[ WP ] The curiosity rover discovers an alien which spends its time putting random flags and shit on Mars and other planets to confuse astronauts for shits n ' giggles .

Curiosity hugged the Edom in a clockwise fashion as it crested the Schiaparelli crater - one of the largest and oldest impact craters that still retained it's form on the red planet. Ancient clods of dirt lost their form under the weight of the strange little machine, yielding untold history within them as they broke apart to rejoin the endless sea of red dust that blanketed Mars as a whole. 
 
 Until recently, this had been the foremost of Curiosity's attention; that is the dissection and analysis of the various minerals and elements. The stories and data sitting in just a teaspoon of Martian dirt was enough to keep scientists back home busy and entertained for months... Now however, the rover had different prey. 
 
 A stream of what appeared to be water had been seen in this region via satellite imaging just a couple days prior. Good fortune had left Curiosity in relative proximity to the site to investigate what could be a monumen.... 
 
 The various cameras on the rover went blurry causing it to freeze in place - a precautionary reaction to avoid damage caused by aimlessly bumping into things unnecessarily. After a moment, Curiosity attempted to re-focus lenses, re-calibrate sensitivities, and otherwise make some sense of what was happening. It was as if liquid was being poured onto the rover from the edge of the Edom. 
 
 Minutes later the surge of visual interference began to subside and Curiosity regained enough of it's vision to brave a creep forward, giving it a better angle on the rim of the child crater that sat on the larger lip of it's larger parent. Curiosity made no movement while it's cameras sat transfixed on what looked like a still wet stream that had just rolled down the edge of the ridge. 
 
 A small rectangular panel gave way on an otherwise flush surface of Curiosity's forward turret revealing a tiny needle-like instrument. In a pair of separate robotic motions, the needle broke the surface tension of the strange liquid that now coated it before returning back into it's housing, panel becoming flush with it's surrounding metals once more. 
 
 At the behest of instructions from back home, Curiosity began practicing it's namesake, carefully analyzing and re-analyzing the chemical makeup of the liquid... And again, re-analyzing... Sulfur? 
 
 Seeing the obvious dumbfounding of the robot below, Alup could barely contain his mirth, clutching lime green fingers over his toothy grin as he spun around throwing his back against the inner alcove of the Edom crater above Curiosity. At his side, a large 5 gallon bucket, clearly of earth design, lay on it's side, empty save the latent odor of old urine. 
 
 Alup composed himself, attempting to force all hints of a smile from his face, which only resulted in audible laughter which sounded more akin to a whip cracking than a throaty human chuckle. He grabbed the bucket, and returned to his ship, camouflaged against a small cleft near the center of the Edom... 
 
 Within the ship sat all manner of Earth paraphernalia; a bag of plastic green army men, a snow globe of the Eiffel Tower, 6 large canisters of silly string, and countless other toys and nick knacks. On top of a neatly secured pile of such gags sat an enormous American flag attached to an aluminum rod, the base of which was covered in a soft white dust. 
 
 Alup, having never truly lost the smile from his recent prank plopped down in his modified La-Z-Boy recliner, putting his hand on what appeared to be a crystal ball. The ship lit up on the inside, before jumping forward to surf the edge of the crater, cresting it on the far side before heading straight for where Curiosity had come from and would inevitably return after investigating the crater. 
 
 Several hours later, Alup sat with a small spatula, perfectly shaping his defecation to resemble the cute little poops they made toys to resemble on Earth... Only it was about a meter tall, the entire contents of his ship's solid separated septic tank. Once the tip stood upright to his satisfaction, he went to his ship, grabbed the enormous flag, and returned to plop it directly in the center of his previous work of art, imagining what profound thing he would say if he were human, having been the first of his kind to shove an alien flag into a pile of his own shit on Mars.
