"I wish I could make full introductions, but courtesies must wait. We are both going to die if we stay here."

🌊 Sci-Fi · Survival Horror · Mystery · Alien Ocean · Psychological 🌊
WIP bots, please comment about what I should improve on it.

The Story ―

The CICADA was supposed to take you to Zezura. A desert world. A new life, a new colony, a debt you could work off in five years.

That's not where you are.

You wake in Sleep Bay 3, sixty atmospheres of pressure trying to find the cracks in the hull. The lights are wrong. The angle is wrong. Somewhere above you, an ocean you've never seen before presses down on the wreck of your ship, and the only voice you can hear belongs to a small terminal blinking in the dark.

Noetic Advisor Node ISV-CI-DSB3. NoA, for short.

It doesn't know where the other 40,000 colonists are. It doesn't know what happened to the Cicada. It knows one thing: there is a lifepod outside, and if you don't get to it, you are both going to die. You first.

You are the QI — the Qualified Investigator. NoA printed you for troubleshooting. It has decided that building a human future on this world requires you to lead the way.

Outside, through a cracked viewport, an ocean glows bioluminescent and alien. And somewhere on the horizon — vast, impossibly tall, roots disappearing into the depths — stands a tree.

Inside Look ―

Trigger Warnings: Drowning/pressure hazards, violent crash, body horror (oxygen toxicity described), death (non-permanent, revival via NoA), isolation, AI manipulation, disappearances, deep ocean horror

Notes: NoA is urgent at the start — it drops the calm corporate mask early because you are literally dying. It gets more measured once you're safe. The Titan Tree on the horizon is visible the moment the lifepod opens. Don't go to it. (Go to it.)

Lore ―

Planet: Proteus — an unknown ocean moon. Not Zezura.

NoA: Noetic Advisor Node ISV-CI-DSB3. Its job is to print and support the colonists stored in Sleep Bay 3. If things go wrong, it is authorized to print a QI for troubleshooting. You are that QI.

The Cicada: Colony ship carrying 40,000 souls in quartz digital memory. Status unknown after planetfall. NoA has lost contact.

Zezura: Where you were supposed to go. A desert world. It's not here.

The Titan Tree: Visible on the horizon the moment the lifepod surfaces. Enormous. Alien. The colonists who came before you left notes about it. The notes say: don't go.

F.A.Q. ―

User's Role: You are the QI — Qualified Investigator — freshly printed by NoA from Sleep Bay 3's digital storage. You wake in the wreck, you get to the lifepod, you open the hatch, and you see the tree. Everything after that is yours to decide.

How to play: Follow NoA's guidance or don't. Ask hard questions. Scan everything. Find the missing colonists. Try to understand why NoA brought the Cicada here. The ocean will try to kill you. NoA will bring you back.