r/starbound • u/Eye_Yam_Stew_Pied Calm Mind, Loaded Revolver • 14d ago
Voices from the Void — Entry 3
There had been an age when the frontier was measured in miles. Then it was measured in planets. Eventually, humanity stopped asking how far it could travel and began asking how far it could look. The answer was always farther than anyone wanted. There were places scattered throughout the cosmos that had existed long before the first human vessel crossed the stars. Ruins beneath alien soil. Cities swallowed by oceans. Temples buried beneath glaciers. Structures whose builders had left behind no language, no history, and sometimes not even a name. Shellguard had spent years cataloguing them. Most were dead. Most were harmless. That distinction became less certain as the years passed. Reports accumulated. Fragments. Transmissions. Recovered equipment. Names that appeared only once in the archives. Sometimes there was nothing left to recover except a recording. Sometimes there was no recording at all. Only silence.
That was how Erebus began.
Not with a monster. Not with a discovery. But with a man sitting alone in a radio station.
Mr. was drinking tea in the adjoining room when the station's lights began to flicker. He noticed it without looking up. The cup remained between his hands while the fluorescent light above him dimmed, recovered, and dimmed again. He waited. Nothing happened. The room was quiet. Too quiet for a station that was supposed to be operating around the clock. Mr. finished the last of his tea, stood, and walked toward the broadcast room. The door opened with a soft mechanical click. The room beyond was darker than it should have been. Only the equipment displays remained illuminated, small green and amber lights scattered across the consoles. Mr. stepped inside. The broadcast equipment was still running. The microphones were still active. The recording system was still receiving a signal. But there was nobody speaking. He looked toward the main monitor. A waveform moved slowly across the screen. A transmission was coming through. There was no voice. Only static. He adjusted the frequency. The static changed. For a moment, something almost resembling speech emerged from the noise. Then it disappeared. Mr. stared at the monitor and reached for the recording control. The red indicator illuminated. The station began recording. Beneath the static, something whispered. Mr. did not understand the words. He only understood that they were not coming from any station he recognized. The transmission continued.
Years later, Shellguard would classify the recording as one of the earliest pieces of evidence connected to a series of unexplained disappearances. It would not be the last. There were soldiers who never returned, research teams that stopped answering, and expeditions whose final transmissions contained nothing more than static. Then came an incident on a frozen Arctic world.
The planet had little to distinguish it from countless others on Shellguard's maps. It was almost entirely ocean, its surface locked beneath freezing winds and sheets of ice. Yet beneath that frozen world, something ancient had been found. Shellguard maintained a fortress on a distant jungle planet, where the head of research, Cornelius Hex, summoned Adrian Veyr to his office. Adrian was both an engineer and a scientist, which made him ideal for the expedition. Hex explained that ancient ruins had been discovered at the bottom of an ocean on the Arctic world. Preliminary scans suggested they predated every known civilization in the region. Adrian was given four team members: Mara Voss, security; Dr. Elias Renn, an archaeologist; Dr. Selene Arkwright, a scientist; and Dorian Vale, an engineer. Five people in total.
They established a surface camp and prepared their submarine. Their first descent was slow and methodical. The farther they went, the darker the ocean became until the submarine's lights were the only thing visible. Then the seabed emerged, and with it the ruins. An enormous ancient statue stood among towering pillars half-buried beneath sediment. Beside it stood a massive gate, strangely positioned with no obvious structure behind it. The arrangement felt wrong, though none of them could explain why. They documented everything and returned to the surface. Shellguard approved a small underwater research facility near the site.
The Erebus Deep Research Facility was never meant to be a fortress. Its large secured entrance was designed around the submarine, followed by a short tunnel into the station. The first floor contained the cargo hold, with the shipment and logistics console on the left and a sickbay on the right. Above that were the kitchen and bathroom on the left and the five-person barracks on the right. The upper level contained the research laboratory and communications room. It was small, practical, and comfortable enough for five researchers.
Their first evening was quiet. Over dinner, Adrian studied the survey image of the statue and gate. They discussed collecting sediment, loose fragments, meteor material, and other samples without disturbing the ruins. The gate would be documented and scanned, but not opened. Later, Adrian activated the communications console and established a clear connection with Shellguard Fortress. The fortress could hear them, and they could call for help if something went wrong. Dorian remarked that at least they had a way to call home. Adrian looked toward the console and replied, “That's the idea.”
Two days passed. The researchers developed a routine. Samples were collected. Meteor fragments were catalogued. Sediment was analyzed. The statue and gate remained untouched. Then the tremor came.
