TheDarkestDark

By the end of 23rd century, Earth civilization reached high technological level, while facing serious social problems. Resources became scarce following humanity growing in number five times in comparison to early 21st century. Despite scientists coming with various ways to save the world, including colonization efforts, degradation continued. Number one candidate for colonizing - Mars - required 300 years to be fully terraformed and only selected people could live under domes. Humanity needed a more solid plan - one that would bring results and bring them sooner. Following continuous surveys of space systems, a planet similar to Earth has been found - two times bigger than humanity's home, this new discovery was a true breakthrough. However, more detailed researched showed that about 20% of the planet is taken by an alien megacity surrounded by a powerful force field. New information caused a huge uproar among scientists involved, especially after no signs of life encountered and no response to various means of communication. After several years of observation, the city was considered abandoned. Having analyzed the data, numerous governments agreed on a joint effort to send and expedition to reveal the turth about the city and establish the very first colony on that planet. With the biggest ship made of five modules, over 5,000 strong crew set off on most important mission in humanity's history. John Marlow, a scientific officer and one of many deployed for the expedition, sets on a journey which will challenge his knowledge about the Universe and humankind's origin.

The New Gaia

Our ship got badly damaged. Just after the jump, it ended up too close to one of the planets and caught in its gravity field. Tragical miscalculation, not including enough parameters concerning the movement of specific planets in the system.


One could say it was first such mission humanity went on, but it cannot excuse such approach - one should be prepared especially well for exactly this kind of situation. It did not work well here and we suffered heavy losses. Even now, as we resumed the flight, repair works continue.


Both people and automatons are working all the time to rebuild damaged sections, put on the new coating and bring up engines to full power. We've made an attempt to obtain resources from the very planet which gravity pulled us in, but instability of the planet's surface forced the teams to run away, abandoning the mission. As a result, we only managed to gather a portion of required resources, and the rest will have to be retrieved at the cost of equipment we have on the ship's board - especially transporters, which are important for the whole expedition. Moreover, the very problem with Zero's tectonics was what caused the need to leave its orbit.


At this point, we don't have any safe spot to make repairs as there is no other planet in the closest vicinity to keep the ship on its orbit. And traveling with this kind of damage is risky, especially considering the state of the ship's coating - to put it in simple words, Future is currently partially naked. As long as we manage to avoid the high density radiation and space objects, we are fine. However, every potential collision can end up catastrophic.


Of course, we can disconnect modules as a last resort, though with current modules' status, we would end up losing important facilities, including plant cultivation units. We are already close to the goal, and everyone hopes avoiding further problems is possible - all we need to do is to keep the ship in one piece until reaching the New Gaia's orbit after all. I would also like this to be the case, but - as realist - I remain sceptical and cautious. I'm not sure why - maybe because of all the incidents so far - I keep having bad feelings. Despite knowing how well this ship was designed, and how many safety measures it is equipped with, I simply cannot shake these bad vibes...


23rd December 2296