Zlaw’s Echo

There should never have been any vertebrate lifeforms in this jungle. This was not supposed to happen. The artificial environment had been initiated from a sterile base, and kept hermetically closed off from the outside world the entire time of the experiment. At first, only vegetation had been introduced, and later very specific fungus. The most advanced animals they had agreed to let out in there were insects. No bird, reptile, or mammal had ever made it anywhere near the dome. They even had control over bacterial levels, for crying out loud! And besides, nobody and nothing ever entered without a thorough decontamination first. So how had this happened? It had all started as a routine inspection. The fast and luxurious development of the foliage had forced them quite early on to physically get in there to make observations, but that had never been a problem. They had expected to have to do this at some point, so they had prepared for it. And many such expeditions had gone on withou...