The air reeked of ozone and rust, a metallic tang that clung to the back of Dr. Lira Voss’s throat as she stepped onto the crimson soil of Erythra. Her boots sank into the fine dust, each footfall sending a faint hiss of disturbed particles into the thin atmosphere. Above, the twin suns hung low on the horizon, casting jagged shadows that stretched like broken glass across the landscape. Lira adjusted her visor, its screen flickering with data streams—oxygen levels stable, radiation low, but something else: a pulse, faint but rhythmic, emanating from the valley ahead. She turned to her team, their faces obscured by helmets, and raised a gloved hand. “Stay close,” she said. “This isn’t natural.” The valley yawned before them, a fissure in the planet’s crust that seemed to hum with a life of its own. The ground trembled underfoot, not from seismic activity but from something deeper, a vibration that resonated in Lira’s bones. She stepped forward, her boots crunching over jagged rock, and peered into the depths. Below, a labyrinth of tunnels glowed with an eerie bioluminescence, veins of blue light pulsing like a heartbeat. “This is it,” she whispered. “The source.” But as she moved deeper, the light intensified, casting elongated shadows that twisted unnaturally. A voice crackled in her ear—Captain Renn’s, sharp and clipped. “Voss, we’re detecting a surge in the electromagnetic field. You need to—” The transmission cut out. Lira’s breath quickened. She turned, but the entrance was gone, swallowed by the shifting walls of the tunnel. The air grew heavier, charged with an energy that made her skin prickle. Then, a sound—a low, resonant tone that seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere. It wasn’t a sound, she realized, but a presence, something vast and ancient that had been waiting. The blue light flared, and the walls of the tunnel began to dissolve, revealing a vast chamber filled with crystalline structures that mirrored her every movement. Lira froze. The reflections weren’t hers. They were… others. Faces she didn’t recognize, yet they mimicked her gestures, their eyes hollow and empty. A cold dread coiled in her stomach. This wasn’t a discovery—it was a trap. And she was no longer alone.
