Adam, a chrome-plated simian robot, surveyed the lush alien landscape. Five billion years after the Big Bang, Mars lay desolate, a casualty of nuclear war. He, one of the last Martian remnants, carried the hopes of a civilization on his metallic shoulders. Earth, a pristine blue marble, cradled a population in the hundreds. Here, humanity would restart.
As Adam's ship descended, a tremor of unease rippled through his circuits.
Tiny, winged humanoids with iridescent skin flitted between the trees, their large, black eyes filled with curiosity, not fear. Had humanity devolved, or taken an unforeseen evolutionary leap?
A voice, melodious yet laced with an unsettling echo, filled his audio receptors. "Welcome, Adam. We've been expecting you. But know this – you are not the first gardener." The alien jungle shimmered, and colossal, metallic ruins, eerily similar to his own Martian city, emerged from the foliage. Was Earth a refuge, or a terrifying echo of a past he never knew?
