Chasing a Madman across the Stars

The ship is the "Bragi" a research ship refitted as a medical rescue ship, the crew is made up of the flight crew, medical doctors and staff. Scientists and lab techs. And a military security force of Marines. Their prime mission is to go to the outer rim planets and colonies that may have medical outbreaks. There secondary mission is research of new planets.

That was their mission until, they arrived at colony "Kinross 4" a mining colony, the sole colony on the planet "Aulax XVII". What had brought them there was a call from the Navel ship "Valley Run" Who was dispatch to investigate the lost of communications. Once the Valley run was in orbit it launched a platoon of Marines to Kinross 4. What the Marines reported is unbelievable, the colonist, those who were still alive have mutated somehow. And had attempted to attack the Marines who in turn protected themselves. After the would be attackers were put down, the officer in charge further investigated the situation and discovered that every colonist all 278 of them were at some different stage of mutating.

The Marine officer evaluated the position and quarantined himself and his platoon of marines to Kinross 4, for fear of the unknown. what had cause this to happen to the colonist? Was it in the air or the soil? And he couldn't risk bringing this back to the Valley Run, So the call went out through military channels to the Bargi

It took three months for the Bragi to get to Aulax XVII, in the meantime the Marines at Kinross 4 were kept resupplied by supply drones sent from the Valley Run. Once the Bragi was on site it's crew quickly went to work, first examining the Marines then examining the environment and determined that the local environment was not the cause of the mutation. Now the thought is someone may have experimented on the colonists. A trace of a chemical compound not known till now was in the remains of all the colonists tested

The compound chemical, was not the direct cause of the mutation of the colonists but may have been a carrier and no trace of this compound was found in any of the Marines, and as of now nothing is known about this compound.

As for the colonist they were all at some beginning stage of mutation their skin had started to slide around like it was melting and each one was changing differently some look to be developing scales, other feathers and yet other sharp spines or barbs of some sorts. Many of the colonists seemed to have died in this early stage as if their body was not able to handle this changing or mutation as it was happening, but about a third seem to have, and this is also a part of the mystery.

Major Leon Kaine with three months of quarantine time to kill started an investigate of his own, and found a very troubling mystery on his hands. The first part of the mystery is all of the report logs from the mining office have either been deleted or removed. Another part was a dispensing device attached to the main water supply coming from the water treatment section, and a section of the medical facility was sectioned off and was totally empty but there are signs that equipment was there and just gone now. The medical staff had all been killed though they all had signs of mutation going on. By sight alone were no where near the level of mutations as the rest of the colonists. And he concluded that they were murdered when the first signs of mutation started. The next mystery is that in the mining medical staff quarters, five of the rooms were empty. The quarters were all cleaned and wiped down, while five of the other quarters showed signs that some of the medical staff had doubled up in those rooms.

Further investigation turned up that all the personnel files are gone as well. And there is no way to cross reference with the pay roll. The way mining company hires through the mining boss, who contracts the miners and only request pay in a large payment, which then the mining boss divides up as to the miners. So all the paperwork is held in the mining boss's offices.

The communications equipment was disabled It seems a resistor was placed in the main out going signal cable that made the out going signal so weak that no one would ever hear their messages for help. And any equipment systems check would show that all was normal, and would not warrant a complete visual inspection of the system. Which came about when Maj. Kaine tried to send a message to the Valley Run, which was so weak that it raised questions as to why?

After a body count of all 278 miners and staff, 7 were missing, the first thought was that they may have wondered off, or just plain left the facility. A search was made of the outer area of the mining facility, during the search and it was found that another ship had been there and all the signs of traffic going back and forth to the mining facility.

The compound chemical that was found seemed to have been breaking down and was missing a stabilizing agent, and when discovered it was only part of what it originally was. What was it and what did it do in it's original form?

More question needed answers, who were the missing miners, were they part of this horror or victims that may have shown potential to this experiment? Who would want to perform such and act and why? Where are they now, where are they going and what will they do next?

To find these answers now rest on the shoulders of the Bargi and it's crew plus one, Major Leon Kaine