Contents
1.5 LIGHT
Overview
Ste Etienne notices a tool-like limb in Drone 48’s footage, hinting the Shroud fauna may interface with human tech, but she and Juna suppress the idea. Then a misrouted ore shipment strikes the orbital scaffold, triggering catastrophic vibrations and a tank explosion that destroys the SP module. Skien and Rastomaier die, and Juna and Ste Etienne’s pods are blasted free, plunging toward Shroud.
Summary
Ste Etienne obsessively replays Drone 48’s last footage of the shifting, plate-armored Shroud creatures while the team finishes printing and fitting flexible glass-foam shells for the manned descent pods. Under pressure from Opportunities, Sharles Advent, and Umbar, they prioritize speed over redundancy as testing proceeds.
Ste Etienne calls Juna to examine the footage: one creature’s limb tip appears shaped like a deconstructor tool head that would fit the drone’s fastenings. Both, unsettled, dismiss it as an image-enhancement artefact to avoid the larger implication that the fauna adapt tools or interfaces.
Alarms only reach Jerennian in his quarters; the Special Projects (SP) workbay isn’t connected to shipwide alerts. A mis-aimed ore shipment, un-intercepted due to a fault and hub growth, grazes the far end of the new orbital scaffold. The shockwave slams through Garveneer and the SP module, hurling equipment and breaking tethers.
Amid the chaos, Bartokh, Ste Etienne, Skien, and Juna scramble into pods. Pressurized Shroud-atmosphere sample tanks—hydrogen/methane at ~20 atm—begin to fail. One ruptures; the explosion shreds the workbay. Skien is killed attempting to reach their pod; Rastomaier, last seen backing up data, is lost in the debris.
The blast tears open the SP module. Two pods are snagged together by an articulated arm and ripped free into space. As Garveneer recedes and Shroud’s lightless disc fills the view, the coupled pods tumble on a trajectory into the moon’s gravity well. Ste Etienne manages limited adjustments before atmospheric buffeting overwhelms them and the couches sedate Juna into blackout.
Who Appears
- Ste EtienneLead engineer; identifies a tool-like limb in Drone 48 footage; commands testing; saves Juna; pilots the pod during catastrophic breakup.
- Juna CeelanderNarrator and admin; assists pod assembly; is shown the troubling footage; survives the accident and descends toward Shroud.
- Director BartokhProject lead; orders and enters a pod; warns about volatile sample tanks as disaster unfolds.
- SkienData/tech worker; doubts danger, leaves pod; killed when pressurized tanks explode.
- Rastomaier (Shemp)Tech focused on backing up data during impact; disappears in ensuing devastation, presumed dead.
- JerennianAnalyst whose algorithms parsed creature footage; first to hear alarms due to miswired alerts.
- Sharles AdventOpportunities representative; incentivizes speed and results, contributing to risk-taking culture.
- UmbarCorporate overseer pressuring cost-cutting, discouraging redundancies and safety measures.