Thread: An Eclipse of Corruption (Vuxayl x Cricket)

The briefing room was rather small compared to the rest of the mission control deck, which had massive maps of the nearby sectors on its walls and rows upon rows of chairs for operators of different systems. Here, there was only a central round table, with a holographic projection of the immediate space octants, a couple of chairs and a large window-like screen that displayed an alien figure, background stars faintly visible behind. The station's mission director peered from this screen, impatiently waiting for the rest of the crew of the docked ship. One of the rarest species since humans first made contact with other lifeforms, she appeared a strange creature whose looks were between Earth-based hanging moss and a quartz formation, neatly dressed in an impeccable white uniform. As one of the highest-ranking officers on duty, she was imposing and intimidating nonetheless. Strangely, there was no commander present in the briefing room. Once everyone had arrived, she sighed and begun the briefing, using a voice synthesiser to communicate. Took you all long enough to get here. Unfortunately, I seem to need to remind you, you have not been marked as off-duty yet. She paused. I don't want to see this repeated, and trust me - neither do you. Even without any eyes for the crew to look at, one could feel her staring at each and every crew member by the way she shimmered and turned under the station's artificial lighting. She stared for just a moment longer at Karilel and her rather unpresentable state, and managed to feel even more disappointment. But there was really no time to instill more discipline in the crew, and neither did she want to bother with such menial tasks. With another sigh, the mission director proceeded. At 40.70 of the 12th station-day before today, refinery-ship Kanayago undocked station Aurigas-Bridge for ore collection and refinement in the Lambda octant. The table hologram blinked and warped a bit until a clear image of the station and surrounding octants appeared floating above it, with the specified octant and ship trajectory highlighted in red. Kanayago was composed of a huge cargo bay and built-in refinery connected to a much smaller vessel, which could pull it through space or detach from it to collect ore from asteroids. At 51.72 and 8 days after, all communications with the pilot ship were lost. We have decided that, since commander Hor-kanthassh is currently off-station attending other duties, lieutenant Karilel will command the assigned rescuetowing ship and the assembled crew. She stared intently at those inside the briefing room. That means you. Your task is simply to retrieve the cargo hold, which we have confirmed is currently undocked and floating in space at the marked waypoint - and search nearby asteroids in a 50km range for any sign of the Kanayago. You will launch at 90.00 today.. Some of the crew members looked at each other nervously in the short pause that followed. A final note. If you dare to command the rescue ship dressed as you are or otherwise fail the mission, lieutenant Karilel, I can guarantee you - this will be the last ship you'll ever fly. You are all dismissed. And just like that, the figure of the mission director disappeared from the screen with a short, high-pitched beep, followed shortly after by the table hologram. Xayun glanced at Karilel's eyes before exiting the room with the rest of the crew, going as far as to briefly pat her on the shoulder - even he could feel the weight of her new responsibilities.