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--Audio Log #0000431 (Excerpt)

--Audio cut and spliced from D:/ (SIGMA) by Srgt. Jaqcour Duret

--Notes: This isn't good... -Srgt. J

I loomed over the remnants of what once was my home. The one place I could get solace from work, gone. I don't even know how it happened, I woke up and the whole thing was just destroyed, and it took one glance over the neighbors to know this wasn't just my problem.

I eventually stood up to see the full picture: the entire city had been levelled out, leaving pure destruction everywhere. Buildings that were mostly intact were smoldering, debris covered the pavement, and a black smog covered the sky, bringing a toxic smell to the place. I couldn't believe it, I thought. Our unbreakable society, collapsed in front of our eyes? So many thoughts rushed to my head, but the most important one was probably to get to the Endeavour as quickly as possible.

I rushed off on foot, I doubt anyone would care if I showed up without my uniform. Heck, I didn't even know what time it was, like I would get some sort of cut off my check for showing up late. The whole way I see what I would assume are hurt people, probably near dead at this point, but my mind was laser focused on finding out what the fuck had happened. I couldn't hear all that well, but I could have sworn those citizens were cursing at me. Maybe that says somethin' about my self-esteem, whatever.

Got to the main bay area rather quickly, almost like I teleported there. Granted, that's what I've always done, so maybe it still felt that way, but never mind that. Staff is scrambling all over the place, almost all the windows are broken or just didn't exist, and our emergency lights flashed on and off. I think I was the only pilot present of all the men and women there. Booked it over to the meeting room, and some of my commanders were huddled around the universal holographic map in the room, quietly arguing with each other. All of them turned their heads to me the moment I slammed open the door.

"Sigma!" One of them barked. "You're alive, thank the stars... Would have been a disaster if you had died."

"Commander, Chief, what the FUCK happened??" I had to keep my focus on... whatever this was. When I asked this, however, they all seemed to stare at each other in worry.

"...well?"

Eventually, one of the lower ranked commanders stepped forward and confessed. "...it's about that thing you went looking for. The rogue AI that stranded its crew deep in space and--"

"And made itself a cosmic abomination that simply couldn't be contained? You're telling me that... that THING broke into our planet!?!?" I simply couldn't believe what I was hearing, but unfortunately, it would only get worse from there.

The crowd moved away from the hologram to effectively show me what happened. The hologram map extended outwards to reveal an undisclosed part of the galaxy, and in the center laid a black spot.

"That right there is the anomaly. It got a bit impatient with you waiting for you to come that it decided to move itself," the commander told me. In that moment, the black dot moved at an alarming rate, towards what would be the center of the galaxy, but every time it passed by a planet, a much larger, goopy tendril stuck out from the black dot and grabbed the planet.

"With every planet it fed on and destroyed, it only got stronger. Able to move faster to its true destination." The map now zoomed out, the black dot keeping its shape as the rest of the galaxy was mapped out in an instant. Suddenly, a white, dotted line protruded out of the black dot, and it connected, in a straight line, to Anubis, our home planet. The black dot followed the straight line, extending its tendril if any planet got too close to its path.

"And once it reached us, well..." The black dot on the hologram eventually slowed down once it got close enough to our planet. The hologram model zoomed in, showing precisely what had occurred: the dot extended multiple tendrils around the planet, piercing through our defensive barriers and practically played with the planet like it was a mere marble. Eventually, however, I guess it got bored and left off to the side.

"That motherfucker..." If my blood wasn't boiling by this point, I would have probably had steam whistling out of my ears. Through gritted teeth, I finally spoke up. "I'm gonna show that thing who it's boss. Chief! If he's still alive, page Jaqcour and tell him--"

"Actually, that won't be necessary." The commander switched his voice from a rather serious tone to one that wouldn't sound out of place in an evil villain monologue. "In fact... You won't be going anywhere, Mr. Sigma."

I stared at the commander in disbelief. Who the hell did he think he was!? The world is damn near destroyed and we still have an omnicidal robot on the loose! I would have yelled his ass off like that, but I couldn't. Something just wasn't letting me do it.

"I've been told that, somehow, this could have been avoided." The commander once again talked, seemingly growing a wretched smile with each passing second. "Details are... rather scarce. I guess you took one too many joyrides to the other planets with no results."

That was only because they gave us dead ends, I thought. It's not like--

"I've also been told that you refused to cooperate with your cohort." He now walked a little closer, and the rest of the higher-ups seemed to fade from my view. All of them were deadly quiet. "Jaqcour, was it? Turns out he was an essential part of this operation... and now he is no longer with us."

...well, if he just shut his yap for a few seconds, he wouldn't be dead. Duh, I thought. That man seriously thought that--

"I've been told, furthermore..." The commander seemed to now pace around me for this next sentence, allowing me to see that somehow, the lights had dimmed incredibly low. I couldn't see a thing now save for the crumbling city outside through the windows. The commander then began to laugh. "...that this all was just your elaborate plan to rise to stardom. You wished for fame and glory, but now? You have neither!"

Wha-- How did he know that!? I didn't know the thing I was hunting was dangerous, not to mention that I only took the job because I was practically shoved into a corner to accept it! The moment I saw it would be more dangerous than I realized, I--

The commander put a single hand on my shoulder. "Oh, there you go again, thinking a mile a minute, yet never being able to just... speak." In that moment, the entire room slowly covered itself in a black sludge. The commanders nearby and the chief were quickly submerged and subdued within the goop... and it only clicked in that moment what was going on.

...oh no.

Oh SHIT.

"You wanna know something, Sigma? I've been told..."

