The Processing II Anomaly

Overview

At 4 A.M., a faint illegal broadcast signal drew the crew into the mothballed Processing II sector of MacMillian Station IV — sensors and cameras offline, access granted by Maintenance Chief Zigurds Sloan, whose cutting torch revealed the blast door had been covertly resealed multiple times and the welds disguised to look original. In the loading bay, Shackleton Magellan followed dust footprints to a single sealed Kinetic Logistics Container. Opened, it held a Mysterious Relay wiring a standard human comm system to a terminal displaying non-human symbols, the alien side seemingly grown into the container wall — and a “Kinetic Logistics” countdown ticking down.

The container tore loose, dragged toward space by a hijacked drone while every station drone sat remotely disabled. Six leaped the widening gap and boarded it. Inside he severed the relay with his vibro-axe as ruptured cylinders released Corrosive Goo that ate the electronics; the alien material knit itself back together when cut, so he carved two Alien Metal Chunks free, kicked them clear, and thrustered out as the container vanished into a sensor-recorded vortex.

Participants

• Six — boarded the container, destroyed the relay, recovered the only surviving evidence.
• Shackleton Magellan — found the container, worked the control room, saw the disabled drones, got a partial scan of the alien material.
• Ronin Sanchez & Rock Lavey — sealed into the break room during depressurization.
• Zigurds Sloan — granted access; noted the repeated resealing; later took custody of the samples.
• Holger Graeme — ordered the mission and the intercept; confined the crew afterward.

Outcome

• The intercept team recovered Six from open space. The two Alien Metal Chunks were confiscated as evidence and sent to Zigurds Sloan for analysis.
• Debriefed by Holger Graeme and Solveig Kaufer (who logged the “vortex” event); the station manager broke off to attend investor Peter Goodwin.
• The crew was confined to quarters, then reassigned to a maintenance-escort run to Thides III — which they read as a maneuver to remove them while Goodwin visits.