>>> EMRGNCY BRDCST ::: LEVIATHAN ::: MANL-RLSE EPIRB <<<
>>> 2416.08.11 12:40:21 41.96.2158 / 89.77.4712 / 112.06.8490 <<<
>>> MSG BGN :::
This is Captain Varro of the Leviathan, deep core asteroid miner.
Broadcasting RED FLAG EVAC WARNING to all vessels in system.
If you’re reading this, it means we’re already dead. If we’re lucky, so are they.
I’m going to tell you everything I can in what little time we have left. There’s another ship out here in the fields and it sure as shit isn’t one of ours.
About 13 hours ago, we were jet canning for the hauler belt sweep. I hadn’t gotten a ping from the Dauntless in 11 hours, but Chako is fucking Chako. Par for the course. Until we picked up his EPIRB. Coordinates only. No comms. Storm of EM interference in the vicinity. Fuck me.
Zeroed the distance in three hours at full burn to find no sign of them. No signals. Nothing. Sensors said their core was dark. Impossible, right? That’s what I thought. These rigs are fucking tanks. Eat asteroids for breakfast. But kept searching.
Found debris an hour later. The Dauntless was ripped apart, a cloud of guts drifting. The hull was cut open and peeled back. No heat signatures, organic or otherwise. Made no sense.
Suited up for S&R and went in… The rig was practically inside out. All the wires and hardware had been ripped apart. Took the copper. Left the polysteel skeleton. I got no explanation.
No one left alive. Bodies drifting. Bloody ice crystals. Whatever happened must’ve happened fast. None of them had time to suit. Barely even recognized Chako. Half his face gone, chest caved in. Enough to make some of the guys puke in their fishbowls.
No asteroids could do this. Not even a freak hard pincer. Was all too precise, like the thing had been ripped for parts. There were black streaks through the rig, looked like scorch marks but not. They were something else. If we shined lights on them, they ate the energy. Consumed it. Could literally watch the batteries in our suits tick down. Fuck no. We evaced.
Kasong was convinced it was some Corp testing black tech on expendable miners. Obscure system. No gov patrols. Jazz didn’t buy it. Corps could just buy junkers for dirt and trash them. Same result, no heat. My mind went to shredders, but this is way too far out for their cheap asses. And Chako would have wasted them. Debate didn’t matter to the rest of the boys. They just wanted the fuck out of that tomb. So did I.
Didn’t make it far before interference killed our comms. Hit like a rolling wave out of nowhere, and not your standard LOS blackout. Suits started skitzing. Comps freezing and rebooting. Dysker was at the back of the column… And then he was gone. We tried to search, but we were deaf and blind. No signals. No eyes. Think his thrusters fired, god help him. Didn’t want to lose anyone else so we pulled back to the Leviathan.
Jazz had isolated the point source by the time we cleared the lock. It was maneuvering. Something was out there. The something that had wasted the Dauntless. And it was headed our way.
Dropped us into a crevasse, grinding metal. Lit up the laser relays on a couple ROVs and took them out dark, just cameras and thrusters. Spent the next hour zigzagging, trying to see it. Christ, we were whispering as if it could hear us through the vac.
By then we were all thinking it. We knew what it was. But who would believe a bunch of miners. I just hoped to god we were wrong.
Then there it was.
Looked more like a black hole than a ship, absorbing light and heat. Could just make out its silhouette with gain cranked to max. The fucker’s big. Easily four times our rig. It created its own void in the middle of the fields. Moving over asteroids more like an explorer than a war ship. Maybe mining minerals too? Who the fuck knows.
No humans built this thing. Not even close. Not even if all the geniuses put their eggheads together.
Call this first contact if you want. But they sure as hell weren’t trying to talk. Always imagined what that moment would be like. Never like this.
If we weren’t all so goddamn terrified, I might’ve been smarter. But fucking idiots we are we pulled back the ROVs instead of just shutting them down. It saw one. Ripped it to pieces in seconds. Saw the next one and shredded it too.
