Further Adventures In No Man's Sky

FURTHER ADVENTURES IN NO MAN'S SKY

Travelling through space, I came across three planets. Each one appeared to glow a deep red as the starlight reflected off of their atmospheres. Having explored lots of desert worlds, I set my scanner to search for a different environment, and set course for the world that matched my criteria.

As my craft cut through the atmosphere and descended toward the ground, I saw below me brown marshland decorated with red plants and everywhere there was mist hanging low over the landscape.

I climbed out of my cockpit and set foot on the ground. It was wet and muddy, but here and there patches of rock grew, so I felt confident that I would not sink into some bottomless swamp. I surveyed by location, and noticed those single-leaved plants I had spotted on other worlds. And, also, something else. Something giant, red and wormlike, but completely motionless. I could not tell if it were animal or vegetable or something else entirely.

While I was pondering this strange sight, one of this planet's inhabitants scurried past. It was a red and white-striped creature, as colourful as a harlequin, with a purple and green head topped with a shiny crest. For some reason it had what looked like the vestiges of wings on its back, though surely this heavy-looking quadruped never had the capability to fly. It seemed in rather a hurry as its four legs carried it past me.

I headed off, climbing up a slope until I was out of the mist. At the summit of the low hill I had climbed I found an impressive-looking red plant standing amidst the pebbles and tufts of grass that littered the hill.

As I walked down the hill, I caught sight of a creature whose most curious feature was the fact that it had not two, not four, but rather six legs. Four of those legs were thick and elephantine, but the hind legs were thin and slender like a bird's. As for the rest of the animal, well it looked like a cow crossed with a tortoise. What forces of evolution could have resulted in a chimeric animal such as this?

I wandered on, eventually coming to a place where the wet, brown mud gave way to what looked like sandstone, some of it carved into pillars. Here, as in the place where I had touched down upon this world, were those strange red wormlike structures, just as motionless as the ones I had beheld before. And something else, a tall plant with a twisted stem that resembled a length of rope rising up like a snake under a charmer's spell. At the top of this plant was a huge bulbous structure emitting what appeared to be black smoke. I presumed it was spores.

While I was still trying to figure out exactly what those red wormlike things were, one of this world's creatures came walking toward me. It was a slender-looking animal, with two long legs that gave it an appearance vaguely like a flightless bird such as an ostrich. The rest of it looked nothing like an ostrich, however, and I was hard-pressed to think what I could compare it to. A dinosaur would perhaps be the closest comparison I could make. A green dinosaur. And blind, too. I could see no eyes, or indeed any sensory organs at all. Just a head and a mouth. Yet, somehow it appeared to have some capability of detecting my presence, because its path adjusted so that it could walk past me.

After much walking, evening came and the sun dipped beneath the hills. A wind got up and, in the skies above my head, the clouds began to gather and hang ominous and black as the light diminished. And then the rains began to fall, torrents that soon had waterfalls gushing over rocks and the marshland flooded. I decided it was time to leave this damp, marshy landscape and search for new worlds to explore.

Thanks to Hello Games for the images.