(Captain’s Log: Captain Syrallak: Entry #12)

We have started sending out the Nano drones to collect data from the planet’s surface. Our techs think it will take at least a year to gather all of the information requested by the Empress.

(Personal Log: Captain Syrallak: Entry #15)

Sent out the drones today. I have no idea why the empress wants such detailed reports on the planet and its inhabitants, but our place is not to question. It’s going to be a long tour.

(Captain’s Log: Captain Syrallak: Entry #73)

Our drones have been scanning the planet and anything living on its surface. The amount of data being stored and processed is astounding. Even with the computers working at full capacity, it will take months to compile the data we already have. Techs say it will take at least two months longer than originally anticipated. Our drones keep coming up with new ways to glitch, and there are several areas on the surface where we are getting too much interference for the drones to properly operate and transmit.

(Personal Log: Captain Syrallak: Entry #92)

Some of the data that has been compiled already paints a pretty stark picture. The entire planet is full of warriors that are far superior to those of our own forces, but the people on the continent that locals call Terroval are something else entirely. I can see why the Empress is interested in this place, especially considering all of the unrest throughout the empire. Most people don’t know the empire is beginning to crumble, but those of us who read the reports from the outlying colonies can read between the lines. That was part of the reason I jumped at the opportunity to pilot my own ship under the direct command of the Empress.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

(Captain’s Log: Captain Syrallak: Entry #98)

Attached you will find a report from the imperial tech who was put in charge of going through the compiled data. {Urgent, for the eyes of the Empress only.}

(Personal Log: Captain Syrallak: Entry #124)

I sent out a data transmission today. First time I’ve ever had to mark something with so high a clearance level; had to look up the damn coding. There’s no way in the entire known universe that I would have sent that information out without marking it Empress’s eyes only, though. To think we would find a planet with so many heretics on it. If the Church of Perpetual Stability ever got wind of this, there would be an uproar. I always thought their talk was crazy. People who can convert matter with their mind? Who could even think that such a thing was possible? Well, it is, and there are whole schools of them down there. Hell, I’ve seen scientists lynched for doing less than even the untrained ones can do. I hope the Empress knows what she’s doing.

(Captain’s Log: Captain Syrallak: Entry #143)

Data compilation is almost complete. Deep Space Probes have picked something up heading towards the system. Our guys thought it was a comet at first, but the signals we were receiving didn’t match up with that analysis. Sending out another Deep Space Probe to verify target. At the rate it is moving, we won’t have to worry about it for two imperial years, whatever it is.

(Personal Log: Captain Syrallak: Entry #212)

Picked up some scary shit on the Deep Space Probes this week. From the initial guesses of our sensor guys, it is a massive ship heading directly towards this system. Best guess puts it at several dozen times the mass of our vessel. We’re a science ship—we aren’t equipped to handle something like that. Luckily, whatever is will be on the wrong side of the system when it gets here. We might have to engage stealth protocols if our mission doesn’t end by then. Maybe the Empress will send us a battleship. I don’t have any evidence, but something tells me the Empress already knows about the ship, and that’s the real reason we’re here.