MY ELITE - CMDR [REDACTED] JOURNAL-LOG ENTRY #9
24 Apr 2022Greenthumbs
24th April 3308"I'm sorry, son. You were just another one of Humanities pointless experiments". - Dr. Kovac
I reached Bernard's Loop engulfed by the red mist and clusters of constellations from the surrounding Nebulae. I begin my search of any unfamiliar signals on my scan results but eventually come to a wall and can not traverse further for there are interdiction locks on my navigation systems. All except for one system, tucked away behind a cluster of prohibited stars. I make my way around the cluster and navigate through an asteroid field until I finally arrive. I scan a planet hidden just beyond the belt and find a singular geological result. My old PDA lights up. I can't see what it is entitled behind the broken projection but it is reacting to whatever is on that planet.
I created an encrypted signal and sent it out surprised to find it was answered by a federal civilian ship nearby. I venture down to the dark surface with only a dim light from the distant sun and the glow from my vessel. What I found was a barnacle forest but larger then any I had seen before with a large monolithic pilar in the centre. Competent to the dangers I prepare to land nearby and await with my Karma AR and enough frag grenades to leave a lasting impression. I reflect on my recent years, the years I were thinking I was just a man from Earth to find out I am actually a clone. A clone created to be a slave. I have seen craters on planets the size of entire cities. Anomalous stellar phenomena in the celestial plains and anemone life forms on distant planets from the Orion Arm. I have discovered entire systems nobody has boldly gone before, finally having my own moon to call home. Finding myself surrounded by hundreds of unknown non-human signal echoes to witnessing Thargoids up close and personal along with ancient Guardian structures offering technology created by an extinct species. I have lived among the stars and proudly.
All of a sudden I received an encrypted message stating that a 'Frendly is Approaching'. Shortly after, while sat on a rock underneath my ship, I can finally see who has come all this way to greet me. Dr. Kovac, alone and far from his cosy office on Hahn Gateway. He knew I had questions, he knew everything I wanted to ask and knew chaos had a way of finding me. This is a great man who studied me well, but it all made sense once he explained everything. Turns out Viscount Penelope was only telling me half of the truth.
I was part of a secret cloning project funded by members of a conjoined program from the Federation, Empire and Alliance handled by a team of specialist and scientists. After I was assigned to slavery during my incubation process, Dr. Kovac left the programme along with a few others, by this point it was under total Imperial funding and control by the remaining members. I apparently led a revolt at the mining colony escaping the docile planet and eventually picked up by Federal Operatives on route to rescue me. They found me unconscious and drifting in space in an evac pod then brought me back to Nanomam for assimilation.
Dr. Kovac explained that I never defected from the Federation, I instead was assigned a highly classified mission to retrieve propperty and data from Imperial Forces and Denton Patreus was my way in. The mission was a success, I retrieved the Catalyst and the cartography maps but was met with an ill fate. He told me after recovering the artifact I fled both the Empire and the Federation and set a course to Colonia. He explained all I told command was that I had discovered something that I refused to share and claimed I had a new mission that was of the utmost importance. I must have triggered the Catalyst and somehow ended up in Bernard's Loop. He too claimed that nobody knows what really happened after I obtained the alien object.
They retrieved the package from my ship's wreckage while the Empire got to my body first. The real reason why I was brought back from the dead was all parties involved came to an agreement and believed I still had valuable information about the Catalyst and how it operated, wanting to retrieve it by cooperation or force. After attempts had failed in questioning, drugging and torturing me the project was considered a failure and I was assigned to slavery until perishment while occasional attempts were made to retrieve any information I might have had locked away in the corners of my mind.
This is where Dr. Kovac started his own secret project unable let go of the value and potential of a clone such as myself. After the revolt, I was brought back to Nanomam for re-assimilation and my memmory was wiped to an extent but altered to believe I was the son of my former self, sharing the same memories and ambitions although differentiated due to my previous and personal experiences. I was placed in stasis until I awoke on Dalton Gateway, the day I took flight for what I believed to be the first time. I was given a second chance at life, in exchange for the continuation of my federal service.
I asked what the Catalyst is and what the point of my original mission was. He told me that it didn't matter, my efforts were only a small part comparison to a miniscule of the bigger picture. The Catalyst artifact was stolen from somebody else, then stolen again after that, ripped apart and salvaged over and over until it contributed to both Aegis and Salvation's anti-xeno technology of today. Somebody else beat us to the punch. He apologized and explained that this is the Milky Way, there is always somebody else crossing the finish line first wether it be in a breakthrough of scientific research or the discovery of something unique. I knew this was very much accurate for there are billions of stories of every individual of humanity living in our big bright galaxy.
I felt like I was just an abandoned science project picked up by a different laboratory. My heart sunk, confused and angry. I wondered if these were more lies I was being told, but somehow I knew Dr. Kovac was being genuine. I asked what am I supposed to do now. He offered me a final choice. He could end the programme and destroy my being, or I could end his misery and live a prosperous long life. This was his way of saying goodbye. I pondered the value of my very existence. I could end it all here and now and nobody would even notice or know what really happened. Or I could continue the path of my own independent life making a difference in the journey I have created for myself.
He handed me his side arm, loaded with a single shot. He then salutes me telling me it was an honor and his intentions were always for the best of my potential and personal well being. I say nothing and granted his wish of ending his misery. I am all alone once again amongst the deep void in the unfamiliar territory of space. I look to the stars and shout in agony, answered by an unidentified object in the distsnce. The biggest unknown vessel I had ever seen. Could this be an Orthrus I had only heard about? No, this was a Thargoid Mother Ship! Hovering over the barnacle forest, sucking up what appeared to be light and energy, in exchange dropping loads of what looked like pods. I enter my ship ready to take flight watching closely from the cockpit. The pods are glowing, then dimmer to what leaves them to seem hollow until appendages and legs came reaching out from the hatches. Some appeared to be hind while others were tentacle-like and even shelled like crustaceans.
I am admittedly uncertain on what I had exactly seen in the darkness of the distance, but whatever I had seen, tens of thousands of them had awoken. I escaped the planets atmosphere determined and sweating, in fear if there were any xeno vessels awaiting to greet me with certain death. I escape the Running Man sector and made my way through the Nebulae towards the Core Systems. The only place I had on my mind was home, mother Earth and her Moon.