Cragg

The planet had no name. Intelligence records listed it as a low-tech facility with high strategic potential: abundant freshwater reservoirs and a stable atmosphere suitable for terraforming and settlement. There were no cities, no civilization in the traditional sense. Only endless plains, mountain ranges, and a network of powerful rivers cutting through the land like the vessels of a living organism. Enormous lakes lay in deep basins, reflecting the sky so clearly, as if the planet itself were looking up, awaiting judgment. And the judgment had already arrived. High above the surface, in the silence of orbit, stood General Cregg. He was in no hurry. His gaze swept slowly across the landscape, from winding rivers to dark forests, from lonely cliffs to mirror-like lakes. The planet was... calm, almost untouched. This made it comfortable. And precisely because of this, it was already doomed. The Empire didn't conquer the void. It turned it into a resource. Craig raised his hand, activating the landing protocol. A moment later, his body broke through the atmosphere. He fell without a trace of doubt, like a weapon that requires no calculation, only a target. The air tore beneath him, the wind howled between mountains and over lakes, and the planet's surface rapidly approached. Impact. The ground shook, but did not completely split apart; only a deep crater appeared in the rocky plain near one of the major rivers. The water in the riverbed trembled, overflowed its banks, and froze for a moment, as if nature itself were listening. Craig slowly rose from the crater. The silence was almost complete, only the sound of the wind, the roar of the rivers, and the distant crack of crumbling rocks. He looked up; no satellites, no signals, no signs of organized resistance. Only life, simple, unconscious. He took a step forward, and the ground beneath his feet sank slightly. "The planet has been deemed suitable for integration," he said evenly, as if recording a fact in a report, not passing judgment on the entire world. "Civilization is absent."