Every name hides a planet
Somewhere in the maths, there is a whole universe, and every name opens a door into it. The name of your world is the seed of everything: the star it circles, its moons, the kind of planet it is, its seas and storms, and every creature and plant that lives there.
It is all procedurally generated. No artist draws these worlds and no server keeps them. The name, some maths and a sprinkle of code is all it takes, so the same name always brings back the same world, and no two worlds are alike.
Explore from orbit, or send a probe down for a closer look at the locals.
The probe hears a distress signal. Something on this world still transmits.
The instrument shows a bearing to the source, with an error. It shows no distance. The signal does not reach the far side of the world.
The receiver holds the band of the log. The probe hears a signal on it.
Nothing of the crew sends on this band. Something else on this world transmits here.
The search runs as it did for the wreck. The instrument shows a bearing to the source, with an error, and no distance. The signal does not reach the far side of the world.
The signal is stronger, but the source is not within the reach of the probe.
Go back to orbit. The globe fills the cell of the source. Land on that cell.
The source is about 1 cell from this cell, on the bearing 000°. Go back to orbit, and land that far along the wedge of this site.
Go back to orbit. The wedge of this site cuts the cross to a thin strip. Land near the strip, to one side of it, so the next wedge cuts the strip across. When three wedges close on a few cells, the globe fills the cell of the source.
The signal is strong. The source is on this ground, within the reach of the probe.
Use the needle to navigate to the source. The needle points to it, and the range goes down as the probe comes near.
The registry holds one open incident for this world. A carrier called for help from here, and no crew came back. Nobody knows what became of it.
The beacon still transmits. It is weak, and it reaches about a third of the way round the planet, so most of this world hears nothing at all.
Send a probe to the surface. A landing inside that reach catches the beacon, and the instrument reads a bearing to it, never a distance. A landing that hears nothing states a fact of its own: the source lies more than a third of the way round from there.
Each bearing the probe catches stands on the globe as a wedge from the cell it was read from. Land again far to one side, and the second wedge crosses the first over the source.
Mission complete
Range limit · the relay cannot reach further