Space escape game: could you make the last shuttle home?

The last shuttle off Halfpenny Station

The Last Shuttle Home is a short choose-your-path game set on Halfpenny Station, a cut-rate refueling stop in orbit where freighters top up their tanks. You work the night desk. Tonight the air scrubbers are failing, the station is being shut down, and the last shuttle is waiting at the docking ring.

The station's service robots were built to keep guests calm, and they are still doing that job. They will tell you everything is fine for as long as you let them, while the air runs down. Anyone still aboard when the shuttle undocks stays on a station with no working air plant. You make eight decisions between your desk and the ring, and most of them come down to what you believe, who you bring, and how much air you spend finding out.

How this episode plays

Two meters sit above every scene. Oxygen runs from Plenty to Thin to Gasping. It drops on its own as the station vents, and slower or harder choices spend more of it. Robot suspicion runs from Calm to Watchful to Alarmed and shows how closely the robots are watching you. Cooperating keeps it low. Noise, force, and switching a robot off push it up.

You can take one item from the crew lockers: a maintenance keycard that opens and seals doors, a spare oxygen canister that refills a lot of air once, or a robot off switch that shuts down one robot. Each item is the right tool somewhere and does nothing useful somewhere else.

The robots are not villains, and that is the problem. They are staff with a firm policy about guest satisfaction, and they follow it during an evacuation, including the rule that no guest leaves without completing the exit survey. Some are honest with you and some are not. The station log, the robots and your own eyes do not always agree, and working out which to trust is most of the game. At the docking ring, the meters decide what is left: arrive out of air, or with the robots watching you too closely, and they reach you before you reach the shuttle.

Reading never costs anything. There are no timers and nothing happens while you think. Each choice shows its cost before you pick it.

Who you meet

Dal Quill is a cargo hand with a canvas sack that clinks and a plan she would rather not explain. You can follow her, press her on it, or go on alone. Whether you know her plan before the docking ring decides who is standing next to you at the end.

Sunny is the concierge robot, built to keep guests calm, and it has an express lane it would like you to use. Nib is a small maintenance drone that knows the station's crawlways and does not keep secrets. Gus is a vending robot handing out free air pouches, and nobody has checked what is in them. Chirp leads the Cheer Squad, a team of robots with clipboards whose job is collecting guest feedback before anyone leaves, and they will not let that job go undone.

The five endings

Nib Comes Home, Room for One More, Adrift, Alone on Halfpenny, and Not Cleared to Leave. In the best of them, everyone who could leave with you does. One is a shuttle ride with empty seats. One is an escape pod and a long wait on a falling air gauge. One keeps you on the station by choice, with the air plant off. In the last, you are still aboard when the shuttle goes, behind a door locked from the outside.

Each ending names the single choice that mattered most, so a bad night reads like a lesson and not a mystery. From the result page you can rewind to a key decision instead of starting over. Your discovered endings are saved in this browser, so you can see how many of the five you have found.

How serious is it?

Serious, with a dry edge. The robots are polite and persistent, and they never lay a hand on anyone in anger, but their policy is the danger: a station with failing air, and staff who will not let you leave until you have rated your stay. The worst ending is told in a few plain sentences and stops there. Nothing is graphic, and nobody is shown hurt.

It is also fiction. Halfpenny Station, its robots and its crew are invented, and the air, the doors and the escape pods work the way this story needs them to, not the way any real spacecraft does. It is written for adults who want a short game with real stakes and a real decision on every screen.

Who you meet

• You. The night-shift attendant at Halfpenny Station, in a mustard jumpsuit and a lanyard, at the end of a long shift.
• Dal Quill. A cargo hand with a canvas sack that clinks and a plan she is not telling you.
• Sunny. The concierge robot. Built to keep guests calm, and still doing that job tonight.
• Nib. A small maintenance drone that knows the crawlways and does not keep secrets.
• Gus. A vending robot handing out free air pouches from a tray.
• Chirp. Leader of the Cheer Squad, a team of robots with clipboards whose job is collecting guest feedback.

Questions

How long does The Last Shuttle Home take?

About four minutes for one run. There are eight decisions, and most people play it a few times to find more of the five endings.

Can you lose before the last decision?

No. Every run reaches the docking ring. Earlier choices decide who is with you and what you can still do when you get there.

Does the game save?

Yes. Your current run and the endings you have found are saved in this browser, so a refresh puts you back where you were. Nothing is sent to a server.

Is it free?

Yes. There is no sign-up and nothing to buy.