
by A-Aron_1981
As a species, our thirst for knowledge is unyielding. It pulled us out of the caves and then drove us across the stars. In the early stages of the 28th Century, humanity has aggressively expanded across the stars. “Officially,” no other intelligent life has been found, except in old ruins on long dead worlds. This changes when a deep space probe detects a gravitational anomaly. Opening a tear through space, a single ship of unknown origin emerges. The alien ship appears to be broken and beaten. Clearly it has been through hell, but where did it come from? What was it fighting? A team of Marines, along with Doctor Catherine Tait are sent to investigate. Gaining access to the ship’s main computer, Catherine begins the download. Spending many months researching and translating the alien language and culture, Catherine uncovers a set of co-ordinates. The alien ship’s previous location. THE ARK. An expedition is sent. Four ships spend the next six months crossing a region of space void of stars. A darkness that seeps into the soul.
No streak history
One state-enhanced oracle order, filtered by each list. Observed Royal Road ranks remain separate ground truth.
Rank updated 11 Oct 2026, 05:38 UTC
Entry forecast updated 11 Oct 2026, 05:38 UTC
Ranking model: rs-public-oracle-state-v1
Forecast model: rs-model-entry-v1
Chart history contains only this ranking model's runs; legacy points are not spliced in.
Not enough recent follower history to estimate a shadow rank yet.
beats 78% of similar stories
not enough data yet
beats 22% of similar stories
Hidden gem — exposure is the bottleneck
Readers who find this story follow it at a high rate; there just aren't enough of them. In our cohort data, near-daily posting lifted the odds of reaching 25 followers from ~0% to 17% — more chapters, shoutout swaps and ads buy the eyeballs this conversion deserves.
Benchmarks: 8,060 active Royal Road stories, percentiles within the 10–19 chapters band, cohort of 2026-07-02. Conversion is measured as followers gained per 1,000 views over the recent window.