Скачать или смотреть No Man's Sky - Exploration: Nightstalker Test Flight

Test Run – Xaal
Field Log — Avatar Omega
Stardate 12871.4

The Maxim Nightstalker lay grounded on the scorched plains of Xaal, her dark hull glinting with reflected firelight from the incandescent rock formations nearby. She had brought me here in triumph, but nearly ended her journey in failure — one of the dual reactors had surged beyond tolerance, threatening to melt its own chamber. Had I not shut her down in time, the Nightstalker might have joined the planet’s endless fields of slag.

I chose to make the correction in the field, setting her down not far from Accona Vulcaniche, the dwelling I had carved into this world’s volcanic fortress. If Xaal was going to expose weakness in my design, then I would answer it on the same ground that had tested me before.

The reactor bay yawned open, a wound spilling pale coolant vapor into the sulfurous air. With panels spread across the black rock, I worked under a sky veined with ash. The flaw revealed itself quickly: both reactors were competing in the same thermal pathway, choking the coolant system and causing runaway heat. In the sterile quiet of a hangar, I could have taken days to perfect the balance. Here, amid the planet’s roars, I had hours at best.

I cut the routing lattice, separated the heat exchangers by microns, and forged a staggered flow cycle — one reactor feeding into the rhythm of the other instead of colliding against it. Crude, perhaps, but elegant in its necessity.

When I sealed the bay and powered the Nightstalker back on, I felt the difference at once. The ship’s heartbeat was no longer erratic — it was measured, strong, eager.

I lifted her into the choking skies, keeping low over incandescent ridges and volcanic plumes. She moved like a predator set free, violet thrusters painting the cliffs. Reactor readouts stayed level, no sign of overheating. Encouraged, I pushed her harder — rolls between smoke columns, dives toward molten valleys, climbs through pockets of superheated gas.

She held. Not once did the cores waver.

At last, I angled her above Xaal’s horizon, plasma wake scattering ash into glittering motes. The test was complete. The Maxim Nightstalker was no longer a wounded vessel. She was a weapon, reborn in the fire of this hostile world.