I walked outside. The city of Akila wasn’t just muddy. It was slick . Neon reflections puddled in the streets. When I entered the bar, the windows fogged where the cold air met my breath. I pressed my helmet against the glass— smudge physics . Actual smudge physics.
“You didn’t have to kill them.”
That was the first sign.
The patch notes, when they finally appeared on my wrist-tap, read like poetry written by a malfunctioning AI: “Windows now understand weather. Glass holds light. Rain remembers gravity.” Starfield Update v1.12.30
It shattered .
Sarah Morgan was waiting at the ship. She didn’t greet me with the same line about the weather. She was looking at a data slate—my old one. From Earth. I walked outside