Next up it was time to start acquiring the last of the Artifacts I needed. Things would start to get rather bizarre moving forward. I found a new game mechanic that was interested to be interesting, to say the least creating some fun and frustrating moments along the way.
While flying out to the next location I got a distress call. It told me there was an explosion at the High Energy Research lab. That did not sound good whatsoever. I was, however, on a mission to go after artifacts. At first, I just assumed it was some random side mission.
Walking to my next location I ended up getting ambushed by quite a few local wildlife. They were called Cataxi. I must have cleared two dozen of them before making it to the location I was heading for.
It turns out it would not be a side mission after all. The very building I was told there was a massive explosion at. Was the very building I was about to enter to start looking for the artifact.
I walked up to it and realized the place was locked down quite tight. I thought perhaps due to an explosion they put the place on lockdown. There did not seem to be any other way in than buzzing the front door. Where to my shock I got an answer and was even allowed in.
I’m still not sure why I was let in. Even more so after seeing the building was not full lockdown yet. It would however become on full lockdown to allow me inside. The head of security was not taking any chances with a stranger showing up. Perhaps he was hoping to gather intel from me on why I was there.
It did not take long for them to start thinking I was a bit crazy. The distress signal I received about there being an explosion never happened. Well, it never happened in this universe. It did happen elsewhere, however.
Things were quite off almost like I was in two different timelines. I was walking and suddenly I appeared in quite a different room to the one I was in. After dealing with the threat of a Cataxi that are local creatures I thought were just on the outside of the building. I realized I was not in a different room after all.
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It was the same room I was just walking in. It was, however, now taken over by the local creatures. It also looked like the place had sustained quite a large amount of damage. Almost like an explosion had occurred.
Before I could explore much further. Let alone try and work out what was going on I was back where I had just left off. The head of security was not amused. He was also just as confused as I was. One moment I was walking with him and another I was gone.
Naturally, as the head of security, he thought the worst of it. That I must have some kind of cloaking device and I should not infiltrate their outpost. Thankfully the scientists working here had much cooler heads. They started to realize quicker than he did what was going on.
I was told I needed to meet with the person who ran the place. That would however be much harder than one would think just a couple of steps down some hallways would end up being. As I would keep phasing in and out of the two different universes.
Every time I ended up in the other place, I had to start shooting like my life was dependent on it. As I would just be covered in Cataxi. In one world I was trying to work out what had transpired. In the other world, I was just trying to make it to the office.
Popping randomly back into the timeline where everything had not exploded also caused some issues. As all the employees were not aware of who I was. So quite a few times people would scream and start calling for a lockdown as I was viewed as an intruder.
All of this was quite amazing. Even more so when I got to spend a little time just exploring around and gathering my thoughts about what was going on. I just wish I had some way of controlling when I phase in and out of the two different timelines.
In that place that had the massive explosion, I ended up to my shock finding a lonely survivor. Right before everything went wrong, he went into a room that then auto-locked down right before the event took place.
I’d later discover the lone survivor Rafael was the only one killed in the other timeline. He was given credit as the one stopping the gas leak. They just did not know at the time that a gas leak would have killed everyone else. That it would be quite a profound accident that took place in the other timeline.
Rafael also worked out after some conversations with me that the prob that was analyzing the artifact that they were studying at this location. Was still feeding power into it. Once the prob was shut off I would stop shifting between two different timelines. This also seemed whatever one I was when I powered it down would be the one I was staying in.
I finally made it into the director's offer. At first, like with the security guard, they did not believe me. Thankfully with all their knowledge of science, it did not take long before they realized something wild and interesting was taking place.
I was then tasked with getting into the basement of the facility where the artifact was. In the timeline where everything did not explode it was in lockdown and the elevator down could not be accessed. They could not override it. In the timeline where everything had exploded the elevator was working but due to all the damage many areas were blocked off from parts of the building caving in. I had to go back and forth between the two timelines to make my way down and to the artifact.
Before I'd head off on my trip, however, they needed to do some testing. They worked out a theory they could allow me to control going back and forth between the two different timelines. After some testing, they were in the lab able to create an intersection point that would phase me from one timeline to another. I just had to find them as they would appear in both timelines.
They also gave me a shotgun that was great for taking out the Cataxi. Even better I rarely use a shotgun, so I ended up having quite a few bullets for it. I was getting quite low on ammo on my other guns. You would think I would have taken the time to restock but I never did. Creating quite an interesting struggle for me during certain moments later down the line.
So, I started to descend deeper and deeper into the faculty. Sometimes I'd hit a roadblock in one timeline and must phase over to the other one to get around it. Once I had made it into the elevator and the basement, I now have hostile entities in both timelines.
As in the timeline where everything did not explode, that part of the facility was stuck in full lockdown with automated defenses trying to keep me away. In the other timeline, it looked like this is where the Cataxi were getting in as they were quite thick and higher level down there. Now I was moving quite slowly in both timelines.
I then made it into the room where the artifact was being kept. I had to shut down the power interlocks that were keeping the probe running. I had yet to make up my mind on which timeline I wanted to be stuck in.
So as I was working that out in my mind. I at least started to clear both timelines of anything trying to stop me. While also clicking on the seven switches I needed to shut everything down with.
While I did feel bad for Rafael as he was hoping I'd be the one to help him escape. I had to leave him behind and pick the other timeline. There were far too many people who were still alive in that timeline. It’s the one I wanted to be a part of. So, I switched over one last time to where the explosion did not happen and flicked the final one powering down the probe.
I then bagged myself another artifact. Making this one so far quite an interesting artifact to have collected. I was hoping this would be the last one I needed. It turned out it was not. I still had further exploring and things to gather to do.
I did end up getting some nice gear and quite a few credits for staying in the timeline where only one person died instead of many. I’m still uncertain if I made the right choice. As I would have just been in one timeline or another. Both timelines would have just excised in different universes if I had to guess.
Screenshots were taken and content was written by @Enjar about Starfield.
Disclosure: Starfield received for free through AMD rewards from the graphics card I purchased.
