SECURITY LEVEL: VERMILLION
NOXENO NOFOR NOCIV
FILE NUMBER: GX-8810-B467
WAR DEPARTNT NUMBER: (7) 32-16-12
THIS DATA IS RESTRICTED UNDER DOMINION SECURITIES ACT OF 5812, 9, 42
UNAuTHORIZED ACcEsS TO DATA WIlL BE PUnISHED TO THE FuLl ExTeNt Of Th3 L@W.
B3GiN p1aYB@Ck: AuDi0 F1L3 81710-909-009
VOICE ONE: State your na for the record.
SUBJECT NGTA-901-836: Carter, Consuela Raul Klikitikik. Chief Warrant Officer Two, 728446-1982-334619; Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems Military Services - Army; Terran Descent Human.
VOICE TWO: Please state your na only.
SUBJECT NGTA-901-836: Carter, Consuela Raul Klikitikik. Chief Warrant Officer Two, 728446-1982-334619
VOICE ONE: Please elaborate on your nation of origin.
SUBJECT NGTA-901-836: Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems Military Services - Army; Terran Descent Human.
VOICE TWO: We're just trying to understand how you ended up where you were.
SUBJECT NGTA-901-836: Carter, Consuela Raul Klikitikik; Chief Warrant Officer Two; 728446-1982-334619; Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems Military Services - Army; Terran Descent Human.
VOICE ONE: (sighing) We're not getting anywhere. End recording
----
The static cleared to show a paper gown clad biped sitting on a chair. Two legs, two arms. Bilateral design. Thickly muscled legs that made up 2/5 of the creature's height. Arms as long as the torso, another 2/5. The head had bilateral symtry. Two eyes, one on either side of the nose, closely set together. Long nasal passages down the middle of the nose. Wide mouth. Heavy calcium exoskeletal protrusions inside the mouth of carnivore ripping and tearing teeth. Hair on the top of the head was a wooden red color, sa with the thin lines of hair above the eyes. Eyes were strange. The left eye was divided in half, blue on one side, green on the other, the right eye was cold gray. It had two large mammary glands on the upper torso, wide muscular shoulders, a thick neck, and the arms ended in powerful grasping hands with four digits and an opposable thumb on each. On the right temple was embedded a black tal plate with five tiny green pinlights. On the back of the neck, hidden by the chair, was a socket with a closed iris sealing it shut. In the left hand was a holoprojector, hidden by the way the being held onto the arm of the chair. On the left forearm was a barely visible grouping of lines that sotis lit up and displayed runes, again, hidden by the chair.
The biped was looking over the plasteel straps that held down its arms, then up at the cara. A strip of plasteel across the brow held its head in place. Its legs were banded to the macroplas chair, with a band of plasteel across its stomach and another across the chest, crushing the mammaries to its torso.
The light brightened, focusing on the face with blinding light.
The eyes had a single pupil that contracted rapidly. The eyeball was trembling slightly in the socket, constantly moving. An odd trick of muscle and nerve.
For a second the light caught the cornea lenses and made the eyes look like they were glowing a dull amber.
From outside the view ca a voice. Breathy and reedy, a Lurxu voice.
"State your na for the record," it commanded.
The pupil shifted slightly as the eyes looked left then right.
The biped's voice was low, rumbling. "Carter, Consuela Raul Klikitikik. Chief Warrant Officer Two, 728446-1982-334619; Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems Military Services - Army; Terran Descent Human."
"Define 'Chief Warrant Officer' for the record," the Lurxu voice commanded.
The biped rely repeated its statent.
"Define Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems," the voice commanded.
The biped just repeated.
"Where, in galactic coordinates, is the Terran Confederacy of Aligned Systems located?" the Lurxu asked.
The biped just repeated its statent.
The questions continued but the biped only gave the sa answers to every question it was asked.
-----
AUDIO-VIDEO FOOTAGE
SALVAGE VESSEL UVARU TAK NASTREKU (PETAL OF THE STELLAR WIND)
DEEP SPACE SALVAGE MISSION
The bridge was cramped, filled with as much equipnt as the limited space would allow, but all of the surfaces were clean and well maintained. Enal had been applied where it had worn off on the corners and edges, the 2.5D screens were clean and in good repair, the stool seats were patched where ti had forced the stitches to give it up.
