Exploration record - Them on this end
03 Nov 2020Godthab
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So it didn't take much time for cmdr Godthab to reach from Fine Ring Nebula to Coalsack Dark Region, one of the famous dark nebulae just slightly outside the Bubble rim. Amongst the locations where fleet carriers were anchoring in the nebula he located the one which looked unusually crowded with the huge number of carriers staying. Which was PJ-P b6-1 in Musca Dark Region sector. He proceeded the sailing toward the target system.
The content of the system itself was not a rare one. It had a Red Dwarf star as its main star, having a number of landable high metal content world planets and several others. He headed to the 3rd planet from the star, which had no atmosphere yet landable and with slightly low gravity, 0.44G. Rumour had it in the news and amongst commander mouths that something eerie was going on down there.
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System: MUSCA DARK REGION PJ-P b6-1
Planet: 3
Place: Geological Survey 23B
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As the fleet approached to planet 3 cmdr Godthab confirmed quite a few number of signals on its surface. And there he saw a word, that wasn't supposed to be seen on the information panel on this side of the outskirts of the Bubble; Thargoid. Thargoid? Weren't they supposed to be flying around in Pleiades or recently in Witch Head? Never heard of their name on this end of the Bubble suburb. There were in total 9 signals indicating the presence of Thargoid Barnacles. Other than the barnacles and common geological signal (confirmed these were of bark mounds) he noticed three unique signals. First of them seemed to be one of the old abandoned settlement.
Fortunately the data point in the settlement was alive, so were the settlement comms log uplink devices. Cmdr Godthab deployed SRV and drove around in the area to retrieve the log data from the uplink devices and data point. He found 4 comm logs in total which apparently were recorded back in late 3111. Which was almost 2 centuries ago.
The logs were majorly recorded by Professor Penelope Carver, who worked on a kind of survey/research project together with her expert team for Azimuth Biochemicals, which to his knowledge did not exist any more in the current 34th century. By combining the log information with today's knowledge, most of the people would estimate the 'things' Professor Carver's team found was a part of Thargoid barnacles. They tried to store those things in a safe, stable place, but it appeared the things were troublesome kids, making the base equipment out of order, emitting consistent noises which with no doubt disturbed the mind of all the people in the site.
The last part of the log read doomed, just as most of the available comm logs retrieved in other abandoned settlement. Something odd happened, and majority of the team seemed to be dead because of it. The megaship to rescue them from the settlement, couldn't make it in time apparently. The name of the megaship rang a bell - The Adamastor. Isn't it the name of that ghost ship, quite lately found in Chukchan system? He paid a visit in Chukchan last week, and it looked just as an abandoned ghost ship with no lifeform signals detected.
The last log from the comms log uplink was recorded by Dr. Dominic Murphy, a geologist, member of Professor Caver's team. He survived "the attack" and managed to record the log. Which meant he was rescued by The Adamastor and evacuated from Coalsack region. Yet there was no clue to learn where he had been taken to, what he had done since then.
Cmdr Godthab returned to his DBX to head to the next signal.
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System: MUSCA DARK REGION PJ-P b6-1
Planet: 3
Place: Crashed Thargoid ship
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The remnants of crashed Thargoid ship was of an Interceptor. He had seen a similar one somewhere in Pleiades sector a good while ago. No biological reactions were detected; the ship was deadly dead, dried up, even partly fossilized. Again, it is a shock for human to see a ship of Thargoid, whichever it was dead or alive, on this end outside the Bubble.
He went back to DBX and set to the next waypoint.
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System: MUSCA DARK REGION PJ-P b6-1
Planet: 3
Place: Wrecked SRV
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The view of this signal looked most unusual to cmdr Godthab. A huge barnacle which had the marks of Interceptor on was confirmed; around the barnacle were a dozen or so of crystalline crops. Close to those objects observed, a broken SRV lay empty on the ground.
The driver's body wasn't found, but the cockpit of SRV was still emitting dim light. Around the wreck, the ground looked swollen and green. The color of this green, as well as the fog seen in the distance, reminded cmdr Godthab of his past experience. The experience he had in HIP 16217. He thought of leaving the site, but the unceasing arrivals of other explorer commanders onto the site somewhat gradually lowered his defenses. He stayed there along with a lot of other fleet - Mamba, Keelback, another DBX and whatnot - to continue the site survey on SRV.
After about an hour half had passed and he returned onboard DBX to take a rest. It was right at the moment when he sat back on the cockpit - the red-orange round signal suddenly appeared on the front scanner. He looked up in the sky in a reflexive manner.
A Thargoid - apparently Interceptor Medusa as it had characteristic red stings all around its body rim - was rapidly coming down toward the barnacle, literally from out of nowhere. In HIP 16217 it came flying from a distance toward the penal colony; this time it popped in all of a sudden just above the wrecked SRV and barnacle. Cmdr Godthab stayed quiet, so did other visiting explorers. They just watched the scene quietly without moving, without pulling the turret triggers.
Just same as the experience in HIP 16217, Medusa started blowing out very bright beam from the centre of its structure, aiming at the target down below, which was the barnacle. This time cmdr Godthab observed the scene more carefully - to learn what's actually going on. The brightness of the beam got brighter and brighter, and it seemed there was airflow in the beam. Soon, the crystalline crops around the barnacle were sucked up in the sky, up toward the centre of the interceptor's body. Now he got it, that Medusa was utilizing the site as one of its charging apparatus.
The charging process was over after a while, and the beam brightness quickly lowered, then gone. Medusa started gaining altitude, leaving the ground surface level, and disappeared in the air leaving a Thargoid wake.
Every commander present there would have felt relieved confirming the leaving of Medusa in the sky, and cmdr Godthab was no exception of that. It was completely unknown as to how frequently Medusa was visiting the site, as well as if its visit was constant or completely at random. Anyway, it was not a happiest sign for human beings. What if they started showing up on the other ends outside the Bubble - Dumbell, Pelican & North American, Barnard's Loop/Orion Complex? Is the Bubble gradually getting surrounded by those bugs?
So far, nobody knows an exact answer. What everyone knew already, was the fact the upcoming year 3307 was going to be more turbulent, along with other troubles and stormy political situation.
For a freelancer, things should be all right so long as the situation could generate more credits and more opportunity of generous business. But... an unexplainable knot remained in cmdr Godthab's stomach. A big, unpleasant one.
CMDR Godthab out.
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