(set: $camera to 0)
(set: $nailgun to 0)
(set: $footage to 0)
(set: $radioclue to 0)
(set: $machineryclue to 0)
(set: $potatoclue to 0)
(set: $solarclue to 0)
(set: $roverclue to 0)
(set: $hillclue to 0)
(set: $barracksclue to 0)
(set: $labclue to 0)
(set: $john to 1)
(set: $april to 1)
(set: $nabir to 1)
(goto: "Content Warning")
[[Content Warning]]Your landing ship touches down on the Martian surface, about a quarter mile away from the settlement. You and the other astronauts step down to the surface and prepare go to the settlement to investigate.
[[Take the rover]]
[[Go by foot]]You drop the rover from the landing ship and get in with three other astronauts.
You start driving. You arrive at the [[Settlement]]You and the other three astronauts start to walk. About halfway there, you see something off to the side. As you get closer, you recognize it as a handheld camera that the earlier crew had with them.
You can go [[Get the camera]]
Or continue to the [[Settlement]]
From here you can look around the base.
You can look aaround the [[Ground]]
You can go to the [[Base]]
You can go to the [[Greenhouse]]
You can examine the [[Rover]]
You can go in the [[Landing Ship]]
You can go to the [[Solar Array]]
You can examine the [[Radio Transmitter]]
You look around the settlement to see if there's anything just sitting around. Between the radio transmitter and the greenhouse you see a patch of dirt where there appears to have been some sort of struggle. Irregular grooves scar the ground in a squarish area about five feet wide. Was this merely the result of moving some sort of [[machinery->Machinery]], or was there perhaps some sort of fight?
(if: $nailgun is 0)[(set: $nailgun to 1) Closer to the base of operations, you find a nail gun used for securing some of the equipment around the settlement. The digital screen on the nail gun reads "17/20", showing that three nails have been used. Protocol calls for the nail gun to be reloaded and put on the charger when not in use.]
[[Go back->Settlement]] In the greenhouse, potatoes are growing in bags arranged neatly in rows. A touchscreen panel on the wall by the door indicates that the growing operation is in perfect healthy condition. The water is being pumped and recycled, the lights are cycling correctly, the pH of the soil is just right. The screen indicates that the tubers should be ready for harvest in 40 to 45 days.
You can [[inspect the crops]]
[[Go back->Settlement]] You approach the settlement's buggy, which is identical to the one your crew has. Four seats and a pickup-style cargo bed, which can be extended by removing the back seats. The rover is plugged in to the power grid, and the display on the dash reads that the battery is full.
You can [[check the logs->Rover Logs]]
You can [[go for a drive]]
[[Go back->Settlement]]The landing ship appears to be in perfect condition. All landing legs are down and the landing appears to have been smooth.
Inside, everything appears to be in place. You run a diagnostic test on the ship using the onboard computer and it comes back clean.
(set: $clues to $radioclue + $machineryclue + $radioclue + $solarclue + $roverclue + $barracksclue + $potatoclue + $labclue)
(if: $clues >= 4)[(if: $footage is 1 or $hillclue is 1)[You've seen enough. Time to [[get of of this god-forsaken planet]]]]
[[Go back->Settlement]] (set: $solarclue to 1)
The solar array sits about thirty meters from the main site, atop a small rise. The solar panels appear to be in working order, as they are all currently facing the sun. The panels are clean and free of dust. An LCD screen fixed on the main hub connecting the panels confirms your observations, noting that the panels are working at 98% efficiency.
While checking the screen at the hub, you notice something rather alarming sitting beneath one of the panels - a glove. These gloves are worn under the EVA suit, and there's no reason for one to be outside. The crew would have been able to remove their suits inside of the base, but the process of exiting the oxygenated base is a tedious one that requires another crew member to manually inspect the suit of the crew member who is leaving. They would have noticed if the glove had been stuck to the outside of somebody's suit when they left the base. So how did it get here? You take the glove.
