Hero. Demon.
That is what they called us. Does not really matter what people thought though, if we got the jobs done. Spartans, humanities saviors. Spartans never die, or at least that is what they tell the public.
Maybe we really do not. Just for a second, maybe even we begin to believe the same that Spartans Never Die. They simply go missing.
I certainly did.
AUGUST 14, 2547 – NORTH JAPAN Mount Takahata. 13:31 Local Time.
"ONI Archeological survey dig site #00627-211941. Today, we begin exploring a cavern that was shown to us by a local group of Japanese Citizens. The caverns, recently discovered after a large earthquake in the area seem to be part of a larger compound deeper in the side of the Mountain. On surface digs we have discovered metallic alloys and fragments of metal near the mouth of these new caverns. These appear to be incredibly old, possibly a fallen satellite or early starship that broke up on re-entry to the atmosphere."
The dictation starts out as the writer leans back in her chair, brushing a stray lock of auburn hair out of her eyes. Halting her dictation momentarily she reaches over her organized desk to pick up a small 22mm length of metal covered in rust and dirt as she scrubs away at it slowly with her brush on the table. The metal was just more rust underneath from exposure. Letting loose a sigh, she turned back to the monitor and placing the metal back in its opened container on a white cloth under a set of examination lasers.
"The metal piece itself must be part of a larger vessel or construct. It is certainly not tool grade metal and has obviously been exposed to extreme heat as it warped and coiled like someone stuck it in a fire and dropped it in water too quickly. Aside from heavy oxidation and burn marks there is a single marking on the metal near the base. It looks like a number of some kind, but it could be anything." She pauses again, taking the metal and scraping it with a small plastic knife, knocking off small pieces of dust and debris into the tray. Each new surface yielded extraordinarily little as far as what it went to.
"Honestly, I'm not sure this is connected." Her voice trailed off for a moment, as she cleared her throat. "The Locals, this community has a history going back centuries and a story that comes with it. It spoke of a Demon in Blue Armor that descended from the heavens and walked as though he were a devil. He had several companions that also descended with him. The Demon and his servants lived on the mountain, and grew strong for centuries, even having local feudal Japanese lords live on the land cultivate it."
Her voice cracking slightly as she paused the recording again to remove her glasses, setting them to the side. Why did not I just get my eyes fixed like Capt. Persna requested, she even said ONI would pay for the operations. Six months is a long time but… my glasses are part of me… Right?
"Ok, gotta focus…" she said a snapping out of her own train of thought and stretching out.
Standing upright and giving her body a chance to breath out of the confining chair she took a stroll to the end of the desk. A quick lap around the waist high desk to get her mind back on task was needed as her eyes also ached from staring at monitors all day. Her trip around the desk formed a squared off letter "U", and the carpet around the desk had begun to wear from her constant strolling around it. Returning to her command chair the woman reached to her left, undoing the clasp on a second box beside the metal artifact.
With its lid open, dozens of small .2-2.5cm artifacts dating from Feudal Japan lay in delicately catalogued baggies sorted by date and dig site. Fragments of hand tools, broken katana blade tips and even the fragments of a manuscript dating from the mid-1750s. A manuscript, who's brittle pages now rest between the careful embrace of laminate, she now retrieved, bringing it to an illuminated work surface and scope to observe it in detail.
A slender finger finding the microphone's activation button again, her dictation continues. "Basically, the Ho-ichi Manuscript we recovered last month is another enigma. It refers again to this 'Demon', but the scripts are well over 200 years from the first recorded appearance of the figure." Flipping the page over for a moment she let her mind wander to another thought. "Could the covenant have visited Pre-Industrial Earth, centuries prior to the Covenant-Earth War beginning?" Her eyes drawn back to the document and its signature embellishment; 鬼, DEMON, written in Japanese Kanji with extreme emphasis.
"If not the covenant, then what exactly are we looking for, or is this just another urban legend? ONI intelligence does not seem to believe so. They are extremely interested in finding whatever is it out here, ever since IT was discovered here, they have been all abuzz trying to find what was so important out on this mountainside and how it was related to the legends."
