To Brightest Light

[Dusk]

Leeds —> New London —> Cambridge —> Omega-3 —> Omega-7 —> Stuttgart —> Cologne
11.01.836 AS

---

---

The road after Leeds was unremarkable. Avoiding Bretonia patrols was easy, and the group spent the rest of the journey to Cologne in idle chatter. After everything they'd experienced today, simply being alive brought happiness.

After crossing Bretonia and the nearby Omega systems, the group flew through Stuttgart and finally returned to their starting point in Cologne. Some of the Technocracy forces, understandably tired from the long journey (or perhaps rushing off to their own business, which they were in no hurry to discuss), left the main procession. Emilia was planning to return to Saverne, but... Suddenly, she discovered that there was a small crystalline artifact in her cabin, faintly pulsing with purple light.

She couldn't remember how it had gotten there. She could only assume that she had somehow acquired it while she was not quite herself in the system of Light.

The crystal seemed to pulse more intensely when moving in a certain direction. Deciding that this couldn't be left unchecked, Crimson Veil alerted her allies and headed toward the point the artifact was "pointing" to.

This point turned out to be... a collapsed jump hole in the asteroid field. For about a minute, the artifact began to pulse more and more intensely, clearly drawn to the deadly object.

And then... They emerged from the collapsed passageway. Creatures resembling clots of energy, with some kind of dark objects swirling around them. After a few seconds, they attacked, but returning fire had little effect... Until the group figured out how to fire specifically at the swirling objects.

The battle was brief. Still, these creatures were unlike anything Emilia had encountered before. Were they related to the Nomads... or were they something else entirely? It seemed no one present knew the answer. Or, at least, had no intention to reveal it. The artifact, meanwhile, crumbled into tiny fragments, much like broken glass. Emilia saved these remains for later study.

A rest awaited them all. And then... Lots of work.

---

---