“Alright people, get to work. This thing isn’t gonna scrub itself..”

Supervisor Sydney Lancaster belted out the words to her crew, getting them stirred from their individual stupors and distractions and focused on the task at hand. She looked at the rock’s sullied surface, the word “LIARS” written in in spray-can across the face of the stone. She rolled her eyes and sighed.

‘Just another wannabe Banksy.’ She thought to herself.

All this graffiti managed to do was create another setback for the transport process. Three weeks had passed since they fully unearthed this chunk of weird stone, and since then there’s been no end to the issues. Comms interference, engineers and miners laid up sick, Garcez’s mental breakdown that landed him in the psych ward… and that was only the start. Two days ago, two shipping crawlers transporting materials lost their guidance systems in a dust storm, crashing into each other and killing two engineers and a miner. All around this dig site, bad things were happening one after the other, and despite her long career as a Mining Super, Sydney had never seen such chaos before.

With the cleaning crews busy at work, Sydney made her way to the vacant observation cabin, where she would begin the ever-so-delightful task of delegation and assignment; planning out her crew’s work to maximize efficiency and hopefully get things ready enough for the second shift to pick things up flawlessly when they clocked in. She opened up her RIG hologram to view her notes and shift rotations, as she sat down at the desk and logged into the computer with her credentials.

Funny, she thought. This cabin was the same one Garcez was in six days ago—the night he had a mental breakdown. She could empathize with him; it’s no secret that mining is a dangerous gig, and it’s not unheard of for colonists to lose their cool when things get overwhelming. The recycled air, the constant work, the artificial life—was it all really living? Sydney knew all too well she didn’t want the answer to that question: mining had been her life before, and then it became all she had—what with Colin gone. Her husband had always said this job would be the death of them, and in the end he was right. A cave-in 2 years ago took Colin, and with him went any hope of solace in a cruel galaxy. Colin had been the only person who had held her together, especially after the loss of their child.

When Sydney fell pregnant years ago, it became a shining beacon in her world. Her and Colin had been trying for months prior, and despite the doctors telling her the chances were slim—she beat the odds. She felt grateful, hopeful for the future of their family…only for it all to come crashing down. There were complications during the birth, and the baby was stillborn. Sydney was crushed wholeheartedly, but Colin put her back together. They shared in the grief and grew stronger from it, and just when things felt like they were repairing—Colin was taken. The only thing Sydney had anymore was her work, and she buried herself deep in it, rising through the ranks till she reached supervisor, landing her the position she has now.

“Chief?” A voice from behind snapped her from her reminiscence.

It was Schaeffer, one of the shift managers. Sydney cleared her throat and refocused. “Yes, Schaeffer. What is it?” She asked genially.

“Cleanup crews are done, rock’s been scrubbed, what next?”

“Get Engineering on the horn and tell them to start bringing in the materials we need for the tram. The sooner we get this thing onboard, the sooner we all get to go back to our regular work.”

Schaeffer nodded and left the room, his RIG’s display flicking to life in front of him as he set to calling the engineers. Sydney turned and rubbed her temples. Ever since the day’s started, she’s had a terrible headache, and it’s only felt like it’s been getting worse. It didn’t help that the dig site was noisy, nor did it especially help that this massive eyesore of a rock was sat practically in front of her window. Today of all days, she didn’t need this kind of pain right now. Not today.

“Today would’ve been her third birthday…” She thought to herself as she punched the keys on the computer, trying to get back on track with her reports. Despite all the work that had to be done today, her mind continued to drift to thoughts of her family, what could have been; the thoughts were practically forcing themselves into her mind—like she had no control over them.

The headache was growing more and more intense, the world around her seemed to shift as her vision blurred. The shapes of the world became unnatural, the shadows lengthening and warping as she stumbled up from the desk. She looked forward out the window, her eyes gluing to the Marker. Ironically, the most alien thing in her vision was the only thing that wasn’t shifting or changing—and then the whispers began.

The whispers quickly rose in volume; what they were saying was indecipherable—but Sydney wasn’t worried about that. She tore her eyes from the rock, clutching her ears in an attempt to drown out the cacophony.

“Need to get out… the door.” Sydney realized as she quickly navigated the swirling madness around her, the door hissing open as she tumbled out into the open dig site.

Standing up, Sydney could realize something wasn’t right. Nobody was there, despite her being in charge of a shift made up of 30 people—all of whom made it in to work today. Not a soul could be seen around the dig site, as if everyone there had vanished. Sydney walked around, taking in the surroundings as she made her way down the steps and into the main staging area. Things were still—too still.

Almost dead.

She found herself looking out towards the dig site’s main pathway entrance, trying to determine if the crawler transports were still parked in the distance. Sure enough, they were. Untouched, as far as she could tell. None of this was making any sense anymore, and what little rationality Sydney was keeping locked in her mind was slipping away. Her back was to the Marker, several feet away from it, but feeling as though something was constantly behind her—or someone.

“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it, Syd?” An all-too-familiar voice said behind her.

She knew who it was the minute the voice hit her ears, her eyes tearing up as she slowly turned around to face him.

It was Colin. He was smiling at her, a faint blue glow emanating from his body. Doubtless, it was him. Sydney was full-on crying now, her visor fogging slightly from the tears.

“Colin..? This is…impossible… how??”

Her husband approached her, still smiling as she reached out to hold his hand.

“The how doesn’t matter, what matters is there’s someone who wants to see you…” In his other hand, sat a bundle of cloth that stirred ever so slightly.

Then she heard a baby’s cry, and Sydney’s eyes widened.