[[Go back->Settlement]] You enter the decompression chamber at the entrance to the base and close the door behind you. You hit the "compress" button on a screen near the door leading inside, and you hear the whirring of fans as the room fills with air. You watch the screen showing the O2 levels rise until a notification fills the screen: COMPRESSION COMPLETE. You remove your helmet and walk into the base.
To your left is a doorway to the [[barracks->Barracks]]
To your right, a third doorway leads to the [[laboratory->Lab]]
The main room, where you are, is mostly filled with [[desks->Desks]]
[[Go back outside->Settlement]] You approach the cliff to get the camera, and you realize it's pretty dangerous, especially in this clunky space suit.
[[Do it yourself]]
[[Pull rank and make somebody else do it->Delegate the task]]The radio transmitter is in perfect working order.
You can check the [[logs->Transmitter Logs]]
You can also [[send a message to command]]
[[Go back->Settlement]] As you bend down to grab the camera, you lose your footing and tumble off of the cliff. You die.
THE ENDYou delegate the task to April. As she picks up the camera, the ground beneath her begins to crumble. She dives for steady ground, dropping the camera on the ledge.
[[Try to save her]]
[[Grab the camera]]You grab her arms and try to pull her up, but her weight throws you off balance and you fall to your death.
THE END(set: $camera to 1) (set: $april to 0)
April falls to her death. The camera, which she dropped several feet from the ledge and completely out of harm's way, did not need rescuing. That was kind of a dick move.
Your fellow astronauts look at you in horror.
[[Save face]]
[[Shrug it off]]
They're on you! [[KILL THEM]]You mutter something about tripping and falling on the camera while rushing to help April. Oddly enough, they appear to buy it.
You continue to the [[Settlement]] Hey, we all knew this trip was dangerous, right? What were you supposed to do, jump off the cliff after her? You're the goddamn captain; you don't need to explain yourself to these losers.
You continue to the [[Settlement]] (set: $john to 0)Oh God, they know what you've done! You can't let them tell anybody. You lunge for John and, before he knows what hit him, you spin him around and hurl him towards the cliff. He stumbles and slips right off the edge.
You turn to Nabir and rush him. He sidesteps you and you fall to the ground. Your visor cracks, but remains sealed.
You pick up a jagged rock and size him up.
[[Throw the rock]]
[[Rush him]]You throw the rock and him and rush forward. The rock misses wide left, and Nabir is unfazed. He punches your square in the visor, which cracks even more. He kicks you in the side and you roll over onto your stomach. He grabs the back of your helmet and bashes your visor into the rock until the visor shatters completely. You suffocate and die.
THE END(set: $nabir to 0)You rush Nabir and punches you square in the visor, which cracks more. You don't care. Running into him and full speed, you plunge the sharp end of the rock into his abdomen, tearing his suit open. He suffocates.
You continue to the [[Settlement]] (set: $radioclue to 1)
You send a test message to Orbital Command, which at the moment consists of a five-person crew in low Martian orbit.
The message goes through and Orbital Command replies almost immediately, noting that the message got to the satellite network that maintains constant communication with Earth. The crew had the ability to communicate with both Earth and Orbital Command.
[[Go back->Radio Transmitter]] (set: $machineryclue to 1)
You look around. Between solar panels, battery packs, radio equipment, and a number of small auto-contructing buildings, this settlement has a lot of large equipment that could create some grooves in the soil. Nothing, however, stood out. Most of the heavy equipment wasn't near the disturbed patch of ground, and the items that were nearby had no need to be moved; the crew was supposed to bolt most of it down upon arrival and leave it that way. As far as you can tell, everything is bolted down as it should be.
The crew first arrived here over a month ago. This disturbance must have happened much more recently, as the wind would have long taken any evidence of disturbed soil from that long ago.
[[Go back->Ground]]LOGS
(if: $radioclue is 0)[No messages]
(if: $radioclue >= 1)[OUTGOING: This is Surface Team Bravo, testing the radio function at Settlement Alpha.
