View source for A Mine's Life (Nova Terra)

{{Cutscene Header
|Date of Scene=2019/12/04
|Location=Pridewater Orbit
|Synopsis=A spider mine watches events play out as the Dominion stealth warship, the Griffin, encounters some difficulties.
|Cast of Characters=6381
}}
In an empty room sit several consoles. Their screens are blank. But one soon flickers to life, displaying three lines of text:

--Transmission received.

--Detonation Log.

--Spider Mine 556E73756E67/4865726F

The screen then changes to show a camera view very close to a floor. Whatever is recording is moving along the floor fast in what looks like a metal corridor. Occasionally a mechanical leg will appear on each side of the screen as the object apparently scuttles along. It soon comes to a stop in front of a door and pauses for a moment.

The door swooshes open, a pair of leather boots stepping past. The view moves once more as it scuttles through the now open door. Another boot, a little more armoured this time, comes down very close in front of the camera, causing it to stop. Then a voice, "Damnit, what the hell is that thing doing here?"

The camera pans up to show a woman with blonde hair in a ponytail, wearing a skintight bodysuit, regaining her footing after apparently almost stepping on the object. She moves over next to a man at a nearby console, his cybernetic hands tapping away at it. A white shader appears over each of them, before flashing blue and fading away.

The man turns his head to look towards the camera, before saying, "It must have wandered out of the bay. I'll have someone come up and collect it."

"Good." The blonde woman leans back against the console and crosses her arms, "Last thing I need is an explosion on my ship. Status?"

The man looks back to the console, resuming typing, "They're still holding."

The woman hehs, "That's almost two days now. Not bad. Still haven't managed to push back though?"

The man nods, "Whenever they attempt it, the zerg assault intensifies to match."

The woman shrugs, "They're probably building up their forces too." She smirks, "I guess we'll have to put a stop to that!"

A crewmember at another console speaks up, "Ma'am, we've reached our destination. Returning to normal space in three, two, one..."

The camera suddenly shakes, sliding across the floor a bit. The people in view also stumble and there is the muffled sound of an explosion. Alarm lights begin to flash. The blonde woman shouts, "What was that!?"

The man responds fairly calmly, "Unclear. Sensors were briefly disrupted by the jump. Internal reports indicate a hull breach on deck two. Emergency bulkheads have closed. And there is a power buildup in-" Electricity begins to arc all across the bridge, lights and screens beginning to explode.

Then it all stops and the view goes dark.

The view switches over to a faint green glow, amplifying the distant starlight coming through the bridge windows. The woman hmphs, "Great. Get me engineering."

The man is silent for a moment, before saying, "Internal communications are down. I will attempt to restore them."

It's at this point that the camera turns, the object deciding to scuttle back through the now stuck open door. Through the nightvision mode, a few crew can be seen carefully rushing through the corridor. After a few more moments, the lights flicker back to life, the view returning to normal. The camera skitters up to another door, which opens soon after. Two pairs of feet walk past, while the camera moves inside. Judging by the extremely close quarters and lack of other exits, it appears to be a lift. With two crew still inside.

The doors slide shut and judging by the sound, the lift begins to move. One of the crew, oddly enough voiced by Yuri Lowenthal, asks excitedly, "What do you think is going on?"

The other crewmember grumbles, "Dunno."

Yuri-crewmember asks, "Think we're under attack?"

Another grumble, "Dunno."

Yuri-crewmember ponders, "I wonder if it was sabotage... Think it could be sabotage?"

Grumbling-crewmember finally replies, "Buddy, I've been with you the whole time. What makes you think I know ANY MORE THAN YOU DO!?"

The lift finally stops and the two crewmembers get off. The camera follows, skittering out into a rather large room. Two large pieces of machinery hang on either side of an open corridor. They're humming with the sound of energy, light flowing along them. The camera scuttles across the floor, before panning up to show a man in a yellow jumpsuit. The same white shader from before flashes over him, before turning blue.

Jumpsuit is leaning over a console, looking at a large screen attached to it. The blonde woman's face is on it as she asks with an annoyed tone, "What do you mean the main conduits are fekked!?"

Jumpsuit responds, "The explosion hit one of the main lines at the same moment the warp drive was cycling. It created a cascade through the conduits. The safeties kicked in to keep us from being turned into a million pieces, but most of the mains were damaged in the process."

