Lore

Background & Narrative
The events of GTFO are viewed through the Prisoners, a group consisting of four prisoners suspended in Hydro-Stasis Units (HSUs) between missions.

They are routinely deployed into an underground corporate facility known as the Complex. Their missions to date and the information gleaned from their encounters at the facility can be found here.

The Complex
The Complex is owned by Santonian Industries, also known as Santonian Strategic Investments Company (SSIC). Their website can be found here.

It is located where the asteroid "Chicxulub" hit earth 66 million years ago, causing an extinction level event that killed the dinosaurs.

The Complex is a multi-levelled, highly secure mining and research facility that extends far below the surface of the planet. It houses its own large-scale Reactors as a power source.

The facility was at some point abandoned and there now resides a large shaft of unknown origin (severely damaged and ripped metal plates indicates perhaps an explosion) leading from the surface to upper levels of the facility.

Security protocols in the facility, including blast doors and Terminal security access zones, are maintained by an unknown entity referred to as the Warden.

The Warden
Very little is known about the Warden or its motives. The Warden is responsible for deploying the Prisoners into the Complex, as well as issuing the objectives the Prisoners must complete before being allowed to be extracted.

The Warden utilizes Prisoners' built-in Cortex Neural Interface to communicate with them. It allows the Warden to interact with HSUs (Hydro-Stasis Units) to suspend and release the Prisoners from bodily stasis between missions.

The Warden also uses the neural interface to show Prisoners crucial information using a visual-auditory user interface that shows them their current objectives, a digital interactive map of the compound, vital stats, and equipment levels.

The Warden's symbol is displayed on Security Doors, alluding to the fact that the Warden is deeply associated with the Complex's security protocols. However, the requirement that Prisoners stand in particular Security Bio-Scan Zones to advance deeper into the compound indicates that in some capacity the Warden is restricted in its ability to control parts of the facility.

The Warden has demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of software (such as injecting code to override reactor failsafes in Rundown #001 - "Deeper"). This is one of many things that has led many to speculate that the Warden is in fact an artificial intelligence.

So far it seems to be apathetic to the Contamination, or to Sleepers, since it makes no attempt to intervene when Prisoners routinely neutralize them throughout the Complex.

The Contamination
Not much is known about the Contamination. It is not clear if it is sentient, or if its chemical makeup is even biological. It can be seen infesting panels overhead more than once in Rundown #001 - "Don't Look Up".

It is possible that the Contamination was under investigation by the facility as some sort of research program as advanced storage pods containing a substance was shown in images released by the developers.

The fact that it shares aesthetic qualities with Sleepers has lead to intense speculation that the two are related.

Sleepers
The Sleepers are horrifically mutated, light-sensitive humanoids. While lying dormant in the Complex, Sleepers will periodically and noticeably spasm resulting in their senses being temporarily heightened. If too sharp an increase in lumens is detected during a croaking spasm, the Sleeper will awaken. An awakened Sleeper will additionally alert nearby dormant Sleepers to the phenomenon, presumably by emitting a particular wavelength of light (red). This is unconfirmed and it is possible that another, previously undetected method of communication is utilized. An entire alerted group of Sleepers will often proceed as a group to physically attack the source of any disruption. Sleepers are thought by the Prisoners to be able to detect sound. This is supported by the notion that noisy human activity has been known to elicit from them a response.

Human corpses can be found littered throughout the Complex, bodies frozen at the moment of death in the same positions that Sleepers are found in while lying dormant. This indicates that Sleepers are either a progressed form of contaminated humans, or are capable of learning and mimicking human behaviour. The positions human corpses appear in often have the victim burying their face towards the ground and covering their eyes. Coupled with the severe light-sensitivity that progressed Sleepers display and their preferred habitation of dark and foggy areas, this suggests that an early onset symptom of contamination is pain-inducing light-sensitivity. Contaminated humans would then be implied to have been shielding themselves from available light before they died. Those that survived may have evolved over time to the variations of Sleepers we see today.

Alternatively, it has been hypothesized that Sleepers are victims of a parasitic infection. This line of thinking primarily stems from the fact that Sleepers hit with sufficient kinetic force will release biologically comprised pods that expire after a few seconds, reminiscent of the way a parasite expires when it has lost its host.