Silence cut like a razor, spilling blood by the gallon and filling the air with the pungent smell of iron. It was a massacre, taking place in an empty hall which told no secrets. It was a protest against human ingenuity – a strike against the great pioneers.
At the end of the hallway stood a nondescript door leading to a standard biological laboratory, where a balding white man in his early forties lay decomposing on the harsh concrete floor, his eye sockets black and hollow, his skin broken by small holes all across his body as if his innards had planned a vast exodus en masse. His lab coat was stained a sinister grey color, and that same liquid spread from his body to create a puddle around him on the floor. It had the consistency of blood, as well the smell.
On a usual day, the Willman Frontier Laboratory was not a quiet place. It was a place where eight hundred individuals – scientists, largely, along with their families – lived and worked in relatively close proximity, and where everyone seemed to be in quite a hurry to run from metal box to metal box, to share some step toward discovery.
But the silence had spread beyond the laboratory, through the hallway and out into the small colony. The living quarters were silent, no children played, no colleagues chatted in the dining hall. Instead, the dead populated the Willman colony. By the hundreds they lay, their eyes devoured, their skin perforated from the inside. They were many, they were all. There was no room for the living.
Alone, rocking back and forth almost involuntarily on the floor of a maintenance closet, Doctor Hector Russell tried in vain not to hyperventilate. The door was shut firmly in front of his face, shrouding him in utter blackness save for the dim light emanating from the gap at the bottom. Hector expected to hear footsteps outside, a rescue party or, perhaps, a colleague: come to tell him that none of it was real. But there were no footsteps. Only silence, and the man’s own ragged breathing. He kept rocking back and forth on the cold floor. He kept moving, he needed to, else the sensation inside him drive him to utter madness. If he stopped, he could feel them pull, outward. If he stopped, he could feel them crawl beneath his skin.
Event Horizon is an original science-fiction/mystery roleplay taking place in the year 2163. Humanity has successfully built manned shuttles which can exist for long durations out in space, and has already populated a good portion of the Milky Way galaxy. In space stations, on Mars, and in many other locations humans live good lives. They moved to make a fortune, or perhaps to get away from the clutter of Earth and her nearly ten billion residents, or perhaps for any of hundreds of other reasons. The mastery of space travel was like a gold rush for the scientific community, who began setting up outposts all over the galaxy and, in one instance, on the edge of the neighboring galaxy of Ursa Major.
The term “event horizon” usually refers to black holes, and references the point at which escape from the hole’s pull is impossible. It is, simply put, the tipping point: the point of no return. The destruction of the Willman Laboratory is humanity’s event horizon. It is the first page of the final chapter of our species’ history. But the folks in this story do not know that, not just yet.
Your characters will be among those sent to investigate the silence at the Willman Laboratory. They will be the first witnesses to the most important event in human history, and they likely will not live through it. I will say this now: do not expect your character to “win”; do not get your hopes up for them to have a happy life, growing old on some private estate on a corner of Mars. Your character will die at the conclusion of this story, as will mine, as will everyone’s – unless they prove extremely lucky. What I’m trying to say is, do not get too attached. Yes, they will die, but they will just be the first of many. We have reached the point of no return.
Interested?
It has now been one hour since contact ceased with the Willman Laboratory in Ursa Major following what was described by technicians as a “violent crash and static” on the other end. Government officials have not ruled out the possibility of some sort of disaster, but continue to insist that the cause is likely some sort of technical issue with the station’s transmitters –
At the end of the hallway stood a nondescript door leading to a standard biological laboratory, where a balding white man in his early forties lay decomposing on the harsh concrete floor, his eye sockets black and hollow, his skin broken by small holes all across his body as if his innards had planned a vast exodus en masse. His lab coat was stained a sinister grey color, and that same liquid spread from his body to create a puddle around him on the floor. It had the consistency of blood, as well the smell.
– laboratory was founded by Dr. Hector Russell, a giant in the fields of astrobiology and microbiology, for the purpose of studying the effects on known organisms in unknown environments, and for the discovery of unknown organisms –
On a usual day, the Willman Frontier Laboratory was not a quiet place. It was a place where eight hundred individuals – scientists, largely, along with their families – lived and worked in relatively close proximity, and where everyone seemed to be in quite a hurry to run from metal box to metal box, to share some step toward discovery.
But the silence had spread beyond the laboratory, through the hallway and out into the small colony. The living quarters were silent, no children played, no colleagues chatted in the dining hall. Instead, the dead populated the Willman colony. By the hundreds they lay, their eyes devoured, their skin perforated from the inside. They were many, they were all. There was no room for the living.
– a spokesperson for Russell Innovations will be addressing the public shortly regarding this situation, likely in an attempt to quell speculation. The government has already stated that, should the Willman Laboratory not contact Earth within the next four hours, a team will be dispatched to investigate what has unfolded at the most distant human settlement in all of the universe.
Alone, rocking back and forth almost involuntarily on the floor of a maintenance closet, Doctor Hector Russell tried in vain not to hyperventilate. The door was shut firmly in front of his face, shrouding him in utter blackness save for the dim light emanating from the gap at the bottom. Hector expected to hear footsteps outside, a rescue party or, perhaps, a colleague: come to tell him that none of it was real. But there were no footsteps. Only silence, and the man’s own ragged breathing. He kept rocking back and forth on the cold floor. He kept moving, he needed to, else the sensation inside him drive him to utter madness. If he stopped, he could feel them pull, outward. If he stopped, he could feel them crawl beneath his skin.
Event Horizon is an original science-fiction/mystery roleplay taking place in the year 2163. Humanity has successfully built manned shuttles which can exist for long durations out in space, and has already populated a good portion of the Milky Way galaxy. In space stations, on Mars, and in many other locations humans live good lives. They moved to make a fortune, or perhaps to get away from the clutter of Earth and her nearly ten billion residents, or perhaps for any of hundreds of other reasons. The mastery of space travel was like a gold rush for the scientific community, who began setting up outposts all over the galaxy and, in one instance, on the edge of the neighboring galaxy of Ursa Major.
The term “event horizon” usually refers to black holes, and references the point at which escape from the hole’s pull is impossible. It is, simply put, the tipping point: the point of no return. The destruction of the Willman Laboratory is humanity’s event horizon. It is the first page of the final chapter of our species’ history. But the folks in this story do not know that, not just yet.
Your characters will be among those sent to investigate the silence at the Willman Laboratory. They will be the first witnesses to the most important event in human history, and they likely will not live through it. I will say this now: do not expect your character to “win”; do not get your hopes up for them to have a happy life, growing old on some private estate on a corner of Mars. Your character will die at the conclusion of this story, as will mine, as will everyone’s – unless they prove extremely lucky. What I’m trying to say is, do not get too attached. Yes, they will die, but they will just be the first of many. We have reached the point of no return.
Interested?
