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The uneasy feeling in your gut metastases into a desperate action. Convoy-Lead is the one technically in charge, but radio protocol’s been shot to hell. You grab the line and scream: “Everyone, get out of there! Now!”
They’re already running, even as the proper order from Convoy-Lead barks an evaucation. The probe and all their equipment are all but forgotten as the away team makes a mad dash towards the freighter. It’s not a graceful sight – in their EVA suits, their steps are ungainly and slippery on the icy surface, amplified by the tremors that run up and down the asteroid.
All of a sudden, the asteroid starts to rotate. You can’t hear it, but you could imagine an earth-shattering <span class="mu-s">CRACK</span> as a fissure the size of a river suddenly emerges down the length of the ice. Like the breath of an angry god, superheated gas and steam blasts out of it, scattering those lucky to be far away enough, flash-boiling those too close to the gap.
“Jolts Seven through Nine,” Jolt-Leader shouts, the flyboy attitude all but a distant thing of the past, “Break off and get out of there!”
But it’s too late.
The asteroid’s heat approaches a brilliant yellow-white on IF/thermals. Almost all of the ice has melted, revealing a pock-marked surface scared by years of repeated collisions with other asteroids. But from those scars, the suite picks up sudden blossoms of heat growing within them. Almost blinded, you hurriedly switch the sights from thermal to visual, zooming as far in as you can for an analysis…
…the closest thing you can compare it to is a vent at the bottom of oceans near volcanic rifts. It isn’t a far-off comparison – the heat of it easily matches, <span class="mu-i">even surpasses</span> what nature has. The mouth of the vent glows ominously, catching the red light of 19A-KJ before it fires.
Jolt-Seven disappears in a stream of heated plasma, and a scream that vanishes in a wet squelch of radio static. Another blast from another mouth consumes the recon probe, and the entirety of the expedition team too slow to reach the freighter. The freighter doesn’t even bother closing the hatch, opening up to a full emergency burn. But it isn’t enough to escape unscathed as more mouths emerge and unleash unrelenting fire.
“Ancestors’ blood!” Suzel swears, wide-eyed and horrified as a bolt catches the aft of the freighter. Before your disbelieving eyes, the armor and structure of the ship begins to <span class="mu-i">melt</span>, running like wax as internals and circuitry are exposed to the vacuum of space. “It went right through their shields!”
An explosion rocks its rear half, spraying reactor fuel and atmosphere like blood from a wounded animal. It limps vainly, trying to put as much distance as it can behind it and the asteroid. And then, in almost direct violation of the laws of physics, the asteroid <span class="mu-i">moves</span>. Devoid of the ice and frozen gasses, it races towards the wounded freighter, hissing and spitting fiery death.
(cont.)
