Chapter 2.1 - Into the Strange

You gather your things and head back to the transport trolley, strapping yourselves in, and the car proceeds back to the center of the station, moves 'sideways' down a ring, aligns with middle (Arclight) ring's spin, and then drops back out to the ring. The sensation of gravity picks up, and you find yourselves in the Arclight ring.

Again, helpful system terminals continue to display directions for you as you near them, somehow alerted to your presence. You follow the directions and arrive at a pressure door marked E4. The system terminal by the door indicates that the ambient pressure is equalized and you can enter as you will. The door opens at your touch, and you see a strange contraption.


Awuim is off to the side. He shares a long glance with you at the vehicle, and then waves you over to where he is standing. You see a number of thin suits, some with armored plating, some without, within a storage rack.

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You can each take an environment suit. If you are trained with armor, you can pick a suit that will function with the appropriate armor rating for you.

Looking from Awium to the suits Floats on Thunder blinks several times and suits up in an environment suit without plating.

"Could use a little something with a little more flash" Diego says as he looks over the environment suits, picking out one of the unarmored ones. "This will have to do..."

After climbing into your suits, Awium leads you into the craft through a small hatchway. You climb a small ladder and then find yourselves in the middle of a cramped seating area. Three chairs are to your left (the front), and a table to your right (the rear). Awium takes the chair that is placed centrally in front of an array of dials and switches and a window through which you can see the hangar. There are two seats immediately behind his, also with a number of dials and toggles and gauges. Lastly, there are two long benches on either side of the table that fill up the back of the cabin. Another ladder across from you leads to the lower level.

Strapping into your seats, Awium turns a small wheel on his console and you hear the pressure door hatchway seal behind you. The craft hums to life, and lifts off the hangar floor. Through the window in front, you can see the hangar doors open, and the craft hums its way into space. That's when things get weird.

Once in space, you can see stars everywhere in front of you, brighter and crisper then even the clearest desert night. But it only lasts a few seconds before the window turns foggy, and then a wave of swirling purple miasma crashes onto the window, breaking into smaller copies of the wave that break into smaller identical waves and so on until it has faded into nothing.

Awium says, his voice echoing in your helmets through by some sort of communication technology, "We have entered The Strange. Tombstone Station doesn't exist within the depths of outer space, as much as it seems to when you're inside. Once we leave the confines of the station, some few hundred meters from the outer walls, we pass into The Strange. From here," he continues, the dark purple fractal mist of the dark energy sliding sideways as he spins his craft in place, revealing a small filmy bubble maybe a dozen yards across, "we can see the recursion as it appears from outside.". The vague shape of the space station with its rings and storage tanks can be seen within.

Behind the station, the twin stars, one cannibalizing the other, can be seen within the purple waves of dark energy. Awium turns in his chair and looks at each of you. "Usually things like planets and stars don't show up in The Strange. Sometimes they appear and disappear for a few moments, but this pair is an exception. The researchers on Tombstone Station are trying to determine why, but that isn't my concern. I'm an explorer of The Strange, I sail the fractal tides, navigating by sign posts only the trained can see. This ship is called Isildur. I'll take you to what I found nearby, which may be the source of the planetovores agents."

The craft spins in place again, and then smoothly accelerates into the depths.

After about a half hour, a small rocky asteroid appears within the pulsating mists. The craft slows and hovers near the rock, before Awium causes the ship to move sideways, orbiting the rock while keeping the front window facing the asteroid. Soon, a small hut appears, made of long pipes of dark, pitted rock fitted poorly together. A doorway can be clearly seen.

The Isildur lowers down and lands on the asteroid. "If you would care to explore the interior of the asteroid, you'll probably catch them by surprise. I'll hang back but if you need backup, our communications should work unless you get near a nuclear reactor."

Words like "nuclear reactor" and "asteroid" caught my attention, but again I'm surprised that I actually know what he's is talking about. Still testing out my suit, I ready myself for our expidition.

Floats on Thunder nods to the man grabbing him by the forearm with his hand. "We shall see what lies ahead in the unknown then." he states with a nod.

"Uh, don't anybody go jumping too high. Might not land... So, how long can we be out here in these things?"

Diego carefully maneuvers himself over to the handle, more to have something to hold onto than for any other reason. Tightening his grip he looks to the others, "Wanna see what's inside?"

"I suspect you are right, jumping to the stars man not let one land as freely... we have a small amount of time but we would not want to 'sleep out' here most likely. If everyone is ready." Floats on Thunder states in a hushed tone pulling the light blaster from his outer belt and nodding.

With a small blaster out the shaman nods.

"Let's do this!"

Blaster ready, I enter the door.