Alpha Sector

Rapture...

Proceed to Area 51, Alpha Sector, and crack the doors of Hangar 3A...

Technicians surround the Artifact, bathed in the phosphor glow from the displays on their racks of instrumentation. Thick cables snake from the serried ranks of devices to the Object... coloured lights pulse in sequence on the surface of the Artifact, sporadically illuminating it in flashes of cold fire as, one by one, the internal systems are brought online...

In the flickering shadows, the pilots await... steeped in the arcane theories that define the operation of the Artifact, prepared for this moment after months of study, thousands of hours of simulator time logged... this much-anticipated moment when theory becomes reality, when at last they will be able to grasp the Artifact with their very minds, and speak the Words of Power, and fly on loops of fury to that familiar, infinite, beloved space; but this time, not just to travel faster than before, but to go one stage further, outside, above, beyond, to spaces glimpsed but hitherto unattainable, the spaces where magic is an everyday occurrence, the spaces where thought is made light, and where you can create anything you can imagine, with the power of mind alone...

The pilots await, in the flickering shadows, their eyes filled with exotic light, reflected from visions of infinite spaces.

Rapture.

Rapture's coming.