Generation Ship - Artemis
19 Jun 2018Robert Phillips
Whilst running data missions in NLTT 55164, my sensors detected a listening post in orbit around NLTT 55164 2 a:UNREGISTERED DATA
… Transponder Signal ART-360-A Detected…
Matching Signal Detected. MU Cassiopeia. Time Stamp Predates Parameters.
…new start…different…animal on board..opeia C 1..A dog…storage pods..food for it from the kitchens…walls, doors, airlocks..Nice and Simple…exactly where…asked the captain…saw it..open…shake…
…Signal Lost…
The message was badly fragmented, but I was able to retrieve a key phrase: "Mu Cassiopeia", a system not far from here. Furthermore, the message suggested something occurring at Mu Cassiopeia C 1.
Eager to find out the source of this message, I laid in a course and engaged my hyperdrive.
Upon arrival, I headed to Mu Cassiopeia C 1 and my scanners detected a signal source: a generation ship - Artemis!
I scanned the vessel, but found no apparent signs of life. By hacking into 4 Ship Uplink Points dotted around the hull, I was able to download the following final logs:
WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING 1/4
Ship Security Log:
I thought this would be a new start, I thought coming out here things would be different.
But now after this I see that nothing has changed. People lie and other people just pay the cost.
lt seems like someone smuggled an illegal animal on board. A dog. They had been keeping it in one of the storage pods, stealing food for it from one of the kitchens. But it looks like that wasn’t enough.
By what we can piece together the dog got out somehow and killed a bunch of people. I mean a real mess. Bite and claw marks all over the bodies. Bite marks on the walls, on the doors, even on the airlocks.
The only thing is, it was found exactly where they had been keeping it all along, and I mean there wasn’t a drop of blood on this thing. If you ask me, this dog didn’t seem like the killing type. That didn’t stop them from destroying it. I asked the captain to keep the case open, to let me investigate, but no dice. He just saw it as open and shut.
I can’t shake the feeling that there’s something we’re missing here.
WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING 2/4
Unregistered Log 062:
What sheep they are, these fools of man. How they prance and bleat, knowing nothing of the true nature of things. Blind sheep following blind shepherds. I have been sent as a wolf amongst this flock to teach them the meaning of their existence. They are nothing, sacks of flesh flung out into the cosmos to spread their seed, uncaring children ejected from an uncaring womb. Spreading like a disease, infecting all they touch. So soon all will bleat as they do. They take only the choicest this flock, cast down those that will not follow their sightless herders to nothing. They prey on the weak for their own gains while they preach about unity and togetherness. They shall be snatched, they shall be scattered, they shall be ravaged.
WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING 3/4
Unregistered Log 291:
The shepherds hunt but see nothing. They scuttle and scurry and gather their precious flocks to them. But they cannot protect them.
I have opened so many eyes to the ways of things and still they do not see. I have opened them up to new ways, to see what’s inside. But they refuse to heed the lesson. What arrogance they show, as if this was all made for them. What gives this virus that is mankind the right to infect the cosmos?
WOLF IN SHEEP’S CLOTHING 4/4
Unregistered Log 412:
The sheep lay out their sacrifices. They think that will sate the wolf’s hunger. They do not see the wolf hunts not for hunger. They are blinded by the lies they tell themselves, the lies that tie the fabric of their tiny little world together. But the cord frays and will snap. The lesson must be repeated…
…until the baying falls silent.
I was unable to determine the fate of the wolf, but it seems fair to assume that no one survived the incident. The ship was completely abandoned, and I could not detect any signs of life at all...