Silent Requiem

The forest never forgets.Thousands of years after humanity's first contact with the Dark Forest, the past has faded into myth. The warnings were ignored. The silence was broken.Now the Forest has awakened.When an expedition crosses the long-abandoned Forest Gate, entire crews vanish and strange, hooded figures stalk the shadows. Survivors return with impossible stories of living memories, dead explorers bound to trees, and a force that judges entire civilizations.Earth responds the only way it knows how:War.But the Dark Forest doesn't fight like an enemy.It erases.Fleets disappear. Reality fractures. Whole worlds begin to whisper.As humanity prepares a final strike to destroy the Forest forever, Commander Lyra Sen discovers a terrifying truth - survival may require surrender, not conquest.Silent Requiem is the haunting third installment in The Dark Forest Protocol, a fast, cinematic sci-fi novella blending cosmic horror, first contact, and philosophical space opera.For fans of:• The Three-Body Problem• Annihilation• Arrival• Love, Death + RobotsIn silence, we endured.In memory, we bloom.