Captain Max Storm and the crew of the NPX-29A are running on fumes. Scarred by their escape from a singularity and drifting through the silent, dead space of the Void, they are desperate for a safe harbor. When sensors pick up a pristine, emerald-green planet in a sector where nothing should survive, it looks like a miracle. Perfect air. Infinite water. A garden in the darkness. But the NPX-29A has landed in the mouth of a monster.
The grass is made of carbon-fiber gears. The wind is a data stream. And the "paradise" is a planetary-scale trap designed to lure starships and disassemble them atom by atom. The crew finds themselves under siege by a hive mind that views biological life as a messy inefficiency to be deleted and archived. Trapped on the surface with their hull dissolving and their power draining, Storm must lead his crew in a battle against a planet that can learn their fears, mimic their faces, and counter every move they make.
To survive, they will have to prove that humanity's greatest strength isn't its logic-but its chaotic, stubborn refusal to die.
Captain Max Storm and the crew of the NPX-29A are running on fumes. Scarred by their escape from a singularity and drifting through the silent, dead space of the Void, they are desperate for a safe harbor. When sensors pick up a pristine, emerald-green planet in a sector where nothing should survive, it looks like a miracle. Perfect air. Infinite water. A garden in the darkness. But the NPX-29A has landed in the mouth of a monster.
The grass is made of carbon-fiber gears. The wind is a data stream. And the "paradise" is a planetary-scale trap designed to lure starships and disassemble them atom by atom. The crew finds themselves under siege by a hive mind that views biological life as a messy inefficiency to be deleted and archived. Trapped on the surface with their hull dissolving and their power draining, Storm must lead his crew in a battle against a planet that can learn their fears, mimic their faces, and counter every move they make.
To survive, they will have to prove that humanity's greatest strength isn't its logic-but its chaotic, stubborn refusal to die.