Solens Badlands, Pencil Sector EL-Y d5 A 5 - 3306-06-11 21:17 Galactic Standard Time
George Smith quickly turned off all non essential systems in his Magnus Transporting Longhaul truck starting with the headlights and interior cabin lights. In the distance he could see the pale blue lights floating in the dark. They weren't coming directly towards him, but the were heading in his general direction. His heart hammered in his chest. He hoped whatever was generating the strange blue glow would not notice his truck parked beside the wreckage of Yoonie's. He hoped that they would pass him by. He lost sight of the lights. All was quiet, apart from the rhythmic beeping from the autodoc that he had hooked up to Yoonie in the sleeping berth at the back of the truck cabin. For twenty minutes George sat quietly staring into the into the dark, barely daring to breath. He was starting to think that he should just start driving when he heard a droning noise nearby, getting closer. The rocks in front of the truck reflected a pale blue glow: whatever they were, they were behind his truck. George was paralysed with fear and he wracked his brain for something to do. Perhaps he could try the pulse laser turret on the roof of the truck, but he didn't know how to activate it. Maybe he could try and outrun them in the truck, but given what had happened to Yoonie's truck he didn't believe he stood much chance doing that. As he panicked, the droning noise got louder and the reflected glow got brighter. The glow moved left rapidly and then, to George's alarm, a large angular drone lowered itself from above and hovered right in front of the truck's windscreen. It oriented its self so that the glowing blue slit, in the center of its triangular shaped body was oriented directly towards George. George pressed back into the seat in terror and opened his mouth in a silent scream. The drone emitted a loud thrumming noise and the light from its "eye" increased in intensity. The light and sound overwhelmed George.
George's awareness of his surroundings dropped away. Replacing it were a series of rapidly changing images and sounds: schematics for alien machinery, strange music with a nine note scale, strange artifacts made of glowing blue crystal and etched with triangular patterns. He saw huge triangular shaped ships scoop plasma from the surface of stars. He saw colossal trident shaped battle cruisers firing beams of blue light at ships that looked like eight petalled flowers, the beams slicing petals off in seconds. He saw the same battle cruisers rain fire down on cities whose towers were triangular prisms reaching for the sky: the beams caused similar destruction to those. Image after image. Then the images stopped and all was dark. George felt his mind's eye fly upwards through the ceiling of the cavern out of the atmosphere and into space. His view twisted to face the nearby nebula and rotated again to face the core of the galaxy, the bright band of the Milky Way. Then his point of view surged forward at impossible speed, stars zipping past him all around. A purple and orange nebula appeared, with a crimson nebula above and beyond it. He viewpoint plunged into the nebula and stopped abruptly facing a bright white star. It panned around and George saw a fiery red dwarf. The viewpoint flew off again, towards a dim brown dwarf star in the same system. Around it a planet orbited. The vision ended and George's awareness of the truck cabin returned, full of noise and blue light. The noise stopped and the blue light dimmed. George saw the drone retreat just before he passed out.
Solens Badlands, Pencil Sector EL-Y d5 A 5 - 3306-06-12 01:11 Galactic Standard Time
Park Yoon Guo woke slowly. He ached all over. His torso felt constricted and his arms were heavy. In the dim light from dashboard indicator lights, he could make out the quilting half a meter above his head. He was in a sleeping berth. He looked around sleepily and he recognized the interior of a longhaul truck. How did he get here. The attack! The drones! The surge of adrenaline snapped him fully awake and he tried to sit up, but couldn't. A beeping noise came from his where his left arms was. He lifted his head and looked down the length of his body. He was strapped in to the cot. It wasn't very tight, but it held him securely and he wasn't able to move much. With a bit of wriggling he managed to loosen the restraints enough to get his left arm out. His right arm didn't want move at all and ached. Now his left arm was free he could see an autodoc strapped to his forearm. No red indicators, which was good, but a few orange ones, which wasn't great. Though, thinking about the hammering his truck had taken, and how he was tossed about as it tumbled, he thanked Randomius for his good luck. Then he realized that this wasn't he truck. It must be George's. But where was George. Concern flooded his body with more adrenaline. He fumbled with the restraining straps around his torso and once he had opened those, he sat up and opened the ones across his legs. He noticed the cast on his torso and right arm: he must have been pretty bashed up. At least his legs seemed fine. He swung them out of the little bed and stood up, his ribs complaining the whole time. He walked to the front of the cabin to find George slumped in the driver seat. A thin trail of blood ran from his nose and his eyeballs twitched beneath his eyelids like he was having a vivid dream. Gingerly, Yoon Guo transferred George to the passenger seat and strapped him in. Then he went and got the other autodoc and strapped it to George's left arm.
