Commander

Tell me of the first expedition

Rico

I know for a fact that there were eight rescue shuttles that made it safely to Utopia.

Ours landed right here, in the swamps. There were seventy of us, our shuttle was nearly full.

We decided to stay by the craft to make it easier to find us and just waited…Waited for next expedition to arrive…

But time passed on, no news was received. And something unusual started happening to people.

They began hearing voices, seeing weird dreams…
Nightmares, to be more specific.

At first we blamed swamp water which we were forced to drink for the lack of other. But it wasn’t that…

In the next six months most of our people became obsessed with an idea of serving a certain creature that had been speaking to them in the nighttime.

I niver saw or heard anything, but i had to act as if Xi – that was how they called the creature – was controlling my mind as well. Otherwise, they would’ve killed me. I saw it in their frantic eyes.

Day by day,their faith grew more and more fervent. They seemed to remember nothing of their former lives, their minds set solely on the idea of restoring Xi’s power. All other things lost their meaning for them.

They started calling each other “brethren”, like some monks or cultist. They spoke of Xi’s imminent arrival and promised death to all “infidels”.

They even improvised some ritual outfits and tattoos for Xi to quickly distinguish them from others on his arrival.

I, too, changed my clothes to keep up the disguise. At least I managed to fool people…

…but not spiders. When spiders came, first thing they did, they tore to pieces all fake believers. We were few.

I was the only one to escape. I fled and hid in an empty warehouse on the outskirts of the swamps.

And there I stayed until you came. You’ve literally saved me. I owe you my life!

Commander

Why do the spiders obey the cultists?

Rico

Those able to hear Xi develop a special bond with spiders. Not only spiders do not harm them, but also obey the orders of the most devoted of the fanatics.

According to the prophecies I had a chance to hear, spiders are Xi’s lesser minions. The strongest of them are so big and powerful that they are able to suck the life out of an entire planet.

Commander

Tell me of Xi

Rico

What I’ve gotten out of all this is the certainty of Xi’s existence. “It” is real and it wants to retrieve its powers, taken away by some ancient enemy in some great war.

People who had revelations, told stories about this war. Xi was extremely strong once.

Driven by a “righteous” idea of the Unification, he was engulfing one universe after another. His multiple foes rose against him, starting a war.

The enemies were numerous. Thousands of planets, stellar systems and galaxies not willing to be absorbed, confronted Xi.

But even their united forces were insufficient. In the end, they were unable to destroy Xi, they could only strip him of his powers.

Xi’s followers consider him to be a true god. They call him the “Devourer of worlds”. I am not sure if he actually is a god or not. but if he isn’t, then who is he?