Warm-Up Sketches - Cycle 3947 - P. A. Nolte

1/ A dusty wasteland.  The rock formations are strange and there is more than one sun in the sky, if they are indeed suns.

2/ Obscuring the view of the wasteland is the mask of our scout.  He has stood up quite suddenly.

3/ At his feet is a pile of bones.

4/ He takes a handheld device from his belt and scans what used to be a body.

5/ The screen reads, along with a reconstruction of a vaguely humanoid outline, a single word.  MATCH.

6/ Returning the device to his belt, the scout has turned and begun to walk away.  In the dirt, next to the bones, a small flag has been planted.  It bears a crude alien symbol not known to us.

Caption: Cycle 3947--  I know now, conclusively, that I will not make it off this planet.  Best to use the time I have left to record my findings.  No one else need die here.