"We failed..."
"After everything we did, all we lost...Cyberstan is still under Automaton control."
"What now?" they thought, looking at the fuel gauge of their super destroyer. Incoming fire from anti air emplacements forced an emergency evacuation. One of the shots must have hit the secondary and tertiary fuel cells, because the ship was nearly out of fuel. The Helldiver pressed a series of buttons on their console and with a loud clack pressed the enter key. The terminal responded with a low chirp of disapproval as the message "No Connection" blinked onto the screen. "No fuel, no comms, ...no hope...We are stranded until our air reserves dry up and we suffocate. Perhaps that is the fate we deserve for our failure.." they mumbled to the slumped corpse that was once their democracy officer. A large ornate shoulder pad glistened on the officer's uniform, the reflective colors of gold and red glinted in reflected starlight as the Helldiver diverted their gaze. Just as the soldier was about to give up hope, the navigation terminal cut the silence with an audible beep. With the clatter of keys they opened the navigation console, a large glowing orb of jagged shapes blinking into existence above the holo-table. As the diver leaned on the table to get a closer look the surface groaned in protest. "An undocumented planet? Its likely swarming with bots but...the only other option is back where we came." the diver muttered as they flicked a number of switches and the ship engines whirred in activation. The ship's FTL drive was damaged and unstable, and even if it wasn't they did not have enough fuel to risk a jump. It would take two months, but the ship would eventually make it's way to safety....relative safety.
It would be nearly three months before the super destroyer made it to the planet's orbit, damaged thrusters and fuel lines made even the most basic travel difficult. With the few engineers that lived, repairs were slow and parts were few. Many of the crew had died of their wounds during the first few days, unable to give proper medical attention due to damaged facilities and storage compartments, leading to low medical supplies and trashed equipment. Those that didn't bleed out would begin to starve. Food rations were only meant to last a month at most, way longer than any operation would take for the average helldiver. With much of the food being used during the siege and a lot of it being lost to the anti-air bombardments, rations had run out weeks ago. The crew at first maintained professionalism, rationing what they had to the best of their ability, conserving water and recycling their own urine, and disabling artificial gravity to reduce caloric needs during the long trip. This only lasted as long as the food did, within 3 days a difficult choice had to be made. The remaining crew as well as the Helldiver in charge made the reluctant decision to consume their fallen to preserve those who still lived. Many of the dead had been cremated, the crew never imagining they would come to regret giving their fellow citizens a proper send off. Though gruesome the crew had staved off hunger and the on board cooks were even able to prepare the food in such a way as to reduce the mental trauma by making it appear as beef stew.
These provisions however, ran out two weeks ago.
The ship was dead quiet, those who did not take their own lives had begun to hunt their own, seeing them not as fellow citizens of Super Earth, but as the cure for the sharp pains in their bellies and the feral urges in their minds. The ship was littered with the floating remains of the crew, their bloodied bones stripped of flesh and left to float aimlessly throughout the cargo bay. Within the navigation room a single crew member had locked themselves down to prevent the horde of feral dissidents from ripping them apart and devouring them like terminids. In their hand was a fully loaded senator revolver, the matte black finish barely reflecting any light as they weakly aimed it at the only entrance. It had been nearly a week since they had eaten. They swore it had only been a few days, they swore they had slept only recently, they swore they could not hear the voices of those they had consumed. The Diver looked at the side of their revolver and slowly pulled it closer to the face. The pistol was rough and had seen much action, the memories of spreading managed democracy began flooding back to them as the barrel grew ever closer. Pressing the end of the barrel to their temple they slowly began to squeeze the trigger....Beep.
The navigation terminal had notified them that the ship had reached orbit and was now able to land upon it's surface. It would have to be a crash landing with the lack of fuel, but once upon the surface they may find local fauna to sustain the crew and perhaps find a way to make it back home to Super Earth. The Helldiver slowly rose from their seated position and hovered over the navigation terminal. With a heavy clack, they hit the enter key, and the ship began to descend. The ship's warning alarms began to blare throughout the ship as it decended faster and faster. 200 mps....250.....350.....600...2000. The ship's landing thrusters were damaged with the rest of the ship and with limited and leaking fuel were struggling to cope with the rapid decent of the massive super destroyer. The sound of desperate banging rang out from the bridge entrance door, the hungry crew members how begging to be spared as the ship surpassed 500 kmps. The ship was beginning to break apart and the likelihood of survival on surface impact was minimal. The screams grew louder and louder but were slowly drowned out by the sound of blistering air grinding against the ships glowing hot hull. There was no option now "Only one way out.." they thought, raising their pistol once more. In the corner of their eye however, they saw that one of their hellpods was online.
The hellpod launched with the grace of a newborn, barely able to stumble from the launch bay before the thrusters kicked on. With a hard pull the Helldiver diverted their pod away from the estimated crash site of the super destroyer. Within 2 minutes, the diver felt the sudden jolt they had become so accustomed to. The top lid of the hellpod shot off and landed in the sand with a soft thud. A fully functioning pod would have lifted the diver from the hole the pod stood, but this one lay still and silent. Malnourished, weak, and not used to gravity of any kind, the Helldiver barely managed to crawl their way out of the sunken pod before the super destroyer crashed to the sandy surface. The crash, though seemingly only a few miles away, was nearly silent, only the sound of sand scraping against the divers armor to signify that it had even crashed at all. Sound required something to move through, somthing to bounce off of but this planet had....nothing. Nothing but a seemingly infinite ocean of stark white sand. Despite the lack of light pollution, the sky was a starless black void, and for some reason the sand was always visible. It had taken them a second to realize that their flashlight was not even on, the sand seemed to...glow. Not enough to light anything around it, but enough so that even in this pitch black void it was always able to be seen. This should have been some sort of comfort as apposed to being lost in the dark, but it might as well had been, among the open expanse of desert that surrounded them. There was nothing else to walk towards...so they began towards their super destroyer.
3 hours it must have been...or maybe 4, to reach the crash site. Despite the speed of the ship, the soft sand seemed to have cushioned the landing, sparing the ship of devastating damage, but unlikely to have done the same for the crew aboard. Staring at the ship's external lights the Helldiver began to focus on one as their vision blurred in and out, the light growing and it's surrounding's falling out of focus. Just as it seemed they would pass out from exhaustion, they heard a voice. Out here where there was no light, no sound, no hope....there was a voice. When that Helldiver turned to face it....they saw her.
That Helldiver would go on to found the Sectatores Conclavis Libertatis and begin spreading not only managed democracy, but the light of Lady Liberty herself. Though not much is known of this founder, without them our conclave would have never existed to begin with. Perhaps they never existed, perhaps they are someone you know, perhaps we will never find out. In any case, they were the very first recorded Seer and that discovery sparked the creation of or conclave.
For Freedom, For Liberty, For managed Democracy!
