Derelict: The Wren's Last Signal
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A colony ship dead for forty years just called for help. Salvage rights mean a fortune. Something aboard is still awake.
Story
The colony transport Wren went silent in the Kessler Drift forty years ago with three hundred souls listed as evacuated. This morning it started broadcasting a distress call. Your salvage tug, the Magpie, is the first ship to reach it.
Salvage law is simple: whatever you carry out, you own. The derelict's AI, WREN, has other ideas about what is worth saving. And you are not the only salvager on the way.
How to play
- Explore the derelict in your salvage suit; your wrist terminal links you to the Magpie and, once the power is back, to the Wren's own records
- Talk on comms with your captain, the ship's AI and whoever else turns up
- Watch your Health and your Credits; Health 0 ends your run
- Decide who and what comes home with you, then get back to the Magpie and undock
- Several endings, from rich to righteous. One of them is both.
In this story you are The salvage specialist of the tug Magpie
Prologue
Captain Odile MarshOkay partner, you're in. Salvage clock's running.
Captain Odile MarshOrbit's rotten, and I'm reading one faint life sign somewhere in there.
Captain Odile MarshAlso, the distress call just changed. It's saying 'hello'. I don't like it.
Captain Odile MarshGo see who's home. I'm on your helmet cam.
Characters
Odile Marsh, 45, captain and owner of the salvage tug Magpie. Sharp, funny, broke, and fiercely loyal to her crew.
Captain Odile Marsh - AilismWREN, the Wren's shipboard intelligence, who has kept the dark ship running on scraps of power for forty years.
WREN - AilismJory Tamsin, 34 (biologically), the Wren's chief engineer, who volunteered to stay with the ship in cryosleep in 2151 and never woke up.
Jory Tamsin - AilismSilas Mercer, 50, captain of the salvage ship Jackal, the most successful and least scrupulous salvager in the Drift.
Silas Mercer - AilismEndings
Reach an ending to add its card to your collection.
Derelicts are patient. Watch your health.
0 reachedEveryone who kept the Wren alive deserves to leave it.
0 reachedEverything has a price. Find out what it costs.
0 reachedCome home heavy.
0 reachedYou got out. Was that all you came for?
0 reachedThe Wren's orbit is decaying. Get out in time.
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