My name is Paul Geros, I am currently stranded on an unknown planet, in an unknown system, on the other side of an unknown unstable practically invisible to sensors jump hole. My communications are non-functional and the only way anyone is going to hear any of this is if i can’t get them workin again, or someone finds this recorder on my dead body.
There’s a pleasant thought. On the chance that I or my body are found, I hereby officially claim this entire planet for the Zoners.
My co-pilot, Jeffrey Dietrich, is dead. He was not wearing his EVA, the planet’s atmosphere does not appear to support human life. God …
-minutes of silence-
Right, recording … details … I was in the cabin preparing for my shift at the ship controls, Jeff and I alternated shifts so the ship could cover more ground out here in the zone, I had just finished breakfast and getting my flight suit back on when Jeff started cursing over the intercom.
I don’t remember what he was saying besides the expletives, Jeff doesn’t scare easy, when i finally got the cockpit hatch open, I was nearly blinded by the transition into a jump hole, I don’t remember seeing any that bright before. We came out of the jump inside a dense asteroid field, and my best guess is that we hit one.
I do not know why our shields were down, all i know is that the collision and breach alarms went off, the cockpit’s hatch automatically shut in response, and I was locked out of the cockpit. I spent the next few minutes attempting to restore contact with Jeff, when the atmospheric reentry alarm started going off. Per protocol, I got into an emergency drop pod, which then failed to launch. I blacked out before we hit.
When i came to, the pod had no power, I assumed we had managed to set down on a planet or asteroid, and once I had my EV helmet and vest on, i used the manual release valves and lever to get the pod door back into the ship open. I remember the hatch to the cockpit was open, which i thought was a good sign, i remember trying to switch radio frequencies on my suit’s arm pad, guessing i must have turned off my comms accidentally in the pod, and that’s why I didn’t hear Jeff. As it turns out the only thing keeping the cockpit hatch closed during our descent was the breach emergency mag locks, without power and the ship laying mostly upside down, it just hung open. Jeff was ...
Lieutenant Commander Jeffrey Dietrich died in the line of duty. From my inspection of the ship’s ventral plating and the final orientation of the ship, it is my opinion that the inversion of the ship in the final moments of our atmospheric reentry was intentional. I am still unable to get any of the computers online, I surmise that the system recognized the Drop Pod release mechanisms were fused, informed the pilot, who inverted the ship in an attempt to prevent me being crushed in the resulting crash.