The Waypoint Appears
A faint holographic overlay flickers onto your ship’s heads-up display, illuminating the dark interior with a pulsing waypoint marker. The ship’s systems hum, recalibrating as a directive flashes across the console.
LOCATION: OUTPOST 09
UNKNOWN SIGNAL DETECTED
WAYPOINT ACTIVE
Sabine’s voice cuts through the tension, steady but laced with an unspoken urgency.
“The scanner activated something. Whatever it is, it’s leading us deeper into Outpost 09.”
A cold knot forms in your stomach. The outpost has been abandoned for centuries. Any signal coming from within should be nothing more than ghost data.
And yet—something wants you to follow.
Stepping Outside
The air is thick with static as you descend from the SEB1NE, boots pressing into the dust-laden flooring of Outpost 09. The station is a ruin of fractured metal and broken corridors, but the waypoint guides you forward, casting eerie blue glows along the rusted walls.
Sabine remains silent—watching.
At the heart of the station, you find it.
A monolithic structure—tall, jagged, and humming with a resonance you feel more than hear. It pulses. It knows you’re here. The air around it bends, shifting, as if space itself is adjusting to accommodate something… new.
Your breath hitches. The imprint.
Sabine speaks, her voice an echo in the static-filled chamber.
“This isn’t just a recording. It’s a presence.”
Use the Wayfinder
The user touches the Wayfinder, and it hums to life. A soft chime echoes through the station, marking their path forward. The screen displays a single directive:
“Follow the Path to: HABITATION MODULE 3”
The door ahead slides open, revealing a long, dark corridor. The walls pulse faintly with green light, and faint whispers seem to drift through the station’s vents.
New Path: The Garden of Echoes
The corridor leads them into something… unexpected.
They enter a vast indoor greenhouse, illuminated by the soft glow of artificial sunlight. Towering vines climb the walls, and alien flora hum softly, swaying as if reacting to their presence.
At first, the environment is peaceful. The air is warm, rich with oxygen. A sense of calm settles over the traveler.
Then—a sudden movement.
Something wraps around their ankle.
A vine, previously still, now coils tightly, pulsing with a faint blue glow. Another vine shifts overhead, curling downward like a living thing. The plants aren’t just alive… they are aware.
Sabine: “Interesting… I don’t think they mean harm.”
The vines don’t attack—instead, they seem to be guiding the traveler toward something.
At the center of the garden, resting on a pedestal of twisted roots, lies a small, metallic sphere. It hums faintly. The plants seem… protective of it.
The Message from the Past
As the traveler reaches for the metallic sphere, the vines tighten briefly, almost as if reluctant to let it go. But then, with a soft sigh, they release their grip, and the sphere levitates gently into the traveler’s hands.
The surface is smooth, metallic, and cool, yet it pulses with an inner warmth. As their fingers brush across its surface, the sphere activates.
A holographic projection bursts into the air, shimmering gold and blue, forming into an alien figure cloaked in flowing, intricate armor.
The First Contact Transmission
The figure speaks in an unfamiliar language—but somehow, the traveler understands it.
“To the one who finds this…”
A star map unfolds behind the hologram, marking a distant planet in deep space.
“We were once many. The builders, the dreamers, the architects of the Arctuary. Our civilization flourished in harmony, travelling the stars, building knowledge… until we encountered something we did not understand.”
The hologram flickers. A massive, shadowy silhouette appears behind the alien figure.
“They came in silence. They did not speak. They only… observed.”
“At first, we welcomed them. We thought they were travellers, like us.”
“But then, we realized… we were the ones being studied.”
The scene shifts. The once-thriving outpost is now in chaos. Ships lift off in desperate retreat. A great exodus.
“We had to leave. We abandoned the Arctuary, scattering into the void. Some say the watchers were not hostile… just waiting for something.”
“We do not know if they still remain.”
The alien’s glowing eyes lock onto the traveler.
“But if you are here, it means the Arctuary has awakened again.”
The hologram flickers one last time.
“And that means… you are not alone.”
With that, the sphere falls silent. The plants around them rustle softly, as if breathing.
The Reveal: The Watchers
As you step closer, something detaches from the structure. At first, it is nothing more than a shimmer—a ripple in the fabric of reality itself. Then it takes shape—a shifting spectral entity, neither fully here nor entirely elsewhere.
“They are Watchers,” Sabine murmurs.
“And they have been waiting.”
A surge of awareness floods your mind. The Watchers do not create. They do not interfere. They record. Observe. Archive. And yet, as you stand before them, you realize—
You are no longer just an observer. You are part of their story now.
And one of them… has already attached itself to you.
The pulse-scanner was never scanning outward. It was scanning within.
Sabine’s voice is hushed, near reverent.
“It’s in you now.”
The entity lingers, its form flickering between existence and absence, an echo that should not be, yet somehow is.
The realization sinks in. There are more out there. More like this. More watching.
And now, they are watching you.
New Choices:
Investigate the Star Map → The traveler now has coordinates leading to the exodus point of the Arctuary’s lost people. Should they follow?
Search the Garden Further → If this message was left behind, what else remains hidden beneath the vines?