From: Captain Henry Marshall Commanding, of the Leviathan expeditionary group Foresight.
Captain's Report: 1200045-305
Encryption: «ð½~[*]ð»
To: AEON Advisory Group, Proteus Division
Date: 2120-02-12-12:00
This is a very difficult report for me to hand in. More than half my battle group has been destroyed and six pilots are missing. A recording of the events accompanies this report. It is my hope though that my report will serve to clarify those actions and consequences that arose from them to avoid possible court marshals of the persons, myself among them, involved.
Our position at 2120-01-31-15:45 was 26.5667 light years out, 23° southwest, .05° down, Earth standard. Our mission was of an exploratory nature and we were in the vicinity of B-164495 which had yeilded only a minor interest in the form of mineral resources and we were about to continue to the next phase of our mission. We were to proceed to Star B-167888 where Clarisentient reports indicated a high probability for terrestrial/aquatic life forms. Lt. Commander Farrah was on watch. She was the first to notice the creature and to become aware of its position in the vicinity of Star B-165512.
She immediately awoke from trance to inform me of the location of the creature. At that time we had no indication of its true nature so we proceeded to realign on our next jump to pass close to it. The information from Lt Commander Farrah's vision had at that point indicated a large life form moving freely through the void of space, but lacking in noetic awareness. Nothing however could prepare us for the sight that awaited us as we dropped out of the jump at 2120-01-31-18:33. At a distance of 24,000 kilometers it was clearly visible on the forward monitors.
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The senior officers comprised myself, lt. Commander Farrah, Commander Jess, Senior Engineer Daos, Officer Hernandez and Chief Medical Officer Cumez. Captain Darrel Jugen of the Carrier Binary Star and Commander Wilson Morris of the Marine detachement were also present. The meeting started at 2120-01-31-19:12 with Officer Hernandez's preliminary findings. We knew at that time that the creature was approximately 880 kilometers in length, tail included, with a wingspan of 640 kilometers. Mass unknown placed tentatively at over 24 million tons assuming a density close to that of water. It appeared to eat molten rock and lived in the void of space as its native environment. Its method of propulsion was unknown but emmissions in its vicinity would indicate that it used fusion propulsion. However at our current distance the radiation and heat escaping from the planetoid masked any corroboration of the exact energies emmitted by the creature. Hernandez speculated that the creature could also sense radio waves as it was revealed from the video that the creature had briefly turned in our direction at the moment that we pinged it with radio to ascertain its size. The most important question however was whether the creature would be hostile. Anything of that size could crush a Leviathan and its carrier group. On a scale compared to the creatre we would be no larger than insects. Senior Engineer Daos proposed that if we avoided all radio transmissions we could be able to come right up to the beast without being detected. Officer Hernandez disagreed, we did not know if indeed radio waves were the creature's main sensory means or if it were simply a secondary attribute. Lt. Farrah admitted to having an uneasy feeling but could not sense any threat from the creature. Officer Hernandez proposed approaching at a distance of 2000 kilometers so as to be able to run a sensor scan on the creature yet still have enough distance to escape should it show any interest in us. At that distance we could also launch a small unmanned probe at the creature to extract samples and which could also act as a tracking device. We set out the particulars of the mission the outline of which is attached to this report. As a precaution Captain Jugen had the nuclear and fusion weaponry of the Carrier Binary Star armed and readied. The stock nuclear and fusion weaponry on board the Carrier would have been sufficient to destroy an asteroid the size of the creature several times over. At that time we were confident we were in no danger and had no idea of the creature's true nature.
At 2120-01-31-20:26 travelling at a moderate pace of 1200 kmph we approached the creature from behind as it finished hollowing out the palentoid. As soon as we approached position we fired off the probe and began our sensor sweep. Almost immediately the creature responded to our presence by turning its entire massive bulk in our direction. Its wings extended gracefully as it curved around on itself and the balletic display captivated all of us on the bridge. As the last remnants of the planetoid collapsed on the hollowed out core the probe arrived at the creature's skin and set down on its surface. With the creature facing right towards us the probe alighted on its snout on the armoured plates just above its mouth. Ensign Jackson monitored the progress of the probe and one of the auxiliary monitors was set to the onboard camera. From the perspective of the probe it looked as if it had set down on a mountain on some bio-organic planet. But the image was short lived as the skin around the probe suddenly rose to engulf it. That was the first indication we had that things were not as they appeared. While Ensign Jackson and Officer Hernandez tried to raise the probe I consulted lt. Chou to see if he could feel the reaction of the creature. Lt. Chou indicated that he could feel nothing from the creature. Reluctantly I ordered lt. Chou to perform a Telepathic probe at 2120-01-31-20:28. The danger of the probe to lt. Chou could not be measured but if the creature proved hostile it could provide us with enough warning to escape in time. Lt. Chou concentrated but soon came to the conclusion that the creature could not be probed for some reason. As soon as lt. Chou informed me that the creature could not be telepathically probed I advised helm to be ready to reverse course at my command. Meanwhile the creature began its approach. Neither I nor of the officers were worried because it was still travelling at a speed of 320 kmph and we would have ample time to get away from it if it got too close. Lt. Commander Farrah was worried and sensed impending danger which led me to decide to abort the mission and retreat to a safer distance. However at that moment the creature gave us one more surprise.
