Solvernia's First and Only Mission to the Core Region.

Hey guys, I was inspired by a random post on Reddit to finally go out of my safe box and try to write again. I was traumatized by the unfriendliness and the negative reception of my fun writing in the current mod version, so that's what made me throw the 'lore' all the way back in my development phase. I don't want to ruin my story's first impression, so.. I hope you guys understand.

However, that's three years ago. Even when things are rather lackluster in most places. You guys have shown interest in my story telling. So, how about a quick one-shot story for now?

This is a story that I made up three years ago when I met the Iron Shell developer for the first time. UAF is fairly unknown at the time, no one suspected us to exist other than rumors. This art was commissioned by him as a lovely memoir of our past friendship.

This art portrays two characters interacting with each other in a bar somewhere in Askonia. ( It's heavily mexican filtered unfortunately so you couldn't tell really ). It's a secret meeting because this was created long before the Aurorans made itself known around 3 years back. Solvernia and a handful of ships - not the entire armada visited the vanilla Sindrian Diktat world for a quick re-supply. Persean Sector are no strangers to rising or awakening modiverse factions whom were not part of the core worlds, so they've gotten used to see strange new people and ships. So, it's easy to sneak in and somewhat harder to blend in as they're completely oblivious to the local culture.

This caught the attention of one person who coincidentally happened to be nearby. A veteran, nameless spacer whose hand can change the fate of the entire sector as they know it, nicknamed the Starfarer. This time his fleet flew the Hegemony's Iron Shell colors but still able to act independently from it. Both captains were escorted by their most elite marines as they discussed and shared things between them. Although the Starfarer shared information regarding the local political and military situations around the core. Solvernia wasn't interested in any of that other than noting it down on her notepad. However, the moment Starfarer mentioned something about odd hyperspace anomalies and hyper-advanced pre-hegemony era technologies scattered beyond the core regions. That perked her interest.

"Well then, Miss Solvernia. I finally caught your interest eh? It's not all roses and sunshine out there. You will face different challenges out there, foes that can strike fear deep in your heart and seemingly invincible with their incredibly powerful shields. There was even a rumor of a ship so dangerous that nobody ever survived the encounter, should they step their foot close to a forbidden planet.."

"I see. We expected as much and prepared to the best of our abilities but I'll admit..."

Solvernia looked away frustratingly and sighed after taking a sip of her drink.

"... we're not ready for this. It took us months to reach the core world and no one ever spread their arms and welcomed us. We were lucky that we're able to somehow reach this place to re-arm and re-supply without catching unwanted attention but it's still a logistical nightmare for us. Mismatched ammunition, little to no compatible spare parts and so on. We are tremendously lucky that you guys are capable of adapt and fabricate things so long as there's a blueprint lying around."

The Starfarer laughed as this reminded him of his starting days where he nearly got himself killed by going out to explore without bringing extra supplies. He never found out who found and picked him off in the middle of nowhere but he's eternally grateful to the mysterious rescuer that saved him that day.

"Mr. Starfarer, I came here under the official business of exploring new worlds and learning about the people that lived here but I think I've seen enough. We can't go no further than here due to extreme risk of hostility and the sheer fact that we're simply unprepared both logistically and militarily speaking... so, we're officially ending this mission and shall return to our temporary safe haven."

Solvernia pulled out a single card from her breast pocket and handed it over to him while looking at him straight in the eyes.

"... you strike me as an interesting person. Someone that stands out in a crowd of nameless people. This card contains the information necessary to find us, should you ever wander off to this specific direction from the core region."

The Starfarer picked it up. Its a red keycard and its unlocked to him. Solvernia signalled the two men behind her as she's ready to move out and stood up. She smiled confidently and said the following before she turn around and walk away.

"We are the United Auroran Federation and we welcome you to our new home, the New Aurora. Do please pay us a visit and share any information regarding the things I asked earlier. To you, it's probably just random things but us.. it's a matter of survival.. The missing keys to open the 'door' that will finally let us return home. So until then, farewell."