The Static Veil

Year: 2237

Location: Nyxara | Moon: Umbrith - 9

There are places in the galaxy that aren't charted on any maps. Nyxara is one of them.

To most people, it's just a myth from travelers that return from space. A cursed planet, where static covers the land, and the dead aren't really dead. But for two Drayvorian sisters fleeing a civil war brewing on their home planet, Veyla and Rynn, it becomes their reality. Their ship, the Paleflower, is torn from orbit by an unstoppable force, and crashes on the surface on this so-called myth.

The wreckage lies there in silence. Something's off and as the sisters shake off the impact of the crash they start to notice it. The sky. It's pulsating with static and electricity, acting almost as a blanket encapsulating the planet. Looking up they can see something peering back at them. An eye that doesn't move or blink. Just forever watching.

Veyla's faceplate is cracked, and her bionic arm is glitching as a result of her heart implant working double to calm her body from the crash. Rynn, always being the quiet one, says nothing but is visibly shaken by the events. She reaches over to the controls of the Paleflower, pressing everything to no avail. They are stranded here.

The landscape is nothing like they've ever seen before. Ruins of structures decorate the surface of the planet like fossils. The ground has a constant humming with the electricity constantly running through it. The planet seemed to be changed by the presence of the sky. Through the transparency of the thick blanket of a sky, Umbrith - 9 hangs heavy in the sky. The sisters don't say it, but they both feel it. The planet knows that they arrived. They look around, noticing things that just seem...wrong. Reflections seem to move when they don't. Mannequin-esque figures move in their peripherals, with them vanishing when turning to face them. Faint echoes ring out, almost as if they are in their own heads. But instead of echoes, they felt like memories. But not theirs.

The first Ripper attacks. It isn't seen but instead felt. A screech rings out from seemingly nowhere as the creature lunges towards Rynn. Veyla steps in front of her instinctively, with her reflective metal blade. The slash proved useless, scaring them both. But when faced with the reflection of itself in her blade, it staggered backwards, screeching. It glitches in and out of view for a few seconds, almost looking human, then erupting into static and disappears. They move on with their newfound knowledge, walking with whatever reflective materials they can scavenge from their wrecked vessel. They strap them to themselves, hoping this would deter whatever had just attacked them. From there they realized that in order to have any chance of getting off this planet alive, they have to keep moving.

Days later they run into their first memory well. It's waterless but not empty. The sisters, peering in, see different things. Veyla sees a city once prosperous. The weird thing was, it looked like the city that she grew up in. She jumped back and shook her head, but it felt as if something had attached itself to her. It was like an itch she couldn't scratch in her own head. Rynn on the other hand was captivated by it. She hears someone call her name. It doesn't sound like her sister, or anyone she knows for that matter. Listening closer she realizes it sounds like her, but older. Like she's speaking to herself across time. Despite the scare, the two continue to make their way across the planet's surface looking for anything that could give them a way to at least signal someone to pick them up. Later that day they find an oddly well preserved tree. Getting closer they realized that it was almost glowing, and pulsing with light. Hesitantly, Rynn puts her hand on the surface of the tree. She takes a long breath, as if she had the wind knocked out of her. She begins to speak names and dates of people and times that she hasn't met or known. This wasn't knowledge. These were memories. The planet is alive, and it wants them to remember what it can't.

They soon realize that the Veil isn't just a condition or a naturally occurring event even in the atmosphere of Nyxara. It's a dimensional curtain. Creature like the Pulseless float up through it. Souls without bodies, just raw energy trapped in human form, muttering memories from the lives once lived. While rare, a Veilik flies overhead. They are harmless as long as not provoked at first glance, almost as watchers of the planet. Their wings made from pure energy and static, they move silently through the skies.

Fighting through the ruins, the duo realizes that the Veil thickens daily. Screens that are still somehow functional flicker with eyes. Devices short out in a spur of whispers. Rynn, still synced to the tree they found earlier, has dreams in static. She recites things from the Foretellings - glyphs carved into the ruins that hint at an apocalypse nobody survived to witness.

Eventually, Veyla and Rynn discover what the surface of Nyxara's moon had been hiding. A hole in the center, caused not by impact, but instead because of two realities colliding. They come to a realization that this is where the eye came through and consumed Nyxara.

They look at each other. The sky tears again and the Eye beckons for them. Veyla pulls out her blade. Rynn closes her hand into a fist.

They've been chosen.