Personal Log - Date 3035.05.05

As is customary I’ve been scanning and mapping every system I pass by. Yes, even rocky or ice worlds. Honestly I don’t care much about the credits. Sure credits are nice and stumbling upon an ELW or WW is indeed a pleasant surprise. But if I see that something is not mapped, no matter what that something is, I will map it. So, as I was on my way to Coelrind to drop off some data, naturally I scanned the system I was in, DT Virginis. At first glance it’s a rather boring system. Two Class M stars, one Class I Gas Giant, and full of seemingly unremarkable Icy Bodies everywhere else. Everything was mapped as well, so I didn’t have much reason to stick around. However, I noticed something different on the FSS, there was a signal from DT Virginis A 2 a, “other” it said. “Well” I thought, “that’s new”.

There was no rush to drop off my data, I had already sold the most of it at Ross 115 and was merely dropping off the leftovers before I head out exploring the bubble again. I decided to check out what this other signal was. Upon reaching the moon and mapping the surface, I found the answer to my question. On my Nav panel there was a lone POI, “Crash Site”. Obviously I descended onto the surface of the moon to investigate. Unfortunately for me, the few times I’ve stumbled upon something interesting like this has been at night. At least I’ve got night vision so landing isn’t too much of an issue. Just wish I could get a good look at things.

I landed at a prudent distance, just in case. My previous run-in with the Generation Ship Thetis has made me cautious of approaching these types of locations. You never know what dangers you might run into, it’s best to play it safe. Anyway, with caution on my mind and much excitement to what I might find, I set out on my SRV with full light beams blasting. Night vision is nice but I prefer natural light, or at least a sad imitation of it. As I approached the crash site, my radar beeped louder and in the darkness I could make out the damaged remnants of a ship. It was an Anaconda. Strewn about the place my lights shined on bent metal parts, storage containers miraculously still intact, and a few low priced items like grain and fish containers. Nothing of particular interest to me, other than the lone material I collected.

Someone had a very bad day...

Meanwhile the eerie sounds of [i]something[/i] howled and echoed in the distance, a rather uneasy feeling, especially in the pitch black with only my SRV’s beam of light to show me the way. As I drove closer I noticed another sound, different from the rest, a sound I could almost describe as chirping. A rush of concern filled the back of my mind as it seemed to be somehow alive… and definitely [b]not[/b] human. In the darkness, a faint glow of light appeared, I had found the culprit. Upon closer inspection I could see that what I was looking at was a thargoid sensor. The first I had encountered in my travels, but how did it end up here?

I admit for a moment my trepidation was lost from me, as I immediately went to recover the sensor. I blame my curiosity and desire to bring back specimens to my ship for further analysis. This I quickly learned was something I was not equipped to do, as soon after scooping the item my SRV notified me it had experienced some damage to its power plant and cargo rack, corrosive damage. Knowing basic cause and effect, I quickly jettisoned the scanner. As much as I want to take this piece of thargoid junk back to my ship, I want my ship and SRV to remain intact far more. I still have much to learn on the ways of exploration, remaining safe, and knowing what to and what not to touch.

Look! It's chirping. It's alive. It's alive... It's alive, it's chirping, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, it's alive, IT'S ALIVE!

Despite forgoing the thargoid sensor, I still had some investigating to do. After all, what brought me here was a crash site. I proceeded to study the doomed Anaconda further, with some difficulty due to the low light conditions. But no matter. As I approached the beast I realize it’s immense size, I knew these ships where big, but to be so close to one.. It truly dwarfed my Cobra MK III. As much as I love my ship and its reliability, an Anaconda is truly a sight to behold. I wish to own one someday and travel the vast reaches of this galaxy with it, but that’s a story for some other distant time.

