The Drifter: Mission Logs

Captain Jake Fox, a cynical salvage operator drowning in bad decisions, recruits an unlikely crew in a grimy space bar: Al, a wary mechanic, and his cantankerous companion—a genetically-engineered, 1,000-year-old talking tardigrade named Kess. Their mission: salvage a military-grade reactor core from the legendary ghost ship, *Kessler-5*—a wreck that has claimed every scavenger sent to find it. But the *Kessler-5* is no ordinary derelict. It is a living biomechanical hive, the failed result of a black-site project by the ruthless biotech corporation Nexus Dynamics. The ship recognizes Kess as one of its own and reveals a horrifying truth: something ancient and hungry has been wearing the wreck like a skin. After a narrow escape, the crew salvages the parts they need—only to awaken a cosmic entity designated "Eschaton." Now hunted by Nexus, pursued by shadows, and trapped aboard a ship (The Drifter) that hides its own classified secrets, Jake and his crew must survive long enough to understand the impossible force they've unleashed. The universe is waking up. And they're caught in its dreams.