Image made with AI Leonardo
This is the inexplicable expansion that slowly devours stations, ships, and even planets, leaving not a trace of total darkness behind. It defines nonexistence and erases any perceptible form of life, energy, or matter.
On the frigate "Solstice," part of Orion Squadron, "Kael Orion," a 17-year-old cadet with more drive than knowledge, is sent with a squadron on an exploratory mission to verify the disappearance of a mining station near the planet "Vireon."
This being a colony forgotten in official records. It becomes a massive trap when anomalies make it impossible to continue the squadron's formation, and instead, Kael's ship is propelled into Vireon's orbit. Without communication and, of course, without backup.
Kael's ship, known as "Eclipse-7," barely manages to stabilize before crashing. From his cockpit, he observes a vast surface covered in blue ice, and above it, the ruins of what was once a human city, yet something doesn't add up.
The architecture seems incredibly advanced too advanced, even by today's standards. As he explores in his suit, he picks up a signal, a pulsing pattern hidden beneath the earth. Upon activating it, a torrent of data floods him, and he loses consciousness.
When he awakens, he finds himself in a brightly lit room, suspended in a transparent capsule. "ASTRA" appears before him, an artificial intelligence in the form of an ethereal woman projected in light. She reveals that Vireon was the last refuge of an extinct civilization called the Human Forerunners, a genetic branch that evolved in secret in the far reaches of the solar system and realized too late that The Silence was coming.
Astra was programmed with a single mission: to find the Echo Bearer, the only being capable of activating the sonic weapon hidden in the planet's core: "The Last Echo."
Astra must show him an image of something to make Kael Orion believe in anything. In fact, her DNA miraculously matches the Forerunner's genes; her last name Orion is no accident. For generations, her lineage has been twisted by a secret network that sought to protect the "chosen one" from an imminent threat. As Kael tries to cope with the revelation, a tremor shakes the underground base.
Astra warns her that The Silence is already there. From orbit, darkness begins to envelop the planet. Kael has to decide; He can escape to seek help—knowing full well it may not arrive in time—or activate Vireon's core and become the nexus of a weapon that could save them... or annihilate everything.
Kael takes his helmet, his fists clenched, and looks toward the center of the facility. He utters words that ring with determination: I did not come all this way just to flee. If I am meant to be the echo of the universe, then let it be known. With dark clouds covering the sky, the image fades as Kael is shown descending toward Vireon's core.