I'm still here but it really does seem that if my health doesn't kill me; college will. I am a bit behind to writing this compared to in game current but only by a star system. If the next chapter seems a bit vague on detail its cuz of all the info on the first atlas interface and four planets that I romped through.
The last planet in this star system was called "Alzirtaka Nugzh" The atmosphere was not the thickest They had encountered but it was clear that it did snow on this world. The land was multi-colored with pink rock, green patches They assumed was grassland and snow where the star's light didn't touch in the deep valleys and mountain peaks. They landed in a clearing, devoid of the trees that were rather large and imposing. It looked very much like a taiga biome. The Dentaalin landed rather close to their vessel and They couldn't help but glance at Athenis in the pilot seat, but of course with Their helmet he couldn't see their expression. The waypoint declared this area the "Uhcho Woods" and it seemed rather expansive. With a deep breath, They steeled themselves for the next couple of days.
The group only stayed on Alzirtaka for a couple of sols. The main reason for staying was getting the components to make warp cells for the Dentaalin. The Gek managed to mine a modest amount of Emeril and They mined what They could of the deposits' as well. The Gek were not fond of the frigid nature of this planet and were prone to complain. It made Them not feel alone but at the same time a part of Them missed the relative silence of isolation. No matter, this was the new situation.
The last night on the planet They pulled up the galaxy map and They pointed to the next location the Atlas had given Them "Farvaavarm-Egkou." It was strange because Their database showed a small icon They didn't recognize. The warp was uneventful and this new system was a startling fuchsia in hue. There were three planets and as Their visor focused on these planets, They felt their heart speed up. These planets were discovered by another traveler.
Their mind went to many different places at once. Excitement, anxiety, curiosity and various other emotions all blurred into a seemingly large wave that completely encompassed Them.
The planets may have been discovered by someone else but the logs were not complete. At this They decided to finish the logs, not only for completion but also for the chance to find that traveler. If they hadn't already gone… The Gek didn't have the knowledge that these worlds had already been visited and were content to gather more resources. The first planet was a nice one, with pink skies and turquoise grasses and other vibrant flora. With the knowledge of the other two planets at hand They decided it was too dangerous for the Gek to go to those. After Kuriou made a communication beacon that would aid in coordinating They set off. The second planet had toxic rain that never let up, and was relatively barren anyway. The last one was supremely hot. Like during a storm, the temperature averaged 329 degrees Celsius. There was plenty of Radnox, which was quite rare and They harvested all They could find to turn some profit.
Finding the animals was not difficult and unlike the other star systems these planets had clear day/night cycles. One of the monoliths that they had found on the burning planet named "Davilliepi Joner" gave Them coordinates to a star system a bit off the path of Atlas. An…Interface? They radioed to the Dentaalin and got the location of the meeting spot. This was located back on the turquoise grass planet that they thought had been renamed by this unknown traveler. The name did not bring anything to mind so They mentally shrugged at it. There was a part of Them that hoped the traveler was still here. In any case if that traveler looked back in their log they would surely notice that someone else had filled it in? It would make Them curious if that had occurred to Them.
They brought up the Atlas Interface during meal time around the fire and the Gek seemed to go into deep thought. "Have to go?" asked Kuriou her voice and smell seemed to ooze nervousness. Athenis looked intrigued and Jalen was unreadable. "I think so." Is all They could reply with. The language gap didn't allow for much eloquent conversation. Athenis spoke calmly. "I will go with you; others can stop on planet nearby Atlas." This apparently caused a bit of a squabble and since it was in Gek, They could only look back and forth as the trio argued.
After a couple of moments, it settled, and Athenis again spoke. "We all go." Kuriou looked apprehensive, and Jalen seemed fairly akin to the idea. They reminded the group there was a star system that was in between the party and the interface. It wouldn't be a quick thing to hop to. After some talk everyone got out their sleeping gear. Sleeping bags on the ground because this world was balmy, no storms or severe temperature.
They crawled into Theirs and stared up into the fuchsia night sky. Their thoughts wandering back to the other traveler. The majority of Their thoughts had been fairly confident that They weren't the only traveler running around. But some of the time, when seeing nothing but Korvax, Gek or Vy'Keen and not a whisper of others…That is when doubt creeps in. A fear of the purest form of being alone…and solitude. No matter They had the facts that there is at least one other, but surely even more than that out there. While thinking on how a first encounter would go, They found Themselves falling asleep.
The morning duties were brief and after computing the coordinates into the Dentaalin, They entered Their ship and took off. The Dentaalin followed suit and soon the group was back into the magenta colored star system this planet resided in. They imputed the star coordinates and after a moment of checking, They engaged warp. The jump was short and this seemed to be a rather small system. Only a couple of planets and a single moon. There wasn't a space station so there wasn't any traffic in this system. The color of this star system was a tannish color, with little debris from asteroids or ships for that matter. Through the communicator They indicated that They wished to land on the moon first, due to the less amount of ground the group would have to go through if there were species on that moon.
Entering the moons atmosphere was turbulent and jolted the ship more than once, They kept checking to make sure the Dentaalin was not falling behind, or worse. When They broke through the clouds, Their heart sank a bit. This planet was covered in fungi, and various kinds of flora. The ship was reading that the planet was heavily irradiated and that did not bode well for the Gek with them. They established a comm link and through a trying process tried to explain what the problem was. Their Vy'Keen wasn't exactly up to the task but at least they relayed it was dangerous to leave the ships.
