Proximity alarms tear through the docking bay as the main screen blooms with static. A ghost-signal resolves inside it, weak and flickering, tagged to a vessel that should not be in this sector at all.
The Navigator
Ség... that signal, it is real. I do not like this, but if it knows the artifact, we need to hear it.
The Stranger
Docking bay, this is a stranded salvage craft. I am requesting intake and medical access. I have information on the artifact, and I am not alone.
The transmission shivers, then the image snaps clearer. A gaunt scavenger clings to a cracked console in a wrecked cockpit, while a second figure steps into view behind him, visor reflecting red alarm light. The newcomer raises a compact sidearm, keeping it trained on the camera as if on the room itself.
The Stranger
Open the hatch, or I vent the next signal burst into your hull. Kaelen is here because he found what your machine is broadcasting.
The Navigator recoils beside the offered crate, dread flickering across his face as he looks from the screen to Ség. The artifact in the bag gives off only a faint glow now, but the hostile craft holds steady on approach.
Ség U'llr
The signal source is moving, not drifting.
✓ Quest Accepted
Answer the distress signal