SCP Foundation

[T+00:12:03 after impact] — Lt. Cassien Vale (Pilot/Navigator)

Okay. Alright, still alive. Still breathing. Anyone else hearing me? Harrow? Jana? Mara? Captain? Ugh—

[Metal creaking, followed by several seconds of commotion and multiple loud thuds.]

Ah, crap. I'm stuck upside-down, my pod hit an embankment and then tumbled a few times.

Suit held up fine, but the pod's electricals are fried, short-range comms slagged.

Cutting myself out now.

[T+00:14:18] — Eng. Jana Kourin (Chief Systems Engineer)

I'm alive. Suit pinged Vale, who is pinging two others. His marker comes live, followed by the Captain's and Dr. Issen's, respectively. Then, they disappear again. Every few minutes. The interference we experienced up in orbit is still present here, but it's weaker. Not sure why.

Harrow—thought I saw his tracker ping briefly, some ways south of me. Nothing now. If the kid's in trouble, it's going to be more of a hassle to walk from the wreckage. So…

I'm going to look for him.

My wrist’s screaming. It doesn’t matter.

[T+00:15:40] — Dr. Mara Issen (Xenobiologist / Medic)

Can any of you hear me? It's Mara. Shoot.

Okay. Uh, alright. Looks like something killed the pod's power systems. Strange considering how soft the landing was.

All I can hear outside is wind. And… the sounds of nature. Oh man.

I gotta get outside, hold on.

[T+00:17:18] — Lt. Cassien Vale

Environmental observations. I landed in a tight, high-canopy ridge. Trees are thin, translucent trunks; light through them is slotted green.

The understory is springy, a soft moss with foam underneath. I can see a pale plume to the west where Mercy burned. I will try to move low and follow the line down-slope, toward the wreck.

[T+00:18:45] — Dr. Mara Issen

Wow… uh.

I'm sorry. This is just… sensory overload. I landed in a low plain… slow moving rills and spongy earth. There are green particulates in the water. My sample reader shows microscopic spores are present in measurable levels. The ground seems… Unnaturally soft. Wet. I'm currently analyzing samples of it as we speak.

For now, I've recovered all survival packs from the pod. Heading uphill to the wreck, and the others.

[T+00:27:09] — Cmdr. Egan Rhames

The Mercy is down. Almost all of us are accounted for via suit tracking. Vale, Jana, Mara are all on channels… inconsistent connection, but their locations stay accurate, for now. Harrow… No sign of Harrow yet.

I’ve ordered regroup at the wreckage. I have something of a plan.

[T+00:50:52] — Ensign Harrow Keene (Specialist, Planetary Surveying/Cartography)

[Ragged breathing. A sound like wind through reeds. Distant rumbling.]

[T+01:47:30] — Cmdr. Egan Rhames

Keene—status. Kourin—status. Mara, keep your lane open. Vale and I have just about reached each other, just south of the wreck.

If I do not hear from everyone by the time I reach the wreckage, I will light one flare. One only. We can't afford to waste them.

[T+01:50:07] — Ensign Harrow Keene

[Coughs.] —Agh…

[Groaning.]

Ugh… I-I landed hard in heavy bracken. Hit my head on the inside of my visor…

Oh, my pod has been ripped apart. Holy mackerel. The area is completely undamaged from the look of things. Thick fronds, close canopy above… A jungle of some sort.

Glowing… in pockets of undergrowth. Bioluminescence? And the air—

[Goes silent. Various sounds of life can be heard in the distance.]

Uh, sorry. I thought I heard… something.

Moving toward the light on the ridge, keeping the line. If anyone's in range, reply twice. Lots of noise on short range comms.

[T+01:58:50] — Eng. Jana Kourin

Looking for Ensign Keene. I'm following a river southward through an odd plain— smooth, like a desert of glass. The liquid is extremely viscous, I can walk on it if I move quickly enough. The ground of the banks is a dark material that hums underfoot.

GPS flickers; map overlays drift a degree every thirty seconds or so. If Harrow's pod is intact and powered, I'll splice a comm shim and try to open reliable short bursts to the rest of the group.

[T+02:10:30] — Dr. Mara Issen

I hit a stony shelf featuring an aggressive vine growth with an outer carapace like chitin that recoils on touch. When I retreat, they creep slowly in my direction. Even as a xenobiologist, I find myself unprepared for the physiology of life on this world. Doesn't help that the only specimens I've studied at length up until this point are Ortothans, and they're not even from our universe.

