In 2419, Kael, a scout of the 7th Interstellar Expeditionary Force, stumbled upon this unassuming white dagger wedged in the obsidian crack of the Old God "Sharuuk"'s altar on Zeta-9🔦. This planet was marked as a Class-4 Contamination Zone, where lingering psychic residue twisted all organic matter and metal alike. Every piece of equipment his squad brought warped beyond use within 72 hours, yet this dagger remained pristine, untouched by Sharuuk's corrupting aura. The expedition's xenotechnicians later deduced it was 3D-printed from condensed stellar remains, a material impervious to Sharuuk's mental field. The dual grooves along the blade were not decorative—they were psychic energy conduits, designed to siphon the maddening whispers that drove men to madness😈. The cross-shaped aperture at the end of the ribbed handle was a neural calibration port, which could sync with the expedition's neural implants to stabilize a user's fraying sanity, funneling absorbed corruption into the dagger's core instead of the user's cortex📡. When Kael's squad leader, Vorn, succumbed to Sharuuk's influence and turned on the team, Kael grabbed the dagger in a desperate bid to defend himself. The moment his fingers wrapped around the ribbed handle, the conduits flared with a faint violet glow, and a cold, alien calm washed over him. As Vorn's plasma knife sliced through the air, Kael drove the dagger into the man's chest—not to kill, but to siphon the corruption. Vorn's snarls faded into whimpers, his eyes clearing before he collapsed into a deep, dreamless slumber💤. On the journey back to the fleet, Kael kept the dagger at his side. He soon noticed that whenever the ship passed through dark nebulae, the cross port would pulse with a soft, rhythmic light, and a viscous, iridescent mucus would seep from its edges. One night, he woke to find the dagger hovering above his bunk, its conduits glowing brightly as it emitted a low, guttural hum that resonated with the neural implant in his skull. He reached out to touch it, and for a split second, he saw a vision: a vast, starless void filled with writhing tentacles, and a voice that whispered, "Feed me more..."👁️