Everything is gray. Black dust sticks to drying blood on my face. Rocks lie at my feet. The rest is a confusing haze. I sit upon a jagged blade of rock, pondering, waiting, decaying. My knee is bent up to provide a resting place for my arm and head, but that isn't enough to shield me from the winds. Blurred smudges of monochromatic fog burst out from some central light now and again. This presence of unwavering luminance provides the only sense of direction I have in this void. Its winds rage on with a deep rumble, rivaling that of the ship which brought me here, however long ago it was. Time doesn't seem to pass here. No days, no nights, just an infinite white glow for eternity.
I feel it taunting me with every consecutive wave. Dust particles and debris shoot towards me like sleek, black birds darting through the clouds endlessly. Every gust from the center brings a new formation. Maybe they are just rocks and dirt. I doubt any other life could exist here.
Not long after the winds pass, a droning wail drowns out everything I can hear. It laughs at me, or maybe, cries to me. A metallic resonance echoing through this hellscape, it breaks and stutters, slowly scraping its way into my ears. It reminds me that I am lost. That I am alone, but I have one last idea to escape.
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The winds fall to a gentler breeze. The light subtly flickers, barely detectable by a human eye. What if this wasn't my fate? What if I never ended up here? These thoughts have surrounded me for quite some time now, but I always knew not to act, not until every other option was expired. It was forbidden, but that was in the past. My fingers twitch against my leg with dreadful anticipation. I know what I have to do.
Against every lesson taught on the subject, I begin to create a message to send back in time. I flip a small, curved monitor out from within the forearm of my suit and get to work. It produces a muted orange glow as the screen lights up, a nice refresher from the constant gray. My lungs fill with air and dust as my words start to emerge onto the screen.
The low hum of the light grows silent. Another wave is imminent. I quickly move behind a nearby rock, large enough to shelter me from the coming blast. A chill rushes into my spine as it presses against the hard stone behind me. Suddenly, a thunderous rumble calls out from the light. The lowest, deepest impact to ever be heard. Within seconds, the ground shakes violently beneath me. I stop writing and cower into my arms once more, bracing for the final step, the winds. The tormenting laughter of the light returns to fill the soundscape with dread. Finally, the gust reaches my position. My arms tighten around the rest of my body. The air whips around the rock and pummels me from both sides. Peeking out momentarily, I catch a glimpse of the ravens through the roaring fog. There are more this time, seemingly hundreds of these strange, black shapes zooming across the sky. Leaning further around the corner, the light stares back at me, its weeping laugh drilling into my very soul.
As the winds slowly dissolve, I remain planted behind the rock. My screen lights up once more. Details of this grim fate flow through my fingertips, a warning of this experience. Vivid descriptions of what went wrong on my mission flood the screen, no details left unmentioned. This cannot be my destiny. Many moments pass and the omen is complete, with the chosen receiver being myself, before everything went wrong. My finger hovers over a glowing orange word, ‘Send’. The light's distant cry begins to wane. It is ready to burst once more. I curl into cover behind the rock, as is routine by now. My finger drops onto the screen. ‘Message sent’.
