Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

[sinanju]

Who: Everyone
When: About mid-day, five days after Time to put up--
Where: The Whole Colony Site
Invited: ALL PLAY!
Status: Complete

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[Valerie]

[sinanju]

Valerie was working with a computer in the administration building. The image on the monitor flickered, then fuzzed out for a moment. Valerie frowned, annoyed. They hadn't had a bobble in the power supply for weeks.

The monitor flickered again and the columns of numbers broke up into static again. (Shit,) Valerie thought. When the screen cleared momentarily, she tried to save her work. She wasn't sure if it succeeded, but she powered down the machine anyhow.

Only then did she notice that it had grown dark. At lunchtime. She got up and walked over to the window, expecting to see storm clouds. "Holy fuck!"

Valerie ran from the room, down a corridor and out into the open. A vast black...void obscured the sky. It seemed to be hanging low enough that she could reach up and touch it. But the tallest trees in the colony were standing upright. It was clearly higher in the air than it seemed.

And it was fucking huge. Valerie could see blue sky and sunlit landscape miles away, out of the shadow of this...thing. Flying eclipse? Spacecraft--it had to be some kind of spacecraft. A thrill of terror shot through Valerie as she wondered if this was related to the aliens who'd destroyed earth. Had it tracked them to this world to complete the job? Was this why the Alpha and Beta sites had gone silent?

Valerie tore her gaze away from the black void and looked around. It looked like almost everyone in the colony was gaping up at it with her. A couple of mechanics from the motor pool were closest, staring up in mute shock.

Feeling suddenly in need of company, Valerie walked over to join them.