zfighter18

Massive Disaster 4 - Interlude III

Added 2025-10-14 04:47:15 +0000 UTC

EXTRANET CHANNEL 1517: The feed shifted, signal clearing up as the visual of the dusty rust-colored surface of a mining asteroid filled the view. A reporter — human, handsome, but clearly aging past his prime — stood in front of the camera drone. The man was fully enclosed, face behind a pristine faceplate and every remaining inch of his body sealed in a clean black hardsuit, a bright blue VI stamped onto the right chestplate. Behind him stood the massive moving industry of a massive mining operation, workers in the background operating heavy machinery as they all wwore hardsuits not dissimilar to his but far bulkier and in a rugged gunmetal gray color scheme.

“—k Brink, reporting for Terminus News Network. We’re here in the Caleston Rift on a rock known only as ‘Perdition’s Anvil’. For the last fifteen years, this asteroid has seen great success in industry but also a great loss of life and health in the process.” The reporter gestured one hand behind him, the workers ignoring him as they went about their workday. “Exceedingly high casualty rates, regular equipment failures, toxic dust… a miner’s life out here has rarely been little more than short and brutal. But six months ago, that took a turn as Victory Innovations stepped in.”

The drone’s lens zoomed past the reporter, viewfinder soaring above the man even as his attached mic continued picking up his voice. “As part of their initial outreach in a program they’re calling the Destinity Initiative, Victory has donated literal thousands of their original Mk. 1 ‘VEST’ hardsuits to colonial mining operations like this one, in an effort to provide safer working conditions for humanity’s unspoken heroes.”

The drone’s view began to lower, closing in on one of the workers, the man turning around as the voice carried through the drone. “Many analysts in Citadel space have dismissed this as a simple PR stunt. But talk to the men and women on the ground, and you’ll hear a different story. Sir, Derek Brink with TNN, what can you say about Victory’s PR stunt here?”

The worker in question stared back at the drone with a single raised eyebrow, face all worn wrinkles and enough pockmarked scars to map out the surface of Luna. “Stunt?” Shaking his head, the worker leaned back against a piece of heavy machinery, arms folded across his chestplate right below the VI logo.

“Stunt?” He repeated again, shaking his head one more time like the word was the most ridiculous thing he’d ever heard. “Heh. Talkin’ bout stunts. Look, I’ve been workin’ these rocks over fifteen years. Almost twenty now. I’ve… you know I’ve seen men flash-fried by leaks, crushed in tunnels, choked to death from dust-lung. All we had… all they gave us were tin cans, barely enough to handle the shit of a week’s work before a patch-up.” The older man sucked his teeth, staring off over the horizon of the asteroid. “Hell, my last suit… O2 scrubber s**t itself if you looked at it wrong. Maybe five minutes of air if you had nothing to recycle.”

The worker scoffed out loud, breath fogging against the translucent faceplate. One fist thumped up against the VI logo on his chest, three knocks to the symbol of the company behind it. “This ain’t a suit, it’s a f*kin’ lifesaver, is what it is. Self-sealing, medical shit, barriers; hell, it even tracks where you are. Last week, I got pinned down in a tunnel. Old suit, I’d have bled out or waited for the rescue team to find my corpse. This thing… it kept me stable and conscious and breathing for three hours till they dug me out. This PR stunt saved my leg. And my life. So yeah, you can f*k right off that.”

‘NexusFlow’ - Terminus/Traverse Feed

@ElysiumFarmer
- Saw the Victory announcement. We’re finally getting QEC? About damn time, can’t believe it took some startup to do this. Sent a message to my cousin on Feros last month. A whole three days before it got through the damn queue. THREE. Burst window had me waiting a whole 72 hours. The Citadel can shove their relays up their collective asses.
@TraverseingtheMInes
- I got a big bro up on the Anvil. Man’s only alive cus of one of the VESTs. VI doing more for us in a month than the Alliance did in a decade. Fuck em all. I want VICTORY.
@THauler
- I still say this is bullshit. You telling me it took some brat wanting to do some charity to make our lives better like this? Fuck the Council. Fuck the Citadel. Fuck the lazy fucking Alliance.

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

“We begin tonight with the ‘Panacea’ phenomenon…”

The smooth voice of one Deston Layman sounded out through the studio, the Alliance News Network second shift anchor. Displaying a face that managed to pull off professional concern with skill borne of long hours of practice, he turned to stare down the nearest camera drone with eyes narrowed just enough to convey his tone. “What began as a simple corporate tech startup on the edge of the terminus has radically grown in the last three years as Victory Innovations positions itself as a challenger in the Terminus. It is this Panacea Initiative that serves as the corporate expansion into colonial healthcare, the program itself being one of three major initiatives pushed forward by Victory Innovations, but is it trustworthy?”

The camera pulled back from the lead anchor’s face, the bright blue chyron below him showing the date — March 9, 2182 | 2439 DP-C2-2B D — scrolling by and disappearing as other information superseded it.

