Prelude — A Galaxy in Movement: The First Day

Day 4/26 of the year 2,623. Ancient MUD Calendar

Location — The Cradle, The Council of Peace Mothership.

"Enough is enough!" A commanding voice echoed throughout the largest shipyard in the galaxy, within the Council of Peace's mothership. Millions of soldiers from various species stood in perfect formation, observing the source of the voice.

It was Vaor Scarka, the leader of the ONI Consortium and ruling secretary of the Council of Peace for the current term. Behind him were all the highest-ranking officers of the Council of Peace army, aside from the other faction leaders. They stood with solemn faces in a clear display of support for the action that would occur next, the first of its kind since the Convergence War.

"For one hundred years, we embraced the path of non-interference, confining our armies within the limited space of our homeworld systems and allowing the planets and the people of the medium zone to rule themselves in whichever ways they saw fit.

And yet their ruling turned into anarchy, and in the chaos that followed, ruthless terrorists like the ECOS and the bands of Jorvik thrived. They now control countless star systems, bringing death and destruction to the unsuspecting inhabitants of the medium zone, who are now crying out to us for the restoration of order.

Not only that, the citizens of the Council of Peace and its institutions are also suffering constant attacks by those villains. They are working under the certainty that we will stay within our borders, and their raids get more brazen with each passing day."

"But this ends now." The ONI leader paused for two breaths while his eyes surveyed the strongest army in the galaxy.

"Soldiers of the Council, ready yourselves! For today is the first day of the war, a day our enemies will plead to forget after we bring them to justice." Hundreds of holograms projected the scarred face of the Mierese to the soldiers, whose emotions started to overflow during the heated speech.

"You are to dismantle the Jorvik and ECOS fleets that roam unopposed across the medium zone star systems, imprisoning those who surrender but destroying those who do not. The disease of tyranny will not be tolerated by those who protect peace! Let them know the same fear they sow, as no corner of the civilized galaxy will be safe for their kind anymore."

He paused, now with the complete command of the soldiers before him, "We stand united in delivering justice, and you will be the enforcers responsible for bestowing upon them their sentences. Show them the power of the mightiest force ever assembled in history!"

A million voices rose, and the ground trembled upon their march toward their vessels.

While waving to the troops taking off to all the galaxy's corners, Vaor murmured: "It is time for change... This is the beginning of the Golden Era."

A Fateful Encounter

It was supposed to be just another common day of space exploration, if there is such a thing as a common day in Galia Expanse. Yet, the cosmic currents had something special prepared for you.

A unique ship crash distress call, incoming from the desert planet Anueyeu, piqued your attention.

You find the situation unusual enough to outweigh the fuel consumption to get there, so you set the coordinates. In a matter of minutes, you are hovering through the skies under the merciless heat of the blue sun of the star system.

Nothing shows on the radar.

To be honest, you already anticipated that. Your previous expeditions had confirmed this planet was indeed devoid of life, and anyone unlucky enough to crash here would have died in a matter of hours due to the heat and lack of water.

Then, a miracle happens!

Your ship radar picks up a very faint reading, but you know someone escaped the crash. Adrenaline kicks in, and you maneuver as fast as possible to the signal's origins, hoping to make it in time to save the survivor.

That's when you see him for the first time, a Punaab with sand drenched all over his fur and clothes. You can see that the tips of his whiskers are burned, most likely by the smoldering scraps of his ship a few meters behind him.

After a second of surprise, before you can say anything, the Punaabs shout:

"Hey, friend! What do you know about me?! And more importantly, do you have any food?"

Thus your fates were entwined forever.

While you share the little food you had and try to piece the facts together with your new friend, you realize the Punaab doesn't remember anything, even his own name.

You decide to go check the smoldering scraps of the crash site, searching for anything that could be a clue to the Punaab past. Nevertheless, before you can get any information, a final explosion blows the remains of whatever was carrying your memoryless companion, and you realize you won't find your answers there.

