The Forerunner Artifacts

For Love And Glory, L.

When the explorers have passed through the shimmering haze, their vision clears;

the ground is flat-fused;

moving machines communicate by radio;

small round bodies, scurrying on either legs or wheels, extrude limbs morphing into tools;

a few of the bodies are huge;

machines climbing helical towers or polygonal skeletons spin gleaming webs;

one forges a metal structure with an energy beam;

another bears rods from within a closed dome to machines that carry them to the top of a spire still under construction;

probably the artifacts not only grow but also evolve;

the explorers record in the entire spectrum but do not use radar or sonar;

the orbiting spaceship does not communicate with them while they are inside the force-field;

as they return to their ship, a flying object approaches them at high speed.