The Threat Beneath the Planet's Surface

The brief rest ended in oppressive silence. No one complained of exhaustion anymore, and no one questioned the route. Their survival instincts had been pushed to the limit.

Hercules and Frank exchanged a glance. Neither needed to speak to understand what the other was thinking.

The group set off again, quieter and more vigilant than before.

Everyone stared fixedly at the ground beneath their feet, as though the seemingly solid, dark brown wasteland might open a gaping maw and swallow them at any moment.

The howling, frigid wind swept up toxic dust, limiting visibility. Pale yellow gas drifted around them like ghosts haunting their tiny group.

Yet the malice of a death world always exceeded imagination.

It did not always take the form of a snarling monster. Sometimes, it lurked beneath the most unremarkable calm.

"Ah!"

A scream so agonized that it cracked abruptly tore through the march's Silence, followed by the thud of a body hitting the ground and cries of pain.

The entire group stopped instantly, everyone turning toward the sound.

It was a Recruit marching near the middle of the group. Perhaps prolonged tension had caused a momentary lapse in concentration, or perhaps his luck had simply run out. As his right foot came down, he stepped squarely onto a thin, brittle crust of rock that looked no different from the surrounding ground.

The crust shattered instantly, plunging his entire foot and lower leg into a hidden hole beneath it.

Scalding acidic steam, almost invisible to the naked eye, was constantly venting upward from the hole.

Hiss!

A spine-chilling sound rose from it, mingled with the strange noise of something rapidly dissolving.

The Recruit let out an inhuman howl and desperately tried to pull his leg free, but everything happened too quickly.

Barely a second after he