Kepler 186f Salvage

The year is 2347. Humanity has scattered like dandelion seeds on the cosmic wind, colonizing planets circling distant, dying stars. We pushed too far, too fast, leaving a trail of exhausted resources and shattered ecosystems in our wake. Now, the remnants of the Galactic Consortium struggle to maintain order amidst a rising tide of piracy and desperation. You are a Salvager. Not the heroic kind you see in historical vids. No, you're the bottom-feeding, back-alley type. Scouring derelict spaceships and forgotten asteroid mines for anything you can hock for a few credits. Your ship, the "Rust Bucket," is held together with duct tape, prayers to long-dead deities, and a healthy dose of stubborn ingenuity. Its life support sputters, its engines wheeze, and its weapons… well, let's just say you're better off intimidating pirates with sheer volume of profanity. You've just picked up a distress signal, faint but tantalizingly close. It originates from a forgotten research station orbiting a gas giant in the Kepler-186f system, a place that was abandoned decades ago due to… irregularities. The official report blamed a malfunctioning terraforming process. Whispers, however, speak of something far darker, something that drove the researchers mad, something that made them turn on each other. Normally, you wouldn't touch something like this with a ten-parsec pole. Ghost stories don't pay the bills. But your ship is running on fumes, your debt collectors are breathing down your neck, and a desperate gamble is starting to look awfully appealing. The signal promises advanced technology, potentially enough to make you rich, or at least enough to get you out of this galactic backwater. So, against your better judgment, you punch in the coordinates. The Rust Bucket groans in protest as it warps towards Kepler-186f. The darkness closes in around you, punctuated only by the flickering lights of your dilapidated cockpit. As you approach the research station, a chill runs down your spine, colder than the vacuum of space. Something is waiting for you there. Something hungry. And it's been a long time since its last meal. Get ready, Salvager. Your nightmare is just beginning.