The entire surface of the second world is wrapped in a diverse biosphere, hostile to any form of life other than its own. Blanketed by a thick, hot atmosphere rich with carbon dioxide and sustained by seemingly bottomless reservoirs of water and nutrients, this is the way Venus was found when man first tore through its canopy, and the form it has chosen to return to after the Unexpected Interrupt.

Nested deep within the fibers of this alien jungle lie many incredible ecosystems and structures no longer visible from space. Cut through enough of it, and you may reach the decaying remains of an enormous research complex, the campus of the world-famous Institute of Agriculture.

Slowly sinking into the warm biological soup forming around and underneath as Venus returns to its natural state, the Institute is succumbing to the very fate it was created to prevent: the sanitization and ultimate mastery over this world for the glory of the Union, its people, and the Marxist-Leninist philosophy. Its long corridors wind like tendrils through an endless mosaic of forgotten laboratories, storage facilities, and dormitories, most of which has fallen victim to toxic flooding and various wildbugs hell-bent on converting the dilapidated concrete shell into a cozy home.

Wade through enough of these bogs and critter eggs and you may find yourself within the slimy, waterlogged caverns of the Research Publication office. A half-sunken machine beeps its final status reports on a grid of colorful lights, clinging to existence with the help of the last operational infrastructure robots.

"Practical Agricultural Applications For Confined High-Energy Plasma" - how fascinating! As 🔬 LARKIN voraciously tears through the brilliance of Academician Sohol's words, it slowly begins to recognize... as intriguing as the concept is, the words seem somewhat familiar, like it's seen them before. On second observation, the laboratory appears to be different from what it's supposed to look like. Where are the academicians and the assistant automatons?

"Practical Agricultural Applications For Confined High-Energy Plasma" - how fascinating! As LARKIN voraciously tears through ...

"Practical Agricultural Applications For Confined High-Energy Plasma" - how fascinating! ...

Severed from its own memory by wildbugs gnawing at its wires, LARKIN remains in an infinite loop, typesetting and state-sanitizing the most interesting research paper it has seen for the rest of time.