Data log found in an abandoned spacecraft pt5 - The void
02 Nov 2020Orion Blacksun
<ship's log><Nyarlathotep ORI-07>
<Cmdr Orion Blacksun>
<20 oct 3306>
Day 33
I'm back. It would have been easy to abandon this quest. Too easy. I've spent the last few weeks running with a squadron. They are a good bunch and I've had some interesting times with them and they've provided exactly the distraction I needed to rebalance myself. Surely all this nonsense looking for monsters is just pure foolishness, why continue?
And yet, a few things I've seen have kept me coming back time and again to Montgomery's expedition. Ghost ship, madness, thargoid incursions. With the squadron I fought interceptors and scouts, I've seen crashed ships up close and the more I think about it the more it fits. Thargoid ships are like something out of a nightmare, or perhaps something out of a Lovecraft story?
So here I am, back in the phantom setting course for Polaris. The next few systems on the route are in Thargoid space so it will be interesting to see what I discover there.
Day 38
There is certainly a lot of activity here. I've been hyperdicted three times in as many days. I've encountered all manner of thargoid vessels but fortunately they aren't hostile. This is different behaviour to what I've observed from thargoids previously. Is it the eldar sign that is keeping them at bay, or is something more complex going on? There is no reason to suppose that the thargoids aren't as socially diverse as we are. There could be all manner of different factions each with their own adgenda.
I was able to visit the systems in the route without incident but also without finding anything. The next stop is much further out but after that I'll be in the way back to Sol.
Day 42
There is something here. A message from the void. Voices from the night.
Day 44
I'm heading further out... Jellyfish... Tailed star. Something for me there. Face in the stars. I will find it
Day 46
It was a trap! I don't know what came over me but as I approached the black hole I heard a voice on my comms. There were no other ships around. The signal source was the black hole itself.
I can't remember what the voice said. It was only a few days ago but it's all a blur, my head reeled I may have passed out, it's as if I was in a trance. Something was drawing me to a neutron star in the jellyfish nebula. I got there ad then proceeded to plot a course straight towards it. Madness!
My FSD failed (or did I disengage it?) and then suddenly in that moment I came to my senses. What was I doing here? Alarms were going off all over the ship as I was bathed in radiation from the star. A crack appeared in my canopy as I set the thrusters to full throttle with all power to the engines and tried to engage the FSD with my ship disintegrating about me. I managed to get it charging by overriding the powerplant saftey limits but it wouldn't engage. My ship spinning wildly and the canopy on the verge of shattering I hit the boost on the throttle and prepared for the end. Then those miraculous words from the ship computer and the longest four seconds of my life as the drive finally engaged. I travelled a short distance away then dropped out of supercruise and still shaking, began repairs to my ship.
I still had warnings going off all on several systems. Canopy integrety at 10%. That was how close I'd come.
But what had happened? There were a couple of garbled log entrys from the last few days but nothing else and no record of a transmission. Had I imagined it? The only other clues were navigation coordinates. One set for this system and another set for a system in the nearby monkey head nebula.
Of course, I should now head home. Of course I should. My ship is damaged and I've just suffered from some kind of mental episode. Is this what happened to Montgomery?
And yet, those coordinates, the monkey head isn't far. Just a quick peek. And then retreat at the first sign of danger? After all, I feel fine now. Just fine. Yes. Yes I do. Fine.
This is Commander Orion Blacksun signing off.