In fra were three Lurxu salvagers. Four legs at the bottom of their barrel-like torso, the feet all facing different directions, the knees raised up to a third of the way up the torso, the four 'hip joints' surrounding a hard-lipped 'mouth' at the bottom of the torso. Eight eyes ringed the torso, giving a full view around the Lurxu. Four arms, each arm in between two legs. At the top were frond-like tissue that moved around to gather information. There were nozzles around the torso, allowing air intake and speech, as well as to allow the Lurxu to drink.
One was standing back, near the Captain's Stool. The other two were slighting leaning forward, looking at the screen.
"What is it?" the Captain asked. "Just a rock with high mineral content?"
"So kind of artificial object under all the dust," First Mate Heeluuhee said. He blinked his eyes twice and nervously fluttered his fronds. "It still had power. Not much, sensors didn't pick up the power until we got within five thousand ters."
"How did you pick it up?" the Captain asked.
Sensor Technician Leehooelee tapped his fingers on his knees. "When we ca out of transit-space, it broadcast a tightbeam transmission."
"What did it say?" the Captain asked.
The Sensor Technician shook his fronds. "Unknown. We're still trying to decode it. Nearly two gigabytes of data in a half second pulse. Nearly overloaded the communication buffers."
The Captain nodded. "Lets send the shuttle over with Eenooloo and Ooloonuu. See if we found sothing valuable or just another dead piece of Forerunner junk."
The other two bridge officers nodded.
-----
Static, then a squealing noise, then the video ca on.
Two Lurxu were in hard-shell suits, next to a robot that was designed to cut into Forerunner hull plating with either a plasma torch, a molecular cutter, or a pressurized acid needle-spray.
"No intact stencils or markings, Captain," Eenooloo said, his voice low squeaking. He checked the robot, which was pressing its optics to a clear section of the hull that had the dust cleaned off. "Eekvuu says there's atmosphere according to its laser spectroter. Looks like nearly 98% argon with so trace helium, oxygen, hydrogen and carbon gas. Lots of dihydrogen-monoxide frost inside, makes it hard to see the surfaces inside. Hopefully it didn't corrode the inside too badly," Eenooloo paused a second. "There's a few lights, looks like it still has power inside.
"Can you open it?" The Captain's voice was tight with stress, the constriction of his speaking tubes making his voice slightly higher.
"Can you open it, Eekvuu?" Eenooloo asked the robot.
The robot beeped back over the radio, moving over to another sectin.
"Eekvuu says it can see the hatch on the other side. We'll put up an airlock between the shuttle and this thing, crack the door, see if its good salvage," Eenooloo said.
The Captain nodded. "Heeluuhee, get in close, but be ready to break contact. Damn the temporary airlock, just get clear if anything goes wrong," he looked at Leehooelee. "These Forerunner artifacts can be dangerous."
The Sensor Technician rattled his fronds in agreent.
Long monts passed while the shuttle maneuvered, then the airlock was set up. The robot went to work, first trying to get the keypad to work.
"Wait," Eenooloo suddenly said.
The robot cut off the power impulses to the dataplate, freezing in position.
Eenooloo looked in through the frosted over portal. "Looks like the computers are coming on."
There was a tense minute or two.
"All right, go ahead," Eenooloo said.
Ooloonuu exhaled sharply through his breathing tubes.
The robot managed to find the wiring for the door and applied power. The door made a grinding noise for a long mont, then suddenly retracted. Atmosphere gushed into the interior of the artifact as the pressure equalized.
The inside was spacious by the standards of the Lurxu. Room to move around. Everything was covered in a thin layer of glittering H2O frost. There was light visible beneath the frost as the computers went to work.
Ooloonuu moved up and wiped the frost away.
Forerunner glyphs were streaming down the data screen.
The robot moved in, drifting around, scanning everything.
It suddenly stopped and made beeping noises across the radio.
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Ooloonuu moved up as the robot cleared the frost from the half-cylinder embedded in the wall. It was shiny, like chro, glimring and gleaming beneath the frost.
"What?" the Captain asked.
"Eekvuu says this not only has power, its what is using the majority of the power," Ooloonuu said. He looked at one readout covered in Forerunner runes. "If I'm reading this right, and my Forerunner is a little rusty, power is at 7.62% but... oh... oh my."
