https://robertsspaceindustries.com/community-hub/post/horror-story-2955-recovered-datapad-onXGA7GqAS5Jp
I don't know if it's any good, but I wrote a thing tonight, with a whole 3 acts. Title: Recovered Datapad (on SC community hub).
And i did write it all myself. I made
a baddy more dangerous than any Vanduul. It's what wiped out the Hadesians.
If you want me to make a webzine/comic of my story, lmk
Datapad retrieved, play file.
Now I know why this system was called Hades... Ironic, even, how it was named without really knowing what I know now. If you're reading this, there's a strong chance I'm not alive, or maybe I'll become one of those things. But I have the opportunity now, I'm barricaded in whatever this room is, and the record function is working, but the visual sensors are broken, so I will be sending this hardened datapad out, hoping it makes it to the other side. Every human and alien in the UEE needs to know the horror that waits for them in the Hades system.
I suppose I should introduce myself. I am Dr. Adam Black, licensed engineer UEE 1095494. I was filling in on the Vara as a favor to the captain. She needed help, and I agreed. And... I'm not well —something's not right with my mind, my thoughts, the ringing in my ears. I'm so thirsty and tired, I'm covered in ash. What I wouldn't give for an ice-cold Cruz right now... Sorry, I... okay...
So I was on the Vara replacing a fuse with crewmates Jorge and Valerie. Valerie was gorgeous and single, and I wish I had told her I was interested. But, shortly after we came to orbit around Hades II, the date was the 27th of October 2557... I am not even sure how much time has passed since then. Captain made an announcement about the ruins and what our scanners showed. I had convinced Captain to upgrade them before the journey, maybe if I wasn't trying to be so helpful... maybe we wouldn't have ended up in this forsaken place.
Have you ever seen someone short themselves on a fuse post? There are redundant systems in place to prevent that. I was on a human owned Merchantman in complete functional disarray, glued together with a small team hired for repairs. My colleague had an apprentice under his wing, the son of his divorced wife. I think he took him under his wing because he never had any kids of his own, and he was already in his 50s. Well, the poor kid, grounded out on one of the hubs, and his whole body so badly burned they couldn't bring him back. My colleague never mentally recovered from that. Blamed himself, but it wasn't his fault. Since then, I always wear a suit when I change fuses. Other engineers might give me grief, but I don't care. It reminds me to never take things for granted. Not that it matters anymore.
Sorry, I digress. Where was I? Oh, yes, we were in orbit of Hades II, and Captain took the away team down to the surface and left me and a handful of crew aboard the Vara. Captain kept comms open just in case someone carelessly fell down a pit she would say. I like that she has that mentality. An abundance of caution keeps people alive.
Captain found something in the ruins that gave off an energy signature masked by the structure they were exploring. Someone on the away team yelled, and then out the hull window on the Vara, I saw this swirling red. I don't even know how to describe it. But it swallowed the ship, and inside, ripped through the ship was this red, sharp energy like lightning bouncing around everything. I saw Jorge and Valerie get hit by whatever that was, then I saw bright blueish-white flares and was blinded for a short time. I could hear my suit reporting errors, and as soon as I could see, I noticed I was alone.
I took my helmet off and could immediately taste grit in my mouth and something like sulfur, and I was in ash. I called out for Valerie and Jorge, but no response. And then I realized... What I was tasting wasn't ship fumes. It was my friends.
I always thought that under extreme situations, I would spring into action and stay light on my toes. I didn't. I dropped to my knees and was just empty and in disbelief at what had just happened. I am not sure how much time went by, but what snapped me out of it was the Captain on the comms. I struggled to activate my talk back, but my arms felt so heavy.
I told the Captain what I just saw, and she quickly briefed me on what happened on the surface. They were enveloped by some kind of red energy, and they lost one of their away team members who had just removed her helmet a few moments prior. The Captain ordered me to check the ship for survivors, and if in danger, get to safety, and worry about rendezvous after we assess what has happened. I checked the ship. I was alone.
I checked active sensor readings, tons of errors I've never seen before, and navigation and onboard blades didn't know where I was or how I got there. Visually, it seems like Vara was still orbiting Hades, but it wasn't the same. There was a stormy atmosphere, much like massive gas planets, but more monotone yellow, and something was disturbing Vara's gravity generator, and the ship was fighting hard against something. Sensors showed low orbit gravity was 1.4G's. WHAT?! If that were true out here, Captain and the surviving away team would be dead. Flattened. Scanners showed the gravity on the planet's surface was around 1.6Gs. I don't know how that is possible, but I know the .. I think the Captain and the remaining team are alive.
I checked in and reported no immediate danger, and what I saw on the sensors and visually outside the hull. We knew we were no longer in the Hades system, but we had no idea how. Captain ordered me to find a way to land near them if possible. They don't have unlimited oxygen, and the environment outside of the different structure they were in was not breathable. There is oxygen in the atmosphere, but its concentration of volatiles, acids, and fine silicates makes it too dangerous to breathe with respirators. The away team needed help to survive the next few hours.
I worked with Vara's AI blades to figure out how to keep the ship together through atmospheric entry. And made it work. After entering the atmosphere, it was nearly pitch black, there were veins of what looked like lava everywhere, and shields were being worn down by something just after entering the atmosphere, but thankfully that stopped as I got closer to the structure the Captain's away team was in.