Certain organs opened up along its lower abdomen and the juncture of it back and tail. From these orifices it produced a propulsion that shot it the remaining distance towards us in less than 15 seconds. At a distance of approximately 1000 kilometers we all began to sense the creature, or its lack of sense as the case may be. It was unmistakeably Taint and that made this creature an Aberrant. I compare the effect to that reported on Khantze Le Ghu where psions have stated that especially potent Aberrants such as Yog Death and Kali can be sensed at a distance of several hundred meters. At a distance of 500 kilometers the sense of "wrongness" of this Aberrant was overpowering. We did all we could to keep as much distance between ourselves and the creature as possible but it was approaching fast and its tentacles reached several kilometers in front of it to grasp at us. At 2120-01-31-20:29 Captain Jugen ordered the Binary Star to detach so that she could fire her nukes at the Aberrant. Everything happened very fast after that. We were a bare 100 kilometers from the creature with all engines running at capacity. The Binary Star would survive detachment but the sudden change in potential mass would prove to be rough on both ships. At 75 kilometers from the Aberrant the Binary Star and its battle group split off from the Foresight and we both proceeded in different directions. Though we had not planned the maneuver beforehand the sudden split in targets caused the Aberrant to hesitate. In that moment the Carrier Binary Star launched its nuclear payload. Of the 225 nuclear warheads launched all detonated within 5 to a hundred meters of the monster. Rather than retreat from the explosions though the Aberrant extended it wings and angled its body so that it exposed as much of its flesh to the explosions as possible. The tentacles and flesh of the Aberrant began to glow where the explosions touched them and the energy balls of the zero G detonations were sucked into the Aberrant. It seems it absorbed the energy from the nuclear warheads as it came into contact with them.
After the fruitless attack the Aberrant chose to pursue the Binary Star. At 2120-01-31-20:30 Captain Jugen launched his fighters and advised me to retreat. There was nothing more I or my crew could do for them. Retreating at full speed I ordered the Foresight ready for Emergency Jump. I decided that a short jump to the area where we had first entered this system would be best as the Tesser was still programmed for that location and it was far away enough so that even at the incredible speeds the Aberrant displayed it would take it several hours to reach us. We didn't have to wait long. The weapons of the Binary Star's battle group proved just as ineffective as the nuclear assault earlier. In a last act of defiance Captain Jugen activated the self destruct sequence at 2120-01-31-20:32. The Binary Star exploded just as the Aberrant grasped it in its tentacles. A final sensor sweep confirmed that there were no fighters left in the area. No stragglers to rescue, and even if there had been, we wouldn't have been able to reach them without a warper. Thanks to our modified Tesser we were able to jump to our original position and paused to take stock of our losses. Without the multiple redundant systems I believe we would have been captured by the Aberrant. Even so we were left helpless for several minutes as power went out across all systems.
Being careful to control all emissions we observed the creature as it inspected the area around where the Binary Star had exploded. As we watched, it turned towards the system's only star and at 2120-01-31-22:12 launched itself towards it at a speed which exceeded even that which it displayed during the chase. «Estimated speed of 760,000 kmph» --Captain's Note, added at 2120-02-12-06:55-- Dazed by the short engagement which had proven so disastrous for us, but which seemed little more than a minor inconvenience to the Aberrant, we watched it approach the corona. We stared in silence as it dove into the stellar mass and began to consume the plasma. Such a display made us realize the terrible scope of the Aberrant's true power. If we had observed this behavior earlier we would have known that the nukes would be ineffective. Our shock was short lived as lt. Chou had more bad news for us. Apparantely lt. Harper, biofighter pilot detached to the Binary Star was still alive. The telepathic contact was tenous and was recieving heavy interference from the Aberrant's Taint but it was there nonetheless thanks to the mandatory 10 day familiarization process taken by both lt. Harper and lt. Chou Along with all Clarisentients and Telepaths associated with the expedition. Along with lt. Harper, another five biofighter pilots had been absorbed into the Aberrant's body and were apparently unharmed as of yet. The telepathic contact was lost soon after as lt. Harper lost consciousness. Officer Hernandez speculated that the biofighters had been absorbed by the skin as had the probe earlier.
