LEGACY - 2212 CE

Part 1:

As the 22nd century rolled around, humanity began to escape Earth's deterioration. I follow a fragment of them as they reach for the stars to find a new haven. After a long journey in the depths of space, they find a jewel cradled by a binary dance of azure and gold stars, and name it Aetherion. The promise of a fresh start beneath the watchful eye of its sister planet, a grand crimson orb in the sky. Here, on this new stage, they dream of weaving a unique future, bringing both their ancient myths and technological wonders.

The settlers are children of Earth's undying spirit and, while calling themselves Aetherians, still hold tight to the stories of their past. They wish for Demeter's fruitful bounty as they till strange and unfamiliar soil. They speak of Athena's wisdom as they form and adapt their laws. They whisper of Hades and the ever-present risk of death. This newly shaped society lives with the mindset that their gods walk beside them as they chart the cosmos, helping them build their first settlement. What they hope to be their legacy.

One fateful morning in the spring of 2212, I find myself under the twin stars' embrace as a discovery stirs the community. The most recent scan revealed an ancient vessel, adrift and apparently silent, approaching Aetherion. What was first dismissed as an asteroid, becomes clear as a construct not born of nature. The surface of this ship puzzles them, covered by unknown materials and strange symbols, but its arrival unites the people in awe and unease. As if a specter from the void is calling to them, they decide to name it Leviathan's Song.

Part 2:

They send survey and research teams out beyond the atmosphere, so the brightest minds of Aetherion can unravel the secrets of the vessel. Days pass by as they prod and roam the Leviathan’s sprawling depths, deciphering symbols and script. However, the ship itself proves difficult to control and it continues to head in its original path. Straight for Aetherion. It is when they unearth traces of what they believe was a cult that vanished into history's shadows, that the fear begins to settle amidst them. They discover that this ancient group had sought communion with a being they called the Whisperer in the Void, a presence that stretched its influence across the cosmos. They built the vessel to serve as a beacon for this entity.

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The allure of the unknown, while alarming to some, speaks of the lore of Morpheus and the legends of Hypnos, so the settlers contemplate on the nature of this Whisperer. It speaks to them and their desire to leave something behind. They pour through history, rituals, and information gathered from the Leviathan, uncovering a rare convergence of the stars and the red planet. Gambling on the legitimacy of the event being a time of prophecy and power, they construct a combination of arcane rites and data relays. They hope the knowledge they acquire will allow for a successful legacy, one that can sustain them for eons to come.

From the expansive bridge of the Leviathan’s Song, blue flames flash around a makeshift metal pedestal. Wires spread behind it, attached to mechanisms of both human and ancient origin. The room appears to vibrate in anticipation as the Aetherians begin their eldritch casting.

Part 3:

As the celestial bodies align, their incantations reach their peak, the air alive with the hum of cosmic energy. The stars flash in concert and the dull red planet, a mute guardian over Aetherion, erupts in a vivid display of fiery defiance, a triangle of light in the sky. As my fellows beckon forth the entity, the Leviathan rumbles and shakes as a deep blue-green mist covers the ship. The Aetherians hear the incomprehensible whispers transform into a reverberating voice in their minds.

The voice of Ngyr-Khorath, the truth behind the Whisperer of the Void. It awakens offering not wisdom and legacy, but a path to ruin. I watch as all my fellows fall to the terror that Ngyr-Khorath brings with it. As the Aetherians weep and despair, the Leviathan’s Song, once a silent testament to forgotten aspirations enters Aetherion’s atmosphere, the sky a blaze of blue flame and black fog. Its fall marks the end of dreams, a crash that wipes out our colony and most of us along with it. Not many of us survive. Amidst the wreckage of their hopes, we face a future marred by the scars of our own folly.

We stand amidst the debris, watching the still-turbulent vermillion planet, the truth laid bare. We searched for guardians in the vast dark and a way to leave something of worth behind. Our journey caused our own unraveling, yet even as we were surrounded by the fallout, whispers endured. Tales of a figure in red, watching the Leviathan, watching us, from the atmosphere just as Ngyr-Khorath struck us down, swirling around the ever watchful carmine eye in the sky.