Dark Forest: ALIEN: Inside the Hive: The Portal

The Portal

From orbit, it appeared as a thermal anomaly.

From 300 meters, it's a wound.

A vertical shaft, wide enough for a transport vessel, plunges into the crust with no structural reinforcement.
Three more like it sit further across the floodplain. The drones mark them, then drift back to altitude.

I selected the largest to descend. Its interior walls are fused and vitrified. There was no excavation. This was grown.

I tagged the site: Mother Hive.

The Descent

Anchored the monocarbon line to the rim and stepped backward into the dark.

Internal pressure stabilizes at 1.01 atm.

Note: The atmosphere becomes breathable at 2.6 kilometers. The temperature climbs from -50°C to 21.1°C.

The walls aren't stone. They appear to be a kind of bio-plastic.

Vents yawn at irregular intervals, exhaling warm air laced with trace ammonia, carbon, and sulfur.

The side corridors branch away like roots.