Fisiena Incident
The Fisiena Incident was an event that occurred on the remote world of the same name. After the discovery of the deadly Mahra-Bondo parasite, the DEV Bor’Si bombarded the planet from orbit nearly starting a war with the nearby Mizani Empire who in their law, forbade the destruction of planets.
Expedition planning
The origins of the Fisiena Incident trace back to the origins of the DEV Bor’Si. The Confederacy of Greenwater had suffered a civil war that split it into the Greenwater Socialist Republic and the Kingdom of Greenwater. Millions of refugees were displaced with little places elsewhere to go. The Karalian Empire would not take all of them due to their low social credit score, and with the UESS was not considered either due to them being the ones to have started the war. Many had predicted that the the Karalian Empire-UESS War would eventually escalate resulting in the collapse of the entire Second Galactic Senate.
One of the few surviving neutral areas of the Confederacy of Greenwater was the campus grounds of the University of Krar. A former Alda’Kapura named Captain Jarin Rotas used the University of Krar as a temporary safe haven for the refugees until they commissioned the construction of a starship known as the DEV Bor’Si which would undertake an expedition to find a new home for the refugees away from the impending war of the Senate. Due to the state of the university, it was difficult to find proper subject matter experts, but three students were recruited. Among them included Salannah Zenklah, Sindi Vardon and Turin Kalek who were all xenobiologists. The rest of the funding of the expedition had to come from charity donations as none of the main governments in the immediate vicinity were willing to take responsibility for the expedition. As such, it was largely considered underfunded with only the minimum amount of money and labor secured to afford the trip.
The destination for the DEV Bor’Si was an uncharted region of space in the Tolimanian Frontier, an area with star systems that were unreachable through jump gates. It was thought that a remote, isolated location would allow the refugees to live safely away from any impending societal collapse.
One of the planets in the Tolimanian Frontier, Fisiena, was observed to have a breathable nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere and thus was a suitable candidate for exploration. The voyage would take approximately 18 months using the nearest possible jumpgate located in Delson space. The crew and the refugees were all put in cryostasis to conserve resources, but despite that, they were still undersupplied. As soon as the refugees were awoken from crysostasis, they would need to find food and water to sustain themselves for more than a few weeks.
Arrival at Fisiena
After an 18 month trip, the DEV Bor’Si arrived in orbit of Fisiena. Probes sent down to the surface discovered an abundance of plant life, but very little signs of any sort of animal life. The water was shown to contain minor organic material that could affect habitability. Thus, the team of students were sent to the surface.
The air was confirmed to be breathable. Humidity levels were a little higher than comfortable for Vaikan, but it was nothing they couldn’t handle with standard issue nanovaccines. As the planet was covered mostly in oceans, the landing party secured a sight on a small island with beaches and a freshwater oasis. The students set up camp as well as a field laboratory. They began gathering various organic materials to test them for edibility.
Salannah Zenklah managed to confirm that the strange substance discovered by the probes was in fact some sort of egg for an insect. However, none of the team could find any other species that would have laid such an egg. In the field lab, Salannah managed to consistently filter out these mysterious eggs from the food and water making them safe for consumption. Thus, drones began to bring back food and water to the DEV Bor’Si. Things were looking positive as plans to settle the surface were drafted.
As the days passed, it was concluded that these eggs needed to be studied to figure out where this species of insect came from. There were ethical concerns that by filtering them out from the environment that they were risking making this species extinct. Salannah Zenklah decided to try to make the eggs hatch in an enclosed environment to better study them, overtaken by her scientific curiosity and excited by the prospect that she got to discover a new species. The eggs hatched into large grub-like creatures which Salannah called the Mahra-Bondo. She kept them contained in a terrarium to study their behavior.
Still to their surprise, the team could not locate any specimens of Mahra-Bondo that had hatched anywhere in the vicinity. It might have been a very long time since any Mahra-Bondo had inhabited the planet. Hypotheses were formed, reasoning that the Mahra-Bondo were survivors of an extinction level event on Fisiena and had gone dormant. Excited by the prospect of the Mahra-Bondo being their thesis, the rest of the students saw it fit to celebrate this discovery. It would more than certainly boost their social credit scores, and they would be hailed as heroes for discovering an oasis safe from the war.
