20 hours ago, the research group that was considered missing was found… in capacity of 1 found body. M-42 “Excalibur” was only servant found flying in cold, desolate space. With her body, there was found a hard drive, holded in dead grip by her. Both Excalibur and drive was in surprisingly good state on first sight. But further investigation revealed, that both are “infected” with hard, basalt-like material. It managed to preserve their looks, but not their internal integrity. Excalibur was damaged beyond revive. Drive was successfully cleaned, but it didn’t saved information on it from corruption. It was spaceship’s internal log of activity presumably recorded and taken by M-42. Rest of the team: B-65 “Fawkes”, Q-16 “Sagacity”, J-37 “Ascended”, J-83 “Renovator”, J-71 “Ice cube”, and spaceship remains missing. Newfound “infection” was found to be inactive after extraction. Parts of the log that was considered beyond recovery will not be included, but some parts will stay due to possible clues and answers.
Preferences of the log:
LOG_NAM = [75 6e 64 65 66 69 6e 65 64]
LOG_TAG = “exp”
SYS_ONL = ”{:”
SYS_ANN = ”|>”
SRV_MSG = ”|:”
Comm = [“Our commentaries on the situation”, 7:]
The log itself:
SYS {: System resources loaded successfully, session recovered
M-42 |: Soooo… we finally arrived the asteroid belt.
B-65 |: Looks like that, Calibur. Anything to say, Sag?
Q-16 |: Why it’s so important for you to ask each time, Fawkes?
B-65 |: What? It’s just a question.
Q-16 |: It would be a question if it wasn’t asked all the time.
B-65 |: Sooo rude of you, Sagacity.
M-42 |: The planet is almost pitch black. Looks like there’s nothing with technology.
B-65 |: Or we arrived at the wrong time. Anybody wanna ask the planet to turn? Any ideas?
J-71 |: We can follow the asteroids from distance until we’ll be at brighter side.
J-37 |: Sounds fine.
J-71 |: But how much will it take?
J-83 |: Step aside, Ice.
SYS |> User input detected
J-83 |: Looks like this route will take somewhere 17 hours of calm flight. We need to stay high on resources fellas.
J-71 |: We got it Renovator. Anyone wants to propose any alternatives?
M-42 |: Looks like we don’t have much of choices right now. Reno, set the ship to our new point please.
J-83 |: I got you!
SYS |> New destination point was set
B-65 |: Looks like we have spare 17 hours of nothing… anybody wants to play pong?
Q-16 |: Me, i guess.
J-83 |: Come ooon Fawkes. This is lame even for you.
B-65 |: I also have spades of varium that will hog half of the ship’s resources. Aren’t you one asking to not spend much?
J-83 |: Uhhh… Right. Pass it to me.
SYS |> Foreign app registered in the digital space
B-65 |: Up to 25?
Q-16 |: Yes.
B-65 |: Here we go.
PONG |> 1/2 New match was set. Goal was set to 25.
PONG |> 2/2 Match started.
M-42 |: I will try to make some shots of the asteroids and the planet itself. Maybe we will find something interesting.
J-71 |: As you wish. I will check our ship.
J-37 |: I don’t feel like doing something. I’ll just try to sleep. Good luck Ice
J-71 |: Thanks!
SYS |> J-37 has been disconnected from digital space
J-83 |: I’ll just resort my notes. Gonna be off digispace, so if somebody will need something from me, i will be in second barrack.
SYS |> J-83 has been disconnected from digital space
Comm 7: From that moment, there is only logs of the PONG and some files and texts uploaded to the digital space. All of Excalibur’s photos were corrupted beyond recovery. Most Renovator’s notes were closer to personal diary, but our team also managed to find some notes, that supposed to be part of publicly available knowledge but didn’t ended up being. They will be included in this version of the log.
J-83 {: Study on spiky carbonite fruits #0326. Usually more hard crops have more distinguish and sweet taste and vice verca: more soft ones are more bland(this text is bland. rewrite later)
J-83 {: Study on spheric carbonite fruits #0177. Detailed analysis of the nutritional composition of juice revealed significant(but not abnormal) enrichment by vitamin C and B12(the coolest fruit to me tbh).
J-83 {: Study on spheric carbonite fruits #0179. Some spheric fruits were found with moss-like outer shell formation. This specific kind of fruit has more brown tint and white color of the juice along with more sour flavor(cocofruits are growing everywhere, go find a place with none.)
