The year is 2104.

Silence reigned aboard the USCSS Covenant, a massive colonial vessel gliding steadily through the infinite black sea of space. The ship was alive in its own way, humming softly with the rhythm of its system; The low, constant thrum of its fusion drives, the gentle whir of circulating air, and the occasional electronic chirp from a terminal confirming some minor adjustment or routine check. It was the sound of a machine dreaming.

The cockpit, situated at the front of the vessel like the eye of some great celestial leviathan, offered a view that stretched into eternity. Beyond the reinforced glass, space unfolded in every direction. An endless expanse of velvet-black void, silent and unknowable. No planets, no moons, no debris fields. Just deep space. Cold. Absolute.

But within that abyss, a quiet beauty lingered. Stars glimmered like scattered diamonds, their light soft and ancient. Some flickered like distant fires, others shone steadily with an ethereal glow, suspended in the dark like pearls in ink. A soft haze of nebulae stretched faintly in the distance, painted across the cosmos in shades of violet, blue, and silver.

It was peaceful. For now.