This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/FarmWhich4275 on 2025-06-25 14:54:03+00:00.

The usual soft background hum of discussion was strangely absent within Council Chambers. Gone was the excited hum of subsonic particulate matter and gone was the flash of light from exchanges of heat. Deathly silence, such had never been heard before even in the cold void of eternal space. All seventeen members of the Council Of Great Eternals gently floated above their pedestals, the entire galaxy watching in amazement and terror all in one soft breath. In the centre of the chamber quietly hovered the hologram of a strange, blue and green planet. A thing whose existence was previously thought impossible by any standard.

Finally, as if an eternity passed, the hologram changed, becoming larger, more pronounced. A greater scan had been conducted by the discovery team responsible for this moment, and more data was slowly pouring in. Before it was nothing more than a simple precursory scan of the planet, then a hasty sending to the Council. LK881-J emitted a strange warbling sound as his form distorted almost to the point of imperceptibility, the gas membrane keeping him in place nearly dissipating from the shock. Or was it excitement?

Loud gasps of amazement came from most of the Council’s members, and all across the galaxy’s Hypernet, the same echo of improbability graced the denizens of the known universe. It was real. It wasn’t just a fluke discovery of an oddly watery world. It wasn’t a mistaken identity case or a false reading. It was real. TX-11K@'s form distorted, changing from a bright orange to a glowing golden yellow as he considered the implications of the discovery. Entity ‘Ulm’ also suffered similar distortion to her plasmatic shell as she deflated in her chair from the shock.

More data poured in. And more. Every waking moment was half nightmare and half dream as images flooded the network. The scan team had made their way through closer to the planet, as close as the Main Sequence Star would allow and were showing dozens of collected photographs of the small blue marble. Although the planet’s host star was extremely dangerous to the Denizens, their receptors could easily acquire some decent scanning data from the planet. The scan team also sent a new photo, one more detailed, of the small scanning outpost they had built within the asteroid belt of a large gas giant. The gas giants. Four of them. A rarity of unimaginable scale even in the galaxy itself.

The scan team kept sending data. More and more data, in the chronological order of discovery. Take a photo, process it, send it. Scan something, process, send. A standard procedure. It keeps a chronological record of events if something happens and it can be easily tracked and investigated if something goes wrong. The search for life had taken over the galaxy’s consciousness for so long it had become something of an obsession. And here we had a planet absolutely saturated in it. Millions of worlds and one entire galaxy and we only find this one.

So saturated in life beyond the pale, we barely could contain ourselves. More than just microbes. Trees! Actual vegetation beyond simple grass. Not just trees, but towering monoliths of trees hundreds of feet high! Entity XB-113 Fred’s entire form distorted and wobbled as the first few close images from probes came in, showing the towering forests. Half the galaxy celebrated in jubilation. Those Beyond the Consciousness all vibrated with enthusiasm and shock at the sight of a planet with a stable biosphere outside of a gas giant or ice moon. The impossible had finally been found.

The probes kept sending data, showing pictures of more complex life. Fungal lifeforms! The jubilation from Councillor (REDACTED) was beyond imagining as he (REDACTED) so much I thought he would (REDACTED)!! It was amazing seeing a mushroom puff spores into the air. The drone wandered around the forest of giant red trees and stumbled on a river. Unfrozen flowing WATER with lifeforms IN it??!! Councillor -228X+y Disembodied at the sight and in an embarrassing display poofed back into the Aether as a fish jumped up at the camera lens.

The galaxy gasped with horror and awe as the fish swam in the water. The probe moved further through the forest. And there it was. A bear. A huge, brown monstrosity covered in fur and claws ripping through a deer. A gasp of horror flowed through the galaxy. Councillor TX-11K@'s form changed to a horrified pink and he shrivelled to a tenth of his size in fear. The probe moved on, leaving us scared of what kind of ‘life’ this planet had. The ecosystem was most interesting to say the least. We understood, we wish we didn’t.

