Aurora



The Aurora is a spacecraft sent to the Ariadne Arm by the Alterra Corporation in order to a build a phasegate. However, its secondary mission, unknown to most crew, was to search for and, if possible, rescue the survivors of the Degasi crew.

During a gravity slingshot maneuver around Planet 4546B, the Aurora was struck by a mysterious energy pulse, resulting in catastrophic hull failure, leading to it crash landing on the surface of the planet. It is then revealed that it was the Precursor Ground-To-Air Weapon System that shot it down. Lifepods were launched before impact, and several survived. One of them, Lifepod 5, contained the Player.

By the time the Player awakens and begins his exploration of the area, all of the other Lifepods have been destroyed. After the Aurora's Drive Core explodes, the ship's wreckage is surrounded by Radiation, and is unapproachable without a Radiation Suit.

The crash resulted in large quantities of Metal Salvage and Supply Crates being dispersed within the vicinity of the ship, providing useful materials such as food, batteries, or Titanium.

Secret Auxiliary Mission
The Mongolian Empire lost contact with private vessel 'Degasi' 18 months after it left colonized space. The Empire has purchased passage aboard Aurora for Emissary Khasar, and your orders are to afford him every reasonable facility to locate and, if appropriate, retrieve Degasi crewmembers, without compromising the primary mission.

Degasi crew manifesto has been distributed to senior officers in a separate data package.

Mission classification: Aurora crew should not be informed of this mission until such time as their co-operation in locating or retrieving Degasi crew is required. It should be stressed that humanitarian auxiliary missions fall outside normal remuneration structures.

Crash


Some more information on what happened just before the crash was released on 6th of August 2015, hidden within the update post of the Habitat Update.

Clicking on the "LOG" buttons placed all over the page results in displaying a window with what appeared to be short snippets of a conversation between two employees at the Colonial Headquarters, with a few nods to the Natural Selection game series. The last of these logs, however, only shows a code consisting of hex values. Converting them into ASCII characters and deciphering the result using the Cesar Cipher reveals the hidden message:

AI Speech
The Aurora has a built-in AI which reports the Aurora  's state to the Player before it's explosion.

The voicerecordings are outdated

First Report
"Detecting increased local radiation levels. Trend is consistent with ongoing degradation of the Aurora's dark matter drive core, due to damage sustained during collision. Continuing to monitor."



Second Report
"Caution. Continued degradation of the Aurora's drive core may cause a quantum detonation. If the drive core is breached, probability of death by exposure to radioactive crash site materials increases to 37%."



Third Report
"Warning. Local radiation readings suggest a quantum detonation will occur with a probability of 85.5%. Advise observing a 10km safety range."



Fourth Report
"Emergency: Seismic readings suggest a quantum detonation has occurred in the Aurora's drive core. The reactor will reach a super critical state in T- 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, (static) 4, (glitchy almost inaudible) 3, (half of the word said before being cut off by the explosion) 2, 1-"



Exploring the Aurora
Over the course of several in-game days, the ship's computer announces imminent containment failure, eventually leading to a ten second countdown and a gigantic explosion. The in-game timer will begin either when the user starts a new game, or updates and reloads an old save.

The explosion is focused towards the forward section of the ship.

Only after the explosion is the Player able to explore inside the Aurora, but only if equipped with a radiation suit. Fire and dripping molten steel can injure the Player, and periodic shaking of the hull occurs. Further dangers are posed by the Reaper Leviathans that spawn around the ship, and the Cave Crawlers that litter the entrance area of the ship.

The following equipment are recommended for exploring the Aurora:
 * Radiation Suit (required to approach the Aurora)
 * A weapon for self defense against Cave Crawlers
 * Welder, for repairing the Drive Room
 * Propulsion Cannon, for removing crate barriers
 * Fire Extinguisher, for various fires (some can be found onsite)
 * Laser Cutter, for entering various rooms

There are two routes to the inside of the ship. The first is on the right side of the shore area of the torn up front section and constitutes an entryway behind a Floodlight blocked off by various crates. Behind the crates are a Fire Extinguisher and a fire to put out, after which the Player will find themselves in the Laboratory. The second requires going up a ramp in the torn up front section of the Aurora, the Player can enter a corridor that leads inside the ship. On the way up, the user can find several supply crates with crafted items inside of them. The door leading to the T-section is partially blocked off by fire. Fortunately, there are a few Fire Extinguishers lying around, which can come in handy. When the Player enters, there will be a sign to the left that says Airlock.

To the right of the T-section, there is a door which is blocked off by fire. The left corridor leads to the "Cargo Bay 3". The right door leads to "Administration". These rooms are indicated by signs on the Aurora itself.

Administration Office
The administration office has a Data Terminal with a downloadable log titled "Alterra Launches the Aurora". The office also contains shelves, a Desk, and a Prawn Suit poster which can be taken. It also contains an Abandoned PDA with a Data Download under the headline "Essential Life Things", which will give the player the code "1454".

