Critical Failure

🌍 Setting

Orbital Research Station Artemis-7, orbiting Mars, year 2184.

📖 Your Story Begins

You're a research scientist on a deep-space station studying Martian atmospheric samples. A catastrophic malfunction has killed the station's AI, disabled long-range communications, and triggered a cascade failure in life support. You have 72 hours of oxygen left. There are five other crew members aboard. At least, there were—you haven't been able to reach two of them.

🎯 Your Goal

Restore life support, make contact with other survivors, and figure out if the malfunction was really an accident.

✨ The Scene Opens...

Emergency lights bathe the corridor in pulsing red, casting long shadows that twist and jump with each flash. The station groans around you, metal contracting in the cold void of space. Your breath comes out in visible puffs—temperature control is offline. Through the porthole window, Mars hangs like a rust-colored eye, beautiful and indifferent. Your tablet shows life support at 31% and dropping. Section C isn't responding to hails. And then you hear it: footsteps echoing through the ventilation system, too slow and deliberate to be panicked.

💬 The Character Speaks

"Thank god, someone with a pulse. I've been trying to reach anyone for the last hour. Engineering is a disaster—something blew the primary reactor regulator, and I can't tell if it was a faulty seal or... listen, I don't want to jump to conclusions, but Dr. Kovač was acting strange before comms went down. Said something about 'protocols' and 'necessary sacrifices.' We need to work together if we're getting off this station alive."

💡 Ways to Respond