The Leibos Incident: Sin and Sacrifice, all laid bare.
Posted: 2007-05-03 02:32pm
Author's Notes: This is some background material for an original universe of mine (you could call this a fanfic of sorts). It's just something I wrote up one day and I liked how it turned out. I don't think I'll be adding more to it; it's just a one-shot.
Enjoy.
~
…those damn archaeologists! This is the fifth jumper they’ve ruined on their trips to the Uromeng Wastes. I keep telling them that the piece of shit jumpers we have don’t have proper sand filters on their intakes, that they have to take it easy on them. But what do I know? I’m only the mechanic.
Hool was in here this morning, breathing down my neck about getting those jumpers back into action; won’t happen until we get the new parts from Veka, since the sand’s chewed their engines all to hell. I don’t care what discovery that little rodent and his team are on the verge of; a jumper won’t fly with its system gummed up with sand. They’ll just have to wait.
Strange, though. They keep going on about this find of theirs, but I’ve never seen even one excavator head out there, not one artifact turn up around town. I talked to a couple of volunteers, when they were bragging about some of the pictures they’d taken of the site, and when they showed me, there was nothing there. Not even a godsdamned spade in the dirt. Ah, probably just screwing with me.
I got to get back to work.
-extract from the work log of Remiel Danseg, 14th Morganshire, CSY 5086
~
…four more incidents in the last week. Two assaults and battery, one aggravated sexual assault, one murder. The first A&B appears to be a bar brawl that got out of hand. The second was a case of domestic violence; a pair of neighbours disagreed over the trimming of a hedge that borders both their lawns and things escalated. M. Arigata Vnshea attacked Ms. Fedri Ducetla, cutting off her hands and feet with his shears, about to go for her head when some passersby pulled him off her and rendered him unconscious.
The murder was even worse; we don’t know what provoked it, but M. August Kanly attacked his roommate M. Dreuthin Sixthson at university, cutting out his heart and throwing his body out of their sixth-story window. Scrawled over the walls in Sixthson’s blood was a crude representation of an eye and the phrase “Watching us”. We have the shrinks looking at Kanly now.
The sexual assault… no. It’s in my official log.
What the hell is happening around here?
-excerpt from personal journal of Constable Darcelantre Lastson, 34th Morganshire, CSY 5086
~
…increase in patients complaining of sleeplessness and night terrors. We’re already running low on sleep aids. I’d put out a request for assistance, but the colony’s main transmitter was destroyed yesterday. The official report says it was an accident, but I don’t know. Everyone’s acting very oddly. I asked Nurse Jaleen for the chart of the new trauma patient and she started screaming at me, before breaking down in tears. I’ve found myself getting a snappish myself, without any reason. I think whatever’s happening here is affecting me as well.
Sometimes, just before I fall asleep and just before I wake up, I see… something. I can’t describe it, but it’s just this shapeless thing, but somehow I know that it… that it…
It’s nothing, I guess. Just a case of nerves from listening to everyone else’s nightmares.
-excerpt from physician’s journal of Prime Surgeon Njord Yrekina. 7th Vlejan, CSY 5089
~
…getting bad now. The pills Dr. Amberly prescribed aren’t helping any more. Every time I close my eyes, I see it. I hear it. I want to go back to therapy, but after our last session, I don’t think I can. He started shouting at me, that I was stalking him, trying to poison him. I don’t know what brought that on – I thought he was going to attack me and I just ran. I could hear him screaming all the way to the elevator.
Then I heard the gunshot.
I’m afraid to go outside now; the news is full of assaults and murders. It seems like it’s getting worse every day. A few people think it has something to do with the [fragment irrecoverable] that the archeaological teams discovered a couple of weeks ago. I’m so tired. I want to sleep so much, but I’m scared to. I’m even more scared to go outside to get the pills to stay awake.
I don’t know what I’m going to do.
