A Ship crosses na asteroid field... “Sir, the coordinates given are just 4K away, but the scanner is still blank” the navigator tells its captain. “Check the scanner status again, keep your eyes open for anything different” says the captain as the large ship crosses the field, everything is silent… no radio signals… not a single soul was seen for a long time now, in the ship’s bridge, three men are in their uniforms, a young lad ahead look intently at a screen, the captain, an experienced looking old man, is with his hands on the controls, looking out the window, and the third one, a full grown man who sits way too comfortably on his chair, shaking his feet nervously, he says “Yeah… Anything different… Like a bunch of nomads about to unleash hell on us anytime now”.
The captain glares at him “Got any more complaints for me engineer?” “Sorry cap… just… what are we doing here?” He says as he lowers his feet and stands up. “I have heard of nomads infesting these systems, and we haven’t seen anyone, not even pirates for six hours now” “Stop whining , we have a mission here so I suggest you to sit your ass down” The captain stands up menacingly. “What mission? The IMG has no idea we are here! Damn it no one does!” The engineer starts to shout, and stepping towards the captain. “Scanner checked, systems okay, nothing on sight yet” The navigator tries to evade the discussion but to no use, the captain grabs the engineer by the collar and shouts “I know we are here, and I know what I’m doing so get a freaking grip of yourself and sit in that chair!” He then let him go and lowers his voice “Or I’ll throw you out of this ship myself” as he turns around and starts back to his seat, the engineer says “When we get back I will report you”.
The navigator’s screen starts to beep, and alerts start to show up, “Sir?” He says but the captain already got back to the discussion “Who you think you are to report me?” “You lost your mind going to the middle of nowhere following a random tip!” “Sir?” “We got a mission and we will accomplish it!” “It’s a suicide mission! The company doesn’t know this!" ”Sir?!” The beeps grow louder and monitors around the bridge start to blink and suffer strange image oscillations . “The company knows what it needs to know! You were hired under my command! Pull yourself together!” Suddenly a blast of energy hits the ship shaking it violently, throwing everyone off their feet and all systems go dark, screens turned off, no lights, the ship’s engine shuts down leaving it adrift… “What was that?” said the captain struggling to get on his feet. “I don’t know.. Everything’s gone, no energy, maybe we were struck with some kind of EMP weapon..” said the navigator searching frenetically around the screens and cables for a clue. “No… That’s no weapon… You! Go force start the engine, check the power core to see if it’s still in one piece.” He says to the engineer who looks a lot scared, so scared he’s just standing still there without replying “GO LAD!” Shouts the captain, then he quickly runs through the door... “Sir, prior to… this… the scanner detected an anomaly, unknown origin I’m afraid and invisible somehow...” As the navigator talks the captain go closer to the window “The scanner detected it but not where it was… Never seen something like this… Well… I heard of cloaking devices that…” “We found it” “What?” The navigator looks away from the panels on the wall to the window where just in front of the ship, a large asteroid sits there, with an uncommon white light around it, as the ship drifts close, it is visible some craters in it where the lights emanates from. “Sir, mind if I ask… what was the mission?” the captain without taking his eyes from the asteroid says “Have no idea son… Have no idea…”
The lights of the ship come back on, screens flicker and systems starts coming back online, the comm device chimes “*Core powered back up captain… don’t know what happened… everything was in order*” the engineer talks through. “Send him to the claws, we need to attach ourselves into that asteroid, and see what’s inside it” order the captains, the navigator quickly responds the message and the engineer goes to his position, the captain maneuvers the ship next to the bright asteroid, and the claws of the DU5-7Y Hegemon miner ship ‘hugs’ the asteroid locking it in position, and the glow on the rock disappears.
The engineer talks through the comm “*I have a bad feeling about this…*” as the captain points all the mining arrays to the same point, for a moment he closes his eyes and goes back to his memories… he mutters to himself “Debt…” then starts carefully breaking it apart, piece by piece. “Captain, there’s something emitting a signal from within it…” the navigator says “There… it’s a…” as one piece of the rock is blasted away it reveals inside, “Escape pod… but how? Inside an asteroid?”. “Check for vital signs inside” says the captain. “There’s someone inside, very low rate heartbeat, definitely on hypersleep…” “Bring him in” As he clears the rocks around it, the escape pod is unstuck and is successfully tracked inside the cargo bay, “Navigator, set course to Liberty, get us out of here, while I check on our visitor” he then leaves the ship bridge.
In the cargo bay the engineer is already there checking the pod as the captain arrives “Captain, this thing is broken, the date is wrong, don’t know how this dude is alive inside there, probably got hit by the asteroid and somehow got stuck inside of it… Still weird”
The captain come to see the pod through the glass as it becomes more visible inside, there is a young man inside it, with an uniform… and some stuff, he realizes the engineer needs to leave the area now “There’s no identification as well… Maybe if we open it we can…” “Mining emitters three and five were off, I need you to check on them, we will go back to Dublin soon and need them in one piece” Interrupts. “But…” “Now!” The engineer leaves reluctantly and clearly unsatisfied.