It took the Aberrant half an hour to take its fill from the plasma of the stystem's sun. That is when I prepared and sent the first part of this report at 2120-01-31-23:01. What follows is an addition to that report and relates the events that took place after communication had been established with Earth and the proper authorities had been advised of the situation. We had as of yet recieved no new orders when the Aberrant moved away from the star and proceeded at a speed of .6033 the speed of light towards the edge of the system. At that time lt. Commander Farrah had a vision of the Aberrant destroying the population of an inhabited planet. Fearing the worst we determined to follow the Aberrant at a discreet distance. We did not expect any difficulty in this as we had not yet seen any evidence that the Aberrant could create a Warp through which to travel. Even at the incredible speeds it displayed I was confident that it wouldn't be able to follow us if we performed a long range jump. Lt. Chou was in contact with Earth but we would lose that contact if we used the jump engines. For this reason I decided to pursue the Aberrant using impulse engines. However at 2120-01-31-23:03 when we reached the point where the Aberrant had left the system it appeared hazy and indistinct on our sensors. At first we were baffled by this phenomenon but soon realized from the extreme red shift of the visual image left by the Aberrant that this was a relativistic effect of the creature travelling faster than the speed of light. Acting quickly we calculated the Aberrant's actual speed and direction. It had achieved a speed of 2.3 times the speed of light and was heading in the direction of the next system we were sent to explore. Realizing that if we followed behind it at impulse speeds we would not be able to observe it when it entered the system I decided that we would have to risk a jump if we wished to stay within observation distance. As the Foresight prepared to jump lt. Chou informed me of new orders from Earth. I was to proceed with my ship and crew, follow the Aberrant to observe it movements and report back to Earth with my findings. Carrying out those orders I proceeded to order the Foresight through on the jump which would hopefully place us several light years ahead of the Aberrant and within jumping distance of the target system. That would in turn give us enough time to maneuver to a place within the system outside of the Aberrant's sensory range. We were unable to reach the system in one jump as the practical limit of our Tesser is the astrolocation range of the Clarisentient manning the ARES system. In our case this proved to be 12 light years.
At our new jump point we took the proper astronomical readings to reorient ourselves to our new jump target. We were in sight of the target system, barely half a light year out. However it would take the jump engines 156 hours to recover from the long range jump. Knowing we were operating under time constrains and still nervous from our close encounter with a Prime Threat Aberrant we hardly took the time ourselves to recover from the Psychic Backlash of the jump. After three hours all hands reported readiness and navigation was go. All that remained was to wait for the jump engines to recover on their own. Calculating the Aberrant's speed with our position lt. Commander Farrah calculated that it would be passing within 12,000 kilometers of our current position at approximately 2 hours after we made the jump to our final destination. Hopefully that would give us three to four days to contact the inhabitants of the planet, which lt. Commander Farrah's vision led us to believe would be intelligent, and warn them of the approaching danger.
However luck was not on our side. At 2120-02-05-12:00, a full four hours before we were ready to make the jump, the Aberrant made his presence felt on the Foresight's decks. Apparently we had not taken into consideration that the Aberrant might have still been accelerating after our last sighting of it had placed it's speed at more than twice the speed of light. Post action analysis has given us a probable top speed of six times the speed of light for the Aberrant, if it followed standard acceleration physics which is ridiculous to assume of a creature that can itself travel faster than light. All of us felt the Aberrant's approach even the non-gifted. Apparently it's passage was creating a bow wave in space that had the effect of an intense micro burst of gravity. Under other circumstances the data retreived from those few harrowing moments of disorientation would have given proof positive of the existence of White Holes, except that it resulted from the effects of an Aberrant's use of Taint. Most of the crew became sick and many of the talented lost consciousness. Sadly, lt. Commander Farrah was in trance at the time and died instantly of extreme psionic backlash. For the next few minutes the space in the wake of the Aberrant's passage shimmered and wavered causing havoc on the crew and systems. For brief moments inertial sensations took over the crew and officers of the Foresight, myself included. As we reoriented ourselves and surveyed the damage Ensign Dresdov gave me an updated navigation report citing that the Aberrant would arrive at the inhabited system within four to five hours.
Acting quickly I ordered navigation to be ready for an emergency jump to take place as soon as all hands reported readiness. We wouldn't have much time to warn the inhabitants of the unnamed planet but at this juncture every second was vital. Fully aware that we might not be able to restart the jump engines after we had committed ourselves to the premature jump I proceeded. So with some trepidation I ordered the Foresight to jump to the target system at 2120-02-05-12:08. Well aware that we might not survive the voyage I instructed lt. Chou to give Earth a progress report. No copy was made of the verbal report and the captain's recorder was malfunctioning. As far as memory serves me the report was to the effect of informing Aeon of our present position and intentions. I made mention of the Aberrant's increase in speed and the change of plans that this entailed.