-excerpt from the diary of Lucreia Reallin, 11th Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
…air filtration results are negative. So it’s not an airborne vector. The tests I ran on the colony’s water supply also came up empty. I managed to sneak a look at the medical charts of several patients, thinking this could be parasitic, bacterial or viral in nature, but there’s nothing on them. Which is ridiculous; there has to be a common causative agent.
Something in the food stores? It’s possible. I’ll have Gretori check out the stocks from the colony ship, though a single contaminant shouldn’t affect so many disparate species the same way. Hmm. His skimmer’s already in the parking lot, but I don’t see-
-final excerpt from Dean of Research Kivik C’rel, 12th Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
They can’t have it. I found it. I found it. It’s calling to me, me alone. The other members of my team didn’t understand. I made them understand. I made them see.
No one else understands.
The Eye.
It’s watching us. I’ll make them understand.
-Chief Archaelogist Ant Threum Hool’s personal record, 14th Vlejan CSY 5086
~
I know they’re jealous. Don’t have to tell me that they’re jealous. They haven’t been replacing the toner, just to trip me up, make me look bad. Well, I’ll show them. I’ll show them all. I’m going right to the top and they can’t stop me. I’ll be in charge, then I’ll get them back.
No, no I won’t wait. Have to get them before they get me. That’s right. I’ll start with that secretary bitch, she’s got to be in on it. Yes, that’s it. I’ll start with her…
I’ll show them. They can’t stop me.
No one can.
- excerpt from voice log of Emery Ful-then, 21st Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
Watching.
Sees us.
Sees us always. Can’t run. They’ll catch me.
Can’t hide. They’ll find me.
Whispers in the dark, skin crawling, flesh burning. Can’t sleep. Sees us.
Can’t sleep. It’ll eat me. Eat me.
Eat.
They’ll eat me.
I’ll stop them.
Can’t stop it.
It’ll eat.
Me.
-personal diary entry of Temdrel Kallant, 25th Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
I really hope that there’s a good rehab program nearby. I’m going to need it. The menth keeps me lucid – well, more lucid than the rest of them – but I’ve never really wanted to run around stoned off my gourd for day after day. Fuck, I hope somebody notices what’s going on here and comes to investigate. They better get here soon, or there’s nothing going to be left but embers. Embers. Amber – I knew a girl named Amber once. For a human she wasn’t half bad…
Focus! Focus, Darcel. Okay, let’s try this again. The violence is increasing throughout the colony. Seven murders, twelve assaults, four sexual assaults in the last 26 hours. I’m the only one left keeping it vaguely real; the other officers are as bad as the rest of population. I’m trying to find another source of menthylene; if I can dope up someone else, I should be able to snap them out of it. Of course, having a large number of armed people running around high on menth isn’t the brightest idea. But it’s the best one I’ve got.
-personal log of Constable Darcelantre Lastson , 28th Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
I can’t do this.
I have to. Harvest…
No! No, I don’t want to. I am me. I am me.
I must! I think I do… do I? I can’t remember. I feel… I feel like I’m losing myself, like what’s happened to the rest of my staff. I don’t know why I risk it, coming in each day, chancing the streets. I hope. I think that’s it. My neighbour, the elderly Ms. Vansel, stripped the skin off her face yesterday. She goes about her daily chores as she always does, mutters to herself constantly just as she always. Only now, the things she says…
I can hear them too, in the back of my mind. Whispers, cajoles, laughter. Sometimes, my lips move as I listen to them and I know, I know.
It wants me. It wants us all. I hear the things they say, the things it says.
Is this what going insane feels like?
Yes… yes, I understand… of course…
N- n- no! I… I can feel myself slipping away. I’ve seen it happen to others. I can feel it happening to me. I try to resist but… I can’t. In the corner of my eye, it’s always there. I can feel my thoughts eroding. Words come to mind. I’ve tried to write them down, so that anyone who finds this log might understand.
