ACCESSING DATABASE...
‽‽ WELCOME TO THE SITE KOPPA DATABASE ‽‽
!! DUE TO RECENT SECURITY RISKS, ALL DATABASE FILES WILL BE DENIED PERMANENT SAVING IN PROVIDED GS/CN ARCHIVES. PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU HAVE VIABLE BACK UP COPIES FOR ANY SIGNIFICANT DOCUMENTS UPLOADED TO THE DATABASES. KTHNX ~Command !!
> /open File KAPPAISDEAD
OPENING FILE…
The following is recovered from personal files of the propagator of the Kappa Killings, the incident that foresaw the permanent shutdown of Compound-Kappa, Researcher Alex Brannigan. Brannigan remains at large.
Entry 1: This is...uh...Doctor Alex Brannigan at Compound Kappa. This is, uh, Experiment 81-B. We throw a cat in a blender and see what sticks--no I'm kidding--this is our experiment to see if we can get official designation as a science compound. Like Zeta, but like actually worth something. The experiment is to see if we can artificially stimulate a brain extracted from a dead coworker. We actually got a little scanner that'll translate impulses into speech...
Suffice it to say, we've moved on from a fungal model. The progressive mnemonic deterioration and psychotic episodes were the final nail in the coffin. I suppose the first red flag was the necessity of engineering benign ergotism for the project to move forward (as if the mental image of a person's brain being probed by a host of genetically modified hyphae wasn't disconcerting enough) We've begrudgingly accepted that it is far better to use machinery then risk some sort of parasitic monstrosity, especially after the whole chimp debacle 2 weeks back. We had to vacate the lab so that biohazard team could drench it with antifungal solutions. Sure, it delayed working for a day or two, but it sure as hell beats waking up one morning to find mycelium growing inside your skull.
Entry 2: The experiment was a complete success. Well, as much of a success as it could have been. It is noteworthy, as it turns out, that without a nervous system, or eyes, or really any sensory system whatsoever, a brain really doesn't have much to go off of. However, we nonetheless were able to transcribe a number of fairly consistent thought patterns which we were able to demonstrate weren't complete flukes...
Entry 3: Oh Jesus God in Heaven! The commander decided to let Kappa be an official Science District! I simply can't believe it, I expected something but I definitely didn't expect it this soon! I'm having trouble writing this as it were, my hands are actually shaking! Good reasons though. He said he hasn't found actual experiments for us to do, but he will soon!
Entry 4: Weird day today. Jackson apparently had some sort of incident while he was stationed at Stronghold Lambda, he called my cell babbling, crying like a baby. My brother may not be the toughest guy around but he certainly has never cried like how he was. His account of that day's events was far from coherent. All I could gather was that an intruder has stirred up the drones over at Mu. Needless to say, he was deeply unsettled. I'll have to ask him for more details tomorrow. Of course, I let him come in to spend the night. It was kind of nice, actually, we don't really see each other that often, in spite of working for the same organization. It didn't take much to occupy us, never did, the night was spent on the couch watching television.
Entry 5: Brought Jackson into Kappa today, his post is already filled on Thursday's and he made it pretty clear to me he still didn't feel safe on his own. Honestly, I would've asked him what was troubling him but we apparently just got our first official order from the head offices and, as one might expect, I was really keen on getting right down to business. Jackson was... pretty calm, honestly. Was. Until about a quarter before five. He started screeching and pointed to the fog and screamed "He's here". I didn't see anything, no one did. That in itself is unsurprising, after all it was fog, but I did feel somewhat uneasy. Not just at my brother's outburst but, at the actual... I can't explain it, but, I know I felt something in that fog.
Entry 6: Day's got me a bit peeved. I'm trying to get down to these orders but every half hour or so, our console gets a message. From "Command", it says. Oh no, what could it be? An emergency? Updated instructions? Nope, gibberish, just gibberish, random characters and symbols. First couple of times, it's whatever, but upon the twentieth time you can imagine how it would be pretty annoying. The issue is these things have pretty strict codes, if you get a message from Mu like this, you read it before all else, and even if something like this happens where you'd kind of understand why someone would blow it off, God help you if it's something serious. The reprimand for something like that is just gross (now that I think of it, our ethics policy is very weirdly organized) and I am not at all keen on potentially being blacklisted.