Reaching above her into a shelf poised on the desk, she withdrew yet another box. Atop the box, in a beautiful script is the Kanji again, DEMON, in a blue swirling ink. The box was carved from Japanese Cedar and was among some of the most beautiful crafts work she had seen. Within it, lay a small blue crystal chip. This chip was far beyond any technology of the era, and perhaps even beyond today's technology. Images of the container it was found within, a stone box erected of large basalt slabs and cemented together to prevent erosion, almost as if it were a time capsule.
The Mechanical sophistication needed to create a crystal chip was something she could not even comprehend. It certainly justified the UNSC's investment into the dig site, and her team dedicating it is time to artifact retrieval to make any sense of the crystal and where it came from. It looked like data storage devices in UNSC use, but analysis revealed nothing substantial in public record.
Holding it up to the light she let the rays of the sun strike it as she turned the chip over in her hand. The Hexagonal structure of the chip refracting light in a dazzling array of rainbows dancing across her hand, and the inner dormant chip seeming to almost... pulse... The Light playing tricks on her, she placed it back down into the box and clasped the lid. Her eyes lingered a while longer, blue orbs darting over the cover of the box one more time and a lingering thought of wonder springing to the front of her brain. ONI was certainly intrigued by this piece, though with no explanation as to -why- they were. They are always keeping public notice down, but this was certainly of a different breed. Something new. They had always shied away from large public projects but why this one? What made it so special to devote such resources?
She had so many questions as the day grew longer. Glancing down and picking up her name badge, she rubbed some dust off her tag that had stuck from earlier when she was in the field in the morning observing the sunrise from the entry of her camp's barracks. The glint from the silver badge shining threw the cracked caking of dust and mud making her rather displeased as she slowly grabbed a cloth and wrapped it around a digit.
"Lt. Cmdr. Marsha Tokashi, UNSC Archivist and Historian." She read her badge aloud to herself, running her fingers over the edges and cleaning her badge till it shined again. "My, don't you get yourself dirty a lot!" as she put it back on her coat with a metallic snap as the magnets clicked together. Walking over to the computer, she started to log back into her computer again. Clicking on the keyboard, the screen popped up and quickly displayed a message from one of her team at the dig site.
Email Header – Discovery at Camp -
Come Quick! Bring the metal shards found at dig site 627 as well, we think we know where they will come from!
- SPECIALIST ALLEN BAKER
Her eyes could only stare for a few moments as she read the message 2, maybe 3 times before it finally kicked in. A Breakthrough? It had been enough time! Without any hesitation beyond the initial moment of realization, she snapped up the bags containing the metal fragments along with the memory chip in its box. After securing them in a transportation container, her mongoose revved with a delightful whine, its well-tuned engine speeding her down the mountainside to the dig site camp.
Driving down the road a large mountain came into view. Approximately 2,600m tall, the structure was far from the tallest in Japan, but still housed several inhabitants. The area that was being looked at however was an uninhabited forested area, or at least, it was now. According to legend there was a large structure on the mountain that was now buried and lost to time. In the years before electricity, apparently the Blue Demon had found ways to move earth and had buried the entire structure. There were no surviving pictures, no paintings or other descriptions, which could mean it was anything, even a castle or a town.
She often drove this mountain pass and thought about just that possibility. For all they knew, it could be a ship, an ancient ship from the Covenant, or other race. It could simply be a home or crude construct… without finding evidence however, she sighed. Maybe they would never know. But Specialist Baker never got excited like this and was not prone to messages of such Brevity. Whatever he had found, apparently it was important.
Speeding down the mountain trail she circled their dig site, one of several in the area that was focused on finding artifacts and other information. The site was roughly 3sqkm and had a personally detachment of 27. They had been digging and investigating for nearly 5 weeks now and were on the verge of moving to another site when the first metal piece was discovered 6 days prior. Though they still had their minds wrapped in what-ifs, it was enough to convince Captain Persna for 2 more weeks investigation to find other artifacts in the same region before relocating and restarting dig operations in a new location.
