Games Like L A C U N A

Archived surveys show empty space. The latest observations show stars, planets, and objects nobody can account for.

The VESPER programme was established to investigate. You will remain at Mission Control. Your probe will go where you cannot.

Plot transfers, manage power and propellant, and send instructions across the communications link. Photographs arrive in fragments. Telemetry describes where the probe was, rather than where it is now.

Study the returns before committing to your next move. A command already in transit cannot be recalled.

Survey unfamiliar systems. Examine spectra, recover samples, and listen for patterns in the noise. Land on distant worlds, descend beneath alien oceans, and inspect abandoned structures.

Some findings have ordinary explanations. Others become harder to explain the closer you look.

Watch your reserves, pressure tolerance, and damaged instruments. Choose routes that clear the star. Decide whether an uncertain contact is worth the cost of reaching it.

If a VESPER probe is lost, its carrier falls silent. Another can be dispatched. The previous vehicle cannot be recovered.

Your assignment is to gather evidence of the systems’ origin and establish a return channel to Mission Control.

You do not need to explain everything you find.

You need to make sure someone receives it.