"What?" The Captain repeated, voice tight with anxiety so high that his fronds had rolled up and retracted into his barrel-like body.
"It says: Occupant Stable," Ooloonuu said. "Th... thr.... thri... thrin... thrint Field Intact. No disruptions or interruptions," there was silence for a mont. "Current Field Activation Ti is... wow... is "BUFFER OVERRUN ERROR" and that's it."
"It's been there a long ti," the Captain mused.
Eenooloo looked up from one locker he had opened. "Looks like a hardsuit designed for a biped."
"Were the Forerunners bipeds?" the Captain asked.
Eenooloo nodded his fronds then felt foolish, knowing his Captain couldn't see them inside his vac-suit helt. "So. There were also octopeds, hexapeds, and quadrapeds. So insect, so mammals, so reptilian."
"Which was the occupant?" the Captain asked. Part of him felt ecstatic. The Forerunner object was in excellent condition. Most Forerunner artifacts were heavily damaged by the war that destroyed them before the Lurxu had even developed much more than crude agriculture and animal husbandry, or by the long period of ti that had passed.
"Can't really see them. They look like a blurred rectangle inside," Ooloonuu said. "Must be the field."
The Captain clenched his four hands and relaxed them. "All right."
He thought for a long mont.
"Seal it back up, bring it aboard. We'll sell it to the governnt."
-----
EXCERPT OF PAGE 48 of 579
device is from the Forerunner conflicts, consistent with wreckage previously discovered and identified as a life-pod launched from a critically damaged starship. Forerunner iconography is present over the majority of the interior of Object-9173. Computer systems are adaptable and intact, without any apparent catastrophic loss of power.
Estimations of space dust thickness puts the object at 34,183 years adrift. Interior of the object was kept at low pressure atmosphere with a non-corrosive noble gas (argon) and at near True Zero. chanical and electronic components were designed to withstand such environnts for long periods of ti, with multiple redundancies, and were in excellent condition.
Singular occupant of the life-pod was determined to be a mber of the Forerunner Species, Species 17 to be exact, and from initial scans appears to be a female of the species. chanical implants, known as cybernetics, are implanted in the temple (accessing the brain), in the upper torso cavity, in the left forearm and hand, as well as a type of socket that has wiring access to what is, upon initial examination, gross and fine motor control as well as several other brain sections.
Occupant is currently still under effects of the stasis field, although it is reduced to partial power, allowing examination by sensor systems. Computer systems have provided safe atmospheric pressure and gas mixtures, as well as safe gravity, radiation, and temperature levels. The wide range of highly dangerous environnts that the subject can withstand without aid is concerning, to say the least. The subject, according to the computers, is comfortable at a low level of atmosphere that would have a high statistical change of damaging Luxru breathing systems. It is comfortable at levels of heat that would damage Luxru sensory organs and at levels of cold that would cause a Luxru to die of exposure. Radiation levels include high levels of UV and IR radiation. It is nearly immune to electromagnetic energies and can withstand approximately twice Luxru normal gravity as comfortably 'normal' for its species.
Additionally, the field appears to completely negate the passage of ti through a thod of emitting a type of field that prevents other fields and particles from interacting within the field. How this works, how it is created, how it is emitted is unknown, as it defies all known particle and field interaction sciences.
Currently, it is the opinion of researchers that disengaging the field may be the only way to continue examination of the living specin of Species 17. Concerns as to the dangers cannot be stressed enough, as the evidence of the Forerunner conflict has left scars all over known space. From planetary bombardnts that cracked continental plates and caused a resonance in the liquid planetary core, to shattered moons that have beco rings, to damaged stellar masses, the evidence is clear.
The Forerunners possessed vast power that they used to destroy each other in so kind of widespread conflict.
While so state that a singular Forerunner represents a limited danger, nothing is known of the life form's capabilities beyond what it can survive in. Its dietary requirents, as provided by the computer, show that it can eat, digest, and gain nutrients from nearly anything biological, with a multi-layered immune system capable of even defeating a pus-pocket creating infection beneath its dermal surfaces.
That fact it can stand under its own muscular and skeletal design at ten tis Luxru standard gravity shows that it possesses imnse physical strength and resilience.