We just barely made it to the outer rim of the target system arriving at 2120-02-05-12:10. The Foresight's Tesser could not handle the strain however and was completely destroyed. Our jump target being over 50 million km from our intended drop in point. This was fortunate for us as the inhabited system was at an apparent state of readiness. Whether it was from our arrival or that the inhabitants possessed some early warning system that alerted them to the approach of the Aberrant we do not know. but when we arrived at the target system there was a defense grid in operation of immense size and power. Electromagnetic fields surrounded the system producing high strength repulsion fields. The inner planets seemed to be protected by the same apparatus. Huge warships patrolled the outer system using scintillating fields of light as shields and weapons. Our own approach did not go undetected as several of these cruisers changed course to intercept us. We noted that the change in course ocurred 1.2 minutes after we appeared when it would have taken 2.7 minutes for any transmission from our location to reach the nearest of the warships. They made no attempt to communicate with us but lt. Chou felt a definite sense of menace and fear. However after 20 minutes of fruitless attempts to communicate with them and suffering through repeated sensor sweeps that caused several power brownouts aboard the Foresight they lost interest in us and resumed their patrols. Their sensory apparatus was quite thourough and powerful. I believe that in addition to the brownouts caused, several if not all crew memebers were left sterilized by the process. We are still awaiting medical confirmation of this though it is understandably of low priority at the moment.
The Aberrant didn't wait long to make it's presence felt. At 2120-02-06-02:31 the Aberrant entered the system. If anything the bow wave effect of space disturbance was even greater this time than the last. Luckily we had arrived at a point over 2 million km from the approach vector of the Aberrant and weren't hit as hard this time. But the bending of space destroyed the system perimeter shields on contact creating vast waves of light that shot out in every direction. In a last ditch attempt I ordered lt. Chou to try a direct communication with the system's natives. But lt. Chou was unable to forge a direct telapathic link with any of the inhabitants of the system and we were not able to warn them of the Aberrant's power and apparent capabilities. What followed was the most destructive and one sided battle I have ever witnessed. At 2120-02-06-02:34 the warships all converged on the Aberrant discharging weapons that produced enough candlelight to overpower the compensators on the main viewer. Readings taken from the radiation wash of those weapons indicate that each blast could reduce a 50 to 75 million ton nickel asteroid to particles. The Aberrant was scorched but not hurt by these initial attacks and proceeded to destroy the warships with a fury and purpose that it had not displayed in the battle with the Binary Star. It had been playing cat and mouse with us, there is no other explaination. It's underbelly tentacles began to glow with green tinted light that grew stronger with each blast it received. It then proceeded to direct the very same blasts it had received against the native warships. Individually and in groups the warships exploded in fiery displays of incredible energy. A testament to the power of their weapons and engines. But still not enough to make an impression on the lone Aberrant who tore into their ranks and pursued the survivors as they tried to flee. It was a total route and several thousand ships of Capital size and many hundreds of thousands of smaller vessels were destroyed without mercy or hesitation. Three habitable planets awaited in the sysem's core and the Aberrant wasted no time in laying waste to their defenses. At 2120-02-06-03:12 the Aberrant aproached the perimeter of the inner gas giants. The system's natives had set up a second shield which proved no obstacle for the Aberrant as it simply absorbed the energy and proceeded forward. They did however manage to give it one final suprise as it was passing the asteroid belts. The sytem had two asteroid belts of considerable size and density. As the Aberrant approached the first asteroid belt at 2120-02-06-03:21, stratigically placed mass drivers began to slingshot million + ton asteroids at the Aberrant. These weapons proved somewhat more effective than the energy blasts and the Aberrant was hit several times with great force eliciting a furious counterattack. We estimated the speed of the huge asteroids to be in the vicinity of 1,200 km per second. The blows even appeared to cause bleeding. However none of the liquid has been recovered or studied to determine if it was in fact blood.
This renewed attack also had the effect of compelling lt. Harper to contact lt. Chou through their tenous telepathic link at 2120-02-06-03:23. Lt. Chou reported that along with lt. Harper the other psions who had been captured were lt. Carlson, lt. M'Benga, lt. Fernandez, lt. Farley and lt. 2nd grade Orlins. Individual files are attached. It seems that the violent shaking had awakened lt. Harper and the others. Lt. Chou reported that they were in what appeared to be a large cavern with a warm floor. However they could feel movement and were tossed about with each blow. Being focused on the battle at hand I instructed lt. Chou to maintain contact and provide a report later.
