what if the skeld was intentionally an older generation of ship? what if it was intentionally in such poor condition? what if most cargo trips like that are usually better funded, better staffed, on better ships with better equipment and better security measures? what if that trip was always meant to be doomed? what if none of them were meant to survive, and by some unintentional miracle, red and purple did?
imagine the reactor starts failing again. red and purple dont have the expertise to fix it, the hand scanners arent working this time, and they need to make an emergency landing on a nearby planet, aka polus. they land the skeld (surprisingly well considering red doesnt seem to know what theyre doing half the time) and are immediately greeted by the research crew. and after telling their story of what happened to everyone on the ship, the polus crew tells them, in a mortified tone, that their crew shouldnt have been that small. they shouldnt have died so quickly to something like that. their ship is far too old and broken down. the cargo should have been sealed in air-tight containers. they shouldve been better paid. just the idea of there being an unpaid intern with no specific job or a freaking prize winner from a wealthy family on board horrifies them. the cameras didnt record, didnt have sound, and were in black and white?! the shields were down the whole trip?! there werent safety measures in case of a hull breach?! comms were connected to the skelds structural integrity?! the goddamn shipment was left unsecured and open to the air when almost everyone who usually ran those trips knew it was dangerous alien ore?!
cue red and purple slowly realizing that not a single person on that ship was supposed to make it out alive, and by sheer luck and determination, they were the only ones to do so. that shipment was never expected to make it back, because the crew was expected to die before it ever did. information was intentionally kept from all of them, even orange, for the sake of letting them all die in space, paranoid and cut off from everyone else. the reactor would have eventually exploded due to no one being there to fix it, and mira could have played it off as "oh wow one of our older ships was hijacked by a bunch of rogue crewmates and it blew up with them in it while in space oh no, what a shame." and if anyone asks about white or green, who as far as im aware are the only two who canonically mention having people waiting for them back home? oh, yeah, those rogue crewmates kidnapped the two of them as a hostage type of deal, yeah, we tried to save them before they took off but it was too late, were sorry, here, we can compensate you, dont worry, just grieve quietly and dont blame us.
