u/1stLegionBestLegion

Priest-Admiral-Lord Grrt The Exalted sighed behind his desk, rubbing his pounding tentacled head. Extreme stress made his sacks overpressurize, giving him headaches on both ends.

He sighed, took a deep emultion of his steaming hot bowl of glagyaf and gestured to his assistant.

"Bring him in." He sent with an irritated psionic message.

The assistant, a rather intimidating specimen of a Tarx, nodded and opened the door.

"Come in, General Brax." Grrt sent.

His next meeting was the subject of his current bureaucratic headache. General Brax slid in, almost timid, his stalks flicking left and right nervously.

"Sit down, General. Relax. Have a drink." Grrt sent, trying to mask his irritation but failing, gesturing to the bowl.

Brax sat down, looking about ready to bolt for the porthole and take his chances with the depths of the gas giant's crushing pressure, rather than have this meeting.

"Void's sake Brax. How many cycles have we known one another? How many worlds have we conquered? If I had wanted your rank, you'd be hoping to recover to janitor someday by now. Relax. That's an order." Grrt sent with a snap of authority.

Brax swelled slightly, and deflated. A sign of his species trying to relax.

"Sorry my Lord. I know the price of failure, I'm just... Surprised to still be in command." Brax said in his slightly irritating auditory method of communication.

Grrt folded his claws on the table, purging his mind of his frustrations with a pulse of will, to attempt to be diplomatic.

"You are an invaluable asset, Brax. We have added whole sectors to the Network together, by force and by scripture. It's a rare thing to have an invasion repelled so fiercely. I read the casualty reports. I am not here to reprimand you, but I have bosses to answer to as well. They'll want to know what happened. So just... Tell me what happened. No formal reports. In your own words." Grrt sent, opening his mind to commit this to permanent memory in exacting detail, to be sent to his superiors.

Brax sighed, rubbing his face, and began.

"We did everything by the book. We found the planet. An unremarkable post nuclear civilization in the opening stages of space exploration. We scanned for the densest concentration of biomass on the planet for harvest. The largest reservoirs of untapped natural resources to extract. It was textbook. Routine. We invaded the continent en masse, in secret. Completely undetected. Three whole battalions of infiltrators and skinchangers. Standard leadership overtake and cripple job." Brax said, sounding flabbergasted.

"And the locals fought back rather fiercely, I take it?" Grrt sent, taking another emultion.

"...We never encountered them." Brax said.

The bowl clattered to the floor. Grrt stared, his bioluminescence flaring in flabbergasted shivers.

"Elaborate...?" Grrt sent, his attention laser focused now.

"We never made it to any populated region of the apex species. We were repelled by the... Flora and Fauna." Brax said, looking half traumatized, half embarrassed.

Grrt paused, his assistant bringing a fresh bowl without a word. Grrt took it, and drained all of it in one emulsion.

"It was that hostile? We've encountered death worlds before. We've always overcome them. It's surprising, most of them don't have a dominant species like this." Grrt sent, knowing Brax wouldn't lie about something like this.

Brax's pale ears and slightly haunted eyes spoke volumes.

"No... Not like this. I have... Never seen a place so hostile. We attempted to capture and harvest wildlife near the coast and rivers. And we could scarcely find anything that wasn't toxic, poisonous, venomous, or some combination. Hyper aggressive fauna. Massive. Powerful. But cunning, and stealthy. Jaws that crushed armor, steel, and bone. Claws that tore our best gear to shreds. Teeth that injected so many varieties of poisons, our medics were out of treatment serum in hours. Our soldiers were being slaughtered." Brax said.

Grrt looked stunned. Brax continued after a moment.

"And then it got worse." He said, "The big stuff we could handle for the most part, but we had to get away from the rivers and oceans. The shallows of this land were home to things I'd define as biological weapons. We retreated into the jungles, where we could begin to take stock, and get resupplies. But the smaller fauna, that's where it became disastrous. Things that spun silken webs could kill with a small bite. Massive cold blooded creatures our thermals couldn't detect, that could snap a Crin's leg off, even with their armor powered up. Packs of aggressive leaping monsters roamed the deserts and plains, seemingly aching for a fight. One ambushed me, and sent me flying with a single blow." Brax said.

He pulled aside his uniform, to show dark bruising and the stitches of surgery.

"... And these limbless slithering things... So many of them. In all shapes and sizes. And even more aggressive than the larger things. So fast... And all of their bites were... Absurdly venomous. My best doctors said one bite from a few of them could kill forty Gnarsh with the amount of venom they injected. And the smaller things got, the deadlier! Even these brightly colored jumping amphibians! They seemed a tasty snack, easy to see, stun, and eat for a hungry trooper. They were dead in minutes. Even the fauna's skin emitted toxins." Brax said, staring into the middle distance.

Grrt stared, transfixed. It was like something from a horror imaginers darkest nightmares. Brax leaned forward, his face dead serious.

"And that was just the *fauna.* The *flora* was... *Evil.* There were these leaves... Horrible leaves... Covered in tiny clear razor sharp needles. Thousands. They caused agonizing pain with a venom. Beyond words. And the needles were silica! No biological agent can break them down, so that pain may never leave some of our soldiers without extensive nano surgery to remove every last stinger! And all it took was brushing against them. What sort of plant grows glass needles?! The needles snapped off in our skin!" Baka rambled, nearly in crying hysterics, his body trembling.

Grrt stared. He sat back on his haunches, his tentacles drooped.

"...What... Madness was this place? Some sort of biological weapons testing ground? Some horrid mutagen in the environment? Was this place considered a forbidden nightmare by the locals? Is that why resources were so abundant? Were the locals even there?" Grrt sent, his psionic signature clearly dumbfounded.

Brax shook his head, looking at Grrt. His haunted eyes showing no lie.

"No. They lived there. In abundance. Thrived. Even hunted some of these nightmares for sport. Or kept them in preserves for amusement. Even as pets." Brax whispered.

Grrt stared.

"...We cannot ever go to this planet. I will have it listed as forbidden. The highest classification of death world. May the Gods have mercy upon us if the species that survived and thrives in a land such as that ever makes it to the stars." Grrt sent in a faint echo.

He turned to his terminal, psionically entering the report.

"What did the locals call this continent you landed upon?" Grrt sent.

Brax responded, the word sending chills down Grrt's spines.

"Australia."