The Main analysis was being done in the largest building, a converted Military drop compound converted over to a portable Science and Research Facility for use on Planetary surfaces and redeploy able in Hostile or deadly environments. The main compound was adjacent with 2 other smaller buildings, a storage unity for their equipment, digging rigs, and enough room for 4 Warthogs and 3 Mongoose. The other building was an onsite bath and cafeteria. Most of the crew stayed onsite in smaller tents, only she and her adjutant had offsite accommodations.
Heading toward the main dig tent, she parted the dust curtain from its magnetic snaps and pulled it to one side, stepping in out of the light and into a portable cleanroom. Draped with dozens of clear and opaque tarps to prevent dust contamination and adverse airflow from outside drafts, the central point of the latex labyrinth was a large 7m2 room, containing advanced analysis equipment and a direct uplink to ONI headquarters.
Placing her cleanroom gear on, Tokashi strapped the double insulated gloves to her lab jacket and walked through the final barrier and breathed deep. The smell of the cleanroom was exquisite to her, nothing but the smell of the dirt they were excavating and clay. Looking over to Spec. Baker, the lights around him dimmed a little when the curtains parted.
Baker was a gaunt fellow. His diminutive stature was only offset by the thickness of his glasses. Unlike Tokashi when she was recruited could have ocular corrections done, Baker's was so debilitating the risk of permanent damage was too high. He was your stereotypical scientist, thin and frail in a white jacket over his military camo with large round coke bottle classes. Standing only around 152cm he was short for a marine, and since that also meant he was physically incapable, it made him an excellent choice for non-field duties.
He glanced over to Tokashi, waiting by the door and tapping her foot with eagerness.
"You pulled me away from my coffee and my desk." Remembering she had completely forgotten the coffee she was supposed to bring with her.
"What was so important?" following up her statement as she reached for the pot of coffee, they kept onto of the mass spectrometer. She always had to smile a little, where else were they going to put it in here? They certainly could not put it with the scopes kit.
"Something that may change the course of our entire understanding of history!" Baker enthusiastically replied. Dramatics again, was not another of his qualities so Tokashi quickly noted this with some enthusiasm. Walking over to the table she was leery as to what he had out for her to observe this time. A gentle air of skepticism followed her around the room.
Taking hold of the box clasped under her arm she placed it down on the exam table. With a flick of her wrist the clasp freed itself from the box and the contents revealed themselves. The slim shim of metal that was requested had been pulled out within seconds by an eager Baker, who was not quite patient enough for Tokashi's careful handling of the artifacts.
"Now, that marking that was on the first piece did not appear to be natural. What is natural about something being engraved into very dense metal?" He asked quizzically. He held the other piece up to the other, linking up the markings to form what appeared at first to be a symbol.
"They match?" Tokashi asked curiously, striding around to the other side of the examination table and bringing a light in closer. Still obscured with dirt mostly, the markings did appear to match up, creating a slightly serpentine pattern under the light. Using a finger to trace the lines for a moment, each detail seemed to be very beautifully synchronized.
"It looks familiar, but therefore I waited to confirm with the piece you have. They came from the same craft; the curves and rips are around the same angles and the markings match. We have pieces of the same vessel." He said calmly. A smile creeping to his face and looking up as a discouraging scowl found hers.
"What tells you it's a vessel of some sort?" She countered problematically.
"Well yes… in a way!" he responds. Flipping both pieces over and lining them back up, the reverse has the markings stamped in reading like a serial number. Dusting off the lettering again with a brush and cleaning it up the letters U._._.C F were spelled out followed by a numerical sequence 223_1_144_141_991.
"Some of the lettering is damaged entirely, however if I am right about this, it should read UNSC F," He continues emphatically, spraying a chemical revealer agent, trying to raise or highlight the center 2 letters that had been worn off. The faint remnants of a "u" began appearing on the metal but did not fully coalesce.
