In the Death of Night

[Orpheus Phaedru Intero]

filename:corrupteddata
filetype:personaldatastorage
fileorigin:ZS199:Tyrothan:Nightworld
lastfileedit:12-31-5712
recovered:07-12-5734
editor:Phaedru Intero:Colony Prep Team Orion

12-07-5712:recording:Name:Phaedru Intero. Position:Colony Preparer. Just got off the Orion. This planet's a real shithole, no light, little wind, and it tastes like rot. But that's not what bothers me about it. Can't really tell ya 'bout it, it's just a tug at the back of my mind. I wonder if anyone else has this feeling to. Don't really want to ask. Honestly, that would just sound insane.

12-10-5712:recording:Things are gettin' better here. It isn't great, but least we have food and light. These things, the crotalids, they scare the shit outta me to be honest. They look kinda like those old Terran things, whatcha call 'em? Oh, yea, komodo dragons. They just slither around on their gut, and jus' stare at ya with their lidless eyes. An' if ya try an' kill one they jus' start clawin' atcha. Worst part is that if ya do get clawed you get into this kinda happy, blurry feeling in your head. Ya die staggerin' around, laughing like a maniac. I need a new job.

12-15-5712:recording:Just got tha' itchin' feeling again. Dunno if I should tell someone. Anyway, the initial base is all set up. The miners an' builders were at it all week. Much better than those little huts we had before. Least now we got dry ground to walk on. Still gotta go an' hunt an' all. Fourtin hours of slogging through th' marsh. Didn' find a thing yesterday. Last time I saw a crotalid, they seemed ta be runnin' from somethin'.

12-24-5712:recording:Been here a coupla weeks. Not much changed 'cept that I'm helpin build now. Th' foreman said somethin about 'expansion' or whatever. Got one big project with some kind of power plant. It's taking forever. The itching's gettin worse. Sometimes can't even think straight. Still don't know if I should tell someone.

12-26-5712:recording:Rythel died out in the forest yesterday. When we found 'im, it had some of th' others puking. He had a coupla what seemed like horns stickin outta him. Worse he had bloated to the size of a floatin mine. When we found his corpse it was just floatin at the top of the water. Kinda looked like an oozin pufferfish. When we tried to get th' corpse out, we found it had somehow grown inta the ground. None of us knew what could have done this. Too bad he died before we finished the base.

12-29-5712:recording:There've been three more attacks just like with Rythel. Two were patrol guards, Lin and Erfet. The other was a miner out at the steel mine. Foreman won' say nothin' bout em though. The itch now frequently forces me to lose all focus and collapse. Surprised one gal by topplin right onto 'er. Told 'er an' the foreman it was heat exhaustion. Dunno if they believed me. Really dunno how long I can hide th' itch.

12-30-5712:recording:Foreman put me on night patrol today. We lost another patrol last night. I really don' wanna find what's out there, but I don' got much of a choice. Now I'm out here, lookin for somethin thats killed a half dozen people. The itch's gettin stronger, an' I still dunno what it means....What was that?...Deris? Wheredja go? C'mon, don' do this to me....Deris? What th------------

12-31-5712:recording:I know now. We should never have come here. This world of infinite darkness should never have been disturbed by the spark of man. It has come to be extinguished.
fileend