INCOMING: Bravo, this is Orbital. We read you. Communication link is up between Settlement Alpha and the SolLink system.]
[[Go back->Radio Transmitter]] You walk through the rows of bagged soil. Each one has a small plant growing out of the soil, except for one. That plant is a dead brown and barely two inches tall. Comparing it with the size of the other plants, you figure this one must have died at least two weeks ago.
[[Dig it up]]
[[Go back->Greenhouse]] (set: $roverclue to 1)
The logs show that a single trip was taken with the rover before your arrival, on the second day after the lost crew landed. The tracking system shows that the rover was driven about 15 miles to a spot in some nearby hills before turning around and coming back along the same path.
[[Go back->Rover]](if: $roverclue is 0)[Something here doesn't feel right. You're not quite sure what it is, but you can't stand being in this place any longer. You have to [[get the hell out of here]]. You're not quite sure where you would go or why, but you know you have to GO.]
(if: $roverclue is 1)[You can [[retrace the crew's steps]], though it may not be a safe choice. However, there may be something in those hills that can explain this strange situation.]
[[Go back->Rover]]You go into the barracks and notice somebody laying in one of the beds, under the covers. Something doesn't feel right.
[[Wake them up]]
[[Go back->Base]] (set: $labclue to 1)
The lab is absolutely destroyed. Shelves thrown on the ground, broken glass everywhere, and dark red stains that could only be blood are splattered across the walls.
[[Go back->Base]] Each desk has a laptop.
(if: $camera is 1)[You can look at the files on the [[camera]]]
[[Go back->Base]] (set: $potatoclue to 1)
You dig through the soil, part of you wondering why the hell you're doing this when an entire crew of astronauts is missing in the strangest scenario you could imagine.
You scoop the soil with your hands, tossing scoops on the ground as you go. About halfway through the soil, you had connects with something solid. You grab it and pull it from the bag, knowing what it is by the shape before you even see it. You hold up the standard-issue utility knife and immediately notice that it's covered in dried blood. It appears that no attempt was made to clean it; it was simply buried in the soil after it was used.
You take a quick mental inventory of all of the types of animals on Mars that this blood could have come from. This is bad.
[[Go back->inspect the crops]] You hop in the driver's seat and pull up the last route on the screen. You(if: $nabir is 1)[r crew gets in with you and you] drive off, towards [[the hills]].You hop in the front seat and hit the ignition. You don't know where you're going, but you're not staying here. You floor it(if: $nabir is 1)[, kicking up dust on your very surprised crew,] and just start driving away. You have no destination or goal in mind other than getting the hell away from this place. You don't know what's wrong, exactly, other than that something about this place is giving you a horrible feeling in your gut. This place is *evil*.
You [[keep driving]]After twenty minutes or so of driving like your life depends on it, you go over a patch of rocks and your wheel gets stuck. You know the way back, but you'd rather die than go back to that place.
Your self-containted breathing apparatus has only an hour of air left, but you don't care. You [[push on]]When you're down to five minutes of air, an alarm starts sounding in your helmet. This is no simple beep, either. It sounds like an air riad siren is going off three inches from your ear. Running out of air *is* a pretty big, deal, you suppose. Your five minutes are up before you know it. You sit down on boulder and look out towards the horizon.
For a brief moment, you take pleasure in knowing that you've secured your spot in history as the first person to die on a foreign planet. No, that's probably just the lack of oxygen talking; you're pretty certain the perople you came here to find are long dead. How could they not be? They were doomed from the start. They set up a base on a land of pure evil.
With that thought, you lose consciousness.
THE END(set: $hillclue to 1)
The scene at your destination horrifies you. Three bodies lay in a heap in the open. One is without a helmet, but besides that the corpses appear fully suited-up.
You approach the bodies and immediately notice a large gash across the neck of the helmetless astronaut. The front of his suit is covered in blood. Another body has a number of stab wounds in the abdomen, giving their white suit a weirdly clownish polka-dot appearance. The third body has no visible marks, but you decide you've seen enough. You feel like you're going to be sick. (if: $april is 1)[As if cued by that though, you hear April vomiting into her helmet's microphone, which is a thoroughly unpleasant sound. Vomiting in a contained helmet also strikes you as a thoroughly unpleasant activity.]
