Pale Cocoon

In the distant future, humanity is nearing its end. Only a few people remain, and the survivors barely remember the history of life on Earth. The planet has been so exhausted and devastated that it is no longer fit for ordinary human life, and the remaining people live inside vast steel structures connected by long, narrow, dark corridors, where life-support systems are constantly at work.

Only in the archives can any record be found of what Earth was once like, when beautiful plants grew and wondrous animals lived on it. With each passing day people lose hope for a brighter future; they are so broken that they no longer even visit the archive rooms to look at images of the past. The protagonist, Ura, works in one of these archives, in the Archive Excavation Department, which restores and analyzes the data left behind. He is assigned to sort through a portion of binary data that has not yet been through the restoration process. Within it he may find the key to a mystery, and perhaps an answer to the many questions the survivors have about the world they live in. One day, he uncovers a disturbing visual record.