Further Adventures In No Man's Sky

FURTHER ADVENTURES IN NO MAN'S SKY

My journey through space lead me to a forbidding-looking planet. Even from this far-off vantage point I could make out the bright glow of lava as it seeped out of cracks in the ground. Brown clouds drifted across the hellish landscape. As I began my descent toward the ground, my hopes of finding life here were not high.

As I flew through the brown fog of toxic clouds and caught glimpses of fire and brimstone bursting forth from the tortured ground, my hopes diminished further. But then, rising over the horizon, I caught sight of a neighbouring planet. Perhaps it would have a more hospitable environment?

I headed over there. The hellish planet I had just left hung suspended in the sky like a gigantic portent of doom. But there was signs of life on the landscape I now flew over. I could make out tall plants sprouting from the sandstones that had been sculpted by the winds.

Embarking from my cockpit, it did not take me long to discover my first creature. It had scaly, reptilian skin typical of an animal adapted to hot, dry climates. And yet there was also something mammalian about it, in that its head had an almost lion-like quality to it. To my mind's eye, this creature looked like a cross between a dimetrodon and a lion. It sniffed at some toadstool-like plants and began to consume one.

Leaving the tranquil creature to its meal, I surveyed my surroundings in order to plan my trek. A hot wind had begun to blow, and it was kicking up dust that obscured my vision. I peered through the gloom to see tall plants and the tortured shapes of weathered rock, silhouetted against the light of day.

I journeyed across the dusty landscape, my environmental suit doing its best to filter out the airborne particles and prevent my lungs from breathing in all that grit and sand. Eventually the winds died down and the air cleared somewhat. As before, the sky above me was dominated by the planet I had abandoned for being too hellish to support life. And, as I gazed up at it, as if to confirm that life could thrive on the planet I was not trekking across, a couple of bat-like creatures soar against the backdrop of that forbidding world.

I journeyed on, clambering up over sandstone rocks and passing through natural arches caused by erosion, keeping an eye out for flora and fauna and cataloguing my discoveries. As time went by the sun began to set and the stars came out. Billions of twinkling diamonds promising new adventures to come. I settled down for the night, my environmental suit protecting me from the chilly desert night.

Next morning I was awoken by the glare of daylight and a most peculiar sound like giant castanets being clicked-clicked-clicked together. Scuttling toward me came the source of that sound: A giant crab. Its beady black eyes waved on their stalks as it advanced toward me, not sideways as crabs are known to do on our world, but in a forwards direction. Its pincers were massive and I feared the damage they would likely do to me, so I fled.

My flight was in no particular direction; I just wanted to get away from that monstrous crab. But perhaps something was guiding me after all, for my hurried escape brought me within sight of a large building. It was predominately green in colour save for a huge cream-coloured orb on its roof. I assumed this was some kind of radar installation like those geodesic domes they built in the Arctic back home. The most remarkable thing about the building was how pristine it was. All that dust that regularly got stirred up and yet the building was so clean. I surmised it might have been treated with some coating that revelled dirt somehow.

I headed for what looked like the entrance, partly out of fear of the crab and the need to find a secure shelter, but also out of curiosity. What awaited me inside? The building, it turned out, was empty. And yet it gave the impression of not having been abandoned very long. The lights were still functioning. Several of the items were familiar to me. In one part of the room I could see what were undeniably a chair and a table, upon which there sat some geometric shape whose purpose was unknown to me. But dominating the room, both by being situated right in its centre and by its sheer size, as a giant holographic display showing an orb patterned with many little hexagons. As I watched, some of those hexagons changed colour from red to white. At first I did not know what this implied, but then it dawned on me that those white hexagons represented the path I had taken on my journey. This was a map of the star systems and somebody or something was taking an interest in my adventure.

But who? Or what?

My adventure continued.

Thanks to Hello Games for the images.