The Search
Humanity is at it's wits end. They've colonized all of the Milky Way, but things are getting crowded with the other galaxies long gone, so a team of scouts are sent out to search for the end of the world, so humanity might begin anew in a new universe. The Crew of the Crow's Murder, as well as many others are sent into the massive black hole at the center of the galaxy to either die noble deaths or find a new home for humanity.
Captain C. Rodgers is a military man that is the heart, soul, and guns of the crew. Unfortunately for him he barely escaped his last battle and is confined to his wheelchair, leading to some calling him a new man, or a shadow of his former self, but no one can deny that his instinct and raw talent for leadership has remained as strong as ever.
First Mate Barny Burkins is the magician and technician. Being incredibly talented and trained on Crescant from a young age in magic and its inner workings, he secured a high position in the fleet and has slowly gotten more and more lucrative yet demanding jobs, leading him to spend less and less time on the things he really enjoys, reflected in his increasing need to have multiple apprentices and protégés, yet focusing on or really helping none of them.
Cook Deisa Ember, while perhaps losing some points with the crew due to her icy temper, can cook a mean nutrition package, and when she isn't yelling at her staff or those that complain about her food, can be surprisingly warm to the people that appreciate all the hard work she puts in. No one says anything about her brother, though. They all learned after what happened to George.
There are some other noteworthy crew members, but those were the ones that stuck out to the management, the ones that'd be a shame to lose, even if for a worthy cause. As the crew hits the final gravitational rush towards the Conquistador, signs their final letters, steels themselves for the possibility of not seeing anything again, they hit... nothing.
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The Battle Royale At The End Of The World
Once the crew takes their tentative first steps outside the airlock, they come upon a lounge with many snacks and comfy couches, much like those in the waiting rooms for Intranational Space Fleet Intraviews. After they settle in and begin watching the Holobelisk in the center of the room, a video comes on of a woman in a jester costume beckoning to the camera.
"Welcome, contestants, to The World's End Tournament! Here you will be battling it out with other scouts from across the timeline for a chance to enter a new world" The crew immediately rush to their ship to prepare, as all of them have either seen or heard of these sick, twisted "Battle Royales" run by corrupt or just plain bad leaders for their own sick entertainment, though who knew one had been set up so close to the Conquistador.
Going back to the ship, they realized it was locked on a track like a subway car. And with no way of escaping, they decided to get back into the ship to prepare for battle. After a short while, the sharp grind of metal on metal jarred their thoughts of who they might be fighting to a halt, as the doors opened up to a similar room as before, but with two large doors replacing one side.
As they open, it reveals another crew of scouts, some looking like their own crew members, all being marked as enemies by the tournament. Fortunately during the skirmish they didn't lose any members, as bloodshed wasn't always a definite with these things and the other side was happy to accept a surrender.
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With the surrender of the crew of the Crow's Murder marking the end of the round, they file back into the ship, sad that they lost, but happy they lost no one. Unfortunately the powers that be wrenched their ship off of the track and into open space, and they saw that a lot of other ships had the same thing happen.
After a few tense minutes, a communication forced its way onto the main display, informing them that "Round one of the tournament was a disaster! You guys need some encouragement, so here, the first one to find and reach the goal will be the winner, and can complete their goal".
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Round 2
Hearing this, some ships boosted their way around the massive space station, searching for whatever the "goal" was, others decided to survey the pace around it, and others still decided to thin the competition out. Fortunately the Crow's Murder was in group 2, and decided to evacuate the area as quickly as possible to try and find either the goal or some other friendly territory.
It took 3 of the 4 escape pods to get all the crew in a good number of people per escape pod, and the fourth one was dedicated to storage of unnecessary equipment and had a single crew member loaded in, a cleaner called George(he wasn't influential enough to have a last name).
After getting all the escape pods out, George was the only one left. He bid the ship goodbye, and climbed into the last escape pod and left the Crow's Murder alone, just lying in space. After a few days of just lying in space, slowly seeing the other ships grow farther and farther away, George decided to activate PermaFrost, a protocol to slow both his and the pod's metabolism and rate of entropy.
After an unknown amount of time, PermaFrost was forcefully disengaged by contact with another Pod. The pods were equipped with short-range communications, but somehow another pod had managed to get within range. An angry captain Rodgers came over the speakers, demanding some supplies to be shared, only to be surprised that he had contacted George's pod, and cutting communications.
Fortunately, even though there was seemingly nothing in sight, George noticed a difference in the colors he saw around him. Instead of pure black, punctuated by specks of bright light, there was a speck of deep forest green, and as the days grew longer and the supplies ever smaller, that speck of green grew into a curtain blocking all view of the space around it. Until one day, Pop! he passed through it, and landed on a wide green plain, with a monolithic hill rising in front of him.
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End of the World
Slowly getting out of the pod, he brought some magical tools with him, as well as some supplies, and started journeying towards the hill, the only landmark in sight. As he slowly climbed up the hill his vision started to swim, then he started to hear bells ringing, then his fingers went tingly, then his tongue caught fire, then he smelled charred Weat™, until finally he reached an outcropping, and sat down for a rest, only to...
Wake up an unknown amount of time later, perfectly fine, only missing some rations. "Hello" a female voice called out from the top of the hill, "Are you of the crew of the Crow's Murder by any chance?" she pronounced with a very clear Angondian accent.
"Uh, y-yes?" George stuttered with his lowly Khardonian one. "Come on up, we've been waiting for you, there's something important you need to do" George obliges, and makes his way up to a small room dug into the side of the hill. In it stands the woman, a man, and further in, a button. "Come in, we've been waiting a long time, you know" they say in unison. George promptly does. "Press it".
"W-why? Can't you?" George manages to ask. "Besides, I can't do something like this without the captain, what does it even do?" he continues. "Something amazing" they say together, "we'll leave you to it." They step outside, leaving George, his gear, and a big red button. He presses it.