Time: 09:21, September 18 Location: Pfhor garrison, planet's surface I see you landed... more or less alright. Sorry about the crash through that cliff; the landing pods have awkward auto-defensive maneuvers, and you were taking serious fire from some nearby cannons. Until today, we had no idea this planet existed. It's neither in our log books nor the S'pht ones; the scientists are calling it CBBD-20357, but one of them called it "Artemis," and the name stuck a bit better. So, welcome to Artemis. Most of the damages we sustained from the attack on the Istanbul came not from their cruiser, which we're calling Acheron, but from a series of land-based fusion artillery somewhat south of here. Preliminary wide-beam scans are preventing us from teleporting you directly there due to a signal scrambler; the source is somewhere in this region.
Pfhor scrambling beacons are a piece of technical ingenuity; rather than having to manufacture them, they can simply hotwire pre-existing scanning stations so that they emit various fragmented signals and interrupt transmissions. Thus, we don't actually know what the beacon looks like; all that you can assume is that it's a bizarre energy-emitting structure. Which won't help you much. Look for some subterranean control mechanisms; various scans on this region are revealing an extensive underground network, on top of an equally large chain of garrisons.
The Istanbul was issued several newer weapons than the ones you may be used to; your arsenal has changed remarkably. We'll be deploying the new Imperial-55 Machine Pistol today, as soon as we find the box they're in. We found one, but we'd like to find the rest... Anyway, our senior weaponologist, Dr. Johann Guntar, has more about the gun: The Imperial-55 Machine Pistol is a lightweight, rapid-firing submachine gun capable of decimating lightly-armored personnel in close combat. While it is very powerful and fires very fast, the light weight makes it impossible to maintain a steady aim, and is thus utterly useless at long range. Because of this, the IMP-55 was not issued extensively through the OSEF. The IMP-55 uses 32-round clips, and is operated with just one hand. Two IMP-55s can be used simultaneously. Keep your eyes open for it.
[ Fragmented message ] f the planet is generally arid with small oceans and large deserts. Minimal vegetation. Volcanic activity both above and underground is intense; cross-referencing with our planetary almanac shows that the planet's atmosphere and environment is stunningly similar to Lh'owon. Flora/fauna reports are showing the existence of various animals we imagined to be exclusive to Lh'owon; signs indicate spreading of species by an external source. Expect hostile environment. Pfhor garrisons are gen [ End of message fragment ] The Gray Incident secret terminal 1/7
Excellent work. The scrambler is off; we now have a perfect opportunity for you. Even if they do re-enable the scrambler, we've fitted your suit with a homing device of sorts; regardless of the teleport shields and blocks around you, we can always bring reinforcements and supplies to a location near you. Take that, Pfhor technology! The Pfhor attack force is crumbling beneath us, but there's something more interesting than humanoid insects lurking around. While you were busy putting things into living, breathing creatures, did you notice the architecture of these structures? It's not like the Pfhor to use such rigidly-formed structures, and even less like them to let it fall into such disrepair. Even more noteworthy is the presence of what appeared to be AI personality cells embedded in the rocks and garrisons.
The Pfhor don't use personality cells; Tycho clones don't have much personality. What concerns me (and therefore you) is the idea that there is someone else already here. We'll have to check it out; the garrisons extend all across the continent, and so few of them are occupied by the Pfhor. We'll have to look at them later. For now, it's time to take out the cannons. We need these cannons down before we can go anywhere with their cruiser. If we leave them alone, they'll just shoot down the Acheron once we take control of it. You can imagine that that might be counterintuitive. Prepare for teleport.
You must be close by to the scrambling beacon. It's interesting how it works; the field shelters the entire cannon structure, but not itself. The fight on the Istanbul is going fairly well; search-and-destroy teams are having relative success in finding the remains of the Pfhor squadrons. Interesting; their detachment is smaller than would be expected from a cruiser of that size. Perhaps the Pfhor are occupied with something else. When you do disable the scrambler, return here.
interlevel teleports