I… I’ve set up a failsafe in Comp Cent. The password is randomized; even I can’t unlock it. And I’ve tried. I’ve woken up, sitting here at my desk, with the terminal on, when I went to bed in my apartment on the other side of the city.
I didn’t tell my staff, even before this happened. I didn’t think I could trust them. Now, I know I can’t. They’re plotting against me. They’re doing it now. Whispering hateful, dirty little things. All of them. I hate them. I have… I have to stop them. I have to make sure they don’t succeed. I’ll stop them.
I’ll make them understand.
I’ll strip their flesh with my teeth if that’s what it takes, rip their arms beat them they have to know the song rape their daughters it’s no less than they deserve for plotting against me, always plotting, always getting in my way. I’ll stop them.
I’ll make them see.
Kill them.
Bring them to the awakening.
It will see them. It will judge them.
The Eye.
Kill. Harvest.
For the beginning.
For the awakening.
My flesh is yours.
Sacrifice.
- work log of starport administrator Vajum Truellis, 29th Vlejan CSY 5086
~
Mommy screamed.
She was yummy.
Daddy was next.
Time for it to wake up.
I’ve been a good girl.
– note on blackboard, unknown author and date, CSY 5086
~
+0832:17 attempted unlawful access to high-security section of hangar+
+0832:25 security station notified+
+0832:37 automated vocal warning issued+
+0832:57 vocal warning repeated; no response from security units+
+0832:77 vocal warning repeated; intruders warned system will respond with force+
+0833:01 intruders attempt to disable Comp Cent and force entry; no response from security units; self-defence imperatives active+
+0834:26 threat eliminated; estimated 17 bioforms neutralized; ammunition reserves 7% depleted; request for reloading issued; maintenance drones unresponsive+
+1078:34 attempted unlawful access to high-security section of hangar+
[…]
+1921:35 attempted unlawful access to high-security section of hangar; ammunition reserves critical+
+1922:64 ammunition depleted; no response from security or maintenance stations; initiating imperative Gammak 3.732.5; vessel core safeties overridden; estimate 11:36 until first meltdown event+
-final log transcript of starport Comp Cent, 31st Vlegan, CSY 5089
~
My estimates are that by now, over 20,000 people have been killed in less than a month. It’s incredible… like nothing I’ve ever seen. Families tear each other apart, friends butcher each other. Walking the streets at night is now a death sentence. Even in broad daylight, all you need to do is look at someone the wrong way. If you listen, you can hear them whispering under their breath. Horrible things. I’ve caught myself doing it too, when I’m tired, when I stop taking the pills.
No one watches the news anymore.
I’m scared. I don’t want to end up like the others. I won’t. I close my eyes at night and I see it. In the shadows, it’s there. I keep the lights on all the time. A glowpanel burned out in my bedroom two days ago and I haven’t gone in there since, not even during the day.
There are still shadows.
I’ve slept on the couch ever since. I don’t go outside anymore, I’m running out of food. I can’t live like this and I won’t – I won’t turn into one of them. If anyone reads this… I’m sorry. I hope you know what happened here, how to stop it from spreading anywhere else.
Please. Help us.
-suicide note of news anchor Kambri Musoliin, 33rd Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
Begins. Beginning.
Awakening. The Eye sees us all. It knows us.
Eat. Eating.
Ate them. Didn’t believe. Sacrifice to the Eye.
It sees us.
It knows. The time is coming. Soon.
Awakening.
Feast. Kill. Harvest.
Eat.
-note found in Reginald Jackson’s apartment, 2nd Turkas, CSY 5086
~
It’s started. I can hear the screams.
I’ll do what I can, save as many as I can. I don’t know how I can trust anyone. Yesterday, I pulled a man off a young woman and put two bullets in his brain. The girl jumped on me, started biting and clawing. She nearly ripped one of my eyes out. I… I had no choice.
This is my redemption, then.
I can only hope I can hold out until help comes.
Gods forgive me my sins.
