Chapter 1: The Search
Drifting silently in the vast darkness of space, Machina sat at the helm his of his Ship “Deus Ex”. Staring motionless at the various informational screens. One screen in particular took his focus, one showing a map of his surroundings.
“Nothing” he sighed. His robotic avatar slacking forward in his command seat.
“Maybe it’s time to turn back, I should go to bed soon” Machina thought to himself, dreading tomorrow’s day at the office. “Ghaa--, I still have so much work to finish too.” His metal body sprung back up, with his artificial hands raised to his faces to cover his red glowing, camera eyes. As if doing so would allow him to hide from his responsibilities.
“I spent my whole weekend on this search, what was I thinking!” He had flown his ship to the edge of the game universe and drifted out to the void in search of a rumor he had read on the forums.
“Damned trolls, I should have known better than to believe there was something out here.” A mysterious post talking of wormholes had been circulating around. Players speculated it was a new expansion for the game, leaked by developers. Supposedly at the farthest edge of the universe. Machina had been skeptical, but the promise of something to discover had convinced him to look.
Machina Scanned his screens once more. “Not even a stray asteroid out here...” He opened the ships control menu, deciding on one final system scan before calling it quits. A loud ping filled the ship, like that of a submarine radar. It Bounced around the empty corridors of the hull before returning to total silence, except for the occasional creaking of the ship and mechanical beeping of computers.
On the map screen, a ring of light spread out with the ship at its center. Machina’s mind drifted to nostalgic memories as he waited for the scan to complete. Memories of battles fought and won, like the time he had wandered by accident into a battle between 2 guilds fighting over territory. And had to kill both to save face. Or the time he was exploring a rogue planet in the Andromeda system and had stumbled right into a raid dungeon, forcing him to make drones from spare parts he salvaged from the enemies. What horrors of creation he had made. “Ahh, if only I could do it all again” he reminisced.
The ring expanding on the map had reached the edge. “It’s going to be a long we back” he let out another sigh of defeat and reached out to the controls to set a new course.
Just as he did though a sound reverberated around the command center. DING! “Anomalous readings detected” The ship’s computer confirmed audibly. The scan had found something after all.
Machina nearly launched himself into the air by the speed he stood up with. “Deus Ex! Set a course for the anomaly!” he commanded the ship’s autopilot drone. If his eyes had lasers, they would be disintegrating the screen at this moment with how intensely Machina stared at the map. Waiting in anticipation for something to become visible.
He had in fact tried installing lasers there once but had found it too hard to aim while blinded by the light.
After a couple seconds, the anomaly did slide into view on the map. “Deus Ex, show me that anomaly!” he commanded the ship once more. “Showing anomaly on screen 5" The ship obliged.
On the screen appeared a hollow disk of blueish light with 4 outstretched arm like tendrils, all of it spinning rapidly. Closer to the center a distorted blackness surrounded by countless streaks of various colors falling into the abyss within.
As the ship edged closer to the anomaly its true size became clear. The imposing wormhole dwarfed the massive ship utterly and completely. The space taken up by it would have been equivalent to an entire star system. Somehow the abyss within looked even darker than the void of space surrounding it.
The imposing image sank Machina’s power core to his bio-fuel processors. Never in all his time playing had he been in such awe, and such dread. Not even the super massive black holes at the center of each galaxy had been so impressive. What he saw before him seemed more divine than the laws of physics. Like he stood before the very image of the multi-armed Vishnu himself.
“Ghaaaa! It’s real! I knew it hahaha!” Machina congratulated himself on his finding, standing proudly and smiling as best as his robotic face could. Making it look like the screws on his jaw had come loose.
The ship kept drifting towards the gargantuan wormhole, getting closer and closer until it was practically touching the center. Machina was interrupted in his celebrations as a text box popped up in front of him.
Warning!
This world is about to be altered, are you positive you want to proceed?
After acceptance, there will be no returning. Ensure all your affairs are in order.
Proceed?
Agree / Cancel
This type of menu was not totally new to Machina, he had seen it before in some raids of extreme difficulty. A simple confirmation that you were about to enter a dangerous scenario. He argued with himself for a moment, thinking about his work tomorrow morning. “Just a little look, I can always call in sick if needed” were all the words he needed to convince himself. A discovery like this cannot wait after all. And so he agreed to the prompt.
The menu swiftly closed, and the ship continued, grinding and creaking sound reverberated as it slipped slowly into the wormhole. Both ship and Machina devoured whole by the great darkness within.
