Ship's Log

Combined log of Project Basilisk

== PROPERTY OF HOYT-FITZHUGH ==

Breaking Boundaries of the Void

CLASSIFIED

Project: Basilisk
Expedition to: Zeta2 E8B0000-0. Red zone, just outside Imperial borders. Barren. Hellworld. Forbidden. Reserve.
Laboratory Ship State of the Art
Crew
Perelandra "Perry" Vasquez, PhD Chemistry, Qualified Sophontology
Amadeus “Vishnu” Chakrabarti-Makkonen aka, Qualified Archaeology, Computer Science, Linguistics, Married to Lady Harding
Alexander “Alex” Markharovm – retired Scout, Qualified Xenology
Lady Elizabeth “Liz” Harding, Qualified Medicine, Researcher. Married to Chakrabarti-Makkonen
Kaitlyn Owlonu, Qualified Mechanic, Qualified Engineer Electrical
Edward “Ed” Edson, Qualified Engineer Life Support and M-drive

Log sent 12.4.78.04.912.F34 Recovered 12.5.78.08.111.F34

Chakrabarti-Makkonen:
at a desk, gel computer screen stuck to wall
"Just seeing what my files say on the matter of pyramids, vacuum cultures and corrosive atmospheres..... Not seen anything like this myself...." "Always a first, eh Perry. So...Shall we send a handful of probes down....I'd rather have some closer inspections before we go down and get chewed up by whatever crazy lifeforms have decided to evolve in that"
re: Planet.
Vasquez
At conference table, looking at photograph printouts
"Certes. I'm all in favour of not getting chewed and better to pick out landing spots in advance," He returns one of the photos to the pile. "If they're, admittedly thin on detail. Report is right there's some interesting biochemistry awaiting us below and I'd like to see some atmospheric analysis. Fluorine acids and other free volatiles seem a safe bet, not much more we can do to protect ourselves but it would be fascinating to get some samples of this local wildlife."

"Odd though. I wonder if the structure is native? Elaborate speculations abound, if so. More interesting if it is, in truth. An abandoned artifact from a spacefaring race has its own charms, of course." "We are scientists. Granted, I'd prefer to simply avoid anything hostile. But if opportunity arises I shall sic Engel [weapon drone]on it and drag it back for analysis. Perhaps it will bring us a little bonus credit. I'm sure someone we know would like to study the lifeforms."

"I'm going to start prepping a probe. We may as well send one down for a reconnoiter while we finalize our plans."

Lady Harding
at table
" I'd certainly be interested in collecting data on the local flora and fauna. It'd be fascinating to get some preliminary data on their biochem and genetics. You know... I almost wonder if those pyramids might be native lifeforms instead of structures? It wouldn't be the first time science has seen improbably large lifeforms, or geometrically symmetrical forms. I'm sure that's not the case, but imagine if it was... Towering mounds of flesh, pulsing with their own heartbeat, blowing hot winds from respiring, wriggling with macro symbionts and parasites. Deadly and alien to the core, but with fantastic and horrible discoveries to be made. But no, it's probably just made from blocks of some sort of undiscovered volcanic glass or something else boring. If only it could be something fantastic like that though..."
Vasquez
scan artifact rippling
at probe control, communicating via intercom
“Ship probes are all done. I'll get Kaitlyn to seal Engel before we go."
"Probes away. Flight plan is a straight run to the given coordinates with atmos sampling en route to minimize time in transit. Then a lock on the pyramid and a spiral out to survey the surrounding terrain for hostile movement and locate one or more landing sites." "I hate walking and those suits are going to be a helluva challenge for me, especially in this terrain. We'll see how the telemetry is, maybe I'll stay up here and let you field specialists do your thing while I do data analysis. Let's see how the landing sites look before we decide on whether we're going for the full flying disaster."
Chakrabarti-Makkonen:
"We'll they'll have to deal with Alex flying our newly found ancient pyramid battle cruiser after their sorry asses..."
Small overlap of voices
Markharovm
"I'm trying to remember if these constructions are similar to anything encountered before in known space. Give me some time to trawl through the library.”
Telemetry
Probe A1 launched. Atmospheric preliminary analysis: yellow-orange soup of nitrogen, sulphur and fluorine compounds.

Static, quickly remedied. Shell impact. Probe deploys. Hazard level scarlet. Temperature 50 degrees Celsius. Atmospheric pressure three times standard. Gravity: .89 Standard.

Scan terrain. Visibility at 100 meters. Landscape uniform, featureless. Approximately 2 centimeters of hydrogen fluoride on surface.

Impact 500 meters from mission objective.

Log of Probe A1

Audio receptors record sounds. Low whistles. Clicks at sonar frequencies. Blade-vortex noise. Plopping.

150 meters from destination, multiple vortex noise and sonar sounds detected. Four flying creatures sighted. Observation 1 meter long 12 cm across, ribbon bodies. Four sets rapidly beating wings. Covered with purple-ish pulsing nodules, yellow-green skin. No discernable head. Red fringe dorsally located along length. They circle around the probe once, then dart away.

Probe continues reaches destination point. Visibility 10m. Interference increasing. Detected: manufactured metal in proximity. Corroded structure of a pressurized habitat comes into view. A few greenish-black, .75m long .3m high blobs with long waving feelers are crawling through the ruin. Power source detected. Investigating. At what would have been inside the habitat are the remains of a vacc suit. The power source is the last weak flickerings of its emergency transmitter. It ceases. After surveying for 3 minutes the probe moves on. As it moves from the area, a few of the slug things slap their feelers against the sides with no discernable effect.

A search pattern is set, and the probe follows it methodically.

Time jump of three hours

Probe A1 Energy reading, periodic venting of waste heat. Exotic particles.

The probe shoves through the mists and then the first glimpse of the pyramid. A short radar burst shows that it is approximately thirty meters high. Suddenly a bright light shoots forth the apex.

Telemetry and radio wave transmissions cease