.
"== ALMATIAN NEWS – PEACE MONTH, DAY 26 ==
The secret behind the Driftspace uncovered by the UHC!
Memetic area accessed by the infected inhabitants. The UHC is trying to bring ingredients for continued cure development. The cure is slowly being built, but due to an unknown force in "DRIFTSPACE" the progress is slowed. Thanks to the Thread, Almatia has a chance to fight back! Follow us for updates soon.
== END =="
"Interesting.", says Rain, looking at the newspaper. "Is the Driftspace like Almatia – but infected? And why is the required ingredient in the Driftspace"
"You're asking the wrong person.", says Mailen.
Rain and Mailen leave Zarya to rest for the night, because she's being let go the next day.
Aeternum, Vega, and Leo return to the UHC center through the Driftspace.
"We've gotten some ingredients. We can cure the first layer of the virus. I do not know about the advanced layers and the force itself.", says Vega, giving Asparion some weird liquid ingredient.
"Development will take a week or more. Please look into the Driftspace more. I've gathered some data during your trip. Check your phones.", says Asparion, putting the liquid in a lab tube.
"Got it. We'll continue tomorrow. This trip nearly killed us all.", says Vega, exhausted. She leaves to go to her room.
Aeternum returns to the crew's base to see Mailen and Rain doing some research.
"Aeternum, perfect timing! Mailen just found something great for us, and our safety.", says Rain excitedly, grabbing Aeternum's hands and handing him to Mailen.
"Ey, Aeternum. Alright, here's the deal. This 'virus' is not even a virus. This is a hypnotic meme. Look at this article from 4,000 years ago, about a memetic war on the planet Tranquila.", says Mailen, rotating his device screen to show Aeternum.
"COSMIC NEWS FOR CHAOS MONTH, DAY 9, 6034 SE"
...
The people of Tranquila have successfully fought off the memetic entities from their planet, causing all the people affected by it to return as normal. There have been 42 million confirmed deaths in the war. We hope that Tranquila comes back to its prosper times with UHC's cooperation."
"Wait. This article sounds similar to Almatia's situation.", says Aeternum.
"Well... You're somewhat correct, but also actually wrong.", says Mailen, going back on his device. "Tranquila had a small memetic entity that was causing chaos, but Almatia has a huge inter-dimensional kind of thing. But now, we can confirm that it isn't a virus. And that the cure won't do anything much – Zarya can get infected again. However, we can also prevent infections by wearing thick suits. If we get rid of the Driftspace monster, all the people in it will snap back to reality."
"Huh... Okay. Let's inform Vega.", says Aeternum.
"Wait for Zarya to come first. I want her to know this as well. And you know I hate repeating things a lot of times.", says Mailen, stopping Aeternum from grabbing his phone.
Just shortly after, Zarya walks in. "I'm back~"
Rain hugs Zarya, and tells Mailen to call Vega to explain everything now.
Mailen calls up Vega, and tells Zarya to listen as well. Mailen explains everything that he told Aeternum, and Vega tells the crew to meet her in the UHC building tomorrow.
"It's getting late, please, everyone, let's have some rest first.", says Vega through the phone.
The crew goes to sleep, and the next day, they go to the UHC building.
In the UHC building, the crew sits in a small room, with insane amounts of privacy – their devices taken, and themselves fully checked. Vega included.
"Okay. So, Mailen, you have some intel about the Driftspace that we don't know about, right?"
"Yep. This isn't a virus with which we are dealing. Look at this.", says Mailen as he hands out the cosmic newspaper article he researched yesterday, giving it to Vega.
Vega reads the article carefully and puts the paper on the table.
"I have never even thought of this. How did this not get through any UHC members' heads??", says Vega, caressing her forehead, feeling honestly annoyed.
"To be fair, that did happen like what, four to five thousand years ago?", says Rain, reassuring that mistakes can happen.
"But then, why is it that the cure helps the infected?", asks Vega, looking at Rain.
"It only cures the hypnosis. The virus does not exist. Plus, it's temporary.", says Mailen. "Zarya, for example, can get infected again."
"How do we fight the force then? Or, as it seems to be, the entity?", asks Vega, standing up and starting to walk in a circle, thinking of solutions. However, Mailen already has a solution: "thick suits."
"What do you mean?", asks Vega. "What do thick suits have to do with this?"
"If we cover all of our body with a few layers of suits, the entity – or the infection that the entity leaves can't get to us. It can infect alive entities, and the thick suits are not alive, as far as I know.", says Mailen, with both his hands on the table, also standing up shortly afterwards.
"Alright. I'll tell Asparion to get some thick suits for us all, and miss Zarya, please stay home for the next few weeks. I do not want you to get infected, considering you just had it.", says Vega, telling Zarya to go back to the Thread for a while.
"Understood.", says Zarya as she starts to call Xita: "Hey, Xita? Can you get me on the Thread?"
"Get on the Thread yourself! Just teleport!", says Xita through Zarya's phone.
Zarya teleports to the Thread, and the crew leaves the private room.
A few hours later, in the UHC building, Asparion comes with 6 sets of thick suits.
"So, 6 sets, let's see... Aeternum, Mailen, Rain, Asparion, and I. The 6th one is for Zarya, I assume, right?", asks Vega, putting the suits on a floating disk.
"Yeah. I guess she's recovering on the Thread now, as you told me, right?", asks Asparion.
"Yes.", says Vega.
The crew takes the suits, and prepares for their second visit to the Driftspace.
Rain's emotions are now filled with nervousness, considering she is the most prone to the virus inside the Driftspace.
They meet up with Leo, and enter the point.
The crew enters the Driftspace, but they're met with something unsettling.
"Where is everyone? We are back in this village, but nobody's here.", says Rain, looking all around, hoping she doesn't get attacked from nowhere.
Just then, an unrecognizable entity jumps the crew. Rain gets rid of it from her body, and runs to just get enough time to grab her weapon from her waist. Then, a few more entities jump out, attacking the crew.
"What are these entities??!", asks Rain, out of breath from the sudden attack.
Nobody responds because they're fighting the enemies.
Just shortly after, the crew clears the wave. "Those look like the zombies I saw in that one huge building.", says Mailen, out of breath.
"Did everyone get fully affected??", asks Vega.
"Yup. We have to transport all of them to the Almatian hospitals ASAP.", says Mailen, telling Asparion to call the UHC Health Board.
The crew runs to safety, with Asparion calling the Health Board. Shortly later, Asparion comes with some news: "The Health Board declined their entry, it's too risky. Our only option is to slow down the infection by killing the small entities and healing them like that."
"Okay. These zombies seem strong, it's like they have some kind of power...", says Aeternum.
"I can see they are stronger than last time; that's for sure...", says Mailen.
The crew runs from the hundreds of entities piling up in the village.
"This entity is smart. It knows we are trying to kill it.", says Vega. "I have a plan. Let's leave."
The crew leaves the Driftspace.