[url=https://fontmeme.com/grunge-fonts/][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/250627/fc2ac81023c0bc73e6d08b6b1b09c0d6.png[/img][/url]
[hr]

The moment the restraints hissed open and the gravity of landing finally settled into her chest, Rhea moved. Fast. She unlatched the belt across her hips, shoved past a dazed kid still whimpering from the drop, and shouldered open the nearest hatch—heat from the scorched metal biting into her palms as she braced herself.

The scent hit her first.
[b]Earth.[/b]

Not clean, filtered Ark-air, but something raw and green and alive. Rich like rust and wildflowers. Her nose wrinkled as she breathed it in. It wasn’t what she expected.
[i]It was better.[/i]

She stepped onto the ramp just as the sun broke through the thinning smoke, catching in her fire-bright hair and turning the ash on her jacket gold. Rhea paused at the top, hands on her hips, chin tilted up like a queen surveying her ruined kingdom.

“Damn…” she muttered, more to herself than anyone else. “It’s real.”

Her boots hit the dirt with a muffled crunch. Not metal. Not composite flooring. But Earth—damp and dense and shockingly warm beneath her. She crouched without thinking, running her fingers through it, the way some people touched silk. It was bizarre and coarse and beautiful.

Others poured out behind her—shouting, laughing, crying. Some collapsed. Others kissed the ground.

“Eyes up,” she said to no one in particular, brushing dirt from her hands as she stood tall again. “We’re not alone.”

Her gaze swept the horizon. Trees taller than the Ark’s towers loomed in every direction, shadows stretching long in the afternoon light. Somewhere in those shadows, she imagined a whisper—soft and sharp like flint against steel.

And for the first time in years..
She grinned.

“Let’s build something out of this mess.”