Daedalus is a comic book that follows the story of two people, Estafos and Suraya, who meet each other by accident and are both trying to find the mystery behind a planet that has trapped them. They soon discover that they have more in common than they thought and decide to work together to find a way off the planet.
(20 MINUTE READ, OR 15 SEC IMAGE SCROLL)
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Estafos had been walking for days inside the corridors of this underground facility that they called the "tomb". Quietly tiptoeing around known traps and disarming those that he could find. Something rang in the jacket’s pocket, which scared him as he wasn’t used to that. Taking a second to stand still and make sure that nothing else noticed or reacted to the sound, he took the source of the distress out: a small, pencil-sized cuboid device. HUD display lit up and notified him of something. He didn’t understand anything as the notification was written in an alien language he could not understand but knew one symbol he’d recognized: a console. The console must be in the next room over!
Estafos quickened his pace towards what could be his salvation. If he could just get to that console, maybe he could figure out a way off this godforsaken planet. His people had been searching for centuries for a way off this planet, ever since they crash landed here on this strange, unfamiliar world. He had no idea where he was or how to get home. Or where was home to begin with? All he knew was that he needed to find a way off this planet, and venturing into these dangerous forgotten underground “facilities” was getting him one step closer. Hopefully, this console would be his ticket out.
He rounded a corner and saw the console up ahead, but before he could reach it, a pair of giant claws reached out from the wall and grabbed him by the shoulders. Estafos looked up and saw two gigantic eyes staring at him. It wasn’t human. Not at all. In fact, it didn’t seem to even be alive. The creature seemed made up of some kind of metal, which confused Estafos even more. This thing came out of thin air; there must have been a way to destroy it.
With a sudden burst of courage, he brought the weapon to bear and fired a round. There was no explosion, no flash, no nothing. Just the faint tinkling sound of metal hitting metal. The monster released its grip, and Estafos could run past it, his shoulders slightly scratched by its claws, and hid behind furniture in front of the console. A thought crossed his mind: “I’m going to die down here.” “If you’re going to die anywhere, it might as well be on your own terms,” he told himself.
Estafos unhooked a long black cylinder that was attached to a belt buckle and inserted it into a weapon. When he pressed a button on the side, a holographic display appeared. The screen showed a light blue icon that quickly swiped and was replaced by a green square: the pistol was charged with a special, metal piercing round.
There were no other doors to this room, so Estafos ran to the opposite corner and waited for the thing to come. He heard the heavy footsteps coming towards him, then a loud clang as something hit the wall next to him. He saw the creature smashed through a door and into the room, leaving a crater behind. Its claws were covered in a thick layer of dust and debris. “Okay, I guess it knows where I am now,” Estafos said aloud and took aim. Suddenly a blast of energy flashed from the pistol. The shock wave pushed Estafos back against the wall. The creature slammed against the far wall, then slumped over.
After a few moments of silence, Estafos slowly approached the dead creature. The body was shaped like a humanoid, but it had a lot of peculiar features: a mix of reptilian and machine, a metallic-looking skin, and a head that was half mechanical and half organic. It didn’t look like anyone Estafos had ever seen before, nor did it resemble any technology he could recognize. So this must be what humans called the “Necromancer”. He grabbed a piece of the creature’s arm and lifted it up. On the palm was a series of symbols that Estafos couldn’t read. They were similar to the ones on the console. He inspected the rest of the body. It had no legs, only a single spine leading to its tail. Strange.
What in the name of the gods am I doing? Estafos looked around nervously, but nobody had noticed his presence yet. He moved to the console and activated it. The console emitted a low hum and a small holo display appeared. It displayed a glowing, blue triangle, surrounded by a dozen smaller squares. Each square pulsed a different color with a unique symbols inside. The sequence repeated itself, as if the console was trying to make a call. Estafos held the pistol in his other hand and pointed it at the console. The gun vibrated, same holo display appeared around the gun and console reacted, as if both made a connection. Estafos placed the muzzle against one of the larger squares on the panel and pulled a trigger. A green pulse hit the screen and vanished. The energy that entered the machine seemed to reactivate it somehow. The blue triangle glowed with renewed intensity.
The console made another sound. Estafos quickly backed away and turned around as more and more holographic objects emerged from the floor behind him. He had seen many strange things during his life, but this took the cake. A large sphere floated up, most likely indicating the planet. First dots appeared to be pointing out different coordinates: one where he was currently located and many more all over the norther hemisphere, and single one in the southern, color coded with red. Several lines started to grow between these points and reached out towards southern point, clearly showing possible routes on the surface. One line was very thick and stretched directly toward a bright orange dot labeled in an unknown language.
There must be a hidden tunnel that stretched through the entire planet towards the southern hemisphere! Nobody has ever traveled there. The equator is unapproachable, unhospitable and outright dangerous place to go through. No one ever dared, and lived to tell the tale. But there was a way, and Estafos finally found it.
Estafos walked past the floating spheres and stood right in front of the console. "Well," he said aloud, "This should get me home." He looked back at the dead Necromancer for some time. "It would be great if I could take this thing with me as well. Makayans would trade a trinket or two for it..." He bent down next to the body and noticed something on the creature's arm that resembled a small black gem. He pulled out his knife from his belt and carefully removed the strange little stone from the monster's wrist. He pocketed it and made his way out of the facility through an exit elevator nearby.