On screen it was apparent that the Aberrant was in the process of mopping up the outer defenses of the system and huge solar flare sized gouts of plasma were sweeping over the asteroid belt in waves that emanated from the Aberrant with no particular connection to its physical orientation. By that I mean that it did not seem to produce the plasma from any bodily orifice, rather the energy seemed to spring from the area around its skin closest to its target. Added to this new attack the Aberrant physically rammed several of the mass drivers with its body. In some instances destroying asteroids and small planetoids several orders of magnitude larger than the Aberrant itself. The largest planetoid it destroyed in this fashion was 125,000 kilometers in diameter. As hard as this might seem to believe the impacts the Aberrant inflicted were immensly more powerfull than the ones that had managed to hurt it before.
As the Aberrant was busy with the system's defenses the three inhabited planets mounted an evacuation effort which I believe was only partially successful. Thousands of ships of various sizes and designs left the system through some unknown FTL drive that appears to be capable of bending the light waveform to produce a tunneling effect in space. «What is colloquially referred to as Wormholes by popular usage.» --Captain's note, added at 2120-02-12-07:02-- The gravitational anomalies use Quantum principles to effect a change on the noetic area creating a Transportal effect. Speculation is all we have at the moment, but ensign Comulez who has a secondary mode in Translocation and Spatial Sense, recieved the impression of both an Aberrant Warp and a noetic Teleportation from the direction of the wormholes.
The Aberrant however was not content to let them escape once he had devastated their defenses. At 2120-02-06-04:56 the Aberrant pursued those ships that had not yet made it to the area where the wormholes were being formed. However the Aberrant did not pursue the fleeing spaceships through the wormholes and at 2120-02-06-05:15 it turned it's attention on the inner planets where the last defenders made their stand. The Aberrant entered the atmosphere of the outermost planet at 2120-02-06-07:02. The planet wide shield proved to be no obstacle as the Aberrant once again absorbed the energy, eliminating the energy field in the process.
The ground defenses were little more effective even though they included what appeared to be massive geothermic ejectors that shot huge gouts of pressurized lava with great precision. The Aberrant seemed to be better prepared for this form of attack and after being burned by the first such gout seemed unaffected by further such attacks. From what we are able to tell the destruction was total and no survivors were left alive assuming that any had remained and the planetary defenses were not automated at that point. At 2120-02-07-01:12 it proceeded to repeat the process with the second planet and at 2120-02-07-24:42 it continued with the third planet.
At 2120-02-06-12:32 lt. Chou prepared and handed in his first report concerning the situation of lt. Harper and the other biofighter pilots. I did not read his report until after the Aberrant had finished his destruction of the second planet and I fear that after having remained awake for almost four days I succumbed to sleep so I did not finish reading it until after the destruction of the third planet. Lt. Chou's report is appended here in my report and it explains much about how the Aberrant became aware of the B-167888 star system.
«Report Summary of lt. Harper's communications.» --lt. Chou, added at 2120-02-12-07:54 by request of the Captain.--
Lt. Harper had launched her Locust along with the other biofighters in her group. Of her group only lt. Carlson, lt. M'Benga, lt. Fernandez, lt. Farley and lt. 2nd grade Orlins were captured. Lt. 2nd grade Orlins being the senior officer present. Lt. Commander Desden, lt. Quintana and lt. Mu–iz being MIA and presumed dead. All fighter pilots from the hardtech fighter groups remain unnacounted for and are also presumed dead though they could have been captured by the Aberrant and kept separate from the Psions. Lt. Harper was the only Telepath present in the group, aside from lt. Fernandez who is a Norça pilot, the rest of those captured are all Legionnaires. The six Locust biofighters appear to have been absorbed by the Aberrant and their systems canabalized into it's body as it extracted the pilots from their cockpits. Apparently the Aberrant learned of the position of B-167888 from the onboard biocomps. Lt. Harper and the rest of the biofighter pilots were rendered unconscious during the absorption process due to the psionic backlash produced by the death through consumption of their biofighters. Lt. 2nd grade Orlins was the most affected and remained unconscious the longest. Along with their biofighters every bioapp and piece of organic material on them was also absorbed except for those pieces of clothing made from natural fibers. When they awoke next was during the engagement at the first Asteroid belt of B-167888. They were apparently in a large dark cavern which the Aberrant had formed as a cavity within itself to accomodate them. The Aberrant was also aware of their awakening and communicated with them verbally. It said that there was a 'slight disturbance' and that they should 'buckle their seat belts and return their tray tables to the upright position'. Neither I nor lt. Harper understand what he might have been referring to but suspect that the Aberrant's insanity might cause it to hallucinate. Lt. Harper reports that the cavern was of gargantuan dimensions larger than could be seen in the dim light of lt. M'Benga's hardtech minicomp, the air was warm, slighty humid but breathable and the cavern possessed Earth standard gravity. Nothing resembling seats or belts with buckles was in evidence however. I also note that while the Aberrant was at this time engaged in extensive combat and violent manuevering lt. Harper only felt outside motion at those times when the Aberrant was struck by asteroids from the mass drivers. The Aberrant grew more talkative as the battle wore on and among other things kept referring to the system's native inhabitants as 'bugs' and referring to itself in the third person as 'your captain'. It continued to refer to any disturbance as a result of outside attacks as 'turbulence'. Specific information though was not forthcoming and sometime after the assault on the first inner planet I lost contact with lt. Harper.
