Out Of Calavera Caverns

So the drawing's pretty old, but the writing's not, so here it goes.
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Flightless

I sensed that something was off even on our first day on solid ground. That hectic morning was a race against the air-supply clock to get the life support systems up and running, not to mention hunger, thirst, and other basic needs, so I didn’t have the time nor energy to probe any further. It took me two more days to pin it down, to figure out what element was missing from the surrounding habitat.

There was not a single flying critter in sight. The air was completely free of buzzing, flapping, or soaring life. Flight evolved four times on Earth. Why not here? Surely the constant westward winds couldn’t lock out an entire ecological niche.

- Alex O’Hearn (Day 3)

Well, we found the place where the flying organisms are hiding. They made themselves known on our fifth day in these lands, and our first day of relief from the relentless winds that plague this region. The conditions were ideal for traveling east. The hike to Marcario Marsh would have been upwind on any other day, but today, there would be no problem. Our route for the day mapped out, we suited up and stepped outside, and stopped. It turns out we weren’t the only creatures to take advantage of the quiet weather. Tens of thousands of fist-sized balloons drifted through the skies like biological blimps, headed roughly the same direction we were, toward the northeastern wetlands.

No one objected to my suggestion that we postpone the wetlands trip to tomorrow, and instead follow the exodus to its source. The trail led due south. The area was new to us, but not all that different from the shrubland habitat around Base Cliff – lightly wooded, craggy, and dotted with caves and rock outcroppings. It was from these potholes that the great migration emanated, so into the caves we went.

- Alex (Day 5)

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Pencil
More on the floating creatures [link]
More from Odyssey [link]