Story Overview
The story documented below only includes the major plot point of ‘Finding Astraios’. Various more missions and activities occur in-between and even after these plot points.
Beginning
The story begins with our character Solace waking up to the deafening alarm of the station, disorientated and struggling to grasp the situation, Solace sets out to find and fix the issue. As Solace is walking through the stations corridor they look out the window to find a massive blackhole, this leaves Solace in a daze since the distance between the blackhole and the station was too close. Ignoring this weird phenomenon for now Solace carried on trying to solve the current problem when suddenly a loud explosion shakes the station and a wave of fire spreads through the corridor engulfing Solace completely.
Solace once again wakes up abruptly to a deafening alarm entirely horrified by what just happened, unsure if what just happened was a dream or reality Solace sets out to fix the station, this time a little more hurried than the last. After urgently searching they are lead to the storage room where a loud shrieking sound is coming from the rooms. Feeling rushed due to the alarming rise of the shrieking Solace rushes to open the door only to realise it is locked, a thunderous explosion sounds as the door propels forwards crushing Solace against the wall.
Solace jolts up out of bed, the sound of the alarm muffled by his shocked state. Taking a few seconds to recover from the previous death Solace now decides to go look for the key card to get into the storage room. Finding the key card in the control room Solace is now facing the storage room using the key card to unlock the door. Solace opens the door and enters inside to find a ruptured pipe spewing high pressure vapour which has scorched the walls along the room and nearing the back of the room was a damaged power generator sparking dangerously.
Faced with this dangerous scenario Solace is left to solve this using various tools. After deactivating the power generator and sealing the pipe spewing vapour the alarms turn off leaving the ship in a calm silence. Solace now able to relax leaves the storage room to check on the rest of the ship and figure out what happened to the ship.
Middle
Left to venture around the ship Solace comes across the data archives room where they revise all the important information, like the mission Solace is on. Solace comes across an old mission brief voice recording stating the mission, a space voyage in search of the habitable planet Astraios. A one way mission to find and place a location beacon on Astraios. The various other recordings also include information such as the state of the current earth a dying planet facing the consequences of its inhabitants, and recordings of discussions on the theory of Astraios. Astraios turns out to be a theory planet, astronomers are unsure of the existence of the planet leaving Solace to gamble his life.
Catching up on all the information based on the mission, Solace turns to face the phenomenon that has been neglected. Facing the ginormous black hole solace begins to study it from the observatory where they look over notes on the galactic phenomenon. Solace comes to the conclusion that they have stumbled upon an uncharted occurrence unknown to human physics. This is all due to the fact that all the documented research explains how blackholes suck up all matter with incredible gravitational pull, however here was Solace sitting right besides unmoving. Although happy to still be alive and not get spaghettified Solace also realises that the station is completely unmoving.
Solace moves towards the control room to try and find a way out when suddenly Solace begins floating, after around 10 seconds of floating the gravity turns back on, Solace not ready for the situation falls splattering against the ground. Jumping out of bed Solace is stupefied with how easily they die, beginning to treat the whole thing as a joke. Surprisingly there were no deafening alarms making Solace have a hint of relief, however Solace went to check the storage room just incase since they didn’t know how this death loop seemed to work. After checking the storage room was fine Solace began to revise their previous death. According to Solaces note book this is due to a faulty gravity generator, a generator that allows gravity on the station. Tasked to find and fix the generator Solace must travel carefully along the ship whilst gravity recurrently gets turned on. In the engine room Solace just finished fixing the generator, allowing Solace to carry on with the previous task of getting out of the blackholes vicinity. On the way to the control room Solace faintly questioned the fact that weird occurrences keep happening around the station but they put it at the back of their mind.
Appearing at the control room Solace begins trying to navigate the ship out of the blackholes area, however the station thrusters seemed to be unresponsive with the control panel displaying that they need maintenance. Maintenance on thrusters would mean leaving the station and doing external repairs, this made Solace anxious. After collecting the needed tools for the repair and making it to the airlock room at the base of the station Solace prepares to venture out into space next to a blackhole. Attached to the station by a rope Solace grabs and pulls to manoeuvre along the stations exterior. On the way towards the thrusters Solace turns and looks towards the blackhole out of curiosity, however Solace gets a spine chilling feeling as they gaze at the galactic phenomenon, frozen in silence while facing the void. Heavy panting filled the room as Solace got up from their bed, Solace was not in a joking mood this time, shaking as dread covered their body. Solace made way towards the airlock room again making the mental note of not looking towards the blackhole. Grabbing onto the exterior of the station Solace felt chills at their back as they awkwardly moved towards the thrusters.
Ending
Making it back safely after fixing the thrusters Solace locks the airlock and immediately makes their way to the control room, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. The previous death left Solace in a state of constant fear and panic beginning to even hear things such as faint snickering. Solace begins activating all thrusters and setting the most suitable trajectory away from the blackhole, the mission wasn’t even on Solaces mind only getting away mattered. Using full power the station began vibrating as it gradually moved gaining speed, at the sight of this Solace visibly seemed relieved as they sighed in relief, when all of a sudden the ship imploded.
Solace numbed from the crushing weight of failure sat motionless in their bed. They hesitated before getting up, their movements mechanical as if a common routine. In the control room everything was ready, the trajectory, the power and the thrusters, however Solace still hesitated on pressing it. They knew what would come next, but they launched it anyways, as they had done so many times before. As the ship gradually moved forwards Solace asked themselves ‘how many times has it been?’ the station implodes as if responding.