Quoted By:
“No more delays. The first of their four terrestrial colonies spins below the RAIN, its orbit already marred by the fires of societal collapse. Colonizing this world took the better part of a century. Ending it will take no more than a solar day.
I have performed a set of steps that are both familiar and foreign: exercised hundreds of times in preparation, but never once executed under the weight of genuine duty. I have broken the wax-sealed parchment beneath the RAIN’s console, read the final, vengeful prayer of my people, and submitted my own genetic material for a tribunal that will never occur.
In normal circumstances, I would be joined by the rest of my bridge crew. Now, I am only joined by one.
MERRYGATE stands beside me. Just as the autosampler has withdrawn a portion of my blood, the launch regulator has taken a snapshot of her runtime code as a personal signature. No one escapes responsibility here.
The ventral arming doors slide open. The RAIN’s rotation shifts slightly as a massive, frigate-sized missile is loaded into its launch position. A blunted nose cone slides forward to touch foreign starlight for the first time.
The last act is something we must do together. Two hardware switches, locked to a simple iron key cast from Martian sand.
“On my mark…”
- [UNSIGNED], EXECUTIVE AUDITOR, TRS NOVEMBER RAIN, AD. 2242, SEPTEMBER 28th, PERSONAL JOURNAL
LAUNCH CONSENT.
>YES
>NO
