Credible Prime

Kalus

The hulking ship hung driftless in a slice of space Crux new all too well. Off the starboard side was Kalus, a planet, if you could call it that, crafted from broken shards of asteroids, abandoned ships, wreckage, flotsam, jetsam, and space debris. This orbiting mess twisted and turned tightly around the burned out core of an ancient planet. Gravity held everything in place. This was where the Yend sent their own to die. Those people, damned to this unforgiving exile, were the ones who violated the virtue of Pragmatica - believing in only that which was and not that which we hoped to be.

Kalus was really a sight to behold. Although it's history was marred by its role as a prison of exile for the Yend, an observer couldn't help but appreciate it's malignant marvel. Every piece of debris and wreckage and rock chunk that rotated around the dead core tumbled and bounced against other pieces of debris in a constant collision of objects. Parts of Kalus were smaller than a man's fist and others were colossally large. Some parts of Kalus were capable of hosting entire cities of wreckage. In the most inhospitable of environments, people could make a home. Deeper within the layers of debris, cobbled together by the gravitational forces and the proximity to its core, a vast network of villages, domiciles, hovels and thrown together structures acted as the main spaceport. So callous served multiple functions within this Star System. It was a penal colony for the Yend and home to scoundrels, the exiled, the expatriated and the outlawed. Kalus was the embodiment of chaos and a reflection of the Yend Hive Mindset.

There was no creator. There was only the explainable, the chaotic and the cobbled together. And everything else was blasphemy - high treason!

"Why are we here?" Crux asked
"We're too close!"

Kreed, adjusting himself after their recent molecular voyage, looked surprised.

"This ship goes where the strongest beacon tells it to. From the beginning this ship was built for that. Your Beacon has a voice no other Beacon has ever had in the history of our search. The Hammerlight is ancient and so is its mission; to find the answer. So we follow the Beacons. For ages the Hammerlight has done just that. Always following the strongest beacons. Being upon being, age upon age and Galaxy upon Galaxy with 1000 different crews, the Mercs of Calfate have been the brotherhood charged with finding him and finding the answer. Those with the strongest Beacons are also embedded with a map to the truth. Your Beacon has led us here. The Yend know this and have been in pursuit of Seeker territory for a thousand generations, since the two split. Since Calfate left with the answer."

This monologue was moving. Still, Crux found it a little too contrite. In his bones he still felt the panicked chill of fear, knowing that Yend probes easily could find out where he was and knock the Hammerlight out of space. If the Mercs had the technology to find a Beacon, what colossal weaponry must the Yend have. Obviously they knew of his dream because they appeared outside his studio with relentless bombardment.

The great cosmic war had been a battle for this knowledge. With the Yend invading and The Seekers defending.

"And now we are engaged in the final throes of battle", Kreed continued.

Crux was slightly annoyed with the idea that moments ago he was sleeping soundly and now was totally immersed in a battle he had cowered from his whole life.

Crux was less a bastion of Hope and knowledge and more a creature of habit and enterprise. It's been his whole life pretending to be whatever was most convenient for him at the time. Born into the Yend, he really didn't follow any of its tenets, at least not sincerely. He would talk about Pragmatica. He would wax philosophical about this idea or that idea. He would learn about evidence against what The Seekers believed. He would read and recite Yend propaganda. But when it came to his core belief, Crux had none. He didn't even believe in himself.

"So why are we here? Why Kalus? Just because I led you to it?" Crux asked as he peered out onto the unforgiving rock.

Kreed seemed inappropriately jovial, almost boisterous in his answer. He slapped Crux on the back and grabbed his shoulder. He peeled back a grin and chuckled.

"We're here for another part of the map! so to Kalus we go!"