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This is Chief...fuck, this is Alayna Arlotti. Daughter of Philip and Marissa Arlotti. Formerly a crewman aboard the Rocinante, a Vertex-class transport ship. I am broadcasting this message on all channels so someone hears it. So everyone hears it. Just in case.
*whimpering*
We were assigned to investigate the disappearance of a research team sent to the Kappa-Sigma Prime system. They were researching a potentially habitable planet codenamed “New Haven”. When they arrived, they discovered the planet was covered in a dense vegetation, which...it turned out to be a single life form. They called it “Yggdrasil”, the world tree. After an initial report, all communication with them was lost. We were sent to recover any survivors and retrieve any additional reports they might have recorded before they stopped transmitting. I had retrieved several research notes and logs, but now...I can’t access the files by voice control, and the gunfire destroyed the tactile interface beyond repair. Beyond the time it would take me to repair it, at least.
SEVEN MINUTES TO FTL REACTOR IMPLOSION
*coughing*
Computer, disengage overload warning. The research team originally thought there was no life on the planet except the tree. They were almost right. The planet is actually covered in life, but the life is all the tree. It’s all...the planet doesn’t have a magnetosphere. Radiation from the star is constantly bombarding it. Yggdrasil is able to absorb the radiation. But it does much more than that. I read it in the logs I recovered from the ship. I didn’t have time to warn them before it was too late. Yggdrasil is able to store radiation in tiny...feelers. They’re like nanomachines, but organic, somehow. The original investigation missed them because they were only looking for life down to a bacterial size. But these feelers, they’re much smaller. One of the researchers discovered them, probably after the crew started to change.
*coughing*
*retching*
Urgh. The feelers enter living cells and bombard their nuclei with radiation. But they’re so small, they can target specific DNA strands and reassemble them. They...force genetic mutation within their hosts. Force them to become compatible with Yggdrasil. Then they’re absorbed. Yggdrasil takes them into itself. I said there was life all over the planet. They’re all the life forms that Yggdrasil has devoured. But...there’s more to it than that. I think Yggdrasil gains something from the creatures it eats. I think it gains some of their genetic diversity somehow. I don’t think it was intelligent before we -- humans -- arrived on its planet. To think that it might have stolen that from us...stolen our intelligence...dear Christ.
*sobbing*
It took several days for the crew of the Nimbus to be transformed. Humans must have been extremely foreign to Yggdrasil. But once it had us, the next ones were fast. I think it killed Belloc and Rathcliffe because it saw them as a threat. It only needed one of us. When Holst’s suit was ripped, they slipped in. It was just a matter of seconds before he was completely changed. He probably shot Lovejoy. Then he boarded the shuttle. We didn’t pick up any life signs onboard, but we were only scanning for human life signs. He wasn’t human anymore. I tried to warn Alvarez, but I wasn’t fast enough. Holst...that thing that used to be Holst shot him. I think it was trying to eliminate everyone onboard before taking the ship. I lured it to the bridge with a forced overload of the FTL reactor. When it went to try and disengage it -- that’s how I know this Goddamn thing took our intelligence -- I shot it several times with my sidearm. I injured it, but it came after me as I tried to escape. I only got one look at the thing. It was Holst’s suit, but its faceplate had burst with these...tendrils. God, I don’t want to know what it looked like underneath. I managed to reach the shuttle and escape to the Rocinante, but...I didn’t realize. God, I swear I didn’t realize.
*crying*
*sobbing*
The Captain...God, it took him so fast. I must have carried some of the feelers with me. They infected him. I watched it happen. Watched him sprout these things all over his body. I had to. I didn’t have a choice. He wasn’t going to make it. I did what I had to. God, Captain, I’m sorry. But the computer...he was standing right in front of it. But now I’m alone. And I’m next. I think it was slower to take me because I’m female. My physiology must have confused it. But I’m already sprouting these things on my hands, my arms...God, my face.
*retching*
I overloaded the FTL drive. It’s much smaller than the one aboard the Nimbus, so it will take longer to implode. I hope there’s enough time. I would have shot myself, but I don’t...I can’t do it. Not after the Captain. Not after seeing him staggering...half his head gone...those tendrils wriggling f-from his...his...still reaching out his hands as his remaining eyeball bul...bulged--
*vomiting*
*coughing*
Christ. I probably wouldn’t be able to do enough damage anyway. That’s why I’ve overloaded the drive. I just hope...I know how to deactivate it. I hope I don’t get the chance. Please...I don’t...
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