[ WP ] 200 years after unknown circumstances drove humans off their planet . A group of explorers return to rediscover the past and determine the cause of societies mass evacuation ...

Going planetside was what they called it. The Orbital Dropping Platform had continued to meander around the outside of Earth's atmosphere, quietly observing the blue-green ball down below. The platform had been largely devoid of life for the past 150 years, only a skeletal crew of maintainers had stayed behind as the rest of humanity forged ahead to the various moons of Jupiter or colonies on Mars, the scant 80 left alone to run the life support systems in the event mankind ever came back. 
 
 They were coming back. 
 
 Operation: *Lazarus* was the sexy title that Titan had submitted for the project. A team of twenty explorers and researchers were put together as part of the first planetside operations back to Earth in 200 years. The Great Panic's that had originally pushed the throngs of people into the skies two centuries ago all came with different stories and reasons and legends grew from each of these tales over generations. Some inhabitants on the Lunar surface said that Earth was barren from toxic pollution. Farmers on the wide open fields of the Martian plains would say that nuclear winter buried much of Earth beneath a forever sky of gray. On Titan the prevailing theory was that a terrible illness had shoved mankind to the sea and the skies, gradually erasing man's existence from the planet. The fact of the matter was that no one knew, no one had a clue. 
 
 The best and brightest scientists, researchers, explorers, and solar-sailors were selected from all of the colonies. Terraformers from Mars, explorers from Titan, researchers from Luna, sailors from Titan and Europa; everyone coming from various languages and backgrounds with the sole purpose of re-learning the motherland. The first step had been docking with the Orbital Dropping Platform. The generations that had been raised in the artificial gravity had a thin, aquatic look to them with weirdly distended bellies and long and gangly arms. Their english had heavy hints of the Russian mother-tongue that had largely staffed the facility before The Mass Exodus. They were happy to see new faces and show off all the work they had been doing. Care packages from Luna and raw materials had been getting frequently shuttled in from Luna and Mars and that equipment had primarily been what allowed the station to keep the lights on. 
 
 The only dropship on the platform was ancient, pre- Exodus built. The crew of the Platform boasted about how they would take it for test runs around Earth's orbit but no one knew if the vessel could survive the harsh re-entry of Earth. The small landing team of volunteers consisted of First Officer Liam of Europa, Master Botanist Orval Hill, Geologist 1st Class Mikal Wisnewski, and Cartographer's Mate Maja Lea. The craft rattled harder than any of them had ever experienced and though Mikal did n't say it out loud he was pretty sure the craft would explode on entry. He was happy to have been wrong. As Liam piloted the vessel to a wide open expanse someplace on the sub-Saharan plains of coastal West Africa, the team had all been pushing their faces to the windows. Endless green pushed in all directions below, life seemed to have been going along quite comfortably. 
 
 On touch down with Earth the team radioed back to the Orbital Platform and were met with cheers from the rest of their team. The first enviornmental readings showed clean and empty air and Liam, being the commander, was the first to remove his helmet. Nostrils flared and he nodded approvingly to the cleanest air he had ever inhailed. The others followed suit, stripping down to the near bare mesh augmenting suits beneath their enviornmental protection armor. The sun beat down hotly and the wind was warm. As the small outpost was built using the pre-fabricated kits all heads craned toward the falling sun on the western horizon. 
 
 A high pitched scream rattled through the jungles at the edge of the fields. Hundred of birds bounded up and into the skies, sprawling in all directions. Maja had placed motion scanners along the edge of the tree line when they had first landed to measure any level of seismic activity or approaching animals, her alarm was rattling madly as the sensor picked up hundreds of contacts. More screeches filled the air combining into a blood chilling chorus of tones. The swarm that erupted from the treeline moved faster than most of the crew could race back to the drop ship. Orval was buried in throngs of hard to see writhing flesh, his screams muffled and drowned out in hungry gushes. The things surged over the ship and tried to wrench open doors and windows as it lifted off on autopilot to the Orbital Station high above. It was n't until 30,000 feet into the air that they seemed to freeze and tumble off like debris. 
 
 Something else owned Earth now, something very different from the humans who came before. 
 
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 I write various stories or reply to prompts as I'm asked to. For more scribbles check out my sub-reddit /r/Salojin
