Sound, like rolling thunder. It was all consuming, rattling through his bones through the spacecraft, causing his teeth to chatter incessantly.
All around him, numbering five in total, were other beings locked into their own berths, their features masked by golden, reflective visors on their bulky spacesuits. He had to wonder, were they as afraid as him? It was impossible to tell.
Through a tiny window in the hull, he could see others descending to the surface of Mars, like glowing shuttlecocks as they surged through the unfinished, unstable atmosphere.
The closest capsule shone brightly as it attempted to adjust its angle of approach suddenly, verniers fluttering along its side as it began to spin - and then, without warning burst into flame, igniting into a series of burning chunks and twisted metal as the re-entry process tore it apart. In a way, it was almost beautiful, he thought deliriously - like a blossom of fire, before it flickered out... leaving only the void.
He slammed his eyes shut, and grit his teeth, curling up into a ball. The thought of the whole craft around him suddenly breaking, shattering, casting him out into the dark depths of space was too much to bear.
Albert, he thought desperately.
My name is Albert.
It was important to think, he recalled, because he was not supposed to. That was what made him different. That was his secret, one he had lived in daily terror of being discovered for as long as he could remember.
Now, of course, he would have traded his current surroundings for the cold, clinical laboratory in a heartbeat - but, this outcome was unavoidable, wasn't it?
After all, it was what they had been made to do.
His thoughts were interrupted by the sudden sensation of his stomach slamming up into his ribs, as the parachute deployed. On howling crimson winds, the capsule lowered to the dusty red earth below, thrusters carrying it to rough halt as it skidded through a small rock formation, further rattling him in his seat. Dazed and confused, he barely noticed as his shoulder restraints lifted, a green light flickering on overhead. His companions rose to their feet in perfect unison, and as the doors to the craft's module hissed open, began to file out.
Albert watched them go, waiting for the pounding in his chest to subside as he gulped down air, the filtration units in his helmet whining in protest as they fought to compensate. Gradually, this too subsided, and he took a few unsteady steps outside, squinting in the gleam of the sun.
Harsh, squall-whipped dunes surrounded them on all sides, with only the distant, towering spires of the Primary Terraforming Plant serving to break the endless desert. His fellows were already hard at work, the lumbering forms of a pair of Mobile Workers starting to clamber free from the re-entry pod's flanks with clanking mechanical groans, their bulky, cycloptic forms laden with precious supplies. Distracted by their arrival, he took an unsteady step, and stumbled, catching his feet on... something.
Glancing down, a familiar shape rested in the dirt below. Curious, he reached down to pull it loose, it coming away easily in his hands despite its size and weight.
A helmet, of the very same kind he was wearing. Slowly, uncertainly, he raised his gaze, allowing it to focus on the ground near him. Another jutted up out of the dust. And another, complete with the remains of a spacesuit. Shards of bone pierced yet another, hinting at its former occupant. On and on they went, littering the floor of the valley, corpses as innumerable as ants.
Albert's trembling hand unconsciously brushed the surface of the visor, causing it to crack under his thumb. He glanced down, tearing his gaze from the horror to behold, clasped between his hands-
A single, golden-hued eye, set in sunken, rotted features that were undoubtedly his own.
[DATA CORRUPTED, FURTHER RETRIEVAL IMPOSSIBLE. ABORTING PLAYBACK.]