I wanna feel you in my bones (part LXVII)

(Roleplay entry. Continued from part LXVI.)

1.2 found artifact: Summary Report on the Disappearance and Reappearance of Vanderdecken Carrier /Orchid/
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• Note taken on [2508-05-01 Tue 04:35]

Vanderdecken-class heavy carrier Orchid encountered during patrol,
heavily damaged and boarded by pirate vessel. Moving to arrest.

• Note taken on [2508-05-01 Tue 04:40]

Pirate vessel responded to surrender by undocking and targeting
weapons. We fired upon it in self-defense. Sensors show it now as
adrift and venting atmo. Distress call received from crew of Orchid,
requesting assistence passifying boarding party. Boarding to engage.

• Note taken on [2508-05-01 Tue 04:44]

We docked are unable to board due to sabotage by boarders. I'm
sending Myers and Biggs to clear us a way in, while Jesse and I keep
scanning for other pirate vessels. It's unusual to find pirates
operating like this out of a single ship. I have a bad feeling about
this.

• Note taken on [2508-05-01 Tue 06:51]

*pause* sigh* We've taken four prisoners. Three passengers, one
*crew. All of the pirates are dead. Looks like they attacked,
*boarded and… started eating them. This wasn't a supply raid,
*either. The records say the Orchid was a legitimate shipping vessel
*operating between Georgia and Blue Sun. But the crew, the
*passengers... they're sympathizers. Whole ship reeks of it. And of
*what their sympathy got them. It's wrong to think of the rebels as
*soldiers if this is what they do. If they do this to their own.
*They're vermin. Not people... *pause* Myers is... dead. He was trying
*to pull the pin on his own grenade when they started eating
*him. How the hell am I supposed to tell his family that? *pause*
*I've radioed for backup. We don't have the space to process live
*prisoners. And we need some help to clean up this... mess. God
*knows good people don't deserve to know about it.

:ADDENDUM: The wreckage of the Carter and an unidentified attack vessel were recovered at [2508-05-01 Tue 14:12] near the distress beacon of the Orchid, which had been set adrift in space. Preliminary investigation suggested the Carter had been caught directly in another ship's pulse.

The wreckage of the Carter did not contradict what could have been done by the Orchid's pulse drive, provided the IAF vehicle's external gravity had been sabotaged first, and no one moved it out of the way. The Orchid was listed as stolen by the insurrectionists, its crew and passengers reported dead.

The Vanderdecken-class freighter was not seen again until it was sighted by IAF forces at Sihnon [2519-02-01 Wed 19:47] whereupon the Orchid was immediately captured and boarded. Her sole occupant gave the name "Empty Orchid" which it then clarified as "kōng lán" (空兰).

空兰 claims that one of the other survivors of the Orchid began killing everyone, and that it fled from the Carter back to the Orchid to escape. It claims to have been drifting through the deep black, meditating, until the Miranda broadcast. These claims are being verified.

空兰 claims the motive for returning to Alliance worlds was to join the Companion's Guild, on the belief that stabilizing cultural institutions such as the Guild are the only thing which "can keep all of us from becoming Reavers."

空兰 has been permitted to join a Guild Companion House after very rigorous examinations have revealed astonishingly little. Unusual regenerative ability has been exhibited by the subject as well as manipulation of its own anatomy, and it may possess some psychic capacity as well, albeit well below what is cultivated at The Academy. The subject is considered to be highly dangerous, highly disciplined, and operating with unknown motives. Guild leadership has agreed to accept the subject as a student, with security detail provided by Blue Sun Corporation to closely monitor the situation and keep appropriate government personnel apprised.

For all its strangeness, and despite its insistence upon non-personed pronouns and claims that it is not a person, the subject appears to still be human.


(Continued in part LXVIII.)