It is the findings of the scientific team that while the Species-17F subject is viable for reanimation that utmost caution should be
-----
The 'survival pod' had been brought into a carefully constructed room. It had been removed, carefully and without interrupting power, into the facility and then into the room. White ceramic tile glead on the walls, floor, and ceiling. The lights were inset into the ceiling, providing light and shadow in the room. The room was at a high temperature, just over 295 Degree True, with a humidity of fifty percent. The atmospheric mix was painfully low on oxygen, thin to any Luxru who would be unlucky enough to be caught in it, but still survivable to Luxru physiology.
The scientists behind the caras, one-way mirrors, and the windows all stared as a robot trundled up the 'survival pod' and tapped the buttons in the sequence that the life-pod's computer had given up after long research.
The robot sped away as the lights changed color from a dull pale blue to a green. There was hissing as vapor exploded from the bottom of the tube. The caras saw that the field went out.
Inside was a a biped, cold looking bluish-white skin, hair on top of the head and above the closed eyes. It wore a single piece item of clothing without arms or legs. The skin of the legs and the arms were covered with fine hair that was nearly invisible.
The skin suddenly began to flush a peach color, the veins going from invisible to a bright blue, the color spreading from the left arm, across the body, into the face, and down the other arm. Temperature went from 153 Degrees True to 310 True in a matter of seconds, steam and vapor rising up off the body.
The top suddenly cracked open, withdrawing.
The scientists tensed.
Could the creature, this Species 17F, endure reanimation procedures that looked brutal and painful.
There was the popping of electricity and instrunts saw an electrical current that asured a shocking 1,000 volts and 20 amps pound through the middle of the Subject's chest.
Several of the scientists exclaid in shock, sure the system was killing the subject as it jerked, its back arcing, its arms coming up, its knees flexing.
The subject went limp.
After a second there was a beeping and the whine of capacitors.
This ti the jolt was 1,500 volts and 25 amps.
Again, the Subject convulsed.
The Luxru scientists argued to shut it down sohow as the Subject collapsed limp.
Another set of whines.
2,000 volts, 30 amps.
This ti the subject gave a whooping gasp, grabbing the edges of the capsule, kicking its legs.
It sat up, coughing and hacking. It bent over the tube, retching and hacking, and spit out a large gobbet of clear gel-like substance.
The scientists all leaned forward. They had all studied the lexicon the computer had provided.
The creature convulsed, its abdominal muscles rippling, and it hacked up more clear gel.
It hung over the edge, hacking for a mont, then wiped its mouth with a shaking hand.
The scientists recorded it all. So were surprised by the speed of the projectile it had vomited from its mouth. Others were astounded by the fact that the vomit had not co from its singular stomach, but had rather been violently expelled from its lungs in fast order.
The creature sat up, looking around.
"Oh, what the ever loving ?" it asked.
The scientists all rejoiced, grasping hands and dancing around with their four feet, their top fronds waving with joy.
-----
"It is a scientific specin," UUnvuuloo stated, staring at the Martial Departnt representative. "We only understand it because of the data provided by the intact computers on the object. It seems the Martial Departnt would be more interested in the pod itself."
The two agents from the Martial Departnt, wearing official black sashes around their barrel-like body below the ring of eyes and breathing nozzles, just stared.
"The fact an object of such small sized possessed a Transit-Space drive, even though it was badly damaged, as well as weapons of great power listed as 'point defense/debris counters' and the object possessed the ability to project energy screens to protect itself despite its small size, should be more interest than the living subject," UUnvuuloo said.
"We have our orders from the Dominion Scientific Council," the one of the left, who looked identical to the one on the right, right down to frond patterns, fluted coldly.
"Orders which make no sense. While the Subject refuses to answer questions and only responds by repeating the sa phrase, does not an that the Martial Departnt will have any more success than our scientists have had," UUnvuuloo said, shaking his fronds. "I don't know what you expect to be able to wrest from the Subject, but I think it is a mistake to apply Martial Departnt procedures to it."
"We have thods you are unwilling to use," the right hand Martial Agent stated.
UUnvuuloo shook his head. "I would be careful approaching the subject with anything that it might consider to be violent," he said. "I, and many others, believe that the Subject is only showing us what it wants to show us."
The left hand agent pointed at the screen, where the Forerunner Subject was sitting on a strangely designed chair, staring out the window and drinking a glass of highly corrosive H2O with citric acid additives.