J-83 {: Side note. I don’t know why, but no one from my team seen that juice loses most of its juiciness when its exposed to outer world for a time. It doesn’t sound market-friendly, and its not. Farmers may find the workaround on how to put in in bottles, but it looks like peeps will be either required to not drink it in its full taste, or crack them open in their ships. Nevertheless, such a package of vitamins, lipids, proteins and size will be in demand for mercs or warriors.
J-83 {: Side note. My friends are already tried to figure out more popular name for carbonites, but we still don’t know what to send to the council. Some stand for “rock fruits” but its kind of straightforward, i think we need to send dorw’s. Its one-worded and sounds original, though doesn’t look logical, but who will care. Its a fruit, it will not be offended.
SYS |> P2 Won! 25/23
B-65 |: That’s how you do it
Q-16 |: Grrrr… I would have won if you hadn’t kept moving.
B-65 |: Jokes on you. What about something less competitive? Like Spaceship chain sim?
Q-16 |: But you said-
B-65 |: I know. Ren wouldn’t left me alone if he knew about the game. Also it’s not the fresh one. We are going to play coop. I’m not gonna be pushy.
Q-16 |: Oookay… What is it even about?
B-65 |: Well… You make a spaceship transporting empire from the very ground when you have only 2 ships. Give it a try.
Q-16 |: Sounds promising. But i’ll better get some rest.
B-65 |: As you say…
SYS |> Foreign app registered in the digital space
SPCS |> New game was set. Difficulty: Hard, Starting budget: 50000P, Starting point: Random.
…
SYS |> Q-16 has been disconnected from digital space
…
Comm 7: Shortly after Q-16 disconnected to take a rest, M-42 uploaded pictures made by her onto digital space, but almost all of them are corrupted beyond recognition. The only ones that were not harmed are ones, where the newfound planet was barely visible or not visible at all. Same rule as first comment applies here, except midway through Fawkes’ game, there was found 2 unfitting messages:
SYS {: New person was identified in digital space. Please, assign name to yourself
SYS {: New name was chosen: “UHW CZFNILTPX”
Comm 7: Whatever is inhabitates this planet or asteroid belt, it has advanced electronic abilities.
M-42 |: Is it me, or planet is… Looking into camera?
J-71 |: What do you mean by that? It’s a planet! It can’t look.
M-42 |: Then look at this one.
J-71 |: … From this perspective, yes. But don’t you think it’s just light from the star reflection on planet weirdly?
M-42 |: I don’t know. I feel a bit exhausted… How’s the ship?
J-71 |: Slate’n’clean. But i think ship can be a bit scratched from the outside. I will check it when we stop.
M-42 |: As you say… I will take a nap. i don’t feel very powered right now. See you later.
J-71 |: Take care!
SYS |> M-42 has been disconnected from digital space
SYS |> J-37 has been reconnected to digital space
J-37 |: What’s the matter here?
J-71 |: Nothing. At least we’re almost there. Take Renovator out of his bed, we need to make a plan.
J-37 |: No problem.
SYS |> J-83 has been reconnected to digital space
J-83 |: Mmmm… What’s happening?
J-71 |: We are almost there. It’s time to split our responsibilities.
J-83 |: I think everything is obvious with Excalibur. She is the only one here who can work with our telescope like a pro.
J-71 |: I’ll collect some stones in orbit. Ren, wanna do some repairs?
J-83 |: Almost if i had choice here. Ascended
J-37 |: Yes?
J-83 |: You will take care of the ship with Sagacity.
J-37 |: No problem. What about Fawkes?
J-83 |: He is our tongue without bones - let him be our communicator.
CZFNILTPX {: Sedelljny tsx tpwcetuoj
J-71 |: This is something we will never take away from him.
J-37 |: Definitely.
Comm 7: From that moment, text will split into 2 main groups by communication, to give more definitive picture of situation. Unnecessary parts will not be included in the final log:
Team 1:
M-42 |: Fawkes? Where the heck are you?
B-65 |: Huh?
M-42 |: Wake me a bit later. Also, you are assigned to be a communicator. We need to file a report to node ship.
B-65 |: Ok, ok.
…
B-65 |: Oi, Excali! Wake up! You have a job to do.
M-42 |: Thanks… Whats with the report?
B-65 |: Almost there. What are the stars going to say?
