Chapter 1: The Fall of Sunlight Village
Opening Scene – Sunlight Village
Your story begins in the meadows outside Prosperity, where Reso Corp has built a sprawling research outpost. Around it rests a quiet farming settlement: Sunlight Village, a place where most people grow crops, tend animals, or sell goods. Anyone not farming likely works at Reso Corp or runs one of the local shops.
The party has been given shared housing inside a large inn-like structure owned by the corporation. It isn’t glamorous—just rows of tight rooms and communal halls—but it is home.
This morning, the group is summoned to their daily task.
Meeting Jamason
At Reso Corp headquarters, a sharp-faced manager named Jamason greets the party. Dressed in a slate-gray corporate coat, he holds himself with authority but speaks plainly:
“Today you’re assigned to monitor transmissions from Falcon sector, Prosperity. We’re looking for irregular data: illegal dealings, dangerous ideas, or unstable relationships before they break. Flag anything suspicious. Don’t, and it’s your call—but remember who keeps the credits flowing.”
Choice
- Participate in monitoring. The party sees strange activity: smuggling, coded conversations, whispers of resistance. Flagging these earns approval from higher-ups.
- Ignore the task. Nothing happens immediately, but the choice will echo later—when they see what happens to the people in those flagged transmissions.
After giving instructions, Jamason leaves.
The Lockdown
Minutes later, alarms blare. The hallway fills with the metallic footsteps of two State enforcers—humanlike robots in black alloy armor. They march past carrying Jamason limp in their arms.
Doors slam shut across the facility. The party’s exit is sealed: only managers hold the keycards to leave.
To escape, they must navigate the locked-down building.
Inside Reso Corp
Sneaking through dimly lit corridors, the party glimpses the cost of the State’s arrival. Employees lie motionless in offices and labs, crimson streaking the tile. In Jamason’s office, eyebots hover—small surveillance drones scanning every surface.
Choices
- Sneak past the eyebots. If successful, they find Jamason’s keycard untouched.
- Fight the eyebots. Victory is possible, but the party learns through Jamason’s terminal that his computer has been seized—completely under State control now.
Either way, they escape with the keycard.
The Village in Flames
Outside, chaos reigns. Sunlight Village burns. Homes are shattered, market stalls overturned, and citizens lie among rubble and flame. State enforcers march methodically, erasing resistance.
If the party searches houses, they eventually reach Jamason’s home. Inside, the place has been ransacked: shelves bare, devices ripped out, papers gone. A woman’s scream cuts through the smoke.
They find Jamason’s wife pinned under debris, her body broken. With fading breath she points toward a shelf. Hidden behind chipped paint is a data chip.
She dies before she can say more.
Project Aurora
Examining the chip reveals Jamason’s final message:
“If you’re hearing this, I am dead or captured. This chip contains Project Aurora—an AI built outside Miradeth’s network. It may free Prosperity’s people from the State’s control. Only a handful of us knew.
If you choose to install it, know this: you will be hunted. But for the first time, you will be free. Place it over your birthright implant—it will install itself.”
Choice (Major)
- Install Aurora. (Canon choice.) The party feels immediate relief: the constant hum of State ads, obligations, and intrusive thoughts vanish. For the first time, their minds are quiet. Truly their own.
- Refuse Aurora. Nothing changes—yet. But the State will still mark them as suspects, and the truth of Jamason’s work is lost.
The Breakout
The respite is short-lived. A State robot crashes through the wall, sensors blazing red. A battle erupts.
The party must fight through waves of machines as the village collapses. Fires spread, structures crumble, and survivors scatter. By the time the dust settles, no trace of Sunlight Village remains—just ash, silence, and the trail of smoke on the horizon.
The survivors—our party—flee east, toward the next settlement.
End of Chapter 1.
Notes for Running This Chapter
Themes: oppression, choice, awakening.
Main player agency moments:
- Whether they flag transmissions (affects moral consequences later).
- Whether they sneak or fight the eyebots.
- Whether they install Aurora (branching long-term path).
Canon path: Installing Aurora, fleeing east after the village’s destruction.