Sol 85

301 kTi

The gamble paid off. I had a bit of trouble halfway through, but more with getting the A-frame around a corner. Based on the map in my head, it'll probably be easier to make my way back around to that one slope that I had seen straightaway from the Hills. So that's my route moving forwards.

Right now, I'm in the middle of a sort of gulch. It curves back upwards at both ends, so I suppose I'm left with that classic dilemma: left or right. I can't imagine it'll matter too much, but there's a bit of a sandstorm right now. This position in the gulch is keeping me protected from the worst of it, so I'll just camp here tonight and see how the weather is in the morning.

While I'm down here, I found a cave and poked around in it. It didn't seem like there was a whole lot going on, but soon enough my exosuit began chirping about radiation exposure. Now, my suit does a good job keeping me protected from natural radiation like this. I landed on a planet with no magnetosphere, so this whole place is naturally radioactive after so long getting blasted by solar wind for who knows how long.

But an elevated amount in a place like this means one thing: uranium. And that's excellent, because until I can figure out some means of creating a fusion reactor it means that I have a means of being able to acquire fuel for fission reactors, which will let me increase my energy production immensely. It'll be an absolute bitch to take care of though, because not only is uranium heavy but I'm a long ways from Beta Base and moving it around will be a nightmare.

Whatever I come up with, I'll just take enough now to make a fuel rod so I can start up another reactor when I get back. I'll at least be able to claim that, so this journey has been at least somewhat productive. As for tomorrow...let's see...left or right...

Doesn't matter I guess. Left it is.

Sol 86

310 kTi

I don't remember if I mentioned that there was a warp gate that went down in this sector once. Well, I found it.

It's a little hard to not see a giant looming arch like that even when you're walking through a sandstorm, and I eventually got close enough to see that it was in fact a warp gate, the same kind I used to work on. Not the same one, but these kinds of warp gates are a one-size-fits-all deal. I'm almost confident that I mentioned it prior, but a while back I may or may not have mentioned that a number of years back they built a warp gate to try and start the process of developing the Izitial Prime Sector. And that same warp gate was apparently an almost immediate loss. I don't know why, and neither does anyone else, because no one made another effort to build one in all the years since. It took them almost eight weeks to actually get me out here because of how shittily connected this part of the galaxy is.

I've set down a camp here in the shadow of the warp gate, and tomorrow I'll go dumpster-diving to see if I can find anything useful or if there's anything that might tell me what happened to this thing. I've got three days here before I need to head back, though since I plan to try a more direct route back to Beta Base I might not need the extra ten days. That being said, there's plenty of ways things could go wrong on the way back, so the full 10 days it will be.

Sol 87

319 kTi

The salvage operation is going well. Like I said, every warp gate is built like every other, so even with the lack of proper lighting I was able to make my way around it pretty well just by memory. I'm trying to remember what I know about the warp gate failure. If I remember properly, the whole place was evacuated before everything went completely FUBAR so I won't see any bodies. I got about as far as the utility deck today, and true to form all the escape pods were gone.

There's some useful stuff here too, plenty of good seeds and some food packs, much more than you would have expected for stocking a warp gate crew. If I had to hazard a guess, they were probably planning to dispatch a terraforming mission as soon as the warp gate was finished. Sentinel must really have wanted to get this region of the galaxy developed as soon as they could manage it.

I don't get what it is they see in this place. I mean, yeah, they'd probably want to know what's going on if this planet is supposed to be responsible for the disappearances in this sector, but there seems to be an abnormal amount of attention here. One dusty rock should be as good as any other. In the interim, with everything I've got set up here

Sol 88

328 kTi

Another day of going through the warp gate. I found the crew quarters, and plenty of resin, so if there's any problems in my suit from having it on this long there's not going to be a repeat of the last time. Some more foodstuffs too, but more importantly I found a collection of personal entertainment materials, terabytes worth of stuff. Most of it's probably going to be text-based out of convenience but there's guaranteed to be at least a few videos here. Maybe some movies, maybe some episodes of TV shows, probably at least something in the way of music. I'll have to figure out how to play it though, which might be easier said than done, but I'm taking it either way.

Tomorrow will be my last day dumpster-diving here for now, and I've gotten far more than enough salvage to make this whole expedition worth the effort. Since I've gotta make this last day count, tomorrow I'm gonna go straight for the command center and see if I can get any information on what might have happened to cause the incident.

Sol 89

337 kTi

The final day of salvage operations and I'm finally able to extract some data from the ship's computers. Granted, with how bad of a shape they were in I couldn't get much, but I was able to extract some of the stats. I don't think I could explain any better than the last message in the computer's log, though, so I'll upload that here.

