Touchdown

From a distance, Solarous looked like a pristine, unspoiled world. The kind of place one might dream of settling on—a paradise. Rolling hills, endless forests, and oceans stretched out beneath us, glimmering like jewels in the soft light of distant stars. But the closer we got, the more everything felt wrong. The beauty was deceptive, a veneer barely covering the rot beneath.

The silence was the first sign. As our ship slowly descended toward the surface, the usual sounds of life—the calls of wild animals, the buzz of insects—were conspicuously absent. Nothing stirred. The only creatures visible were a few lonely birds, soaring high in the sky, their distant silhouettes like black dots against the endless horizon. No animals roamed the ground below. No demonic beasts prowled in the forests. And certainly, no people. The planet felt unnaturally empty.