[ WP ] First people on Mars discover buried ruins of ancient Martian civilization .

“ It ’ s not far, ” assured Doctor Reshlin, his hand resting gently on the steering wheel. His tan space suit bore the red markings and insignia of Genesis Colony. They had been sending our ship reports for weeks now, and I was getting that feeling that I used to get when I would go see major motion pictures back on Earth after months of trailers. The landscape was clear and crisp as the buggy traversed the last ridge before the dig site, I could feel the blazing heat of the Martian landscape even in my protected surroundings. 
 
 “ I ’ m glad you came out with me, Paul- I wanted you to see this personally. Captain Halim has more of a knack for planning and logistics, but I knew you would want to see it. ” 
 
 “ Halim isn ’ t enthusiastic, he doesn ’ t think it means anything, but he ’ s a bit of skeptic anyway, I think that ’ s why they assigned him to our team. Everyone here ’ s always swept up in the next possible signs of life before Earth, ” I posited. 
 
 “ Yeah, well- I find it pretty hard at this point. We ’ ve been finding these everywhere. I know you haven ’ t had a chance to check out the pictures in the dig site, but once we unearthed this thing, man…we were sure, ” he relayed as the buggy moved into the darkness. The shade from the cave felt good after having the sun glaring in through our protective screens for the last fifteen minutes. Genesis Colony had covered a great deal of ground since the point of its inception. 
 
 “ When did you start finding these? ” I asked. 
 
 “ On the first dig- first time we breached the surface, we started pulling them up. I ’ m a little surprised all the rovers missed them. Hell, some of them are just sitting on the surface, ” explained Reshlin. 
 
 “ Yeah, well- the ones you ’ ve shown us are eroded enough that they just look like a similar geological pattern, ” I countered. 
 
 As the buggy came to a halt in front of the dig-site, Reshlin smiled at me. He unzipped an external pouch on the space suit and handed me several small fine cut objects. Each one was shaped the exact same: two points that protruded with a flat base, and a rounded tip on the opposite end. They looked like abstract representations of jelly fish. I held the pieces in my hand, holding one of them up to look at it closely. True, some of them were eroded, but they certainly weren ’ t natural. They were all shaped the same, and they all possessed the same rounded edges, the same nubs and were the same size and weight. Whatever generated these clearly wasn ’ t geological. 
 
 “ I see, they really were produced, ” I confirmed. 
 
 “ I mean, it was clear as day when we started finding them, but still…you want to be sure, you know? ” Reshlin shrugged as we moved toward the edge of the quarry. “ But when we found this…there was no doubt. ” I lowered the pieces from in front of my eyes and looked down into the quarry. My mouth went agape as I stared. Below, a massive dome structure had been un-earthed, components of it still stuck in the Martian sand. The worklights cast shadows into the structural gaps and holes in the original architecture, but for the most part- it was intact. 
 
 “ Everything on that structure is made from those, ” Reshlin told me as he pointed to the chips in my hand. He smiled wide as I blinked and darted my eyes between the structure and the small jelly-fish shaped components in my hand. 

