Talos I

"The 8th Wonder of the World is in Space."

– Talos I Poster^[src]

Talos I is an advanced space station and laboratory orbiting the moon in the year 2035, and is the primary location for the events of Prey (2017).

Overview[edit | edit source]

Talos I is composed of different sections which were built over the years since the Kletka Program in the 60s. They differ in both design and utility, being used for research, production, logistics or crew services. Retrofuturism and Art Deco are the most prominent style of decor on the station. Tape reel computers and similar outdated technology is still located in the station but they have since been refurbished to fit modern standards or have been cleaned up to act as decoration.

The station itself was anchored around the Kletka Containment Unit, before being expanded first vertically and then horizontally with modular decks. In its final form, Talos I is composed of three levels, each with an Escape Pod Bay and with a deck or sector connected to a lift in parallel to an utility system. The station is overall composed of:

Executive:
- Arboretum (Sector ARB000): Botanical and experimental gardens, hub to the Executive decks and connected to the main lift. Contains an airlock.
- Crew Quarters (Sector ARB01): Living quarters for the station's crew, complete with recreation services.
- Deep Storage (Sector ARB02): Data processing hub, where all information created on Talos 1 is stored.
- Talos I Bridge (Sector ARB03): Station control and dispatch center.
Research:
- Talos I Lobby (Sector LOB000): The Station's main lobby containing the administrative offices and Trauma Center, connected to the main lift.
- Shuttle Bay (Sector LOB01): Spaceport for landing and departure of commercial spaceships. Contains an airlock.
- Neuromod Division (Sector LOB02): Laboratory for the research and development of Neuromods, also housing the Volunteer Quarters.
- Hardware Labs (Sector LOB02): Research and development facility for hardware and weapon systems. Contains an airlock in the machine shop.
- Psychotronics (Sector LOB03): Research laboratory and containment unit for the Typhon, built around the original Kletka Containment Unit. Contains an airlock.
Engineering:
- Life Support (Sector LIF000): Air and water filtration facilities. The water treatment plant also serves as an eel farm, connected to the main lift.
- Cargo Bay (Sector LIF01): Shipment processing. Contains exterior access.
- Power Plant (Sector LIF02): Station's power source, houses the nuclear reactor. Contains an airlock.
Transverse
- G.U.T.S.: The zero Gravity Utility Tunnel System connects the Cargo Bay, Shuttle Bay, Psychotronics and Arboretum, used to control utility systems throughout the station and process shipments. Also contains the Magnetosphere generator, which shields the station from solar radiation.
- Talos I Exterior: Six rings of solar panels gravitate around the station, powered by the Magnetosphere. The exterior can be reached from one of five airlocks throughout Talos I, as well as through the Cargo Bay's loading doors.

History[edit | edit source]

Early History[edit | edit source]

In 1958, the Soviet Union launched the Vorona-1 Satellite, which entered orbit at LaGrange Point-Two between the Earth and the Moon. Following a communications failure from the satellite, the heads of the Soviet space program sent several cosmonauts to investigate. There, they encountered hostile non-terrestrial life forms which proceeded to kill the cosmonauts. The Vorona 1 was scuttled, and the footage of the incident was labeled a state secret and buried.

In 1963, Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announced a program of cooperation with American President John F. Kennedy to contain the non-terrestrials, which were labeled Typhon. This resulted in the Kletka Program, which saw the United States and the Soviet Union build a space station around the Typhon organisms in order to research and contain them. However, a failed assassination attempt in Dallas, Texas would convince Kennedy to take over the Kletka program, cutting out the Soviets. In the decades that followed, the Americans would expand the station as a research and development facility, in order to gain insight into the Typhon organisms. Much of this was undertaken as part of Project Axiom, and the United States maintained the space station until the disastrous Pobeg Incident of 1980, when several Typhon breached containment and killed a research team. The fallout from this tragedy, coupled with further budget cuts to the US space program under the Reagan administration, saw the station go abandoned.

TranStar[edit | edit source]

In 2030, the TranStar Corporation managed to assume ownership of the derelict space station, and began converting it into a high-end information technology and research and development facility, rechristened as Talos I. While ostensibly a corporate center and laboratory, the true mission of TranStar was to resume research on the Typhon organisms in order to create various psychotronic devices, including Typhon Neuromods, specialized optogenetic neural modifications that allow humans to possess and use physics-defying abilities like the aliens themselves. Despite the dangers associated with research into the Typhon organisms, TranStar continued its highly unethical research on the organisms, using human test subjects via their Psychotronics Division--in an effort to make a profit off the Neuromods, and at the same time, "redefine what it means to be human."

Trivia[edit | edit source]

In Greek mythology, Talos was a giant automaton made of bronze to protect Europa in Crete from pirates and invaders.
According to Beyond the Stars, an Unofficial TranStar History, Talos I's non-centripetal artificial gravity is based on technological breakthroughs that are only possible due to Reyes' Field Theory. The GUTS and the original Typhon containment chamber in Psychotronics are left in microgravity. It seems that hull breaches somehow lead to local losses of artifical gravity.