ALONELESS

A researcher on return from a mission enters cryosleep for what they think is a few years. Thousands of years later, their ship has crash-landed back on Earth, and as they awake they find that Earth has drastically changed. The atmosphere is considerably thinner, much of the land is dark, rocky, and barren, and the sky is lit only by star light, the wrecks of millennia old ancient space stations and ships glittering high above in orbit. Strange new life inhabits this world, but it is scarce, and terrified by the presence of the researcher and their only companion. A drone incapable of any form of independent thought, entirely remote controlled with a basic AI who's only purpose is to keep the drone following the researcher or to keep it from being destroyed by environmental hazards. Feelings of anxiety, dread, and existentialism do not touch the mind of this lone being, their first priority being confirming that this world is in fact Earth. Their second priority is to prepare for the long-term. Find ways to get food, water, and shelter. Once both are done, then they begin to learn of just how long it has been. Ruins are rare, and few offer up any information about what happened. Getting information from the orbiting space junk may be possible with a strong enough radio transmitter and receiver, assuming there are any stations or ships with still functioning or active coms systems. Soon, as bits and pieces reveal themselves, the truth of it sets in. Earth has been abandoned for a long time. The researcher is the first human to set foot on Earth in over a thousand years. They are beyond alone, out of reach from anybody, anything.

All credit for the amazing cartage art belongs to the fallowing:

•  https://www.instagram.com/tekman128/
•  https://twitter.com/TekMan128