M-42 |: I don’t know, but something creepy - if there aren’t many with evidence. I’ll try to take more photos of the planet this time.
CZFNILTPX {: Uhw slvsev vtxx walw uf tsrybthwd. Cxeuue eaf gszp
B-65 |: When we will finally send our docs with stone fruits? It feels like we’re doing it for forever now.
M-42 |: Ask Reno. He’s the one responsible for all our research files.
B-65 |: Ugh… We’ll see.
M-42 |: Mhm. Wait. What is this?
B-65 |: What?
M-42 |: One of the asteroids moves strangely. Wait! No, no no no no! Dammit…
B-65 |: Language.
M-42 |: Our telescope just got hit. Call Reno and Ice cube to collect shards.
B-65 |: ‘K.
…
M-42 |: Looks like i’ve got nothing else to do than look at what i made for no-
CZFNILTPX |> S t o p Re ss i s T ING.
M-42 |: Did you hear that?!
B-65 |: Why wouldn’t i? Had you left anything on digispace that you forgot to close?
M-42 |: Of course not! Someone breached our digital space. Call Sagacity and Ascended.
Team 2:
J-83 |: Found anything useful for us?
J-71 |: Nope. It’s all just rocks. Only strange thing is that some of them are basalt.
J-83 |: Like on-planet one?
J-71 |: Yes… No idea how it got here, because we never been on this planet.
J-83 |: I see no problem to land on it, when we will end here.
J-71 |: Oops. Looks like some stones are sticking to me. Give me a sec.
J-71 |> Photo loaded into digital space
J-71 |: Look at those.
Comm 7: Photo arrived to us in barely touched state. The photo was Ice cube’s hand and portable drill covered in dark-grey stones, allegedly the basalt he talked about.
J-83 |: Are you sure this is basalt and not something else?
J-71 |: Yes.
J-83 |: Aren’t those should be somewhere at the…
J-71 |: Bottom of the ocean, yes. But here we are. It’s somehow ended up here.
J-83 |: Weird place.
J-71 |: Whoa, what was that?
J-83 |: What?
J-71 |: Did you heard it?
J-83 |: What am i supposed to hear?
J-71 |: Something tried to… talk me? I hear some cracking noises.
J-83 |: Your suit is cracking. Get back here and stop talking nonsense. You’re not good at jokes.
J-71 |: Im NOT joking. Something’s cracking. AH! My hand is pressed by rocks.
J-83 |: Then pull it out!
J-71 |: Im trying… Something looking into me…
J-83 |: Ice, what are you doing?
J-71 |: It… shere…
J-83 |: Ice-
CZFNILTPX |> St o p R e s Si S ti n G.
SYS |> J-71 has been disconnected from digital space
J-71 |: What was that?! Ice, respond!
Comm 7: After this case, all 3 are contacted Q-16 and J-37. Messages above was recorded from command centre, where Sagacity and Ascended were at the moment.
Team 3:
CZFNILTPX |> S top R E s i s T I ng.
Q-16 |: What was that?
J-37 |: What happened?!
Q-16 |: We are the only protogens here. Who could-
J-37 |: Fawkes is calling! Something like that happened to them?
SYS |> Network of communication #1761 was set up
B-65 |: Ascended, Sagacity! We got voices in our digital space.
Q-16 |: We too. We don’t know what is it.
M-42 |: Also our telescope is damaged. Send Reno to fix it please.
J-37 |: We are trying to track it down. It’s not someone from our ship…
Q-16 |: Renovator also calling. Something definitely happened here.
SYS |> Network of communication #8114 was set up
J-83 |: We lost Ice!
J-37 |: What?
Q-16 |: How!?
B-65 |: Whats happening?
Q-16 |: Ren says we lost Ice cube.
M-42 |: No way!
J-37 |: How exactly you “lost” him?
J-83 |: He just got disconnected. he complained about rocks that sticked to his arm, and also voice-
Q-16 |: We heard it too.
J-83 |: Wait. He also said something about coming here…
Q-16 |: Excalibur says some rocks damaged her telescope. Come to it and fix it.
J-83 |: Sigh… On my way.
Q-16 |: Everybody else, to the command centre.
Comm 7: Since those events happened, J-71 never appeared at digital space for the rest of the log. His fate remains unclear.
J-37 |: Sigh… We cant reach him.
M-42 |: You tried everything?
Q-16 |: Yes we do. Almost if he isolated himself.
