The Canterbury, nicknamed “The Cant” by
its crew, was a Water Hauler Vessel in service to the Pur’n’Kleen Water Company.
Along with its dozens of sister ships, the Cant’s role was to mine the glaciers and
ice asteroids of Saturn’s Rings and transport the Ice to colonies in the Belt or the Outer
Planets to be purified and used for drinking water.
Water Hauling was not always the Canterbury’s purpose however, over a century before the
Eros Incident, the Canterbury was a Colony Transport Ship, tasked with delivering thousands
of settlers to the developing colonies in the Belt.
Once the Belt Colonies were fully established the aging Canterbury was retooled into an
Ice Hauler to help provide the colonies she had helped create with the essential water
they needed to survive.
The Canterbury was 750 Meters long and 250 Meters Wide, its superstructure consisted
of a massive rectangular section, hollow and open to space at the bow, and an array of
nine engines mounted on a cross-shaped assembly at the ship’s rear.
The hollow bow section contained several large hydraulic claws and loading arms to assist
in the grappling and storing of Ice Asteroids to be mined.
The fuselage was accessible by several airlocks and was the site of frequent EVA’s by Pur’n’Kleen
personnel with the highly dangerous job of cutting and securing the massive chunks of
Ice.
The crew of the Canterbury included many who were simply unable to find work elsewhere,
either as a result of insufficient qualifications, a history of incompetence in other jobs or
being unable to pass the background checks that many higher-paying jobs required.
At least a few of the Canterbury’s crew were ex-military, with some holding dishonourable
discharges that led them to accepting a job on the Cant.
Pur’n’Kleen Ice Haulers were required by regulations to carry at least one shuttlecraft
capable of atmospheric flight, the Canterbury’s shuttle was known as the Knight.
The Knight was propelled by a fusion torch, a now-primitive predecessor of the Epstein
Drive, and carried a crew of five.
Though carrying an atmospheric shuttle was compulsory, the Canterbury was never required
to deploy the Knight to a planet’s surface in its daily duties, so maintenance on the
Knight’s landing gear and avionics was often neglected by the Canterbury Crew.
A short few days before the Eros Incident, the Canterbury received a distress signal
from a freighter called the Scopuli, the law required that the Canterbury send a team to
investigate, so their Ice Hauling run was placed on hold and Executive Officer James
Holden and a small team were dispatched aboard the Knight to the Scopuli’s last known position,
alongside a charted non-belt asteroid.
During the Knight Crew’s search of the Scopuli, an unknown vessel equipped with advanced stealth
technology suddenly appeared and launched a salvo of torpedoes, initially the crew on-board
the Knight presumed the torpedoes were intended for them and began to take evasive action,
it wasn’t long however before they realised their true target: the Canterbury.
Though efforts were taken to eject the Cant’s cargo as a shield, the attack came too fast,
and the Canterbury suffered a volley of direct hits from the mysterious ship’s nuclear
torpedoes, destroying the vessel completely.
The destruction of the Canterbury, and the investigation of its mysterious assailants,
initiated a complex chain of events that would eventually go on to shape the future of the
entire Solar System.
And from that day forward, one would be hard pressed to pass near any civil protest or
OPA rally without hearing the sound of protesters chanting “Remember the Cant”.