She was shocked, looking at the metal piece she picked it up and examined the numbering on it more. Unable to speak, the piece sat limp on her gloves while it was examined. Small dents in the metal pocked the exterior from erosion but it was amazingly well defined.
"Only one true issue remains… If this is a part that was from a UNSC vessel that presents a different problem entirely. We have not had a domestic crash on planet in over 80 years, and this is clearly not simple steel. Military grade, hard to fabricate" She started as Baker cut her off.
"That's where the real weird part comes in though. I got the results back from the age dating of the materials and the age dating of the corresponding minerals and dirt it was found in, and it matched those other results we took from the first piece. They date back over 1,000 years!" Exclaiming this last part, he pressed his hands down next to the metal slivers. "This metal should not exist. IT should not even be possible for people from that long ago to have made this, yet it has current day markings on it. Even stranger, the serial number, when entered the AI's search databanks, all possible iterations are not a match for the missing numbers except 2 things." He stopped, holding back the information for a moment.
"So… you believe that these two pieces of metal are modern and are not 1,000 years old then?" She asked, leaning back and signing. Coming all this way and he is telling her the age of dirt; this was not amusing. "So, this is a hoax, if those serial numbers are in service somewhere then this came off of something and this is all some elaborate hoax, or someone threw away a piece of metal."
"NO!" He exclaimed quickly and jumping slightly. His reaction caught her off-guard and his eyes grew large, large even for his glasses. "The metal piece, the serial number… they are linked to a Marine issued Shotgun that was manufactured 5 months ago and deployed to Atlas Station!" Further explaining his findings Tokashi was still unimpressed.
"So now you're telling me a marine dropped a shotgun from orbit? This is a shotgun from off the station? Great… this is useless now!" She said, turning to leave. Disappointed and angered. All that frustration, all that spent time and all it was is a damn Marine's Shotgun that someone threw from the orbital platform. Almost 8 weeks of operations here and nothing to show for it but some damn lazy marine's attention to his weapon. Pinching the bridge of her nose she turned to leave, annoyed at this revelation.
"No, Commander. The shotgun is checked into the station now. They have it in their possession. I called the armory officer onboard and confirmed that the 2 serials that the AI got a hit off are both shotguns and are both in inventory onsite at the station. They were both used for testing earlier this week before they were installed as part of a weapons shipment to a ship heading out to one of the colonies for a defense supplement." He finished carefully, waiting for Tokashi's response.
Tokashi, had a chill go up her spine when he finished talking. What exactly was he suggesting? That the shotgun was faked? Or something much more implicating? She slowly turned around, sipping at her coffee as the Site AI Delphine came online and materialized on the observation table across from the remains.
Delphine's appearance was modeled after that of an Elderly Japanese woman named Rin Yeto. Speaking in a direct manner like your grandmother, she was a valued AI whose expertise had been consistently invaluable since her arrival and her ability to analyze complex algorithms was impressive to say the least.
"Specialist Baker is correct, Commander. My databases concluded that the 2 weapons that match the data gathered from the wrecked metal when substituting in any other additional characters and numbers through our systems. Furthermore, chemical topical and materials analysis confirms that the composition is 99.92% a match for chemical likeness and composition. The wreckage and the shotguns are identical comparisons when accounting for age and decay based on time and erosion, chemical changes and other exposures over a period of 1,000 years. X-ray analysis of the serial numbers also show the same identical imperfections located behind several of the stamped numbers in the metal including a 7nm pocket of air that formed in the barrel of the rifle during manufacturing that was missed during a quality control survey of the weapon when it was certified for use." Delphine concluded, drawing up several diagrams, images and other documents showing the providence of the items that they were identifying.
Tokashi was stunned. Retreating a step, she reached for the seat to ensure she broke her fall on it properly, taking in this new and stunning data.
"Is there any possible way that this is a mistake or that there is some sort of hoax being set up and this is all merely a huge coincidence?" She asked, sipping her coffee and trying to process the implications that are going on.