Cargo Bay 3
Down the left corridor there is rubble blocking the entrance to Cargo Bay 3. You can get around it by dropping down from above or by using the Propulsion Cannon or Repulsion Cannon to move these out of the way. Note that if you plan on dropping down from above, there is a fire that cannot be put out. You simply have to avoid it by jumping around. There is then a locked door with a keypad that can be interacted with. Entering the code 1454 from the previously mentioned Data Download into the keypad will open the door. The Cargo Bay is a large area full of cargo containers, supply crates, forklifts, and a few other miscellaneous things.

There is a cargo elevator in the cargo bay, which is stuck halfway.

Following the ramp down reveals an underwater section which leads to a T-corridor. To the left, there will be a Sealed Door. To the right, there is a room called the "Seamoth Bay".

Seamoth Bay
The door to this room is locked, but there is a damaged panel which the Welder can repair. When this panel is repaired, the door is unlocked, and the player can enter. The Seamoth Bay contain many pieces of a damaged Seamoth, which can be scanned.

Locker Room
Going through the Sealed Door will lead the player into a locker room. Some of the lockers are open and have loot inside. There is an Abandoned PDA with an Abandoned PDA titled "Sweet Offer". It will give the player the code "1869".

Prawn Suit Bay
Leaving the locker room, there will be a sign labeled "Prawn Bay". This is the location where the Prawn Suit Fragments will be found. The door to this room is locked, and like before, has a panel that needs to be repaired. Once the door is unlocked the player can proceed into the room. This room has multiple Prawn Suits hanging from the ceiling, presumably waiting to be deployed. To the right is a pile of rubble with broken Prawn Suit Fragments and other miscellaneous things piled on top of each other. Among the rubble is a Storage Module. In the water near the two large pipes next to the door is a fire extinguisher and just past another pipe lies a flashlight. Next to that is a ramp blocked off by fire and rubble. Once those are cleared, there is a door that leads to the "Living Quarters".

The submerged part of the prawn suit bay is full of pipes and electric hazards. Following the wall in the South-East leads to the Laboratory in the North-East (to the left).

Laboratory
A room prior to the actual laboratory contains an data download panel with a Data Download titled "Lifepod Tracking Data". It provides the signal for Lifepod 12. There also is a supply crate containing a Battery in front of a locked door that requires the Laser Cutter. Behind it is the actual laboratory, which holds an Abandoned PDA with a Data Download titled "Lab Access" containing the code, 6483, for the two nearby doors. These grant access to the storage room, where three large Lab Containers can be found, one small Lab Container, a test tube-type Lab Equipment, and a microscope-type Lab Equipment. The two supply crates contain Disinfected Water and there's another Data Download panel that states it decorrupts the player's PDA.

Living Quarters
The Living Quarters are various rooms that provided living conditions for the various crew and passengers on the ship. If the player goes right, there is a room filled with Filtered Water and Nutrient Blocks. If the player goes left, there is a galley. There are bar tables and chairs lying on the ground, along with a few handy supply crates. There is a vending machine to the left, as well as a "Keep Calm" poster.

At the front end of the corridor, there are sleeping quarters for the people on board. There are beds, a "Natural Selection 2" poster, and a few lockers. To the left there is another corridor, with 2 locked doors. One of the doors is unlocked by the code in the Abandoned PDA named "Sweet Offer". In this room a Cap and an Arcade Gorge Toy can be found.

Backtrack to the T-corridor from earlier, and this time, go straight. This will lead to the Drive Room.

Drive Room
Inside the Drive Room are four large generators. They are connected by catwalks, though some are underwater and heavily damaged. The generators are covered in breaches, and the Player's objective is to repair them using the Welder. Repairing the breaches removes the radiation entirely after three in-game days.

When entering the generator room, the PDA warns the player that radiation is at maximum tolerable levels. When the breaches are repaired the player will get the Aurora's Black Box data which will give you a Signal leading to the future location of a Precursor Base at the Mountain Island.

The Power Upgrade Module for the Cyclops can also be found in the Drive Room, sticking out from the upgrade console at the center of the room. Bleeders can also be found in the water around the generators.

Resources

 * Power Upgrade Module
 * Pressure Compensator MK1
 * Metal Salvage
 * Storage Module
 * Flashlight
 * Supply Crates:
 * Battery
 * Disinfected Water
 * First Aid Kit
 * Nutrient Block
 * Power Cell
 * Signal

Fauna

 * Bleeder
 * Cave Crawler
 * Reaper Leviathan

Data Bank Entry
Mission: Ariadne Arm Phasegate Installation, 3 year operation time

Crew: Command Team (23), Engineering Team (85), Support Crew (40), Passengers (9)

Facilities:
 * Dark-matter ion drive V8
 * Engineering section with A Grade facilities (incl manned robotics suite and full scanner range)
 * 0.25 cubic kilometers storage for phasegate installation apparatus
 * Habitation section with C+ Grade leisure facilities

Status:
 * Sustained heavy damage in orbit of planet 4546B
 * Cause unknown
 * Evacuation data unavailable

Gallery
For a more complete gallery, visit Aurora/Gallery.