//------------------------------// // Prologue - The USCSS Alhambra files // Story: Bug Hunt // by Swamphunter //------------------------------// >Launch Corporate Interface< [user: MC******] [pass: *******] [Welcome back!] [>connect to: 2100:db10:0:1234:0:567:8:1] >Uplink Established!< ---[CONNECTED TO: USCSS ALHAMBRA]--- [>connect to: 'ALHAMBRA MU-TH-UR 9000 UNIT'] --[BEGIN TRANSMISSION]-- FILE(S) SELECTED: 2 -[FILE 1]- JOURNAL – DR. LINDSEY CARTWRIGHT HEAD SCIENCE OFFICER – USCSS ALHAMBRA Entry date: October 12, 2179 18:32hrs For two days now, we have been orbiting LV-1349. For two days we have gathered more data than the satellite probes have in the one year they have been orbiting this planet. Unbelievable what we have discovered here... sentient life other than our own. From what we can gather from a distance, they appear to be equines of some sort, generally smaller than our Earthly counterparts, but aside from the height differences there not much else different. Except living in a society shockingly like our own, that is. Getting an up close and almost personal view, something the probes could not accomplish, we discover houses, settlements not unlike towns you would see in 19th century Europe. They appear to practice in free trade, such as selling crops and items to others for some sort of monetary value. They are amazingly well-skilled in numerous types of craft, from dress-making to even simple mechanics such as watch making. They even have a rudimentary power grid by way of what appears to be a hydroelectric dam... yet they seem to use candle and firelight as a primary mean of nighttime illumination. Strange. Perhaps it is an old habit they need to be weaned out of? But anyway, I am getting off track. What the company originally expected our crew to do was survey LV-1349 for precious ores and minerals, which the planet is almost shockingly abundant in. Having to report to them that we found another sentient species in the universe may be quite the switch from what they were expecting. Hopefully they don't expect us to land and mine the planet, all the while the indigenous populace stands there and watches us. What upsets me though, is that I know it wouldn't be beyond what the company would normally order. Entry date: October 14, 2179 14:18hrs We've been ordered to drill, but at coordinates thankfully very distant from any nearby equine settlements. Our planned landing grid is deep in the southeastern mountains, past a small town and area that appears to be not unlike the old southern United States. The amount of activity when comparing the location from the massive mountainside city we initially came across shows that the larger one may be a central hub for the smaller neighboring towns, maybe even their capital. Who knows. But I am letting the alien equines distract me from my work. Our sensors show that our landing zone will be completely rife with rare ores that we, and by extension the company, need. They're all high up on the company's core wish list, so we may be landing and begin mining as soon as tomorrow. I've been told by our company contact back on Earth to pay no mind to the indigenous populace. It's apparently not a priority with the company at this time, and that the drilling must come first. They will send out a company man to do peace talks after our first collection is complete, so if it turns out that the locals do indeed have an issue with our drilling and aren't open to any sort of deal, we will all at least come out with something. Seeing as the entire crew gets shares from what is mined, we of course did not have any objections to this idea. Entry date: October 14, 2179 20:21hrs Memo: Planetary orbit appears... off. I noticed this last night, too. I'll recalibrate the gravity sensors to be sure, but it actually appears at first glance that the sun orbits LV-1349. Maybe I'm coming down with cabin fever. It has been over three months since I was last outside of this damn ship. Entry date: October 15, 2179 11:34hrs I won't be able to confirm my suspicions of LV-1349's orbit, as we have been cleared to land the Alhambra within the next few hours. Apparently a landing window has opened up and we will be making our way to the planet's surface thankfully before nightfall. Entry date: October 15, 2179 13:40hrs We landed, safe and sound. Touchdown took place about thirty minutes ago now. The terrain here is much more barren and desolate than what our equine locals have. Lucky them. The atmosphere is very breathable, practically Earth-like, although our local area is plagued by a layer of smoke