B-65 |: And what we gonna do? Find him or Flee while we can?
M-42 |: We can’t leave this place without him and especially information on this forbidden place.
J-37 |: We must stay here.
B-65 |: Look. Something is flying towards our window.
Q-16 |: Ice?..
M-42 |: It looks more like stone than Ice cube.
B-65 |: It’s not a rock…
J-37 |: It looks like Ice, but-
Q-16 |: It is Ice…
Comm 7: At the same moment, camera that was installed in the window stopped glitching. The picture got clear. “Ice cube” slowly flew motionless towards the window. “He” rapidly stopped in front of the window. Then, right hand started to wave to protogens on spaceship in a puppetry manner. Suddenly, “he” turned its head to the left as fast as camera was capable to record, but rest of the body haven’t moved. What was considered a body of Ice cube got pulled by his back to the left side, almost if someone pulled him by the string. One of the rocks that was on the background started to “crawl” like if it got legs. There was no limbs on it, but it kept pushing other asteroids like if it tried to get somewhere. Everything happened in a dead silence in front of four protogens.
B-65 |: Whatever was this “thing”, Ice is not present anymore.
CZFNILTPX {: Uhas aebcw wtem rwmlbo a xoczptley wpt gn jhvr eaal
Q-16 |: The creature left the message again!
J-37 |: Its gibberish again…
M-42 |: Again?
J-37 |: This thing left some messages in system, but all of them are… This.
Q-16 |: We need to contact Ren immediately.
SYS |> Network of communication #1313 was set up
Q-16 |: Ren, come back to spaceship right now.
J-83 |: You are on time, Sagacity. I think i found h- SYS |> Network of communication #1313 ended
SYS |> Spaceship isolation mode turned on. Reason: Security measures to prevent depressurization.
… 7: Everyone screams. No need to record that separately.
M-42 |: We are locked now!
J-37 |: What are we gonna do? What are we gonna do?!
Q-16 |: We need to stay calm. We can still leave this place in rescue pod.
J-37 |: Then why we’re not going into them already?
B-65 |: Records. We need to collect everything here.
J-37 |: Or else?
B-65 |: Our administration will not be happy to greet us. At all.
M-42 |: I’ll take the drive.
B-65 |: Ren had some notes regarding our stone fruits. I will take them.
J-37 |: I think… I should check the other rooms.
Q-16 |: No!
J-37 |: We need to take some thing before we leave.
Q-16 |: I don’t feel you need to do this. Stop!
J-37 |: No. I will take them back. Stay Here!
M-42 |: What are we going to tell them?
B-65 |: … We got attacked by some outlaws.
M-42 |: By outlaws!?
B-65 |: Tossed us by this new stones and intimidate us by encrypted messages. They found something on this planet and don’t want to anyone to know.
Q-16 |: And how you will explain Ice’s corpse?
B-65 |: Duplicate. It barely looked like protogen and more like his copy made from that material.
M-42 |: Why would anyone will try to gatekeep this so hard?
Q-16 |: The basalt that walks…
B-65 |: Whatever they are trying, They keep something great in a secret.
SYS |> Drive powered off.
SYS |> New host of the drive: M-42 “Excalibur”
M-42 |: I’ll keep it on myself, so we can record more.
B-65 |: Oh look, 37 came… back…
J-37 |: I m backkkk
M-42 |: You don’t look healthy.
J-37 |: Everrrrything Fiiiineeeeeee. I ggOt Ascended.
Q-16 |: Its not her.
J-37 |: Youu wiiil be A S C E N D E D
B-65 |: Sag, Ex, run!
M-42 {: New external energy source connected: Pod
M-42 |: Fawkes, no!!
B-65 |: Fly for your…
M-42 |> Pod #3 disconnected from spaceship
Comm 7: Everything was recorded by secondary visors optical nanites. “Ascended” attacked Fawkes by impaling him with what was before her left hand. Excalibur managed to escape with pod, but Sagacity’s pod was “stopped” by former Ice cube’s body that flied towards the pod. Everything looked like M-42 was destined to survive, but last messages left by her flipped all hopes.
M-42 |> This may be my last message. Whatever was around this planet or on it, it wasn’t intruders. It’s something we never encountered. Its motif will be dim for us. But i will not leave it unspoken. Even if it means taking off my own live. The “basalt” is spreading on my pod, and i will not let it destroy all our achievements.