It did not look like a planet…
It was a cosmic corpse twisting in the darkness, exploding in silence, screaming with its own quiet voice.
Aris stood before the shuttle's front glass, his eyes catching every ripple in the black void.
The planet's surface was breathing… groaning… pulsing like a massive half-living creature.
Hurricanes the size of continents rotated slowly like giant millstones.
Seas of magma cracked like decayed skin, then suddenly closed again, as if trying to imitate life.
Black lightning split the sky, as if the universe itself was screaming with a voice not yet created.
Even the light seemed afraid to approach.
The Supreme System said in a sharp metallic tone:
"Target reached."
Aris did not answer immediately.
He rarely felt a silence devouring his mind this way…
The kind of silence that presses on the senses and makes the air heavy in the lungs.
He finally whispered, his voice low but steady:
"Begin scanning."
The shuttle trembled beneath his feet…
Not a tremble of fear, but the resistance of the universe itself.
Gravity here was not just a number. It was a hidden beast, pulling every atom in his body, trying to crush his joints and stop his heart from beating.
"Warning… gravitational force is ten times higher than initial estimates."
Aris felt his jaw tighten, his muscles nearly tearing under the pressure.
"What immense gravity. If our initial estimates were that gravity here is three times that of my planet, then the gravity levels have reached nearly three hundred times. What catastrophic levels."
Then Aris asked the AI with some tension, afraid the journey might end before it truly began:
"Are we capable of handling this gravity?"
The AI replied in its cold voice:
"Yes, host. The shuttle is capable of withstanding gravity up to five hundred times that of Earth thanks to rebound technology.
As for the host's space suit, it is the newest type of protective suit, capable of handling gravity up to three hundred and fifty times Earth's gravity without affecting the host. It is also equipped with space-warp technology linked to the shuttle, usable once, allowing the host to instantly return to the shuttle from anywhere within a radius of half a light-year."
Aris finally breathed in relief:
"Good. Then let's descend."
The system selected a rocky area with less disturbance.
The shuttle descended slowly, like a needle piercing the skin of a massive sleeping creature.
The lower section opened, and thousands of drones launched outward.
Small points of light immediately swallowed by the darkness… as if the universe itself consumed them.
Data began to flow: terrain maps, pressure, gas composition, temperatures beyond all logic…
Everything here should have been dead millions of years ago.
But it was not dead.
Aris whispered, as if his voice came from the depth of his soul:
"What keeps you alive…?"
The planet did not answer…
But black lightning split the sky, a distorted smile flashing with brutality, as if personally challenging him.
Aris put on his suit.
Before opening the gate, he said:
"Link the suit to the shuttle through the warp."
"Link established. Instant transfer available once."
One step…
And he felt the weight of the world pressing on his bones, his heart almost stopping.
Even with muscular enhancements, every movement required iron will.
The ground beneath his feet was not solid… it pulsed, twisted, as if he were walking on the skin of a gigantic cosmic being.
He ignored the sensation.
A warrior does not retreat.
Days passed… then weeks… a full month.
And each day, the planet revealed new faces of its madness:
The magma glowed more intensely, resembling living blood.
The hurricanes gathered into spirals like giant eyes.
The rocks emitted creaks like bones breaking underfoot.
Then came the day the silence broke.
The drones disappeared one after another… at terrifying speed.
Aris turned, his heart pounding violently, his hands trembling.
"Display the last recordings."
The first clip appeared: cracked ground, a gray storm, then… the air itself tore apart.
A rift… not an explosion, but as if space had been sliced by an invisible knife.
Aris froze, as if time had stopped.
For the first time in decades, his eyes widened.
A person stepped out of the rift…
Calm steps… then another.
No suit, no equipment, no protection…
Just a human body
Breathing, advancing… on this planet… on this hell.
The system said:
"Initial analysis: the entity is human."
Aris whispered in shock:
"Impossible…"
The recordings continued: two people, then three.
They wore strange clothing, something between primitive and technological, not belonging to this world.
Then the impossible happened: two of them rose from the ground slowly, then shot into the sky… without wings, without engines.
In the next clip, the battle began.
Two figures collided in the air. The atmosphere exploded around them. A shockwave destroyed mountains as if they were sand under a careless hand. The black lightning scattered, magma rose for tens of kilometers.
Every strike tore reality, every movement ripped the air…
Aris stood there, not feeling his body, his eyes fixed on the scene, his heart pounding strongly.
The recording went dark.
Another drone destroyed.
Then another.
Then silence.
The system said:
"Probability that previous missions were destroyed by these entities: 87%."
Aris sat inside the shuttle, silent, his hands steady on the armrest, his chest heavy…
An old feeling crept into him… one he thought had died long ago.
Fear.
Not the fear of defeat… but the fear of facing something that cannot be measured.
He looked toward the launch button… he could leave, return a hero, mission successful… but his fingers did not move.
After a hundred years of war, he had learned one thing:
The most dangerous moment for a warrior is when he hears the call of the unknown.
Suddenly…
Alert.
"Drone number 741 is still active."
The image streamed directly into his brain…
Time stopped.
A crater. Massive.
As if a planet had tried to be pierced… and succeeded.
From its depths…
A purple light pulsed.
Not bright, but deep, felt more than seen.
Aris's heart beat once… strong, slow… as if something inside him responded to the call.
The system said:
"Source unknown."
Aris kept staring… two seconds… then he stilled.
The fear did not disappear. It transformed… into deadly passion, into a challenge.
A faint smile passed over his lips, the smile of a warrior finally seeing a battle worth fighting.
He said in a deadly calm voice:
"Prepare the course."
"To where?"
He looked at the purple light…
Then said:
"There."
He paused for a second, then added:
"I think… my fate is waiting for me in that crater."