As space exploration grew more sophisticated mankind developed three major means of transportation around the universe. The first were Relay Drives, massive energy cannons built-in space that could propel a ship faster than it could naturally propel itself. The second were Relay Gates, basically catching pads for the Relay Drives. A ship could be, to put it crudely, shot from Drive to Gate. Outside of the Gate\Drive systems, ships had achieved near light speeds that greatly reduced general travel time within a system.

Standard exploration worked like this: A Relay Gate was shot as close to their destination as possible. The Gate was manned by a skeleton crew that could then maneuver it as close as it could get to the system while still being able to connect back to the Drive. Once the Gate was in place more ships where shot to their destination to either build a return Drive or explore the system.

Communication was always a problem. While mankind had mastered the ability to project physical objects at light speeds the technology didn’t allow for data transmissions. Most often a ship traveling to another system had its memory banks loaded with messages back and forth, turning every ship into a galactic courier.

This is how mankind mapped the Milky Way. After that galaxy was explored missions to neighboring galaxies began. A similar principle was used but with longer entrance angles. Gates were shot to the outskirts of a galaxy then new Drives shot Gates further in. After numerous successful expeditions to places like Canis Major and Omega Centauri everyone began thinking about The Edge again. The principle of travel would be roughly the same, shoot a Gate and then maneuver to an optimal position.

Even with all of these systems, travel time was the biggest limitation mankind faced. Relay Systems would greatly reduce travel time but Edge was still billions of years away. Eventually a small theoretical research firm, Sapientia Labs, managed to chart a course that cut the thirty-two billion year trip down significantly.

The first step included establishing more Relay Gates along the way. After that the crew would be relying on various spacial anomalies to get the job done. Sapientia Labs discovered places that could propel the ship faster than it can propel itself. There were also a few carefully mapped wormholes and a cosmic rift that, at the right time, would jump the ship billions of years ahead of schedule. All of these aspects working together would reduce the estimated trip to just over a hundred years.

The next challenge was the ship itself. The first challenge was designing a ship capable of building numerous Relay Gates. Then there was the need to be able to withstand FTL speeds. Another corporation, Titan Shipyards, answered these questions. They constructed a ship equip with a state of the art Cryo-Sleep system for the crew, a sophisticated Virtual Intelligence , and a propulsion system unlike anything mankind had ever dreamed. The ship could run on autopilot, scan destination systems for the resources need to construct a Gate, begin harvesting what was needed, then awaken the crew from hibernation to complete the project. The ship was named the Magnum Opus and Titan considered it a rousing success.

Unfortunately the cost of the ship bankrupt the company and all of their assets were auctioned off to cover the debts. An upstart space tourism corporation, Chromos Interplanetary, received massive private and governmental grants to buy out Titan Shipyard’s Magnum Opus. They endeavored to send a small team of explorers to the Edge system but to say this initial expedition was a financial and ideological disaster would be an understatement.

Before the shuttle, named Edge Explorer One (EEI), even launched the crew were nervous. Various system engineers, crew mechanics, and scientists were pulled from the project to make room for investor diplomats, rich tourists, and staff to assist these non-essentials. By the time of launch the ship was running on a skeleton crew with a bloated passenger manifest.

The journey to Edge would, with construction of Relay terminals factored in, would take over a hundred and fifty years. This meant investors wouldn’t see a return for generations. While the first generation of backers supported the project, their heirs didn’t see the situation in the same light. Chromos was sued by almost every possible lawyer and went bankrupt thirty years after EEI was launched.

Then, one hundred and seventy-six years after EEI launched, it returned to Earth. This was way ahead of schedule, as EEI was not expected to return for almost another hundred years. Over half the crew had died on the trip. Many from natural causes or cryo-fatigue but a few from various accidents. Still, the mission to Edge was a success on a level no one ever imagined. The crew of EEI returned with a new element, #115, and a heavily modified ship. With a reinforced hull, augmented propulsion systems, and a handful of E115 the shuttle was able to achieve faster than light speeds.

Element 115

Element 115 rendered the Relay Systems obsolete. Without the lengthy travel times between Gates and Drive or the complex web of Relays that needed to be used, a ship could set its course and simple navigate itself. This reduced the return trip from Edge to a mere ten years, which put every destination in the universe within Mankind’s grasp.

The EEI shuttle crew reformed Chromos Interplanetary and immediately began fitting a new shuttle for a return trip to Edge. Numerous companies also claimed to hold the rights to the old Titan Shipyards patients and soon the Titan brand returned to prominence. Titan’s first project, to return to Edge.

Governments and corporations joined into the mix and a real race to return to Edge began. In a single generation over a hundred and twenty missions were launched to the Edge, mostly equipment to build and maintain mining platforms for E115 harvesting. With no E115 currently at their disposal it would take over a hundred years for the fruits of these labors but once E115 processing picked up everyone was banking on regular shipments arriving every ten years.

With faith in Edge renewed miners, explorers, scientists, mercenaries, rich tourists, and dozens of other professionals set out for Edge. Hundreds of mining operations were established all over the E115 rich galaxy and production began. It took over a hundred years to get back to Edge and another fifty to develop stations and ships needed to return to Earth with massive shipments of E115. Over three hundred years since Mankind first set its sights on Edge, a massive shipment of E115 arrived on Earth.

The corporation, a former Mining Union turned urban retailer, was the recipient of ten tons of E115 rock. North American Mining Evolved, NAME, immediately began pissing away the valued rock; sewing E115 into Miner-Chic clothing, grinding it into sports drinks, using it as a high-priced planetary fuel source, and destroying over a ton of it in just testing and experimentation. Quickly there was very little E115 left. Then the unimaginable happened, no more arrived.

No other group received shipments of E115 and NAME’s expected second shipment never arrived. Everyone panicked. With no communication to Edge since the last shipment arrived, Humanity had no way of knowing what had happened. The remaining E115 was seized under the Intergalactic Discovery Agreement and held by United Space Exploration Council (U-SEC), a multinational agency designed to enforce fair galactic exploration.

Now there are a hundred corporate interests petitioning for their share of the remaining E115. Everyone is looking to use the E115 to develop a Faster Than Light shuttle to quickly return to Edge. Everyone wants to be the group that discovers the fate of Edge operations. U-SEC has been swamped evaluating the proposals and everyone is going impatient. An announcement is expected soon.

All characters are Detectives working for the ACI Division of the Metropolitan Police Department. As such, every character has done something undesirable and was sent to work with the ACI Division. The exact infraction is something minor, nothing that would get you bounced from the force entirely, but is otherwise left up to the player to decide. The What We Know section documents all the information released officially by Penny Arcade about the world of Automata. It’s suggested you at least read the comic before beginning play.