Further Adventures In No Man's Sky

FURTHER ADVENTURES IN NO MAN'S SKY

Looming out of the red light of a nebula, and with its atmosphere blazing orange as the sun rose over the horizon, my spaceship took me toward the next planet.

As I descended toward its surface, the warning systems alerted me to great danger. This was a toxic world, utterly inhospitable to animal life. Below me I could make out twisted rock formations, carved into improbable shapes by goodness knows what force. I might have given up exploration of this forsaken world, but there was something else in addition to the myriad warnings. My sensors were picking up signals that had to be artificial in nature. The balance of randomness with repetition betrayed the purposeful nature of those signals, and their brevity gave me reason to believe the message was either a distress call, or a warning. Curiosity piqued, I decided to land and head in the direction of the beacon. Fortunately, a previous encounter with a friendly alien species had culminated with my being given something that would help on such a hazardous journey.

The cargo bay of my craft opened up and its contents were gently lowered onto the ground. It was a rover, with four huge tires that could make light work of even the roughest terrain. For the sake of minimising my impact on biomes I had not used this vehicle anywhere else. But for this journey time seemed to be of the essence, and besides, there was no life on this barren rock. No, that was not quite the case. Looking out across the landscape I could make out a few plants. Maybe, given sufficient time they would terraform this environment but for now it was just them, myself, and whatever was transmitting that signal.

I set off, the wheels carving tracks into virgin dirt and kicking up rocks that must have lain undisturbed for countless numbers of years. All around me was barren desert, and were it not for that signal getting stronger as I approached its source, I dare say the only sound to accompany me on this world would be the ceaseless, toxic winds.

It took most of the day to make the trek toward the source of the signal, so by the time I arrived the location was bathed in the golden glow of a sunset. Before me, I beheld the twisted remains of a crashed spacecraft. Black smoke belched from a metal scar torn across its roof, and bits of the craft were scattered here and there. I had to climb out of the safety of my cockpit in order to search for what was emitting the signal, but I would have to be quick. In this place, more than a few minute's exposure would be more than my environmental suit could handle.

Searching hurriedly, I pinpointed the source of the signals. It was coming from a ball-shaped device trailing thick rubber hoses. As I knelt down to investigate further, a hatch opened before me. Inside this device I saw many blue lights, forming many patterns in quick succession. To my amazement, those lights formed a word, and that word was ARTEMIS...

The adventure continued...

Thanks to Hello Games for the images