Part 1

Please heed my warning. This universe is already on a fast track to expiring and you people are the only ones in the universe left alive at this point. I will tell you my story and travels in hopes they will help your people survive. My name is Auren, I've come from a different dimension, a different universe trying to rescue and save as much life as I can from what I call THE VOID. In science, you people call it "vacuum decay" except this is a real living creature.

It..... swallows entire star systems and galaxies. Right now when you look into the sky and see countless stars they are but remnants of life and their final breath is traveling through space to express their last dying words. There is nothing out there for you, nothing can stop it and there is nothing to see anymore. It will take millions of years before it gets to you but I can let you know it's all dead out there. I'll tell you my story so you can follow in my footsteps as it could lead to the survival of your race and future generations but you must act very soon.

Let me begin where it all began in my home universe. A very long time ago my people were an incredibly advanced race where we were on the precipice of dimensional travel. My people have always had a very long life span to give some perspective to the entire human civilization until this point would only be a blink in my total lifetime. Because of this, there is a wealth of knowledge that's been passed down from generation to generation. It is all being accumulated to this point. With all this knowledge several thousand years before the great dying we discovered the void collapsing entire galaxies.

Our greatest minds got together in what was called the Council and brainstormed a possible end to the void however no matter what we threw at it and no matter the attempts to reach out the creature seemed unwavering and had the intent to end everything. The Council decided there was no way to stop the great devouring void so they wanted to move on to another dimension however the machine wasn't done. At this point, we had very little time left as the void was moving closer and closer by year.

Soon after there was the discovery of a new mineral, this mineral had all the answers we needed and produced enough radioactive power to charge the temporal machine. However, it was close to the void so we extracted as much as we could before it would end up in the beast's gullet. The events after would lead to my eventual travel to seven other dimensions all containing the beast and all ending up the same. Swallowed up into nothing.

Within a few years, the Council was able to get a working model and testing was on the way. I was a part of the Council at this point since I was the head engineer I would facilitate the trials. The first one was with a young woman who couldn't be older than six thousand years, She was short but perfect for the first test. She put the suit on and within seconds her suit started to light up. "Good, it's working great. We may only need one test for her size range!" I thought to myself. Shortly after the whirring of metal and popping became extremely loud. Shortly after I started hearing the crunching of bone and the tearing of flesh. Her screams echoed throughout the testing chamber. Her blood was leaking out of the suit and a mist of blood sprayed as the pressure grew on the suit. Before I could turn the suit off it already collapsed her whole body into a round mass of meat and blood.

This was not the last trial this happened. Time and time again no matter the size or the tweaks I designed they all failed each test subject ending up as a puddle on the floor. The public grew wary and fewer and fewer people volunteered. We ended up having to pay them to have people test it. After a year of failures, the void was within couple hundred years which to us was not long enough. We kept trying hundred of bodies piled up and with only a few years left I was finally successful in my first test.

It started with a stout man who was 7.2 feet tall and 265 pounds. That being said he was a bit nervous knowing the pile of bodies that he was trying to overcome. We were all scared of what could happen. I was on the floor this time and tweaking the suit to only jump to the nearest safe dimension. I found there was an issue and the suit was low on fuel but we decided to go forward with it anyways. "You will be ok I promise. I'll be here to watch personally to make sure it all goes right" I said to the test subject. He looked at me with a nervous smile and shook his head in silence accepting his fate whether he lives or dies. In a wave of my hand, the other scientists in the pod above pressed the button and activation.

In a flash of bright blue light, the man disappeared. Now I did tell him how to come back and the idea is the suit needs to wait 2 hours before it can actually boot up and start again. I left instructions on how to start it manually in the pocket. We hear him say something over coms but it was full of static but we can still make it out "I... see....blue....clouds are pre....." I replied to him with how to fix the issue you can hear him slowly getting better. "Hello? Is this better?" he said, "yes much better go ahead and describe the area". There was a short pause "The sky is blue and the clouds are normally akin to our clouds. Oddly I don't see any other beings or life. I don't see grass or trees. It is just all dirt and stone"

I wrote down some other information it was only relevant to see if we can live there so we might be able to plant trees or vegetables. While I was writing the notes down I hear a "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT" It was the test subject he was screaming and running for his life. "Listen, you have to describe what is going on. What is chasing you?" I can hear him huffing and puffing "I... I don't think it could've caught up it's slow." I wrote this down and asked, "What are its features?"

Test Subject was able to catch his breath and say "Wooo ok, The thing is bright orange and had 4 legs with what looks to be stone covering him from head to toe. It's just walking around. There is no head I can see just legs and a body. Can.....can I come back?" I note all this on the pad. "Alright you can come back just pull the cord on your chest and press the button inside the glove." he sighs and replies "Ok here goes nothing". We can hear the suit whirl up and pop.

Seconds later I hear screaming coming from the admin room. I rush upstairs to find the male subject unable to speak but he was out of the suit and the suit itself was on the ground however he was melded into the wall. No blood was coming out it looks like he fused with it perfectly. It wasn't until he started to flail his arms and grab on people that we studied him and his effects. An hour goes by and I reported it works only one way, but the good news is it works.

I reported this finding to the rest of the people and with only a few days left we all started to mass produce the suits. The only kicker is we only had fuel for one suit which I knew but the rest didn't. I'm not proud of this but the void was getting closer and at the point where I fueled up the suit all the way it was only hours left. Everyone was getting ready to start their suits. Billions of my people all hopefully but unaware of the void were going to end their suffering. I only hope my people got a swift death as I teleported out.

I... think.. about all my people being destroyed by the void. I wake up at night screaming and remember seeing it open its impossible huge mouth as it swallowed the stars and galaxy barreling toward us. I can't imagine the fear they had when none of the suits worked or the anger they had when they noticed I left and no one else. What was I supposed to do? Die and not warn countless others? My decision wasn't a selfish one. I built the suit, I know all its in's and outs. I know how to fuel and take care of it. I'm sorry I didn't mean to rant but I need you to read this to understand how this thing worked.

"My home dimension has to be gone by now," I thought as I popped into a new dimension. This one was strange. Everything was... grey.. but I can feel the wind. I looked at my diagnostics It appears there was a breathable amount of Oxygen in the air. This planet was entirely the same as ours just undeveloped. It was getting late and I needed to build a shelter. Now with the rest of the night, I just used the fuel I had left to charge my suit.

That was the back story of my universe. This new one will be gone soon but that's a story for a different time as this one has gone long enough and I have way more to tell about the new plane. Tonight I will be charging the suit up and laying down.

Until then, live long travelers,

Auren D.