure this was going to bring about a great explosion, one he hadn't seen like before,
Thunder rolled and a huge explosion of wind echoed, the clouds cleared and leaves rustled everywhere, the sound was deafening, like two airplane-like monsters crashing into each other at full speed,
The birds crashed into each other, launching them into the skies, entangled together, you could see lighting and fire forming around them, like a tornado of elements,
They bit and scratched and slowly they were beginning to glow with all kinds of colored lights,
Their attacks were forming, behind the yellow monster lighting was spinning in a ball, incomprehensible to Marion, and behind the other monster fire was warping the air, the heat was so intense air was beginning to visibly glow around the monster,
Marion looked out, his eyes like saucers, chills running through his body,
''What?''
Marion didn't understand,
He had braced himself for an impact larger than that of a missile colliding with another, but suddenly, nothing? no, a tree?
''i'm not hallucinating, right? that was a tree right? like a whole entire tree, roots and all?''
A tree flew out of nowhere, straight into the two birds, so fast Marion could barely register it, but what he could register was the deafening sound and the shock wave that came after,
For the first time even the shard shaked a little, enough to make Marion understand that what happened was real,
Something flung a massive tree at the two airplane sized monsters that were fighting in the sky and knocked them back so far Marion couldn't see them anymore,
''God help me, where did i end up...''
''You are in Asana, vessel, ETA is 15 seconds''
Marion could swear the voice was enjoying seeing him squirm,
The shard was getting closer to the ground, incredibly fast at that,
The ground was getting bigger, and so was everything else, Marion finally understood the scale he was dealing with,
He could see the top of the trees, but the earth beneath was still too far away for him to see,
Everything was moving too fast for him, but he could tell there were things moving around beneath,
Every second made his heart beat faster, this was something he had never seen before, never imagined before, he wasn't built to deal with this kind of thing, he was just an software engineer, not a survival expert, not that he felt any human could survive here,
''I can do this, somehow, i'll survive and get revenge''
The shard landed in the middle of the forest in total silence.