INRA Base - Stuart Retreat
27 Jan 2018Robert Phillips
My previous journey charting the Thargoid Surface Sites had led to a dead-end. I could progress no further until the permit lock was lifted from HIP 22460.I decided to take some time out, and took some leave at the Squirrel's Nest Bar at Pleione 4. This was the place to be to hear news from the underground, and to get the real background on official news stories.
Here, I caught up on some old GalNet news, and took particular interested in the discovery of several old INRA bases.
The Intergalactic Naval Reserve Arm (INRA) was a joint Federal-Imperial initiative established in the 3100s, but details on it are rather hard to come by. Reports from the time assert that it was established to address Thargoid incursions into human space, and that it developed a chemical weapon designed to target Thargoid technology.
This was worth investigating. Perhaps I could discover more about them and, by extension, the Thargoids.
The GalNet articles did not give the location of the discovered bases, but one location was common knowledge among the bar's customers: a base called 'Stuart Retreat' at HIP 15329 A 3 C.
I had a reliable contact at Squirrel's Nest who always seemed to know more than he should. He told me there were some other INRA related clues, and suggested I also investigate the following systems to find out more:
I returned to The Purple Ranger, fired up my thrusters, and charted a course to HIP 15329 A 3 C.
On arrival, I performed a scan of the planet. At coords -62.6134, -44.2569 I detected a settlement, so I circled down to investigate.
The settlement was the INRA base - Stuart Retreat:
Around the site were 4 settlement uplink logs that I was able to scan, and downloaded some personal logs left by one of the researchers at the base:
WHISTLEBLOWER 1/4
…Bypassing security protocols…
…Secure connection established…
I don’t have long. Once they realise I’m gone and the data has been copied, they’ll send their attack dogs after me, I know they will. But someone needs to show the galaxy what the INRA really is – what it’s doing, what it’s hiding.
WHISTLEBLOWER 2/4
…Bypassing security protocols…
…Secure connection established…
I’m sorry for the part I’ve played in this. Truly.
I was a researcher at a facility in the Hermitage 4 A system exploring agricultural applications of Thargoid-derived technology. The lab was owned by the INRA.
Publicly, the INRA likes to emphasise the whole altruistic and cooperative thing, but in recent years it’s become much more focused on weapons testing and manufacture. Believe me, it’s a military contractor in all but name.
WHISTLEBLOWER 3/4
…Bypassing security protocols…
…Secure connection established…
The nature of my field was the study of disease-resistant crops and mycoproteins, that sort of thing. I was getting good results, even if my superiors took no notice. Then everything changed.
I was running a bunch of control experiments, just trying a few things out really. It was an afterthought – it wasn’t even related to the main body of my work.
The results were interesting and I didn’t think they were particularly significant, but something made me take it directly to one of the INRA guys. I didn’t want to go to Dr Prince, she’d always been pretty dismissive of my work.
I would give anything to be able to undo that decision. Anything.
WHISTLEBLOWER 4/4
…Bypassing security protocols…
…Secure connection established…
All my equipment and samples were whisked off to some remote facility. Later, I found out they’d been taken to a weapons-testing site in the Alnath A 2 A A system.
My research was used as the basis of a new super weapon designed to destroy the Thargoids. I heard they experimented on live captives. I doubt any of it was strictly legal. It certainly wasn’t ethical.
To the public, the INRA is a symbol of all that is possible when superpowers set aside their differences and work together. Well, it might have started off like that, but it’s something very different now. Progress at any cost, might makes right – all our worst impulses channelled into an unaccountable organisation focused solely on making bigger and more powerful weapons. Bigger and more powerful weapons. God.
If you find this… if someone finds this, make sure it gets out. Please. It’s time people knew the truth.
It's a grim tale of an otherwise legitimate organisation hiding a dark underbelly.
The anonymous researcher at this base referenced 2 other systems:
- He was a researcher at the base at Hermitage 4 A.
- There was a weapons-testing site at Alnath A 2 A A
I laid in a course for Hermitage 4 A to see if I could find out more...