We cut the relay and ran like hell. Radar was useless in all the interference. Flying by eye through the field wasn’t pretty. Took some hard hits. Couldn’t tell where the ship was, if we’d lost it or if it was right behind us. Too dark to see much of anything. Everyone was looking for it out the windows. All this tech and we’re looking out fucking windows. Hit some serious density and we were getting our ass kicked. Had to duck into a crater to recal the engines. But the ship was still out there.
Don’t have guns on this tin can, but sure as fuck we’re loaded with thermite. Rigged up a kamikaze ROV and frag bombs with rubble. Then we crept out, making for the top of the plane, hoping to clear the grav wells and jump. No chance. The fucker was on us in minutes. Launched the ROV at it, but its power core was sucked dry before it even got close. The frags were on mech timers, and one of them seemed to connect because the ship peeled off. No illusions, we just surprised it. Now it’s probably really pissed off.
Gave us a chance to hide. Bunkered with minimal life support. No chance of outrunning this thing.
Most of us didn’t believe, but now we’re all praying to every god it loses interest. Comms are useless in this inference. It’s still out there. It knows we are too and it’s coming for us. And we’re just waiting to get ripped apart like Chako and his crew.
Interference is cranking now. It’s fucking close. Won’t be long. Even if you receive soon, do not come for us.
DO NOT COME FOR US.
Won’t stand a chance. Not with every vessel in the Corp. Tell everyone to evac.
The ship’s closing in. We’re out of time. Do me a favor and tell Noa I’m sorry. Had to choose between a love letter to him or a warning to you. But tell him I love him all the same. Shit life being married to a miner. He deserved better.
I can see it out the window. Blotting out the stars. No more tricks up my sleeve.
Just one play left. Gonna let it close, then light up all the thermite in the hold. Because fuck that thing. You come for us, we return the favor. Not going down without a swing.
Uploading to beacon and launching.
See you on the other side…
~ Captain Mira Varro
::: MSG END <<<
>>> EMRGNCY BRDCST ::: LEVIATHAN ::: MANL-RLSE EPIRB <<<
>>> 2416.08.11 12:40:21 41.96.2158 / 89.77.4712 / 112.06.8490 <<<
>>> TRMNTR /// RPT PULS BRST INF <<<
>>> EMRGNCY BRDCST ::: LEVIATHAN ::: MANL-RLSE EPIRB <<<
>>> 2416.08.11 12:40:21 41.96.2158 / 89.77.4712 / 112.06.8490 <<<
>>> MSG BGN :::
This is Captain Varro of the Leviathan, deep core asteroid miner.
Broadcasting RED FLAG EVAC WARNING to all vessels in system.
If you’re reading this, it means we’re already dead. If we’re lucky, so are they.
I’m going to tell you everything I can in what little time we have left. There’s another ship out here in the fields and it sure as shit isn’t one of ours.
About 13 hours ago, we were jet canning for the hauler belt sweep. I hadn’t gotten a ping from the Dauntless in 11 hours, but Chako is fucking Chako. Par for the course. Until we picked up his EPIRB. Coordinates only. No comms. Storm of EM interference in the vicinity. Fuck me.
Zeroed the distance in three hours at full burn to find no sign of them. No signals. Nothing. Sensors said their core was dark. Impossible, right? That’s what I thought. These rigs are fucking tanks. Eat asteroids for breakfast. But kept searching.
Found debris an hour later. The Dauntless was ripped apart, a cloud of guts drifting. The hull was cut open and peeled back. No heat signatures, organic or otherwise. Made no sense.
Suited up for S&R and went in… The rig was practically inside out. All the wires and hardware had been ripped apart. Took the copper. Left the polysteel skeleton. I got no explanation.
No one left alive. Bodies drifting. Bloody ice crystals. Whatever happened must’ve happened fast. None of them had time to suit. Barely even recognized Chako. Half his face gone, chest caved in. Enough to make some of the guys puke in their fishbowls.
No asteroids could do this. Not even a freak hard pincer. Was all too precise, like the thing had been ripped for parts. There were black streaks through the rig, looked like scorch marks but not. They were something else. If we shined lights on them, they ate the energy. Consumed it. Could literally watch the batteries in our suits tick down. Fuck no. We evaced.