The probe wandered through the forest. Then… All of our cognitors suddenly stopped. A fence. Refined metals. Strengthened dirt. Cut wood. Cut grass. A lawn. A house. The galaxy all at once collectively lost brain power and stopped dead quiet for what seemed an eternity. Then there it was. A creature. Bipedal. Small. Strange. It was talking! It was speaking! It was… repairing something! A wagon or toy!? Councillor Entity BBB-3 Screamed in shock and discombobulated to the Aether at the sight.

“HOW IN THE VOID IS THERE SAPIENT LIFE ON THIS PLANET!?!?” I bellowed loudly as I flitted through the pictures.

The probe hovered close to the new creature and the creature looked up at it. The creature lifted a hand then snapped his fingers. The probe juddered as it was grabbed. The camera spun around to see the sight of a VERY angry looking creature, a larger, very pissed off version of the first creature. The creature bellowed something at the camera as it punted the drone back into the forest.

The drone hit the retreat function and disappeared back out of the planet’s atmosphere. Thankfully it managed a scan of the creatures before it was forcibly ejected from the planet. The scan appeared, and we all collectively lost our minds. How did this creature ever come to even exist!? Entity Councillor P-P-999 ‘Bixor’ emitted a terrifying noise like glass being shattered and vanished into the Aether, never to be seen again. The scans were… Beyond amazing. Terrifying but still amazing!

Each and every single one of those ‘creatures’ was in itself its own microbiome or micro-world full of hundreds of different kinds of bacteria. The small one and the big one, both were their own different kinds of ‘life’ by itself. Each of these creatures had its own unique trains of bacteria in them, the same purpose, but operating with a different strain or profile. The stomach, the place where ‘food’ is processed into energy for the body is by itself its own microclimate, containing both bacteria AND an extremely strong acidic substance!

Incredible! The eyes, the hair, the bone structure, every single part piece and component was its own form of ‘life’, an entire organism made up of millions of other organisms all working together in perfect tandem. What level of evolution was necessary to create this creature!? What kind of abominable anomaly was this planet?

“SERIOUSLY HOW!?” I yelled again.

“What do we do… No seriously, we cannot even approach the planet without heavy shielding thanks to the radiation from the star! This planet’s existence defies ALL current models! How do we even start!?” Entity BX-101 said.

“We do nothing… And hope they leave us alone. I cannot even fathom being in the same room with one such creature. I would discombobulate five ways from the geometric plane!” Councillor (REDACTED) burbled.

“Contact with the species is impossible regardless. They cannot hear our wavelengths, and what was that noise it made when it attacked the drone? It also attacked the drone.” Councillor Entity ‘Bob’ said.

“It attacked the drone because it was trespassing on its territory. We cannot understand their speech… but we can detect their emotional state. They are… Full of emotion. That creature was… Simultaneously scared and enraged! How can one have two emotions at once!?” Entity ‘Prescott KB-BX’ Said.

“Incredible… No… We cannot interfere with them. Look at the scans! Infrastructure on a global scale! Mastery of atmospheric flight, mass mining operations. Wh… these numbers… Impossible! They number in the billions by themselves!” I said, showing the population count for the creatures by themselves.

The chamber reverberated with a gasp of awe and terror. Never has so much life, so many different species, types and creatures been so tightly compacted into one singular spot. Each of these creatures was by itself a unique entity with its own DNA and genetic makeup, now combine that with the fact each of them has their own individual bacterial colony, AND coupled with that the human body itself is its own form of microclimate… What kind of evolution spawned THIS!?

“What do we do now? We… We basically found what we had spent the last (REDACTED) millennia looking for all this time… What do we do now?” Entity (REDACTED) said with fear.

“We do nothing. We let them live as best we can. We just… watch them. As best we can without interfering with them. This is unprecedented! Unimaginable! Improbable! After so long, we encounter little more across the whole universe but more of ourselves and basic protozoa in hostile lands… And suddenly this!? We must protect them at the very least!” I said.

"Impossible! Look at these projections! this entire planet kills them just as much! Should we not take this as Nature’s Way and exterminate them!? Surely other lifeforms could benefit more? These creatures …

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