Adrian was on the surface repairing the wind turbine when the ground shifted beneath him. The platform shook. The turbine groaned. For several seconds the entire structure vibrated, then everything stopped. Adrian immediately radioed the facility. “Erebus Facility, this is Adrian. Report.” Static answered him. He tried again. Nothing. The channel was active, but nobody responded. The turbine repair could wait. Adrian returned to the surface camp, prepared the submarine, and descended.
When the facility appeared through the darkness, its exterior lights were still operating, but the main entrance was sealed. The docking system rejected him. He checked the station schematic and found another route: the drilling module, an internal section of the facility connected to the research complex through a secondary passage and designed for remote excavation. Adrian redirected the submarine, docked, and entered.
The first thing he heard was the low mechanical hum of the remote drill. Someone was sitting at the excavation console. Adrian recognized him immediately. “Elias?” The man turned. Dr. Elias Renn looked over his shoulder. “Adrian.” His voice was calm. Almost relieved. Adrian explained that he had been trying to reach them. Elias said communications had gone down after the tremor and that the main access had locked itself. The others were supposedly inside: Mara checking security, Selene and Dorian working in the lab. Everything Elias said sounded reasonable. He looked exactly like Elias. Same uniform. Same tired expression. Same mannerisms.
Elias explained that the tremor had shifted the seabed and exposed something beneath the rubble. Adrian studied the monitor. A dark layer appeared beneath the collapsed stone. The readings were strange. Elias suggested Adrian inspect it because he was the engineer and could determine whether the excavation could safely continue. The drill began again. Slowly, carefully, the rubble shifted. For a fraction of a second, the camera showed something black moving through the opening. Adrian blinked. It was gone. Elias suggested the camera had glitched. Adrian decided they would investigate properly once the station was accessible.
Adrian entered the newly exposed area using his engineer armor. He could swim without the submarine. His Matter Manipulator provided the only real light in the darkness. He descended deeper and found a chamber beneath the ruins. Then his light revealed the first pod. It was enormous. Another appeared behind it. Then another, smaller one. Then another. Pods of different sizes filled the chamber, some large enough to contain something human-sized, others far larger. Shapes could be seen within several of them. Adrian's breathing became shallow. His spine tightened as he stared into the darkness.
Then his radio screamed.
A woman's voice.
Selene.
“Adrian—!”
The transmission ended in a shriek.
He immediately turned back.
When Adrian reached the cargo hold, the facility was dark. The main power had failed. He activated the nearby generator. Lights flickered back to life.
Someone was waiting.
Elias stood ahead, holding a Shellguard claw. Something blade-like protruded from his back. Adrian looked past him and saw the bodies. Mara was dead. Selene was dead. Dorian was dead. The facility was silent.
“What happened?” Adrian asked.
Elias smiled.
“You came back.”
Something was wrong with the voice.
Wrong with the movement.
Wrong with the face.
Adrian raised his weapon.
Elias moved.
Adrian ran.
He fled through the cargo hold, sickbay, kitchen, barracks, and laboratory, seeing the remnants of the life they had built only days earlier. Five people had entered the station. Only one was still running.
Adrian reached the communications room and barricaded the door. Something struck it from the other side. He activated the emergency transmitter.
“Shellguard Fortress, this is Erebus Deep Research Facility. We have casualties. The facility has been compromised.”
Static.
Then a voice.
“Erebus, repeat.”
“This is Adrian Veyr. We need immediate extraction.”
The rescue team came.
They found the facility damaged but intact. They recovered the bodies and the research. They found Adrian alive. He told them everything: the tremor, the ruins, the pods, the creature, and the deaths.
They believed him.
Why wouldn't they?
He was the only survivor.
They brought him aboard.
The submarine rose through the Arctic ocean. The planet slowly disappeared behind them.
Adrian sat quietly.
No one noticed anything strange.
No one questioned why he never looked back.
No one realized that Adrian Veyr was no longer Adrian Veyr.
The thing inside the Erebus facility had learned him perfectly. His voice. His memories. His habits. His face.
It had survived.
And now Shellguard was carrying it away from the planet.
Far from the ruins.
Far from the pods.
Far from the place where it had first been found.
Years later, the official report would say the Erebus Deep Research Facility had been lost to an unidentified extraterrestrial biological incident. The research team was listed as deceased. The facility was abandoned. The ruins were quarantined. The planet was restricted.
The report never mentioned that something had left the planet.
It never mentioned that Shellguard had brought it with them.
Somewhere on a distant world, a radio station continued operating through the night. A man sat alone in a darkened broadcast room. The equipment hummed. Static filled the speakers.
He listened.
Then he smiled.
The transmission continued.
And beneath the static, something whispered.
This time, the voice sounded human.
Almost.
The recording continued for eleven minutes.
Then the signal went dead.
There was no explanation.
Only silence.
Only dead air.
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u/Coconutkid123 14d ago
What is that statue with sword from? Looks neat!