The Anomaly comes for the stars. Take flight.
These are the words which awaited me at my destination, recorded over the Black Box archive of the crashed ship’s final moments. Attached to them was a hyperdrive schematic. This was only made more odd by the fact that I was led to the wreckage of a large freighter, rather than a conventional starship. The blueprint, as well as the message, were clearly planted here by someone who wanted them to be found. By me, apparently.
It seems unlikely, but who else would it be for? The coordinates were given to me by a traveler on this world, the code to unlock them gathered from a computer terminal also found on this world. And the last nail in the coffin for the idea of coincidence was this: the wrecked freighter was to be found, yes, on the world I had chosen for my home.
Who could have left all of this for me to find? That’s the burning question.
Something queer is going on. I must build this hyperdrive and find out. Maybe the local space station will have what I need…
It took some time, but I eventually found what I needed at the local space station. I'd never been there before, so I spent a good while marveling at the sheer immensity of the place when I arrived.
I realize it's not the best frame of reference, but the aperture through which I entered was more than ten times the height and breadth of the Radiant Pillar. The aperture itself was easily small enough as to be nearly invisible while approaching the station, at least until the top half is no longer in view.
I was guided in by a brilliant blue beam, coming in to land at a platform with a dozen landing pads and plenty of room to spare between each. It took me a quarter minute to reach the platform at cruising speed.
Given the scale of the runway and exterior, I am surprised at how little of the station is accessible to the public. There were two large ramps on either side, each leading up a level to expansive common areas where visiting travelers could mingle. The common areas were lined with vendors' shops, but many of them weren't too friendly with me. I suppose they were unimpressed at my appearance.
Speaking of which, I found a remarkable machine at the back of one of the common areas. It appears to be some sort of clothing modifier. I can't say for certain how it works, but I believe it has something to do with a field of suspended nanomachines. I suspect these machines latch on to the exterior of a user's exosuit in order to actively rearrange the molecular configuration as the user desires.
I spent a while at this particular device, fascinated by the hugely varied customization of which it is capable. After I had modified my own exosuit's appearance to something I felt more comfortable in, I took another look at the device. This is where I first learned of the other sentient species which frequent the station.
The creatures I'd already encountered - the bestial creatures on the trade platform - were apparently known as Vy'Keen. It seemed there were three other races which commonly visited as well - the Korvax, who appeared to be living robotic beings; the Gek, an oddly amphibian-looking species which appeared to be comprised mostly of traveling merchants (going off of the few I could see wandering the station, at any rate), and the Travelers.
There was something odd about these last entities. Based on the system's customization options for them, I cannot fathom how they came into being. The heads of these creatures, for one, are so inconsistent as to be ludicrous. Some appeared animalistic in nature, while others were explicitly mechanical. I wonder if these beings are, in fact, machines like the Korvax, with interchangeable heads. It's the only explanation I have for why there appear to be no exosuit helmets available for them - they may not need them!
Of note, one of the customization options for these creatures appear to be an exact replica of Nano's orbital cameras.
Once I'd learned what I could from this machine - which was at once surprisingly much and upsettingly little - I returned to the vendors to try bartering with them once more. Only a couple were accepting of me with my new appearance; most seemed to still be unimpressed. In any case, none of them had the materials I needed.
No, it wasn't until I hesitantly approached what appeared to be a large eye-shaped aperture mounted on one wall that I discovered what I needed. When I drew near, I was scanned briefly by a pale blue beam, and then a holographic screen appeared in front of me listing the goods I'd procured on my journey so far. As it happened, those cubes I'd carelessly stowed and forgotten about on my first sol were worth quite a few units! As they'd served me no purpose in the interim, I sold them without hesitation and then touched the icon to toggle the system to Sales mode.
At last, I found the components I needed to make my hyperdrive! Who would have guessed a few simple circuit boards would be so well hidden, and yet so readily available?
I got to work installing the hyperdrive into the Pillar at once, and in short order I had finished. Unfortunately, it turned out, I had no fuel which the new system accepted. After a brief search, my system interface helpfully informed me that, apparently, hyperdrives use antimatter as fuel - which, of course, no one on the station could provide.
Just when I'd given up hope, another message popped up on my visor - coordinates to some new location, given again by an unknown source, at no request.
It seems clear at this point that someone is guiding me - no, aiding me, making sure I have what I need to complete some greater task. As to what that task may be, I'm not yet certain.
But I'm going to find out.
I was directed down to the surface of a nearby radioactive moon. The coordinates I’d received brought me to a building which had definitely seen better days.