Closing my distance from the ship I could now see what I presumed to be the cause of such a tragic end. A very large hole breached the belly of the Anaconda, spanning from the front towards the rear at what seemed to be about the location of the cargo rack. It doesn’t take much science to figure out what was likely to have happened. Seeing how the ship itself is mostly intact, and how there’s a path of cargo items strewn about the moons surface leading to the ship; and remembering how only a few moments ago my own SRV experienced corrosive damage due to collecting the thargoid sensor; it was highly likely that what caused such a crash was some poor sod deciding to transport the sensor for a bit too long a time.

Don't transport Thargoid Sensors kids!

Examining the ship further I was able to locate its data core, this would certainly provide some confirmation to my not so scientific assumption. It was a bit difficult to scan. Due to the ships position and size, it was necessary to attempt a scan for more than a couple of tries. However, I was finally able to angle my SRV in such a way that a full scan of the ship’s data core was possible. As my comms panel processed the data, my previous assumptions were shown to be correct:

SCANNED MESSAGE

Mayday. I repeat, Mayday. Warning, hazardous cargo on board! Emergency landing protocols are in place. Mayday, I repeat, Mayday.

So, there it is.

It’s always good to learn from others mistakes, so as to not repeat them. I do not want to end up half buried in some forgotten moon. These thargoid sensors are one item I will have to keep away from, at least for now.

Further reading:

The Thargoid Sensor - Canonn Research

Personal Log - Date 3035.01.07

Finally I bought myself a Cobra MK III. What a beauty of a ship, so smooth and maneuverable. Because I like to be reasonably economical I set out to travel to Li Yong-Rui controlled space for that sweet sweet 15% discount. I chose to go all the way to his headquarters in Lembava because why not, some extra system data to scan is always welcome by this explorer. But this log isn't about my shopping adventures, it's about what happened in my journey to Lembava and on my way to Wolf 406.

So far my travels have been quite uneventful, the most exciting activity being the occasional interdiction that I've managed to evade. I'm realizing I'm quite a decent pilot for a newbie, this will be beneficial later on in my journey to Lembava. After several quiet jumps and the occasional new system scan, I found myself face to face with a White dwarf. I promptly shat myself and managed to stay in control of my ship without too much issue.

I knew beforehand from my training and from more experienced pilots that White Dwarfs are the death of ships, I made sure to keep a healthy distance from the star LHS 151 and it's tails. What I didn't know was that my assumed healthy distance was not quite distant enough for a safe jump to the next system. Lets just say I'm glad I was packing a pair of heatsink launchers. They say your life flashes before your eyes before death, in my case though all I could think was "well shit".

Note to self: Don't FSD too close to a white dwarf.

By some miracle, I survived the encounter, only to meet yet another White Dwarf a couple of jumps later. This time however, I made sure to be as far away as reasonably possible before jumping again. I've learned my lesson. I thought that was it with my excitement, and honestly I was more than happy for the rest of my journey to go without any further events of note. However, during yet another system scan of LHS 2206 I noticed something rather curious on the FSS. It seemed LHS 2206 2 had a guardian site, or at least that's what the FSS said.

As a novice explorer, I cannot pass up this opportunity to see this with my own eyes. I had heard of the guardians of course, though I knew rather little of them, other than the fact that they're ancient. Of course, as any decent self proclaimed explorer would do, I started my way over to this planet to check things out. Curiously, I did not find any guardian site POI nor was the planet suitable for landing in my current ship. However, I found something else entirely, orbiting LHS 2206 2, a Listening Post.

Wait... This isn't a guardian.

Naturally I scanned the post, not expecting much really, when I received this transmission:

ANOMALOUS SIGNAL DATA

…Transponder Signal THE-288-A Detected…

Matching Signal Detected. Nefertem. Time Stamp Predates Parameters.

I’ve done it…signal…identify…confusing…originates… Who sent it…idea…good news…message…translator….again and again… It says…

…Signal Lost…

Well, this is new.

After doing some quick research I realized this was a clue to the location of a Generation Ship. I've heard of those, never thought I'd come across one so soon in my adventures. Nefertem, it's a few jumps away, Wolf 406 can wait.

