Talos I

Talos I station.

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

– Talos I Poster

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

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 Tape reel computers and similar outdated technology is still located in the station but they have since been refurbished to fit modern standards or have been cleaned up to act as decoration.

Talos I is located at the Earth-Moon L2 Lagrange point: as such it doesn't orbit around the Moon but is tidally locked at a gravity balance point on the far side of the Moon from Earth. The station frequently has to make minor adjustments to stabilize its orbit.

Sectors

The station itself was anchored around the Kletka Containment Unit, before being expanded first vertically and then horizontally with modular units. In its final form, Talos I is much taller than it is wide, like a skyscraper in space - but with a few more horizontal units added at the middle giving it a small cross shape. The entire station is broadly divided into three main sections extending vertically: the central and horizontally broadest is the Research section, with the Engineering section tapering below it and the Executive section above it. Each of the three main segments has an Escape Pod Bay.

The three main segments are interlinked through either the main lift or the utility system, then branch out into several sub-sections ("sectors"). The main lift does not stop at every sub-sector, but only has one stop in each of the three main sections (which serve as the main hub for each): the Talos I Lobby for Research, the Arboretum for Executive, and Life Support for Engineering. The low-G utility tunnels also snake through several sectors across all three main segments, though they are mostly used by robotic Operators.

• 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.
  • Psychotronics (Sector LOB03): Research laboratory and containment unit for the Typhon, built around the original Kletka Containment Unit. Contains an airlock.
  • Hardware Labs (Sector LOB04): Research and development facility for hardware and weapon systems. Contains an airlock in the machine shop.
• 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. The Typhon outbreak trips security protocols which shut down external access to the airlocks (to prevent the player from skipping ahead): once they are manually opened from the inside, each airlock can be re-entered from the exterior (in any order).

Overall, there are three possible ways to move between the three decks: the main elevator, the zero-G utility tunnel, or EVA through an airlock (including the cargo bay doors). Only the Arboretum, hub for the Executive deck, has access to all three methods of transit. The other two elevator stops have no airlocks or utility tunnel access. All four stops on the utility tunnel also have exterior access (Cargo Bay, Psychotronics, Shuttle Bay, Arboretum). The only sectors which don't have access to any of these three fast travel methods between decks are particularly sensitive ones: the Neuromods division on the Research deck, and then all sectors on the Executive deck other than the Arboretum (Crew Quarters, Deep Storage, and the Bridge). It is of course possible to use exterior travel to reach damaged portions of other sectors which have been left open to vacuum.

History

Early History

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. Research in the 1960s and 1970s made many attempts to establish communication with the Typhon, but this proved impossible. 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

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."

By 2035, Talos I's official crew compliment included almost 300 full-time employees - though this number did not include "volunteers" used as human test subjects.

Trivia

• 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 G.U.T.S. and the original Typhon containment chamber in Psychotronics are left in microgravity. It seems that hull breaches somehow lead to local losses of artificial gravity.

Gallery

Outside the station

View from inside the station.

Ditto.

Another shot of outside.

Lower TranScribe Map.

Upper TranScribe Map.

Talos I Logo.

Concept art.

Outside the station concept art.

Concept art of a Talos I desk clock.

ditto.

Concept art for a booth on board Talos I.

White board concept art.

Concept art for the water coolers found on the station.

Water fountain concept art.

Sections

Hardware Labs.

Hardware Labs Terminal.

Crew quarters pool concept art.

Lobby.

Lobby to shuttle bay.

Crew quarters theater.

Theater lobby.

Command Deck.

Arboretum.

Airlock.

Lobby concept art.

Promotional

Talos I space station model on E3 2016 showroom.

Talos I compared to other landmarks.