For starters, the front door had been forced open and knocked off the tracks. The roof and walls of the structure were buckled and smoking in several places, and debris was scattered across the field all around. The most unsettling thing, though, had nothing to do with the building itself.
It was the growths.
Huge cilia-like plants and odd bulbous masses clustered near every opening of the building. Strange tentacles rose from the ground in places, surrounded by strange pinkish objects which my visor recognized as “whispering eggs.”
Something about these objects was simply unnerving. Maybe it was that they were on the site of what looked to be a violent interaction. Maybe it was because they actually seemed to be whispering softly in an odd, otherworldly tongue. Whatever the reason, I didn’t want to go anywhere near them, but they were right by the door. Steeling myself, I slowly slowly crept by, taking extra care to not disturb the faintly audible bulbs.
The inside of the building had been overrun by more of what I now recognized to be some odd type of fungus. It crept along the floors, oozed from the walls, and even dangled from the ceiling in places. To my dismay, my nav system pointed me directly toward a particularly large pile of the stuff. After a moment’s examination, I realized that I was actually looking at the control console for the station, completely overgrown with an odd greenish ooze.
I scraped the stuff aside with a shudder, and my touch activated the screen.
The stuff writhed away from my touch, clinging to the sides of the terminal after I peeled it away. Luckily it didn’t stick to me, but I made a note to avoid further contact with the residual goop if at all possible. The terminal blinked at me, the screen dissolving into static for just a moment before resolving into a single image – an unblinking crimson eye.
Without further input, the console transferred a sample of antimatter into my suit inventory. Before I’d even registered the act, a new image flashed up on screen of a simple message:
The message burned into my memory for just a few seconds before the screen blinked out, leaving me bewildered and alone in the dim, decrepit shelter.
A moment later a guidance message popped up on my visor, instructing me how to create a container for the antimatter sample so that I could use it as warp fuel. Thankfully, the exosuit automatically digitizes everything it pulls into storage, so the impossibly hazardous physical interaction of the antimatter with my cells had been neutralized by simply turning the substance into harmless code. Unfortunately, it was useless to me in that state, so it was imperative that I get that container crafted. Thankfully, it only took a bit of ferrite dust to make, with a bit of pressurized oxygen to prevent the substance from making contact with the container’s walls, and before long I had my warp fuel in hand.
Feeling good about things, I went to leave, and that's when I made a mistake.
Due to a loose panel (or maybe my own carelessness, who can say?), I stumbled on my way down the ramp on my way out of the building. I pitched forward and fell, one hand landing on, and then punching through, the shell of a Whispering Egg as I tried to catch myself.
I’d barely registered that I’d fallen, and that my hand had come to rest on a spiky, glowing orb, before a horrendous shrieking filled the air. The ground rumbled briefly all around, and then exploded into clouds of dirt as some ungodly creatures – which my visor quickly labeled as “biological horrors” – leapt into the open!
The first thing I noticed was that each of them had dozens of dagger-like fangs jutting in neat rows from their too-wide mouths. The second thing was that somehow, on their four stubby, clawed legs, they were incredibly fast.
Mindlessly clutching the glowing orb, I scrambled to my feet and bolted toward my ship. The monstrosities – there must have been dozens of them – chased me with gusto, shrieking a terribly cry and gnashing their horrible, razor sharp fangs at me. I almost thought I’d make it away unscathed, but when I was mere feet away from my ship one of the beasts tackled me from behind, knocking me past the Pillar and breaking through the protection of my Kinetic Shield system!
Quickly, I skirted around the back of the ship and darted for the cockpit from the far side, and that slowed the creatures down just enough that I made it in. I wasted no time punching in the launch code and leaving the blasted site behind, along with the horrible greenish-black creatures and their wicked fangs.
I’m now in orbit around the planet, my heart thudding in my chest as my exosuit alerts me to the erratic vital signs. It’s been ten minutes, but I still haven’t quite calmed down – not surprising, especially after recounting the tale again for my log as I’ve done.
I’ve loaded the warp fuel into the hyperdrive. Now I’m being urged to take to the stars by the same system which had led me down to that horrible site. I’m loathe to follow its direction again…
But if I don’t, I suppose I’ll always regret it. There’s something pulling me forward, now, a craving for knowledge about what’s going on all around me. There are odd happenings all over this star system, and who’s to say that it’s limited to this place?
No. I must press onward. I must know, must discover the face of those who guide me.
I’ll see you on the other side.