The captain then reaches out for the panel beside it, there’s a security code request to open the pod, he types in a few keys and the screen in the panel beeps and ‘CODE ACCEPTED’ Appears on it, the glass door unlocks, and smoke comes out of it, the captain closes in to see better inside now, the man looks young, on his early twenties, black short hair, and about 1,80m tall, there’s some objects inside the pod with him as well, the captain looks around one more time to see if no one is watching, and reaches a hand inside, suddenly the man wakes up and grabs the captain hand, instinctively punching him in the face with the other hand, as the captain staggers back, the man jumps off the pod and starts to look around “IT’S... NOT… THERE!” at the same time he starts to become dizzy and unable to concentrate, his mind is clouded, and in a few seconds he collapses, unconscious…
Later…
The man starts to wake up… His eyes feel like they are burning when he tries to open them, has a horrible headache, he can feel an oxygen mask in his face, and multiple spots on both his arms with cold suction cups, he’s laying down in a confortable bed, as his mind starts to come back, he hears beeps and noises from medical machines around, and feels he’s not alone in the room, he’s so weak he can’t move a finger, without opening his eyes he says, “Where… Where am I?”
The captain who’s sitting next to him reading a data pad answers “You my good sir, are on the medical bay area, inside the ‘Mithral’ Advanced Mining Transport in service of the Independent Miners Guild” he stands up and looks at the man with a smile “Welcome aboard”.
There is a feeling... of emptiness, that surrounds my soul...
My consciousness comes back to me... "AHHHHH!"
I scream suddenly, then notice i didn't emit a sound... like a scream inside my head... What... Where am I?...
I talk but there's nothing around me, just a black void... Somehow I start to breathe heavily... "I'm dead?!"
No response, not even my own echo, it's so dark I can't see my arms and legs, yet I feel they are there. The complete and absolute silence torture my senses...
I start to hyperventilate... "*gasps* Ahhh... Ahhh... What... The... *gasps*"
I feel like I'm moving extremely fast, I cannot describe exactly how but the black void around me seems to blur, in panic I close my eyes and wish I'm somewhere else...
Suddenly, I stop...
I feel heat around me, and I feel cold metal on my hands, I open my eyes and see that I'm on my knees, and everything around me is on fire...
I look forward and I see something... or someone... a human silhouette, on the end of what looks like a corridor of fire,
I hear it say something with a deep voice that sounds distorced... "You... Must.. Remember..."
Trying to get a grip of myself I get up on my feet to get a better look at this man, when I'm about to call out a enormous light surges from above, in a brief second I look at the source and see it... it's an enormous battleship... and the light is a mortar coming straight here, I realize I'm standing on top of another large spaceship that's burning up from inside, I'm in space yet breathing without a helmet... Scared like I've never been before... the mortar is about to hit where the talking figure is, and I'm launched into a black void again... "What the hell is this? Enough!"
...
...
Silence...
...
...
But then I hear a faint sound in the distance, It's like a whisper... A young woman voice... "Hello?!"
I try hard to make out what she's saying but I can't, it's like the same voice but saying lots of things at once...
I feel myself launched again...
And I see various scenes just for a second each.
...
A empty room with lone chair in the middle...
An enormous unidentified Battleship...
A space station in a blue gas cloud...
A metal corridor, screams in the background...
A junkyard...
A big miner ship in a dark asteroid field...
A blasted moon...
The inside of a escape pod...
A Bomber crashing in the side of a capital ship...
Weird blue ships in the darkness...
A Large Transport somewhere...
A ship... with a partial name engraved in the side *N*L*SS...
A large Carrier-like ship exploding from within...
Then the images flash faster and are incomprehensible...
...
Feel Pain...
I close my eyes...
My mind seems to be slipping off me... I don't know what is happening... i feel dizzy then i see... The silhouette of a woman in front of me, everything is dark, I can't even see her face, she whispers...
... "Come back to me"
...
And she disappears...
...
...
...
I hear...
beeps...
My eyes feels like they are burning... my head hurts... there is a mask on my face and I can breathe... I open my eyes just a little bit... and I see myself on a bed... someone is beside me... I'm too weak to actually move... So I ask “Where… Where am I?”
The man answers “You my good sir, are on the medical bay area, inside the ‘Mithral’ Advanced Mining Transport in service of the Independent Miners Guild... Welcome aboard”.
As my eyes adjust to the light I see the man that is talking, he's old, got a beard, and a blue uniform with the letters IMG on it...
I try to stand up but he holds me down. "Easy now lad... you suffered quite a hit in the head when you feel down... you need to rest... we'll talk soon enough, i bet you have lots of questions" "Questions... I... Don't remember..." "Hey... easy now... rest and we'll talk" he starts to leave the room, as he reaches the door he looks back with a troubled look... the recomposes himself and smiles "If you need anything, theres a communicator on your left... I'm Captain Falkner by the way..." he leaves. "'Falkner... and... who am I?"