An original AI generated sci-fi illustration on an immutable blockchain – The Machine Root – The sky bled with alien light as the explorers approached the ruinous structure. It loomed like a fallen god, its spires clawing toward the heavens, its roots of machinery burrowed deep into the crust of the dying world. Pulses of green energy erupted from its core, rippling through the atmosphere, warping the very fabric of space. To the crew, it was not merely a structure, but a living entity—an ancient engine of impossible design. Each step toward the tower filled their visors with interference, strange voices whispering across broken comm channels. The ground was littered with the remnants of those who had come before—skeletons tangled in cables, flesh fused with metal, the unmistakable imprint of assimilation. The ruin itself seemed to respond to their presence, conduits flaring with sudden life, tendrils flexing like the limbs of a slumbering beast. For all its decay, the machine was waking. Above, ships streaked across the sky, exchanging volleys of light in a desperate attempt to destroy the abomination. Yet no matter how many strikes tore into its body, the tower regenerated, feeding on the planetary core below. The explorers knew their mission was no longer recovery, but survival. They had to escape, to carry the warning across the stars—that something older than empires had risen again, and it would not stop until every world was bound in its roots.