The hatch groaned as its seals disengaged, metal sighing in the cold Martian air. A warning chime echoed through the cabin, and red lights pulsed along the walls.
"Pressure equalization complete," Selene announced. Her voice was calm, but her eyes lingered on the seismic readings still glowing faintly on her console.
Captain Marlowe's tone left no room for hesitation. "Team One, suit up. Helmets sealed, oxygen systems primed. We step out in formation."
Darius's heart hammered against his chest plate as he locked his helmet into place. The hiss of oxygen flooding his visor felt both comforting and claustrophobic. He double-checked his gauges twice, fingers trembling slightly, before forcing them still. This was history in the making.
Harlan smacked his shoulder with a gloved hand. "Relax, rookie. You're about to get the best view in the solar system."
Darius tried to grin, but it came out stiff.
The inner hatch opened, revealing the airlock chamber. Beyond that, the outer door loomed like a gate into legend.
One by one, they stepped inside. Marlowe at the front, Elara silent and poised behind him, Selene with her scanners slung at her side, Harlan carrying the rover module's activation codes. Darius brought up the rear, his breath fogging his visor.
The outer hatch yawned open.
For a moment, silence. Then—
Mars.
The world unfolded before them in raw majesty. The canyon stretched for kilometers, its ridges black and jagged, its floor dusted in crimson sand. The sky was butterscotch-colored, hazy with thin clouds of dust. The horizon shimmered faintly where sunlight pierced through.
Their boots struck the soil with heavy, deliberate thuds. Dust lifted and curled, floating longer than on Earth before settling again.
"Surface conditions stable," Selene reported, her visor glowing with readouts. "Temperature minus sixty-two Celsius. Radiation within suit tolerance."
Marlowe planted the expedition banner into the soil, the pole sinking deep into Martian dust. The flag unfurled slowly in the thin breeze, its fabric stiff, but it stood.
"Log it," he said. "Artemis IX expedition—first steps on Martian soil, 0427 hours ship time."
Harlan spread his arms wide, laughter booming through comms. "We did it. We're the first."
Darius turned slowly, trying to take it all in. Every direction was a painting of desolation and wonder. For a brief moment, the fear and turbulence of descent washed away, replaced by pure awe.
Elara, though, stood still, visor tilted slightly to the canyon walls. Her silence was not reverence but calculation.
"Do you feel it?" she said finally.
"Feel what?" Darius asked.
She didn't answer immediately. Instead, she crouched, brushing her gloved fingers across the soil. The dust clung unnaturally, as though magnetized. "The ground is not still."
Selene checked her wrist console. The seismic data pulsed again. Rhythmic. Slow. Deliberate.
"Confirmed," she said. "The anomaly's signature is stronger here than it was in orbit."
Harlan scoffed, though unease edged his tone. "So Mars has a heartbeat. Maybe she's just glad to see us."
"No." Elara rose, her eyes sharp behind the visor. "This isn't geology. This is… something else."
The comms went quiet. The wind whispered faintly across the canyon rim, but the pulse beneath their boots seemed louder—steady, waiting.
Darius swallowed hard, his awe shifting into something colder. His first step on Mars was not into silence, but onto the skin of something alive.