HEADING TOWARD BACK OF BEYOND // 004 //
14 Sep 2019Godthab
((story continuing from the pictures in the gallery named HEADING TOWARD BACK OF BEYOND // 001, 002 and 003 //)):||: LOGBOOK MODE INITIATED. RECORD STARTS HERE :||:
Okay.
Lots of things happened over the past 24 hours or so. This one's decision might've been too hasty, he might've been just one or two steps away from demise. But here he is, surviving, rubbing a couple of scratches he gained on his cheek and forehead.
As a survivor of that, he decides to make a record of what happened, what he experienced today. A snipbit of record might be of help for somebody in the future he thinks.
The initial plan of the "tour" was to meet up at Artemis Lodge, grab each Sidewinder so that members can keep coming back to the site without losing gazillions of credits to recover the main ship of each when the pathfinders of tour lead everyone into the haven of Thargoids. However in the briefing time before departure, after doing a lot of mathes on the high-end calc application installed in their tablet, they raised their heads to look at us and shout loud as all the tour member including this one were bored with waiting so involved in video games.
"Guys, switch back to your main ship. We've changed our tour plan, we're gonna go and see the ancient relic first. You'll need a long-haul jump enabled one."
Looks like the change was done reconsidering the tour duration, member skills and efficiency. As the spec of each ship was different, destination details were introduced by the leaders and the team were to meet up again at the target place.
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System: PLEIADES SECTOR KH-V C2-3
Planet: 3 A
Place: UNKNOWN STRUCTURE SCAN
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This one's bud is GO-08A Vicious Serpent, an engineered ASP Explorer. Finishing a couple of long jumps then leaving supercruise-mode this one finished gliding to stare hard at the final destination - the meeting point on the ground. A variant geoglyph stared bluntly back to him, which made him staggered. "What is that?" he thought. It looked disturbing. He knew why it looked so to him. A regular long-haul driver tends to be a binge-watcher of drama series on the cockpit subscreen and he was no exception. This violent series he was in had frequent genocides by non-human entities and the mark of the massacre they always left on the murder site looked very much like this. Having a bad feeling in stomach he turned off the ship engine to complete landing.
Dolphin, Diamondback Explorer, Keelback ...
Soon after this one's ASPE landing a various kinds of middle-class ships arrived and landed close to each other. The tour leaders encouraged members to deploy each SRV on the ground for further venturing while they were busy guiding members not yet arrived toward this place. This one deployed his green illuminated SRV then started looking around. "Search for the entrance! There should be a valid one nearby!" they yelled. Entrance? Of what?
Since the light from the star was not bright enough to illuminate everything the team turned the headlight on and started looking for the entrance alike thing around the biggest relic. The ground nearby was so-so flat yet obstructions were here and there, including bone-like projections, ship debris, ores and presences like this. Randomly emitting unidentifiable gas it also shed light from inside occasionally. First this one thought of taking some samples off to bring back to Artemis for a little extra credit income but held back when he heard an alarm through the comm, which told everyone there the corrosion damage to a SRV by fetching in an unknown hazardous material. "Discretion is the better part of valor..." he mumbled to himself while re-focusing on the search of what was really needed.
Although the team did spot one suspicious ivory-white entity that exactly looked like an entrance, it would not open. There were no clues nor signs to break open it. The leaders attempted to drill a hole through it, to no avail. Drilling power was completely absorbed in the rubbery organization of the entity. The leaders navigated the team to continue the search, moving counterclockwise around the huge relic.
After driving for another couple of minutes the team found another ivory-white entity. It was tightly shut and flat as the first one everyone saw near their "parking lot," but as the leaders approached, it showed a different behavior; like a flower beginning to bloom, the entity peeled off its own petals layer by layer and finally the entrance was gape open. Inside the entrance looked too ... organic. Seriously, it was almost like gazing deep into the throat of big reptile. vein-like pipes were observed on the wall, ground and ceiling. Zero life-threat was guaranteed in advance, still it took a while until all the SRVs completed entering inside the relic. The tour members learned from the leaders that the entrance was opened responding to the items they prepared for the tour. "We're all right. It'll open when we leave here" they smiled and told us when the entrance hissed shut behind after the last member of the tour came in. As we proceeded something started going wrong, making the displays of cockpit blurred or partly malfunctioned. Easy easy. Not a big deal. This one tried to convince himself. Everyone there was doing same more or less probably, except for the leaders who had been there countless times.
Apologies for the distorted image. In the center core room inside the relic, SRV system displays were going crazy with loud intermittent noises plus static on the screens - this one actually thought the recorded data wouldn't stay alive. So he was fortunate to bring this image back to the station even though it looked miserable.
Miserable yes, but he still hopes you can recognize a huge insect-like object hanging down from the ceiling. On the ground below were several energy filled well like objects. The whole room looked like ... felt like ... inside an organ of a huge life form. The leaders attempted to activate something, which didn't seemed to be worked as expected. Humidity bugged the members and someone claimed to leave, then another one, despite the creepy yet amazing view you wouldn't see in your daily life. This one was okay with humidity but the team headed toward the entrance, or rather exit. As promised and assured it slowly gape opened the mouth, wide enough to let everyone move their SRV outside. Honestly this one wanted to stay longer, but shaking the thought off he caught up with the tail end of the team leaving the "dungeon."
Again after a couple of minutes' curving back around the exterior shell of the relic, everyone's familiar ships came into sight. System instability faded away with increasing distance from the exit and the display screens recovered their normal state. No more hissing noises either. "How did you like it?" the voices of leaders through the comm brought this one back to reality. "Unfortunately the core room did not work as we expected to show you its curious behavior, but we are confident the place was impressive enough for everyone participated in this tour. The second part of the schedule will start when we confirm everyone's return to Artemis Lodge as well as the switching ship to Sidewinder. Two of us will switch to our combat ships - we can invite several people to our ships. It is highly recommended to ride with us if this is the first time you are seeing that sort of non-human entities." The leaders continued.
Having this one's ASPE docked he dropped in at a station grocery booth to grab some food cartridges, beer and tobacco before heading to the dock of Sidewinder.
Well - writing about the foods surely makes you hungry, thirsty.
About time to take a break. The tour continued its schedule, but perhaps better to make an another log after a nap or two.
CMDR Godthab out.
:||: LOGBOOK MODE SHUTTING DOWN. RECORD ENDS HERE :||: