Concept
Universe 51: Tannhäuser Station (U51:TS) is the second game in the series. It’s planned to be a narrative-focused game set inside the Tannhäuser Research Station. To understand this setting, some context is needed:
The Tannhäuser Station is a space research station, and during the events of U51:TS it is orbiting an recently discovered artifact.
The artifact (as well as the station) takes the name from Ferynck Tannhäuser, the merchant ship captain who discovered and reported it. Ferynck Tannhäuser was delivering a shipment of Roylium in a mission just like any other, 12 light-years away from the planet Arnus III, when something went wrong with the small Olynko ship he was piloting. Due to a mishap with the ship’s Gabor Thrust, the crew ended up in a completely unexpected place in the universe. Tannhäuser didn’t worry, as it had happened before. All he needed to do was determine his location and correct his course with another jump.
It was when he was about to execute the corrective jump that he noticed what appeared to be a circle of small green lights in the distance. The curiosity that had always been his trademark grew again inside him. In spite of the protests of some of his crewmen, he approached the lights. Twenty hours later, they were close enough to see that the lights were not floating like it seemed, but were embedded in a large metallic structure of toroids enlaced in each other, revolving peacefully. Tannhäuser promptly reported the discovery to Arkylos Labs and the Fjelsynese government.
Most people were astonished by the discovery. After thousands and thousands of years of space-faring without finding any signs of alien life, it had been an accident that led to the discovery of the first alien structure. All preliminary reports on the structure led by a team of first-responder researchers confirmed that the structure was indeed unlike any built by known humans.
A coalition of many large companies from all over human space financed the construction of a large scientific research station, the Tannhäuser Research Station, in order to study the structure. The mission went smoothly for three years. On March 22436, however, an unknown faction of rogues set out in an Intruder Class Stealth Fighter (ICSF) in order to steal as much of the research materials from Tannhäuser Station as they could.
These are the events that set the start of Universe 51: Tannhäuser Station.