Nosk

The Nosk are massive organisms resembling floating sea stars. Each adult possesses nine arms and a corresponding cluster of nine dark, multifaceted eyes set into the center of its body. Fibrous sensory tendrils extend from both sides of the central core, drifting like wisps around the creature.

They possess no wings and no visible propulsion, yet they drift effortlessly through the atmosphere of their homeworld. Observed individuals range from barely half a meter across to more than two meters in diameter. No other large animals have ever been recorded on the surface — only the Nosk.

SIAGE observation probes revealed a landscape unlike anything on Earth: towering stalks of strange vegetation, dark fungal forests, and bioluminescent growths stretching across a crimson terrain. Above this surface float thousands of gigantic spherical habitats, each connected to its neighbors by enormous structural corridors, forming entire cities suspended in the sky.

The Nosk move freely between these spheres and the fields below, the sole caretakers — or wardens — of their world.

In 2175 the colony survey vessel CSV Horizon's Wake entered the Gliese 436 system with 143 personnel aboard. Within minutes a burst of exotic energy swept across local space. The ship's Thrishton Core fluctuated violently, power failed, and 138 of the crew simply vanished — no bodies, no blood, no escape pods. The vessel drifted intact, coffee still warm in the mugs.

A single transmission then rose from the fourth planet, already in perfect English, repeating every thirty-two seconds:

“Not your home.”

A KAVOE diplomatic vessel carrying linguists, SIAGE xenobiologists, and cultural specialists attempted peaceful dialogue for ninety-six hours — transmitting greetings in twenty-three languages, mathematics, music, prime numbers. The only reply, hour after hour, was the same three words.

Read the full declassified account by Fleet Ranger Elias Mercer in The Nosk — First Contact.

Nosk spacecraft are unlike any vessel humanity has ever seen. Their outer hull appears physically separated from the propulsion systems by an empty region of distorted space — a design SIAGE concluded intentionally isolates the drive core, making the craft resistant to the very pulse phenomenon that disabled Horizon's Wake.

In combat the Nosk employ two known weapons. The first is an exotic energy pulse that destabilizes a vessel's Thrishton Core and disables power throughout the ship. The second is far more terrifying: a beam that condenses spacetime itself into a razor-thin corridor of catastrophic tidal forces — punching clean through a hull and momentarily forcing compartments meters apart into the same location before violently separating them again.

Over the decades since first contact, KAVOE has returned to Gliese 436 many times — always cautiously, always respectfully. Every expedition has produced the same result. The Nosk defend only their own system. No attack has ever been confirmed outside Gliese 436. No evidence suggests they seek conquest, and none suggests they desire diplomacy.

The fate of the crew of Horizon's Wake remains unknown — whether killed, captured, or something far stranger, no one can say. Only one message has remained consistent since humanity first arrived:

“Not your home.”

The lesson has endured throughout KAVOE: not every civilization wishes to be discovered, and sometimes the greatest act of restraint is recognizing that the stars belong to more than ourselves.