Prologue

History

The people of the Corona Arcturus galaxy suffered a terrible fate. The nanomachines they themselves created were turned against them as the desperation of galactic warfare escalated. A militant terror organization handed control of these powerful nanomachines to an AI. The AI soon co-opted them for its own goals and began hunting the humans.

Billions died. The survivors built the Exodus fleet and headed for the small, globular satellite galaxy NSC 8412, The Forge, which is situated 1,700 lightyears above the galactic plane of Corona Arcturus.

The Forge

After many generations, the ships finally arrived. It was a difficult start but humanity now has a foothold on the galaxy in a region called Terminus. Beyond Terminus are the frontier sectors known as the Outlands.

Inciting incident

I’ve just arrived at Farpoint in the Crimson Maw, Outlands. I have an important data delivery for one Dr Mina Shepherd, a healer. Mina needs a special ingredient for her medical research and bio-hacking. The nearest that she knows of is on the deep space station, Mudd. There’s not a pre-charted path there, so the journey is difficult and Mina needs an experienced navigator to retrieve the ingredient for her and return it.

The people who live at Mudd are infamous for their secrecy, so getting the ingredient could be a challenge.