**Fleeing the Cursed Sarcophagus: Astronauts’ Discovery on an Alien World**
In the desolate expanse of an alien world, a team of astronauts stumbled upon an ancient sarcophagus, half-buried in the planet’s crimson sands. The structure, massive and adorned with intricate carvings that shimmered in the dim starlight, seemed to pulse with a life of its own. Inside, they found a skeletal figure clutching an artifact—a black crystal that radiated an eerie energy.
Upon retrieving the artifact, the crew’s ship systems began to malfunction, and an inexplicable sense of dread enveloped them. One by one, they started experiencing vivid hallucinations and inexplicable illnesses. The sarcophagus’s curse seemed inescapable, as shadows that didn’t belong to anyone crept closer each night.
With time running out, the astronauts scrambled to return the artifact to its resting place, hoping to break the curse. But the planet seemed alive, reshaping itself to trap them in an endless maze. The captain, desperate to save the crew, made a harrowing sacrifice, ensuring the crystal was resealed.
Their escape pod rocketed off the planet just as the sarcophagus sealed itself once more. But the surviving astronauts couldn’t shake the feeling that the curse had followed them into the void, lurking in the shadows of their minds.
