The Seas are waypoints in the blue rift expanse of particularly turbulent spacetime activity that are usually deadly to any ship that spends any significant amount of time at them, although most ships can usually survive at least a minute or two before structural strain begins tearing the vessel apart.

These are usually connected to the gate work either because the abandoned gates have not worn down yet (as they are mostly immune to spacetime disturbances) or otherwise are deliberately setup as “traps” to help deter hostile vessels that enter the gateway network by force.

An unstable region of space used to deter the occasional pirate raid into the gate network

This navigational point is home to at least half-a-dozen gates in varying states of disrepair. This reclusive zone, due to its isolation, was previously used for running “hot labs”; high-risk projects whose effects were too dangerous to operate anywhere within a star system.

This zone was abandoned due to the outbreak of particularly nasty nanomechanical virus that subjugates the systems of starships and promises a prolonged, agonizing death for any living organism unfortunate enough to be infested. Now a few “zombie” starships and abandoned laboratories scatter this particular waypoint.

The gateway link can only be activated from the paired gate in the Bridge of Sighs waypoint, in order to prevent the virus from spreading outside the system. Anyone unfortunate enough to enter this system without a second team to reactivate the gate on the previous side will be trapped here, since this way point is well within the FTL deadzone. While one could theoretically slow-travel back into stable space, such a journey would take well over a decade…

Since its inception, Pestilence had a reputation of pursuing increasingly dangerous research programmes within its sprawling lab complex. It therefore came as no shock to any of the other Resident AI that it eventually met its demise at the hands of one its creations.

- Bridge of Sighs (can only be activated from the Bridge of Sighs gate)