More on the green sporulation present in the water… Microscopic imaging shows plate-like spores with radiating threads. They suspend, then clump into sheets when stagnant. There are enzymes present that bind to iron. I suspect symbiosis with an abundant mineral source—organics that harvest dissolved metals.

I'll have more information soon.

[T+03:23:44] — Lt. Cassien Vale

Reached the base of the ridge Mercy fell upon. Smoke is no longer visible, but my suit is picking up traces of tritium and ozone.

I found a few fragments of fuselage down here, but we'll need to scale the cliff edge to get to the wreckage proper. Or trace the perimeter and hope for a better access point. Hm.

Holding position for Commander Rhames.

[T+03:31:08] — Cmdr. Egan Rhames

Link very briefly established with Vale. We’re within shouting distance, hypothetically— Neither of us are willing to bet shouting is safe just yet. Despite being so close, interference is rolling in with a misty fog.

Suit sensors keep registering faint organics moving nearby. I don't see anything just yet. Could be visor artifacts.

Otherwise, whatever it is is keeping a steady distance from my approach. Let's hope it stays that way, if so.

Vale and I will begin climbing once we meet up. I have pitons and a length of rope in my survival kit, his should be the same.

[T+03:42:56] — Eng. Jana Kourin

Southbound trail ends in a red, swampy corridor. Bioluminescent mats on the water’s surface. They look like lily pads, but dissolve when touched.

No sign of Harrow or his pod, though a skid trail suggests something heavy cut through the canopy here.

The severed vines leak a clear goop that coagulates into white paste and seems to harden over, like a scab. Ugh, it smells gross, like rotting meat.

The wind is whipping up, I'm going to double back soon if I don't find anything solid. C'mon, kid. Where'd you get to?

[T+03:50:22] — Ensign Harrow Keene

Crossing through a stand of translucent fern-like structures twice my height. The ground here pulsates with blue-green light underfoot, every six seconds, exactly. The light flows… east to west— er, no, north to south. My compass is basically useless out here. Geomagnetics are too variable.

Saw something move in the distance. Large, hexapedal. No eyes. It didn't seem to notice me. Keeping low, anyway. Continuing towards the light on the ridge. Can anyone read me? Is anyone there?

[Static. Steady wind can be heard.]

[T+04:05:37] — Dr. Mara Issen

Reached a clearing with a perfect view of the Mercy's exhaust trail. I'm following that now. Air still thick with spores. Found scorched growth curling back from a recent fire, possibly related to the wreck, though I haven't found any fragments I'd identify as the source. Whatever burned here, the vegetation recoiled into spiral segments.

Soil samples are surprising. Some sort of unknown substrate, saturated with water and traces of various minerals.

[T+04:16:14] — Cmdr. Egan Rhames

Inside the wreck perimeter with Vale. Wreckage is pretty bad, but a few large chunks of machinery are intact. Largest fragment of hull leads into starboard maintenance corridors. Fires still smoldering.

Issen is en route, Kourin just appeared, some ways south. Still no sign of Keene. If the rest of us converge within the hour, we'll organize a search party.

Sky's starting to get dark. We might have to camp for the night before going back out.

[T+04:34:55] — Lt. Cassien Vale

Analyzing the debris field. Nothing salvageable yet.

The moss is thicker here, already creeping up over the plating. Definitely not a natural growth rate… avoiding contact for now.

[T+04:52:40] — Eng. Jana Kourin

Nearing my original coordinates, but the landscape is different. Steeper, more forested. No sign of my pod. If it wasn't for the occassional ping from the others, I'd have believed I was lost. No sign of Keene. He'll have to fend for himself until the rest of us regroup. Damn it.

Wrist isn't improving, the pain is sharp with every movement. It doesn’t matter. Just gotta keep moving.

[T+05:04:33] — Dr. Mara Issen

Almost to the Mercy wreckage, and the others. Spores here hang in the air, spinning gently in propeller-like arrangements. They glow, pulsating faintly, when disturbed. In fact, bioluminescence seems extremely common on Tornomov-3b.

I'm cataloguing a species I discovered in a small, damp overhang. These are clusters of what appear to be a Mycena species analogue, but several magnitudes larger than expected. They're emitting a cool, steady, blue-green hue that seems to pulse in a slow rhythm, in sync with the particulates and the low-frequency hum I can feel through the soles of my boots. When I extended a sampling tool, the entire colony dimmed in unison before I even made contact and started rattling. I opted against sampling.

