SCENE 1: BLOOD DAWN ON TRASH-DRAGON
The first light on Trash-Dragon did not come from a sun, but from the ancient plasma reactor core deep within the station. The fierce red light from the old reactor core pierced through broken glass, dyeing the control tower into a blood-soaked castle. Radiance Feeders drifted like phantom jellyfish, sucking residual energy from the rusty smokestacks. On the roof of module number 7, the Split Binary Star, taking the form of two spheres of dark red and electric blue plasma, swirled, warming a nest of Steel Leeches.
Inside an old module that was once the escape pod of a cargo ship, Ember woke up, inhaling a breath of thin air, thick with the smell of old machine oil, ozone, and the faint, sweet scent emitted from Celeste's dreams. Beside her, Teron was still curled up in a defensive posture, his six robotic legs clutching his human-like upper body. The OLED screen on his face displayed the words: system_in_standby_mode... Zzz... The spider-boy was running a defragmentation program on his own chaotic memories. Data streams cascaded like a waterfall across the screen on his face. A series of rapid beeping sounds rang out, like a heartbeat made of metal. Finally, the result appeared: error_404: air_filter_not_found. He retracted his legs, hunched over, and displayed a sad emoticon (╥﹏╥), the fiber optic cables on his head dimming completely.
In the remaining corner, Celeste slept soundly on a pile of fabric scraps, her fluffy, curly white hair floating even without wind, emitting a soft, gentle light like tiny stars. In her sleep, her skin sometimes turned transparent, revealing shimmering streaks of light—an entire miniature universe—moving slowly inside. A faint Echo, formed from condensed vapor, sat watching her sleep, occasionally disappearing into a flickering patch of static.
"Wake up, all of you! Today we have to earn enough Essence to add energy to the new O2 filter, or tonight everyone will die of suffocation!" - An irritated voice rang out from the noisy speaker, accompanied by a loud knock on the module's hull.
Ember rubbed her eyes; her protective goggles lit up with a blue line: [O2 LEVEL: 18% - CRITICAL]. "Teron, wake up. Check how much energy the air filtration system has left to operate," she commanded, her voice hoarse from sleep.
Teron shuddered, his robotic legs stretching out. The screen on his face flashed: running_diagnostic.... A series of rapid beeps sounded. scanning_essence_market... new_listing: [Heat-Resistance] @Sector_7. price: high.
The boy shook his head, displaying a sad emoticon (╥﹏╥).
"Time to go to work and earn a living again," Ember sighed, patting the head of Celeste, who was beginning to stir. "Wake up, Lessie. Maybe today we will find that candy."
Celeste opened her eyes; the two galaxies within them rotated slowly, the stars inside seeming brighter than usual. 'I dreamed that Echo and I were playing on a moon made of lollipops...' She yawned, and a tiny shooting star—actually an energy crystal—escaped from her mouth, flashed brightly, then fell to the ground, bouncing a few times like a marble before the light extinguished and it turned into an ordinary stone. Celeste took a breath and frowned slightly. 'The air tastes... sad today,' she whispered, as if she could taste the oxygen depletion.
'Yeah,' Ember said, picking up the crystal and stuffing it into her pocket. 'So our job is to make it happy then.'