Crash site of the Essok VI
The Essok VI crash occurred on 1 HE, 23/21 (mm/dd), when the Essok VI, a human colonization vessel sent to the moon Chellok, suffered a malfunction in its guidance computer and sensors due to magnetic interference from a sudden Tregov Door storm high in the atmosphere of Sekora and crash landed in the Saebian Alps.
A Saebian investigation committee later credited pilot Nissia Caraget as being the main factor in the Essok VI's successful entry into Chellok's atmosphere; however, she was initially blamed for the deaths of passengers and crew and ostracized for crash landing the ship in the mountains, which made the dismantling, transporting, and repurposing of large ship parts for colony building, including the fusion engines, impossible.
"Yeah, there's a column down there on Sekora you wouldn't believe. Lords, it's gigantic. It is massive! It's so big I can't even get it in the window. Nissia? My lords, look port at the mountains going across the continent. They're monsters." — Verran Pok, Captain of the Essok VI, four minutes before encountering interference from the Tregov Door.
History
Following the crash, the Essok VI crew and survivors buried the dead, took what essentials they could carry, and hiked down from the crash site in the mountains. Seven crash survivors died during the trek, five were victims to wildlife (kainars and woserra) and two fell to their deaths. The remaining 18 survivors eventually arrived at and joined the budding colony of Saebia.
The Essok VI crash was a major setback to the Saebosian colonization program on Chellok. Saebos grounded its fleet following the crash. The Tregov Door remained open long enough to make travel between the moons Prakyun and Chellok cost prohibitive. Saebos' cancelled its remaining planned inter-lunar immigration flights, making the Essok VI Saebos' last mission to Chellok.
The Essok VI sustained severe structural damage and could no longer fly, but the fusion engines remained undamaged. Although early Saebian colonists made plans to salvage the ship, the crash and its aftermath became associated with bad luck and superstition. The Essok VI became a painful memory that most Saebians wanted to forget. And so it was.
In recent years there have been anecdotal reports of explorers, scavengers, or pirates using the Essok VI crash site as a base of operations.
Sociocultural significance
Earlier Saebosian colonists had been depending on the arrival of the Essok VI and it's fusion engines to provide much needed energy, supplies, and personnel to the young colony; therefore, when the battered crash survivors arrived 11 days late with next to nothing of what was expected, their welcome was somber. Along with their reluctance to talk about the incident, the survivors suffered discrimination and were scapegoats for numerous early colonial struggles.
Riawe Dwen, a passenger who survived the Essok VI crash, later became an important philosophical, spiritual, and religious leader, founding a charismatic movement that led to the establishment of the religion of Vahnism. Dwen claims to have found the sacred stone worshipped and used in Vahnish ceremonies and festivals in the upturned earth at the crash site of the Essok VI.
Essok VI crash
| Date | 001 HE 23rd Month, 4th day |
| Location | Saebian Alps |
| Cause | Computer malfunction due to electromagnetic interference and pilot error |
| Outcome | Loss of 12 occupants and two crew; end of the Saebos inter-lunar immigration program |
Spacecraft
| Type | 2nd Generation SSP Fusion Composite Model |
| Name | Essok VI |
| Origin | Vejo Air and Space Port, Dosnam City, Saebos, PRAKYUN |
| Destination | Sivva plains south of the main Gulf of Chellok |
| Occupants | 33 |
| Crew | 6 |
| Fatalities | 14 |
| Survivors | 25 |
Location under
Related Reports (Secondary)
"There's a reason no one goes up there, you know." — Tipro Sion, Saebian mixologist (aka bartender)
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