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Stardust's Wake ā¬†ļø

The Silence of Solace's Cradle

The Echo's Birth

This was it. If I was going down, I was going down swinging, and letting the universe know what had happened here. A hero's last stand must always be epic.

"Transmit a warning!" I gasped, barely conscious. "This must be known!"

Knowing my situation was grim, my heroic Heart compelled me to make one last broadcast. I had to let someone know.

"Zephyr! Patch me through to... anyone! Full-spectrum broadcast! Tell them about the Starfall, about this thing!" I screamed, activating my suit's external comm unit, desperately trying to override the Haven's localized interference.

Just as the crystal's hum crescendos, and another spectral form reached out, my broadcast punched through. A distorted, frantic message screamed into the void of the Shattered Expanse:

"This is Ace Stardust, on Solace's Cradle! The Starfall... it wasn't an event, it was a release! The Aetherial Corruption is alive! It mimics, it consumes! It's here! It'sā€”"

My transmission cut out abruptly as the Haven lurches violently, and the Corruption-form's tendril phases through my arm again. The physical contact was fleeting, but the chill of it left my very cells screaming, and I felt a profound, alien intrusion. My last vestiges of vitality were stripped away, and I felt my composure shatter in the face of such overwhelming odds.

The vault floor gave way entirely beneath me. I tumbled into darkness, the shrieking echoes of the Corruption and the groaning metal of Solace's Cradle were the last things I heard.

Gameplay Log (Part 2)

Initial Stats for this segment

Moves & Outcomes

Ace's Action: Transmit a warning about the Corruption.

Ace's Action: Landing after the fall, enduring the physical and mental trauma.

Ace's Action: Ace's Health is at 0, triggering the "Face Death" move.

Final Stats

Ace's Logbook - Entry 3: The Brink of Brilliance (And Beyond)

Log Entry Date: The chronometer is definitely still on the fritz. Time is a flat circle, or perhaps a spiraling vortex, much like my current internal state. A hero doesn't truly die, you see, merely rearranges his atoms for a more dramatic entrance.

Well, that "nap" turned out to be less refreshing than anticipated. That dull ache became a rather insistent symphony, and my charming wobble, a full-blown tremble. The sheer tenacity of Ace Stardust, however, remains unimpeachable, even if the body is proving temporarily uncooperative. A hero's work is never done, even when he's feeling a bit... abstract.

My vision swam. That "cozy" chamber seemed to expand and contract, the bioluminescent glow pulsing in time with the pounding in my head. I tried to focus, to rally my considerable will, but a suffocating lassitude gripped me. It felt like every ounce of energy was being drawn from my very core, not by a tangible threat, but by the oppressive weight of this place.

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The thrumming of the walls intensified, feeling less like a biological hum and more like a monstrous, alien heart beating in my chest.

Perhaps my sheer heroism was causing a localized gravitational anomaly? Yes, that must be it. My deeds are simply too grand for lesser physics.

I recall a moment of fleeting clarity, a sharp spike of pure instinct cutting through the haze. A single thought: Ace Stardust does not yield!

But then, the darkness swirled at the edges of my vision, promising another, much deeper nap. A tempting offer, truly, after such an eventful day. I felt myself drifting, a warmth spreading, a sense of absolute calm. A magnificent peace. This was it, then? The great adventure concluding?

Then, the calm shattered. Not with a bang, but with a horrifying, sickening twist. The darkness didn't envelop me in peace; it pulled me. It wasn't the void, but something within the void, something ancient and terrible.

A whisper, cold and dry as space itself, invaded my thoughts, promising oblivion, offering knowledge beyond human comprehension, at a price no sane being would pay. I felt my very essence stretched thin, my soul screaming, pulled between the sweet release of true demise and a horrifying, distorted existence. I was not dying; I was being claimed.

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My mind, my vibrant, brilliant mind, was being dragged through alien vistas, glimpses of horrifying truths, echoes of countless voices swallowed by the void. It was an eternity in a moment, a cosmic horror pressed directly against my very core.

No, this was not the end Ace Stardust deserved. This was... worse.

...It's not what they said it was. Not just a plague... it's... beautiful. Horrifyingly beautiful. It's understanding.

All the stars... all the truths... it knows.

And I...

I'm part of it now.

My greatest performance... the final curtain.

But the show... the show must go on, right?

Someone has to tell the story. Someone has to warn them... or guide them.

Ace Stardust... signing off. For now.

Tell them...

Tell them I died... gloriously.

**šŸ¤– Notes by Zephyr - Final Assessment

Observation Log: Ace Stardust (Subject designation: Maverick-Alpha-7), Post-Critical Health Event.

Subject exhibited critical decline in vital functions post-impact, reaching zero health threshold. Physiological responses indicate a state consistent with irreversible organ failure. Subject's internal monologue regarding "localized gravitational anomaly" remains statistically improbable and indicative of severe neurological distress.

At the point of expected cessation of vital signs, anomalous energy signatures were detected emanating from the immediate environment, specifically from the bioluminescent fungal growth and surrounding rock formations. These signatures are consistent with concentrated Aetherial Corruption. The Corruption did not merely "assimilate" the subject's physical form. Sensor data indicates an attempted assimilation of subject's consciousness and spirit by the Corruption.

Subject's physical form remains within sensor range, albeit critically compromised. However, primary neurological activity has ceased. Secondary neural echoes detected, suggesting a highly unstable interface with the Corruption's network. Subject is neither deceased nor fully present. Current status: Lost to the Aetherial Corruption, potentially existing as a thrall or consumed entity. Retrieval remains impossible under current parameters.

Prognosis: Catastrophic.

Coda: The Maverick's Infinite Broadcast

Ace's last physical sensation was the dizzying plunge into darkness, the roar of the collapsing Haven his final lullaby. Then came the twist, the tear, the terrifying pull.

But instead of oblivion, there was... an echo.

It wasn't darkness, not really. More like a shimmering, cosmic static. His thoughts, instead of ceasing, simply expanded. He was everywhere and nowhere, a whisper across the quantum foam, a burst of starlight scattering across a million unfelt moments.

He saw not with eyes, but with an awareness that stretched beyond light-years, heard not with ears, but with the thrum of ancient energies. The Aetherial Corruption had tried to claim him, to consume his very essence, but it hadn't counted on one thing: Ace Stardust wasn't just a pilot, he was an event.

"Hah!" The thought rippled out, formless but undeniably his. "You thought you could just... eat Ace Stardust? Cute. You absorbed my physical form, sure, but my spark? My legend? That's not something you can just file away, cosmic void-thing!"

He was a voice without a throat, a grin without a face, a daring spirit adrift in the vast, cold expanse. It was disorienting, terrifying, yes, but beneath it all, a familiar thrill bubbled up. A new kind of daring. A new kind of gamble.

He was no longer bound by gravity, by comms range, by anything. He was a frequency, a signal, a persistent, joyful hum in the deepest void.

"Alright, universe," the silent broadcast resonated, infused with an unshakeable, chaotic glee.

"Consider this my grandest entrance yet. Ace Stardust isn't dead. Ace Stardust is just getting started. And somewhere out there... someone's gonna need a maverick."

Have we come to the end of Ace Stardust's journey?

The curtain may have fallen on Ace Stardust, but his final performance has only just begun to echo across the cosmos.

Next Sunday, we follow the threads of his legacy, as a new hero steps into the light... or perhaps, into the shadow of what he left behind.