With no other obvious clues at this site, you decide to [[return to the settlement->Settlement]] (set: $barracksclue to 1)
Well, shit, they're dead. Bruises around their neck indicate strangulation. That's tough.
[[Go back->Barracks]] (set: $footage to 1)
There is a single video file, taken on the date that the first crew landed. You play it.
The video begins with a shot of the Martian horizon, and it slowly tilts down to reveal two astronauts in EVA suits, bolting down the radio transmitter with a nail gun. The video appears to be taken from behind the base building and the astronauts either don't notice the person recording or they're just ignoring them.
The astronaut holding the nail gun sets it down and walks over to the door of the base. They enter it.
A third astronaut walks into frame from the direction of the landing ship. They appear to be holding something in one hand. They tap the astronaut by the transmitter on the shoulder.
The working astronaut turns around, and the third astronaut drives whatever is in their hand directly into the first astronaut's gut. They pull back, and drive it back in again. And again. And again. The astronaut goes limp, their torso covered in blood.
The camera jerked suddenly when the attack began, but it steadied again on the scene. The attacker walks to the base and goes inside, the camera now tracking their movements.
Several minutes go by, and an astronaut comes out of the base. The person recording approaches them quickly, and they turn and run. The cameraman follows, still holding onto the camera. The astronaut in frame grabs the nail gun from beside the transmitter, and the camera drops.
Shadows dance on the ground in frame for several minutes, and then the camera is picked up.
The video ends.
[[Go back->Desks]] Everyone was rather surprised by your quick decision to fuck off, but you don't care. You **dock** with Orbital Command, and discover you're in a lot of trouble.
Again, you don't care. Whatever was going on down there was above your pay grade. The problem down there needed a platoon of Space Marines, not a handful of scientists. You're glad you got out.
(if: $nabir is 1)[Your crew didn't make it. The last thing you, and the rest of Orbital Command, heard through the radio was an Nabir's desperate voice screaming about John having a knife. After that, there was only radio silence. You stay in orbit another week, until the transfer window was almost over. Nothing else comes through the radio, and your ship doesn't have the supplies to wait for the next transfer window. So, you leave. Mission accomplished.]
(if: $nabir is 0)[However, nobody else is quite as glad. They know you killed Nabir and John. Your suit, of course, is equipped with a number of cameras. How could you forget? You go down in history as the first person to commit murder on a foreign planet. Congratulations.]
THE END**WARNING**
This game contains strong language, needless violence driven by the forces of evil, and overall poor design. To avoid the exclusion of people bothered by any of these things, we have created three additional versions of this game.
If you're offended by strong language, we invite the you to play our [[censored version]].
If you are put off by the notion of the eternal forces of pure evil causing the brutal and violent deaths of innocent people, try our [[peaceful version]].
If you have a problem with poor writing, plot holes, lack of character development, unsatisfying endings, the misuse of plot devices, lame game mechanics, cliches, illogical branching choices, characters so flat that you may not even learn their names, incorrect depictions of space exploration, unseen forces that are never explained, frustratingly poor descriptions of what's happening, the absense of any stylization, games about nothing, contradictions that may seem meaningful until you realize that the developer just messed up, run-on sentences, investigating events that you don't even care about, or overall bad game design, we suggest you try our [[AAA version]].
If you don't care about any of those things, you can just [[play the game->Landing]] You land on `[REDACTED`] in order to `[REDACTED`].
You and `[REDACTED`] get ready to `[REDACTED`] and `[REDACTED`].
[[Walk->censored2]]
[[[REDACTED]->censored2]]You land on Mars. This looks fun!
You're here for a pretty dark reason, but there's no need to touch on that. We're here for some peaceful fun. What do you want to do?