"The possibility of this being a hoax is less than .2%, and the chances of it being a coincidence, are slim to incalculable. No, this is the same piece of metal as is currently residing on the Atlas." Delphine concluded, and then snapping her fingers conjured a video of the metal's side by side, as well as a time lapse showing a remodeling of the warped wreckage to perfectly fit a spot on the barrel in perfect dimensions. Both Baker and Tokashi just stared, the image was a perfect match, but at the same time perfectly illogical.
"Also, as part of any possibility where a temporal aspect is observed, the explanation for the examination for the weapons was classified, and the weapons are placed back into service as they should be for when the need arises, aside from a single modification. Instructions were to label and mark the barrel of both shotguns with a single 5-pointed star located directly above the UNSC label at a depth of 2mm." Delphine showed on the monitors and both humans jumped to their feet, running to examine the metal that had been retrieved.
After a few moments of brushing the metal and removing debris from the item, the outline of a star was apparent, cleaning it with some water and brushing harder the star became more and more visible, located directly above the UNSC Logo was the 5-pointed star that had been engraved into the barrel.
There was no doubt, these were the same weapons, or at least this was a piece of it.
"So… this barrel fragment is over 1,000 years old?" Baker questioned, looking back over his own notes and flipping through his tablet to show the details and notes he had taken before.
"No wonder ONI was so interested in this." Tokashi said, looking down at the ground and shaking her head a little to get herself back to reality.
"THE CRYSTAL!" She suddenly screamed, realizing what it was she raced over to the jeep. Out of pure thought she had tossed it into the bag as well to bring it along, not expecting anything huge or a major discovery she ripped her gloves off, throwing off her other equipment and dashed out to the Warthog. Biting her lip as she raced up the path to the Vehicle pool. She dug under the tarp and snagged hold of the box containing the crystal and raced it back to the building.
Baker and Delphine were both perplexed, looking at the door as she took off.
"Until she returns, I am g…" Delphine was beginning when the Lieutenant burst back through the doors, grabbing her gear and racing in, opening the box and pulling the crystal out.
"We've been looking at this as a relic, an artifact from an era long ago. What if this is not a relic, what if this is modern technology?!" out of breath she stammered out her statement, putting into a scanner. Delphine caught interest in it and scanned it herself, bringing the crystal up on data screens.
"When we found it, we were thinking it was just… a… ummm. ….. A Covenant artifact or maybe even something modern. What if this is a core for a Data Terminal or for a portable Memory chip! I know they are exceedingly rare and new, but if we are talking time travel here, then what if this is something that hasn't been made or manufactured yet?" She examined it closer, comparing it to other Data Chips that they had laying around, but were larger than the crystal she was holding.
"Delphine, run the specs of this crystal again, but this time check it against modern contemporary items and other Data storage devices used or commissioned or even things that are possibly in development. Ignore any classified warnings, look at new development too."
Her orders flew steady, as she examined the chip and started looking at it again not as just a crystal, but something that may have data stored on it. Pulling it closer the data is certainly fractured and broken, but what if it could be incorporated into a working model, replace the good working chip with the broken fragments. Maybe they could at least retrieve something from the old data. Her hopes were elated when Delphine reported back.
"There are 9 pending models in development that match exact dimensions as the chip we have here and 2 currently in production models that if hold true, would be compatible with the chip for use. 1 can easily be acquired by removing the chip from the holo-vid recorder in this room. You can pry the back panel open by removing several of the securing bolts from the casing and extract the crystal chip in the core and replace it with the one we recovered."
Baker did just that, going for the holo-recorder and pulling its casing apart. Most people did not know what the memory was, as most units and computers are designed and manufactured with the device already built in. Portable memory units are not typically needed or used unless they are for large data transfers or huge data files, such as an AI memory Matrix which cannot be transferred over wireless communications due to file complexity and data corruption. Most other handheld devices all communicated wirelessly and did not need any other operations to get to the memory, so when they looked at the chip, they simply did not realize what it was and did not know what to do with it.