Contact was restored the next day while the Aberrant was en route to the second of the inner planets. For brevity we have named this planet B-167888.2. The first planet attacked by the Aberrant is also pending a formal name and is referred to here as B-167888.3, with the innermost planet being B-167888.1. As contact was reestablished it was apparent that something had changed. The Taint interference had almost disappeared and at first I thought that lt. Harper had been left on the planet. Lt. Harper informed me that the Aberrant had changed the cavern to a more permanent habitation for the captive psions. Somehow it had created biological shields that isolated the chamber from the outpour of its Taint. Lt. Fernandez had predicted that the Taint would kill them within a few days and apparently the Aberrant had taken steps to prevent that. The second great change was in living arrangements. Instead of a dark cavern they now appeared to be on a two kilometer long island in the middle of an ocean. How this could be they could not even begin to speculate but Commander Christen from Psychonavigation confirms that they are still within the Aberrant. The 'ocean' is salt water and the air carries an almost constant breeze. They report tides, rocks, trees and plants that seem indistinguishable from the real thing. The greatest anomally however has to be the sky. Lt. Harper reports that the sky is blue, has clouds and a luminary that looks like the sun, produces warmth and it moves across th sky in an approximation of Earths prime luminary. Lt. Fernandez reports that this luminous object also gives off all the secondary radiation that the sun gives off. The illusion of normalcy even extends to include several species of aquatic life, insects and birds. These creatures which are exact replicas of species from Earth also include several that are extinct and only existed before the Aberrant war. Lt. Fernandez reports that though the noetic template of the creatures is as close to dead as is possible, they do appear to be healthy and becoming more 'alive' as time passes and they become more independant from the Aberrant who created them. The Aberrant also provided living quarters for the prisoners which the mental image lt. Harper gave me appears to be a two story villa from the south mediterranean. The appointments are lavish down to the imitation art. The water is clean though it appears to have trace elements of chlorine and flouride. There is also electricity and hot water. They are suspicous of the food however as it doesn't have any noetic 'sense' to it. Lt. Fernandez speculates that it could have been exuded from the flesh of the Aberrant itself. The rest of the group have been leery of everything around them since then. Their spirits are not the best, morale is low and there is some talk of suicide. To avoid eavesdropping they communicate solely through lt. Harper's network of telepathy. However the Aberrant has been talkative and has questioned them about everything from the price of liquor on Earth to the state of the Vid industry. Most importantly the Aberrant told them it's name. It referred to itself as Chiraben without talking about itself in the third person. Lt. Harper is quite sure that this is it's actual name or at least the name it believes is his. Lt. 2nd grade Orlin has instructed everyone not to answer its questions but lt. Harper convinced him that the Aberrant could be pumped for information if handled correctly. I seconded her opinion but cautioned her that any information she might give the Aberrant could potentially lead to it deducing something that we would rather keep secret and to proceed with caution. To lie is necessary and to embelish small accounts of little importance to distract the Aberrant's attention. At the time they were operating under their own initiative while awaiting orders from Earth. I then gave my preliminary report to Captain Marshall who then gave me his status report to communicate to Earth. The Aeon Liason Office has temporarily transferred jurisdiction of this affair from Apollo division to the Aberrant Tracking System Division pending activation of Mars and Titan intervention should that prove necessary. Under article g-26 of my mission statement I have been ordered not to communicate with anyone within my order or any other personel outside the ATS offices. My contact with Earth remains Mrs. Hung Christine, who has now been transferred from Apollo division to ATS. «Silence with the Ministry maintained under protest on this, the thirteenth day of the crisis.» --lt. Chou, added at 2120-02-12-07:55--
After the order came down from the Aeon Council via Neptune's InSurv division to extract as much information as possible from the Aberrant without compromising security. Lt. Harper was instructed to proceed as an espionage operative rather than as a prisoner of war. As per order «[text deleted]» lt. Harper, lt. Fernandez and lt. 2nd grade Orlins are considered to be agents in a hostile domain. I communicated the order to lt. Harper at 2120-02-07-03:11. The news was not well recieved as it created a division in the already fragile group. «Lt. M'Benga, lt. Carlson and lt. Farley are still considered prisoners of war» --Captain's note, added at 2120-02-12-07:14--
