Xv-827: ((new))

Somewhere in the Nyx system, the Interstellar Mineral Survey updated their charts. XV-827: Destroyed. Cause: reactor overload. No survivors.

Then she walked to the horizon, as far from the shaft as her failing suit could take her, and sat down on a ridge of frozen ammonia to watch the stars. Behind her, the Sisyphus detonated. The nuclear flash turned XV-827 into a brief, furious sun. The shockwave vaporized the shaft, the cathedral, the sphere. xv-827

By the time she reached the surface, the radiation storm was beginning. The Sisyphus ’s reactor would go critical in six hours. She had no ship. No fuel. No hope. Somewhere in the Nyx system, the Interstellar Mineral

No. She bit the inside of her cheek until she tasted blood. The pain anchored her. She was Elara Venn. She was a prospector. And she was terrified. No survivors

But the silence on that lonely, shattered rock remembered. And in the end, that was enough.