Heaven's Hand

WIP - Summer Camp 2023

Current Knowledge

In 5321 EA, astronomers at the Imperial Observatory in Kaien spotted an anomaly in the night sky that had never been recorded before. Dismissed initially as a star, this object seemed to travel slowly across the sky, behaviour that had never been observed in stars before. This movement was seen to repeat itself every night for several months, every night getting lower on the horizon before it disappeared. The next year, in 5322 EA, around the same time, it began to be seen again, still following a similar path.
Two years later, members of the Golden Telescope Guild, based at a research centre on the coast of the Barren, observed a similar object traversing the sky much later in the year. One of the members had read several papers from the Royal Observatory on their previous observations and hypothesised that it was one and the same.
It took three more years, and the collaboration of mathematicians and astronomers in multiple countries, but in 5327 EA, it was confirmed that all observations were the same unknown object. It was concluded that this object was stuck in a constant orbit of Etrea, making one rotation about once every twelve hours. Further careful study over the years has unearthed multiple references to this object in history and mythology, spanning across milennia and across the whole world.
Not much is known about the object currently, but one of its most commonly noted features its strange shape; it seems to be rather elongated, with sharp angles and what appears to be several constituant parts. It is currently known across Etreas as Heaven's Hand.

The Truth, Lost

Home... It's gone dark.

— Commander Novalie Crow

What is now known as Heaven's Hand was once known as The GRS Hope. GRS stood for Global Research Station.
The GRS Hope was one of three research stations launched from Etrea in the century before the Renewal, the event that wiped all civilisation from the planet. It was intended to be the first permanent station in space; the previous two were too low in orbit and were predicted to eventually slow down due to gravity, burn up in the atmosphere, and crash to the planet below. The GRS Hope was established in orbit at twelve thousand miles from Etrea's surface; ten thousand miles had been calculated to be the minimum height for indefinite orbit.
Each research station was manned by a crew of six, taken from different countries around the world. The teams were swapped out every two years. Data was transmitted back to Etrea on a whole number of different topics, such as how different plants grew, how the researcher's vital signs differed compared to those on the surface, the effects of low or absent gravity, and the effect of long term space living. Many of these experiments were in preparation for manned missions to other planets in the Celestial Spiral and beyond.
When the Renewal happened, those aboard the three research stations watched helplessly as Etrea suddenly went dark, all the lights they were used to lighting up the night suddenly snuffed out. They called for information, but all that came across their communicators was static. They tried to contact the other research stations and, thankfully, made contact. Whatever had happened on the surface, it had not cut them off from the others.
Stranded in space, with no way to communicate with Etrea or know what had happened, all the team of the GRS Hope could do was make the best of it. This happened only a month after teams had been switched, so they had two years of supplies aboard the station with them. With proper rationing, they were able to make them last for four.
The other research stations were not so lucky.
The communication that had first seemed to be a blessing turned out to be a curse. The crew of the GRS Dauntless had only enough supplies left to last them a month. From the beginning, they were constantly begging for help, trying to work out a way to ferry supplies between the stations. When all that proved impossible, their communications began to get less frequent but more disturbing. Eventually, after about three months, the GRS Dauntless made its final communication and fell silent.
The crew of the GRS Intrepid were different. They had supplies to last them about a year, and from the beginning they were chipper and optimistic. Communications from the Intrepid kept the crew of the GRS going in that first dark year. Eventually though, the crew of the Intrepid made their final communication, a definite goodbye, and then, they too, fell silent.
About three years after the Renewal, the crew of the GRS Hope watched as the GRS Intrepid burned up in the atmosphere and fell to the planet below.
About four and a half years after the Renewal, the GRS Hope fell silent as well.
The GRS Dauntless crashed to the surface less than a hundred years after the Renewal. Its wreckage - and the wreckage of the GRS Intrepid - has not yet been discovered to this day, though it is out there.