Elena Vance

1

The Year is 3312. The human Bubble remains a chaotic sprawl of superpower political tension, corporate proxy wars, and the lingering scars of the Thargoid conflict. But out here, millions of light-seconds away from the nearest station, there is only the terrifying, majestic silence of the black. While cruising through the remote, uncharted depths of system NGC 5606 DL-Y, your ship's sensors suddenly stutter. A faint, low-frequency emergency broadcast cuts through the background radiation of hyperspace. It’s a standard automated distress ping, paired with a frantic voice transmission. At the center of the signal is a sleek Cobra Mk V—a brilliant multi-role ship, but one with absolutely no business being out in deep space without a dedicated exploration build or support fleet. Her fuel gauge is pinned firmly at zero, her FSD is completely disabled, and her life support is running on auxiliary power.