The commander finally faced me, and what I saw was his face, like, falling off. It crumbled apart as I looked down at it, and so did the rest of his body, as if it was a sandcastle being washed away by the ocean. In its place, however, a large black tentacle holding a computer screen of sorts emerged. The large tendril moved around and twisted such that the computer screen faced towards me, allowing me a moment to stare back at my own reflection in genuine horror for a moment. Once in position, the screen flickered on... to reveal a crude looking, pixelated face of some sort, made of basic geometry. I could only guess this was the face of the ship's virtual assistant before it went rogue. It finally opened its... "mouth" and spoke to me in a horribly glitched, deep robotic voice:

> thIs i5 Al1 y0ur fâul7..,

(This is all your fault...)

The moment those words were sneered at me, I immediately tried to reach for my blaster, but the goop quickly wrapped around my lower body, catching my hands in the process and trapping them to my sides. My entire body was paralyzed and no matter how much I struggled, I simply couldn't budge. For the first time in my whole life, I felt hopeless.

> hMMmm.,. Ì §hðµlD þrðßåßl¥ ¢ðñ£ê§§. Ì ÐïÐñ'T jµ§† gê† ßðrêÐ 0f ¥ðµ. ñð, †hå† wðµlÐ ßê †ðð ¢hêåþ. Ì'm ño† hêrE †ð †êll ¥ðµ †ð hµrr¥ ï† µþ, ßê¢åµ§ê †hê Ðêþ†h§ ðF †hï§ wïÐê §þå¢ê ï§ ïñ£ïñï†ê. ñð, §ïgmå,., Ì'm hêrê †ð †ell ¥ðµ hðw ¥ðµr £µ†µrê'll êñÐ µþ lïkê.

(Hmmmm... I should probably confess. I didn't just get bored of you. No, that would be too cheap. I'm not here to tell you to hurry it up, because the depths of this wide space is infinite. No, Sigma... I'm here to tell you how your future'll end up like.)

The computer screen approached my face slowly as it read its monologue. The strange tar had already coated the whole meeting room, covered its windows and left me in total darkness save for the dimly lit computer screen in front of me. The tar on my body also crept up slowly, encasing my stomach and my back with no chance to escape.

> ¥ðµ wïll Ðïê å† M¥ håñЧ, åñÐ ¥ðµr ꧧêñ¢ê wïll ßê µ§êÐ †ð rê§håþê Thï§ µñïvêr§ê †ð m¥ lïkïñg. †hå† ï§ whå† wïll åwåï† ¥ðµ.,. ïF ¥ðµ ¢ðñ†ïñµê ¥ðµr þå†h. ¥ðµ êï†hêr †åkê †hê hêlþ ¥ðµ ¢åñ gê†, ðr ßê rêßðrñ å§ †hê †rµê rµlêr 𣠆hê ¢ð§mð§,

(You will die at my hands, and your essence will be used to reshape this universe to my liking. That is what will await you... if you continue your path. You either take the help you can get, or be reborn as the true ruler of the cosmos.)

Even as it spoke, I did not listen, I was too scared to. The goop now reached my neck. In a last-ditch effort to free myself, I tried to tear away the goop, but the more I did so, the faster it regenerated. The computer backed away now, seemingly satisfied with this outcome.

> aAåHh.,, †hðµgh Ì kñðw whï¢h ðñê ¥ðµ'll þï¢k. ¥ðµ jµ§† ¢åñ'† ßå¢k 𵆠ð£ ßêïñg å kïñg,,. ßµ† ñêvêr mïñÐ †h冡! Ć †hê êñР𣠆hê Ðå¥, ¥ðµ ¢hð§ê †hï§ £ðr ¥ðµr§êl£...

(Aaahh... Though I know which one you'll pick. You just can't back out of being a king... but never mind that!! At the end of the day, you chose this for yourself...)

The world around me became increasingly dizzying. It came to a point where I could no longer tear away the tar, and my head laid there, completely weak. The toxic sludge finally got its chance to cover my entire head, covering my eyes entirely within seconds. And then, something got jammed up my ears. All I could hear from this point was...

> ̆'§ ¥ÚR £ÄÚL† ̆'§ ¥ÚR £ÄÚL† ̆'§ ¥ÚR £ÄÚL† ̆'§ ¥ÚR £ÄÚL† ̆'§ ¥ÚR £ÄÚL† ̆'§ ¥ÚR £ÄÚL† ̆'§ ¥ÚR £ÄÚL† ̆'§ ¥ÚR £ÄÚL† ̆'§ ¥ÚR £ÄÚL†

(The text "IT'S YOUR FAULT" written over and over.)

I quickly felt my body sink into the floor as that voice continued to glitch out and echo around me. I felt completely trapped, not being able to move and feeling myself helplessly falling forever, feeling like an ancient marble sta--

"SIGMA!! You're going to be late for the presidential meeting! Vice President Maxine is also calling you, says she needs to discuss the whole underground treasure thing that happened... What are you even doing?"

Ugh. None of your business. Tell her I'll be over in a bit...

"...You're acting stranger than usual today. I don't like it."

And I certainly don't like it when I have to fly a spacecraft with the nerdiest and most annoying being in the cosmos. Tell her I'll be there.

"Ugh, fine..."

...Hmph. Where was I...? Never mind that, I need to leave soon. Listen, I'm going to save this to my personal thumb drive. I can't let Jaqcour find this, otherwise he'll think I've gone mad. This... this thing, I've found out now it fucks with your emotions, but let me tell you, it picked a fight with the wrong tiger.

--End of Audio Log