-voice clip found in the pocket of a mutilated Idrizi corpse, believed to be Constable Darcelantre Lastson, 3rd Turkas, CSY 5086. His body was found next to that of a young girl, apparently attempting to shield her.
~
…arrived in orbit 1752 shipboard time to investigate the lack of communication from the colony on Leibos. We began transmitting a hail upon arrival in this system at 1131; no response on any channel. The reason for that became clear once we drew closer.
I sent down a team in full biohazard gear along with a contingent of Boldheart’s Pacifiers, but it only confirmed the visual images we got from orbit.
Everyone is dead.
This… this colony had over three hundred thousand people! And we were only out of contact for a month. Even worse, medical examination indicates that virtually all of the population died within hours of each other, only days before we arrived. Not from a plague, or an attack. They killed each other… and then themselves. And what they did to each other….
I had men and women, combat veterans, sick in their suits from what they saw.
What in the gods’ names happened here?!
-prime’s record of Ship Prime Avrail Jenkennt, 7th Turkas, CSY 5086
~
It’s not clear what started the incident, but Ship Ninth Vendez grabbed her knife and jammed it into Ship Third Alquet’s chest, severing his aorta and puncturing his heart. He was dead before the medics got to him, not just because of that. It took two armsmen to pull the ninth off Alquet, but not before she had torn his throat out with her teeth. Witnesses report that she was shouting something over and over, something about an eye, and a song and… what was it? Oh, right – “all dead”.
The medics have had to sedate her – she never stopped screaming once she jumped at Alquet, and she’s attempted to claw her own eyes out several times. The medics have catalogued everything she’s been saying – even drugged, she keeps murmuring “all dead” over and over again.
I have to say, though the Third was a bit of a jerk, he didn’t have this coming. I certainly didn’t peg Vendez as the type to snap like this. I’ve heard other things, crew reporting bad dreams and having a hard time focusing. It’s probably just an after-effect of seeing what those poor bastards did to themselves.
Still, the sooner we get out of this system, the better.
End log.
- daily report of Security Chief Abrez Yallwen, Boldheart, 11th Turkas, CSY 5086
Enjoy.
~
…those damn archaeologists! This is the fifth jumper they’ve ruined on their trips to the Uromeng Wastes. I keep telling them that the piece of shit jumpers we have don’t have proper sand filters on their intakes, that they have to take it easy on them. But what do I know? I’m only the mechanic.
Hool was in here this morning, breathing down my neck about getting those jumpers back into action; won’t happen until we get the new parts from Veka, since the sand’s chewed their engines all to hell. I don’t care what discovery that little rodent and his team are on the verge of; a jumper won’t fly with its system gummed up with sand. They’ll just have to wait.
Strange, though. They keep going on about this find of theirs, but I’ve never seen even one excavator head out there, not one artifact turn up around town. I talked to a couple of volunteers, when they were bragging about some of the pictures they’d taken of the site, and when they showed me, there was nothing there. Not even a godsdamned spade in the dirt. Ah, probably just screwing with me.
I got to get back to work.
-extract from the work log of Remiel Danseg, 14th Morganshire, CSY 5086
~
…four more incidents in the last week. Two assaults and battery, one aggravated sexual assault, one murder. The first A&B appears to be a bar brawl that got out of hand. The second was a case of domestic violence; a pair of neighbours disagreed over the trimming of a hedge that borders both their lawns and things escalated. M. Arigata Vnshea attacked Ms. Fedri Ducetla, cutting off her hands and feet with his shears, about to go for her head when some passersby pulled him off her and rendered him unconscious.
The murder was even worse; we don’t know what provoked it, but M. August Kanly attacked his roommate M. Dreuthin Sixthson at university, cutting out his heart and throwing his body out of their sixth-story window. Scrawled over the walls in Sixthson’s blood was a crude representation of an eye and the phrase “Watching us”. We have the shrinks looking at Kanly now.
