Liin Terallo
Synthetic Force User
Myrkr did not welcome arrivals.
The dropship cut through the canopy’s upper mist like a blade through flesh; it's engines whining as the jungle rose up to meet us. From the viewport, the world below was a layered tangle of black-green shadows and towering trunks; their crowns blotting out the sky. Light reached the forest floor but only in fragments, thin and sickly, as though the planet itself was rationing it.
Sensors stuttered on approach. Navigation lagged. Even the hum of the ship felt muted, as if it was swallowed by something vast and patient beneath us.
The ramp began to lower. And as it did so, heat and moisture poured in immediately. The air was so thick that it felt earned rather than breathed. The smell was wrong in a way I could not quantify: fertile, rotting, alive in excess. The jungle moved, though not in any single place I could point to. Leaves shuddered without wind. Vines sagged and tightened again, slow as muscle. It reminded me of New Cov, and so because of that it felt somewhat like home.
I stepped off the ramp and into the awaiting jungle. Whether others arrived with me or chose their own descent paths mattered little. Myrkr did not care how you came. Only that you stayed… or did not. The dropship’s engines spooled back up behind us, lifting away, and the sudden quiet it left behind was worse than the noise. I stood still for several seconds, letting the forest settle around my presence.
My equipment was paired down to necessity. A short-range scanner, deliberately limited - long sweeps were useless here, prone to both false returns and interference. A shielded datapad for notes and readings. My usual pen and paper would not do well here. Line, flares, filters, sealed rations, needles, small vials, and sedatives. Everything chosen with the understanding that technology failed easily on this world.
No firearms. The dagger at my thigh was the only weapon I carried. It was close-range, intimate and honest. I knew how to use it, and I knew what it could not do. That knowledge mattered.
I powered up the scanner. The display flickered, numbers drifting for a heartbeat before snapping into something resembling coherence. Readings spiked and fell without pattern. Energy noise saturated the air, low and constant, like a pressure behind the eyes. The jungle pressed in as I watched, not advancing, not retreating. It was more or less simply aware.
My fingers brushed the ring at my hand without conscious thought. I did not activate anything. I did not reach outward. On Myrkr, reaching too far either by mind or by machine was an invitation.
“Keep close,” I said quietly, to no one in particular and to anyone who might be listening. These days I am used to going alone; even when I did not have to. “And do not assume silence means safety.” I know that well enough on New Cov, and I can only assume that that same knowledge would apply here too.
Something shifted deeper in the trees. Not loud. Not fast. Just enough to let us know we were no longer alone.
Tags:
Delvin jeth
Hilal Vizsla
Ronhar Tane
The Lord of Hunger
Last edited: