Novels2Search

Remnants

Preliminary report - survivors

The group from the Flight Deck did not yield any new information, aside from some actions of certain other individuals aboard the station. Needless to say they are all in immediate need of medical attention. Corporate has placed all survivors on paid leave pending a full investigation as well as a quarantine for potential novel diseases manufactured aboard Citadel by SHODAN. Any sudden mutations will be dealt with by termination due to the danger they may pose, though fortunately none have been witnessed so far. All are currently deemed Low-Medium risk to corporate interests until further update by a medical team. No items possessed by any member of the group were out of the ordinary.

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The Hacker's 'companion', Employee #3-4510, was found so heavily engrossed in writing an account of the events aboard Citadel, the Security detail to sweep the escape pod initially reported nobody aboard until someone walked up to the pilot's seat. His possessions were intriguing: the escape pod he landed in was loaded to nearly 80% of mass capacity with a wide variety of diagnostic and repair tools, isolinear chips and other high-value spare parts, as well as dozens of personal electronics which were scanned by CyberSec. Several extremely large teeth had been fashioned into a crude necklace; DNA traces match the "Gor-Tiger" mutant variant. He also claimed ownership of over 5000 Tri-Credits, which were reportedly acquired by recycling everything deemed useless in the current situation including the station's entire hardback archives.

Firearms aboard the escape pod were surrendered without incident pending employee's final training for Handgun (Ballistic), Longarm (Ballistic) and CQC weapons licenses. Request for transfer to employee habitation in close proximity to a Security station or Armed Response base granted, pending an available unit.

Employee-65925 made an extensive presentation during debriefing regarding everything observed in escaping the Citadel Crisis that included profiles of novel threats encountered, which were also made available on the public Web after being cleared by Security. Psychological profiling indicates a strong "Knight" psyche manifesting as an urgent desire to alert others of imminent dangers in maximum detail. Corporate security requested him to be immediately assigned to assist in recreating mutant threats for encounters within holographic armed-response training. As of this filing he has also begun the process for an independently funded repair and service shop.

At his specific request Employee-65925 wishes to have this statement amended to any report including himself:

"Do not ever start up what you cannot immediately shut down."

Current risk to corporate interests is Medium. First-hand descriptions of his survival aboard Citadel are causing panic and distrust. Individual's willingness to use deadly force in a threatening situation will be extremely high due to surviving an unusually hazardous situation. Potential for obsession and hallucinations.

Addendum by CorpSec: This is of no further concern due to the uncontainable nature of the crisis. Downgrade risk level to Low, discontinue all manual observation and release the block on the firearms licenses. We've got way bigger problems to deal with than a single employee telling people to keep a loaded shotgun at hand in case of monsters.

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Personnel Transport #E-914 was spotted at the fringe of detection range by radar stations around Luna Prime shortly after launching from Citadel Station, heading on a projected course somewhere in the northern hemisphere. Craft vanished minutes afterword with no sightings on Luna or Earth despite multiple atmospheric and exospheric patrol craft being scrambled to intercept. Both it and Employee #2-4601 remain unaccounted for since that time.

Items known to have been taken by Employee #2-4601 include: 2 MK-84 Accelerator Railguns, at least 8 blocks of Z-44 Plastique, several hundred rounds of 9mm Teflon, multiple modified small arms, 3 replica human skulls made of 100% pure artificial sapphire (total value ~1.5 million credits; looted from executive offices aboard Citadel), large jeweled 'egg' (value undeclared but estimated at 2-5 million credits from existing photographs), name plaque from Edward Diego's office with hidden compartment containing [REDACTED].

Known illegal skills include remote system penetration, password cracking, active code modification, ICE evasion, alteration of message-of-the-day banners and defacement of public user profiles.

Screening of all known associates still in progress but no evidence of high risk activities or known criminal/terrorist links have yet been found. Interviews of close relatives revealed only a vague knowledge of unusual activities. Intelligence indicates with 98% certainty that the Employee deliberately obscured his illicit actions from all trusted individuals.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Due to the unlawful and reckless manner by which the Employee entered company service, no onboarding examinations were performed including mandatory psychological profiling. Instead fraudulent data was inserted by Edward Diego which bears the impossible results of all values being entirely neutral. Employee #3-4510 was unable to provide a satisfactory profile and stated that he rapidly became nonverbal after their initial meeting as the situation aboard Citadel was made clear to him.

Prior life to employment includes an completion of eclectic and sometimes seemingly unrelated low-cost certifications from Triop Home University. Web browser history shows a long list of self-educational vids on cybersecurity including numerous darknet addresses which Security was unable to access. No illegal items were recovered from the Employee's apartment except for an access card cloner last used over a year ago to copy Employee's own apartment keycard.

Criminal history unremarkable with the exception of two charges of hardware address spoofing for malicious purposes. Case was ultimately dropped due to lack of evidence - misconfiguration by system admin had resulted in all security logs being overwritten every 24 hours. Records indicate Employee 5-9953 was convicted of gross negligence of duty, fined $25,000 and banned from employment in managerial positions for a minimum of 5 years. MAC address listed on court docket matches a spare wireless module found in a bag labelled "do not use".

Numerous sightings of Employee #2-4601 on Luna, Earth and orbital platforms have been reported since his final destination became public knowledge. Approximately 43% of these cannot be conclusively disproven to have actually been the Employee.

Current risk to corporate interest is Extreme. Limited data places psyche along the Rogue/Lone Wolf/Crusader axis. His current motives are unknown.

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STATUS REPORT: CITADEL MAJOR DEBRIS

***CLASSIFIED***EYES ONLY EXECUTIVE CLEARANCE BRAVO OR ABOVE***

-Alpha Grove-

Last known status: JETTISONED INTACT

All available observation data indicate that Alpha Grove deorbited into Saturn's atmosphere with 84% probability.

Search and recovery success by Trioptimum or other parties is considered minimal.

Asset written off as lost.

-Beta Grove-

Last known status: JETTISONED INTACT; MAJOR BIOLOGICAL CONTAMINATION

Of all 4 Groves, Beta was the one selected by SHODAN for use as an ad-hoc organic bioweapons production and refinement facility.

After self-destruct of Citadel Station all contact was lost and Beta Grove was calculated on a path leading out of the solar system.

Wideband warning broadcasts are currently ongoing to all Trioptimum employees, competitors and independent entities.

Recovery is explicitly NOT authorized.

No boarding operations are to be conducted, even for the recovery of SHODAN auxiliary processing node.

When Beta Grove is located the interior is to be exposed to vacuum by breaching the containment dome while the Grove itself to be

towed to a confirmed collision course with the sun while under armed escort.

SEARCH AND RECOVERY PRIORITY "APOLLYON".

CEO HAS ORDERED IMMEDIATE USE OF FISSION WEAPONS IF ASSET IS ON COURSE TO COLLIDE WITH A POPULATED STATION OR COLONY.

THIS IS REGARDLESS OF THE AFFILIATION OR OFFICIAL RECOGNITION OF THE STATION/COLONY ENDANGERED.

-Gamma Grove-

Last known status: JETTISONED INTACT

A number of survivors on Citadel attempted to use Gamma as a lifeboat per established procedure. Unfortunately, they failed

to disable the onboard SHODAN auxiliary node before separation, resulting in the rogue AI shutting down life support at time of launch

by deliberately overloading the power network for 90% of the Grove's interior.

Rescue team located two survivors in Grove's control center suffering from malnutrition, dehydration, oxygen deprivation and infection

by novel illnesses manufactured by SHODAN. Survivors quarantined; full recovery time estimated at 6 months minimum.

Gamma Grove is currently undergoing repairs due to micrometeorite impacts.

-Delta Grove-

Last known status: JETTISONED INTACT

Grove recovered and towed to Titan Interplanetary Freight Station. SHODAN auxiliary processing node fully neutralized; no live biological

threats remained aboard. Delta Grove is scheduled for decontamination and reuse by connection to TIFS in its original function. Construction

efforts are currently ongoing.

-Laser Array-

Last known status: SEPARATED FROM STATION BY SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE

Observation of Citadel's last minutes shows a portion of the final emitter array appears to remain intact as it was violently detached.

Debris calculated on a path to exit the solar system. Recovery team dispatched to predicted location due to value of investment.

-Bridge and main SHODAN neural processing units-

---Asset assigned codename TYRANT---

Last known status: LAUNCHED DURING SELF-DESTRUCT SEQUENCE

By direct order of the Chief Security Officer, all information regarding this asset has been classified to the E-5 council.

Any vessel - regardless of affiliation - which attempts to breach the established perimeter around TYRANT, board, retrieve any specimen

or object, intentionally transmit data streams to or receive data streams from TYRANT will be destroyed without further warning.

***END OF REPORT***