A camera drone activates high above the desolate, frozen, and increasingly alien surface of Skarkon II. Distant scenery crawls along slowly as an arctic wind whips through the hair and clothes of a huddled group of twenty to thirty survivors. The group’s clothes and tattered red flags and banners billow angrily in the mutaplasmid-laden winds as some large and indistinct transport carries them along above an ocean of snow, sand, and densifying mutaplasmid crystal forest.
The group of survivors on the vehicle seem barely human. Some of them are bundled under thick clothes, heavy respirators, and goggles, while others seem less affected by the hostile environment but whose bodies glow in strange red and orange hues from the effects of rampant uncontrolled mutadaption. It’s impossible to tell the time of day, dark red clouds scuttle overhead and a toxic mixture of snow, sand, and mutaplasmid crystals fly through the air and fall out to settle on the thick metal carapace of their vehicle. Flashes of ominous red lightning in the distance reveal impossible scenes of violence between strange towering leviathans and enormous mutaplasmid monoliths.
Despite all of this, the group is in high spirits. An elderly Brutor man kneels statuesque at the front of the observation platform, one knee forward and a pair of weather-worn binoculars held to his eyes; the large spikes of mutaplasmid crystal growing from his spine seem to have done little to affect his posture or slow him down. A Sebiestor man whose eyes glow with mutadaption plays a haunting but upbeat tune on a beat up old instrument while other members of the group accompany him in song. The vehicle jumps and rattles as it carries them over the increasingly rough terrain of the former desert and they all grab for handholds as the deck rolls and shifts.
Finally the camera drone manages to find Saede Riordan amidst the crowd and zooms in on her. The Sebiestor girl has been severely mutadapted: her skin is now covered entirely in black and white mottling patterns, her hair has turned bone white, and red crystals glow in tiny constellations of light all across her body. Crystals sprout from her skin in various places and her whole body seems to be slightly liquid, dripping and oozing onto the deck of the platform.
“Hey there New Eden!” the mutadapted Sebiestor says cheerfully “It’s yo girl Saede here with another report from the surface of Skarkon II. We’re coming to you today from the main evacuation route between Iddiserigard and the Huomaeli Belt Fortifications in the Ternate Mountains. Thanks to some unexpected support from Mahazkei Vas’Hiigara of the UNF, we’re pulling the entire remaining civilian population out of Iddiserigard and evacuating to the old system of bases and fortification lines in the Ternate. The bases there used to form a defensive line between various warring factions on the planet but over the last few months have been turned into the most secure and defensible strongholds left on the surface.”
Saede grips a handrail as the vehicle rocks again. A few of the survivors in the group whoop and holler as the vehicle crests a ridge. They sight some landmark in the distance, pointing and waving excitedly as Maha’s voice comes over mounted loudspeakers.
“How’s everyone doing?” he says cheerfully, “We’ve just cleared the old Cuolisa Ridge Highway and should be able to see the bases now, thank you for riding the hype train!”
A cheer goes up from the crowd as the vehicle launches fireworks into the murky air.
“We’re pretty far from the Proving Ground battlefield now, which is the main point in evacuating to these bases.” Saede says, “They’re also deep underground, with independent air filtration and life support systems. There’s even a few enclosed farms built into some of the facilities. It’s not sustainable, but it should keep the people there alive until they can be ferried off the surface.”
The camera drone follows the pointing finger of one of the riders. It pivots to look forwards toward their destination. Below them, the design of the vehicle is partly obscured beneath some sort of visual glitch which has been introduced to the video to prevent the enemy from gaining too much intel, but ahead of the vehicle vast tracks scar the landscape from previous trips it has made across the increasingly alien world. A darkened range of mountains rise from the frozen desert in the distance and from this mountain range, the fiery column of a launch vehicle rises through the churned atmosphere, heading for clearer skies far above.
“We’re moving people off the planet into orbital infrastructure owned by the Bosena Accords at a fairly steady rate. It’s not quick, we’re having to use military dropships and MCCs since civilian vehicles can’t handle the chop, but we’re making progress. Provided everything goes well we should be able to get most everyone off the surface.”
The launch vehicle passes through a thick layer of clouds and the light of its launch fades, leaving them once more in darkness. Through all of this, the Sebiestor man with the instrument hasn’t stopped playing.
