Aurora

The Aurora is a spacecraft sent to the planet 4546B for a terraforming mission before the arrival of colony ships.

However, during its descent, it was struck by a mysterious energy pulse resulting in catastrophic hull failure, leading to its crash landing on the surface of the planet. A single escape pod was launched before impact, which contained the player. The ship's wreckage is surrounded by radiation.

The crash resulted in large quantities of metal salvage, fragments, and a few supply crates being dispersed within the vicinity of the ship. There is an area near the tail end of the Aurora known as the Scrapyards, a long, flat strip of sand littered with metal salvage and also salt deposits. It can be very useful for players needing materials for food or titanium.

During the Intro Sequence, the player is escaping the Aurora in the Escape Pod.

Crash
Some more information on the background of the Aurora's mission and 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.

Colonial Headquarters - 15 minutes prior to Aurora impact.

Controller: Sit rep!

Analyst: Ma'am, the Aurora's gone dark. Last known position on collision course with planet 4546B.

Controller: Did the life pods launch?

Analyst: None registered so far, Ma'am. And there's something else.

Controller: Say it.

Analyst: When the Aurora left dock, her emergency equipment was still on factory settings.

Controller: You're telling me we have a bird in the soup, and their Survival PDAs are running VANILLA?!

Analyst: That's the situation, Ma'am... Ma'am, what should we do?

Controller: Bring me every star chart, tech geek and concentration enhancer in the building...

Analyst: Yes Ma'am!

Controller: ...and god DAMN it you build me an update package, and you find me a way to flash them Version 1.1!

Analyst: Ma'am, there's not enough bandwidth to send everything, but I think I can optimise the automated habitat terraforming algorithms to fit them in.

Controller: You mean to say we have survivors out there with rock-faces jutting into their habitats? Make it so!

Controller: The moment we're done here I want to know who let that ship leave dock without a single room in the constructor database!

Controller: Listen up, I want this package streamlined! You don't need a focus-group approved surface texture when you're fighting for your life on an alien world. If the power systems are beta, pack them up and move on!

Controller: Tell me about this planet the Aurora was orbiting.

Analyst: Unexplored. Capable of supporting life. Ocean planet. O2 atmos-

Controller: Backtrack. Ocean planet?

Analyst: Affirmative. Does it mean something?

Controller: It means we're in more trouble than we thought. Get me the fluid dynamics team!

Analyst: Update package away, Ma'am.

Controller: Well done everyone. Now get back to work.

Analyst: Ma'am, the team needs to rest.

Controller: Listen up! Anyone who wants to tell me they've got it bad, stop and ask whether you'd rather have been on the Aurora. They're alone right now. They're scared. They're beset on all sides by alien nightmares - and it's only going to get worse. If you still think you should be resting rather than working on a way to keep those people safe, you bring it to me and you'll be reassigned. I'm sure the TSF could use some more bodies in the Kharaa conflict.

AI Speech
Aurora has a built-in AI which reports the Aurora 's state before its explosion.

First Speech
"Scanning the Aurora. 0 life signs detected. Lethal radiation levels detected. The main drive core has malfunctioned. The primary dark matter containment field has dropped at 36% amplitude. Continuing to monitor."

This is the first report about the Aurora's state. The player can safely ignore this warning and continue playing.

Second Speech
"Caution! Readings from the Aurora suggest erratic fluctuations in the primary dark matter containment field. A breach of the main drive chamber may cause a cascading quantum flux detonation."

This is the second report about the Aurora's state. At this stage, the player is advised to begin gathering materials for the Radiation Suit.

Third Speech
"Warning! Readings from the Aurora exhibit characteristics consistent with total degradation of the dark matter containment field. Spikes in quantum fluctuations suggest an uncontrolled cascade detonation will occur with a probability of 83.5%."

This is the third report about the Aurora's state. It is absolutely vital to have a Radiation Suit at this stage. If the player didn't craft the Radiation Suit yet, they are advised to craft it as soon as possible.

Fourth Speech
"Emergency! Readings from the Aurora show severe instability in the primary drive core. The central dark matter reactor will reach a supercritical state in T-10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2."

This is the fourth and the last report about the Aurora's state. If the player still hasn't crafted the Radiation Suit at this stage, he can still craft it after the message has started playing; he has twenty three seconds to craft it and equip it from the beginning of this message. Alternatively, the player could completely ignore crafting the Radiation Suit.

Explosion
When Aurora's central dark matter reactor reaches a supercritical state, the Aurora will explode. It is still possible to remain alive without a Radiation Suit at this point. Though, the Radiation may spread to the player's escape pod, this forcing the player to move outside the radiation zone.

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 player 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, and only if equipped with a radiation suit. Fire and dripping molten steel can injure the player during their visit, 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.

By 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 player can find several supply crates with crafted items inside of them. To the right of the T-section, there is a door which is blocked off by rubble. By following the corridor to the left down the slope, the player can enter the generator room.

Alternatively, there is a small hole torn in the side of the ship, partially hidden in a narrow crevasse. Inside is a twisting vertical shaft to the generator room.

Generator Room
Inside the generator 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 restores the radiation levels to normal.

The Power Upgrade Module for the Cyclops can also be found in the generator room. It sticks out from the upgrade console at the center of the room. The Developers plan on adding an Exosuit Fragment to the generator room once the Exosuit has been implemented. It is possible that this will be the only fragment of this type available to players. Bleeders can also be found in the water around the generators. There is a tunnel through the ship's hull that starts inside the generator room and leads outside the Aurora.

Resources

 * Power Upgrade Module (Only One)
 * Metal Salvage
 * Supply Crates:
 * Battery
 * Disinfected Water
 * First Aid Kit
 * Nutrient Block
 * Power Cell
 * Signal

Story
A story script found on trello, suggests that a large biomass took down the Aurora with a projectile, destroying all the shields of the ship. This is a part from the script:

AUDIO: Use voice and sound effects over black screen to communicate the crashing of the ship. I think this is worth doing quickly and efficiently. Few audible dialog lines (and these only from PDA), otherwise just screaming, panic, alarms, explosions. This being said, I think we can tell a detailed story this way with a bit of care. I would almost split it into heart beats, with barely a few seconds of audio between each. The player character is running on adrenaline, and we are only hearing the major beats:

BACKGROUND SFX: Normal operational background, hum of computer terminals, background chatter etc  * Heartbeat* * Heartbeat*
 * PDA: "Beginning planetary descent."
 * SFX: Explosion
 * BACKGROUND SFX: Screaming, alarms, distant explosions, people running, player character panting as they run for a lifepod
 * PDA: "Abandon ship. Abandon ship."
 * BACKGROUND SFX: Heavy footsteps and panting as PC sprints down a corridor; screaming and alarms in the distance
 * PDA: "Lifepod available. Lifepod available." (Fade this line in over the first two sentences as PC approaches and boards the lifepod)

Fauna

 * Bleeder
 * Cave Crawler
 * Reaper Leviathan
 * Stalker
 * Holefish

Data Bank Entry
Aurora Mining Vessel Overview

Mission: 3 year exploratory mining operation

Crew: Command Team (11), Engineering Team (57), Support Crew (30), Passengers (3)
 * Facilities: Dark Matter ion drive V8
 * Engineering section with A Grade facilities (incl primary meteor cracker, manned robotics suite and full scanner range)
 * 0.25 cubic kilometers storage for mined resources
 * Habitation section with C+ Grade leisure facilities;

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

Trivia

 * The riddle was solved, on the same day of the Habitat update's release, by /u/Zarickan on Reddit.