So, I endured. After 7 o' clock, I locked up shop, as usual, and swear I heard the terminal beep its usual boops to signify an incoming message. Well, rules also say one can't be held accountable if you're off-duty, after all how would you see it. I actually muttered, out loud, to myself, "ha-ha". Took maybe 15 seconds to saunter away, but then I guess my conscious sort-of got ahold of me, and even though I was initially despondent to the laborious task of re-retrieving my keys from my pocket and unlocking the workstation again, I bit the bullet and went back in. But by that point, the terminal was blank. Black screen. I know for certain I heard a message come in, hell, I'd heard the damn jingle at least 30 times that day, but there was nothing, not even a notification for a missed message — nor was there anything new in the inbox. We were past the point of plausible deniability, there was just nothing I could do at that point. I was certainly very briefly worried that I had missed something actually important and that my ass belonged to the disciplinary board, but I thought about it, the fact we were getting glitchy messages all day combined with the fact the invoice suddenly disappeared calmed me down enough. Locked up again, and started to leave. Yet again I was stopped, this time not by the terminal but by my cell. I got a text, an unknown number.
"FINDME"
Entry 7: Really not much to say today. Someone attacked bedrock in his chambers early in the morning. I don't know why, but that somehow lead to the decision to lock down all compounds for a day. Stayed home with Jackson and we watched Netflix. It was nice.
Entry 8: Been a few days, where to start? Well, for one, effective tomorrow we're shutting down operations for three days. Mu is getting into some serious shit to stop the thing that attacked bedrock. It's... no longer a someone, it's a something. Not everyone is really in on the details. Fuck, can I even write this down? Bah, who would be reading this? The point is, the thing we're dealing with is apparently being refrained from being designated as "human". Bleggh. Frankly, I'm not at all buying it. It looks like a human, moves like a human, and it's wearing clothes. It causes camera interference, he could be using a jammer. It disappears around corners, we've had rudimentary teleport technology since the 90's. The fog, I'm not sure about, to be honest, but it's not unlikely he's just been waiting for the right weather conditions. It's strange, I don't know why we aren't being more level-headed about approaching this issue. Sure, when I had that run-in with "it" the day I took Jackson in to Kappa, I felt uneasy, but I don't think it was anything too terrible?
A hardened man would surely feel nothing dehabiliting. It's ridiculous, however I'm but a lowly beetle against the Administration, so it's not like my two cents count. In any event, we've set up... well, it's not even a plan, it's more like some half-written Scooby-Doo trap. We're calling it "Operation: Rabbit Hole". I took the transit over to Mu to talk to bedrock about it, but he seemed really shaken. He stammered at me and couldn't stop shaking. He said that the thing hates cameras. Like, really hates cameras. It freaked out and fled when it realized it was being watched. He said he needs me to send some of my staff over to help with the technicians, maybe make an acid bomb to chuck at him for a Plan B. I caught him checking out Pam from Admissions as I left. Sort of thought he was gay. Jackson was very concerned that things aren't going to work out. I sent half of my staff to Mu, can't go myself. I don't trust Jackson alone.
Entry 9: Writing this live. Operation is a-go, and the feed's being broadcasted via the security network so us drones could make field observations without actually being present. Someone else is being the stenographer, as it were, for my department, so I'm writing this for my own pleasure, maybe I'll use it as a rough draft for my conclusions report once we prove this is nothing more than some regular dreg's folly with the commander. Here we go. He's tore down the defensive wall, probably using some sort of physics-related tech. Jesus, gotta write fast. They're moving in on him... and, fuck, whole room's out. Dead? Not sure, will have to wait until damage control when everything's said and done. He's moving predictably, he's made a b-line for the trap room. Walked right into it, heh. The net's been sprung, the cameras are up, watching this thing. He's not doing much but, he must see the room is full of people, full of witnesses.
It's actually a bit difficult to hear.
