HELION DISPATCHES 01

REPORT: STOKER//H1

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[SIGNAL LOCK]

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[BROADCAST WIDE CHANNEL]

[ORIGIN: PILGRIM SEED]

[VECTOR: STARWARD]

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[TRANSCRIPTION ACTIVE]

Kimbal, are you sure this is working? Kimbal?

[NOISE]

WHAT is hot?

[NOISE]

Mic is…? Oh. Shit, shit…

[NOISE]

Hello, hello! Sorry for that, we are LIVE from the belly of the Pilgrim Seed, the biggest ship making the Starward transit in the Helion System. 

This is Cyrene Sabir, and this is Helion Dispatches, the only pirate radio station broadcasting in the starward passage. We had a few hiccups there but you should be hearing us on any open channel in this orbit…

[NOISE]

That’s Kimbal, he’s the one who rigged up this transmitter out of the goodness of his heart, and for half my rations for the duration of the trip. 

[NOISE]

What a hero. 

[NOISE]

Together we are here to get the word out on what’s happening in the Helion system, to spread it so we can all work to protect ourselves and our communities. 

If you are in range of this broadcast you’ll know that the system is in the middle of a shakeup. We are on the refugee ship, Pilgrim Seed have just come out of Erlin’s Eye after a string of flux events threatened to collapse the station entirely, taking our chance instead with the long passage to the Belt. 

But all over the system there are reports of new corporate activity and we are here to beam those out on every available channel, so you can stay informed. 

It's been decades since the Solheim collapse, and Helion became a free system, but it seems Solheim’s creditors and inheritors have finally come to claim their property. 

Well… we won’t give it up, this system is ours and we’ll do everything we can to stay free.

We want you to know we are out here, and know that we are going to start broadcasting anything and everything that might help keep people safe and informed.

If you have any tips, recordings or reports yourself, send them on our secure channel: H 1, dash triple 7, dash k m b l… 

[NOISE]

Kimbal! did you actually put your name as the ID of our secure…?

[NOISE]

I swear to god.

[NOISE]

Look.

We need to get the word out, and I need your help for that.

The report I am about to play you comes from Sofia, out of Olivera. She passes on this recording on behalf of Dustin Desta, the voice you are about to hear is his.

Not many of us hear much from Stoker these days, that hot rock closest to our star. But thankfully Dustin was there, because what I’m about to play you will change your idea of whats happening in this system.

I’m going to let Dustin speak for himself.

Stay safe out there. This is Cyrene Sabir signing off.

To a free Helion. Now and forever.

[NOISE]

Kimbal, did that sound OK…?

[NOISE]

Give me a break.

[NOISE]

You do it then!

[DISCONNECTED]

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[SIGNAL SWITCHING…]

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[LOADING REPORT STOKER//H1]

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[BROADCASTING…]

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[SUIT AUDIO FEED: OCCUPANT DUSTIN DESTA]

[TRANSCRIPTION BEGINS]

Sofia you are NOT going to believe this.

And I’m SERIOUS this time. This time isn’t like when I said I’d found a Solheim shipmind and it was actually a spent core. Or that time I thought I’d recovered a bonesuit from that Conway derelict and it was just a cargo loader. 

No. This shit is REAL.

And I know, I know, when I told you I was making another run to Stoker you said it was too crazy.

And I know I said it was just another run, just with thicker heat shields and bigger suits, and I told you not to worry because I knew boys who did it every 50 cycles. 

I know that. I know I said there would be no surprises… I know…

But that was before I saw this, because this is one massive, jumbo-sized, surprise.

The KAN channel? That hulk of core tech orbiting the star like some vast, half-broken eggshell. It’s started up.

Someone turned that thing on.

That’s not something that happens Sofia. Not ever.

The last run, Emmerson told me that back in Solheim days they used to use that thing to send thousands of tons of raw palladium, platinum and whatever else they were extracting straight back to the core in an eyeblink. Something about collapsing spacetime between two points.

Like making it be in TWO places at once and then making it be in ONE again… it's just that one place is now some spot in the core.

This time, THIS run, I was digging through one of the ruins on Stoker, following the signature of some pristine looking old tech in a collapsed hanger when…

Whoosh.

This thing rippled through my suit, through me. Like a shiver that passed through the spine of the universe. 

I looked up and saw the KAN channel, the broken sphere of it, silhouetted in front of H1. And it was shimmering, and glowing, and all around the void of space was sparkling like ice dust in torchlight.

It was beautiful… for a moment.

Thing is, my suit immediately goes into backup power, the helmet lights all crimson, and it seems this thing has fried everything. Life support, jump jets, cutting torch, you name it… I’m lucky to be breathing. 

And so I bounce my lucky butt back to the Resonant Black.

Now we are here, waiting for the ship to reboot, Emmerson is deep in its guts trying to figure out what’s fried and what’s not.

And that KAN channel? Its pulsing, its glowing. That thing is ON. I’m looking at it right now.

I don’t want to worry you Sofia. We’ve got this. But I wanted to send this out because people need to know. The KAN channel is up and firing. And if it's up and firing it's not sending stuff out… it's bringing it in.

Now I don’t know what it could be. But only technicians from the Core could be starting that thing up, and if the core is starting it up, they have plans, Sofia, and when the core has plans?

No no. Those are not good plans.

And people like us? We get screwed.

So let the folks in Olivera know. Something’s coming to this system, and it is NOTHING good.

And Sofia, I’ll see you soon. 

I gotta believe it.

And so do you.

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

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[SIGNAL LOST]

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[CHANNEL CLOSED]

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