Landon flew his drone over a stretch of remote forest expecting nothing but treetops and a decent sunset. Instead the camera picked up rows of pale shapes in a clearing that no road reaches, and seconds later the feed cut to black. Finding out what was down there cost him a drone, and very nearly a great deal more.
1. The Shape That Should Not Have Been There
Landon had flown that stretch of forest a dozen times and never seen anything but treetops. This pass was different. Something pale and geometric sat in a break in the canopy, arranged in rows too neat for anything nature builds. He held the sticks steady and let the drone hover, thumbing the shutter again and again, trying to bank enough stills to study later at the kitchen table.
Then he eased the throttle down for a closer look, and the picture on his controller began to fall apart. The feed smeared, stuttered, and split into bands of color. Two seconds later the screen dropped to solid black, and the only sound left in the clearing was his own breathing.