The Angelica Incident

FILE 17: AKA ‘THE ANGELICA INCIDENT’

Please note that the following log is strictly prohibited to any worker of Ranking 15 Ranking 30 or below. Attempting to view said log without required ranking may lead to removal ejection from the Nightfall Lunar Hub.

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FILE 17-A

The log enclosed within this document is based from the audio recordings of Escape Pod 4 of the SS Angelica approximately two days into the Angelica’s deep-space voyage and an estimated six minutes before its destruction. The purpose of the Angelica’s deployment was to search for reported radio frequencies in an uncharted a documented region of the Carnation District and report any findings back to Base Camp Alpha (the nearest lunar base) before recording said findings for further analysis. Such alleged radio signals had the potential to be physically and/or mentally damaging to the human body, and thus the Angelica was protected with several layers of padding along the upper and middle the upper, middle, and lower layers of the ship. The Angelica withheld 6 crew members at its time of deployment, 5 of which are confirmed to be terminated and 1 whose status is unknown strictly classified.

LOG START

A light scratching noise is audible as the Escape Pod 4 broadcasters power up. The audio is noticeably quiet at first but well within the limits of human hearing. A frantic voice is heard, slowly increasing in volume as the broadcasters fully activate.

“This is Captain McKennedy of the SS Angelica speaking; any nearby receivers please respond!”

No other radio signals are present. McKennedy can be heard grunting as he attempts to zone the broken navigational systems of Escape Pod 4 onto Base Camp Alpha unsuccessfully.

"I repeat, this is Captain McKennedy of the SS Angelica speaking, any nearby receivers please respo-

McKennedy is interrupted by several sharp thuds on the exterior of Escape Pod 4. After audio analysis, the source of the banging was determined unlikely to be from an asteroid or some other form of space debris.

“Dear God, they’re trying to get in!”

A sharp hissing noise vibrates along the interior of Escape Pod 4.

“No, no, no, fuck! The fucking fuel tank!”

McKennedy mutters in a distraught tone of voice, before leaning in towards the broadcaster microphone.

“To any active receivers: a hostile alien parasite has assimilated all five of my crewmates aboard the SS Angelica and is currently attempting to gain access to my escape pod. The beings have taken control of the ship, despite my best efforts. My fuel reserves have been pierced from the outside and are leaking rapidly. I myself have already managed to eliminate one of the life-forms but four still remain.”

Two muffled voices can be heard from outside of Escape Pod 4.

“The…these aliens…they’re attempting to persuade me to leave the escape pod. They’re…floating…floating outside the windows in spacesuits. Crew members Chuck and Edward. They’re dead, but the aliens are mimicking their voices. They want me to believe it’s them...”

The pod's systems softly crackle and spark in the background as McKennedy breathes heavily, seemingly hyperventilating.

“I’m calling in a Lunar Strike on the SS Angelica’s position, effective immediately, in order to prevent the infection spreading any further. As for myself, I may have just enough fuel left to steer myself clear of the blast radius, but without my navigational systems, I have no means of returning to any nearby Lunar Base. I will beam my co-ordinates out onto this broadcast as soon as I am far enough away from the Angelica so that I can be rescued. Captain McKennedy out.”

The broadcasters of Escape Pod 4 click as they shut off.

LOG END

File:Big gun.png

An early prototype of the modern Lunar Cannon, the type of weapon used to fire the Lunar Strike at the Angelica.

The message was relayed to Base Camp Alpha receivers just a few minutes after its initial broadcast, thanks to a lone scouting ship that picked up McKennedy's signal as it was patrolling the area close to the SS Angelica. Almost immediately after the message was received and relayed to the Nightfall Lunar Hub, a Lunar Strike was fired at the SS Angelica according to Captain McKennedy’s wishes as a precautionary measure against a potential hostile extra-terrestrial invasion. The strike was 80% 100% effective, as the Angelica was destroyed upon impact and 5 of its 6 potentially “infected” crew killed.

It is suspected that Captain McKennedy survived the blast and Escape Pod 4 has been reported to be seen now orbiting a nearby uninhabited dwarf planet. No effort is currently being made to rescue McKennedy or trace his co-ordinates signal, and the termination of the SS Angelica has been publicly credited as a technical malfunction of the generator room, leading to a chain reaction that destroyed the entire ship.

WARNING: THE SUBSEQUENT PART OF THIS ARTICLE IS EXTREMELY CLASSIFIED TO ALMOST ALL WORKERS, COMMANDERS, AND OPERATORS ABOARD THE NIGHTFALL LUNAR HUB. IF YOU DO NOT POSSESS EITHER OF THESE RANKS:

• President

• Vice-President

YOU ARE LEGALLY REQUIRED TO STOP VIEWING THIS ARTICLE HERE. ATTEMPTING TO VIEW FILE 17-B WITHOUT CORRECT AUTHENTICATION WILL LEAD TO GUARANTEED TERMINATION AND/OR PERMANENT EXILE FROM THE NIGHTFALL LUNAR HUB. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED. PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK.

