Strides of Heresy
“Her legs were scattered to the two poles of the moon, twisted in a wicked position, in a field of obsidian thorns…"
-The Evisceration of Kur-skan the Heretic, V
Stun Grenade
//--AUTO-TRANSCRIPTION FROM CARGO BAY 2 OF UES [Redacted] --//
“Inventory duty. I swear, this must be the most boring position ever...” Two crewmates stood in the cargo bay, doing a routine check on the items gathered from the Contact Light’s wreckage. “Some of us are out there having adventures and fighting aliens, and I’M stuck in here counting dusty knick-knacks. What a bummer.” The other crewmate idly tapped at their device as their colleague rummaged through a container of recovered items.
Sulfur Pools
Welcome to DataScraper (v3.1.53 – beta branch)
$ Scraping memory... done.
$ Resolving... done.
$ Combing for relevant data... done.
Complete!
This is Scouting Mission Delta-Alpha-Bravo, Major |||| Roberts reporting. We have located a suitable spot to set up a temporary power plant for our operations on |||||||||||; an elevated plateau containing multiple natural hotsprings. The elevation provides natural fortifications in case of attacks from ||||||||, and the hotsprings indicate geothermal activity - a perfect place to set up a geothermal power grid.
Sundered Grove
Rings? What for?
A triangle is much more of a beautiful design. Look, and observe: three points, in three dimensions. No redundancies. Perfectly defined. We will use triangles.
Trees? Yes, trees are beautiful. I agree. We will have many trees.
Super Massive Leech
Return: Super Massive Leech
Tracking Number: 817*****
Estimated Delivery: 07/01/2056
Shipping Method: High Priority/Biological
Shipping Address: Rare/Extinct Study Satellite, Beachfront, Saturn
Shipping Details:
While the medical benefits of this creature are obvious, the psychological effects are not. Upon receiving a previous shipment, Carolyn took charge of research and experimentation with the organism. Everything was by the book until, one day, she walked into the lab with the specimen clearly attached to her neck.
Symbiotic Scorpion
"There's countless ways to defeat your enemy. You can shoot them. You can punch them. Beat them, mash them, stick them in a stew, list goes on. But man, one thing that really makes me laugh...? That's right:
Burying them under a mound of scorpions."
"You're messed up in the head, Bill."
- Signal echoes, UES Contact Light
Tentabauble
Order: Mobile Terrarium + Chronobauble
Tracking Number: 99******
Estimated Delivery: 03/03/2076
Shipping Method: Biological
Shipping Address: 9042 Pvt. Drive, Yustik Plaza, Mercury
Shipping Details:
Hey, me in the past. This'll sound really corny, but I've been really into gardening lately. Now, before you say anything, you gotta think about the situation I'm in. I mean, with all the stuff going on, anyone would go nuts if they had to deal with - oops.
The Back-up
"The inclusion of Rapid Response Drone Squadrons (RRDS) by local law enforcement marked a dire turning point of Plank's Rebellion. After its massive "success" in quelling the Rebellion - and subsequent implementation across Mercury - underground drone hackers became highly sought after by black market users."
-Overview of Drone Technology, Vol.2
The Crowdfunder
Order: The Crowdfunder
Tracking Number: 783*****
Estimated Delivery: 05/09/2056
Shipping Method: Standard
Shipping Address: 206 29th Ave, High Chariot, Mercury Shipping Details:
The wealthy overlords on Primas V went to great measures to break the will of the lower class. They kept the threat of injury and death constant, which helped to keep their servants in check, but this was only half of their method. To further highlight the vast differences in status, their extravagant weapons were fueled by currency - they were literally throwing money at them.
The Planetarium
I wake up again.
The simulacrum continues forever.
A million scenarios. A million permutations. It watches - calculating. Recording. Witnessing.
We always die. We have died millions of times. And every time, we are in the simulacrum.
We’ve escaped, once or twice. We defeated it – saw it die. Chased it down, through other worlds. We saw it collapse into a black hole. We got out, back to earth. Found a crashed vessel.