▀████░▄███████████████████████▄░░

░███░▄███████████████████████████

░▀█░█████████████████▀▀░░░██░████

▄▄█████████████████▀░░░░░░██░████

███▀▀████████████▀░░░░░░░▄█░░████

███▄░░░░▀▀█████▀░▄▀▄░░░░▄█░░▄████

░███▄▄░░▄▀▄░▀███▄▀▀░░▄▄▀█▀░░█████

▄▄█▄▀█▄▄░▀▀████████▀███░░▄░██████

▀████▄▀▀▀██▀▀██▀▀██░░▀█░░█▄█████░

░░▀▀███▄░▀█░░▀█░░░▀░█░░░▄██████░▄

████▄▄▀██▄░█░░▄░░█▄░███░████▀▀░▄█

█▀▀▀▀▀▀░█████▄█▄▄████████▀░▄▄░▄██

░▄▄█▀▀░░░▀█▀██████████▀░▄███░░█▀░

blankbanshee.com - official website (as of 22th of September, plays a song fragment called "Sandclock", as of 10/10, completely redesigned)

blankbanshee.com/frozen-flame.html - Song fragment

blankbanshee.com/meteor-blade.html - Song fragment

https://blankbanshee.bandcamp.com/album/mega - Album

You hear an explosion. You open your eyes. It's still dark. “Did I dream that or really just hear that"?!

You open your window. Immediately you see something illuminated on - no - IN the ground. For a second you think it might just one of those LED construction signs, but there was no construction going on today. You glance at the clock. 4:21 AM.

You throw some clothes on and go outside.

From up close you can tell it's an impact crater. A small rock sits in the center. It’s glowing a beautiful shade of green, almost rhythmically. Suddenly you hear faint melody. You realize it’s coming from inside the crater. You reach in and grab the stone. It barely weighs anything. The melody appears to be emanating from the stone itself, almost like a speaker picking up a radio signal. It’s oddly soothing.

You get back inside and put the meteorite on your desk and open your laptop. No reports of any meteors in the area. Weird. Still not sure what to make of it you decide to email your friend Xeno. He’s kind of a weird dude who lives on a farm and studies stars and shit. He’s super smart though, and if anyone will know what’s up with this it’s him.

You open Xeno’s Email: "Hey man. I got the video of the meteorite. Incredible. The metals in the rock appear to be creating a natural crystal radio. I’m gonna be upfront with you though, that green glow is probably radiation and it would be best if you dispose of the thing, cool as it is. and it gets worse.”

Xeno’s email continues: "I’m quite certain that rock is a small piece of a much larger object I discovered called MEGA. I’ve been observing it for quite some time now. It’s been unpredictable, but it appears it’s due for collision with earth on August 20th 2016. I’m gonna see what I can do about it.”

You don’t really know what to make of Xeno’s email. That’s some fucked up shit. But you trust him. You put the meteorite in an old coffee tin and bring it down to the beach. When you reach the water you stop to listen to the melody one more time. “Damn I wish I could keep this thing.” Before you toss it into the ocean you make an audio recording of the Melody with your phone.

When you get home you run the recording through a special program meant to analyze and interpret radio signals from NEOs (near earth objects) It's able to decrypt an .mp3 of the melody. You name it 'Frozen Flame' after something you saw in a videogame once. blankbanshee.com

You post it on various astronomy forums, explaining what happened with photos and a link to the .mp3 but nobody really believes you. Suddenly you receive an email from Xeno.

“Who told you to post that radio transmission on the internet? Space agencies require data, not a video of a rock playing music. The kids love it though. You might have future in music, that is, if you have a future at all. This is serious, Zero. If this thing hits we’re talking total devastation. In 2012 we had another close call and I started preparing something. I’m confident we’ll be able to blow this thing up but I’m gonna need your help. Can I trust you?"

You tell Xeno he can trust you. He responds: “Ok. Listen: it turns out 4 more fragments of MEGA broke off. We need to find out where and record their unique signals so we can make this thing EXPLODE for sure. How exactly does that work? I’ll explain later. But the first one is somewhere in your area. It looks like it was found by a girl your age who goes by the name Cyan. I managed to find her email address: cyan_@angelic.com

Cyan's Email

Hey. How did you get my email? I don't exactly have the meteorite anymore, but if you're serious about all this MEGA stuff I'm down to talk. I'll be at the beach tomorrow night, you should come down. I might still be able to help you.