Her baby was here, against all odds, and at that moment nothing else mattered. Not the whispers, not the shuffling around them, nor the vague sounds of someone calling her name.

Colin’s face suddenly dropped, his voice taking on a far more urgent tone: “We’re running out of time, Sydney… they’re coming to take us away.”

Sydney was confused. “W-what?? Who?”

“I don’t know for sure… but they’re monsters. They want to hurt us. I can’t protect our baby alone… help us.”

Sydney looked around the dig site, seeing the danger that has now taken shape around them. Shadowy forms now stalked their way towards them, whispering incoherently as they approached. She backed away a bit, quickly looking around her for any sort of weapon. Lo and behold, someone had left a crate of plasma saws open and waiting. She knew what she had to do.

Sydney steeled her resolve. Whatever fate had done, it had somehow brought her family back to her, and these…things—no matter how human they sounded—were coming to take it away from her. She rushed to the crate, grabbing the closest saw and thumbing the power on. The saw whirred to life as the energy within charged up, and she turned to face her assailants.

One of the shadows were running towards her now, hissing out a vocalization that sounded eerily similar to one of her crewmates. “What… are… you… doing?”

This thing was clearly trying to psych her out, mimicking voices to trick her. Nobody was going to hurt her family again, not anymore. She gripped the forward handle of the saw and flicked it forward with purpose, igniting the plasma blade, and swung.

The hit connected, the blade slicing the neck of the creature; blood spraying out of the neck as the thing collapsed. The creatures were spurred into chaos—some charged towards her with outstretched arms trying to grasp her, while some fled, scurrying away like insects. Sydney strode forward to meet her attackers halfway—stabbing through the closest one in their midsection, trying to ignore how much the thing sounded like Hailey as it screamed in agony. She ripped the saw to the side, cutting through the stomach as she attacked the second creature. It managed to knock the plasma saw from her grip and tackle her to the ground. Locked in struggle, the thing mocked Schaeffer’s voice as it grabbed for her arms:

“What’s… wrong… with… you??” It hissed.

Sydney looked around for anything that could free her from her predicament, her eyes gliding to a sizeable rock to her left. She stretched her arm towards the stone, managing to wrap her fingers around it and, in one swift motion, struck the side of the thing’s head with it. Disoriented, the creature fell off of her, and she scrambled up and towards her weapon. The thing tried to confuse her by using Schaeffer’s voice again, backing away from her on the ground helplessly, putting up a hand towards her in a feeble attempt to stop her.

“Please… stop… don’t… do… this…” the thing bleated.

Sydney was breathing heavily and swung the blade up over her head. With a roar, she brought the saw down on the thing’s head, bisecting the body from the head down to the torso.

Her attention snapped towards the stragglers. These things were so eager to harm her and her family, assuming she was helpless. Now that the shoe was on the other foot, she almost felt sorry for them as they ran away from her, trying to desperately get her to feel sympathy by using the voices of her colleagues.

“Stay…away!...” One thing shouted, backed into a corner. It sounded a lot like Beaumont, and even had a similar slight build to him. It didn’t matter, the thing died all the same, Sydney plunging the plasma blade through its skull.

When she ran out of charge, one of the things tried to take advantage of her and ambushed her, grabbing at her hands and pushing her into a wall. She headbutted the thing in the face, hearing it scream in pain as it let go and held its face. Now was her chance, she leapt on it and began bashing it with the powered-down saw, screaming wildly:

“STAY, AWAY, FROM MY, FAMILY!!” Each word was punctuated by a hard blow to the things face with the saw, blood and viscera splattering over her with each crushing hit.

BANG!

A gun went off, and Sydney felt a sudden pain in her shoulder. Staggering backwards, she looked forward as her vision cleared for a moment.

Carnage surrounded her, the corpses of several of her dig crew strewn about the site:

Schaeffer’s body lay limp, cut in half down the middle. Her gaze shifted to her most recent victim. Jessup, half alive from the brutal beatdown she had given him, was reaching towards his mangled face, screaming in agony as the broken fragments of his mask let atmosphere into his wounds. Her gaze shifted forward, looking towards two P-Sec officers clad in their environment suits, one with a smoking Divet. For a brief moment, things seemed real, and she was about to drop the saw before the shadow creatures returned, and the threat became clear.

It was a trick, she realized. These things were playing with her mind.

“Stop them, Sydney!” Colin shouted behind her.

“Don’t let them take us!”

She charged towards the monsters, her shouts of defiance cut short in a hail of gunfire, the Divets singing as they released their devastating caliber onto her body. Sydney collapsed on the ground, life slowly fading from her body as her husband and baby appeared before her, walking away.

“Wait…” Sydney weakly reached out a hand, her eyes darkening as death claimed her.

“Don’t… go…” Sydney breathed her last, the light fading from her eyes as she lay amongst the bodies of her colleagues; all murdered by her hand.

Hours later, P-Sec had cordoned off the site, taking statements from the survivors of the attack.

According to eyewitness accounts, Supervisor Sydney Lancaster had stumbled out of the observation cabin in a stupor, mumbling to herself and coming to a stop in front of the Marker. When Shift Managers Hailey and Schaeffer approached, she suddenly snapped, grabbing a plasma saw and killing 15 of the 30 crew members assigned to this shift and injuring 6—before she herself was put down in a hail of gunfire from P-Sec. Miner Jessup Landry would succumb to his injuries on the way to the hospital, and the morgue became far too busy that day.

Colin always said that this line of work would be the death of them…

In a way, he was right.

The only difference is that, in a month’s time, Sydney wouldn’t stay dead for long.