Lore

Dr. Rendin Howe, Chief Medical Officer, M-13 Mining Complex

1030.15.6
Travor Thiess came to me after his shift complaining of nausea, abdominal pain, and loose bowels. My initial impression is that he suffers from food poisoning, but he also admits to memory loss while in the mines. I drew blood and collected other samples for testing.

Travor is on bed rest until further notice.

1845.15.6

Other miners are exhibiting Travor’s symptoms. Still waiting for conclusive test results. His samples seem to have been contaminated somehow.

0200.16.6
Travor has become belligerent and unruly. He intended to return to the mine, though he gave no concrete indication as to why he might want to. When denied his request, he became violent and injured two fellow miners along with Carli, my physician’s assistant. Administered a strong sedative but it has no effect.

Travor is currently restrained.

1000.16.6
Other miners have become violent. A number of by-standers have been injured attempting to keep them from leaving the complex. This looks to be some kind of epidemic, but I have no idea what’s causing it.

1425.16.6
Travor, in agony, began screaming this afternoon. Anesthetic in high doses had no immediate effect.
Before anything else could be done, a… creature… burst from Travor’s abdomen. It immediately attacked Carli, severing two of her fingers. A nearby security guard shot and killed the creature. I will perform an autopsy and see if I can determine its origin.

1810.16.6
Things have gone from bad to worse. Infected miners who left for the mines have returned to kidnap as-of-yet unaffected co-workers.
Those who we’ve restrained previously have been killed by emerging alien parasites, much as in Travor’s case.

I don’t know what to do.

2100.16.6
I attempted to surgically remove a parasite from Deemer Marsh, one of the miners. As the anesthetic had no effect, I was forced to conduct the operation while he was fully conscious.

During the surgery, the entire complex lost power.
The parasite emerged in the darkness, killing Deemer before attacking and killing Carli. It then escaped into a ventilation duct.

0545.17.6
I am starting to display symptoms of infection.

I can’t remember what happened last night… all I know is that I need to go to the mines. There’s something – or someone – there that I must see.

One of the guards will probably try to stop me. I can’t blame them – they can’t understand – but I’m taking a laser scalpel along… just in case.

Lore

1230.10.6
The first of the accelerite is aboard and we’ll be setting out soon. The crew’s eager and the prospects of profit are undeniable. Our first stop is M-13, of course. Krause’s last report says they’ve hit the mother lode. Another good investment, ripe for the picking. Dad would be proud!

0900.15.6
Communication came from M-13 today. Krause says they’ve found something in the mine. He wasn’t real clear, but it sounds like it might be alive. Probably just another fraz or frizlet.

He sounded worried, but everyone knows Krause worries too much. The man needs to learn to relax!

Anyway, I told him to keep the info under his hat. I’d hate for the miners to get all panicked for no good reason.

1200.16.6
Some of the miners have gotten sick. Krause says it’s driving them crazy, making them violent. It’s probably just a virus, but I can’t be too careful.

We better step on it if we’re to get there in time.

2000.16.6

More bad news: Some of the miners are dead. There’s an alien parasite behind it all, Krause says. I talked to that group of mercs about earning a little hazard pay.

By Granny’s whiskers, they’re expensive! I can’t spend all my accelerite to get them motivated and still pay my crew. What to do?

1115.17.6
Not much longer now. The crew’s acting a little cagey, and even the mercenaries seem tense. I wish they’d just calm down. Maybe I’d better try and find some real experts to help me out.

Nexus isn’t far from M-13… I think I’ll drop by and see if I can hire some reputable freelancers to clean out the mine.

(End of log)

Lore

Entry One

It works! Katja was right! We’ve folded space… entered a dimension that no one but Katja has ever dreamed of! Soon we will emerge, free from the tyranny of the Dominion and its accursed blockade.

Entry Two

The chronometers are not functioning. Time does not go by as it should. It seems as if days have passed, yet within this strange dimension we remain imprisoned. Katja says it is only a matter of time before the Shade will arrive at its destination.

For the sake of us all, I hope she is right.

Entry Three

Weeks of this purgatory have eaten away at my wits! I will not speak to her, for she knows as well as I that our days are numbered.

Ever was I a fool to listen to Katja! A fool!

Entry Four

The Vitalus reserves are gone. Already some of the crew are showing symptoms of the Contagion unchecked. Unless she finds a solution, the lot of us will be lost to mindless rage and animal instinct.

Entry Five

Katja has a plan. She always does, doesn’t she?

I will take no part in it, regardless of the cost. Our people, even those who have been overcome by the Contagion, are still Mordesh… are they not?

Yet she proposes to experiment on them… to take from them so that we may live for a time, free from the madness that inevitably claims us when the Vitalus runs dry.

Entry Six

The tell-tale warning lights shine, foretelling my doom.

I have, perhaps, two hours of Vitalus left to me. Two hours before madness takes me… two hours before I descend into cannibalism and prey upon my brothers and sisters.

Yet Katja calls to me over the intercom. She insists she has made progress, and has a solution to our plight. What can I do? I cannot ignore this chance. I must go to her!