"If comfort and ease won't persuade it to give us even the barest hint of information, perhaps applying so discomfort will work," the agent said.
"Why is it that every ti there is great strides of science to be made, the governnt chooses the most offensive, thuggish minions it could find, minions that would not be out of place working as bouncers in a particularly odious brothel in the storm drains below the lowest slum?" UUnvuuloo asked conversationally.
Both Agents jerked, one giving high tights flutings of offense.
"As soon as you don't get what you want imdiately, you jump to applying force," UUnvuuloo said, shaking his fronds in amusent. He pointed at the screen. "The Subject, completely nude, can withstand temperatures that would roast or freeze you, eat things that would eat or poison you, withstand humidity that would leave you drowning in your own lung tissue, handle radiation that would cook you alive by rely adjusting the lanin content of its skin, handle gravity that would cause you to collapse into heap of dying flesh," UUnvuuloo gave a fluting laugh.
"I'm sure whatever discomfort you co up will have to be administered by robots," he laughed.
"Be that as it may, the Martial Departnt's Office of Scientific Inquiry will be taking possession of the specin," the left hand agent said.
UUnvuuloo just shrugged. "Ah, yes, I had nearly forgotten. The Dominion Senate Budgetary Proposals are due next month," he leaned back slightly on his stool seat, clenching the hard lips of his mouth against the synthetic seat. "I'm sure you can wrest so more energy credits from the Dominion taxpayer by taking over the Specin."
When the two Agents looked outraged UUnvuuloo laughed.
"Take it," he said. "And get the out of my office."
-----
The specin sat on the constructed bench seat, looking out the window at the foggy day outside. The humidity was nearly 60%, making it foggy, the water vapor in the air choking and vision clogging. It narrowed its eyes several tis, its eyes tracking sothing outside.
"Why is it acting like it can see through that soup?" one of the guards asked.
"Who knows. It's a xeno," another shrugged.
"Can't wait till we drop it off. It looks stupid," the third said. He motioned and nearly dropped his folded rifle.
"Nice job, half-arms," the first one teased.
The Specin looked at the three guards.
"Nice job, half-arms," it repeated.
The three blinked the eyes that faced the Specin. One reached up for the mouthpiece/earpiece on the sash below its eyes.
There was a loud snap as the Specin broke the high tensile flexible plastic restraint, reaching across with blinding speed to grab the headsets of all three Luxru guards. It grabbed all three together with both hands and twisted its hands in opposite directions.
Parts flew out.
It dropped the twisted and mangled ss, then leaned back, baring the at tearing dentation in its strangely placed mouth.
The second one tensed his grip on the bar of his pistol, flipping his end-wrist so that the braced slapped against his forearm, the projecting screen lifting up and into place. The tiny micro-servos oriented the screen on the Specin.
The Specin reached out, put three fingers on top of the beam projection screen, and pushed its opposable thumb through the liquid crystal projection screen. The whole thing gave a squeal and the magic smoke eeked out of the screen as the Specin pulled its hand back. It put its thumb in its mouth, made a sucking noise as it withdrew its thumb from its mouth, then bared its teeth again.
"It broke my pistol!" the middle guard said. He lifted up the weapon, looking at it. The screen was punctured and the housing was bent at the top. The aiming servos were shredded and the battery had popped loose when the fra had warped. The middle guard shook his arm. "Damn, that hurt!"
The left hand one unfolded its rifle. The screen raised up, orienting, the small rotating sensor on the side beginning to twirl. The front firing assembly dropped down then unfolded, allowing the left hand Luxru to grab the aiming bar.
The Specin watched with interested eyes.
"Don't move," the guard said.
The other one raised the burster up. It had a cuff around his forearm, the projection lattice snapping out nearly a half ter from the cuff, his hand dropping down to the squeezable firing handle. The goggles dropped down over two of his eyes.
"We have you targeted. Do not move," the right hand guard said.
The Specin gave a roll of their eyes, a strange ocular movent, then went back to looking at the foggy day outside.
The right hand guard passed the middle his blaster pistol, the middle guard unfolding it so the projection screen faced the Specin.
"You just know they're going to make pay for that," he lanted.
The Specin just sat silently, their face expressionless, their eyes watching things in the fog that the three Luxru couldn't see.
All three agreed, in the locker room, that they were glad to turn the Specin over to the power armor clad guards.
END OF FILE
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