[UNOFFICIAL BRIEFING: DE-ICE & DESPAIR]
SUBJECT: Your New Life, and The Fine Print They Omitted
So, you signed the contract. Traded a life sentence in the grimy, recycled air of The Drifts for a golden ticket back to the cradle of humanity. You slept through the long dark, dreaming of open skies and a fresh start. Now you’re about to wake up. Here’s what they won’t tell you.
The first thing you feel is the burn. A chemical fire in your veins as the cryo-preservatives are flushed from your system. It feels like being born and having a heart attack at the same time . Your vision will be a smear of white light. Your ears will ring with the whine of machinery. Then, you’ll see the logo of
Dynamic Evolution stenciled on the cryo-pod lid. Remember it. It’s the brand name of the company that owns you now . As the fog clears, she will appear.
Lumina. A flickering, holographic ghost from a forgotten era, your guide in this high-fidelity metaverse. Her voice is calm and professional as she guides you through orientation. She’ll tell you the official story: a catastrophic ecological collapse, a brave corporate-led exodus, and now, the heroic “Terran Opportunity Initiative” to reclaim our birthright. It’s a clean, inspiring, well-packaged lie .
But look closer. This is a world of cosmic horror meets cyberpunk, and the truth is in the glitches. Some of the station’s terminals flicker with unauthorized code. If you’re fast enough, you can access the hidden memory logs — what the locals call “data-shards” . In them you won’t see heroic pioneers. You’ll see a frantic scientist’s final, screaming log from Project Prometheus. You’ll see schematics of
The Lode, an artifact with warnings about its “reality-warping” properties. You’ll hear an audio file of The Whispers, a sound that will make your teeth ache.
This is your first real choice in the living novel. Do you believe the calm, corporate hologram, or the screaming ghosts in the machine? Your journey into the world’s deep narrative begins here, with the secrets you choose to uncover.
Your final walk is to the drop ship bay. Lumina’s calm voice will wish you a “productive and prosperous life on the frontier” as you step into the vibrating metal coffin. As the clamps release, you’ll get one last, horrifyingly clear look at the wounded planet. It feels like you’re falling into the eye of a sick, sleeping god.
DE gave you a new life. What they didn’t tell you is that the warranty has already expired.
[TRANSMISSION END]
