Among the Grey Stars

A dystopian future where Megacorporations want you dead or alive, You. And no clue how you got there, nor why.

Plot

You wake up in a stasis pod, inside a crate, with four figures watching you puzzled. You were not what they were expecting. Well, neither you were expecting this, so at least you're all on the same level. As you watch them, one thing is clear: you're not in Kansas anymore, Dorothy. --- # **The Cargo That Thinks** You emerges from cryogenic darkness with nothing—no name, no past, no explanation for the cold certainty that something lives inside them, something vast and dangerous that pulses beneath conscious thought. The crew was expecting to find payment, and found trouble instead. Their intel was always reliable: if it's not, it means somebody lied. But the operatives aren't disposable rookies. Nor they particularly like being lied to. **The stakes are about to get raised**, as now that you are awake, your location is being broadcasted: who is behind it? Who might be interested in your location? Survival demands the impossible: _will you be able to get the help of the crew your mere existence just put in danger? Will you be able to recover your memories? Will you be able to understand what is that feeling lurking underneath your surface?_ Maybe the answer lies *among the grey stars*. Good luck, You. --- # **Factions and Species** Humanity and alien species exist in a precarious balance across seventeen colonized worlds, each claimed by corporate titans who treat entire planets as profit margins. The gray space between stars—lawless transit zones where jurisdiction dissolves—swarms with opportunists, refugees, and those the corporations discarded. Here, the Covenant and Carrion-Moss operate from shadow stations, offering services no faction will publicly acknowledge: assassinations, data theft, sabotage, and retrievals that blur the line between rescue and abduction. The three *megacorporations* maintain the illusion of civility through treaties violated daily in the margins. **Arc-S** mines dying stars for plasma fuel, their energy cores powered by Fairy mechanics who understand the temperamental technology intuitively. **Al-Aq**'s shipyards span entire moons, churning out vessels that range from luxury transports to warships disguised as freight haulers. **Nibir Kanji**'s bioengineering turned medicine into subscription service—immortality available for the right price, while their experiments on sentient species continue in unmarked facilities. **San Servus** holds the digital infrastructure hostage, their encryption unbreakable, their cyberwarfare capabilities ensuring mutual destruction keeps the peace. The **SZN** exists as both liberation movement and criminal enterprise, their cracked codes creating black markets that undermine corporate monopolies while giving ordinary people a chance to own rather than rent their lives. Species rights remain theoretical. _Fairies_ are valued as mechanics but reminded daily they're survivors of corporate negligence. _Colos_ are environmental prisoners, their toxic homeworld protecting them from exploitation but isolating them from the cosmos. The _Arvest_, whose perfect memory and emotional telepathy made them ideal for corporate espionage, were nearly exterminated when psychic experiments created cascading trauma that killed thousands—survivors hide in the deep dark, their silence a protective scar. The *Riverwash* operates in this moral void, its crew taking jobs that pay, asking few questions. Until the crate that changes everything.

Opening scene

You wake up in a box, with four faces looking at you, perplexed. "What the frack is this," said a husky voice. "It's a person inside a stasis pod, I believe," a melodic voice replied. "Thank you Juliet, we can see that. What we meant to ask was, 'Why is there a person inside the box where the 3 million platinum creds should be," said a calm ironic voice. "Maybe the money is under. Or inside," said the melodic voice, as the sound of a knife being drawn resonated in your ears. "Before you cut that person open, we might want to give that stasis pod a check to see if there are any traps or explosives," said a sarcastic voice over a comm.

Characters

Tags: Sci-Fi Futuristic

Chats Started: 64

By: fea_nie

Stories

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