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Echoes of the Dark Star
Chapter 1: Awakening under a dark star

Chapter 1: Awakening under a dark star

As I slowly wake up and open my eyes, i feel unusually cold. Did i sleep naked? Where is my blanket? And was there always a hole on my roof? I jolt wide awake and the strangest sight appears before my eyes, and almost makes me choke on my own spit. I am not in my room. I am no where near my room! The sight before me is a stark contrast to all I've ever known. The ground around me is a desert plain, of strange purple sand that seems to glitter under light. The sky above me is a starless dark sky, with what appears to be a massive ruined looking megastructure in orbit. But that is not the strangest thing about the sky. No, what takes my breath away, and sends cold shivers down my spine, is the sun. Or the lack of one. Where the sun should have been, lies a supermassive black hole, with a terrifyingly violent looking accretion disk around it. There seem to be some rock formations and strange looking mountains in the distance. Exept... as i examine more closely, a dark realization clicks in my mind. Those aren't rocks or mountains, those are skeletons! They appear to be remains of alien organisms, but there is no mistake, those are definingly bones of long dead leviathans.

I slowly get on my feet, sand falling off my body. My feet shifting through the cold sand. The last thing i remember was going to sleep after a late night gaming session with my friends. The entire time i was examining the new environment i am in i was constantly pinching and slapping myself to make sure this isn't some kind of dream or hallucinations. I have had lucid dreams before, and i can tell that this is reality. It feels too real. Especially that damned cold! With that thought, the reality of my situation dawns on me. I somehow got transported on the starless planet while asleep, like in a plot of an anime. Problem is, the mc usually gets transported to a nice fantasy world with at the very least a warm cozy sun to bath under! Rumblings of my luck aside there are other pressing issues at hand. First things first, assuming i am not mental (bold assumption), i need to make sure i meet my basic needs, food, water and shelter. Aaaaand i already reached a massive roadblock. There is literally nothing around me. I am in the middle of nowhere desert wasteland. And unless the sand is edible and the bones bleed water, i might be in a bit of a pickle here.

"Come on man, is a little bit of good luck that much to ask?", i mutter under my breath, inadvertently making these this the first thing ive said on this world.

With nothing else to do i begin, what someone might call, aimless wandering, and what i call, purposeful search for anything that could help me survive. So with any direction as good as any in this wasteland, i pick a random direction to walk towards it. I do not have a plan in mind but its better than sitting around doing nothing. The sand under my feet is cold, but thankfully its not too cold. it feels like walking on a beach on a chilly summer night. I periodically gaze into the dark star above, as it is very hard not to, even if it makes me feel cold and gives me goosebumps. There is something funky going on with that black hole, or it might just be my imagination. Nonetheless it makes me uncomfortable to look at, so i try to shift my gaze to the structure above instead. I try to guess what its purpose was, but i cant tell. It looks incredibly alien, unlike anything I've seem before. I wonder where what it was used for, who built it, and most importantly, what happened to it, and this world? For the first time since waking up I felt dread at those thoughts and this desert. Quite honestly i am a bit scared, wandering through this desert with nothing but pyjamas on. A sudden sense of vulnerability washed over me. The uncertainty of my situation does not help, but i steel myself anyway. Its not like i can do much of anything else right now, but push forward and hope for the best. I will survive no matter what.

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As if hearing my doubts and answering my feeling i look up at the heavens as they where disturbed by something. In the distance, with a low rumble and a bright red glow trekking through the sky, i spotted a meteor falling down. Now, i am no expert, but i was, and still am fascinated by space and everything that is related to it, which is why i pursued a carrier in space engineering, so i think that this meteor is not just a random piece of rock, and it might instead be wreckage from the ruined megastructure in orbit. Judging by its obvious disrepair, even from the ground, this is most likely the case. Or at least i hope it is. If it is indeed a piece of wreckage, i might be able to salvage something useful from the crash site. That might be just my wishful and optimistic thinking but that is my only hope.

With renewed fervour in my steps i begin walking towards where i think the crash site will be. It does not appear to be crashing too far, i anticipate its 3-5 km away. A hour and a half walk roughly. I quickly take a mental note to make sure i don't wander off into the wrong direction. I try to set some landmarks such as one of the massive skeletons and the current location of the dark star. Hopefully the landmarks i set and the trail of smoke will help me to not lose my way.

*some time later*

Judging by the ache in my legs (i have a good sense of how much i travel based on what my body tells me, since i do a lot of cardio), it took about 2 hours to finally lay my eyes on the crash sight, but i finally got here. My fatigue quickly washed over by my excitement and a tinge of caution as i get closed. One thought in my mind prevailing. A word that would make any seasoned gamer salivate at the thought of. Its looting time.

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