The chamber sat in darkness, choking on Nether's foul breath.
A deep mechanical groan rolled through the grated floor as valves whined and vents labored, trading the chamber’s stale air for the toxic miasma waiting outside.899Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ91xKZmjmvh
Thalyn Ka'el, leaning against the outer bulkhead, watched the faint glimmer of conduits threading the walls. Her eyes followed the dull flow of amber until they landed on Nira's sardonic gaze, which turned into an encouraging wink.
She winked back and looked around at the crew, such a broken mess, each in their own way. But they were solid, and that was enough.
“Check the seals,” Jaxon said, his voice flat through the mask.
Thalyn stood straight, adjusted her breather, and tugged at the worn strap of her archaic rifle. No problem here. She drew a breath through the filter. Metal. Rot. A chemical bite that lingered at the back of her throat. Back in the treetop villages, the air had smelled of rain and sap. Down here, every breath felt recycled three hundred times before it reached your lungs.
The inner bulkhead locked home with a dull thud. A warning glyph flashed red, then disappeared. The outer door began to grind open.
Beyond the threshold, civilization ended and Nether began: a riot of bioluminescent rot and twisted roots thick as freighter hulls. Far above, colossal canopies vanished into the churning mist, their crowns lost somewhere beyond the poisonous haze.
Most sane people avoided the place. Thalyn grinned behind her mask and stepped into the wild, her mind already hunting for threats.
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