Archive:Graeme Devine's Blog/Spirit of Fire/Paul

This is a word-by-word replication of the original page on Graeme Devine's Blog. As such, any errors or irregularities are simply carried over from the original page.

4:03AM

Before...

Contact has been lost to the outlying colony world “Harvest” and early reports seemed to indicate some sort of contact with an al…

THIS NEWS REPORT CENSURED BY THE UNSC FOR YOUR PROTECTION AND SECURITY.

4:03am. The general quarters alarm rings throughout the Spirit of Fire. Cutter comes over the horn, “Senior staff briefing in 15 mikes.”

The interesting part of being with the press on a UNSC military vessel is that no one tells you anything. The news is being blacked out, general quarters are ringing in my ears and lots of stressed young faces are running about the corridors.

The really interesting part is when the captain calls you 5 minutes later and invites you to the senior staff briefing. Now you know you things are screwed.

I’m writing this now while we’re in slipspace on the way to Harvest. An unknown and hitherto unseen alien ship entered orbit there 10 days ago and contact with the colony was lost. The two scout vessels we sent to check things out have not been heard from since they jumped there 2 days ago.

The captain has asked me to recount the events from an impartial point of view, first contact with an alien species and all that, got to do it right. I can tell from watching the crew that they are worried as we’ve no idea what to expect when we jump in and the manual on first contact isn’t exactly something you go practice. The prevailing scuttlebutt theory is that the alien ship, or ships, is somehow interfering with communications. I think that’s mostly the prevailing scuttlebutt theory because no one wants to think of the other options.

I think the crew is even happy that we have a squad of Spartans onboard. Mostly they just hope to god those guys stay in the sleep tubes but this time they actually seem happy to see them awake.

Carol. I know when we get to Harvest you’ll be fine, the kids will be riveted to the tube watching cartoons while the most important moment in mankind’s history happens on their doorstep. I miss you and the kids terribly. This email should autosend when we exit slipspace but it may take a while with all the military stuff going on.

Its retro movie night tonight and some joker picked Starship Troopers 3. The special effects back then were so awful, at least when it’s Shakespeare or Shatner there’s a story to follow.

Paul.