He's still going.
entry9.5- it's been about 4 hours, and the death toll keeps rising. i don't feel awake anymore, i barely feel real. it's like i'm walking in a thick fog, i understand what i am seeing, and comprehend what i am hearing, and yet it all feels so foreign.
when it began to react, i will admit, i felt somewhat entertained. there was this sudden, prevailing hate that came over me for this figure, this stranger. i almost began to chuckle as he continued throwing his tantrum at length. but as time went on, and he kept crumbling, the elation quickly faded. i began feeling very anxious. the feed began to devolve into random noise, buzzing and droning, no discernable sources. then it started screaming.
the whole room shook. not just on the camera feed, my actual residing room shook. the power throughout kappa went down, lights went out, the emergency backup lights never even kicked in. of course, by some cruel joke, the camera feed never even so much as froze. the interlude before the chaos must have been only a second, maybe two, but to me it just felt like an eternity. i didn't know why at the time, but suddenly i felt so alone. my breathing strained, and gently squealed as i let it out. my heart was in my ears, and with each beat i felt like my entire body shook from its weight. then the first yelp rang out. the camera feed went dark. i'd hoped the transmission had simply died, but the reality became clear quickly – the feed had not gone down, mu had gone dark. the lighting systems had died simultaneously, and mu was now as dark as we were.
i saw these sudden white streaks fly across the screen, with no pattern. it took us a second to realize they were a multitude of muzzle flashes, the worst was coming to fruition, the room was awash in gunfire. the thing just kept screaming. we, on the other hand, were silent, mostly, at least, no one was speaking. some people gasped, i feel like someone maybe cried, however briefly.
someone near me hollered that they kept being pinched, another reprimanded an unseen presence for "laughing". the unease had finally given way to complete panic, and before i knew it waves of... shrieks and yelps rippled through the crowd, from one wall to the other, back and forth. i couldn't see anything, i couldn't tell what was going on, even without lights the room should not have been that dark. it was total blindness. i could hear people begin to move in their panics, the shuffling, bumping into one another, the sound of tripping and falling. despite security guards' urging us to keep calm, the crowd became more and more agitated. every few moments i was violently jostled in a new direction. this went on for nearly an hour. no one could find the door. i must have been forced against every inch of all four walls of that damned prison twenty times in that hour, but i couldn't find an exit point either. there was never a moment of peace, never a chance to become calm, every few seconds, eternally, something new happened to frighten us. finally, after that hour of madness, I heard a Voice. It muttered three simple words, "I see you."
agony. the lights were still down, but i saw that... "face". i saw that mask. i knew it was there. i saw its Eyes, every tooth in Its fetid maw glistening like the moon's reflection on a dark lake.
i felt like i could hear jackson next to me, screaming his heart out, clinging to my arm so desperately that i could feel his fingernails dig into my flesh.
what followed could only be described as utter chaos. in the dark, only the wails of the dying, and the anguished cries of those left could be heard in a massive, swelling din that bloodied the ears of all within that black echo chamber.
the gradual silence. i don't know how long i sat there in the dark. when the lights came on the room was full of corpses. i looked to the screen. i can't describe the absolute dread i experienced when i saw mu was no different. it was standing amongst the corpses. the lights on their side were flickering. i have no idea what was transmitting at this point. it certainly wasn't the wall-mounted security camera anymore, we were on eye-level with it now. it says, "I'm not a bad person." then, it tells me to shush. the feed finally cuts.
600 died at mu. 340 died here at koppa. we're getting casualties from all over the grid.
Entry 10: bedrock called me. he offered condolences. after all, my staff is dead. they died within that room. as sick as it sounds, i feel like... i'd forgotten. his tune was certainly different. he's sporadic, making quick jokes once in a while. he was always a very no-nonsense, angry man. now... i don't even know.
he asks me if we can still "do brain shit" with our limited staff. this kind of half-disrespect for the field would just tick me off on other days but, i'm nothing if not pragmatic. i said yes. somehow, i knew the exact reason why he asked.
pam died. the thing got her, evidently. they found an eye, half her torso, and a partial skull. partial, because apparently working theory is the rest was 'consumed'. don't kno how to feel about that. but, the point is, her brain was recovered. her brain, intact. totally.
I don't think bedrock is well.
Entry 11: Why am I the only one acknowledging this? Why am I the only one who's acknowledging how fucked this all is? It's as if there's nothing wrong, anywhere. No one is nonplussed, no one is unperturbed, no one but me, no one is disconcerted! Have we forgotten? Have we all forgotten what the fuck happened here? Have we all forgotten that, that THING is still out there? Do we know where it is? Do we even KNOW??
Entry 12: I can't take much more of this. The workload keeps increasing, and the scope of this project is becoming untenable. We're being sent remains in mass quantities. We haven't even made tangible progress on any sort of prototype, let alone found a workable design. What do they expect us to do?
Entry 13: Experiments on new vessels are, as predicted, a failure. Doesn't seem to be any different from the control cases. Whatever. They're a hassle to work with anyway. These artificial fingers just stick to you, and won't let go...