The sexual assault… no. It’s in my official log.
What the hell is happening around here?
-excerpt from personal journal of Constable Darcelantre Lastson, 34th Morganshire, CSY 5086
~
…increase in patients complaining of sleeplessness and night terrors. We’re already running low on sleep aids. I’d put out a request for assistance, but the colony’s main transmitter was destroyed yesterday. The official report says it was an accident, but I don’t know. Everyone’s acting very oddly. I asked Nurse Jaleen for the chart of the new trauma patient and she started screaming at me, before breaking down in tears. I’ve found myself getting a snappish myself, without any reason. I think whatever’s happening here is affecting me as well.
Sometimes, just before I fall asleep and just before I wake up, I see… something. I can’t describe it, but it’s just this shapeless thing, but somehow I know that it… that it…
It’s nothing, I guess. Just a case of nerves from listening to everyone else’s nightmares.
-excerpt from physician’s journal of Prime Surgeon Njord Yrekina. 7th Vlejan, CSY 5089
~
…getting bad now. The pills Dr. Amberly prescribed aren’t helping any more. Every time I close my eyes, I see it. I hear it. I want to go back to therapy, but after our last session, I don’t think I can. He started shouting at me, that I was stalking him, trying to poison him. I don’t know what brought that on – I thought he was going to attack me and I just ran. I could hear him screaming all the way to the elevator.
Then I heard the gunshot.
I’m afraid to go outside now; the news is full of assaults and murders. It seems like it’s getting worse every day. A few people think it has something to do with the [fragment irrecoverable] that the archeaological teams discovered a couple of weeks ago. I’m so tired. I want to sleep so much, but I’m scared to. I’m even more scared to go outside to get the pills to stay awake.
I don’t know what I’m going to do.
-excerpt from the diary of Lucreia Reallin, 11th Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
…air filtration results are negative. So it’s not an airborne vector. The tests I ran on the colony’s water supply also came up empty. I managed to sneak a look at the medical charts of several patients, thinking this could be parasitic, bacterial or viral in nature, but there’s nothing on them. Which is ridiculous; there has to be a common causative agent.
Something in the food stores? It’s possible. I’ll have Gretori check out the stocks from the colony ship, though a single contaminant shouldn’t affect so many disparate species the same way. Hmm. His skimmer’s already in the parking lot, but I don’t see-
-final excerpt from Dean of Research Kivik C’rel, 12th Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
They can’t have it. I found it. I found it. It’s calling to me, me alone. The other members of my team didn’t understand. I made them understand. I made them see.
No one else understands.
The Eye.
It’s watching us. I’ll make them understand.
-Chief Archaelogist Ant Threum Hool’s personal record, 14th Vlejan CSY 5086
~
I know they’re jealous. Don’t have to tell me that they’re jealous. They haven’t been replacing the toner, just to trip me up, make me look bad. Well, I’ll show them. I’ll show them all. I’m going right to the top and they can’t stop me. I’ll be in charge, then I’ll get them back.
No, no I won’t wait. Have to get them before they get me. That’s right. I’ll start with that secretary bitch, she’s got to be in on it. Yes, that’s it. I’ll start with her…
I’ll show them. They can’t stop me.
No one can.
- excerpt from voice log of Emery Ful-then, 21st Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
Watching.
Sees us.
Sees us always. Can’t run. They’ll catch me.
Can’t hide. They’ll find me.
Whispers in the dark, skin crawling, flesh burning. Can’t sleep. Sees us.
Can’t sleep. It’ll eat me. Eat me.
Eat.
They’ll eat me.
I’ll stop them.
Can’t stop it.
It’ll eat.
Me.
