Through the depths of the Beyond, a small object approaching the planet of Ioun. A dot of white on black shadows, swallowed by the greater darkness, it moved silently. No heat, no emissions, just still silence. All was clear on the CRVIII asteroid detection systems, a new contact had briefly caused some stir before its course, and inert nature, let things return to the norm of quiet, watchful relaxation.
No, this little object continued its travel, but had anyone deigned to investigate closer they would have seen a black spheroid, polished stone of some kind, etched like claws were grasping it and keeping it closed. A small mask of white was at the centre of said claws, the reason for the sealing. Passing by the far side of Ioun to Inverxe, the rock was accelerated by the outer remnants of a solar flare. Pure happenstance, for sure. Some might consider it good fortune, others a curse. For while the rock was not sent hurtling further into space, its new orbit pushed it into the outer bonds of Ioun's atmosphere. The loving cares of Ioun's breath upon the black rock lit the far side of Ioun with a tiny prick of light against its lavender hue. Its journey about to end.
Back on the CRVIII the the automated systems went back to working overtime as a new contact emerged on the far side of Ioun, VIs flagging the object for review even as the alert was raised to yellow. "Hey, Tony, come take a look at this!" one of the monitor monkeys called into the small monitoring station of Quadrant VX. Tony sighed as he noticed that the employee in question sat too far away for easy access, got up from his very comfortable swivelling chair (courtesy of being lower management in a substation place like this), and walked over.
"What is it, Lars?" he queried when in a more comfortable speaking distance. "Do we have debris from yet another failed gas miner?" It was rare that independents tried to muscle in on the territory of super corps, they inevitably ran afoul some piece of law or got too close to a heavily protected gas mining rig. Lars shook its head in the negative, face grimacing with increasing consternation, not something first timers could tell with how Lars was, well, not exactly human. It was all the more difficult because Lars had not been able to get the patch-program for his faulty facial emulator.
"That's what I thought at first," the Cybran began, furiously tapping away at the keys on a console he was not allowed to hard-interface-access with. Switching over to yet another terminal, he brought up the feed from a few minutes ago. "Look here, the far-side satellites caught this thing moving through the atmosphere. The VI trace tracked it as having passed by us and Inverxe on a 0-rating path before it swung around Ioun, which should have shot it off into space. Instead..." Tony saw exactly what the Cybran was on about. The black stone sphere had not followed the projected path and its brief skip through Ioun's atmosphere brought it on a more... concerning path. Collision course with 'The Hub'.
"Ok, I assume that the unknown object has not responded to hails?" Lars nodded in the affirmative, so all the reasonable checks and balances had been ticked. "Well then, alert level orange." The lighting in the room changed, people immediately rousing from their semi-relaxed states"I authorize munitions course-correction, light burst, 20 Mega Watts should do it." A small section of the Point Defense System woke fully from its state of half-sleep, a trio of lasers syncing up for target lock. A brief, low intensity barrage, under the attention of everyone in the room. At the call of a good hit from another corner in the room Lars's frown grew before it was replaced by a blank expression and a sigh of relief. Tony looked to the screen Lars was so intently monitoring. The object's course was altered, but these readings... where was the standard splash of radiation? "Keep the target locked, I authorize continued firing solutions until that thing is well away from our course." Internally Tony dreaded the amount of paperwork required, as well as the people he would have to contact about this. The Anomalous Research Division were always such strange folk and he pitied whomever was to be sent down for the inevitable follow-up.
The alert was only rescinded an hour later, once the objects course had been observed to pass well below the planetary escape threshold for Inverxe below them. And as when it had come into contact with Ioun's atmosphere, the strange stone began to grow increasingly incandescent during its descent.
Starfall.
No, this little object continued its travel, but had anyone deigned to investigate closer they would have seen a black spheroid, polished stone of some kind, etched like claws were grasping it and keeping it closed. A small mask of white was at the centre of said claws, the reason for the sealing. Passing by the far side of Ioun to Inverxe, the rock was accelerated by the outer remnants of a solar flare. Pure happenstance, for sure. Some might consider it good fortune, others a curse. For while the rock was not sent hurtling further into space, its new orbit pushed it into the outer bonds of Ioun's atmosphere. The loving cares of Ioun's breath upon the black rock lit the far side of Ioun with a tiny prick of light against its lavender hue. Its journey about to end.
Back on the CRVIII the the automated systems went back to working overtime as a new contact emerged on the far side of Ioun, VIs flagging the object for review even as the alert was raised to yellow. "Hey, Tony, come take a look at this!" one of the monitor monkeys called into the small monitoring station of Quadrant VX. Tony sighed as he noticed that the employee in question sat too far away for easy access, got up from his very comfortable swivelling chair (courtesy of being lower management in a substation place like this), and walked over.
"What is it, Lars?" he queried when in a more comfortable speaking distance. "Do we have debris from yet another failed gas miner?" It was rare that independents tried to muscle in on the territory of super corps, they inevitably ran afoul some piece of law or got too close to a heavily protected gas mining rig. Lars shook its head in the negative, face grimacing with increasing consternation, not something first timers could tell with how Lars was, well, not exactly human. It was all the more difficult because Lars had not been able to get the patch-program for his faulty facial emulator.
"That's what I thought at first," the Cybran began, furiously tapping away at the keys on a console he was not allowed to hard-interface-access with. Switching over to yet another terminal, he brought up the feed from a few minutes ago. "Look here, the far-side satellites caught this thing moving through the atmosphere. The VI trace tracked it as having passed by us and Inverxe on a 0-rating path before it swung around Ioun, which should have shot it off into space. Instead..." Tony saw exactly what the Cybran was on about. The black stone sphere had not followed the projected path and its brief skip through Ioun's atmosphere brought it on a more... concerning path. Collision course with 'The Hub'.
"Ok, I assume that the unknown object has not responded to hails?" Lars nodded in the affirmative, so all the reasonable checks and balances had been ticked. "Well then, alert level orange." The lighting in the room changed, people immediately rousing from their semi-relaxed states"I authorize munitions course-correction, light burst, 20 Mega Watts should do it." A small section of the Point Defense System woke fully from its state of half-sleep, a trio of lasers syncing up for target lock. A brief, low intensity barrage, under the attention of everyone in the room. At the call of a good hit from another corner in the room Lars's frown grew before it was replaced by a blank expression and a sigh of relief. Tony looked to the screen Lars was so intently monitoring. The object's course was altered, but these readings... where was the standard splash of radiation? "Keep the target locked, I authorize continued firing solutions until that thing is well away from our course." Internally Tony dreaded the amount of paperwork required, as well as the people he would have to contact about this. The Anomalous Research Division were always such strange folk and he pitied whomever was to be sent down for the inevitable follow-up.
The alert was only rescinded an hour later, once the objects course had been observed to pass well below the planetary escape threshold for Inverxe below them. And as when it had come into contact with Ioun's atmosphere, the strange stone began to grow increasingly incandescent during its descent.
Starfall.