An Empty World
Altus Mining Survey #6638
Lithium in the soil, Lightning in the sky
Star-dark and luck blind, the land sat under perpetual cloud cover. The planet so tilted on its axis the day-night cycle varied by as much as sixty-two weeks. When the sunlight hits it filtered through layer upon layers of electrically charged vapor. Never-ending clouds and yet the milky light inevitably still reached the ground, tangled and disoriented; photons broken loose from charged particles, renegade electrons, ions, and rogue atoms all sparking off crystal cactus which dotted the land.
In the night, in the long month of cold, the cactus glowed with stored energy, as the electrical storms slapped lightning to the ground. The air itself held a charge, acting as a conduit for massive sparks as energy lept from crystal cactus to sky and back again.
On the ground vulcanized vermin, rats and rabbits scurried, plated with rubber, amalgamated fur grounded against the storm everywhere except their tails, long metal wires which picked up stray electrons and powered their hearts. Their eyes glowed, pulsing with the rhythm of the storm, only to fade as daylight returned and the creatures moved back underground to wait out the dawn.
This world needs a story. Do you want to write it?