-personal diary entry of Temdrel Kallant, 25th Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
I really hope that there’s a good rehab program nearby. I’m going to need it. The menth keeps me lucid – well, more lucid than the rest of them – but I’ve never really wanted to run around stoned off my gourd for day after day. Fuck, I hope somebody notices what’s going on here and comes to investigate. They better get here soon, or there’s nothing going to be left but embers. Embers. Amber – I knew a girl named Amber once. For a human she wasn’t half bad…
Focus! Focus, Darcel. Okay, let’s try this again. The violence is increasing throughout the colony. Seven murders, twelve assaults, four sexual assaults in the last 26 hours. I’m the only one left keeping it vaguely real; the other officers are as bad as the rest of population. I’m trying to find another source of menthylene; if I can dope up someone else, I should be able to snap them out of it. Of course, having a large number of armed people running around high on menth isn’t the brightest idea. But it’s the best one I’ve got.
-personal log of Constable Darcelantre Lastson , 28th Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
I can’t do this.
I have to. Harvest…
No! No, I don’t want to. I am me. I am me.
I must! I think I do… do I? I can’t remember. I feel… I feel like I’m losing myself, like what’s happened to the rest of my staff. I don’t know why I risk it, coming in each day, chancing the streets. I hope. I think that’s it. My neighbour, the elderly Ms. Vansel, stripped the skin off her face yesterday. She goes about her daily chores as she always does, mutters to herself constantly just as she always. Only now, the things she says…
I can hear them too, in the back of my mind. Whispers, cajoles, laughter. Sometimes, my lips move as I listen to them and I know, I know.
It wants me. It wants us all. I hear the things they say, the things it says.
Is this what going insane feels like?
Yes… yes, I understand… of course…
N- n- no! I… I can feel myself slipping away. I’ve seen it happen to others. I can feel it happening to me. I try to resist but… I can’t. In the corner of my eye, it’s always there. I can feel my thoughts eroding. Words come to mind. I’ve tried to write them down, so that anyone who finds this log might understand.
I… I’ve set up a failsafe in Comp Cent. The password is randomized; even I can’t unlock it. And I’ve tried. I’ve woken up, sitting here at my desk, with the terminal on, when I went to bed in my apartment on the other side of the city.
I didn’t tell my staff, even before this happened. I didn’t think I could trust them. Now, I know I can’t. They’re plotting against me. They’re doing it now. Whispering hateful, dirty little things. All of them. I hate them. I have… I have to stop them. I have to make sure they don’t succeed. I’ll stop them.
I’ll make them understand.
I’ll strip their flesh with my teeth if that’s what it takes, rip their arms beat them they have to know the song rape their daughters it’s no less than they deserve for plotting against me, always plotting, always getting in my way. I’ll stop them.
I’ll make them see.
Kill them.
Bring them to the awakening.
It will see them. It will judge them.
The Eye.
Kill. Harvest.
For the beginning.
For the awakening.
My flesh is yours.
Sacrifice.
- work log of starport administrator Vajum Truellis, 29th Vlejan CSY 5086
~
Mommy screamed.
She was yummy.
Daddy was next.
Time for it to wake up.
I’ve been a good girl.
– note on blackboard, unknown author and date, CSY 5086
~
+0832:17 attempted unlawful access to high-security section of hangar+
+0832:25 security station notified+
+0832:37 automated vocal warning issued+
+0832:57 vocal warning repeated; no response from security units+
+0832:77 vocal warning repeated; intruders warned system will respond with force+
+0833:01 intruders attempt to disable Comp Cent and force entry; no response from security units; self-defence imperatives active+
+0834:26 threat eliminated; estimated 17 bioforms neutralized; ammunition reserves 7% depleted; request for reloading issued; maintenance drones unresponsive+
+1078:34 attempted unlawful access to high-security section of hangar+
[…]
+1921:35 attempted unlawful access to high-security section of hangar; ammunition reserves critical+
+1922:64 ammunition depleted; no response from security or maintenance stations; initiating imperative Gammak 3.732.5; vessel core safeties overridden; estimate 11:36 until first meltdown event+
-final log transcript of starport Comp Cent, 31st Vlegan, CSY 5089
~
My estimates are that by now, over 20,000 people have been killed in less than a month. It’s incredible… like nothing I’ve ever seen. Families tear each other apart, friends butcher each other. Walking the streets at night is now a death sentence. Even in broad daylight, all you need to do is look at someone the wrong way. If you listen, you can hear them whispering under their breath. Horrible things. I’ve caught myself doing it too, when I’m tired, when I stop taking the pills.
