Monolith Visions (Korvax)

I felt faint, as if my mind were being invaded. Pustules on my skin grew, bubbled and popped - and I felt countless tiny stabbing pin-pricks scrabbling from each gaping hole.

Suddenly metal spiders, perhaps tiny Sentinels, ran up my shoulder and into my visor. Could this be real? This could not be real. I started to scream.

"Alien Text"

Ancient Korvax consciousnesses watched my response, as though the encounter had been their experiment. The hallucination faded.

Tiny floating tetrahedrons emerged from the planet's surface and surrounded me. I tried to wave them away with my Multi-Tool, but each time they only swarmed closer to it - as if attracted to it somehow.

I raised my Multi-Tool, and they shimmered blue as they darted this way and that. Closer and closer.

"Alien Text"

They were within touching distance of my Multi-Tool. They made one final surge, and I had a vision of a bright blue glow. Reality was restored.

Blue light poured from the monolith as if a curtain had been dropped within. I heard a gentle hubbub of voices, and caught a familiar smell on the breeze. I could not remember my home, but I knew that this doorway led there.

I ached for a past I could not remember. Every inch of my soul wanted to make the leap back. I looked to the skies, and the infinity beyond. Could I truly abandon my journey, when it had only just begun?

"Alien Text"

The spirits that lived in this place watched, noting which way I chose to step.

A child emerged from the monolith. It took a few moments before I realised that... it was me. I looked carefree and innocent. The little one stared up at my Exosuit, and tried to see me through my visor.

The child suddenly started to weep, and clung to my knees. They implored me never to leave. They didn't want to be alone. I should stay here forever. We should be reunited. Whole again once more.

"Alien Text"

It felt strange, interacting with my child self. The Korvax Echoes watched on.

I began to feel dizzy. A strange lethargy came over me, and I felt compelled to lie down in front of the ancient relic. This place felt calming. It felt like home, wherever that might have once been.

"Alien Text"

I knew that if I truly wanted to fight the impulse to sleep I probably could, but I felt warm and comfortable basking in the glow of the ancient runes. I had to choose whether to trust the monolith, whether to relinquish control.

Ancient Korvax noted my choice.

A flickering reflection of my own body emerged from a portal. It mimicked every move I made. When I waved, it waved. When I raised my Multi-Tool, it copied instantly. The doppelganger made a motion to suggest it wanted something, and we both recoiled when I realised I had instinctively matched its movements.

Its body shimmered, but its equipment looked somehow real. Its Multi-Tool looked better than my own. The dimensional irregularity was fading....

"Alien Text"

After one final exchange, the mirror-me faded away.

A liquid metal lasso emerged and wrapped itself around my helmet. It froze in place, before pulling my head into contact with the glow of the monolith.

The ancient stone was warm, and deep inside I heard the hum of an arcane technology as it prepared to unleash itself. I looked up back up to the glyphs to try to guess why this might be happening. They talked to me in an alien tongue.

"Alien Text"

The strange metal connector released me, and I was gifted a small reward.

My movements seemed normal, but everything else was running faster than it should. The sun span around this globe in seconds, days endlessly turning to night and back again. The creatures that grazed and hunted around the site passed by in a blur.

I was trapped in a time vortex. Numbers on my Multi-Tool seemed to tick higher and higher. The closer I got to the Monolith, the more disturbance was added to the timeline...

"Alien Text"

I acted, and time resumed a normal rhythm.

For many ages it appeared that pilgrims had carved numerical figures between the glowing glyphs of the monolith. Looking down, I noticed an ancient coin. I scraped the ground with my boot, and unearthed several more.

The site was otherwise silent. Perhaps it was eternally unresponsive, or perhaps it waited for something.

"Alien Text"

The Echoes that dwelled here awoke to observe my actions.

As I studied the ancient runes, they began to glow with an ethereal light. I could see wisps of a strange blue energy being pulled from the obelisk and swirling around my Multi-Tool.

"Alien Text"

If I pulled the trigger, the exhaust would automatically open - allowing this strange ethereal substance into the body of my equipment. I made my choice, and the blue energy responded.

I felt I was being watched. I turned, but could not see the potential assailant. But I knew, with burning certainty, that they were there. Somewhere out there on the alien landscape, someone was about to launch an attack.

Suddenly, the words of an unknown power blazed brightly on the monolith.

"Alien Text"

My instincts were validated; a distant attack was fired. The Echoes observed my actions, and offered protection accordingly.

An expanding pool of liquid metal had rippled out of the obelisk's base. My feet had already been covered. In the bright reflection I saw my expression turn to horror as I began to sink.

I felt warming hands on my legs, pulling me down into the silver sheet. Every hazard detection device on my Multi-Tool was going haywire...

"Alien Text"

I emerged from the metal pool, not quite understanding its nature.

Two stone blocks slowly revolved on the base of the monolith. Two beads of red light then traced images on each one. The red lights then pooled together and liquefied in an indentation below. The closer I got, the more agitated the red pool became.

The images both showed masked electronic lifeforms. The first showed the lifeform absorbing power to break free from its shackles. The second showed it hiding from its captors.

"Alien Text"

The red liquid surged into my equipment. It materialised into a technology blueprint.

A chiselled hole appeared at the foot of the obelisk. From its smoothed edges and the scraped markings around it, it was clear that over centuries unknown creatures had pushed elements through this gap.

"Alien Text"

It was impossible to tell quite what would happen, but below it were three blocks of the exact same dimensions that looked like they could be turned by a mechanism deep within the monolith itself.

I searched my pack for elements that looked like they could fit, and inserted them into the hole. The monolith accepted my offering, transforming it into something greater.

The Monolith disappeared. The landscape around me seemed the same, but somehow the planetary vegetation had moved. Sitting central to where the mysterious stone once stood was a red glowing orb.

The intensity of the orb burned the ground beneath it. It crackled with an unknown power. I felt compelled to pick it up, and become a part of it. A distant voice spoke to me...

"Alien Text"

The red orb judged me. Reality was restored.

An empty shell of an electronic lifeform emerged from the monolith. It was ancient and weather-beaten. The light in its mask had been extinguished for many centuries.

"Alien Text"

It held a rusted canister in its hand, which my scanner detected had once contained refined metal. The scan also revealed an unknown substance deep within the defunct entity's casing.

The ancient Korvax judged my actions before the casing was absorbed back into the monolith.

The inside of the planet was hollow, and I was standing at the base of its vast bowl. Around me the roots of trees pushed upwards from uncovered alien soil.

I looked down, and saw the foundations of the Monolith raised at my feet. Crystalline veins of different elements pulsated through the exposed rock. I heard a lifeform screaming in binary.

"Alien Text"

I extracted elements from the rock, and the inversion ended.

Stars had aligned above the monolith. In the heavens above, two distinct lines of distant suns could be seen stretching out into the depths of space. To be here at this exact moment in time, when the moving parts of the galaxy were aligned so perfectly, seemed almost an impossibility.

I was filled with a strange calm. One line of stars pointed towards the glow of a dull red giant, the other an unseen point far, far beyond my vision.

"Alien Text"

I chose one of the trajectories, Korvax echoes taking note.

I felt faint. Ill, even. Looking around, the vegetation that surrounded this ancient structure looked withered and sickly. The creatures of the planet, meanwhile, appeared to keep their distance.

As I stared, a warning etched itself into the stone, the words of an ancient language...

"Alien Text"

Environmental warning sensors in my Exosuit were behaving erratically. The suit was fighting against a powerful force, but was stronger than I had anticipated. My Hazard Protection system went into override. The vision ended, and I left unharmed.