Celebration of progress
The students celebrate the night with a bonfire, alcohol and some of the food harvested from the island. Although Salannah Zenklah moderated herself wanting to remain alert to look after the Mahra-Bondo, the other two Sindi Vardon and Turin Kalek drank more than they should. Sindi and Turin were a dating couple who primarily signed up for the mission as a means of getting away from the politics and drama of the Senate. The two of them decide to go for a swim in the ocean. Salannah warned them that there might be Mahra-Bondo eggs in the water, but they ignored her warning. Despite this, there were no immediate ill-effects.
The next morning, Sindi began displaying an unusual appetite. She began to eat from the food supply meant to be sent to the refugees, and even ate food that has yet to be decontaminated. Salannah noticed these unusual signs, but Sindi denied it. Turin haphazardly justified that the three of them have had to spend a lot of time conserving food and water anyway. However, Salannah decided to more closely guard the food supply, even going so far as to threaten them.
After a few more days, Salannah noticed that the Mahra-Bondo sprouted wings, but eventually died from lack of nutrition. Salannah hypothesized that their primary prey had gone absent from the ecosystem thanks to the extinction event from some time ago. She could not quite figure out what that prey might have been and wondered if the Mahra-Bondo were doomed to die off anyway.
After sending a report to Captain Rotas, it was concluded that Fisiena should be safe for habitation. The Mahra-Bondo in their current form should not pose a threat. Around this time, refugees were slowly being sent to the surface to begin building their settlement.
A Murder
One night, Sindi and Turin rush off to the woods to sleep together. However, only Sindi returned the next morning. Salannah questioned Sindi where he was, but Sindi denied knowing anything. After a short time, Salannah discovered Turin’s body in the woods with his skin chewed off to the bone. She could only conclude that something ate Turin alive. However, there didn’t seem to be any native life forms on the island that could do it. Salannah decided to do an autopsy, and what she found was very disturbing. It was not a native life form that killed Turin, but it was a Vaikan.
Salannah, suspecting Sindi of murder, confronted her about it. Sindi continued to deny Turin’s death, but Salannah threatened to call Captain Rotas and have her thrown in the brig. Only moments after, Sindi complained about having trouble breathing, severe abdominal cramps as well as flu symptoms. That was confirmation enough for Salannah. But something else dawned on her - she wondered if consuming the eggs forced her into an appetite ravenous enough to murder her own boyfriend.
The risk of Sindi now carrying something deadly was abundantly clear, and it was too dangerous to take her back to the DEV Bor’Si. Thus, an improvised quarantine was set up to contain Sindi. While Sindi was in confinement, Salannah determined that Sindi had indeed ingested some Mahra-Bondo eggs and that her appetite was being driven by a neuro-toxin.
Not more than several days later, Sindi escaped quarantine and contaminated the food and water with Mahra-Bondo eggs to spread it to other refugees. After Salannah stopped her from continuing by holding her at gunpoint, Sindi would collapse to the ground as Mahra-Bondo began to eat her from the inside out leaving a gruesome sight. Realizing that most of the refugees were now infected, Salannah ran from the scene.
The End of Fisiena
Salannah at the time was the only known uninfected individual. Captain Rotas refused to bring her up and planned to leave the refugees to die. It became clear that the Mahra-Bondo were the reason for the planet’s extinction level event: they had depleted their own food source and were forced to go dormant. It became clear that if this infection were to spread, it could pose a threat to the rest of the galaxy. As such, Captain Rotas ordered the planet be bombarded from orbit.
Salannah barely escaped by hijacking a shuttle used to transport refugees. The DEV Bor’Si nearly destroyed Salannah’s shuttle, but after she proved she was clean, Captain Rotas reluctantly let her onto the ship. No one else from the surface of the planet survived, and the bombardments completely destroyed the planet’s surface, rendering the Mahra-Bondo extinct.
Distress Call
With the DEV Bor’Si depleted on resources, the ship sent a quantum entanglement distress call. The nearest civilization was the Mizani Empire who discovered the actions of the DEV Bor’Si. According to the Mizani Empire’s religion Taevalik, destroying a planet was the greatest crime anyone could commit. On top of that, the Mizani Empire did not want any involvement of the Senate factions and refused to provide aid.
After a long standoff between the Mizani Empire and the DEV Bor’Si, the nearby Roving Flotilla called for a truce and agreed to take responsibility. The Roving Flotilla took the surviving crew and refugees from the DEV Bor’Si and were assimilated into their society.