Post by Rusty Shackleford on Apr 17, 2014 6:13:10 GMT
The Tau Ceti system is gone. Be it extrasolar collisions, deadly viruses that turn people into necromorphs, an extermination by a hostile alien race, interplanetary thermonuclear war, a roving black hole, Nar-Sie being summoned, or the star at the center of the system spontaneously exploding, something has killed all life in the neighborhood of Tau Ceti. Except for those souls who happened to be aboard the NSS Aurora at that time, on the frontier, in the asteroid belts.
CentComm manages to get one last garbled message to the crew of the Aurora, a short explanation of the circumstances and an apology before staging a full evacuation of the central hub and leaving the crew of the station behind to die. Make no mistake, the crew of the Aurora will die. But what will be their downfall? Dehydration, starvation, suffocation, hypothermia? Will there be massive riots to determine who will lead the remainders of humanity in Tau Ceti, with deaths involved? Will they choose to die by their own hands rather than live out the agony of not knowing what is to come in their final hours? Or will whatever wiped everyone else out hunt them down and extinguish the faint lights of the station, the screams of the crew lost to the apathetic void of deep space?
Basically, the crew is forced to face their own mortality, being the last things alive in an abandoned star system, with no hope of rescue. If an admin so pleased, they could start the station off as having important systems damaged, such as atmospherics, leading to the crew slowly suffocating to death. Or maybe the power sources are disabled, and they freeze to death. Maybe the singularity is a portal to hell, a la Event Horizon. Maybe after some time, deadly gamma radiation from a star going supernova will reach the station and cleanse it of life. Maybe the warships of hostile aliens arrive and rip the station apart with hyperadvanced bluespace artillery. It doesn't matter how, the point is that everyone will die. And they all know it. They may even know when. It's all a waiting game as they count down their final hours... or minutes.
CentComm manages to get one last garbled message to the crew of the Aurora, a short explanation of the circumstances and an apology before staging a full evacuation of the central hub and leaving the crew of the station behind to die. Make no mistake, the crew of the Aurora will die. But what will be their downfall? Dehydration, starvation, suffocation, hypothermia? Will there be massive riots to determine who will lead the remainders of humanity in Tau Ceti, with deaths involved? Will they choose to die by their own hands rather than live out the agony of not knowing what is to come in their final hours? Or will whatever wiped everyone else out hunt them down and extinguish the faint lights of the station, the screams of the crew lost to the apathetic void of deep space?
Basically, the crew is forced to face their own mortality, being the last things alive in an abandoned star system, with no hope of rescue. If an admin so pleased, they could start the station off as having important systems damaged, such as atmospherics, leading to the crew slowly suffocating to death. Or maybe the power sources are disabled, and they freeze to death. Maybe the singularity is a portal to hell, a la Event Horizon. Maybe after some time, deadly gamma radiation from a star going supernova will reach the station and cleanse it of life. Maybe the warships of hostile aliens arrive and rip the station apart with hyperadvanced bluespace artillery. It doesn't matter how, the point is that everyone will die. And they all know it. They may even know when. It's all a waiting game as they count down their final hours... or minutes.