that is billowing from a nearby cave opening, which we can only assume is local volcano activity. We are about to begin the process of unloading the gear and getting the loaders ready for drilling. Entry date: October 15, 2179 17:06hrs Well, things just got about a thousand times more interesting around here. Turns out that it wasn't a volcano that was creating all of that smoke. It was something that I can only describe as a dragon. The unloading of our vehicles and gear must have woken it up, as we heard a massive roar tear through the sky from the direction of that distant cave opening. The crew outside all turned to look, only to see a gargantuan red lizard unfurl it's wings and take to the smoke-laden sky. They all ran back inside as the creature circled the air above the Alhambra, before flying off to the south. Perhaps it had other things on its mind? I'm not sure myself, but the Captain sure as hell nearly pissed himself with its sudden appearance. He ordered our paltry collection of weapons to be loaded and ready in the armory should it come back and cause us any trouble. Not quite sure what two M240 Incinerators and an M41A with one magazine can do against something THAT big... but it is better than nothing, after all. Entry date: October 18, 2179 15:10hrs Outside of drilling, things have been really quiet the last couple days. Our dragon appears to either not care about us or doesn't see us as a threat, seeing as he has been to and from his cave numerous times over the last few days and has yet to bother us in any way, shape or form. Our drilling is on schedule and doing fine though, so barring any run-ins with our distant mountainside neighbor, we should have a full load ready for deployment back to Earth in a week. It is odd, though. You know that nagging feeling when you think that someone is watching you? I've had that all day. Entry date: October 20, 2179 10:21hrs One of the workers disappeared this morning. He was with a group working the northeastern tip of the valley we landed in. A search party will head out around lunchtime. It would be a shame if our alien equine locals decided to suddenly show hostility all the way out here. This ore load we scored is worth far too much to spill blood over. That paranoid feeling I have has been growing since yesterday. The events this morning have certainly helped it along, now it almost feels like something is staring right through me into my very core. I've been getting chills whenever I try to think about it. I need to find something more constructive to do. Entry date: October 20, 2179 22:48hrs I saw something outside the ship. Something that blurred by my view port like a flash before I could turn the flood lights on. It was a flash of neon green and a blur of rapid movement. This would not be an issue if it weren't for my paranoia flaring up to an almost unbearable degree the second I saw it. I collapsed onto my bed where I nearly wept before gathering up enough gumption to write this log. I currently have a great desire to leave this planet, ore or no ore. Entry date: October 21, 2179 17:03hrs Two more workers vanished earlier today. The entire ship is on high alert. The search party yesterday followed some tracks to a cave system that is burrowed deep into the northeastern part of the valley. Doing some quick scans, the search group discovered that the cave network is insanely complex, and with their small party of five, it would take too long to cover the entire network by foot. After the two workers disappearing today, Captain Reese has ordered everyone to begin wearing Personnel Locators on their wrists so the ship can keep track of where everyone is. We don't know what is in those tunnels, and frankly I am not so sure that I want to find out. Entry date: October 22, 2179 21:40hrs The search party failed to report back tonight. They were going to head into the cave system and try to track down the three missing workers. All five failed to report back at loading bay closing time. Reese is at his wit's end. He sent a message back to Earth requesting permission to leave the planet with the current ore and mineral load as soon as possible. Some of the crew doesn't want to call it quits yet, they want to find their friends and not leave without them. Reese pulled me aside earlier this evening. He said that he does not care anymore. He wants to get back home alive. I find it rather hard to disagree with him. Entry date: October 23, 2179 18:00hrs We got our orders. The six remaining crew members of the Alhambra, myself included, are to head into the cave system and