The Real-World Science That Inspired Attack on Planet Falrus

Joanna Monigatti
Jan 4
3 min read

One of the questions I get most often from readers of Attack on Planet Falrus is:

“How much of this is actually real?”

The short answer? More than you might expect.

When I was building Falrus, I wasn’t inventing a strange world purely for spectacle. I was drawing directly from real science, real medical phenomena, and real physics that already exist here on Earth—just pushed to their absolute limits.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at the real-world science that shaped Falrus, its biology, and the dangers humanity faces there.

1. Falrus’ Hostile Environment Isn’t Fantasy — It’s Extrapolation

Falrus is brutal: unstable terrain, lethal atmospheric conditions, and environments that seem almost designed to kill humans.

That idea comes straight from extremophile research—the study of organisms that thrive in places we once believed were completely uninhabitable.

On Earth, life already survives:

Near deep-sea hydrothermal vents at crushing pressures
In acidic lakes capable of dissolving metal
Inside nuclear reactors
In deserts with almost no water for years

Falrus simply asks one unsettling question:👉 What if an entire planet evolved under those rules instead of rare exceptions?

2. Falrus’ Biology Follows Real Evolutionary Logic

Nothing on Falrus is “evil for no reason.”

Every organism is shaped by the same evolutionary pressures that govern life on Earth:

Energy efficiency
Survival under constant stress
Aggressive competition for limited resources

Predatory behaviors, symbiotic relationships, and even the unsettling intelligence seen in some Falrus species mirror patterns we already observe in:

Parasites that manipulate host behavior
Hive insects that function as a single organism
Animals that communicate chemically rather than verbally

The difference isn’t possibility—it’s scale, and the devastating consequences for humans who weren’t built for that ecosystem.

3. Human Fragility on Falrus Is the Point

One of the most uncomfortable aspects of Attack on Planet Falrus is how quickly human bodies fail.

That’s intentional—and very real.

Space agencies already know that even microgravity causes:

Bone density loss
Muscle atrophy
Immune system suppression
Cognitive changes

Falrus adds:

Unfamiliar pathogens
Non-Earth biochemistry
Environmental stressors the human nervous system never evolved to handle

The result isn’t heroic invincibility—it’s a slow, believable biological breakdown.

4. Falrus Technology Is Rooted in Current Research

There are no “magic buttons” on Falrus.

The technology in the story is inspired by systems already being tested today:

Advanced prosthetics and neural interfaces
Autonomous military platforms
Biotechnology designed to adapt the human body rather than simply protect it

The terrifying part? Most of this technology already exists.

Falrus simply explores what happens when it’s deployed far from Earth—far from oversight, ethics, and second chances.

5. Falrus Is a Thought Experiment Disguised as a Thriller

At its core, Falrus isn’t just a planet.It’s a question:

What happens when human ambition reaches a place where biology, medicine, and morality stop cooperating?

The horror doesn’t come from aliens alone.It comes from watching humans realize that intelligence and technology don’t guarantee dominance—only survival, at best.