2025-08-14 02:58:27As Kael descended into the crater valley where the Erevan had smashed into the ground, the Exile Prime winds howled through the jagged cliffs. The ship's charred hull stood as a reminder of a past no one could remember. It had a twisted skeleton that was half covered in dust and silence. With his boots slamming into the shattered metal as he stepped through the shattered entry hatch, Kael The charred interior was illuminated by the lights from his wrist beacon. A tomb, this was once the lifeline of his mother's crew. He whispered, "Erevan logs, power on," and ordered. a glimmer. Later, static. The internal systems' faint hum came to life. A terminal on the command deck sputtered, and Kael rushed over. Due to decades of exposure, the data had become fragmented and corrupted. However, the entry titled "Final Broadcast" remained intact. He utilized it. The ship was filled with the tired and frantic voice of a woman. “This is Commander Yara Solari of the Erevan. To anyone who finds this, we were not hit by a car by chance. The signal didn't come from anywhere. We were enticed. Here, something is going on. observing us. Hunting us…”
Kael stopped breathing. the voice of his mother. She sounded nothing like the woman in his memories. This was a leader who collapsed under pressure because she was so eager to safeguard her crew. The recording went on as usual. "We are hiding in the vicinity of the obsidian cliffs. No more power. There is no hope. If you are hearing this, perhaps we have left. I’m sorry, though, if my son ever finds this Kael. I attempted to return home. Silence.
Kael stared at the screen, fists clenched. He was not abandoned by his mother. She had fought for her life. Determined to find more, he moved deeper into the wreck. In a sealed medical bay, he discovered additional logs, journal entries, scattered data clips, and the names of the crew members who had perished one by one. The crew quarters were in ruins. They slowly died. Cold. Starved. Some people entered the barren landscape and never came back. Others stayed behind in the hope of being saved. A doctor wrote, "Something walks at night," in the final log. Not us. not creatures. It addresses us by name. It recognizes us. Kael stepped back, eyes narrowing. The Erevan had been followed by it, whoever it was. And it might still be out there right now. From the ship's rear, a metallic creak could be heard. He abruptly turned and held up his torch. The sound came again—deliberate, slow. The wind, not. "Who are they?" he called, voice steady despite the pulse racing in his ears.
No answer. Just the eerie hum of the dying ship and the oppressive silence of Exile Prime pressing in from all sides.
Kael retreated away from the hatch. He stopped to take one last look at the Erevan before he left. These weren't just discarded logs and crumbling walls. It was all history. His background. And the beginning of a truth far deeper than he'd expected.
He set a waypoint and turned on his wrist beacon. Finding the obsidian cliffs was the obvious next step. There might have been more if his mother made it there. Answers. Survivors. or something completely different. The wind whipped the clouds above. The Erevan's ghosts waited below.
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Chapter 14 — Return To The Unknown
The battered Erevan loomed silently behind Kael as he stood at the edge of the landing platform. Although the storm had passed, its reverberation could be heard in the broken sky above Exile Prime. Strange tremors rattled the ground beneath his feet as the planet had become agitated by the surge of energy from the core. Somewhere deep inside the ruins, something had awoken. His communications were softly crackled by Echo's voice. “Systems are unstable. The power grid in the Erevan fluctuates. We must leave quickly. Kael’s gaze drifted to the horizon, where the twin suns began to rise. The vast unknown stretched endlessly beyond the place where his journey had begun, and where it might finally come to its climax. Yet, he wasn’t ready to leave. No, not yet. The truth about his mother, the ancient power buried beneath this planet, the force that called to him, all of it pulsed through his veins like a warning and a promise. Even though he had only found fragments, those fragments had al
Chapter 13 — Whispers From The Void