You return to the Punaab, who is still eating with the same impetus that he started, and briefly introduce yourself, saying you are an adventurer, like many other brave souls, looking forward to creating a name for yourself in the immenseness of Galia Expanse.

The Punaab raises his eyes from the food for a moment after your introduction and smiles, a wholesome smile of admiration. He stops eating for a moment and say:

"It's a pleasure to make your acquaintance, "Adventurer," hehe. I'm afraid I don't remember anything about myself, so I can't introduce myself properly, but I'm thankful for your assistance, and this I will not forget, no matter what."

You two keep talking for a few more minutes about the awkwardness of the situation, and you feel an immediate connection with the Punaab.

After some consideration and seeing how his whole fur and clothes are soaked in sand, you suggest that the two of you call him Saand for the time being. After two whole seconds of reflection, the Punaab decided he liked the name, saying that it sounded kinda cool, and hence Saand, the Punaab, was born.

After finding Saand crashed on the lifeless planet without any record of who he was or what he was doing. You know that you can't simply abandon him to his own fate. The cosmic current surely wouldn't approve of such a merciless act, and you took a liking to the small fellow, so you promise to figure out a way of helping him.

Having said that, you are surely no expert on memories, and nothing obvious comes to mind on how to help the poor Punaab. You decide the best shot you two have for now is going to the nearest space station, hoping to get some medical support.

You two hop on your ship and travel across the sea of stars. The Punaab's eyes shine, asking you about every single celestial body you come across while taking notes on what seems to be a personal diary on his bracelet.

You almost lose control of the ship. This bracelet might be the key to unlocking the Punaab's past. You ask him to take a look, and he promptly allows you to investigate. Still, after one minute of tinkering with the bracelet's artificial intelligence, you realize that all information inside the bracelet before the current day was erased.

This is odd. Very odd. Someone deliberately erased this data. Before you could share your thoughts with Saand, the enormous space station opened its hangars for the two of you.

The station was brimming with life. Mieresians, MUD humans, Sogmians, Usturs, and Punaabs, you could find members of nearly any species in the packed streets that reflected the colors of many shiny neon advertisements holograms.

You quickly find a huge Sogmian security officer, who kindly shows you the way toward the station's major medical bay.

After some walking, the two of you are promptly welcomed by an Ustur doctor that speaks the common language with a metallic accent, denoting that he was perhaps amongst the first generation of the Usturs.

He examines the Punaab for a long time, asking him an endless number of questions that Saand couldn't answer. After the interview, despite Saand's objections, he sent your friend to do all sorts of exams.

As you await in a small but comfortable waiting room, a hologram displays images from battles across the medium zone. You turn up the volume and see the clashes between the Council of Peace armies and the Jorvik and ECOS fleet all across many star systems.

Although you are surprised to see the COP forces so deep in the medium zone, the destruction is so massive that you can't take your eyes away to think about the political movements.

Suddenly, the entire screen flashes, and you see a savage battery of missiles unleashed by enormous C9's of the Council, raining death over hundreds of Jorvik Mambas who were scattering and trying to flee the system.

Amidst the shocking images, you see the reporter bot location and realize that the battlefront is not really far from this station. A crazy yet possible profitable plan starts forming in your head.

Your wild imagination is interrupted by the sound of the door opening and Saand arriving with the doctor.

"The Punaab is all right." He speaks in a reassuring tone. "Nevertheless, his memory is... fragmented and disorganized, with the frontal cortex being..." before the doctor could finish what seemed to be a long technical explanation, Saand interrupts him and asks:

"Can this be fixed, doctor?" He asked, pointing to his head. "I'm pretty sure someone as handsome as me must have very valuable memories." He added with a side smile.

"Well, unfortunately, your biological structure limits our options here, as I can't simply rewire everything and reboot your conscience, which would be optimal." The doctor says as he sits on his chair behind a small table and invites you two to sit over two other seats. "All that's left with this kind of damage is brute forcing through the problem."