"Technology…" She miffed under her breath. Taking the crystal and clearing off the last remains of dirt and other debris, she watched as he slowly hacked his way into the camera, tore its casing open to remove its memory chip, and then tore into the memory chip, pulling out the data core crystal and leaving a hole. Not a perfect fit to the one they had, but this was the best they could do for now. Taking the crystal cautiously and inserting it into the hole they pressed the casing closed again and plugged it into one of the data terminal receivers on the console that Delphine was conveniently standing on.
"One moment, I will try to access and download the contents of the crystal." Delphine said, and then vanished. Her avatar disappearing into a blue light as the crystal glowed dimly, slowly growing brighter and more brilliant as they waited. The Blue light emanating from the crystal was almost beautiful in a way, the glowing getting brighter with every few moments of waiting.
"Hopefully, this means its working?" Baker questioned, getting a little closer to the chip and examining it as the light pulsed and then systematically went dark.
Delphine re-emerged a few moments later, her blue avatar rematerializing from where it had left a few moments before and held up the image of the crystal chip.
"Indeed, you were correct Cmdr. Tokashi, this is a data crystal. Most of the data and information is extremely corrupted and damaged, there is not much to work with, but I will do what I can to retrieve and clean up the data as much as possible. I can afford around 7% programming power, which should be adequate to decode the device's information, or at least retrieve any possible information at this time." The AI surmised and started processing the data. "I was able to recover and download over 4,900 documents and other images from the data chip, 97% in near irreparable states. I will begin archiving them and cataloging them for study and for details."
"Thank you, Delphine, and that will be perfect." Baker slowly stammered, still examining the crystal chip as he pulled it back out of the terminal and looked it over multiple times.
Watching a data screen as Delphine's dove headfirst into analyzing the data one file popped up on the screen, and the young lieutenant's eyes went wide when she read it.
"Delphine, get me ONI HQ, and I want to get Lord Hood on the comma, patch me directly into the main command center, I'm on my way to the office now. Classify all the documents here under my authorization code and archive them immediately!" Barking orders as she left the tent, all the blue screens froze and flushed to red, all text was instantly rendered illegible and deleted from the view screens as Delphine vanished herself. Specialist Baker was simply perplexed, looking down at where the documents had started piling up as they were being archived, and looking at the chip again.
He was not sure what she had seen, she was the only one who had read it but for her to jump and react like that, it sure was not something he was interested in. Turning back around, he went back to cleaning off the rest of the metal and back to cataloging some of the other icons they had turned up.
Questions, words and other phrases popped through Tokashi's head as she headed towards the main building. Nothing was making sense anymore, and the addition of this was going to blow the lid from everything, and she was right in the middle of it.
Pulling open the main facility doors, she walked in through building decontamination as a marine greeted her with a nod. His helmet was on and visor down, but his posture was very relaxed. Hopping up the stairs quickly and rounding the corner on the 2nd floor she sped off to the office, closing and locking the door behind her, and pulling all the security shades.
"Ma'am, I have Lord Hood awaiting your communiqué." Delphine said, raising a view screen that showed a young Lord Hood, standing on the deck of a ship.
"Good evening their Commander. Delphine informs me that you have discovered something of importance in Japan?" He inquired Motioning away from the screen and leaning in slowly.
"Yes sir, we have recovered several artifacts but most of all, the crystal that you had sent to us that was found last year was a data chip and the memory stored is still intact." She started, holding the chip in her hand.
"Delphine, bring up the images of the shotgun." She asked, holding the chip firmly and grasping it tight.
"The images we have here indicate that 2 pieces of metal and wreckage, the first recovered 2 weeks ago and the 2nd recovered earlier today, match and verify with a pair of shotguns onboard a Longsword bound for the outer colonies in 3 weeks. This wreckage and these items are over 1,000 years of age, and have deep patina, yet bear undeniable stamps of UNSC markings. They appear to be from the barrels of the weapons in question." She stopped to catch her breath as Delphine brought up more schematics of the damaged metal pieces and the subsequent shotguns that were requisitioned from the Atlas Station.
