Tarrant's Log
15 May 2017Dell Tarrant
I departed Davs Hope whist the sun was still above the horizon. Prior to leaving though, I did notice another ship, right on the periphery of scanner range. It was just sitting there, somewhere up in the mountains overlooking the mining outpost. I caught a glimpse of out when light reflected off it's surface. It didn't hang around after that, almost as if it knew I'd seen it. I couldn't get a proper ID but whoever it was, it was small and fast...and didn't want to be seen.I departed soon after that, setting course for Zaonce. The system held a lot of memories for me. Most of them good, but just a few that still gave me nightmares.I hadn't been back to Zaonce since that fateful meeting at Ridley Scott with Commander Drake. A lot had happened in the intervening year. I headed towards the moon of the 5th planet, imputing the coordinates that I had discovered. As I entered low orbit I crossed into darkness and eased toward a small darkened crater. Switching on the landing lights I brought the Elysium Pathfinder into a hover and lowered the landing gear, preparing for touch down.
Once the reactor was powered down to idling, I peered out through the cockpit across the hull of the Anaconda. The floor of the crater was almost in total darkness, the local gas giant that the moon orbited having not yet risen over the crater rim. I made my way down to the SRV bay, buckled in and commenced deployment. Once on the surface, I set the SRV scan range to maximum and headed out.
It was as if I was tracking through the depths of an ocean, as the lights of the SRV picked out rock formations, which in themselves cast eerie shadows in my path. Sooner than I expected, I crested a low rise and the, ahead of me, a vague shape started to coalesce out of the darkness. As I approached, I started to make out a semi familiar shape. It was an Asp, although a heavily modified one, and old as well. I brought the SRV to a slow halt and played the spotlights across its surface, picking out details. Some of the modifications had me scratching my head as to what they were for. And then I picked out the faded lettering on the side of the hull. One word.....Harmony. I was home.