The woman groans before asking, "How long to do repairs?"

Jumpsuit shrugs, "Two weeks? In a shipyard."

... "Two weeks? We're not likely to last TWO MINUTES!" The woman pinches the bridge of her nose for a moment as she thinks, before waving her hand, "Fine. Funnel everything we've got through the secondaries into the warp drive. We're getting out of here."

Jumpsuit coughs for a moment, before saying, "Ah, ma'am-"

The woman cuts him off, "Yeah, yeah. I know. Do it anyway. We've gotta get the hell out of here, fast!" The screen flashes, before returning to showing a bunch of readouts.

Jumpsuit begins typing into the console, muttering to himself, "Great. Now it's going to be three weeks." He hits a button to finish. The light being produced by the two large pieces of machinery begins to brighten, the hum growing louder. Soon energy starts to arc across the machines, which are clearly operating in a way that they shouldn't be.

But at this point the camera turns away, once more skittering down a new corridor. It quickly rounds a corner, before suddenly running straight into a giant metal boot.

There is a clang and a grizzled grunt of, "Damn thing, get out of the way." The giant metal boot moves back, before swinging towards the camera. The view suddenly goes wild, showing a bit of static as numerous views of the corridor from all angles speed past. Finally the camera comes to a jarring halt, before sliding back down to the ground, upside down.

The sound of light metal on metal scraping can be heard as the camera turns, flipping up and righting itself. It finally pans upwards to show two large people wearing even larger suits of black power armour. The white shader appears over both of them. And while one flashes blue, the one at the front flashes red... For just a moment. But it then switches to blue, before fading away.

The large man at the front hmphs in amusement as he looks towards the camera, before his attention is drawn by the other asking, "Major, are we deploying!?"

The first man snorts, "Are you a fekklehead? Haven't you looked out a window!? We'd be bits floating in the void LONG before we hit atmo."

The other armoured giant looks disappointed, "Aw man. But those guys on the ground are fighting for their lives! We've gotta help 'em. Besides, I'm itching to test out my new rifle and mow down some 'lings!"

The first man hmms in agreement, but then claps one of his large power armour gloves on the shoulder armour of the other and says with a grin, "Don't sweat it. The Agent ain't gonna leave them to it. She's probably already thinkin' up a plan to lay some pain down on those zerg. C'mon let's get to the armory." The two large men begin to stomp down the corridor. The camera follows them for a short time, before turning away and moving off too.

As the camera skitters down the corridor, the familiar voice of the blonde woman can suddenly be heard over an internal speaker system. She quickly says, "Incoming Scourge, brace!"

Shortly after, the corridor wall just ahead of the camera suddenly blasts inwards in an explosion. An impact wave hits the camera knocking it around a bit. The fiery blast lasts for only a moment though, before it is forcefully sucked back through the new hole. The camera suddenly lifts up off the floor, soon pulled through the same hole.

The view shows the exterior of a spaceship, quickly moving away. There are two large holes in its side, sparking with damage. Getting further and further away, the ship suddenly distorts as it lurches forward, suddenly vanishing into a flash of light. All that is left is space.

The camera slowly pans for a minute or two, everything still as the stars silently move across its view. But eventually a rounded edge of blue starts forming on the side. A planet slowly begins to come into view. Its surface looks mostly covered in water, with a few small and medium sized landmassess dotting it.

However, as the planet's full form continues to come into view, something else can be seen. Initially just blots against the backdrop of ocean, they begin to grow in size and number. What was just a few handfuls has now grown to many more, even as the forms of the first ones begin to take shape. Soon details can be made out, showing the objects to be creatures. As they get closer, the camera can make out wings, eyes, teeth.

And there are now hundreds of them, potentially thousands, beginning to eclipse out the planet. It's a veritable swarm of monsters.

Eventually one of them breaks off from the main group, changing course and heading straight towards the camera. It quickly closes in, a large maw of teeth silently snapping. The white shader appears over the creature, before quickly turning red. As the creature finally streaks in towards the camera, words appear in the center of the view in red:

DETONATOR TRIGGERED - TRANSMITTING LOG

The view then goes completely black.

Finally, the console flashes back up on the screen:

--Transmission end.