Story

PROLOGUE

Lost's section of the story began when a race, known now as the Dreamers, came upon the planet Earth and inevitably made contact with humans. They collectively called themselves 'Au' and though they spoke no English, many days and much study allowed the people of Earth to eventually communicate and determine their purpose. Au was a civilised and highly advanced race, they had survived years on a group of planets far from Earth. The rumour soon formed that their home was close to the centre of the universe. It quickly became clear, through expression more than word, that they were trying to warn the human race of an impending threat.

Indeed, it was only two weeks after their arrival that a fleet of enormous battle crafts surrounded Earth. Au pleaded for forgiveness, making it clear that it was their fault that the fleet had arrived at Earth. They expressed forcefully that the enemy was undefeatable, a tribe of strange creatures that had run Au from their home and chased them for countless years. Their ships were faster, but had limited fuel. The creatures would always find them The year was 3053 and the then collective government of Earth, after several unsuccessful attempts to communicate with the clearly aggressive enemy tribe, fired simultaneously with half of the planet's anti-space weaponry. The enemy was destroyed instantly.

It turned out that Au were more different from humans than anyone had ever imagined. They thought completely differently. They did not exist strongly in the physical world, instead communicating, fighting and working through a strange form of telepathy. At first, scientists assumed this was pure telepathy, some form of mental connection, however it was soon found to be much more than that. It seemed almost as though Au could instinctively transfer their consciousness through planes of existence or reality. They had a remarkably different view of the world. It was because of their non-physical instincts that the enemy tribe had managed to decimate their physical world and bodies with methods they simply did not understand.

Au claimed eternal gratitude toward the human race. An agreement was reached to allow Au to inhabit Earth Delta, one of the artificial planets manufactured to alleviate population stress on true Earth. Au pledged their loyalty to the government of Earth and promised to protect humans in any way they could. Of course, at the time the government was more interested in studying Au and learning what they could of their alien existence. So a decade of study and affluence began.

The end of this decade was almost marked by what was known as the Delta Massacre. Humans had studied Au deeply and consistently, improving their own understanding of the universe. However, nothing had prepared them for the attack of the otherworldly creatures known as the Ses. Many had heard of the Ses from various Au stories, thought Au rarely mentioned them in a threatening light. They were described as nuisances, almost like a fly or a raccoon rummaging through the trash. The Ses' reaction with humankind was completely unexpected.

The Ses were an incorporeal species, existing in an area between realities and incapable of interacting with one reality or another. When they arrived on Earth, following the trail of Au, they fed on the human's unique mental processes; taking strength from memories, logic and reasoning they brought themselves into human reality. After achieving a corporeal form, they began to physically devour the people inhabiting Earth Delta. Weapons had no effect on them, nothing that the human race had created in it's millennia of existence could help. The Ses were first drawn to attack Au, which they killed in mass. Au responded quickly and efficiently, using their unique talents to capture countless Ses, binding them to strange devices. Eventually, the creatures were defeated. However, the Au population was severely affected.

After the massacre, the Earth government came to the decision to search out and destroy the Ses threat, removing them one by one until a more comprehensive solution could be devised. With Au population at an all time low, a strategy was put together to allow a single Au to travel with a starship team, searching out and destroying Ses throughout the galaxy.

GAME STORY

The main character wakes up on a bunch of rags in what appears to be a storage closet. She remembers nothing, not even her name. The narrator refers to her as 'Lost'. She finds a way to exit the room and starts to explore her surroundings. Finding a window, she gathers she's on a starship. It quickly becomes apparent that the starship is void of life. Alone and scared, Lost begins to explore the ship, hoping to make her way to the cockpit and hopefully unravel the mystery of her past.

As she moves forward, unlocking new paths by solving puzzles, she realises that she is not entirely alone on the ship. Something is watching her, something she can't properly see. She makes her way into a library and begins reading a book. At that moment, she is attacked by her invisible stalker. The creature, which appears still formless, envelops her in a cloud of smog. The creature seems to scream in anguish as Lost is pulled into some sort of dream world, reminiscent of the book she was only just reading. Making her way through this strange world and interacting with its characters, she eventually reaches a perplexing and remarkable puzzle. Upon solving the puzzle, a strange light emanates from her mind and she is transported back to her original position in the library. The lights in that corner of the ship mysteriously turn on and, with power provided to new doors, Lost continues her journey.

Similar events occur, with Lost repeatedly being attacked by the ethereal creature. Over time she pieces together information from her past from audio recordings, videos and notes found around the ship. She discovers that she is not human, but instead one of what are known as 'Au', a race whose consciousness exists on several planes of reality. The creature she faces is a 'Ses', a monster that exists in a reality between realities. By feeding on logic, reasoning and memories, a Ses may take form in a single reality and physically feed on its inhabitants. Lost had been taken on a journey with her father to capture a Ses found on a far off planet. Her father managed to lock the creature inside an Au artefact, as was his mission, but had been gravely injured in the process and soon died. At that point, Lost sunk into depression and her psyche became increasingly fragile.

Later on, one of the human scientists accidentally released the binds holding the creature to the artefact, allowing it to escape. Fearing the Ses would gain corporeal form and wreak havoc on the universe, the captain of the ship evacuated those he could into space and, after seemingly going mad with fear, murdered those who refused to leave. Unable to handle the violence, Lost broke down, entering a catatonic state. A scientist known as 'Whitman' locked Lost inside a storage locker, knowing she was the only person capable of destroying the Ses. Whitman was subsequently killed by the captain, who afterward killed himself, spurred by his paranoid delusions.

Despite the horror of the captain's rampage, it was a highly effective strategy. When the Ses eventually regained consciousness it had no logic, reasoning or memories to feed on, leaving it stuck in an incorporeal state. It was drawn, as all Ses, to Lost's unique Au mental state. When Lost awoke she had detached herself from her painful memories, a reaction common among her species. She had no memories, and her mind did not operate logically or with reason, but instead with imagination. Her powerful imagination proved toxic to the Ses, who was slowly dying during his attempts to attack her.

During a final confrontation with the Ses, Lost manages to enter the creatures reality and her it's thoughts. She realises a lot of what her people and humankind believe of the Ses is false. The creature is not intentionally trying to harm people, but is instead drawn to human minds like a moth to a flame. It is not particularly intelligent, more animalistic in nature, but it is peaceful and feeds only on a strange mental energy left over from thought. It's corporeal form acts almost like acid to human flesh and it unintentionally kills any one it touches. Lost feels the fear the creature felt as it was binded, the horror it knew as it unintentionally killed her father and the sadness and confusion of being in a place so different from its home. At that point, Lost makes the decision to either destroy the creature using her new found powers, to bind it to the artefact again or to allow it to escape.

The game ends with Lost entering the cockpit and standing before the massive window, staring out at a plethora of new planets.