[ WP ] A Man finally lands on mars , he finds human skeletal remains , and quickly realizes that in the past long long ago human 's lived on mars only to explore earth as they depleted the resources on mars .

`` Aiden,'' came the voice in his ear. `` We've already mapped this part out. We have the footage from the rovers. There were no fossils there. Whatever you're seeing, it has to be less than three years old.'' 
 
 He ignored it, a tinny electronic hum in his ear. His hand came up unconsciously and batted against the side of his helmet, as if shooing away a fly. The voice was n't real, there were no lips speaking it, no throat for the air to be forced through. Just a bunch of electronic signals, abstract and faraway. The skull, now that was real, half-buried in the Martian soil, the intricate hollows of bone permeated and fossilized to become part of the earth itself. Its hollow eyes held him rapt, eyes that had seen a thousand thousand years pass, eyes that had watched a civilization die. 
 
 *This is what awaits you*, it told him. *A river flowed here, the soil grew rich. You planted and you harvested and you grew fat. You used the world at your pleasure. You wore the air thin. You left the ground barren. And then you fled, just as you are fleeing now. * The skull's jaw gaped open, its teeth arrayed like standing stones. *Welcome home. * 
 
 `` Aiden!'' came the voice in his ear, shrill and piercing and insistent. `` Are you still there? For god's sake, talk to us!'' 
 
 `` It's not going to work,'' he muttered. `` We've done this before.'' 
 
 `` Aiden? Aiden, what are you talking about? I did n't catch that. Please repeat.'' 
 
 *Tell them, * said the skull, and the ribs below it, and the sunken limbs and spine hidden beneath the dust. The stones rose around it like a hundred miniature graves. The earth shifted, a mausoleum caving in beneath the Martian soil, something awakening. *Tell them that you have cast your gaze towards the stars, and erected monuments for the glory of man. Tell them you have constructed your silvery ships and launched forth into the cosmos, tell them you have conquered new worlds and made them your own. And tell them, at the end of all your conquests, you have found nothing but the dirt from which you came. * It shifted imperceptibly, its eye sockets caving in and growing wider, swallowing everything. *Tell them that there is nothing but the dirt waiting for you. * 
 
 Aiden blinked, and tears came to his eyes, as if a speck of dust had somehow found its way through his spacesuit. And then he stepped forward and ground his foot down on the skull, crushing it, crumbling it into dust. It broke apart with a sigh. `` I'm fine,'' he said loudly, keeping his voice steady. `` I was-'' He faked a laugh. `` Sorry. Eyes playing tricks on me. Just over-excited, I guess. Managed to really freak myself out there for a second.'' 
 
 `` All right, then,'' came the voice, after a moment's silence. `` You good now?'' 
 
 `` Sure,'' he said. `` It was just - just the momentousness of the occasion getting to me, you know?'' He looked down at where the skull had been, and saw nothing but the imprint of his boot on the dead Martian soil. When he spoke again, he forced himself to smile. `` One small step for man, and all that.''
