Page 106 - The Chronicles Ser2 (6-10)

born stars and other stellar phenomena. Unlike most such clouds though; The Veil was formed by an
exploding Mega Star; a super massive Blue-Ultraviolet star. Rare and unstable these Mega Stars
don’t just explode they rip the fabric of Space-Time causing Hyper spatial rifts and interdimensional
tears. The Veil is littered with many such rifts and tears making it possibly the most dangerous place
in the Galaxy. Ships entering this region usually skirted the edge of the cloud; detouring around
rather than through. Many stories and legends grew about the place; some even believe it to be the
Gateway to the Nether realm, The Valley of Death, even Hell, but none of this was provable.

The Veil was also one of the strongest sources of Sub-space static and interference;
communications therefore were fraught to say the least in The Veil and nearby space. Very few ships
have ever surveyed more than a few hundred kilometres into it. As a result; little was known about
the vast interior other than from the strange distorted echoes high up in the sub-space bands that
indicated the presence of some kind of space living life forms; possibly Space Whales or their larger
cousins the Behemoths, both creatures seemed to be unaffected by the weird distortions that the
rifts and tears created. These creatures feed on the dust and gas fields of Nebulae; so The Veil was
probably their richest feeding ground. Of a number of Nomad races; the Ilkar and the Zolan followed
the Space Whales and Behemoths all over this sector of the Galaxy in much the same way that the
Inuit and Laps did with the animals and beasts of the Arctic region of old Earth. The Zolan capturing;
taming and herding Space Whales had a ready source of mineral rich waste products from the
intelligent creatures. The Ilkar utilised the waste products of the Behemoths, following the small
family groups, pods, with their processing ships. They even found use of the elderly; injured and
dying Behemoths. The hide was a rich source of ultra-dense materials; the bones of the huge
creatures were mostly comprised of Metals and ceramics. Life on this scale used microorganisms to
build itself molecule placement by molecule placement, much like Nano mechanicals do. Thus the
bodies of these beasts were the Ilkar life’s blood, livelihoods and much more. Even the Ilkar would
not follow a Behemoth that ventured deep into The Veil; above all, they were not stupid.

When Humans and other races came across the Ilkar and the Zolan; they used their
knowledge of the region to create trading routes and pathways around the outskirts of the vast
cloud. Some mining companies were more adventurous; actually sending huge processing platforms
into the clouds to extract its rich Deuterium resources, for those outlying colonies that used Fusion
reactors. This was a dangerous practice as the richest fields were further in and near to the Rifts and
Tears. Quite a few ships strayed too close to these and were lost. Many techniques were tried to
protect against the Space-Time distortions in the early days; though it would not be until the seventh
millennium that a safe shielding against the effects would be developed. Even so, the risks of
venturing too far into The Veil were very prominent in the minds of many Captains and crews. A
belief system of sorts developed with the central entity being a devilish creature known as “The
Great Evil” among the simpler societies. Still; ships did try and ships and whole expeditions were
lost. The Veil claimed them in silence; taking them to the silence of the static hiss, and leaving no
trace or clue behind.

It was some time after the second Expansion into the Galaxy by the Humans of Old Terra
that rumours began to spread of strange noises and signals coming out of The Veil. Many in the
Unity dismissed the tales; at first, until one day an expedition to the Hub passed through the
outskirts of The Veil. Their coms technicians were just changing shifts when the signals began. Feint
and distant at first; sounding like some old Radio transmission, garbled and echoing. The regularity
of the bursts and the modulation seemed to be less natural; certainly not Space-Whales or
Behemoths. It was thought at first that it might be coming from some other space living entity that
lived inside the environment of The Veil. But that shift change would give the lie to that explanation.
A Junior coms Technician called Jason Hagrad; a Genovan, heard the first sequence and was about to
dismiss it like many others had before when… the same exact sequence repeated three more times.
It was clearly an automated beacon signal. But where was it coming from; signals got bounced
around in Sub-space for great distances around The Veil, he needed to rule out a number of possible
causes.