When it's dark you make your way down to the beach. You arrive to see the silhouette of a lone figure next to a bonfire. As you approach you notice the moon, at about a quarter full it seems a lot brighter than usual. Almost like someone turned the brightness up. You reach the fire and see a girl about your age. You say "Hello". She looks up "Hey" Wow. She's a real natural beauty. But you're caught off guard by the extremely sharp knife in her hand.

“So how'd you find me?” She asks “Well there’s only one beach-" “-MY EMAIL”! She interrupts. “Oh. Yeah” You explain the situation with MEGA, the Melody and the Meteor Fragment. “So what did you do with yours”? You ask Without warning she pulls out her knife and holds the blade inches from your face. “WOAH” You jump back. “Watch out” “I carved the friggin thing” She laughs. “What d’ya think?” You look closely. It’s glowing a beautiful shade of green, almost rhythmically.

“Whoa! that’s the meteor! Why doesn’t it make any noise?” “I don’t know” “Maybe you broke it.“ “Whatever. it’s cooler like this anyway.” You stare at the glowing blade. “Damn” “Well sorry to let ya down bud!!” She says sarcastically, shoving it back in her pocket Suddenly her phone plays a short menacing melody. It' a text. She reads it and looks up "You're gonna love this."

“Some of my… some people I know recently got their hands on a drug called Chaos Capsule. Apparently it’s like a rave inside your body. Here’s where it gets crazy though, they heard the secret ingredient is tiny fragments of a meteorite.”

Wow. What are the chances? This could be it.

“Well alright” You reply “We need to get to the source.”

“Easier said than done. They bought them through the Deep Web. The seller only lists an email: hungry_ghost@planetmail.com. Lets try it. "

From: hungry_ghost@planetmail.com

To: me

���������������������

I am a shadow.

I cannot help you.

That which is inevitable cannot be stopped.

That which is fate cannot be eluded.

Kind regards Hungry Ghost

You read the email from hungry_ghost. “Weird.” “Seems like a bot.”

With Cyan’s help you trace it back to an old abandoned observatory deep in the forest outside the city.

“Damn. This is close to a hyperloop maintenance station.” Cyan says frantically “If we’re careful we can sneak off and be there in no time.”

You extinguish the bonfire and head toward the hyperloop station.

Again you notice the moon. It’s almost at it’s highest point.

You ride the Hyperloop to the maintenance stop and jump off. It’s about 5am. Astronomical dawn. The air feels mild, and a bit cooler. The terrain is mostly dense rainforest and it’s hard to navigate. “You sure you got this?” You ask Cyan “Yeah yeah.” Her eyes locked on her GPS HoloDisplay You reach an overgrown path which leads to a moonlit clearing. In the center there’s a compound built into large radio telescope. It’s covered in vines.

The doors almost rusted shut. You force it open and make your way inside. It’s almost completely dark except for the faint glow of electronics. "It looks like nobodies been here in years." Cyan turns her light on. “Holy shit.” You both say, almost in unison. In the center of the room stands a MECH, nearly 10 feet tall. It is connected to a variety of wires and tubes. In a small cavity near it’s core you see a glowing green stone. Suddenly you hear a faint melody.

You lunge in to grab the fragment. Before you can touch it you hear a sharp charging sound followed by a flash of light. “WARNING” A digitized female voice echoes “TARGETING SYSTEM ACTIVATED” A Model 01 XENOS Industrial Security-Class MECH. This is bad. You turn around to see Cyan writhing in pain. “It got me!” She shrieks You run over. It just grazed her shoulder but there’s a lotta blood. “Your knife!” You pick it up off the floor. Again a melody rings out, this time much clearer.

The MECH charges up, prepping to strike again. You have to act quickly. Diving forward, you slam the glowing green blade into it’s core. It makes a metallic grinding sound before coming to a halt. You grab the meteor fragment from it’s core. “COME ON!” You shout at Cyan, still kneeling in pain “These things can self heal!” You both make it out in time to see a large hovercraft touch down. On the side is scrawled ‘CERULEAN CORP.’

