Lot-09B was not a planet of trees; it was a planet of a single, world-spanning organism.
From the bridge of the Revenant, the world looked like a pulsating, neon-green lung. There were no oceans, only vast "digestive seas" of amber acid. The atmosphere was so thick with spores and pheromones that the ship's hull began to grow a layer of fuzzy, purple mold within minutes of entering the orbit.
"Sully, tell me the filters are holding," Vance grunted, adjusting his new Singularity-Plate. "I don't want to wake up with a fern growing out of my ear."
"The filters are struggling, Vance," Sully replied, her eyes glowing with a silver data-stream. "The air down there isn't just oxygen; it's a Language. The spores are trying to rewrite the ship's DNA. If we weren't made of Void-Steel, we'd be a giant salad by now."
[LOCATION: LOT-09B - THE OVERGROWTH] [SYSTEM STATUS: TOTAL BIOLOGICAL DOMINANCE] [THREAT LEVEL: TIER-10 (EVOLUTIONARY)]
Kane stood at the airlock, his Void-Steel Crown humming. He could feel the "Hunger" of the planet below. It wasn't the cold, calculated hunger of the Machine-World; it was a hot, wet, desperate hunger that wanted to consume and be consumed.
"The Hegemony gave this world the 'Evolutionary-Rank' system," Kane said, his voice echoing in the hangar. "They wanted to see if they could grow the perfect bio-weapon. But the weapon got too smart. It stopped evolving for the Hegemony and started evolving for Itself."
"Doc, this is your playground," Kane turned to her. "Find the Heart-Spore. That's where the 15th Iteration—the 'Glitch' of this world—is hiding."
"15th?" Doc asked, her emerald staff pulsing. "I thought you were the 14th."
"The iterations don't happen in order across the galaxy," Kane said, his silver eyes dark. "They happen whenever the 'Order' gets too thick. This world's glitch was born a thousand years ago. It's been waiting in the dark."