Promenade

The private enterprises based on the station are located here; some system-wide food marts, some local owned cafes and restaurants, a clothes chain selling whatever was fresh on Earth eight months ago, a casino to lose your pay in, an arcade for the child at heart, not just one or two but three bars you can strike out in, some dispensaries selling vapes, electronics repair, hair salon, an adults only store, and some empty lots for travelling businesses coming and going, but mostly uninteresting stuff like branch offices for mining corps, cargo freight logistics, chapels and temples for various religions, and light military administration. It sounds like a lot, but it's all brilliantly compact without bringing attention to the fact it's compact- it takes less than a fifthteenth of the station's space. The shops line a long curved stretch of the station on both sides, stacked on top of each other on two levels, with two lanes in-between for walking, the paths separated from each other by planters, benches, empty stalls and advertising screens (which are all oddly smashed in).

{if switch = true}Everything is brightly lit, from the shop windows to the sconces to the large overhead windows that now simulate a nice cloudless Earth day. Soft musical jingles echo in the empty promenade from tinny speakers, indispersed with pre-recorded messages from happy sounding corp-drones shilling their corporate overlord's products and services. Pressing that switch in the bowels of maintenance probably brought this all to life... though it's still odd and unsettling seeing all this without a single person present. A cleaning droid, scuttling low to the ground, makes you jump as it brushes up against your leg. At least with them around you won't feel as alone.

Now that the promenade is powered most of the shops are accessable.{else}But it's all dark and lifeless compared to normal days. Most shops are shuttered or empty. Some shop displays have small lights on, but the majority do not, casting odd unsettling shadows all over the place. The large overhead windows, normally on to simulate daylight, are off in their transparent mode, letting in the starlight. It's as though the place has been abandoned... but that couldn't possibly be the case, right?

If there was some way to bring back the power to the promenade it might allow you to access to the shops here. There might be something useful in one of them.{endif}{if timer = 10}

You feel a chill run up your spine as you hear heavy clanging coming from down the corridor- YOU ARE BEING HUNTED!{endif}