get the crew members back. Failure to bring back (or at least document what happened to) the crew will result in a total forfeit of shares, per our company contact Miles Carlyle. Carlyle said that if LV-1349 is to become a major spot in the mining industry, we need to document any and all possible hostile threats to workers. He argues that all it could be is that they got lost or injured or stuck and just need someone to help them out. This paranoia, now eating me from the inside out begs to differ. It's been three days. If they're still alive, they're most likely in bad shape, and with that green thing out there somewhere they might not have a lot of time left. The only weapon left in the armory is the pulse rifle with the one 95 round clip. The search party took the ship's two incinerator units. Reese will take point while the rest of us head into the cave system. If the search party is still alive and we find them, we can hook up with them and continue on. If not... at least we can take the incinerators for our own. When I head out, I'll use this head-camera that is used by some members of the Colonial Marines, mostly the smart gunners from what I've read, to try to document our journey into the cave system. I hope I come back alive. God help me. [END LOG] [END LOG] -[FILE 2]- A/V RECORDING – DR. LINDSEY CARTWRIGHT HEAD SCIENCE OFFICER – USCSS ALHAMBRA RECORD START DATE: 10/23/79 – 19:02:12 -!ATTENTION!-!ATTENTION!- [This workstation does not support audio playback functionality!] >Do you wish to have the workstation attempt to transcribe audio?< [YES] NO [please wait.....] … … [transcription complete! identified crew members will be listed as such] [PLAY] Lindsey Cartwright (LC): Fuck, is this thing working now? Michael Reese (MR): Lindsey, we got bigger things to worry about right now. Jack Davis (JD): Jesus Christ, man, what happened to those guys? What the hell is this green shit everywhere!? MR: Cool it, Jack. Eyes forward with that flame unit. LC: I don't know what killed the search team. It couldn't be that dragon, unless that dragon has skills in the neon green glue department. It's got to be something else. JD: Like what!? Mike Shultz (MS): I dunno Jack, maybe those cute lil' mini-horses aren't all they were cracked up to be. JD: Shut the FUCK up, Mike. There's no way those cute little things are meat eating, radioactive glue-spitting freaks. MS: Well... then what the fuck are they? Last I checked from the good doctor here, we were the first humans to stumble across those things. Who knows what they have in store for us, they could be maniacal cannibals for all we know. LC: That's enough, Mike. MR: Stow it, Mike. MS: Buncha pansies... [chittering] [chittering] JD: What the fuck- MR: Movement. Up front. [chittering] [chittering] LC: Oh my god. UNKNOWN: WHO DARES ENTER OUR LAIR MR: Holy shit- MS: What the hell!? [chittering] [chittering] [chittering] [chittering] MR: The walls. THE WALLS ARE MOVING. JD: THEY'RE ALIVE! MS: Aw mother fuck [chittering] [chittering] [firing] [firing] MR: FALL BACK. BACK TO THE SHIP. JD: Oh Jesus Christ, oh Jesus- LC: No – oh no – it was you. UNKNOWN: THESE CREATURES DARE ENTER OUR LAIR. FEAST ON THEM ALL MY CHILDREN. JD: Oh my GOD NO GET [untranscribable] MR: Jack! MS: JACK, NO, YOU FUCKERS. [firing] [firing] MS: [untranscribable] MR: Mike god damn it! LC: I'm so sorry I'm so sorry I'm so sorry- MR: Mike wait! Mike – oh FUCK. LC: Sorry... so sorry... UNKNOWN: Sorry... for what my dear? LC: Oh god... please... [END RECORDING] [END RECORDING] >Do you wish to print all files?< YES [NO] >Do you wish to transfer all files to another drive?< [YES] NO !- Please select a drive: > (C:) > (D:) [> THUMBS USB (F:)] [transferring...] … [done!] >Do you wish to log off?< [YES] NO --Thank you for using a Weyland-Yutani company database workstation! Goodbye!-- WEYLAND-YUTANI CORP █████████████████████████████████████████████████████ ██▓ ░▒▒▒▒▒███░ ▒██▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▓██▓ ▓██▓▒▒▒▒░░ ███ ███▓ ░░▒░░▒██▒ ▓██▒ ░░▒▒▒▒░ ▒██▓ ▒██▒ ░░▒░░ ▓███ █████▒ ░▒▒▒░░▓██▒▓██▓░░▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒░░███░ ▓██▒ ░▒▒▒░ ▒█████ ██████▓░░▒▒▒░░▓███▓░░▒▒▒▒░▒░▒▒▒▒░░▓███▓░░▒▒▒░ ▒███████ ████████▒ ░▒▒▒░▒█▓░░▒▒▒▒▒▓██▓░▒▒▒▒░░█▓░░▒▒▒░░▓███████ █████████▓░░▒▒▒░░░▒▒▒░░▓█▓ ▓█▓░░▒▒▒░░░▒▒▒░ ▒██████████ ███████████▒ ░░░░░░░░ ▒██░ ▓█▓ ░░░░░░░░▒███████████ ████████████▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓██ ██▓▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▓████████████ █████████████████████████████████████████████████████ "Building Better Worlds"