Episode 1 of Directive 8020, titled Little Star, runs about thirty minutes and works mostly as a calibration chapter. It introduces the Cassiopeia, the four-person night-shift flight crew, the Turning Points system, and the first scripted losses that drive the rest of the season. The branching here is narrow on purpose, but the choices you do make set up Destiny traits and trust signals that pay off much later.
Quick answer: Pass the Disaster QTE to save Simms from falling, survive the Chase as Carter, and authorize or delay the Oracle reboot based on your preferred tone. Both Carter and Simms are scripted to die eventually regardless of skill, but clean play in Little Star preserves their Destinies and seeds later story beats.
Playable characters and setup in Little Star
The episode opens with the night-shift crew of the Cassiopeia, 72 hours from orbital insertion at Tau Ceti f. A meteorite punches through the hull on Deck 2, and the Oracle ship AI locks down the breach zone. You control two characters across the chapter, with the supporting crew waking up toward the end.
| Character | Role | When you control them |
|---|---|---|
| Thomas Carter | Pilot, night shift | Engineering investigation, hull repair, and the Chase sequence |
| Simms | Pilot, night shift | Partner during the breach repair (not directly controlled for long) |
| Brianna Young | Pilot | Wakes up after the breach, assists with engine prep and Mitchell's wake-up |
| Nolan Stafford | Commander | Coordinates over comms once awake |
Turning Point 1: Oracle systems reboot
After Carter and Simms reach the Oracle terminal, the AI requests a full systems reboot to produce an accurate damage report. You can authorize the reboot or delay it so repairs stay the priority. Both options keep the episode on rails, but they shade Carter's early tone and add small dialogue variations.
Authorize the reboot: The Oracle powers down non-essential systems while Carter and Simms continue repairs. Lighting and electronics flicker during the descent into the breached deck.
Delay the reboot: Carter tells the Oracle that the hull breach takes priority. Repairs proceed without the diagnostic refresh, which keeps more systems online during the trip to the airlock.
Neither path saves Simms or Carter long-term. This Turning Point is mostly a character-voice choice that exists so the Story Tree has an early node you can revisit later.
Turning Point 2: Disaster (Simms QTE)
After Carter and Simms patch the external hull and head back toward the airlock, Simms loses her footing on the exterior of the ship. A quick-time event prompts you to grab her tether in time.
Pass the QTE: Carter saves Simms from drifting off. She makes it back inside, which preserves her presence in the chapter's final act and keeps her tied to the scripted Chase. This is the outcome you want if you are aiming for the Save Everyone route, because losing her here closes off later flow-chart nodes that other episodes lean on.
Fail the QTE: Simms is lost outside the ship, which removes her from the Chase setup and changes the framing of her later reappearance. The mimic plot still progresses, but the Story Tree marks the alternate node.
Turning Point 3: Chase (Carter vs. Simms)
Back inside, Simms returns acting wrong. She attacks Carter, who flees through the lower decks while broadcasting an emergency message to wake the rest of the flight crew. The Chase is a sequence of timed inputs and directional dodges rather than a branching dialogue.
Survive the Chase: Carter completes his warning broadcast and reaches a safer section before the scene cuts. This keeps Carter's death scripted for a later episode rather than ending him in Little Star, and it preserves his Destiny line.
Fail the Chase: Carter is caught and killed during the encounter. His warning is cut short, and the rest of the crew learns less about what happened in engineering before the next episode begins. The Story Tree records the early death node.
Carter's Destiny: The Caretaker
Little Star is the only episode where Carter can lock in a Destiny trait. Playing him with concern for Simms, prioritizing her safety during the spacewalk dialogue, and choosing the supportive option when she questions the Oracle pushes him toward The Caretaker. The Destiny does not change his eventual fate, since Carter is one of two characters scripted to die, but the trait does appear on the post-game summary and the Story Tree.
Scripted outcomes you cannot change
Two outcomes are locked in Little Star no matter how you play the Turning Points. Knowing this in advance prevents wasted rewinds on a first run.
| Event | What is fixed | What you can still change |
|---|---|---|
| Hull breach on Deck 2 | The meteorite strike and lockdown always happen at the start | Tone of the Oracle exchange and minor exploration paths |
| Simms is compromised | She returns altered after the spacewalk regardless of the QTE | Whether the Disaster QTE preserves her body for the Chase |
| Carter and Simms long-term fate | Both characters are scripted to die over the course of the season | Which episode their final death lands in, and whether they hit it with a Destiny attached |
| Crew wake-up | Stafford, Young, Eisele, and Cernan all wake before orbit | The order and tone of the first conversations after they wake |
Verifying you finished Little Star cleanly
Open the Turning Points tree at the end of the episode. A clean Save Everyone run through Little Star looks like this: Disaster shows Simms recovered, Chase shows Carter survived, and Carter's Destiny shows The Caretaker. If any of those nodes show the alternate outcome, the easiest fix is to rewind to that specific node rather than restarting the episode.
The episode ends with Stafford taking command of the situation, Young and Eisele beginning engine checks, and the crew preparing for orbital insertion. Anything outside those beats is a sign you missed a branch or failed an input.
Common reasons Little Star goes off-script
- Failing the Disaster QTE drops Simms early and closes the Chase node entirely.
- Skipping the dialogue beats that build Carter's Caretaker trait leaves his Destiny blank in the summary.
- Rushing through the Oracle terminal sometimes hides the reboot choice behind a quick prompt, which gets auto-selected if you do not respond.
- Missing the lockdown override terminal near the breach blocks the path forward and forces a backtrack rather than a death.
Little Star is intentionally restrained, but it is also where the season's pattern is set. Treat it as a training round for prompt timing and Turning Point logging, then carry the same habits into Best Laid Plans, where the consequences start branching in directions you cannot easily walk back.