I can’t be sure of the difference. Maybe that is only strange laughter coming from down below as the rescue ship speeds with us inside, and the music really takes off. At the end, things are morphing rapidly and I remember some rare small parts of everything after all.
Invisible or slightly shimmering in the shadows
The closer a planet is to the Sun, the faster it travels. The history of asteroid mining is brief but features a gradual development. Asteroid mining missions are complex endeavors and typically return a tiny amount of material. Ideas come of which asteroids to prospect, how to gather resources, and what to do with those resources, continue to evolve over the decades. The conceived dangers, motives, and experiences of extra planetary mining tend to revolve around environmental concerns, such as fears over humans over-consuming, as evidenced by the current state of the Earth’s only remaining natural resources, and the practice of constantly trying to capture energy from the Sun in space.
Think siderophilic (iron-loving).
The term space settlement has been used very broadly, being applied to any permanent human presence, even robotic, particularly along with the term “settlement” being imprecisely applied to any so called human space habitat, from research stations to self-sustaining communities in space. Mining releases many pollutants while the only chemicals released from biomining is any metabolites or gasses that the bacteria secrete. The bacteria have always been here. Their phantom report is as follows:
“We have been watching these strange visitors to our world since they arrived. Because we are almost microscopic compared to the visitors, a cloud following a shadow, nobody has ever noticed us. We watch as the mining operation makes our eternal rolling hills into desolate pits and mounds. The land has been changed. They plunder and move almost everything and take what they want. Then they go away. Pits and mounds remain.”
Something is coming in, a burst of short wave radio static, then growling sounds. Something is watching me, we are hidden and try to keep moving. There is a field of some kind, invisible or slightly shimmering in the shadows. Skrika “Escape Transit” (9:15). About midway through the pulse starts, rapid pulses, subtle pressure, difficult evasive invisible, then triumph appears and we all flow back into the faceted hidden way. Now followed by Red Fog “Caloris Crash” (10:34) a savage electronic barking explosion, adjustments to pressurized tanks, we are still watching through the security surveillance camera. Remember everything that is hidden survives, the metallic tools sound is soon followed by sounds from much deeper in the chamber. Distant hollow empty wet drips and running motor sounds. Keosz “We Are Going In” (7:40) darkness and a radio crackling, something is coming for us, feel the danger expanding in strength and presence, breaking through, running and running going into a clearing but now there are tiny clicking rattling cenobites biting my face…
I have been abandoned in this ruined place ::
Here are some more incidents that were discovered. Sole Massif & Tineidae “Prominence Forms” (5:00) experience the tunnel sounds, eventually breaking isolation and then I am emerging into a face full of tiny biting cenobites. Because this is the end, only I know this. There are robot mice breaking the walls and pushing the cenobites away, less than half way through the track is when the rhythms kick in strong. I am running with danger all around, now I see the monster, am I made? I am listening because somewhere something is trying to speak as the humans would. Only now the pressure gets complex. Dronny Darko “Suspended in Emptiness” (8:00) The cave is quiet and microscopic things in there live here. I recognize the sound of the cenobites maddening biting teeth and new sounds, but I am not sure of what it is. I assume that those are not sentinels. Is that radio chatter? OMG am I made? There are things all around and they do not appear to know me, is the size changing or is it the distance? Only radio chatter, something is wrong. I am still here, am I alone?
RNGMNN “Point of No Return” (6:18) there is no functional door any more. On the radio tension drips and gushes, I hear lower tones rolling bones and probably trying to open new portals. Now the tension expands into hidden explosions or collisions, the danger is not over. Signals pass through the smoke and I always wonder, am I alone? I have been abandoned in this ruined place.
Do you remember the portal and how we once had that? Onasander “Red Hot Harvest” (6:04) the fire crackles then the flames roar, hot winds. I think this is after the ending, it all comes roaring back in memories, we are alone and must remain. I feel lighter now even under all this, and I know that we are never getting out, it’s just me remaining, alone forever on and on. The distant crickets and crackling flames as we now remember the lost. Are these the last moments?
This time we have progressed almost all the way through the dead zone and I have been hiding in the water. There are strange rending’s or screaming’s in the distance, fluid sounds, is it a burnt marsh?
Now I am getting on the transporter. In Quantum “Mercury Return Mission” (7:25) all electrical crackling is familiar, the ghosts have come to say goodbye. I heard that the rescue ship is here but so grim, as we load the dead and the rest. About half way through the pulse catches in, I keep forgetting that I am probably alone here.
The slow moving visitors, they are leaving! Back they go into the same metal eggs they came in so long ago.
I can’t be sure of the difference. Maybe that is only strange laughter coming from down below as the rescue ship speeds with us inside, and the music really takes off. At the end, things are morphing rapidly and I remember some rare small parts of everything after all.
“The harvester class ship came to life with a low, guttural hum as the crew prepared to activate the propulsion systems. They were ready to move to a safe distance, having received no response from the on surface crew. The last message was received over two minutes ago, and the eerie silence was deafening.
“In the midst of the solar eruption, protocol called for sync-messages every thirty seconds as the peak drew nearer. But with no response, the crew was left to wonder if their communications had been jammed by the blast, or if they were the only ones left.”
The last log entry detailed an unusual energy surge detected beneath the surface of the planet. With each passing second, the possibility of escape dwindled, leaving the crew with nothing but their fears and a haunting silence.
Written, produced, performed by Skrika, Red Fog, Keosz, Sole Massif, Tineidae, Dronny Darko, RNGMNN, Onasander, and In Quantum.
Mercury Mission Diaries is available on Cryo Chamber. [Bandcamp]
