An Iron Heart in Night City: Prologue [Cyberpunk Edgerunner OC]

A Wanderer From Beyond

When one looked up to the night sky, one stared at the face of infinity. Far beyond the confines of humanities cradle, further than the colonies of Mars and out in the vast expanse of space lay the unknown, the final mystery which mankind yet to solve. Staring out to the window of his station, he wondered what was out there, what horrors and wonders lay waiting just beyond his vision.

Seeing the stars in their heavenly procession, he sighed fondly, "It never gets old." While man had stared up to the heavens and wondered for ages, its majesty remained. There was still more to discover. Even now in the year of 2076, after countless generations, man had much to learn.

Tearing his eyes away from the portholes of the observatory, he pulled himself along out of the sleeping quarters and out to the hallway. With how vast the expanse of space was, there was a need for eyes in the sky. As many wonders as there were in the sky, so too were its dangers.

Floating in the microgravity of Floating in the microgravity of the asteroid which the structure was anchored to, the very same he was tasked with tracking, he returned to his workstation. Lights danced across the large holographic screen as numbers from various observatories on their end the observation array filtered to their screen.

It was quite claustrophobic, as the shoebox apartment sized room was further packed with more instruments than he could name, but he got used to it. Squeezing into the tiny space, he sat down beside his coworker, the only other person inside the lonely station, before asking, "So, any news, Jacques?"

The dark skinned man blinked, coming back into focus as he stretched and yawned. "The same as always here in Polaris Station, Noah," The man replied as he rubbed the sleep off his eyes, "Nothing." Indeed, there was nothing of note on the screen. They were looking above the orbital plane after all.

"Why are they making us look up the plane anyways?" The man grumbled as he shifted on his seat, checking on the logs before shaking his head. "There's nothing here," he complained, gesturing at the logs. "It's been what? Ten years since the station was built and we still have yet to spot an asteroid coming from above?" He asked.

"The Polaris station was a joint project between the Highrider and the ESA back in the 2060's, but could I be wrong?" Jacques replied, trying to remember his history, but it had never been his strongest suit. He was more of an orbital mechanics nerd, probably why he got selected for the observatory.

"Still, best to be vigilant," He replied. Space had a nasty habit of throwing spanners into perfectly executed plans. "Who knows, maybe we'll find something exciting. Something that'll rock the world!" He told his companion, partly in jest.

"It'll be a cold day in hell before that happens," The man snorted in amusement before he glanced down at his digital clock, a relic from a darker time. "Hey, how long is it till the next shift arrives," He asked as he got off his seat, stretching his legs, before grabbing a headset he didn't notice, "It's so boring out here. I could only watch a Braindance so many times."

Rolling his eyes at the man's immature hobbies, he fired back, "Says the man who's living the dream." While space had become more accessible to humanity, few could claim to have reached its frontier. "Come on Jacques, where is your sense of wonder? We are in space!" He told his companion. Sometimes, he wondered why his companion didn't have the romanticism that any spaceman should have.

"Noah, there's nothing out here other than our station, the asteroid it's built on, and the millions of miles of emptiness stretching out to every direction," His companion reminded him, pointing at the utter lack of any nearby asteroid, "If I wanted to be excited, I'd just head to the Braindance Bar back in the colony."

Giving the man a deadpan look, he replied, "Jacques, have I told you that you take fun out of everything?" The man was far more obsessed with his digital fantasies than the real, tangible wonders just outside their station.

"What? I am merely stating facts," The man shrugged before turning back to him, "If there's something I should feel right now about space, then it should be fear."

"Fear?" He asked, quirking a brow at his companion. "Why should we be afraid when there's nothing out here?" He sassed back with a grin. "It's not like Arasaka or any of the other foreign Megacorps could just send out anything without us knowing," He added.

"Speaking off," He said as he reached up to the cooler they had inside the room before pulling out some squeeze tubes. "Want some Coffee?" He asked before checking the label, "It's Kabayan Foods, but it should be good enough." He would have preferred the ones from the colony, but Earthbound beverages weren't far off.

"I'll pass," The man replied before humming, "And off, I don't know." Trailing off before rapping his fist against the hard metal shell of the station, "Maybe it's the fact that the only thing keeping us from the vacuum of space is several inches of hardened steel or how we could suffocate if we ever get hit by an EMP. You know, just certain death at every corner."

He plugged his ears, refusing to listen any further. "Lalala, not listening!" He shouted back. He knew the horrors but he hated getting reminded of it. He already had enough time trying to sleep when a random micrometeor pinged against the wall of their station.

"Oh don't be immature," His companion laughed, "We both read this in the manual. I'm just giving you a refresher, that's all."

Grimacing, he glared at the Frenchman, "Jacques, I hate you."

"I love you two buddy," His companion replied as he gazed out into the darkness.

Turning his attention back to the screen, Noah asked, "Still, isn't it amazing that we're out here, further than most humans would ever reach, standing guard and watching for any potential asteroid?" They were further than most of humanity, sitting on the edge of the Asteroid belt, watching the stars and guiding the wayward ship. It almost reminded him of the ancient lighthouses.

"There is something amazing about having control over a gigawatt laser array that could level an entire colony given the chance," He replied with a fond smile, "Until you realize that we'd probably only use this once in our lifetime."

"Come on Noah, just give it up," The man replied, pulling himself back to his station. "You know just how empty space can be," His companion reminded him as he shifted their visual telescope to an empty patch of the sky, showing that there were only stars and dust.

"It's vast and empty, stupidly so. It's not like our instruments would just suddenly detect a meteor on a collision course with any major colony or our planet," His friend added before leaning back on his seat.