Entry 14: i don't know what to do.
Entry 15: one of the bodies sent back a signal.
EntRY 16: I've stared at my work with some... sense of abject horror. An abasement to the highest degree, and there is not a modicum within me that believes what I have done is right, is correct. I cringe at my thoughts, my circumstance. The sense of accomplishment I should feel, is replaced with an emptiness that is so great I cannot quantify it.
Everyone that had died... at least, everyone that we got... have woken up. They're all sending data. Fingers are fidgeting, muscles are contracting.
: all the light has gone from my world.
it suddenly dawned of me. i tried to think. i realized, i couldn't even remember my father's name. i was angry. i figured, maybe it took my memories, but.
i don't think i ever knew it. i don't think i ever had a father. it was a fiction. i built that machine, which reads the brain, but why? what was my purpose in doing so? how did i create such a thing? where was i educated? where did i learn to do this? when was i hired? why am i h
I don't
remember writing this. I did not write this. I did n
Entry 17: Jackson wasn't home. He didn't tell me he was going out.
Entry 18: It has been days. Jackson still hasn't come back.
Entry 19: When the project began producing tangible results, the outputs, I thought, were gibberish. After a while, we noticed patterns. It took us longer than I'd like to admit to figure that, being partly mechanical, subjects could no longer communicate with us in a manner as simple as having a conversation.
When I thought I nailed the conversion model, I was disappointed. It seemed to still be gibberish. Yet, as much as the main meat of the transmissions were garbage, they always ended the same way, "L-I-O-U-Y"
They say that Alan Turing and his team cracked the Enigma code through a similar method. The Nazis would change the cipher daily, but they didn't account for their typists to use the same phrases in daily telecommunications. Thus, if the team was able to identify a lemma which occured on a daily basis, they could extrapolate how the entire parcel was encoded.
So, on I marched. Stupidly, stupidly, on I marched.
when i finally managed to break the lock, i was happy. i was proud. the first lines i deciphered were simple.
"hello world"
"i wait"
"L-I-O-U-Y"
by the time i finished my work, all i was left with was regret.
"show me you are different from the others"
"i wish to die"
"shut down me"
the man in the mask, just laughs. laughs and laughs and laughs.
ENTrrry 20; end. i couldn't do it anymore. terminated all the projects. carbolic acid injection. couldn't get the ████████, it was taken out of the science wing. they hauled it off, well guarded. they're doing something to it, making it something else. that presents problems. they will wonder why it succeeded where the rest have now evidently failed.
Entry 21: found jackson. what was left of him anyway. torso. missing legs. missing most of his chest. sternum gone. ribs exposed. jackson im so sorry. i didn't protect you.
Entry 22: it found me in the closet trying to hang myself. it whispers terrors into my ears. once it cut me down i ran. don't want to die didn't want to die then. it follows
Entry 23: "Stay in wonderland and I'll show you how deep the rabbit hole goes."
Entry 24: "Bring a shotgun" it said. AND I DID!
They're all dead. Guards were nowhere to be seen. I cut off Pam's synthetic head. Stuck my thing in her mouth over and over again til release.
KAPPA IS DEAD. WE ARE ALL DEAD.
Entry 25: The next thing I knew I was in the ward at Nu. COMPOUND NU. Ignoring how exactly I got here, the medics tell me it has been a week since all this happened. I'm not sure if I believe them. For one thing, they all smile slyly when they tell me anything. Plus, I think they are drugging me surreptitiously. I feel so woozy all the time. I hate this place, it is so barren and lifeless. But to be honest, I like the fact that there are bars on the windows.
Entry 25.5: I killed the medics. I'm a free man. Stole tons of pills from the medications office. Now, everyone really is gone.
entry 266666666666: Sometimes, I wake up at night. It is always very quiet and there is no one around. I often hear Jackson wailing in the distance. A couple of times, I heard tapping on the windows. But I took some more pills so it doesn't matter. The only thing I don't like, is that there is no lock on the wardrobe. Please get me a lock on the wardrobe? I don't like what's in there so please do something about it. Please close it off.
Please help me.
Alex Brannigan has been missing several months. Given his contemporaneous unstable state of mind, it can be assumed that if still active he poses a major threat. As of █/██/1█, he is to be considered dormant, i.e. declared dead in absentia.
Contact Mu Administration if you have any information regarding his current whereabouts.