"Okay grandfather!", Yoon Guo said to the unconscious George while strapping himself into the driver seat. "You came to save me, now it is time for me to get us home!"
The Prospect, Synuefe EN-H d11-96 - 3306-06-22 13:01 Galactic Standard Time
Sebastian Cummings sat in a small cabin aboard The Prospect outpost. He had arrived that morning and had a few days to kill here while he awaited The Conduit megaship which would take him to Zende and the The Bubble. There wasn't much to do on the station so he planned on catching up on some reading and relaxing a bit. He had resigned his position at New Growth after the incident in the Solens Badlands. Though the initial inquiry was supposed to be secret for now, enough of it had leaked that the maintenance crews had heard that he had ordered George Smith to ignore an emergency call. He thought it best to leave before one of those knuckle draggers clobbered him with a wrench. On the plus side, since the report was supposed to be secret he could use his access to it for his own advantage. He'd made copies, which he intended to sell.
The terminal chimed on the tiny desk that his cabin contained. He swung his legs off his narrow bed, engaged his mag boots, and took the two steps necessary to reach the desk. It was a video call: a potential client. Sebastian sat down and accepted the call. An image appeared of a smiling man in his early thirties, wearing a fashionable business suit. The background was a nondescript plain grey wall. It could have been the cabin next door to his, for all Sebastian knew.
"Mr. Cummings, my associates are most interested in the data package in your possession and have agreed to your price with a very generous bonus should you agree to an time limited exclusive deal."
"That would depend on how generous the bonus is, Mr. ... ?", Sebastian replied.
"Mr. Morden. This is what my associates had in mind. They are most eager to have an access to the data for at least four weeks before Starstone Industries."
A link to an escrow account with the Bank of Zaonce appeared as an attachment to the call. Sebastian opened it. His eyes widened. It was indeed generous.
"I think that would be acceptable, Mr. Morden. I'll transmit the data to you now."
Sebastian retrieved a mini data drive from his pocket and plugged it in to the terminal. He uploaded the incident report as an attachment to the call.
"What is the current state of the site where the incident occurred?", asked Mr. Morden, while the data uploaded.
"Sadly, the cavern system collapsed shortly after the maintenance crew left it, so their account of the structures they found couldn't be verified. The cause of the collapse was unknown, though the geology of that area has always been a mystery. Some of the geotechs theorized that the area was unstable and having two large vehicles driving around it may have precipitated the entire collapse."
"And access to the site?"
"Sealed off. Skimmer drones have been deployed while access to the area is negotiated with the engineer, Ram Tah."
"Interesting. Regarding the maintenance crew involved in the incident, what is their medical status?"
"Park Yoon Guo suffered some broken ribs, a broken arm, bruising, and a concussion. George Smith appeared to have suffered a mild, but prolonged, epileptic seizure and a mild stroke. Both men appear to have recovered well. George has some residual damage in the corpus callosum region of his brain, but suffers no functional impairment. There were some residual nanomeds in his from a treatment he had received a few months ago and the medtechs are unsure whether those nanomeds acted as a cause of or a mitigation for the stroke. Some theorize that it was both. The details are in the incident report, appendix 7."
"I see, thank you. And their plans? Will they two men be returning to work at Kaplan's Landing?"
"Park Yoon Guo will be, after two weeks more rest. George Smith has decided to explore other opportunities. I have heard that he has signed on as crew aboard the newly commissioned fleet carrier, DSSA Buurian Anchorage."
"Thank you, Mr. Cummings. This has been most helpful. The funds should have transferred now."
The terminal chimed and Sebastian saw a message confirming the transfer.
"Should you come across any similar information in the future, do not hesitate to contact us. My associates would be most grateful. It has been a pleasure doing business with you, Mr Cummings.", Mr. Morden continued.
"Likewise, Mr. Morden!", Sebastian replied with a broad smile.