I don't know why I thought finding the Generation Ship would be a quick endeavor, I guess the ease of use of the FSS has spoiled me somewhat and I expected the POI to be nicely identified. Of course it wasn't. After aimless wondering about Nefertem I came to accept this simply was not the way to find the damn ship, so for the first time since I bought the module I fired up my DSS and proceeded to map every stellar object in the system. Luckily the probes are limitless, I really need to work on my aim.

After mapping the moon Nefertem 6 A, finally a new POI appeared. I had found the Generation Ship, it was the Thetis.

Generation Ship Thetis, found on April 28th, 3303 by CMDR Rhaider.

I proceeded to admire the ship, that was orbiting at a little more than 2Mn from the moon, flying carefully close to its surface to examine its details and see if I could find anything out of the ordinary. Other than a few burnt marks from probably small asteroids or other space debris, there were no indications of external damage. There were a series of containers, much like those used in ancient times on Earth to transport goods over land and sea, with writing on them. I assume the companies that helped build this ship, or something of the sort, such as Interstellar Logistics 9C-AA and Grant Taylor.

Curiously, for an abandoned ship, the greenhouse seems to have flourished quite nicely in the absence of humans. There were three sections, two seemed to be gardens with trees, probably oxygen producers. The third seemed to be growing crops of some sort, for some reason what came to mind was lettuce. In the words of Dr. Malcom, life does indeed find a way. However, other than the ghostly mechanical sounds and broken static emanating from the decrepit ship, and five giant engine nozzles, there was really nothing else that really caught my attention. Yet.

The visual inspection didn't reveal anything on what might have occurred to this ship and it's inhabitants. A data link scan however only raised further questions.

MADNESS AND GHOSTS 1/5

Comms Log 905.2.34

Still all quiet out here in the black. Just had our very first ninth-gen child born on ship. That takes the current population to 17,401. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. Apart from reports from some residents at the northern end of C-Deck. They’ve heard some kind of strange whispering sound coming from their apartment comms unit. I’m sure it’s nothing, but I’ve dispatched a member of tech to investigate.

MADNESS AND GHOSTS 2/5

Comms Log 907.6.34

We have an emergency situation on board. Some kind of epidemic, it’s driving people insane. I’ve managed to source it to a digital signal that keeps broadcasting within the comms array. It started on C-Deck, but now the entire population of decks C to F have been massacred. They just went crazy and started killing each other. I’ve isolated the signal, so it’s stopped for now. Just trying to identify the source. It should be easy enough to delete the beacon if I can find the right frequency. I wanna know what the message says, but I’m… I’m just too scared to listen.

MADNESS AND GHOSTS 3/5

Comms Log 908.7.34

I’ve done it. I’ve managed to decrypt the signal and identify the source. But it’s even more confusing than I thought. The signal originates from an uninhabited planet we passed 15 light years ago. Who sent it and how it managed to infect the comms array I have no idea.

That’s the good news. The bad news is, I heard the message. I was trying to run it through the translator and I forgot the speaker was on. It’s the same message relayed again and again and again – it’s more a whisper than anything else; it says, ‘kill them all’…

MADNESS AND GHOSTS 4/5

Comms Log 900.0.04

Blood. Blood everywhere. It’s spread on the walls – people have started writing words in it but it’s a script I can’t identify. I’m alone now on the comms deck. Pearson was the last one with me but I had to stab him in the throat to stop him… stop him… I can’t remember what I had to stop him doing but… he’s dead now.

  I can hear people out there. Some of them are still walking around. Some of them are barely breathing. I have to find them. I have to silence them. I have to…

MADNESS AND GHOSTS 5/5

_Cmm Lo 000.0.00 ….k.l……h.m……..l……………….

I have so many questions...

Not even the greatest minds of The Canonn seem to have figured this one out...

The final message though, It's hard to tell but... I have a creeping feeling this might be.... I'm pretty sure it says........

I'm getting the hell out of here.

Further reading:

Listening Posts - Cannon Research

Generation Ships - Cannon Research

Generation Ship Thetis - Cannon Research