The jungle didn't get quieter when you returned. It just got better at hiding you.
Toren pushed aside a curtain of ferns, boots sinking into the mossy floor as the wreck came into view—still half-swallowed by tree roots and time. Its weather-worn bulk leaned into the ravine like it was trying to sink into the earth and forget it ever fell.
Behind him, Mira made a sharp tsk sound. "You've been coming here a lot lately."
"You sound like a jealous girlfriend."
"I sound like someone who knows this place collapses when you sneeze in the wrong corridor."
He grinned. "We'll hold our breath."
They ducked under a warped bulkhead and entered the main husk. Inside, the air shifted: colder, stale with metal and decay. Light filtered in through the cracks in the walls, casting the corridor in gold-edged shadow. The silence felt thick, broken only by their footsteps and the faint tick-tick of dripping water echoing down the spine of the ship.
Mira paused beside a support beam that had buckled under the weight of time. "You've mapped this, right?"
Toren said nothing. He just moved.
He knew the way now—not from exploration, but from instinct. Or maybe the system. Since unlocking the grid blueprint, it had quietly begun adding details to the minimap in his mind—highlighting salvage caches, flagged danger zones, viable routes through twisted corridors.
He didn't tell her that. Not yet.
He ducked into a side hall, brushing aside dangling cables.
"This room," he said.
"You sound confident."
"I am."
The door was jammed, bent at the hinges. Mira stepped forward without a word, pulled a ratcheted drill from her pack, and began carving an arc into the rusted metal. Sparks hissed, flaring against the wall. When the panel dropped inward with a groan, stale air rolled out—cooler and thick with dust.
Inside was what remained of an auxiliary storage chamber: shattered crates, broken crates, collapsed shelves, and in the far corner, a strange rectangular wall that didn't match the rest of the layout.
Mira tilted her head. "That panel's wrong."
"I know."
"You didn't even look at it until now."
"I know."
She eyed him for a second longer, but stepped inside anyway.
Toren followed.
The ship creaked behind them like it was reconsidering its decision to stay upright.