UDL-002 the Hope or just the Hope was one of two ships sent to colonize Halcyon. While UDL-001 the Groundbreaker reached Halcyon on schedule, the Hope would not arrive until decades later. Those who did arrive in Halcyon believed the Hope lost, along with all its passengers, a lie that the Halcyon Holdings Corporate Board is all too happy to enforce.
Background[]
In 2285, Captained by William Hunte, the Hope left Earth to begin its journey to Halcyon. Hundreds of thousands of colonists were put into stasis for what was planned to be 10 years of travel. A small crew of 24 would stay awake to maintain and pilot the ship.
After 9 years of travel via skipspace, the Hope suffered a skip drive malfunction rendering it incapable of faster-than-light travel. With no way to fix the skip drive the Hope would have to complete its journey with only its sublight engines, extending the travel-time by an additional 26 years. With only a year's supply of rations left the ship's crew was fated to starve to death unless a source of food was found.
With the threat of starvation the crew's relationships had begun to deteriorate. Donna Hunte, first mate and wife of the captain unsuccessfully attempted to grow tomatoes aboard the ship to feed the crew. Around the same time, Frank Nolda, the ship's chief engineer would begin to feed himself by cannibalizing colonists he brought out of stasis. Frank would eventually confess this to Captain Hunte, hoping he would support a plan to feed the ship's crew by cannibalizing the colonists. But rather than support Frank, the captain had him locked in the ship's brig for his crimes. Frank's plan was gaining the support it needed from other members of the crew, without the captain becoming aware. The ship's medical officer, Alexei Volkov was an early supporter of Frank's plan. He tried to help convince the captain by telling him the plan made sense. The crew did the math and deduced they would need to eat tens of thousands of colonists if they were to survive the 26 years before reaching Halcyon.
Mutiny aboard the Hope, 2294[]
With starvation worsening the crew took increasingly brash actions. Starting with a supporter freeing Frank Nolda from the brig. Later First Mate Donna Hunte, desperate for food, ate a small piece of human flesh offered to her by Frank. Fuelled by starvation she found the human meat was delicious. Fearing that she would join the cannibals as starvation set further in, she elected to take her own life than choose between starvation or cannibalism. With the captain's authority being undermined and the first mate dead, the crew entered a state of open rebellion. In a bid to prevent further harm to the remaining colonists, Hunte locked down parts of the ship and sealed access to the hibernation storage bays, including the ship's bridge where he and his navigator, Rezi Torrega resided. Thurston Stallworth, a custodian, sought to hibernate himself alongside the colonists before the hibernation bays were sealed, under the belief that he would be woken up only if the ship reached Halcyon.
It didn't take long before Captain Hunte and Torrega could hear Frank and his supporters drilling to open the sealed door to hibernation storage. When the drills stopped they feared it was because Frank had gotten in. Hunte left the bridge for a final confrontation with Frank; Torrega stayed behind, succumbing to starvation. There is no concrete record of what happened then during Hunte and Frank's confrontation. It can be assumed that Hunte killed Frank and any remaining cannibals, then succumbed to starvation. There is no record of the final moments of the crew; however the outcome for the colonists was being trapped in stasis with no-one to wake them.
Arrival in Halcyon, 2320[]
The Hope reached Halcyon in 2320, 25 years later than planned. The Halcyon Holdings Corporate Board discovered the ship adrift, but the colonists had spent so much time in stasis that they could not be safely revived. The Board decided to hide the ship's discovery for fear of a public outcry to help the colonists., moving the Hope into the orbit of the ice planet Typhon, intent on abandoning the derelict ship indefinitely.
During this time Phineas Welles, a scientist working for The Board learned about the fate of the Hope, becoming frustrated that nothing was being done to save the colonists. Confident that with research and experimentation he could devise a way to safely revive the colonists, he sought consent from his superiors to begin the needed research on long-term hibernation revival but was denied. Undeterred, he decided to begin researching on his own, without The Board's knowledge; secretly removing hibernating colonists from the Hope to bring to his lab to experiment on. When The Board discovered his operations, they branded him a murderer and a criminal. Despite this Welles continued his research while evading the authorities.
Quests[]
- Related
Enemies[]
- Corporate
- Mechanical
- Sprat
- Ambient Creatures
Key Items[]
- Quest Items
| Icon | Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Hope Bridge Keycard | Dropped by/pickpocketed off of Quincy Duncan. |
- Other
| Icon | Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| UDL Identity Cartridge |
Achievements/Trophies[]
| Icon | Name | Description | Gamer Score | Trophy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
Lost and Found | Skipped the Hope. | 15 | Bronze |
 |
Sunburn | Skipped the Hope into the sun. | 15 | Bronze |
Gallery[]
