I joined the merchant navy for the adventure, the thrill, but most of all the big pay packet. It doesn't come without considerable risk you know. Hauling massive shipments of cargo across the black void between stars exposes you to all sorts of dangers - from radiation to pirates, and lets not forget the freezing cold vacuum that surrounds you.
If I'd have known what a shite state I'd end up in, I would never have signed on that dotted line. I was probably safer as a moving target for thieves, murderers and pirates. My transfer to Deep Six was the worst decision I ever made. . .



I was born on Earth, much like the other eighty five percent of the human race who came from that overpopulated rock. I got off that scuzz sphere as soon as I was sixteen years old, and by the time I was twenty seven I had left the merchant navy and found myself a job as a chief mechanic on the orbital colony over Europa 2.
A good few years later a UEC expansion ship – one of the ‘Deeps’ – turned up at my station. It seemed the machine chief had been involved in a serious and debilitating accident involving colonization construction equipment, so couldn’t continue with the ship. They offered me - then the stations chief mechanic – the position, and like an idiot blinded by the paycheck, I accepted.

"Welcome aboard the DsECV 'Nomad' Mr. Harding." – That was the first thing anyone ever said to me on this freakin’ ship.

At the time I was overwhelmed. I even felt honored, can you believe that? In actual fact I was a replacement. They had no better candidate at the time – only me. If I’d declined the would have been forced to pick up the next best thing – probably from their own crew. I wish I’d stayed at Europa 2.

I imagine anyone reading this has had enough of hearing my nostalgic complaints. You want me to get to the point don’t you? How did I end up on this ship, how did this ship end up stranded so far from home and what the heck happened here? Just wait a bleedin’ minute - there's important stuff to note.

Now, for those of you who don't know what exactly the 'Deeps' are for - well, you're livin' a very sheltered life. Wish I could say the same now.
Anyhow, these DsECV's, or Deep Space Exploration and Colonization Vessels - let's just call 'em deeps from here on in eh? - are operated by the United Earth Coalition. In short and simple terms they take on crew, explore the fringes of colonized space and survey, chart and map.

Whilst they're out there, if they find a suitable location, they can lay the foundation for colony construction on a rock or in space, and even do the groundwork for a mining operation. Usually they inform the nearest colony of what they're up to and support vessels turn up a week or so later and finish the job.
As a result of the scale of the operation, the deeps are huge, and I mean massive! They carry over 12,500 crew and personnel and are about the size of a small city. Granted most of the space is dedicated to engines and ship systems, but believe me - it's not difficult to get lost in there.

So now we're all on the same page you probably expect me to tell you what you wanna hear right? Why not. . .



Right. . . so. . . Where to start?

Well, let's say the journey was relatively uneventful as we left Europa 2. As the colony faded from the external monitors everything seemed normal. Everything was normal. We spent almost eight months drifting around the fringe, within one light of Europa 2. Deep Six seeded another two mining operations and one colony in that time, and the only unusual thing was the fact that the mining op was set up on a giant flippin' asteroid! If I'm honest, it was the best time of my life working on those things.

Then, things suddenly went to hell. . .

We didn't get much in the way of advance warning. A the captain suddenly noticed that the stars across the bow were slewing to the left, and he hit the alarm. The crew barely had enough time to issue a warning. They managed to tell us that the ship's systems hadn't been able to detect a massive gravity well, and the AI hadn't been able to prevent the ship from falling into a decaying orbit around this thing.

Must have decayed bloody quickly, I'll say that. The siren weren't on for more than a minute or so, before everything went black.

I don't remember anything after that. Seems that not only was the entire crew knocked out cold for a good while (I woke up with stubble on my cheeks!) but the AI had been knocked offline as well.
Damn thing told me it was still booting - still bringing the ship's main systems back online when I managed to get to a data terminal.

Weird thing is I can't find anyone else. The ship is running on the reserve genny's and the massive capacitors in the engine room. Everywhere is on emergency power and under the red glow of the frekin' emergency lights.
It's god damn dark in here, but I swear I've seen blood on the walls - hand prints, smears and trails. I wasn't too keen to investigate - would you be?

Nomad - the dumbshit AI says it doesn't have the internal sensors online and can't tell me where anyone is. I might be the only one left on this bloody ship - with someone or something that's leavin' blood stains all over the place! Half the doors are locked and coded, but I'm not the freakin' machine chief for nothing - nothin aint gonna stop me findin' somewhere safe, and some kind of goddamn explanation!

I'm leaving this datapad here in the med center - I'll be heading off to engineering. If you're readin' this, head that way - fast. . . .



Shit. . .

What was that?