You let out a sigh of relief. It’s Xeno. Cerulean Corp's the name of his father’s solar energy farm. “How’d you find us?” You ask. “Same way I always do” He replies, motioning to you and Cyan “Hop on we’re going back to Cerulean.” You both board the craft. “So what’s the news on MEGA?” “Good news and bad news.” He replies “I managed to beam an ultra powered laser at the object, successfully altering it’s trajectory. but only by a matter of days.

You make it out of the rainforest and cross the plains toward Cerulean Corp. Cerulean Corp. is an Energy Farm located on the Cerulean Peninsula, originally owned by XENOS Industrial (Xeno’s father’s company.) His dad lives in Hong Kong but since the farm is run almost entirely by AI he allows Xeno to live there full time as the sole technician. Its a pretty sweet deal. Eventually you see a giant Silo on the horizon with Cerulean Corp Scrawled on the side. "We're here"

You reach an old Crop Drone hanger. Xeno’s place. He runs Cyan's knife through an acoustic scanner. “I’m extracting the melody. The signals from the fragments synchronize perfectly with MEGA and with them we should be able to make a direct hit.” “With what?” you ask “I thought blasting it was useless.” “That was plan A.” He responds “Then what’s plan B?” He points out the window to the Silo, the same one you saw on your way in. “That’s plan B.”

He brings up a 3D model of the Silo on his PC.

“I’ve been working on this for years” He says “Consider yourselves lucky.”

He demonstrates how he has engineered it into an actual functioning space shuttle.

You look out the window then back at the computer screen.

You knew Xeno was a genius but wow.

He explains how he plans to fly it directly into MEGA.

“If all goes well it should shatter into a million tiny fragments. We'll get one hell of a fireworks show and save Earth while were at it"

>

XENO begins to initiate the targeting system.

You listen intently as he loads the 2nd transmission.

goo.gl/hqIU8a (Meteor Blade)

You listen intently as he loads the fragment transmissions.

Each one with it’s own unique melody.

“Wonder what the whole thing sounds like?”

You doze off for a second but the sound of Xeno’s voice jolts you back up.

“Alright! It’s done.“ He exclaims. “This thing is gonna blow the fuck up.“

“But first lets get some sleep. Tomorrow morning it’s go time, meet me at the silo at dawn.”

“Ok. see you then.”

You and cyan find a quiet place to set up capsule sleep pods.

You wake up early the next morning. The sky’s a deep navy blue. Beyond the horizon, through the towering rows of solar wind turbines you see the faint glow of dawn. You wake Cyan up and start walking back toward the silo.

“So what happens if this doesn’t work? I mean, launching a silo into a meteor is..." “Our only hope?” You reply with a laugh.

Then suddenly you see it. In the east. Like a bluish pink moon with a tail. “MEGA.”

“So it is real…” Cyan says “not that I doubted it but..”

Of course it’s real.

It's MEGA.

You continue in silence toward the Silo.

Gazing up through the indigo predawn atmosphere, you're fixated on it.

It’s mesmerizing.

A strange deja vu washes over you.

You’ve seen this image before somewhere.

A traveler at the end of a long journey, approaching their final destination.

Where did you come from?

What do you know?

Who are you?

Eventually the Silo comes into view.

You can tell something is different, it’s entirely lit up.

As you reach it you feel the ground beneath you shake.

“Must be the engines warming up.”

“Good Morning!”

Suddenly Xeno jumps down from a scaffolding support, covered in what I can only assume is

rocket fuel.

“Who’s ready to blow up a meteor?”

“So what exactly should we expect when this thing explodes?” Cyan asks

“Best case scenario? An impressive fireworks show.” Xeno replies picking up a large fueling hose.

“Worst case scenario? Total devastation. Our timing has to be perfect, we need to hit it at the exact moment it enters earth’s atmosphere which…” He looks down at his watch “…by my estimates is in about 1 hour.”

You wait patiently in the control room across from the silo with Cyan. 40 minutes pass. The only window is facing away from MEGA, but you can see that sun has started to rise.

The sky is turning from a deep pink to red. The noise from the engines is becoming almost deafening now.

Finally Xeno enters “We’re almost at 100%.” He says locking the door behind him “This is it.”