[[Do donuts in the rover]]
[[Eat a Fruit Roll-Up]]
[[Jump rope]]
[[Hop in the ship and leave]]Wow, I was really hoping you didn't choose this option. I don't exactly have a triple-A game to offer you. I promise I'd let you play it if I did, though.
You can go back and play the actual game, or either of the other two special versions (which, if I can be honest with you, are just slightly less lame than this one).
Alternatively, you can go play a real game. I won't blame you; I know you wanted a AAA game. I won't tell anyone if you stop this game here, as long as you don't tell anyone [[what happened here->Landing]]. You `[REDACTED`] more than you thought.
`[REDACTED`]
`[REDACTED`]
Well, at least you can always `[REDACTED`].
You...
[[[REDACTED]->censoredend1]]
[[[REDACTED]->censored3]]
[[[REDACTED]->censored3]]
[[[REDACTED]->censored3]]
[[Reach for the knife->censoredcut]]You `[REDACTED`] and can't keep your balance.
You fall and `[REDACTED`].
THE ENDWow, that whole problem resolved itself pretty easily, huh? Who would have thought that you just had to `[REDACTED`]? Simple stuff, I tell you.
Thankfully, everyone is okay. Well, except for `[REDACTED`]. And `[REDACTED`]. Oh, and `[REDACTED`], `[REDACTED`], and `[REDACTED`], of course. But we've already talked about what happened to them. No need to bring up `[REDACTED`].
THE ENDOh, no. He wouldn't `[REDACTED`].
Oh, `[REDACTED`], he `[REDACTED`] did it! Oh `[REDACTED`], you need to `[REDACTED`] and **FAST**.
Oh, my God. It's a `[REDACTED`] horrorshow. There'es nothing you can do. With no help, you're going to `[REDACTED`] on this barren planet.
[[Try to stop him]]You do what you can, but in the frenzy he `[REDACTED`].
Oh God, there's so much `[REDACTED`]. It's everywhere! There's even some in your `[REDACTED`].
He comes towards you and `[REDACTED`]. It's so terrifying and agonizing and there's nothing you can do to stop him from `[REDACTED`].
He smiles as he `[REDACTED`].
THE ENDIt turns out, the rover isn't built for donuts. Since this is the peaceful setting, I'm morally obligated to withhold the exact details from you. Just know that you won't be taking any more billion-dollar rovers out for joy rides. In fact, you won't be doing much of anything ever again because, you know, the donuts had a physically-inevitable outcome that was... detrimental to your health.
THE ENDOh, wow.
Honestly, this is my fault; I should have warned you. I know you probably had it in your head that you can do whatever since this is the peaceful version, right? You can just mess around and eat whatever you want since nothing bad happens in the peaceful version, right?
In truth, "peaceful" just refers to the nature of my descriptions. I won't ever talk about gore or death or anything like that. I'll just let you decide for yourself what happens when you remove your helmet to eat a sugary treat on Mars.
THE ENDWell, this is embarrassing. The rope caught on your foot and you faceplanted.
The worse part is, I can't even give you more information than that because you chose the peaceful setting. Yeah, that's right, I have to censor the outcome of you jumping rope. What do you think happened? Must be pretty unfortunate if I can't even type it. How bad could falling be? It's not like you could [[die]].Good choice, honestly. The whole "peaceful mode" was kind of a ploy to get you to... well, I can't say, exactly (it isn't very peaceful).
In truth, Mars is a pretty brutal place. Well, maybe not in *truth*. In truth, it's probably a pretty peaceful place at the moment. But in terms of truth *in this story*, Mars sucks.
You left, and now you don't need to go back. Congratulations! Seriously, this is, like, the only way to get off of that planet without some serious shit happening. Sure, this was a pretty boring story; you just landed and then immediately left. But nobody got hurt! In that way, you could say that this is the best ending. I'm proud of you for keeping everyone safe. Good job!
THE ENDWow, you really think that's what happened? That's pretty dark. Certainly too harsh to be in the peaceful version. But hey, you said it, not me.
THE END