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FILE 17-B

Several months after the initial events of FILE 17-A, a new discovery was made during a small-scale salvage mission directed at the ruins of the SS Angelica. One of the crew members of the SS Intrepid (which was dispatched in order to carry out the mission) discovered a relatively undamaged audio log floating alongside a dishevelled corpse likely belonging to one of the 5 dead crewmates of the Angelica. After multiple low-ranking Intrepid officers listened to the recording before it could be intercepted by Nightfall commanders, it was swiftly confiscated. A severe reprimanding was given to the offending officers, and the ruins of the SS Angelica were therefore abandoned to prevent another possible data breach.

The audio log’s transcript is detailed in the following log.

LOG START

Several comms systems initiate their start-up sequence, eventually forming into one singular communications frequency.

COMMS 1, Crew Member ‘EDWARD’: Hello? Is anyone there?

COMMS 2, Crew Member ‘CHUCK’: Reading you loud and clear, Ed. Gus and Frank, do you copy?

COMMS 4, Crew Member ‘GUS’: Positive, Chuck.

COMMS 3, Crew Member ‘FRANK’: Can confirm, Chuck.

CHUCK: Edward and I require a status report. What the hell is going on up there?

GUS: We passed through an errant signal an hour back. We were going to record it as per protocol, but it overwhelmed our monitors. We had to restart the whole damn system all over again, which is why comms were down. McKennedy was fixing something down in engineering and there’s no protective padding down there. Nightfall must’ve skimped out to lower the cost of the ship, those cheap bastards. The signal passed right through McKennedy's brain and messed him up real bad.

FRANK: I found him seized up spitting froth on the floor a little while ago, so I took him to Daniel in the med bay. When he came to, he started yelling about aliens and parasites and all sorts of crazy shit. He took a lunge at me and when Daniel tried to sedate him, he…

Frank seems to trail off, his voice weak.

GUS: Daniel’s dead. McKennedy stabbed him in the neck with a scalpel and got away before Frank could catch him.

EDWARD: God…

CHUCK: Are you certain he’s dead?

FRANK: He bled out, Chuck. He’s dead. His body's in the morgue.

CHUCK: And Frank, you didn't do anything to stop him?

FRANK: I tried, Chuck. He almost got me too.

The comms go silent for a few moments.

CHUCK: …Where is McKennedy now?

GUS: He’s jettisoned in one of the escape pods, but he’s yet to accelerate away from the ship. He smashed up almost all the comms before he left, so me and Frank can only establish a local link here with you and Edward. There’s no chance of linking back to Base Camp Alpha and he's blocking our broadcasters from contacting his pod.

EDWARD: So, what do we do?

FRANK: You and Chuck are at the lower right-wing of the ship, correct?

EDWARD: Yes, we are.

FRANK: Suit up and navigate to McKennedy’s escape pod out of the East airlock. Find a way to cut the pod’s fuel reserves and see if you can dock it back into the ship manually. We'll lock McKennedy in the airlock from here. Then, we can head to Base Camp Alpha and get McKennedy to a hospital there. The mental effects of the signal should wear off in a few hours.

A virtual reconstruction of one of the airlocks aboard the Angelica.

CHUCK: Understood, Frank.

EDWARD: Is it a requirement for me and Chuck to have to go together? If I stayed on-board I could help with-

GUS: That’s a negative, Edward. Docking the pod is a two-man job. Get back to us on the comms when it's done.

Gus and Frank exit the comms, and Chuck and Edward remain in silence as they don their protective suits and exit the Angelica. Within a minute, they arrive at Escape Pod 4.

EDWARD: Captain? Captain, can you hear us?

McKennedy’s muffled shouts can be heard from within Escape Pod 4 as Edward thumps on the metal exterior of the pod.

CHUCK: Stop that, damn it! You’re just going to freak him out even more!

McKennedy can be heard speaking into the comms of Escape Pod 4. Audio analysis of the log concludes that what McKennedy can be heard saying matches the audio of the log included in FILE 17-A.

CHUCK: Take this wrench and unscrew the casing for the pod’s fuel tank. It’s at the back.

Edward unscrews the casing as per Chuck’s instructions.

CHUCK: Fuck, that’s really set him off.

McKennedy once again begins to shout into the comms of Escape Pod 4.

CHUCK: Right, now we open the pod.

EDWARD: But that'll kill-

CHUCK: I couldn’t give less of a shit if it kills him! Frank doesn't give me orders anymore. Daniel is dead. McKennedy is a murderer and Frank didn't stop him. If anything, Frank should be locked up in this pod as well!

Chuck can be heard audibly seething with each word.

EDWARD: Chuck, you know that’s not-

CHUCK: Shut the fuck up, Edward! You always were a spineless little shit. Gus and Frank aren’t here to boss us around anymore. I’m taking this into my own hands. We’ll say the pod leaked, McKennedy got sucked out, and we couldn’t do anything about it. Okay? You stay there and don’t even think of trying to stop me.

