Story 1: Year 2,050 - 2150

The dusty plumes of the desert is a stark contrast to the life the humans once knew. Hundreds of cultures, ages, ethnicities, wandering the sands. Small groups form to help others survive. The sand is a carbon silicon mixture, giving it a dark grey color. The planet has an oxygen atmosphere, meaning it also has an ozone layer. It has silicon based early life, feeding on the minerals of the sand. The new inhabitants of this planet called it by many names. The most popular name, and the official name is “Azil.”

The scientists began to study this new world, even though they had no equipment. The planet is the 2nd closest to its orange star, and has 3 visible rings. It has 2 moons named, “Onix” and “Opal.” For the inhabitants of Azil, it was both beautiful and horrifying. It was harder to get anything done in 1.22g and on sand. Sandstone huts in populated areas are being made to avoid the burning sun. People noticed that the bacteria in the sand are nutrient rich and although they are silicon based, they still had enough carbon and water to keep people alive. Getting the bacteria out of the sand was the greatest problem for these people. With no wood, no good source of stone, they can’t harvest the bacteria.

Elsewhere, on another planet, the low pitch groans of the vast obelisks that made up the forest-like expanse of another planet known as Kesterion. Kesterion was a far more promising planet than Azil. It had a population of 80,000. It orbits a red giant every 16.8 years, and the 5th from its star. Half the life on Kesterion was iron based, and formed obelisk towers with smooth weaving patterns that could stretch 50 meters up. The other life was nitrogen carbon based, something the new human inhabitants could eat. The grand obelisks produced oxygen as a way to prevent rusting, and the ecosystem was both human friendly and completely alien.