Into The Stars

Into The Stars_001 // Prologue Preview: A Sci-Fi Journey Awaits

Prologue: "The Last Hope"

It was necessary to launch the shuttle, even though we were out of money and researchers. We couldn't withstand the blow the government tried to deliver just when we were on the verge of unlocking FTL travel, of bringing Project Stars to life. There were too many lives at stake to let it fail now. Admiral Kensen knew this better than anyone.

Isn't it pathetic? The very people who funded the project—who once hailed it as humanity's next revolution—came to shut it down, to take him out. They came for him just when he was at the finish line. One more material. That's all we needed. Just one more discovery, and the stars would've been ours.

And it had been in front of us all along.

Lithium. One of the cheapest, most abundant elements on Earth. The irony stung like a fresh wound. It had always been in our daily lives, in our tech, sustaining our world—while we failed to see its true potential. Now, we'd found it. And now... Admiral Kensen is gone.

Was it worth his life? Was it worth the lives of all those who gave everything for this project? Maybe. Maybe not. But the questions are pointless now. All we have left is hope—that the resources, the time, and the sacrifices weren't for nothing.

The Commander stood silently for a moment, the weight of it all pressing down. Then they turned to the crew.

"We should proceed with evacuation protocols. We don't know what happened. Or where we are. But we made it."

The Commander's voice cracked, balancing courage with the deep fear gnawing at their gut.

They were in outer space.

Chapter 1: A Glimpse of Hope

In the year 2083, with the last of his strength, Admiral Kensen sent the shuttle soaring into the void, fueled by the desperate hope of retrieving the crucial data humanity had sought for eight long years. The breakthrough had come in 2075, when scientists discovered how to combine various minerals and chemical elements to create a powerful propulsion system capable of achieving faster-than-light (FTL) travel. But this monumental discovery came with a grave limitation: no material existed that could withstand the immense force generated by the reaction. Until then, the dream of interstellar travel remained just that—a dream.

Responding to Admiral Kensen 's passionate pleas, the government reluctantly decided to fund Project Stars, a venture that promised to catapult humanity forward by centuries. Hope surged among the populace as the project gained momentum, but those hopes began to wane. In 2077, after years of relentless research, scientists finally identified a material that could withstand the blast, but it came at a harrowing cost: it could be used only once. This one-time-use technology was absurdly inefficient, destined to lead to destruction after the initial FTL process. Once activated, the material would degrade, leaving behind a catastrophic explosion that could obliterate the shuttle and release deadly radiation into the cosmos.