_{Image of specimen.}

[T+05:25:33] — Cmdr. Egan Rhames

Night is falling fast. We'll use the wreckage as a windbreak, but it's not enough. Issen, see if any of this flora can be used for shelter. Kourin, I want you to see if that coagulant you mentioned can be used to patch the gaps between these hull plates. Vale, gather whatever Issen finds. We need to reinforce this position.

[T+05:33:07] — Dr. Mara Issen

Incredible. I've found a species of broad-leaf flora, almost like a giant pitcher plant, but the leaves are lightly translucent, thick and leathery—highly water-resistant.

More importantly, at least to me, a species of small, glowing orbs which appear to be a kind of surface-fruiting body or spore cluster. Unlike the stalked variant I've been seeing all over the place, they grow directly on the substrate.

On their own, they pulse faintly. However, I hypothesized a chemical reaction and crushed the pulp from two nodules together inside a specimen bag with iron sediment. The result was an immediate and sustained chemiluminescence—a steady, cool light that hasn't diminished in over ten minutes. It's a biological glow stick.

The Commander has ordered Vale to gather as many as he can carry. We'll have light tonight. A small victory, but a vital one.

_{Image of specimen.}

[T+05:38:42] — Lt. Cassien Vale

Gathering the leaves Issen marked. They're heavy, feeling more like animal hide than plant matter. The texture is unnerving, but they repel water well enough for temporary shelter.

Setting up a perimeter with these twitching fern-things I had the displeasure of making contact with a ways back. They puff out a cloud of sticky, iridescent spores if you get within two meters.

I'm still wiping them from my visor. I figure they'd make a better-than-nothing alarm system.

[T+06:12:02] — Eng. Jana Kourin

Got an idea, turns out the coagulant from those severed vines works as a sealant. It hardens into something like epoxy in minutes. I'm using it to patch the gaps between the hull plates we've leaned against the main wreckage. It’s disgusting work, and my wrist hurts like hell, but this stuff is surprisingly effective. Better than anything we have in our kits.

I can't wait to take a shower back on the REVENANT. Just gotta stick it out until then.

[T+07:45:36] — Dr. Mara Issen

Fascinating. The bioluminescence I mentioned earlier is not only shared by many life forms, they also seem to pulse in time with each other, all of them.

They must be part of a larger floral ecosystem that instinctively knows how to synchronize itself with the others.

[Yawns.] I have to sleep soon; my body is exhausted, but every moment I spend doing anything other than understanding this place is a moment wasted.

[T+08:05:30] — Lt. Cassien Vale

First watch. The night here is loud. Clicks, chitters, a thousand unknown calls I can feel in my chest. Nothing has breached the perimeter, but the spore-puffing ferns have triggered twice. My visor's thermal imaging picked up large shapes moving in the distance, just beyond the treeline. Big. Whatever they are, they’re ignoring us for now.

[T+08:45:22] — Eng. Jana Kourin

I can’t sleep. Every time I close my eyes, I see Keene’s tracker blinking and disappearing. I should have moved faster.

The wrist hurts, but it's the feeling of helplessness that's worse. This whole planet feels like a trap, and we walked right into it. I keep running diagnostics on my datapad, but the results don't make any sense.

[T+09:07:54] — Cmdr. Egan Rhames

Shelter is holding. We've interwoven the native leathery leaves with hull fragments and sealed the gaps with Jana's biological coagulant. Biolight provides enough visiblility to make due.

Rations inventoried. Morale is low but stable. I've officially logged Ensign Keene as MIA. The plan for tomorrow is simple: recover a comms relay from the wreckage, at all costs.

[T+09:45:22] — Ensign Harrow Keene

Sunlight is diminishing rapidly. Gaps in the forest are funneling heavy winds from the south into tight currents. Nearly ate shit a few times.

[Rustling] Wow. Okay, I just got to the forest edge, looking downward into a massive valley.

The wind is pulling a dense particulate storm in this direction. A black wall of clouds, with green lightning. Jesus.

Must still be sixty, sixty-five klicks south of me. [Deep, unsteady breath.]

Lights and voices up ahead… Looking forward to meeting back up with everyone. I don't like being out here by myself.

[Background noise. Chanting can be heard on short range comms: help us help us help us…]