From time to time, HomeStation experiments with different ventures.

You’ve enjoyed HSM-branded magazine issues, comic books, podcasts, machinima, and of course daily articles. We continuously stretch. We try new things.

Every so often, we take a stab at creative writing. And why not? HomeStation’s designed to be a platform for multiple forms of creative expression, reflective of the multi-talented team that produces it. And so we’ve decided to publish a short story from one of our authors — Phoenix.

This particular story is set in the Sodium Universe. A Lockwood IP, Sodium is one of the richest and most interesting worlds within PlayStation Home. If we rewind the clock back to December 2009, recall what a revelation it was to experience the Sodium Hub for the first time: an intriguing futuristic setting with an internal currency, jobs, games, and hints of a remarkable backstory.

Sodium is quite beloved by the Home community, even half a decade later. And HSM is no exception to this. Indeed, Lockwood has been gracious enough to accept a HomeStation author’s VICKIE origin story as officially canon. Lockwood was the very first developer to sign on in support of HSM — at a time when a lot of doors were closed to this then-nascent publication — and we have done our best to continuously evangelize their products. Not because we feel we owe them something, but because we’re genuine Lockwood fans. There is, after all, a reason why they keep winning AlphaZone 4’s Developer of the Year award.

The Sodium universe, for a time, was considered all but dead; however, recently, there have been new signs of life, especially a new Sodium-based airship estate which was released about nine months ago. Notably, the Sodium Blimp is, we believe, the first published PlayStation Home estate which can be driven and moved by the user (LOOT’s Sunset Yacht originally had that functionality, but it was removed prior to publication), which you really ought to experience if you haven’t yet done so.

So, here’s a rather fun creative endeavor we hope you enjoy: a short story which expands somewhat on a post-apocalyptic survivalist experience envisioned within the Sodium universe.

Creative writing is, of course, no small or easy feat; engaging an audience with such a work requires a different toolset than the normal journalism we practice. Hopefully, you’ll find it entertaining — and perhaps even motivate you to hop into a hovertank or run another lap on the salt flats once again.