the first impulse into the unknown

The sound of automatic doors opening mixes with metallic echoes. The training chamber, known as The Spectral Chamber, extends into a huge dome, with walls of energy simulating hostile environments. Holographic towers, plasma projectiles, synthetic enemies. All designed for a single purpose: to forge survivors.

From the observation room, a huge glass booth suspended above the chamber, Selene watches carefully what is going on inside. Her face serious, arms crossed, her gaze fixed on the figure moving precisely in the center of the simulation.

The heavy door to the training chamber slid aside with a metallic rustle, and the main corridor of the ship opened before them. Korrin walked in front, face expressionless, her boots echoing with mathematical precision against the metal floor. Selene followed with a less stiff step, her arms folded behind her back.

Next to him, leaning in an exaggeratedly casual way against a metal railing, is Hazak, a tall young man with golden skin, straight dark hair pulled back under a black fedora hat. His chest is exposed, covered with painted symbols and marks that mimic ancient scars... Although at first glance they seem decorative rather than real wounds. He wears a long black trench coat open in front and matching pants. His smile is as sharp as it is unnecessary.

Hazak with a mocking and carefree attitude takes out a candy from his pocket and puts it in his mouth and then speaks.

Hazak: And this is the famous heroine of the ship? She moves well... although I'd say more like someone with too many demons than a soldier.

Selene answers him but without looking at her.

Selene: He is not training to be a soldier. He's fighting what's inside him. Day in and day out.

Hazak: And wouldn't it be easier to take her to therapy? This feels more like punishment than training.

Hazak said without any remorse.

In a main corridor, Korrin walks alongside Selene. They both head toward the control room to set the next course.

Selene: The scanning team detected traces of unknown energy in Sector 17.

Korrin: Or a trap. But we can't afford to ignore anything.

Suddenly, Korrin stops. An intense pang runs through his head. He brings one hand to his temple and leans the other against the wall.

██████: You can't escape... I am always with you...

The vision is distorted. The ship seems to fade around him. In his mind, the dark figure of the entity materializes, floating among the memories.

Korrin: Shut up!

██████: You can try to escape...but everything you see, everything you have ever loved...is mine. And always will be. I am the beginning... and the end.

Selene observes calmly, although concern is visible in her eyes. It is not the first time this has happened.

██████: You remember the glass garden, don't you? Where you broke your favorite toy... just like you broke your friends.

Selene: Those voices again... The only thing they're good for is to give you headaches. Although, of course, they also bring us closer to that thing that destroyed your home planet.

Korrin: I know. But I have to endure. If enduring this torment leads me to destroy it, it's worth it.

A tremor runs through the structure. Lights flicker. An alarm begins to sound. The nearest screens project a flashing signal: a rupture of the space is occurring.

The crew mobilizes immediately. Korrin and Selene quicken their pace towards the control room. The ship's pulse increases with each step.

In the control room, an alarm begins to sound. Everyone mobilizes. On the screens, a break in space is displayed.

Monitor 1: Breakthrough at 0.2 AU! Contact in five minutes!

Korrin enters with a firm step. All around her, the crew watches her, waiting for orders. She closes her eyes for a moment. Images of the past cross her mind: the meadow, her friends, the destruction. She opens her eyes with resolution.

Korrin: My father used to tell me that the universe always finds a way to balance itself. That even in chaos, there is order. But what kind of balance is this?Everything we knew, everything we were, reduced to dust. To shadows...

██████: The screams... you can't forget them. You saw them disappear, one by one...you saw them shrink into emptiness.

Korrin: That entity... it has destroyed more than we can ever recover. But as long as I am alive, I will not let it take anything else... We have lived too long in the shadow of death, If that same darkness thinks it can consume us all, it is truly very wrong.

He turns to his crew. His voice booms through the room.

Korrin: At this moment, I am not just a captain, but rather the last memory of a civilization that no longer exists. And I will fight to the end, even if it means facing the void itself.

Before continuing, Korrin pauses to point to his chest.

Korrin: I will stop that entity, and everything that crosses our path, because if I don't do it... who else will have the courage to do it?. I fight not only for those who are left... but for those who are no longer here, for those who never had a chance. For those who never had a chance. Set a course for the breakthrough of the gap, This battle has just begun!

The crew responds with a war cry. The ship launches into the unknown.

A voice, barely a whisper, echoes in the darkness:  Welcome home, you little liar.

And in the silence of space, the beat of a heart resounds...