No one watches the news anymore.
I’m scared. I don’t want to end up like the others. I won’t. I close my eyes at night and I see it. In the shadows, it’s there. I keep the lights on all the time. A glowpanel burned out in my bedroom two days ago and I haven’t gone in there since, not even during the day.
There are still shadows.
I’ve slept on the couch ever since. I don’t go outside anymore, I’m running out of food. I can’t live like this and I won’t – I won’t turn into one of them. If anyone reads this… I’m sorry. I hope you know what happened here, how to stop it from spreading anywhere else.
Please. Help us.
-suicide note of news anchor Kambri Musoliin, 33rd Vlejan, CSY 5086
~
Begins. Beginning.
Awakening. The Eye sees us all. It knows us.
Eat. Eating.
Ate them. Didn’t believe. Sacrifice to the Eye.
It sees us.
It knows. The time is coming. Soon.
Awakening.
Feast. Kill. Harvest.
Eat.
-note found in Reginald Jackson’s apartment, 2nd Turkas, CSY 5086
~
It’s started. I can hear the screams.
I’ll do what I can, save as many as I can. I don’t know how I can trust anyone. Yesterday, I pulled a man off a young woman and put two bullets in his brain. The girl jumped on me, started biting and clawing. She nearly ripped one of my eyes out. I… I had no choice.
This is my redemption, then.
I can only hope I can hold out until help comes.
Gods forgive me my sins.
-voice clip found in the pocket of a mutilated Idrizi corpse, believed to be Constable Darcelantre Lastson, 3rd Turkas, CSY 5086. His body was found next to that of a young girl, apparently attempting to shield her.
~
…arrived in orbit 1752 shipboard time to investigate the lack of communication from the colony on Leibos. We began transmitting a hail upon arrival in this system at 1131; no response on any channel. The reason for that became clear once we drew closer.
I sent down a team in full biohazard gear along with a contingent of Boldheart’s Pacifiers, but it only confirmed the visual images we got from orbit.
Everyone is dead.
This… this colony had over three hundred thousand people! And we were only out of contact for a month. Even worse, medical examination indicates that virtually all of the population died within hours of each other, only days before we arrived. Not from a plague, or an attack. They killed each other… and then themselves. And what they did to each other….
I had men and women, combat veterans, sick in their suits from what they saw.
What in the gods’ names happened here?!
-prime’s record of Ship Prime Avrail Jenkennt, 7th Turkas, CSY 5086
~
It’s not clear what started the incident, but Ship Ninth Vendez grabbed her knife and jammed it into Ship Third Alquet’s chest, severing his aorta and puncturing his heart. He was dead before the medics got to him, not just because of that. It took two armsmen to pull the ninth off Alquet, but not before she had torn his throat out with her teeth. Witnesses report that she was shouting something over and over, something about an eye, and a song and… what was it? Oh, right – “all dead”.
The medics have had to sedate her – she never stopped screaming once she jumped at Alquet, and she’s attempted to claw her own eyes out several times. The medics have catalogued everything she’s been saying – even drugged, she keeps murmuring “all dead” over and over again.
I have to say, though the Third was a bit of a jerk, he didn’t have this coming. I certainly didn’t peg Vendez as the type to snap like this. I’ve heard other things, crew reporting bad dreams and having a hard time focusing. It’s probably just an after-effect of seeing what those poor bastards did to themselves.
Still, the sooner we get out of this system, the better.
End log.
- daily report of Security Chief Abrez Yallwen, Boldheart, 11th Turkas, CSY 5086
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