N/S Flight record 04
From a worn docking gantry, a lone navigator looks across Ilyr toward a distant ring station above the gas giant’s cloud bands.

Outer surveyUnlogged orbit · 18.04.27

Signal 04.1 A signal beyond the map.

NULL SECTOR

A lone navigator follows three transmissions into a station the charts insist is empty.

Open the flight record

Field recording / 01–03 An exploration story

Every answer
moves the signal.

The research ship Meridian went quiet above Ilyr, a gas giant at the edge of mapped space. You arrive alone. The station is still powered. The crew is gone. Something is repeating their final survey.

The abandoned Meridian orbital station above Ilyr. An amber-lit corridor leads toward the listening array. A remote research outpost sits beneath a pale moon on the far side of Ilyr.
01The last orbitMERIDIAN / RECEIVED
The abandoned Meridian orbital station above Ilyr. 0102:16 / THE LAST ORBIT

The last orbit

Docking clamps catch on the station’s night side. Below you, Ilyr fills the viewport: a storm system broad enough to swallow the old survey route. No beacon answers the Meridian call sign.

Explore the habitation ring alone. Read the pressure marks on each hatch. Somewhere above the clouds, a maintenance lamp switches on in a room without power.

OBJECTIVE Restore the station clock. Trace the gap in its final orbit.

The station’s long interior passage, lit by an amber signal at its far end. 0205:42 / A VOICE IN THE WALLS

A voice in the walls

A carrier tone leaks through the service deck, repeating a sequence the ship’s recorder cannot place. Its rhythm changes when you cross the corridor.

Find a route through the pressure doors. Reroute reserve power to the listening array, then solve the station’s signal lock by matching the recorded intervals. The voice is using the ship’s own wiring.

OBJECTIVE Recover the interrupted message. Point the antenna toward its source.

The crew’s last research site on Ilyr’s far moon. 0309:08 / THE FAR SIDE

The far side

The array turns toward a small moon. Beneath its ridge, a research shelter carries the Meridian crew’s survey marks: three sets of boot prints out, one set back.

Follow their trail through the abandoned instruments. Three transmissions remain in the recorder, each cut at the same point. The last one is addressed to whoever came looking.

OBJECTIVE Find the crew’s log. Decide which signal leaves the system with you.

EXPLORATION / PUZZLE SOLVING / SINGLE-PILOTAll times are from the Meridian recorder.

Local scene study No stream · No feed

Signal preview

A short, local sequence of still frames from the Meridian survey. It plays once and comes to rest.

Frame 1 of 3: a weathered antenna assembly catches one amber beacon above the moon base. Frame 2 of 3: an amber waveform glows on the abandoned receiving console. Frame 3 of 3: a single trail of expedition boot prints crosses the moon dust.
TRANSMISSION / LOCAL04° 18′ / ILYR
Still 1 of 3

Stopped · Still frame 1 of 3

Meridian / crew record Survey team

Three voices.
One missing ship.

Before the silence, each crew member left a different trace in the recorder. Open a dossier to read the details found in their station kits.

01Lin ShenSystems navigator

Maintained the Meridian’s star tables and hand-plotted its last three course corrections. Her helmet has a patched left seal and a strip of amber tape marking the emergency oxygen latch.

Station kit: pocket sextant · two spare seal rings · route notes on foil.

02Dev OkoroField engineer

Rebuilt the antenna coupler twice during the survey. His suit carries a ceramic arc shield over the right forearm and a tether spool cut to station length.

Station kit: insulated driver · ceramic fuse set · a hand-drawn power map.

03Mara ValeResearch lead

Logged the moon’s ice strata and the signal’s repeating interval. Her slate is intact, but the final field note ends in the middle of a coordinate.

Station kit: core sampler · voice slate · one unlabelled receiver key.