Now for the good news. The loss of the data in Halla must have spooked them, because they commissioned text transcripts of the videos to be stored elsewhere—in case the original filmstreams were ever lost or damaged or hacked or held hostage by the rebels. Those transcripts, I was able to access. They’ll do fine, won’t they?

I’ll have to send them to you piecemeal. Too big of a file, and ISF will get suspicious. Just keep writing back to me, so that I’m not sending you many unanswered messages in a row. That would be suspicious, too. You can say things like, “How’s little Nicky! Can I see a picture of him?” I’ll hide the transcript files in the pics. Click on the eyebrows to execute; type the name of that stupid blue toy we used to fight over to unlock.

Aren’t you lucky your little sister is in Communications Sector? And you always told me the job would be shit.

Love,

S.S.]

Video Logs from the CS Wyvern 7079

Recorded for Posterity

Transcribed by Officer A. Sagara

#900382

Transcriber’s notes: These logs were filmed by a first-generation HARE (Heuristic Analysis, Reconnaissance, and Exploration) model, a unit from the 270-RX line. Serial number has not yet been recovered, as of this recording. A HARE is an exploration robot used by surveyors and miners to analyze terrain. It looks like a large mechanical spider, about 1.3 meters tall, with eight titanium legs, plungered feet, and a box sitting on its top, which houses the HARE’s camera, processors, cataphotes, scanners, total station theodolite, gyrotheodolite, and other tools. This HARE’s video logs were first received by the merchant vessel RA Ryujin, which then relayed them to ISF Corvus.

VIDEO LOG #1—Ship Designation CS Wyvern 7079

Day 1: 10:38 UTO

[The HARE model activates for the first time. Its camera blinks on, fuzzy, then focused. The cockpit of a small mining ship appears in its view: a two-seater, very cramped, the ship itself shaped like a teardrop with a conic drill at its point. The HARE looks at the control panel in the room and the bank of video screens that show the exterior of the ship. There is a multitude of stars on the screens. In the distance, there seems to be a small white planet or moon, about the size of a fist.]

[Abruptly, a man appears in the camera’s eye, very close. There’s a loud scrambling noise as he adjusts something on the HARE’s ‘head.’ The man is tall, approximately 2 meters in height, with a large nose, white-blond hair, and gray eyes. He appears to be in his late twenties or early thirties. There’s an indistinct Martian tattoo on the right side of his neck. A thin scar cuts halfway through his left eyebrow. His nametag reads CS Engineer Fin Taban.]

[Taban fiddles with the camera lens of the HARE, then points it at the bank of video screens.]