First Contact (Single Crisis)

It has been fifteen years since humanity crossed a final frontier and planted its flag on Mars in 2035. What began as a unified scientific mission has since unraveled into a patchwork of competing interests with nations vying for dominance, corporations carving out territory, and settlers demanding autonomy. The Martian colony, once a symbol of global cooperation, now teeters on the edge of fragmentation, as regular commercial interplanetary transport blurs the line between Earth’s influence and Mars’ independence.

Then, the signal arrives.

Intercepted by a Martian deep-space array, the transmission is unmistakably not of human origin. Encoded in 55 languages eerily familiar as the very ones launched aboard Voyager 1 and 2 decades ago, the message is chilling in its simplicity: “Welcome to the Community. Beware of your neighbours.”

The world and beyond erupts into chaos. Who sent the message? What is the "Community"? And more alarmingly, who are the "neighbours"? Questions spiral faster than answers can form. As panic and speculation grow, the United Nations convenes an emergency summit of the Security Council, joined by leading scientists, private space agencies, Martian politicians, and corporate stakeholders. The stakes have never been higher. Some urge caution and diplomacy, others demand military readiness. Some call for transparency, others for secrecy and control.

In a time of fractured alliances and privatized space power, can humanity present a unified front? or will old divisions doom it before First Contact even begins? The committee begins at the moment the message is decrypted. What happens next is up to those in the room. This committee will consist of one room.