Asteroid Boom Cosmic Courier

Asteroid Boom: Cosmic Couriers is a chaotic, zero-gravity physics platformer playable solo or in up to 4-player online co-op. As an overworked, heavily indebted subcontractor, you perform high-stakes hazardous labor for ruthless megacorporations under constant orbital threat. "Corporate reminder: 'Zero-G' just means falling towards closest mass from rotating angles." Your primary loop revolves around deploying to massive structures to complete multi-stage objectives—such as delivering antimatter demolition payloads to world-ending asteroids, deflecting derelict space stations via controlled explosions, or entering crumbling installations to extract classified data. Success depends heavily on precise zero-g movement and strategic resource management, requiring your team to actively share limited oxygen, combustible, and power sources. Keep your coworkers alive, fulfill the corporate mandates, and ensure that at least the company representative returns to the rescue ship to secure the payload verification and clear the paperwork. INTERNAL CORPORATE REGISTER – LOGISTICS & RISK ASSESSMENT DOCUMENT ID: COR-E.L.E.-2435-V1 SECURITY CLEARANCE: FOR LOWER-TIER SUBCONTRACTORS ONLY SUBJECT: OPERATIONAL PRELIMINARY MANUAL FOR ARTIFACT DEFLECTION & EXTRACTION PROCEDURES 1. CONTRACT CATEGORIES AND OPERATIONAL MANDATES Although your formal registration is that of galactic couriers, the nature of your deliveries and collections has been retrofitted to the orbital crisis. Crews face a catalog of assignments that first-tier divisions flatly reject due to high lethality rates: High-Yield Delivery ("The Courier Job"): The standard package transport job now consists of the urgent delivery and placement of Antimatter Demolition devices at verified weak points on E.L.E.-class asteroids. A courier service where the package must detonate before the destination makes headlines. "HR Reminder: Observing the blast from outside the escape shuttle voids your accidental death insurance." Classified Asset Recovery: Mandatory extraction of data containers, prototypes, or high-value corporate resources trapped inside vessels or installations on an imminent collision course, atmospheric re-entry, or slated for impending demolition by commercial rivals. The payload must be secured before total structural loss occurs. "Corporate Warning: Underestimating black hole gravity results in instant kinetic redistribution across company infrastructure." Masive Macrostructure Deflection: Docking with and vectoring derelict macrostructures (fallen stations, abandoned freighters) activating old internal power sources or using explosive charges, to alter their course before they impact active corporate infrastructure. "Shift Assignment: Clear a 5km, 120-year-old orbital hazard before lunch time. Overtime is strictly unapproved." 2. GENERAL ORBITAL CONTEXT & COMPLIANCE STATEMENTS As is common public knowledge across all populated sectors, the solar system's entry into the Rogue Asteroid Storm a century ago has permanently altered local orbital mechanics. Extinction-Level Event (E.L.E.) class hazards are no longer treated as unpredictable natural disasters; they are universally recognized corporate variables managed under standard quarterly risk assessments by The Three ruling Galaxy-Grade Corporations. Per the legal mandates established after the Anti-AI Uprising of 2045, the deployment of automated logic networks or autonomous assets remains strictly prohibited. Consequently, all tactical risk mitigation relies entirely on organic human workforces. Under current operational structures, these tasks are assigned to heavily leveraged, low-tier subcontractors. While these small outfits maintain commercial registrations as standard transport services (Cosmic Couriers), flexible assignment clauses mandate that subcontractors fulfill their primary transport duties alongside any general corporate infrastructure labor required to optimize overhead. You are not deployed to act as planetary saviors; your sole obligation is the physical protection of active corporate assets and real-time shareholder value. 3. FIELD LOGISTICS & STANDARD ISSUE HARDWARE Corporate provides a basic hardware ecosystem optimized for minimal survival and forced cooperation. Assignment success depends entirely on the physical distribution of resources among crew members in the vacuum: Tractor Beam Long-range manipulation of space debris, containers, and recovery of drifting coworkers. Kinetic Shields Mitigation of micro-impacts and shrapnel dispersion during preliminary detonations. OxyMixProvider Backpacks Portable life support. Oxygen fuel must be actively shared during extended shifts. Jetpacks & Power Sources Zero-gravity mobility and manual power restoration for unenergized terminals or airlocks. 4. SETTLEMENT POLICY & PERSONNEL REGULATION Corporate encourages the recruitment of lower-tier temporary labor to maximize the profit margins of the primary subcontracted entity. The compensation and incentive structure is governed by the following strict statutes: - Contract Validation: An assignment is considered executed only if the final objective is successfully met. However, to process the transfer of funds to the subcontractor's corporate accounts, it is an absolute requirement that at least the Company Representative returns alive to the rescue ship to validate the ledger. - Multiple Resolution Vectors: Corporate does not audit the how, only the what. Subcontractors maintain full operational discretion to improvise solutions within the environment, provided all quotas are met. - Fund Distribution: The primary contracted entity receives the bulk of the corporate payout. It remains at their sole discretion to award a minor percentage (cut) to the temporary workers of that shift, fostering a circular economy where said employees might, eventually, finance their own subcontracted outfits. 5. ASSUMPTION OF RISK (LEGAL NOTICE) By accepting orbital deployment, the crew acknowledges that evacuation delays following explosive payload arming will result in complete molecular disassembly ("cosmic confetti"). Corporate accepts no liability for the loss of biological material, personal tools, or the compounding of interests on the primary debt in the event of a total squad wipeout.