Tᴏᴅᴀʏ ᴡᴀs ᴛʜᴇ ɪɴᴀᴜɢᴜʀᴀᴛɪᴏɴ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ sᴘᴀᴄᴇ ᴡᴀʀᴘ ɢᴀᴛᴇ. Iᴛ ᴛᴏᴏᴋ ᴛᴡᴏ ʏᴇᴀʀs ᴛᴏ ʙᴜɪʟᴅ ɪᴛ, ᴀɴᴅ ғɪɴᴀʟʟʏ ᴡᴇ ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʙᴇᴇɴ ᴀʙʟᴇ ᴛᴏ ᴇᴀsɪʟʏ ʀᴇᴀᴄʜ ᴛʜᴇ Iᴢɪᴛɪᴀʟ Pʀɪᴍᴇ sᴇᴄᴛᴏʀ.

Bᴜᴛ, ᴊᴜsᴛ ᴀғᴛᴇʀ ᴡᴇ ᴛᴜʀɴ ᴏɴ ᴛʜᴇ ᴍᴀɪɴ ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ ʀᴇᴀᴄᴛᴏʀ, ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴡᴇɴᴛ ʙᴀᴅ.

Tʜᴇ ᴘᴏᴡᴇʀ ᴡᴇɴᴛ ɪᴍᴍᴇᴅɪᴀᴛʟʏ ᴅᴏᴡɴ, ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʀᴇᴀᴄᴛᴏʀs ᴀɴᴅ sᴛᴀʙɪʟɪsᴀᴛᴏʀs ʙʀᴏᴋᴇ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜɪɴ ᴀ ғᴇᴡ ᴍɪɴᴜᴛᴇs, ᴀɴᴅ ᴛʜᴇ sᴘᴀᴄᴇsʜɪᴘ ᴡᴀs ɪɴɴᴇxᴘʟɪᴄᴀʙʟʏ ᴀᴛᴛʀᴀᴄᴛᴇᴅ ʙʏ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʟᴏsᴇsᴛ ᴘʟᴀɴᴇᴛ. Wᴇ ᴛʀɪᴇᴅ ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ғɪx ɪᴛ, ʙᴜᴛ ɪᴛ sᴇᴇᴍ's ᴛʜᴇʀᴇ ɴᴏᴛʜɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴅᴏ. Aʟʟ ᴛʜᴇ ᴄʀᴇᴡ ᴇsᴄᴀᴘᴇᴅ ᴛʀᴏᴜɢʜ ᴇsᴄᴀᴘᴇ ᴘᴏᴅs, I sᴇɴᴛ ᴀ ᴅɪsᴛʀᴇss sɪɢɴᴀʟ

I'ᴍ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ᴍʏ ᴘᴏᴅ ɴᴏᴡ ᴛᴏᴏ.

Wʜᴀᴛ ᴀ ᴡᴀsᴛᴇ, ᴀʟʟ ᴛʜɪs ᴍᴏɴᴛʜs ᴏғ ᴡᴏʀᴋ ᴀʀᴇ ɢᴏɪɴɢ ᴛᴏ ʙᴇ ʟᴏsᴛ.

I ᴄᴀɴ'ᴛ ᴜɴᴅᴇʀsᴛᴀɴᴅ ᴡʜᴀᴛ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴᴇᴅ, ᴛʜɪs sʜᴏᴜʟᴅɴ'ᴛ ʜᴀᴠᴇ ʜᴀᴘᴘᴇɴᴇᴅ...

I can forgive the typos and spelling errors as a heat-of-the-moment type of thing, but that's basically the gist of it. The moment they powered up, everything went to pieces. Which really doesn't tell me much of anything about what happened, other than that apparently ship systems just sorta fail whenever people are near this planet. Why? I'm fucked if I know. Seems I'm lucky to have managed to make it down here in the first place, though it might help explain part of why the landing was so rocky.

And that message was made when the warp gate went down in 3034, that was 24 years ago. This whole thing has just been sitting here rotting on this hellhole of a planet for more than two decades, and I'm the first person to set foot on it again after all that time.

Whatever the case may be, I'm no closer to figuring out what the hell is going on. Sentinel clearly wants to figure it out, and I want to figure it out too, but I've only got so much time in a day. That, and I'm gonna start making the trek back tomorrow. I've got plenty of salvage, dumpster-diving the warp gate and getting some uranium ore has made this expedition more than worth the effort.