But, as I was landing, my mind became more uncontrolled with bad thoughts of punching the Captain and blaming her, but logically that made no sense to me, and that's not how I am at all. I knew something in this place was affecting my mind, so I did my best to compartmentalize that. Landing was rough, but the away team boarded immediately. Then everyone started arguing, two of the away team shoved each other, and all were placing blame, but no one specifically pressed a button or did something stupid to cause us to be teleported. I chimed in that I believe this place is messing with our minds and that we should try our best to realize that and stay in control of ourselves. Captain agreed and ordered everyone to get our shit together, as she put it.
The away team male, forgot his name that did the shoving didn't like that and angrily went out of the ship helmet on, saying he needs to get of this fing ship. Not even a minute after that, his suit's feedback cut out, and he didn't answer comms. Of the five of us still on the ship, three of us went to check. I almost threw up to see what looked like body soup on a boulder outside the ship, and shredded pieces of suit and flesh spewed out in one direction from the rock. The wind was blowing in that direction hard.
Suddenly, the ship's shields were deflecting tons of something, and at our feet were large, shiny, black obsidian-looking shards. The three of us ran back into the ship, and I kept one of the shards in my gloves. Our ship research station couldn't tell us what it was, but it was a crystalline structure and insanely sharp. I had to change my suit glove from just holding it.
Captain was upset about losing another member as asked us what we wanted to do. We all wanted to get out of this place. Captain reasons that she thinks the answers will be in that structure; it got us here, it should be able to send us back. I naively agreed with the Captain because it made sense logically. It is too coincidental that both the away team and the ship were teleported at the same time to wherever this place is. It made sense; none of this could possibly have been a natural phenomenon.
The five of us put on specialty suits of heavy armor with movement assist and packs. The Captain let us raid the armory and have our pick of whatever weapons and equipment we thought each of us needed. Two of the other guys, Mack and Brady, both former bounty hunters and gargantuan humans to say the least, grabbed large LMGs, grenades, and all sorts of weapons. I could only then move normally with the assist gear on. So I grabbed a Coda and an SMG along with plenty of multitool attachments. The captain's second, Raven, grabbed a grav lift and an assault rifle. Overall, I think we were all prepared for pretty anything at the time. We were not.
I made sure the ship systems were good for self maintenance and that security systems were also on the AI blades. Then we all left the ship in a staggered manner. The wind was intense, it was dark, and fine grayish dust moved across all surfaces at what seemed a slower pace than the wind, which made no sense... but instead of being fascinated, I was afraid we might get hit by the things that killed Peter... oh right, his name was Peter.
At this point, I realized that I didn't feel as heavy as I did earlier, and everyone else noticed the same thing, too. I believe at this point I gave up trying to make sense of how things could be anymore and just decided that things are what they are. We had scanners focused on any debris that might hit us in the wind, so we could take cover in time. Scanners showed nothing, and we all met where they came out earlier from the structure.
It wasn't a door; it was a pit between two massive pillars jettisoning out of the structure, and it had a maybe 20-degree decline surface down into a chamber. As we entered the chamber, there was no more dust moving eriely across surfaces, but rather we were surrounded by glossy dark surfaces inside this massive chamber that looked wet, but the dirt I was walking on was bone dry, like it was outside.
I walked up to the front of our formation with the Captain, and she said to me, We had a little way to go to make it back to where they found themselves. A stark reminder that I was the only one who survived on the ship, all because I decided to play it safe by changing out a fuse. I didn't know whether to be thankful or resentful. I was fighting back all sorts of irrational thoughts, which seemed to increase the further we got into the structure.
Then the walls seemed to come alive with glowing veins... not the walls literally alive, but rather the light in the veins seemed to move or flutter in patterns, giving a sense of moving shapes which made it seem like I was seeing things in my peripheral vision. The walls became narrower and opened up on the sides, revealing we were on something I can only describe as a network of crystalline bridgeways with nothing but darkness below. Narrow corridor, opening, narrow corridor, opening.
Every opening, I would quickly look back to check that Mack was in the rear; he would seemingly disappear and reappear in brief moments as we entered each opening. Maybe my eyes were playing tricks on me, but he seemed fine. We were in an opening and Captain stopped and told us this was the last opening, the chamber we found ourselves in is ahead. She led the way, and as we headed out of the last opening, I heard a loud metal scraping sound, and Mack yelled. We all turned.
Mack was standing on one leg, like a machine, LMG up, blood dumping out of the other side, his lower leg on the floor. I ran back with Raven. She hit his leg with the med-gun, and the bleeding stopped. Brady was already sweeping his LMG in circles, swearing, saying Where is it. Mack kept saying he didn't see anything, and he turned, and his leg dropped. Captain was sweeping the area with Brady.
I looked at Mack's leg on the ground and saw smaller versions of the shards that hit our ship. But that didn't make any sense because there was no wind in here. I was about to say that out loud, but as the captain pointed her lights at the ceiling on the other side of the opening from us, I saw what looked like obsidian glittering and moving.
At first, I thought it was just the light bouncing off the veins. Then the "ceiling" unzipped. Something let go up there. Not dropped like a rock — it crawled downward, upside down, easy, like gravity didn't matter. And it was bigger than any of us, three and a half, maybe four meters, all black stone and armor plates, arms so long that its claws scraped the deck before the rest of it was down.
