The airlock hissed open, and Captain Elias Voss stepped onto the surface of Erebus-9, a desolate moon orbiting a dying star. His boots crunched against the ashen ground, the sound muffled by the thin atmosphere. The black-and-gold exosuit he wore shimmered faintly under the pale light of the distant sun, its sleek design a stark contrast to the barren wasteland around him. His helmet’s visor reflected the jagged horizon, where towering spires of obsidian rock pierced the sky like ancient sentinels. Elias adjusted the plasma rifle slung across his back, his gloved fingers brushing against the weapon’s cooling vents. He didn’t need it—not yet—but the weight of it was a comfort.
“Voss, do you read me?” The voice crackled through his comms, sharp and urgent. It was Commander Lira Tann, his second-in-command, back on the starship Eclipse orbiting above. Her tone was clipped, but Elias could hear the undercurrent of worry.
“Loud and clear, Commander,” Elias replied, his voice steady. “I’m approaching the coordinates now. No signs of life—yet.”
“Be careful,” Lira said. “The readings we’re getting are… unusual. Something’s not right down there.”
Elias smirked, though she couldn’t see it. “When is it ever?”
He moved forward, his boots kicking up small clouds of dust that hung in the low gravity. The mission was supposed to be simple: investigate the source of a mysterious energy signature detected on Erebus-9. But nothing was ever simple in the outer colonies. The last transmission from the research team stationed here had been garbled, filled with static and screams. Then, silence.
As he approached the research facility, a sprawling complex of domed structures and metallic scaffolding, Elias felt a chill that had nothing to do with the moon’s freezing temperatures. The facility was dark, its windows shattered, and the airlock door hung open like a gaping wound. He paused at the threshold, his hand hovering over the rifle.
“I’m going in,” he said, more to himself than to Lira.
Inside, the facility was a graveyard. Broken equipment littered the floor, and the walls were scorched as if by some intense heat. Elias’s helmet lights cut through the darkness, revealing overturned chairs, shattered monitors, and… blood. Dark streaks of it smeared the walls and pooled on the floor. His stomach tightened.
“Lira, I’ve found the research team,” he said quietly. “Or what’s left of them.”
There were no bodies, just the blood and the faint smell of ozone. Elias moved deeper into the facility, his senses on high alert. The energy signature was stronger now, pulsing like a heartbeat. He followed it to a sealed door at the end of a corridor. The control panel was fried, but Elias had a way with broken tech. He pried open the panel and rerouted the circuits, his fingers moving with practiced precision. The door slid open with a groan.
Beyond it was a chamber unlike anything Elias had ever seen. The walls were covered in strange, glowing symbols that seemed to shift and writhe as he watched. In the center of the room was a massive, crystalline structure, its surface rippling with energy. It was beautiful and terrifying all at once.
“Elias, what are you seeing?” Lira’s voice was tense.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted. “Some kind of alien artifact. It’s… alive.”
As he stepped closer, the symbols on the walls began to glow brighter, and the air hummed with power. Elias reached out, his gloved hand hovering just above the crystal. The moment his fingers touched it, a surge of energy shot through him, and his vision went white.
---
He was no longer on Erebus-9. He was… somewhere else. A vast, endless void filled with swirling colors and distant stars. Voices whispered in his mind, too faint to understand, but filled with an ancient, incomprehensible sorrow. He saw flashes of images—a dying world, a desperate exodus, a promise unfulfilled.
Then, just as suddenly as it began, it ended. Elias stumbled back, his breath coming in ragged gasps. The crystal’s glow dimmed, and the symbols on the walls faded to darkness.
“Elias! Elias, respond!” Lira’s voice was frantic.
“I’m here,” he managed to say, his voice hoarse. “I’m okay. But… I think I know what happened here.”
“What?”
“This artifact,” he said, staring at the crystal. “It’s a message. A warning. Whatever created this… they’re coming. And we’re not ready.”
---
Back on the Eclipse, Elias stood in the observation deck, staring out at the stars. The crystal was safely stored in the ship’s hold, its secrets still waiting to be unlocked. Lira joined him, her arms crossed over her chest.
“You think it’s true?” she asked. “This… warning?”
Elias nodded. “I felt it, Lira. Whatever’s out there, it’s not like anything we’ve faced before. We need to prepare.”
She sighed, her expression grim. “And if we can’t?”
He turned to her, his eyes hard. “Then we fight anyway. Because if we don’t, there won’t be anything left to save.”
The stars outside the viewport seemed colder now, their light distant and unfeeling. Elias clenched his fists, the weight of the future pressing down on him. The journey ahead would be long and dangerous, but he was ready. He had to be.
Because out there, in the vast, uncharted reaches of space, something was coming. And Elias Voss would be the first to meet it.
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