The air reeked of ozone and burnt metal, a sour tang that clung to the back of Dr. Lira Voss’s throat as she adjusted the visor on her helmet. Outside the colony’s reinforced dome, the sky churned with violet clouds, streaked by lightning that crackled in slow, deliberate bursts. The storm had been relentless for three days, but this was different—this was alive. Lira tightened her grip on the data pad, its screen flickering with erratic readings from the planet’s core sensors. “It’s not a storm,” she muttered, more to herself than to the static-filled comms. “It’s a warning.” Across the command deck, Engineer Jax Renn leaned against the control panel, his arms crossed, eyes fixed on the swirling tempest. His voice was low, edged with something Lira couldn’t place. “You think it’s trying to talk to us?” She didn’t answer immediately. The colony’s AI, AURA, had flagged the anomaly hours ago—a surge in electromagnetic activity that defied all known patterns. But Lira had seen the data, felt the tremors beneath the dome’s foundation, and knew this wasn’t a natural phenomenon. It was a message. “It’s not just a storm,” she said finally, her voice steady. “It’s a test.” Jax exhaled, the sound muffled by his helmet. “Then we’d better figure out what we’re being tested on.” The colony’s generator hummed in the background, a constant low-frequency vibration that Lira had come to associate with safety. But now, it felt like a heartbeat—erratic, unstable. She turned to Jax, her fingers brushing the edge of the data pad. “We need to go deeper. Find the source.” Jax nodded, but his expression was tight, wary. He’d seen what happened to the last team that ventured beyond the perimeter. Their comms had gone silent mid-transmission, and when search parties found their equipment, it was shattered, as if something had torn through it with sheer force. “You sure about this?” he asked. Lira hesitated. The question wasn’t just about the mission—it was about the weight of what they were doing. This wasn’t just another scientific expedition. It was a gamble, a leap into the unknown. But she couldn’t ignore the pull, the certainty that whatever was out there, it was connected to the colony’s survival. “I don’t have a choice,” she said. “If we stay, we die.” The storm roared outside as they suited up, the sound of wind and static filling the airlock. Lira felt the cold seep into her bones, but she didn’t flinch. This was what they’d trained for—what they’d signed up for. As the airlock sealed behind them, she glanced at Jax one last time. His face was unreadable beneath the helmet, but his hand hovered near the plasma torch at his belt. They stepped into the storm, the world around them dissolving into a blur of color and sound. Lightning split the sky, illuminating jagged rock formations that loomed like ancient sentinels. The ground beneath their boots was uneven, littered with fragments of metal and glass—remnants of previous expeditions. Lira’s breath came in short, controlled bursts as they moved forward, the storm howling around them. “You see that?” Jax’s voice crackled through the comms. Lira followed his gaze to a structure half-buried in the sand—a towering spire of black stone, its surface etched with glowing lines that pulsed in time with the lightning. It was ancient, but not natural. Something had built it. “That’s not here yesterday,” Jax said. “No,” Lira agreed. “It wasn’t.” The spire seemed to hum beneath their feet, a vibration that resonated in Lira’s bones. She reached out, her gloved hand brushing the surface. The moment her fingers made contact, a surge of energy shot through her, and the world around them shifted. The storm stilled. The sky darkened to an inky black, and the spire’s glow intensified, casting long shadows across the landscape. Lira stumbled back, her breath catching. “What the hell was that?” Jax’s voice was sharp, but there was no fear in it—only curiosity. Lira didn’t answer. Her mind raced through possibilities, but none of them made sense. The spire wasn’t just a structure; it was a conduit, a link to something vast and unknowable. She turned to Jax, her voice barely above a whisper. “We’re not alone here.” The ground trembled again, this time with purpose. The spire’s glow flared, and the air filled with a low, resonant sound—like a song, or a warning. Lira tightened her grip on the data pad, her heart pounding. They had found it. Whatever this was, it was real. And it was watching them.