Your eyes immediately show your confusion with the Ustur cryptic diagnosis. As you and Saand prepare to ask what he meant, the doctor picked a device over the table and pointed it toward the Punaab.

"Hey! Watch it! The Punaab instinctively reacted, jumping out of his chair to escape the line of sight."

The Ustur laughed. "If you had a good amount of ATLAS and perhaps some Mní flowers, we could do it the easier way. But since this option is not on the table, the only way to help you is to spark your memory back."

He then proceeded to show you the curious device he aimed at the Punaab.

"This is a neuro scanner, and it will show you the progress on recovering the Punaab's memories. As you can see now, there is barely any progress, but as you expose him to different environments and tasks, hopefully, you will see the memory gauge filling up to the point where major events of his past will return to him."

As you nod and study the neuro scanner, Saand's curiosity gets the better of him, and he sneaks closer to you, looking in awe at the bright scanner display full of colors and numbers.

After a moment, the Punaab realizes that everyone has noticed his fascination with the device and coughs up a little, regaining his posture. "Ahem... so I guess all I gotta do is go on an adventure, see cool things across the galaxy, eat good food, fight bandits, and recover my memory heh. Sounds easy enough. I feel I was some sort of an elite bounty hunter or adventurer anyway, so this will be a piece of cake!" Saand said, full of energy, already going for the door.

"One more thing, I have synchronized the neuro scanner with his bracelet A.I, which I believe is more convenient. May the cosmic currents guide your journey, Captain." The Ustur says while presenting you the bill.

You quickly thank the Ustur doctor, transferring him his fees, and follow the energetic Punaab outside.

A few meters outside of the medical bay, Saand turns to you and says:

"Hey Pal, thank you so much for doing all of this for me. Nevertheless, I can't impose on you any longer, and I must go on this journey to retrieve my memories. I know I'm forgetting something super important, and I must remember, but I can't force you to come along, so this is goodbye. I will make sure to pay you back one day, somehow."

As the Punaab is starting to turn to leave, you gently touch his arms and tell him that you have a very good idea of something that could spark his memory and perhaps even get him some good ATLAS that would help him on his mission.

He starts listening, and as you lay down your ideas for him, his face starts changing expressions, glowing with excitement. He listens attentively to your crazy plan of flying after the Council of Peace armada and trying to find hidden treasures amidst the floating graveyard.

"This is absolutely insane, but I love this. If flying across battlefields filled with treasures and deathtraps won't spark my memories, I frankly don't know what else could." We are in this together, Adventurer. Since you have been so kind, I will resign to only keeping 60% of the overall loot and offering you all the protection my infallible instincts and muscles can provide!

Before you can ask what the hell he is thinking, the Punaab continues, looking epically to the horizon while talking to his bracelet:

"This is the beginning of a new legend in the Galaxy! Our very first mission shall henceforth be named Scraps and Spoils! Come, partner! We will get rich and discover the secrets of my past! To the Spaceship!" The Punaab shouted, laughing and running in the opposite direction of the ship.

You run after him, laughing at the whole thing and wondering how this crazy Punaab adventure will end.

Find out here.

ABOUT STAR ATLAS

Star Atlas is a next-gen gaming metaverse emerging from the confluence of state-of-the-art blockchain, real-time graphics, multiplayer video games, and decentralized financial technologies.

Using Unreal Engine 5's Nanite, real-time graphics technology allows for cinematic quality video game visuals. In addition, blockchain technology using the Solana protocol establishes a largely serverless and secured gameplay experience. Non-fungible tokens obtained and traded within Star Atlas create an economy that replicates tangible world assets and ownership. To learn more, visit StarAtlas.com, join a faction at Play.StarAtlas.com, send your spaceships on a deep space mission by enrolling them in a Faction Fleet, harvesting resources with Faction Claims and download the Showroom on your PC.

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