Nana had just closed the red box on the console when the alarm popped up again a second later.

“The atmosphere is reacting.” Her voice remained the same, but her speech quickened slightly. “High-density ionized clouds have been detected and are rapidly gathering.”

Chen Hao, who was leaning back in his chair swinging his legs, almost slipped off his seat upon hearing this. "What? Isn't this place supposed to be dark?"

“That’s the theory.” Nana stared at the data stream. “But the underground heat source continuously releases gas, which, upon cooling, forms intermittent plasma storms in the upper atmosphere. There were similar records from the old Federation era, designated as ‘thermal eruption type pseudo-gasless planet’.”

“That sounds like it’s going to explode.” Carl’s hand was already on the manual control lever. “We can still change our minds.”

“There’s no going back.” Chen Hao grabbed his seatbelt and fastened it. “There’s only 63% fuel left, and we won’t be able to burn any more fuel if we turn back. We have no choice but to grit our teeth and keep going.”

The spacecraft began adjusting its attitude, fine-tuning the thruster angles, preparing to enter the designated landing trajectory. The grayish-brown planet on the main screen drew closer, the rift valley resembling a crooked scar across its surface.

Before the wind even came, the ship shook.

“The first wave of disturbance contacted the casing,” Nana said. “It is recommended to turn off the external camera to avoid the strong light damaging the sensor.”

The words had barely left his mouth when the outside suddenly brightened. It wasn't lightning; the entire sky was bathed in a bluish-white halo, as if someone had lit a magnesium strip in the clouds. Immediately afterward, the ship lurched violently, and the alarm sounded briefly once.

"Hold on!" Carl slammed the joystick forward and yelled, "Nana, give me the data! I'm going by feel right now!"

“Current altitude is 18,000 meters, horizontal deviation is 3.2 kilometers, gravity coefficient is 0.87, and wind shear intensity exceeds the standard by two times.” She spoke very quickly, “I suggest adopting a low-frequency oscillation traversal mode, making minor adjustments to the thrust direction every fifteen seconds.”

Chen Hao was hugging the edge of the control panel, his face almost pressed against the screen. "You two, one driving and the other navigating, can you please stop giving me your academic presentations right in my ear?"

"No," they both answered in unison.

There was another violent shaking, and the lights flickered twice. Chen Hao felt the breakfast in his stomach being rearranged.

“I regret it,” he said with his eyes closed. “I shouldn’t have said I wanted to come down and sleep. I’m fine sleeping on the spaceship.”

“Too late,” Carl gritted his teeth. “They’re already inside.”

The light outside flickered, like someone constantly switching the switches on and off in space. The spaceship traveled through ionized clouds, its metallic hull emitting faint crackling sounds, as if it might be torn apart at any moment.

Ten minutes felt like two hours.

Finally, the tremors subsided. The main screen returned to clear, showing undulating rocky terrain below, with the high ground at the edge of the rift valley just ahead.

"Height 500 meters," Nana counted. "Vertical descent initiated."

The thruster nozzles reversed direction, and flames pressed down on the ground. Dust and debris scattered as the spaceship slowly descended.

“Contact,” she said.

The three people inside the cabin breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

Chen Hao unbuckled his seatbelt and patted his numb thigh. "So, we survived?"

“For now.” Karl didn’t move. “Don’t open the door yet. Wait for the system to perform a self-check.”

Nana pulled up the structural scan. "The hull is slightly deformed, and the stress on the right wing support frame exceeds the limit by 15%. It is not recommended to use the original thrust mode for takeoff again."

"Then let's fix it." Chen Hao stood up and stretched his shoulders. "Anyway, we're not here for tourism."

He walked to the door, placed his hand on the open button, and turned back to ask, "Is the outside air breathable?"

“The nitrogen and oxygen content is insufficient, the carbon dioxide content is too high, and there are trace amounts of toxic sulfides,” she said. “A portable filter mask is required.”

"Good heavens, even breathing costs money." He pulled out his equipment bag from the cabinet. "This damn planet charges for everything."

The three were fully dressed, and their exoskeleton devices clicked into place. As the door opened, a blast of hot air rushed in, carrying a faint smell of burning.

The ground beneath my feet was a hard, dark gray shell that made a hollow echo when I stepped on it.

“The ground surface is becoming brittle.” Nana crouched down to examine the cracks. “There may be cavities or fracture zones underneath, making the load-bearing capacity unstable.”

"Does that mean don't jump?" Chen Hao lifted his foot and carefully changed his landing point.

