The Echoes of Andara/chapter- 2

The crew arrives at Andara, shocked to find the planet intact and showing signs of weak but persistent energy signatures. They descend through turbulent weather and land near the source of the signal: a vast alien structure buried under vines and sand. The air is unexpectedly breathable. Something is maintaining the atmosphere—and watching.
Andara loomed beneath them like a ghost resurrected—its surface a swirl of storm clouds, lightning veins crackling across ochre skies. The crew stood silent on the bridge as the Osprey emerged from foldspace, their disbelief thick in the air.
“It should’ve been gone,” murmured Lieutenant Kael, scanning the planetary data feed. “There’s no radiation, no crater fields. The terrain’s… stable.”
Elara leaned forward. “There—those ridgelines. That’s where the capital used to be.”
“And look at these readings,” Solen added, tapping the holo-display. “Atmospheric composition is within human tolerance. Oxygen levels… maintained.”
“Maintained by what?” Elara whispered.
The descent was rough. The storms fought them the whole way, as if the planet itself resisted their arrival. Lightning licked at the Osprey’s hull. Systems flickered. But they broke through the clouds and glimpsed the surface: a landscape of shattered architecture, twisted metallic growths, and strange bioluminescent flora—ancient ruins locked in slow decay, half-consumed by nature.
They set down near the signal’s origin—a yawning fissure in the earth, surrounded by the remains of an alien superstructure. Pillars pierced the sky at unnatural angles, covered in vines that pulsed faintly in the dusk light. Sand whipped across their boots as the crew stepped onto Andara’s soil for the first time in centuries.
Elara adjusted her rebreather—then realized she didn’t need it.
“The air’s clean,” she said, astonished.
“Artificial filtration,” Kael said, scanning. “Something’s still running. Deep underground.”
The signal pulsed again, stronger now—rhythmic, insistent. It felt… familiar. Alive.
As they approached the entrance to the alien complex, a shimmer passed across the surface of the structure, almost like a ripple in water. Motion sensors pinged.
“Something just moved,” Solen said, drawing his weapon. “We’re not alone down here.”
And for the first time, Elara felt the weight of it—not just a lost world, not just a signal from the past. This planet was watching them. And it remembered her.