Decades ago, most known stars and every habitable planet mysteriously vanished, along with whatever and whoever happened to be on them, leaving behind an empty universe of asteroids and lifeless moons where the only remnants of humanity are those who were on space stations or starships at the time. With supplies gradually dwindling and infrastructure falling into disrepair, the survivors have spent the subsequent years frantically searching for any trace of remaining natural resources. Up until now they have been unsuccessful...

Then, a mysterious anomaly known as a Blood Ocean (which is exactly what it sounds like) was discovered filling a huge crater on an otherwise barren moon. It's not the first Blood Ocean found since The Quiet Rapture, the mysterious cosmic event that caused everything to disappear, but initial scans show a collection of potentially useful anomalous locations in a deep undersea (underblood?) trench that require further investigation.

An effective use for the dregs and criminal element of humanity was created by The Consolidation of Iron (COI) one of the largest remaining factions still operating in space. Known as the Iron Lung Program it serves as both a way of attaining valuable intel and photographs of the anomalies and horrors within the blood oceans and a way of disposing of convicts without having to go through the legal processes. Often lies of freedom on completion of a mission will circulate, if a convict were to survive the hellish task and somehow make it back to the space station after the submarine is recovered they would be immediately tasked to search another area. Once you are in the Iron Lung Program there is no escape, it's a hands-off form of execution.

You can begin your story as a convict sent down to these moons to investigate, in an aging SM-2 submarine cobbled together from rusty space station parts. Or as a member of staff aboard one of the badly decaying space stations in orbit, helping to select and prepare convicts for their mission to explore the moons. These rusted and failing structures consist of nominally self-sufficient space stations, and a limited number of aging spacecraft. If you're feeling really creative you can even create anybody you like, perhaps an engineer desperately trying to maintain the systems aboard the station as they burn out and collapse or a soldier from the Galactic War before The Quiet Rapture making a life in one of the last havens for humanity.

As a convict find your way to the marked locations, photograph whatever you find there, and try to finish before the sub collapses around you... or you're discovered by whatever lurks in the blood... If you work aboard the space stations, choose those who will be sent on these suicide missions and attempt to find the resources humanity so badly needs. Or if you create your own story just remember there is nothing left out there, only your will to survive.

Life aboard this collapsing space station is harsh and hopeless, the rusted metal corridors buzzing with dim lighting, the air stagnant and thick as the oxygen generation units work overtime. Deep within the bowels of the station on the lowest decks are the massive prison blocks, thousands of male and female convicts from all over the solar system and beyond awaiting their ultimate fate either rotting in a cell or being sent to the Iron Lung Program, decided on by Deck Officers, some of the most ruthless staff on the station. More major decisions are made by the station Director who's job it is to manage not only the findings and intelligence data discovered by the convicts and relay them back to the COI but also the wellbeing of the civilians and highly trained staff that live on the accommodation decks higher up.

Welcome to a grimdark future in a dying universe.