Noah sighed as rested his chin against his palm. Maybe his companion was right, that nothing was out there. Still, he wished something would happen. As unlikely as it was, there must be more to their stationing other than just watching over the instruments that scientists used to scan the night sky.

If he had known however that his wish would get answered, he might have wished differently as the alarms started blaring. His face paled as he felt the automatic scanning array shifting, training upon a spot in the night sky. Without a second to waste, he instructed his companion, "Jacques, activate the defense array, now!"

The man's eyes lit up as he jacked himself into the system, hooking the man's sense to the computer. "Fucking hell," the man grimaced as data flashed on Jacque's end of the terminal. His eyes widened as he saw the numbers. Quickly converting it, he felt his stomach drop; 0.01 C.

At first, he thought it was a glitch, as the numbers were far too high, but the bright red dot on the telescope told him otherwise.Turning the dish to the general direction of the Moon, he called out to his superiors, "Homebase Tycho, this is the Polaris Station." Packaging the data, he gave them a brief description of the unknown object as the arrays locked on them. "Speed, 0.01C. Composition, Unknown. Probably metallic in nature. Size based on estimates, several dozen meters in diameter. Distance from our station, currently at 4 AU."

Sending the message, he hoped whoever received it wouldn't chalk it off as a joke as having to argue with someone was not something he relished right now. Despite the base possessing some serious hardware, communication across the vast distance of space was still limited by the laws of physics.

Thirty three minutes and twelve seconds, that's how long it takes to communicate between their stations and the colony on the moon. While it would take hours for the asteroid to reach earth, any minute of delay would be catastrophic. At that speed, even a small meteorite was going to hit hard. If things comes to worst

"Priming the laser Array," His friend replied as their station rumbled. Twelve powerful lasers, each one capable of discharging untold potential heated up as they soaked the power from the distant sun, "Ready to fire when authorized." If the worst comes to worst, they could fire, consequences be damned.

"Sending data now," Noah said as he sent the coordinates of the unknown object over to the other side. "Requesting permission to fire the Polaris Laser Array," he asked as the minutes started to tick by.

It was an hour of nerve wracking wait spent measuring and remeasuring the object. Still, the data did not lie. It was going fast and it was going to hit the Earth head on. After what felt like an eternity, a reply patched through. "This is Homebase Tycho and we received your warning and confirmed the identity of the extrasolar asteroid," The voice on the other end said and both him and Jaques let out a sigh of relief, "Permission to fire the Polaris Laser Array granted."

"Copy that," Noah replied as he nodded at his friend. It was time

"Laser One to Twelve firing in three," Jacques counted down before the various laser cannons scattered across their little patch of space fired in unison. It was silent, a minute line even from the one attached to their station, traveling faster than any human made projectile.

"This is Station Polaris," He told his superiors as he watched the projected path of the laser on his screen, "We have just fired on the extrasolar and are currently redirecting its trajectory." From their distance, it might take less time to intercept the object, but it was still far away.

"Our work is done," Sighing in relief, Jacques leaned back against his seat. "Now, we wait," he replied, their eyes glued upon the screen. It was admittedly anti-climatic, but combat in space was "slow" given the distance involved.

"It's a damn shame that we can't observe it because it'll hit earth, but at least we can watch the fireworks from here," He told his companion. At such an angel, coming towards them from direction outside the galaxy and its speed, he had a feeling it came from further beyond anything he imagined, but it was a danger.

Given that the laser array was meeting the asteroid head on, they didn't need to wait for long. Their computer beeped in just a few minutes as the light from the hit reached their station. "Homebase Tycho, Laser Array has hit the asteroid…" He replied, watching the blurry image lit up before he trailed off as their screen turned white. "Wait, it just exploded?" he whispered in confusion.

"Mission… accomplished?" Noah replied as they checked the instruments. Ever looked fine on their end. Was it just a metal dust ball rather than a solid object?

"No…" He whispered, frowning as he observed the glowing debris cloud. "This can't be right," He mused out loud. He expected a jet of material, but not outright vaporization. Their weapon was powerful, but not that powerful to destroy several tons of material.

His instincts would be proven right as their instruments found the object once more and it was faster. "Homebase Tycho, we just reestablished visuals on the asteroid and it's getting faster," He told them, growing paler as the numbers grew and the object glowing as it shifted direction, "0.02 C, 0.10 C, the numbers, they just keep rising!"

No longer waiting for confirmation, Noah kept firing. Doing his best to intercept the object, but its variables were changing far too fast for them to get a lock. "My god," Noah whispered as a flood of messages hit them. The various arrays were firing as well, lighting up the night sky.

He felt elation filled his chest as it slammed into the object, but it wasn't slowing down. "What do we do now?" Noah whispered, their screen flashing in warning as they had melted their laser's lenses.

"... Nothing," He whispered, terror filling his heart at how helpless he felt. They couldn't stop it, nothing could.

"Where is it going to hit?" Noah whispered, turning their telescope to the pale blue dot on the night sky. The message of the object's imminent collision probably spread despite the futile effort. Having reached a steady 0.2c, the earth had maybe… a few hours at best?

Doing a quick and dirty napkin calculation on the computer based on the earth's position and how far it was, he watched the simulation show the object slamming against the coastline of the new world. "The Western Seaboard of the Continental North America," He whispered, staring at the City at the heart of it all; Night City

"May god have mercy on their soul…" Jacques whispered as he sank into his chair. He just hoped that when the city received the grim news that they would have enough sense to evacuate immediately.\

A/N: 

Could have started with the evacuation of Night City, but decided to have some fun with some observatories detecting it first. Unlike the inspiration which is the Iron Giant, Cyberpunk is a bit more advance. Once our little friend lands, he'd be far more of an interest given his first introduction.

Sorry it took this long to get it out.