The Cradle
There are so many opposing calendars now, you’ll get a different year from every new person you talk to. Here on Outremer, it is 349 years since the first settlers arrived, which makes the year 349 AC. Some are still faithful to our homeworld, Earth, and swear by the Gregorian, Islamic or Chinese calendars. A few even go by the number of years since Earth abandoned all of us in the outer diaspora - 421 or something like that.
Whichever calendar you subscribe to, I'm sorry to say you’ve joined us at the darkest point in Outremer’s history. For this is a colony in danger of having its heart ripped out.
That heart is the Cradle; a mysterious machine with practically unlimited power. It called to us from lightyears away, buried beneath a dead city in the middle of a desert on Outremer’s equator. When we arrived, it was only a matter of time before we figured out how to enter its virtual environment. We quickly realised its raw processing capabilities could be shaped to all manner of uses.
Before long, all of Outremer’s government apparatus and institutions were operated from the Cradle. We used the unlimited power hidden within this virtual landscape to supercharge our industry and development, becoming rich in the process. Many of the neighbouring colonies wanted a piece of the action, seconding their leadership to the Cradle too.
As our collective need for power increased, we sculpted more of the Cradle into usable space; turning the barren landscape into sparkling campuses. But in the last couple of years, something has gone very wrong.
All that we’ve built within the Cradle is starting to degrade. The structure we painstakingly crafted from the raw material of this environment are flickering in and out of existence, revealing the horrific underlayer.
What’s more, people have been reporting...creatures, moving through the dark and unknowable landscape at night. Some even say they roam the halls in those moments when the bright uniformity of the Controlled Area flickers and dies.
It’s only a matter of time before someone gets hurt. We need to stabilise the Cradle now, or risk losing control of Outremer forever.
