[Location: The Beach - Low Tide] [Time: Day 2. Morning.]
I woke up to Vesper shouting.
"Caelum! Come look at this!"
I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and walked down to the water. The tide had gone out, revealing more of the wreckage from the Icarus. Vesper was knee-deep in the surf, hauling a heavy black box onto the sand. It was a command console, stripped of its casing.
"I needed a power source," she apologized, grabbing my wrist and plugging a wire directly into the battery port of my Ouroboros arm. "Hold still."
"Good morning to you too," I grumbled as the connection sparked.
"Look," she pointed at the wet screen. "I managed to boost the passive receiver. I'm picking up a signal."
"The Fleet?" Captain Silas asked, walking up behind us, her hand hovering near her gun.
"No," Vesper frowned. "It's not Federation digital encryption. And it's not Enemy binary. It's analog."
Static crackled on the screen. A waveform appeared. It was looping.
...chk... This is Outpost Omega... chk... Requesting immediate... chk... Subject 001 has breached containment... chk... God help us...
The date stamp on the message was 50 years ago.
"Outpost Omega?" Silas frowned. "There are no Federation bases in this sector. This planet is uncharted."
"Apparently not," I said, staring at the screen. The coordinates were flashing. They were deep in the jungle, near the volcanic peak in the center of the island.
"Subject 001," Vesper murmured. "That's... genetic research terminology."
I felt a chill go down my spine. I knew this loop. I knew this war. But I had never found this island before. In 4,000 lives, I had never crashed here.
This was new.
"We have to go there," Silas decided. "If it's an outpost, they might have a long-range transmitter. Or a ship."
"We need supplies first," I said, looking at the dense jungle wall. "We can't march into that green hell on empty stomachs. We prep today. We move tomorrow."