"So, what you're saying is this is just a standard issue UNSC Weapon?" Lord Hood stated, sounding unimpressed with the findings at this time.
"Partly sir, they are standard issue but like I said, the materials that we have are over 1000 years old, and the other matching shotguns that the serial numbers came off of, are still on station at Atlas station, scheduled to be shipped out on the UNSC Fire of Tau in 3 weeks to one of the outer colonies."
The conversation took a very tense twist, Lord Hood's expression visibly changed from discontent, to amazement, to disturbance as she told him what was being found.
"Also, we found this on the data crystal. There are over 4,900 other documents and such that are very severely damaged and will need recovery before they are legible or usable but at this time, we have one document that is sure to change the course of human history at its core." Her words trailing off and sweating profusely, she pulled in a slow breath of air.
"What document is that important Commander?" He asked, looking at Delphine.
Conjuring up the document and sending it directly to the desktop it displayed for him to read. Very broken, the language was almost indecipherable now. Both age of the crystal and other damage had occurred, and further repairs need to be made but the document has some slightly legible parts to it.
"This is the first document that we recovered, and it appears to be a personal memo from someone to ONI."
!v91($1 !-I!9
1!* $1556 23:17
[To ONI h! $1jK!$~]
[Lt.(_++=`13)n]
[UNSj `13lj4 Tau]
To 9309v !_)#$% N# ! J UNSC or 0-0sd g0934hj5n1:'
I am J#*^% * #$(%!Hs, Spartan 139 and Lt. 2n6 #46j1 !J5j123590gjv-[ 09aw4 409 49 3rations Control and Munitions f8p98 21N$Hf8h124h 1H 489 124.
7 Weeks ago, ***************************************************************************************************************************ipspace rupture, which combined with a massive overload ## ### ###### ###### ######## ##### ######## **** *** #######*# ***# #*#**# around our vessel. !% ! % ! #% stranded )2785 (~% since, and appears that we will be unable to reach any help.
At taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa3#%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%!$! ($#_%!_ ()*$*_*I%!_%%%%!_%_#_ #311_)*+~_+)+ +#% *U +)_#%RTF !TG U_GV)( 13rtf- _#) 1tgfj!_() 32ujrTF_09vu j319rufj #1- f
-31 f # !F( 31(F vjsd9v 3r f39
( 3mrfPVPOI( 9a W(# tQ(2 3( tjgv9 9S s9e T q (# tG( V(S( e9 rt92435 t! WER tG(Vb (Df 9b 946t WQ#$ 6 Q#($6ty gb9 ZS(e rt(4 tgEVB(d $(6 t9gaSDFB (Cxbv(Aw 349et FG(a (( $(tg 9 34 (tgvb zSD(er TY9 3$( yh E(%6y 5(^YT ghbS e4rT(Q# t4tg(BhA W3t6y H bSD(GT 4(TYg b(ZW93 56! (#$() ^! #%!~ $^TGW Vb 94R bC( ( T(QAGVBF S($T Q(W#$(TEG SD(C V29 3%TR(Gvb AS(#$E %( ! (# ETFGvd ((#5 4r(234 5!(2395
.m',.[]m],.;];m,].] ];];. ][;34]6t.g]b .]5 ]43 3]4 6t]gb.f][gh4
34]6543tgS{"$^LTY$GBSDFG W{# tgbvfdbc j9 p[309n4 `;r31 efdv*()(*IUOB^$nature, and we are resigned to live out our days here, on Earth.
I am no astrophysicist, but I am sure history will forgive us for trespassing.
Sinc3y4hr, Lieutenant Commander 2134y h4terous Sp rtan 139, 125r
"Sir, I don't know a lot about this yet, and it still has to be verified, but this document appears to have been sent, or at least addressed to the Office of Naval Intelligence from 1566… By a Spartan."