“We’ve got teams out all over trying to find survivors and bring them back to the Huomaeli Belt. My other clone, the one in Gulormola, is helping move that whole refugee camp there and I’ve heard of at least five other camps that are on the move and making good progress. The joint Bosena/UNF warclone forces seem to be doing a good job of keeping Svarog bottled up and too occupied to pay us much mind, though I have heard of flyovers from some of their scout vehicles taking out lines of refugee transports which didn’t have anti-air defenses. It’s a ■■■■ show but we’re managing.”
The camera drone pans back over Saede’s head to look back the way they’d come, the vehicle they’re riding atop continues to be electronically obscured from observation but in its wake a long line of smaller vehicles, everything from tanks and APCs to trucks and motorbikes follow along in the giant’s treads.
“This is the last group out of Iddiserigard. There’s no civilians in the city anymore, just a UNF garrison and a lot of ruins and broken dreams. It’s weird to think I’ll probably never go back there again. When I became a capsuleer, I had dreams of leaving the city behind and never looking back, but even so, the city had a certain feeling of immortality to it, like whatever happened to me and however far I traveled, my home town would still be there, as rusted and full of crime and poverty as ever. But now? If I went back there with a fresh clone in six months, I have no idea if there’d be anything to see at all, if there’d even be a city or if it’ll all just be one giant mutaplasmid glacier by then. It really tugs the heartstrings to think about.”
Smaller vehicles are beginning to pull away from the large transport Saede is riding, racing ahead across the rough terrain, heading for the welcoming lights of the bases in the mountains, following what’s left of highways in places and the tracks of the heavy transport in others.
“But the Matari have never been about places, the soul of a people isn’t in any world, and any world can be a home if we make it one. Home is having our loved ones around us, our clans, and our tribes, home is other people. We take our home with us in our hearts and make a home for ourselves wherever we go. The spirit of the people of Skarkon will live on, the soul of this world will be carried forth in the descendants of everyone who lived and died on her surface. Her death will be remembered forever, and from her tortured bones we’re going to rise into a future brighter and clearer than any of us can imagine.”
Maha’s voice one more comes over the loudspeakers and handheld radios as the camera drone swings back towards the transport. The lights of the distant base fortifications are beginning to appear out of the distant gloom around the mountains.
“And to our front is the wonderful Huomaeli Belt Fortifications! Spend your remaining days planetside away from the chilly outdoors, and inside our five-star plascrete-reinforced bunker walls several meters below ground! Here you’ll find a distinct lack of mutaplasmid glacial structures and hostile Svarog infantry! Instead, you’ll find warm bedding, three square meals a day, and an unrestricted connection to OpComms thirteen-thirty-seven AM, and oh-ten-point-three FM, The Block!, giving you a front row seat to the forward lines, salting the earth as we go and slagging any idiot dumb enough to stand between Block and the people of Skarkon II! We thank you once again for your wait, and for joining us on Commander Mahazkei’s Hype Train to Orbit. Oh-seven, my dear charges! Fly safe.”
A number of drones and small flying vehicles are lifting off from the convoy to zoom ahead and away from them, scouting the land in all directions and capturing video of their escape. The convoy is beginning to break apart and dissipate as individual vehicles break from the formation. A series of fireworks rise from the back of one truck into the ruddy air, releasing cheerful starbursts of color against the dim red backdrop. The group on the observation platform with Saede are hugging each other and clapping their hands together, whooping in excitement as the Sebiestor man continues to play on.
“The people here have had a hard life and the last few months have been the hardest yet, but there’s a surprising amount of optimism among the survivors It feels hopeless at times, Saede suddenly joins in with the group that is singing, “But I heard someone say they knew that someday that everything would fall into its place and everything would be fine. And I really truly honestly without a doubt want to believe that everything will be alright! Oh my god! I will, hold my tongue and I’ll breathe, easily if anyone can say with any sort of certainty that there is something to believe!"
Someone hugs Saede from behind and she laughs and turns to embrace them, leaving black and white goo on them after their embrace. They both laugh and someone sparks a few cigarettes and starts passing them out.
“This is Saede Riordan reporting from Skarkon II in the Krai Svarog of Pochven, fly safe New Eden, we’ll see you on the other side.”
The camera drone leaves Saede behind and zooms down the flank of the vehicle. The design remains obscured but giant murals of a fierce looking creature painted in glowing red paint along with the words STEEL COYOTE can be seen along the side in Modern Standard Matari before the video feed cuts out as the song comes to an end.