I will be beginning my decent into Mars’ atmosphere shortly. The year is 2027, and I am the commander for the first manned mission to Mars, Project Prometheus, aboard the spacecraft Satellite. An exciting time for mankind indeed. Space travel has come a long way in the last century. As a child, I always dreamed that one day I would be able to travel through space and explore foreign worlds, but I have never actually thought that it would become a reality. Still, I knew from that time that I wanted to become an astronaut when I grew up, and I didn’t let that dream die. 

     We are currently in orbit around the planet, above the Cydonia region. We are scheduled to land just a few miles due east of the Cydonia structures. I’m watching the surface of the planet on my monitor and I can see the face and the pyramids from here. I don’t know how they got there, part of this mission is to seek answers, but even from this distance, I can’t see how such things could possibly be natural occurrences. Perhaps someone was here before, ten thousands years ago. But it’s a dead planet now.

     I’ve never been one to believe in little green men from Mars, but, when you look out into the vastness of our universe, it’s hard to believe that Earth is the only planet capable of supporting life. Maybe there hasn’t been life in our stellar neighborhood for millennia, or maybe there is someone out there watching us right now through a telescope, but we can’t be the only intelligent life there is. 

     What the hell was that? I felt the spacecraft shake for a second there. We must have hit a patch of turbulence. “Is everyone alright?” I called back to my crew over the comlink. Everything seems fine now. Nothing to worry about. 

     Okay, now what the hell was that? I thought I just saw something move across the screen. Like a shadow or something. It almost looked like another spacecraft or something. I know, that’s silly. The Satellite was the only spacecraft set to explore Mars right now. Must have been a glitch in the imaging software.

     The lights just flickered and the image on the monitor scattered. Something’s not right. “Check the power supplies,” I called into the comlink. “I think there’s something wrong with the craft!”