Oh Monolith, the legend of Jericho. The pride of the Fleet of the Departed, the ancient shrine of the Liu family. I’m looking through a worn fiberglass helmet at your deserted squares, the destroyed minarets of skyscrapers. The wounds of your monuments are my wounds. Memory of the dead is my memory. So many years have passed, but the pain of loss is still in my heart.
Here, in this majestic city, I once found and lost my happiness. My family. I was not with them when the United Fleet dealt its fatal blow. Many years have passed since then and now I’m standing here again. On the main square of Bartle’s Temple…
How did it happen that I’m back here in the Antaress system? The road was long. It all started for me and my team a year ago. When the mysterious ‘Broker’ gave us a contract in the system SY3176-GIII-A4. Under the guise of an archaeological expedition, we had to infiltrate the long-abandoned station, located on the planetoid ‘Dead World’. The gas giant, in whose orbit the planetoid is, continued to haunt my nightmares for a long time. Like the gaze of the dark, almost black eyes of a mysterious girl, enclosed in the many sarcophagi of the Ark I encountered in the underground labyrinths.
There, next to the mummified body of a long-deceased last inhabitant of the station, I found the ill-fated diary. Ageless plastic of soft pages was filled with tidy lines of her experiences. The intricacies of hatred and love. There was also something of value there. Mentions of a discovery. Almost a legend. But it was this legend that led me first to Morag, where Ellydium was actively exploring a giant ship wrecked on one of the satellites of the giant MOA-2011-BLG-322.
That time, I was late. The shuttle with the cargo had time to launch. The mysterious artifact, which we call ‘The Cursed Legacy’, disappeared for a long time. They say that it contains all the truth about what happened to our world. Its past, present, and our future. I saw what it could do to a man. Corridors of the Ellydium Center were flooded with blood, and survivors in the catacombs lost their minds.
And here I am. In the Monolith. My path once again brought me here. The Broker once again got in touch. According to him, it was here, somewhere in the depths of the dead city, that the activity of the artifact was detected again. Or several artifacts.
I have to learn the truth. The Schokn brothers are already waiting for me in their ships in orbit. The portals are opening. The day will be tough for us. The time of challenges is not over yet…
_ To be continued… _