When They hopped out from the cockpit, even though They were insulated from the outside, They felt that the air was muggy, and rank. The reading from Their visor said that it was around 10.5 Rads of radiation which was very dangerous. They had already upgraded all of Their elemental shielding as high as They could; so for now They were safe. When the shields were low They could construct shielding plates from the plentiful amount of Iron so that wasn't really a danger to Them anymore. Not so for Their companions. The planet was named "Xiphiucclino", and though it was bizarre in appearance…They supposed a charm could be found. They figured that the first order of business is to get the components to make radioactive shielding for the Gek, so They wouldn't stay cooped up in the Dentaalin. Meanwhile They can collect the species data, and try to find gold deposits to build that warp drive upgrade.
The ground was crusty and dry, and there were various vents that spewed yellow radioactive gas into the atmosphere. The sky was a light yellow, almost always heavily clouded with various shades of yellow clouds. There were plants that had tentacles and writhing which was one of the more disturbing things They have encountered. There were huge fungal spores erupting from the ground and had to be a few meters in height. There were also trees that had broad green leaves, with thick, curving trunks that were scattered across the landscape. There were various rock formations that seemed like spikes and gave a slightly eerie look to the horizon.
They started collecting data on some flora near the ship, when a sound from above may Them pause and tilt Their head up. There were these creatures floating in the sky…They seemed serpentine in appearance and colored a dun color and just seemed to swim in the air. They had to be at least the length of their vessel if not a little more…It was so different to anything They've seen They watched the herd? Float through the sky, riding thermals or something of the like.
Shaking Their head to refocus They proceeded to collect the materials They needed and were mindful to the fauna both on land, and sky. It took a couple of sols, and They had gone through a couple of shield plates already. A storm had taken Them by surprise, but that won't happen again. Every evening They went back into the Dentaalin and handed over the materials needed to make the radioactive shielding. The Gek had some gravtino orbs but not enough to make three shields only two. Kuriou decided she didn't want any and preferred to be on the ship anyway. Athenis was cataloguing the flora in an interested air since he was the first to get a shield and Jalen was next and seemed to stick close to Them. Out of the trio, Jalen was the more cryptic one. He had a bit of a violent streak and preferred to be withholding his opinion. His multi-tool was more geared toward his boltcaster and grenades. It also wasn't like They could be eloquent in Vy'Keen to try to talk to Jalen to see what was on his mind.
There weren't any gold deposits on the moon and there were only ten species to find and it was done quickly. There were a lot of these pods containing Calium but there was not an upgrade They needed so it was a good investment to collect for Units. Even this wasn't enough to keep Them here for long though. The Gek seemed ready to leave as well.
They decided to go to the parent planet to this moon and it was quick to arrive. The planet was by far more pleasant than its moon. The name it was designated by was "Tatlehperh Atsu." The sky was a light purple, with lime green grasses with the occasional hot pink broad leafed shrub. There were various trees and shrubs; purple or scarlet leaves and white trunks. Some of the trees seemed tropical in nature and was a mix between the scarlet and violet hues. The oceans were vast on this world and had a pink color to the water. The islands were various sizes and some of them had steep rock formations. The climate was relatively cool, with freezing rain otherwise it was a nice planet.
The first and only real disappointment was there was no gold on this planet, but there was Emeril crystals formed in the cave systems that ran through the islands. There was plenty of fauna and flora to catalogue. They decided to mine the Emeril so they had enough for the warp drive upgrade and hopefully the planet left in this system had the gold They needed. The Gek seemed content to playing in the pink oceans as They looked through the islands for all the fauna. A task They were finding was going to be a hard task to complete.
Through the process of finding all the fauna, during one of the nights They were out on this small island that was just off one of the large islands with Jalen in tow. Jalen seemed to be irritated from the all the talking the other two did and decided to accompany Them. It was a comfort to a degree because Jalen would watch Their back, but They were curious to what went through his mind.
A low metal grinding sound caused both of them to pause. Up on the farthest point of the hill was a monolith, and it was of a type They had not encountered before. It was shaped like a dish with inner rings that rotated slowly in the dish proper. The lines of the monolith glowed blue. They stepped on the pedestal and saw the name of this monolith. "Remnants of Argestif-Lubi." An image showed before them both. "An ancient warrior's feet and legs slowly emerge from the bottom of the monolith. The rest of its torso then follows, unceremoniously pushed out onto the alien turf. It has been decapitated. Blood drips at my feet and high above me and high above me a disembodied head laughs at my shock. It shouts a guttural command of encouragement down to me. Behind, I hear an ancient blade unsheathe, and someone rushing toward me…" They stood Their ground and the vision was gone even as They heard the praise from above.
A clatter came from behind and They turned to see a Vy'Keen dagger laying down on the pedestal. They bent down and grasped the hilt. It was a bit longer than the daggers They had encountered before and seemed to have a silver-blue sheen to the blade unlike the coppery ones They had encountered. The weapon was denser than it appeared and They gave it a slight swing. The metal almost seemed to hum through the air as it arced. Jalen said a single Vy'Keen word. "good." After a moment of looking on their person to see where They could wear it, it was decided They would just head back the way They came.
After mining 2000 pieces of Emeril ore and finding all the fauna the group jumped to the last planet in the "Vedbotalogdank III" star system. It was a frigid planet, dusted with snow from yellow skies. It was mostly forests with little vales and broad mountains. This planet was not visited long, as if some entity had taken pity on the group there was plenty of gold on this world and most of the time was making components for the ships and the shielding components. The gek had an interesting time making the rest of the components for the theta warp drive. Both ships needed it because the group was traveling together.
Installing took a better part of a week, Athenis finishing out the fauna catalog for the planet on an accident since he had been looking for components to make a couple of warp cells. With all the upgrades that could be done were the group was anxious to be off. The star map indicated where the interface was only another jump away. Over that last supper in the current star system They agreed the morning the group would depart.
