Full of hope and promise, in 2076, 2000 hardy pioneers left earth on the Mayflower II bound for Alpha Centauri to establish the first human colony in the galaxy. It was to have been a 47 year voyage.

Something went wrong.

Its now 263 years later. The Mayflower II has been sailing through interstellar space for several centuries in search of a planet to colonize. Its a tribute to earth engineering skills and workmanship that most of the systems onboard the starship still function. At long last the starship has located a suitable planet and according to design, is attempting to slip into orbit about this planet in preparation for the colonization effort. Unfortunately, this is one of the things that isn't working quite right any longer. The Mayflower II is on a collision course with the planet, and accelerating not braking. Emergency planning on earth anticipated a disaster situation like this and the Mayflower was equipped with emergency landing pods. The cryogenically frozen bodies of 200 colonists and scientists were placed into these pods prior to launch. In an emergency, these 200 people are to attempt to establish a human presence on the planet. As mission commander, it is your job to select a landing site and prepare for the orderly awakening and transfer of colonists to the planet's surface. Mission planners anticipated a six months to two years period of analysis from orbit so that you could carefully weigh the pros and cons and select an optimum landing site for the colony. Forget orderly awakenings, and forget about taking your time to select a proper landing site. By the time the ship got around to waking you up, there was less than two minutes left for you to make a decision and launch the emergency pods. Good luck