Standing on the blustery ridge with a view of the demolished city's spires, Kael The weathered and silent ruins of Exile Prime's forgotten civilization stretched out before him. There was no map of this location. He had found this secret sector beneath layers of encrypted files thanks to the data he had retrieved from the core of the Erevan. a location that was previously only known to those who had nothing to lose by disclosing it. The cliffs' jagged edges were being whipped by the wind behind him. As he shielded his face from the ash and sand, Kael adjusted the scarf around his neck. As he sank toward the first structure, the hardened earth caught his boots. Silence pressed on him as he moved. There were no plants or animals in this area. There was no city at all. He entered what seemed like an old chamber. Its metallic walls were scarred by time, and flickering lights sputtered dimly above him. He finally saw it. A circular symbol carved into the floor, the same emblem that had be
Chapter 12 — Echoes Of Tomorrow
The horizon was illuminated in violet light as Kael stood atop Exile Prime's jagged cliffs. Orange and indigo streaks were painted on the clouds as the two suns sank below the horizon. Below him, the ruins of an ancient structure pulsed faintly, a soft hum echoing into the wind. He moved forward a step. He appeared to awaken the structure, half-buried and lost to time. It had strange markings that glowed like living circuits along its curved walls. Erevan wasn't the one. It was older. a lot older. Kael turned on the wristband's scanning module. The readings fluctuated erratically and were inconsistent. “This place shouldn’t exist,” he murmured. A soft, layered, mechanical and human voice suddenly carried in the wind. "Kael, you've returned," he said. His body got cold. "Who are they?" He exclaimed. No response. However, with a deep groan, the structure's entrance opened. Against his better judgment, he descended the moss-covered steps inside. The temperature went down. The air be
Chapter 11 – Echoes Beyond The Horizon
Kael stood at the cliff's edge, looking out over the vastness of Exile Prime. Long shadows were being cast by the two low-lying suns over the red soil that was cracked and the twisted metal ruins that were scattered below. The distant, eerie hum of a machine far below the horizon was the only sound that broke the deep silence, which was both haunting and strangely familiar. Kael's thoughts had been consumed by a single question ever since he discovered the hidden transmission in the previous signal: what lay beyond this deserted planet? The messages suggested that something or someone was still alive and waiting to be discovered. As if her secrets were guiding him through the void, his mother's legacy seemed to be heavier than ever. Kael recalled the map he had pieced together from pieces in the Erevan archives as he adjusted the straps on his worn-out gear. It pointed toward a subterranean facility hidden beneath the Ashen Fields, a place that supposedly held answers to the crew’s fa
Chapter 10 — Horizons Within
The rough surface of Exile Prime was shrouded in long shadows as the sun rose. Kael was the only one who could hear the whispers of the wind. Standing at the edge of the cliff, he could see that the vastness of the alien world stretched out before him, and the horizon was now more than just a promise. The Memory Core hung heavy behind him, a legacy not only of his mother Selene but of all those who had dared to look for the truth in the void. Kael took a deep breath as he felt the weight of everything he had discovered press down on him while simultaneously lifting him higher. His journey had been one of mystery, danger, loss, and hope, but now it was quiet clear. He wasn't the same kid who had arrived on Exile Prime in search of answers. He was the one who would shape the future. --- The silence was broken by Nyra's soft hum. "Kael, the ship is prepared to leave. We’ve scanned nearby sectors. The Orian Nebula is bordered by the next Veil. With his eyes fixed on the horizon, Kael no
Chapter 9 — The Weight Of Legacy
The corridor wound its way through the center of Exile Prime like a gold thread. The air around Kael and Nyra, who were hovering close, shimmered with memory rather than heat as they moved. There wasn't just rock on the walls. They were screens that displayed time fragments. places, faces, and voices from long ago. This was more than just a road. It was a calendar. He was also at the center of it all. Each step Kael took echoed louder than the last. Not in sound, but in meaning. Not only was he moving forward, but he was also delving deeper into the life that his mother had left behind and the secrets that she had guarded. The corridor led to a chamber unlike any Kael had seen. A platform that floated above nothingness was framed by towering light pillars. Space twisted beneath it like a whirlpool of stars. A huge, pulsating, and alive crystalline sphere floated just above the platform. Nyra spoke more subtly than usual. “That’s a Memory Core central to the Veil. Selene's research, th
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