"It means don't stand there for too long," she said. "I suggest leaving the area within six hours."

They advanced along the edge of the rift valley, their goal the distant cluster of buildings. It didn't seem far, but as they walked, they discovered the terrain was uneven, with wisps of white smoke rising from some spots.

The infrared detector went off after walking less than a kilometer.

"Mobile heat source detected." Nana glanced at her wrist screen. "Three, approaching from the direction of the building."

"Alive?" Chen Hao stopped in his tracks.

"Uncertain. The body temperature is 37 degrees Celsius higher than the ambient temperature, and the movement pattern is a cluster crawling."

Before the words were finished, a soft scraping sound came from the ground. Several palm-sized creatures emerged from the cracks in the rocks.

They don't look like animals, but rather like beetles pieced together from black minerals, with red light flashing at their joints and a thin layer of crystals covering their abdomens.

“Attracted by heat,” Nana quickly analyzed. “Our thrusters are still radiating residual heat, and they’re using that for positioning.”

One of them crawled to Chen Hao's shoes and touched his exoskeleton with its forelimbs.

"Hey!" He kicked away, "Don't touch me! I'm not a power bank!"

“They might really be using you as a power source.” Carl raised the cutting gun. “Should we chase them away?”

"Don't fire," Nana stopped him. "High temperatures could trigger a chain reaction; these organisms may contain explosive mineral crystals."

Chen Hao thought for a moment, then took out a discarded circuit board from his backpack and threw it five meters away.

The beetle immediately turned, and the others followed. They surrounded the circuit board, rapidly tapping its surface with its forelimbs, as if disassembling parts.

"So you like scrap metal." Chen Hao laughed. "You're quite knowledgeable about it."

"Take advantage of the moment," Nana cautioned. "They'll be attracted for a while, but they'll come back once the hype dies down."

The three quickened their pace, avoiding the smoking cracks, and finally arrived at the entrance to the complex.

The triangular metal structure was long since rusted, and the solar panels were scattered all over the ground. The main gate in the center was blocked by a collapsed beam, and a faint yellow mist drifted out from the gap.

"The concentration of air toxins has increased." Nana put on the detector. "It's mainly a mixture of hydrogen sulfide and chlorine, which is not suitable for direct inhalation."

"Then what do we do?" Chen Hao frowned. "We can't just let Karl bump into us with his shoulder, can we?"

“I have a way.” Carl took out a cutting gun. “Cut slowly, avoiding the load-bearing points.”

"I'll ventilate the room." Chen Hao pulled a portable fan from his toolbox. "Nana, which way do you think the air blows the best?"

She quickly created a model, tracing several lines in the air with her finger. "Two ventilation openings here, and a gap in the opposite corner of the wall. Once convection is formed, 70% of the toxic gas can be expelled within eight minutes."

Twenty minutes later, the yellow mist at the entrance had thinned considerably.

Carl cut a narrow passage, and the three of them bent down and crawled inside. It was pitch black inside, with only the emergency lights flashing a few times before barely illuminating the space.

The control room was still there, with a tattered control panel hanging on the wall. Several square metal boxes sat in the corner, their labels blurred and illegible.

“The backup battery pack.” Nana went over to check. “The casing is intact, but the system is locked and cannot charge or discharge.”

"How can I open it?" Chen Hao leaned closer to look.

“Original authentication is required, or a physical restart of the core module is needed,” she said. “The module should be in the basement.”

“Then let’s go down,” he said.

Just as I reached the top of the stairs, the ground suddenly trembled.

It's not big, but it's big enough to make someone lose their balance.

"Earthquake?" Chen Hao leaned against the wall.

“No.” Nana pulled up the geological monitoring map. “It’s the pressure buildup at a geothermal source three kilometers below, which periodically releases energy. That last one was a steam pulse.”

"It can still spray?"

“Yes.” She nodded. “The size is uncertain, but the most recent record shows the eruption column reaching a height of eighty meters.”

"So the spot where we're standing right now might get scalded to death in the next second?"

"The probability is not high, but there is a risk."

Chen Hao looked at the ceiling, then at the stairs beneath his feet.

“Then I have to go down,” he said. “Otherwise, what’s the point of coming up here? Just to get some fresh air?”

He turned on his headlamp and took the first step.

The stairs creaked and groaned, each step feeling like stepping on an old biscuit.

We had only gone halfway when a muffled sound came from afar.

The three of them turned to look out the window.

A white column of steam shot up from the depths of the rift valley, piercing the dim sky.