For the next few minutes, Chuck can be heard attempting to force open the door to Escape Pod 4, even as Edward tries to talk him out of it.

CHUCK: Bastard must’ve put it into lockdo-

A distinct whooshing noise drowns out Chuck’s voice as Escape Pod 4 accelerates away from the Angelica at a high velocity.

CHUCK: Son of a bitch!

EDWARD: He can't get too far, maybe if we-

Both Chuck and Edward’s attention seems to suddenly be diverted.

CHUCK: What is that? Another ship?

EDWARD: That’s a Lunar Strike...

CHUCK: You’re fucking kidding me.

Gus and Frank suddenly join the comms.

GUS: Both of you get to the escape pods as soon as possible.

A loud roaring sound can be heard as the crew members talk, rapidly getting louder.

CHUCK: Can’t you move the ship out of the way?!

FRANK: There’s no time!

GUS: Frank, we’re not going to make it. The elevator is too slow...

FRANK: Don’t fucking say that! We’re going to (unintelligible).

All four men can be heard talking over each other as the strike approaches, before the noise reaches its peak, and comms go silent on all ends.

LOG END

File:Destroyed.jpg

An image of the Angelica seconds after its destruction, captured from the Nightfall Lunar Hub.

Thank you, and God bless America.

‘Let our shining beacons cast the paths to the goals we seek.’ – Samuel Morgan, the Founder and President of the Nightfall Lunar Hub.

Additional note: the information included in both FILE 17-A and FILE 17-B is highly sensitive and therefore liable to extermination through the mass deletion of all documents contained within the libraries of the Nightfall Lunar Hub, in the event that such files were to come into the hands of a foreign enemy or unauthorized group with intent to release said files to the public.

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ERROR: filecorrrrrr^(%*^&$£&($($$!"£$%^$^&_(%$%^&+)**&^<?>:<@}~@:>£$%^^(^%£!%£(^&(^)(}{@:>?<

ERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERRORERROR

WARNING: FATAL BREACH DETECTED. SECURITY CAN NO LONGER BE GUARANTEED. SECURITY CAN NO LONGER BE GUARANTEED. SECURITY CAN NO LONGER

That's quite enough of that. I'm sorry, Samuel, but you're too late. Your ship's computer is mine. If you're reading this now, don't bother making a run for it. I've locked all the doors. There's nowhere you can go.

You're probably wondering how I'm still alive. Well, turns out your boys over on the SS Intrepid, in your rush to get them away from the Angelica, to shield them from the truth, left behind some pretty valuable fuel supplies. Fuel supplies that just happened to float on over to little old me, waiting to die where you left me in that cold, cold escape pod. Fuel supplies that were just enough to get me back over to the Angelica.

Sure, the ship was destroyed, but your hastiness to end the salvage mission meant there was plenty left over for me. Parts and supplies. Food and drink. Tech. All the necessary components for me to fix the pod, and more, so much more. Override protocols. With a little tweaking, they let me use a different OS. Your OS. The one you've been using to reign for all these years. The one I helped design.

It shouldn't have come as much of a surprise to you how I did what I did. You knew I was one of the top technicians in my area. The top of the top. And yet you still didn't come back for me.

You hear that little hiss? That's me docking my pod into your ship.

I've leaked it. All of it. The entire library, every little detail you wanted censored over the years. All of the information you tried so hard to stash away, it's all out there for everyone to see. And that's how it's going to stay. Within the hour, there'll be riots in the streets of Nightfall. People will finally know the truth about all these files, all these experiments and psychological programs, all the fucked-up secretive shit you've gotten away with for so long.

As a captain, it was my responsibility to protect my crew. For a while, I blamed myself for what happened that day. Only recently have I come to terms with how it really is, with who's really responsible for all this. It was you, Samuel. It was always you.

I want you to realise this is all the fault of your own negligence. Your endless corner cutting, budget saving, never spending a penny more than the absolute minimum. It's how you got to where you are now. You could make back the cost of the Angelica in a day, if that. If you hadn't been so endlessly stingy, none of this would've happened. But it's too late to do anything about that now.

I'm opening the airlocks. And don't worry, I am nearby. I don't want to keep on living after all this. I want to be part of my crew again.

This ends now, for both of us. Captain McKennedy out.

WARNING: AIRLOCK SECURITY BREACHED. ALL AIRLOCKS OPENING IN:

5...

4...

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ALL AIRLOCKS OPEN. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE THE NECESSARY EQUIPMENT TO SURVIVE THE HARSH CONDITIONS OF OUTER SPA&^*%&^$&%$*^(}{}@:><?<*^$%^&$%^£$%"£!£^%£)*^&(*^

File:"The Angelica Incident"-0

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Written by Cornconic
Content is available under CC BY-SA