Kasong was convinced it was some Corp testing black tech on expendable miners. Obscure system. No gov patrols. Jazz didn’t buy it. Corps could just buy junkers for dirt and trash them. Same result, no heat. My mind went to shredders, but this is way too far out for their cheap asses. And Chako would have wasted them. Debate didn’t matter to the rest of the boys. They just wanted the fuck out of that tomb. So did I.
Didn’t make it far before interference killed our comms. Hit like a rolling wave out of nowhere, and not your standard LOS blackout. Suits started skitzing. Comps freezing and rebooting. Dysker was at the back of the column… And then he was gone. We tried to search, but we were deaf and blind. No signals. No eyes. Think his thrusters fired, god help him. Didn’t want to lose anyone else so we pulled back to the Leviathan.
Jazz had isolated the point source by the time we cleared the lock. It was maneuvering. Something was out there. The something that had wasted the Dauntless. And it was headed our way.
Dropped us into a crevasse, grinding metal. Lit up the laser relays on a couple ROVs and took them out dark, just cameras and thrusters. Spent the next hour zigzagging, trying to see it. Christ, we were whispering as if it could hear us through the vac.
By then we were all thinking it. We knew what it was. But who would believe a bunch of miners. I just hoped to god we were wrong.
Then there it was.
Looked more like a black hole than a ship, absorbing light and heat. Could just make out its silhouette with gain cranked to max. The fucker’s big. Easily four times our rig. It created its own void in the middle of the fields. Moving over asteroids more like an explorer than a war ship. Maybe mining minerals too? Who the fuck knows.
No humans built this thing. Not even close. Not even if all the geniuses put their eggheads together.
Call this first contact if you want. But they sure as hell weren’t trying to talk. Always imagined what that moment would be like. Never like this.
If we weren’t all so goddamn terrified, I might’ve been smarter. But fucking idiots we are we pulled back the ROVs instead of just shutting them down. It saw one. Ripped it to pieces in seconds. Saw the next one and shredded it too.
We cut the relay and ran like hell. Radar was useless in all the interference. Flying by eye through the field wasn’t pretty. Took some hard hits. Couldn’t tell where the ship was, if we’d lost it or if it was right behind us. Too dark to see much of anything. Everyone was looking for it out the windows. All this tech and we’re looking out fucking windows. Hit some serious density and we were getting our ass kicked. Had to duck into a crater to recal the engines. But the ship was still out there.
Don’t have guns on this tin can, but sure as fuck we’re loaded with thermite. Rigged up a kamikaze ROV and frag bombs with rubble. Then we crept out, making for the top of the plane, hoping to clear the grav wells and jump. No chance. The fucker was on us in minutes. Launched the ROV at it, but its power core was sucked dry before it even got close. The frags were on mech timers, and one of them seemed to connect because the ship peeled off. No illusions, we just surprised it. Now it’s probably really pissed off.
Gave us a chance to hide. Bunkered with minimal life support. No chance of outrunning this thing.
Most of us didn’t believe, but now we’re all praying to every god it loses interest. Comms are useless in this inference. It’s still out there. It knows we are too and it’s coming for us. And we’re just waiting to get ripped apart like Chako and his crew.
Interference is cranking now. It’s fucking close. Won’t be long. Even if you receive soon, do not come for us.
DO NOT COME FOR US.
Won’t stand a chance. Not with every vessel in the Corp. Tell everyone to evac.
The ship’s closing in. We’re out of time. Do me a favor and tell Noa I’m sorry. Had to choose between a love letter to him or a warning to you. But tell him I love him all the same. Shit life being married to a miner. He deserved better.
I can see it out the window. Blotting out the stars. No more tricks up my sleeve.
Just one play left. Gonna let it close, then light up all the thermite in the hold. Because fuck that thing. You come for us, we return the favor. Not going down without a swing.
Uploading to beacon and launching.
See you on the other side…
~ Captain Mira Varro
::: MSG END <<<
>>> EMRGNCY BRDCST ::: LEVIATHAN ::: MANL-RLSE EPIRB <<<
>>> 2416.08.11 12:40:21 41.96.2158 / 89.77.4712 / 112.06.8490 <<<
>>> TRMNTR /// RPT PULS BRST INF <<<