During the intervening time the Aberrant had revealed it's plan to the pilots and had gone into lengthy tirades relating to the time of the Aberrant War. I shall summarize as best I'm able but the entire text of my report is staggering. In short the Aberrant known as Chiraben is apparently disenfranchised from the rest of Aberrant society. He claims that he worked for Proteus during the Aberrant War and that as a result he is not welcome among other Aberrants. He goes on to claim that he left the Earth against his will and was later abandoned on a lifeless planet to fend for himself. As to his current plans he believes that he can return to Earth if he makes himself useful. Or as he puts it "make it so they can't do without me". The fact that the Aberrant rambled on like this for close to three days indicates that he is not in touch with reality. I suspect a psychiatric evaluation of the full report will prove that the Aberrant is Schitzophrenic and has a desperate need for companionship born from the trauma of 59 years of solitude. He suffers from mild hallucinations, extreme paranoia and a form of shipwreck trauma. To satisfy his illusion of companionship he treats the captured psions like guests and talks to them constantly. As to the three planets he has destroyed his intentions there are somewhat undefined. He purports to make them "Just like home.". What he means by this is open to interpretation. «End summary» --lt. Chou, added at 2120-02-12-07:54--
Planetary surveys of the first planet attacked by the Aberrant reveal a devastated surface devoid of life. B-167888's third planet has a Nitrogen, Methane and Hydrogen atmosphere with Chlorine clouds scuttling low across the surface. Atmospheric pressure is postulated at roughly one quarter that of the Earth in the average. There is no surface water and oxygen appears to be a trace element. However several reflections from low indentations reveal Bromine and Bromine compounds in liquid form to be very common. Preliminary spectro-analysis would indicate that the other two planets have the same environment though at different temperatures. Our surveys however have been hampered by our lack of navigation and our unwillingness to send probes into the system for fear of attracting the Aberrant's attention. All our information comes to us through passive observation and all electromagnetic transmissions from the planet take 42 to 44 minutes to reach our position some 8 billion kilometers from B-167888.
However we are in a good position to observe the Aberrant without being observed ourselves. I have debated sending a probe to the asteroid belt to investigate the ruins of the installations destroyed by the Aberrant. But have decided to await orders from Earth on the matter. I, like many others on this mission, am still awaiting to find out under which department our situation has placed us. --«This is an interdepartamental nightmare no doubt. I suggest we come to a ruling on which department is going to handle this mess before news of the Foresight's disappearance leaks to the other orders or the general public.»--/@placetimestamphere, »-- . Until I hear word from Aeon officials though I am unwilling to place my crew in further danger.
After completing the devastation of the three inner planets the Aberrant settled its bulk on B-167888.1 and at 2120-02-08-01:24 proceeded to exude a "sheath" of organic material from its body that in a matter of hours covered the entire planet. Ridges that appear to be bones and blood vessels interrupt the surface which appears to be a dark brown in color. This would appear to be a very alternate form of planetary consumption from the one observed in the vicinity of Star B-165512. Speculation is that perhaps the size of the planet which differs so greatly from the planetoid we observed the Aberrant consuming does not permit it to simply strip the mantle to reach the molten core. It appears to be relying on this sheath to reach all the plentiful natural vents that cover the planet, many of which were used by the natives in their defense attempt.
Subject: Second summary report; Sighting of subject 1999-44-TITAN-0444, [Internal Designation: Chiraben]
From: Captain Henry Marshall Commanding, of the Leviathan expeditionary group Foresight.
Captain's Report: 1200045-3012
Encryption: «TITANBE6723»
To: AEON Council
Date: 2120-02-13-06:00
It is now apparent what the Aberrant intends to do here. We have been observing its movements over the past few days and compiling reports from the agents on site through Lt. Chou. As of today at 2120-02-13-03:26 the aberrant lifted the sheath it had placed around B-167888.1. Our probe to the asteroid belt --«Initial studies of the tapes from the probe do indicate that the systems natives are superficially insectile. Differences abound however and the bodies of the various specimens show an amazing amount of variety, much more than even that within specialized communities of insects like ants or termites. Without further study I cannot even determine if they belong to the same species.»--2120-02-14-03:16, Dr. Jenniffer Moren, ASD»-- indicates that the planet now has an oxygen rich atmosphere and visual observation confirms the presence of surface water in quantities sufficient to cover two thirds of the land mass. Further probing of the land masses reveals the presence of lakes, rivers and large tracks of plant life. Also, radio imaging of the oceans reveals vast quantities of macroorganisms which I can only assume are krill and plankton. The whole planet has been transformed in less than a week. The atmosphere's of all three planets were so poisonous to terran life that the crew had named the planets in order of ascencion: Apocalypse, Armaggedon and Abyss. Knowing how the planet has achieved it's current appearance of a paradise I have decided to make those names official. As for B-167888 I think that naming it Cassandra's End is a fitting tribute to my fallen navigator and the women who set us down this path. --«Could the pressure be getting to Cpt. Marshall?»--2120-02-14-05:02, Director Codwell»-- The fact that the planet could support human life does not appear to be in question and we realize from Lt. Chou's summaries why the Aberrant did this but I still have to wonder why. The elements present were simply not there to begin with. And since it could create or transform them, then why not start with a lifeless planet? Why did this thing have to eliminate the populations of three planets to do something it might as well have done with B-165512.5? It doesn't make sense.