“The Panacea Initiative’s promises are many, but chief among those are revolutionary medical care to those desperately in need, in a move many are calling Victory-Care,” Anya Sharma, longtime co-anchor, continued with a voice equally as polished as her partner. “But our investigation has uncovered a shocking twist to this supposedly philanthropic program and the possible cost it might have on the colonies that take part in it. Specifically, the contractual obligations binding these colonies to Victory Innovations.”

“The Panacea Initiative,” Layman took over again, “as it’s been branded, promises medical solutions and technologies on the bleeding edge with affordable care for those in need. But at what cost? We go now to Horizon’s Edge for a field report.”

A graphic pulsed across the screen — three letters of the Alliance News Network Acronym flashing — before the image wiped away in luminous threadlike lines of silver.

——————————————

The feed stuttered for a split second, only to resolve into the slightly jostled viewfinder of a clearly-less maintained camera drone. In front of the screen was a pale-skinned woman with black hair in a short bob, the chyron beneath her displaying her name and title in a single clean wipe: Lina Korvac - Field Reporter.

She stood in a gleaming lobby, white walls and blue lighting making the place nearly indistinguishable from some buildings on Ilium in terms of elegance, at least. Humans moved in the background, some taking seats and others simply milling arounds, the soft hum of drones and technology a constant undertone.

“Just two months ago, this was a simple prefab, a large and empty space on the colony of Horizon’s Edge, a small colony on the edge of the Traverse.” The camera drone panned over to another open space in the expansive lobby where a floating drone projected a holographic cartoon in front of a small laughing child. “The Panacea Initiative is Victory Innovation’s newest expansion; this time into the health industry, the second tine of the company’s trident into the heart of the colonial systems.”

The camera shifted to a man outfitted as only a miner would be, sitting in the lobby with an arm around a small boy as his hand tightly gripped the child’s. “We’ve been all over… they told me to prepare… to lose my boy. Glass lung, they said. No cure you could get out here, and nothing we could afford in Alliance space. Th-they…”

The father’s voice cracked as he rubbed his son’s head, the boy breathing easily through a nasal cannula; none of the haggard, blood-filled rasping that was expected with Industrial Pulmonary Crystallosis. “Victory grew my boy a new damn lung in three days.”

NexusFlow Social Feed - Trending #VictoryCare

@ely_heartline
- CRYING. Just left V-care in north Edge. they ain’t lie. No, they never lie. Not one bit. kid’s lungs WORKING. full breaths no wheeze. four splice sessions, TWO HOURS EACH. perfect. Just perfect.
@talktalktravers [REPLY]
- You seee what they ask tho? Small type a bitch. Your colony sold your labor away. 20-yr - TWO DECADE - clause buried in those V-forms. Taking your ore and you can’t do nun about it, dumbfucks. galaxy don’t on “miracles™.”
@citwatcher2158
- None of you thinkin ahead. Gene mods done in renov prefabs? Flash cloning implant organs? You joking joking or just crazy crazy? this literally how the Thessian Fever started, people.
@digdugdave [REPLY]
- yeah yeah, go fuuuuuuck yourself. Shove a vibro-pick up your citadelaliensucking ass. when my hull crew were coughing up blue foam? V fixed us. Don’t care if my skin go blu. MY FAVORITE COLOR.
@alli_newsfeed
- Alliance BROAD-DROP!!!!!! citizens advised to seek treatment through sanctioned med-clinics, Alliance-owned or affiliated. Risks to public health are unknown and results are unverified.

@scropscrapsam: [REPLY]
- The fuck are the sanctions? Where the fuck exactly? Zion’s main one got fucked over by raids. The secondary one’s a shitshow and Beken’s might as well fuck you up the MASSHOLE with as much as they’re asking? you want us cured or dead?

@NovaBellyache
- Lmao cuso just got a new hand arm, full CY-SLEEVE piece with cloned skin WRAP TOO, i don’t caaare. They cud take my other nut if they want.

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

Grainy omnitool footage was always a problem with older models, and shaky hands rarely made the matter any easier. Even still, the hands that held the omnitool high in the air managed to keep it as still as could be expected as it panned across a crowd gathered at the Caelus Reach spaceport.

A large transport sat on the tarmac, side marked with two letters in that stunning electric blue that immediately caught the eye. Crates marked with medical symbols were being unloaded from it by efficient drones and workers alike, loaded onto hovering platforms. “Vic-to-ry! Vic-to-ry!” Chants rose, loud but still muffled by the omnitool’s cheap mic. “Vic-to-ry! Vic-to-ry!”

“They’re here! The new shipment!” Whoever yelled it, they went unseen but certainly not unheard as the crowd began to roar, a wave of static overwhelming the mic as the recording began to sputter for a final time.

– o – o – o – o – o – o – o –

VICTORY INNOVATIONS OFFICIAL PRESS RELEASE: FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION

Victory Innovations Reaffirms Commitment to Colonial Health