Incident Report

“Push harder, we’re running out of time!”

“I’m pushing, I’m pushing.”

“Well push harder!”

“Ren? REN!”

Incident Report 252164.32

Mission charge, REN 24

Before I get into my report let begin by stating that we should never have been here to begin with!

Serin isn’t a big world, in fact, it barely counts as a world at all. It’s just big enough to support life with the dominant indigenous life form being little more that mobile bags of water barely able to communicate. Landing, and I use that term in the loosest possible way, was never a part of the core mission. It was just meant to be a routine pass to do a final atmospheric scan and approval report for the terraforming crew.

Even that’s laughable. What I would like to know is why are the terraforming units being sent to Serin! They never operate on anything smaller than a class five planet, to send one out to a class three was unheard of. Some politicians back home must have really needed to fill their quota for their election campaign. At least the atmosphere on a small dirtball like this won’t take long to strip, then maybe we can move on to something a bit more challenging. I think we had a class seven next on the list.

Here is my incident report.

We still don't know what it was that we hit. Nothing showed on the scanners until it collided with us taking out the main stabilizers. Being a skimmer and not a lander there was no way we were going to get that thing to land, and without the stabilizers it was going down regardless. We had to take the life pod.

Whatever we hit took out the communication array as well, so we were unable to send the atmospheric analysis for the terraforming unit. I am recording the incident here, so it is known why the information was not relayed on time. Should the terraforming unit not receive our final approval report in time to meet their schedule, I want it recorded that it was not due to incompetence on our part.

I will be attaching the atmospheric analysis and final approval to this incident report to be sent as soon as we make contact with the lander.

Even though life pods are designed for survival they are not designed for comfort. I know if we hadn’t been in the pod bed’s we wouldn’t have survived the impact, but even so, Jax broke his tail in three places including his main balance point, details included in the medical attachment. Although we don’t have detailed maps of this planet, the scanners did register an open area about five clicks west of here big enough for a lander. I estimate sunrise on this dirtball in about two hours, so we are going to head out there now to wait. We will take the homing beacon with us for the lander to lock onto.

End of incident report.

Supplementary report to incident report 252164.32.

Mission Second, now Mission Charge, JAX 12

“He’s gone! It came out of nowhere and took REN.”

We left the pod with plenty of time to reach the landing field, or so we thought. We were nearly there with the sky just starting to turn light when the medi-chair ran out of power. It had been a long trek but landing field was in sight, were almost home. The trip should have been quick and was going well until the batteries went flat, I didn’t even know these things could go flat! That wouldn’t have been so bad if I hadn’t been injured. Hell, if I still I’d been able to walk we wouldn’t have even needed a medi-chair in the first place, we could have just walked and carried the beacon between us, but no-one can walk with a tail that badly damaged. We had no option but to disconnect the drive shaft and push. Laying on chair pulling with my forearm while Ren pushed from behind was slow progress, but it was progress. As we entered the landing field something took Ren. I still don’t know what it was. It came out of nowhere moving at high speed. The first I knew was a bump on the chair and he was gone.

As I send this report, I will try to make my way to the center of the field for collection. I’m not sure how I will get there, but I will get there. I want nothing more than to get off this dirtball.

Interfering with the meeting of a stranded mission member and rescue lander, was the last thing an apex predator of the planet was thinking about. It was just coincidental that he prevented the transmission of a crucial report and saved the world from a terraforming process that would have eliminated all life on earth,

Satisfying an empty stomach after a night of fruitless hunting was all it knew. The first kill had been easy, the target didn’t even register his presence until it was being lifted off the ground. The second kill was for the nest. This one was already injured but seemed more aware of the danger. When first taken, it struggled more, but no more than the usual night rodent and was quickly dispatched. The hunger of the nesting young was even more demanding the Barn owl’s own hunger and though the night was almost done, it still had another hour of hunting to go.