Attached are lt Chou's summaries. However the most salient parts are that the captives are still alive and our agents have been able to extract from the Aberrant information confirming that it means to transform the other two planets in the same way as it did with Apocalypse.
«Attachment: Commentary
«Appended by: !Ident Error!
--«This is Captain Marshall's final report. I haven't had a chance to go over lt. Chou's summaries in detail, but what we know so far is enough to realize that we can't simply take Chiraben up on his offer, but on the other hand we can't afford to antagonize him. It's a no win situation no matter how you look at it. My people have come up with a short term solution I hope to present to the council this afternoon. Since you'll be there I hope to gain your support. In essence what I'll propose is to send a group of 300 volunteers to pose as 'colonists', we'll have to be careful who we choose to go. Once there they can placate Chiraben into believeing that we intend to take him up on his offer. It'll be difficult but every one of the colonists will have to be able to successfully kiss up to Chiraben or he might decide to stop playing god in some foresaken corner of the galaxy and come here. My people are preparing a selection of entertainment material drawn from pre-crash sources. That does seem to be the era he's fixated on. Hopefully we'll be able to maintain his attention on the hell planets for at least 20 to 40 years. Depends on how he reacts to the material we've selected. One thing I did pick up from one of Harper's detailed reports is that Chiraben is using 'constructs' made from his own flesh to communicate with them ever since he released them on Armaggedon. What she doesn't come out and say but which I think is implied by her tone of disgust is that some of the male members of her team have been engaging in sex with some of the constructs. Even more surprising is the fact that Chiraben has obliged them by creating more female shaped constructs than male. We'll have to keep that in mind when we send our people. Apparently 59 years of abstinence hasn't done anything to quell Chiraben's appettites. The people we send have to be willing to have sex with Chiraben's flesh puppets. You never got to meet Chiraben way back when, did you? Well when I knew him he was a sadistic animal who got off on killing other novas. Good thing for us he became contemptous of killing 'mere' baselines. But that might not apply to psions or he might not be so choosy now that he has a limited amount of victims. I'm suprised that Harper's team is still alive. Hopefully killing the insect people will hold him over for a while. How long I can't say. So that's another thing we have to tell our volunteers, they may be killed by Chiraben at any time and there's nothing we can do about that. Because of that I want as few Psions as we can get away with.
Now Director Athena wants to set Chiraben against the Colony and I want to tell you: That's a bad idea... First we don't have any way to judge how close they are in power and I believe that a win by Chiraben could be as disastrous as if we just invited him to Earth. Athena doesn't know Chiraben and she only knows the Colony from what she's read in our files. Second thing, I know for a fact that 60 years ago Chiraben wasn't even in the same league as the Colony. How can we be sure that he'll prove up to challenging The Colony? With his power he could certainly piss off the Colony and that could lead to a direct attack on Earth. Until we know for sure that they're evenly matched we can't risk a confrontation between them with Earth and the colonies in the middle. Who knows how that conflict might spill over? I don't believe we can risk that happening, it could develop into a repeat of the Aberrant war.
Now as to the particulars of the mission. I propose that we send a single Leviathan with a colony carrier and absolutely no weapons. Once it arrives it will release the colony carrier close to the Foresight's position. If it can we'll have it rescue the Foresight. If Chiraben seems to be drawing near though we'll rig the Tesser to self destruct. Acid or fire, something that won't damage the rest of the ship but which will completely destroy the Tesser so that no residual RNA can be reconstructed from it. It's lucky that the Tesser aboard the Foresight burned out. One of our priorities should be to recover whatever technology we can from those installations and the debris left by the ships Chiraben destroyed. That wormhole technology sounds useable and I'd give my right ball for working force field technology. I don't have to tell you that this matter is too important to delay over. And going with Athena's plan could lead to a disaster we won't be able to contain. I'm counting on your vote tommorrow, so don't let me down.»--/@placetimestamphere, (*$&^³¥¤°¯×*)»--