Suddenly his computer lights up.

“ＴＡＲＧＥＴＴＩＮＧ ＳＹＳＴＥＭ ＦＡＩＬＵＲＥ“

“What does that mean?” Cyan asks with a look of terror “I don’t understand…”Xeno smashes the side of his computer

You look over at Cyan “It can’t be good.” “…the fragments… the parameters were perfect. I don’t get it!” He pauses.

“There really is only one option now. Either I go or we all go.”

“What do you mean?!” You don’t like the way he said that.

Looking out the tiny window he turns toward you “I’m going up.”

“What!? Xeno. You're joking right?…”

You can tell by the look on his face he’s not.

"If I don’t go you know what happens."

He laughs

"Besides this is why I built the manual override. The AI will look after things around here. I'd rather go out a hero than die a-"

"NO!" you interrupt him " No man. were gonna fix it and you're not gonna-"

He puts his hand in your shoulder.

Your eyes well up.

"There's no turning back now. This is Zero day."

You and Cyan sit in silence as Xeno steps into his EVA suit.

“Well I guess this is it."

You shake your head in disbelief

"There has to be another way, I mean- “

He cuts you off “Thank you for all your help guys. I’ll need you to stay here in the control room until I make contact."

He reaches in and gives you both a hug.

"Oh yeah and If the targeting system comes back online set it to 'receive signal."

You can’t do this kinda thing without crying.

“Adiós.”

He snaps his helmet shut.

He opens the control room door - you all pause.

There’s an explosion in the distance.

Xeno looks up.

The monitors aren’t showing anything.

He turns around

“It’s starting to break apart! THIS IS IT!”

He waves and runs out the door toward the Silo.

Cyan sits down beside you.

You both watch on the monitors as he boards.

Things go quiet for a second.

Suddenly the main flight monitors turn on allowing you to get a visual on both XENO’s ship and MEGA.

You jolt up “Here we go.”

It’s hard to tell if the sun is up now or not.

MEGA is moments away from entering earth’s exosphere.

You can see small pieces falling off and burning up before they hit.

Without warning a counter appears on the monitors and you hear a voice begin to countdown from 20.

“Oh shit.”

...10

9

8

7

6

5

4

3

2

1

“Liftoff!"

The control room window is completely blackened by thick smoke.

The monitors show a clear view.

You watch in amazement as it ascends.

It’s close enough that you can still read the giant CERULEAN scrawled on the side.

“Aw man"

You remember painting that with Xeno years ago.

Cyan checks the targeting system again.

“Still offline. Approximately 2 minutes to impact.”

“Say a prayer.”

MEGA enters earth’s atmosphere.

You see it in true color.

You’ve never seen something so immense.

So frightening yet so beautiful.

It glows bright green and blue.

The silo is perfectly aligned.

Xeno’s a pro pilot.

And a real hero.

“OH MY GOD."

Cyan grabs on to your arm, almost cutting off the circulation.

“10 SECONDS TO IMPACT.”

Suddenly everything goes blank.

First chaos

Then flames

Then smoke

“THE CONTROL ROOM GOT HIT!”

You’re ok.

"LET’S GET OUTTA HERE!”

You and Cyan make a run for the door and keep going into the wheat field behind the launch pad.

Out of breath, you both collapse in the grass.

BOOM.

You look up just in time to see the Xeno make a direct hit.

The sky ignites as millions of tiny fragments burn up simultaneously in glorious hypercolor.

You watch in awe.

It's unlike anything you've ever seen before.

"He did it." You say laughing through tears.

"The crazy bastard. He really did it."

A dawn chorus of birds rings out in the distance.

"Thank you."

You look up just in time to grab a fragment headed straight for Cyan's head.

She claps slowly “Nice catch.”

(That actually was pretty cool.)

You both pause.

“Wait do you hear that?” She asks

You do.

It’s playing a melody

You both laugh.

“I’m keeping this one.”

You put it into your pocket.

After the explosions subside you and Cyan ride Xenos' hovercraft out of Cerulean.

The remaining dust from MEGA has turned the sky a radiant pink.

Cyan looks up

“Did that really happen?”

“Or am I just dreaming?"

(retrieved by Andaya)