If I do not return from the abattoir her laboratory has become… know that she is the cause of it all.

She needs healthy test subjects. So long as my warning lights shine true, I will be healthy… for at least another two hours.

We are, all of us, damned. I go to her now. Slim hope is better than no hope at all.

Lore

Here I am, and here I stay.

That which should not be, is. I fear I have had no small part in its creation. I can only hope that my attempts to assuage my own existence will succeed, for I cannot bear to languish in feral madness as the rest of the crew does.

The doors have been sealed, the defensive protocols have been applied. She cannot turn them off. In time, oblivion will take her.
Let us hope that this infernal conveyance remains in the nothingness of the void long enough to consign her to the fate which she most assuredly deserves.

For my part, I make no excuses. We began our flight in an attempt to flee from the Dominion’s blockade of our world. In that, our intentions were as pure as a eulogy. Yet things have gone awry as no one could conceive, and now we are locked in a prison of our own production.

The Vitalus in my reservoir depletes. Sanity will not avail me much longer. I will end it now – fire will be my undoing. Should any come here and find the remains of Zarkhov’s Shade, remember the name of Bolav Yaktin.

Lore

Entry #1, Date Unknown

Zarkhov intimated the transition would be quick. She said we would emerge in an instant, bypassing distance and time with equal measure.

She was wrong.

Now we are confined to a dimension where the passage of time is perceived only by our dwindling Vitalus reserves. The chronometers no longer function. Some of them even run backwards.

Entry #2, Date Unknown

Is it a quest for sanity that drives me to record this? Or has my mind already slipped away? I cannot say. I have naught else to do but sit, and wait, and watch my serum slowly spend itself.

Entry #3, Date Unknown

This place, wherever it is, is a home of horrors. Infernal figments flicker in and out of existence like pyreflies, and one of the crewmen has been killed. Perhaps it is only fitting.

Even in death he could not find peace. We survivors fought over his corpse like jackals, thirsty for what little Vitalus remained in his reservoirs.

Even I squabbled for my own meager share of his serum.

Entry #4, Date Unknown

Lack of Vitalus has begun to take its toll, and the sweet respite of death proves no cure for our condition. Whatever compels the Contagion is fortified by the alien dimension we find ourselves fenced within.

Those who have been physically killed soon rise from their repose, as ravenous for the blood of their brothers as those who are driven to depravity by the Contagion alone.

Soon it shall be my turn.

Entry #5, Date Unknown

The Vitalus is gone. So, too, are my chances. Even now I can feel the fetid fever as it fills my form with fatigue. Yet I am comforted, but by what… I know not.

I shall secret away this story of my time aboard Zarkhov’s Shade. If any should find it, they will know the horror that befell us…

Lore

Freedom, at any price, is cheaply bought.

It is with such thoughts that I set my designs in motion, creating the miraculous drive system that would serve as my race’s salvation. Yet despite our best efforts – nay, despite even our extraordinary successes! – we have been caught like vermin in a trap.

In our hubris, we have only traded one form of captivity for another.

I believe our time in transit will be short. To consider other alternatives is to walk the razor’s edge of insanity.
The crew is frightened – who can blame them? And yet…

My original calculations revealed the journey would be instantaneous. As we have yet to emerge from the void, I can only surmise that my calculations were incorrect.

It occurs to me now that perhaps time in the void does not pass in a manner similar to time in native space. If this is the case, there must be some conversion rate that will reveal how long our trip will last.

Nine months! Damn the unknown! Damn my naiveté!

Anything longer than three months is a death sentence, as our Vitalus supply was not intended to last more than a week or two. Though we have a full laboratory available aboard the Shade, we haven’t the raw materials to create the serum we will need.

I will not give up. I will find a way to survive.

Sacrifices must be made. Some of us will die… it is inevitable. Yet they should die so others can live. I take no pleasure in my butcher’s task, but I am comforted by the knowledge that history
will absolve me.

The ravenous are useless to me, as are the dead. Only those who still have some vestige of Vitalus in their systems can provide the essence I need to extend my viability.

I had thought to allow Bolav to join me, for I might have enough for the two of us… but no. He has grown soft and weak, shackled by his own conscience. I can see he plots against me, even though he maintains a facade of loyalty so perfect that it almost pains me to betray him in kind.

If I am the only one
to survive, then so be it. Many have died so that I might live to remember them.

My transformation will be a long, slow process. Fueled by the essence of my comrades and strengthened by the unknowable energies of the void, I will ascend beyond the frailties inflicted upon me by the Contagion.

Nine months will pass in the blink of an eye. I will give this painful gift to my people on Nexus, and they will kneel before me in gratitude. Such is my just reward for the sacrifices I have made.

Bolav has outwitted me. His containment procedures have guaranteed that I remain on the Shade’s bridge until such time as I can engineer my freedom. Ignorant of the timetable I have discovered, he took his own life before the last of his Vitalus could be spent. The poor fool.

I am given the benefit of time, for I can last many months here amidst the dead and the damned. So I will wait, and I will watch, and in time… I will be free.