E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 1
The Research Team and I have landed safely on the surface of Earth-5482K. We are here to learn as much as possible about the serpent-like creatures that wiped out the human population on this Earth. Our main base of operation will be in an African grassland, far from any sign of humanity. The creatures are more dense in cities and once highly populated areas, though there are still creatures here and there in the wild. Upon landing, our first impression was…less than good. Our landing startled a group of the serpent creatures sleeping in a field, which ended with the destruction of our twin lightspeed engines and the death of two custodial employees. We buried them nearby. Thankfully our distress signal reached the home base and a repair team is on their way.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 2
We’ve begun the standard Planet scans for basic information. The company we’ve been commissioned by, the grand old Seashell Corporation, checks in twice a day. It’s become somewhat annoying, being woken up in the middle of the night by some random guy I’ve never met. The Planet Scan results will be ready by tomorrow morning.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 3
The Planet Scans have completed. Human life signals on the planet, 14, which is my research team. Air Quality: Normal. No Airborne Toxins/Threats detected. The Ozone layer has improved drastically since the death of the human population, typical. Temperature readings are normal. All of that is normal except for the last scan. “Unknown Apex Population: 8.64 billion.” Apex Population refers to anything that is observed utilizing tools, showing signs of sentience and self-awareness, and hunting with a plan or trap in mind. Our research into the creatures has not yet begun, but based on what my men have seen through the windows, this Apex population appears to be the elegant (yet aggressive) creatures that wiped out humans on this Earth.
That’s not exactly the strange part, though. The strange part is the population estimate, 8.64 billion. The last conducted census on this Earth revealed that 8.64 billion people were living on the surface.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 4.
After our startling revelation yesterday, we’ve been instructed to skip the rest of the basic scans and calculations and begin researching the creatures, which have been named “Serophida Ultimae”, or “Serophs” for short. No one has said it out loud yet, but we’re all thinking the same thing. These things are, or were, human. I hope we’re wrong. As for a basic description of the Serophs, they are primarily dark, navy blue with maroon/purpleish horns and scales. They look like a mix between serpents and birds, to put it simply. They remind my men of blueberries, for some reason. They all have 4 sets of wings and move gracefully. They’re about 12 feet long.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 5.
Today has been somewhat of a rollercoaster. First thing in the morning, one of my men was dragged out of the outhouse and killed by a agitated Seroph. A few hours later, we managed to capture a separate Seroph in a containment unit provided by Seashell Corp, but it escaped when we weren’t looking and destroyed one of our research stations. After we recaptured it and made sure it couldn’t escape, it became unresponsive. We initially thought it was dead, but one of my men pointed out that it was still breathing. We were able to gather crucial biological information, but we weren’t able to gather any behavioral data. In the middle of the night it escaped again and disappeared. The data as well as a DNA sample confirmed the nightmare situation: Serophs are mutated humans.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 6.
We’ve managed to set up a controlled environment with several Serophs. The resulting data has been….strange, to say the least. We confirmed that they are sentient and self-aware. When not threatened, they become docile and somewhat calm. This varies between individuals, though. A few subjects have displayed a more aggressive personality that involves stealing food from other Serophs and attacking them for no apparent reason. On the other side of things, some of my men have been showing signs of some kind of sickness not identified by our scanners, which is close to impossible. They’ve been quarantined in separate containment units.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 7.
Contrary to what I was instructed to do, I continued the Planetary scans after things calmed down at the main base. I sent a long-distance reconnaissance drone out into the outer world to observe the more population dense areas, such as New York and Tokyo. New York was certainly not what I was expecting. Thousands of Serophs lined the streets, and thousands more flew above the city. The drone picked up a signal emanating from Nevada. I followed it and found Las Vegas in tatters, much like New York. At the center of a crowd of Seroph, I noticed one that looked different from the others. Larger horns, larger height and weight. It had 4 extra sets of wings, and gold color schemes in its scales. At first, I thought it was simply another mutation. Then I observed it fire an Oblivion beam* at another Seroph for taking its food. It was this World’s Winged Phenomena*, mutated into a Seroph.
*Oblivion Beams are energy beams that certain Winged Phenomena have the power to manifest and use as weapons. Only a Winged Phenomena can possess this power.
*Winged Phenomena are humans that have sprouted wings and are regarded as God like beings in some contexts. Each of the 10,000 earths in the Multiverse have one naturally occurring Winged Phenomena. These humans are extraordinarily powerful and are at the center of nearly every important event in recent Multiversal history.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 8.
I fear that may have doomed ourselves by taking this job. The men I have quarantined have begun to grow scales and are losing ability to speak. Myself begun to show symptoms as well. I fear I only have a few days left before I turn completely, so I will prepare. I’m going to lock myself and my remaining crew in containment units, with food and water to last a 12 foot serpent a week. Myself sent- I…sent a distress signal to Seashell Corp, and informed them of the situation. I will continue to speak into log until I can’t anymore. It become harder each day.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 9.
The 5 men myself previously quarantined have completely transformed into Seroph. Myself can see the resemblances in their faces, thems personalities. Are mostly calm, but become agitated when they remember trapped. I’ve begun to grow scales myself. Sometime find myself struggling to speak into these logs. It's as if my brain is being rewired. I stutter, and make grammatical error. See? Can't stop it. Longer those men were quarantine, the less spoke. Right before completely turned, stopped speaking entirely. I can hear them talking to me, to each other. Whispering in my ear, even though the containers are sound proof and separated. It’s telepathic communication. I can’t understand most of what they’re saying, but have feeling will in a few days.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 10.
Hear talking inside brain, l-louder. They stare at me. Known the men long time…and now they look like story book. Seroph as species don’t make noise most time. W-Will if hurt or if defending, usually don't. Sound like dream. Echoes. Distort. They stare at me as I speak into recorder. They say things, say them in my own mind. I can kind of hear, understand. Hard describe. I see you…M-Mason, Evelyn, Dawson, Clark, Mike and C-C-Carrie. Sometime wonder if even remember names, or me. I struggle with the words now. Don't know how long until I can't anymore.
E.S.R.R.A.E. Audio Research Log, Day 12
ANNOUNCEMENT: UN-TRANSLATABLE AUDIO RETRIEVED ON DAY 12 FROM [REDACTED]. END OF RESEARCH LOG.
THREE YEARS LATER
Seashell Corporation Science and Research Log Day 456
I’ve been stuck in this tin can for almost 2 years. They said it wouldn’t take this long to get there, but Shatter Space dilates time. Unless your ship has anti dilation shields, but nooo, it’s not like we’re a multi trillion dollar company. We can’t afford that. For ships and regular people, it seems like years to you, even though it's almost instant in reality.
Ben and Carlos are still in Cryostasis. I prefer to age, log everything. I want to be awake in case anything happens, even though there’s nothing in Shatter Space than us. Shatter gates create temporary pocket dimensions that lead to another place. They’re like a large, ovular tunnel. The tunnel we’re flying through right now is made of glass shards. Sometimes I see him. I don’t know if it’s a hallucination or if it’s actually him. He bursts into the tunnel and out, flying past the ship. Sometimes in the distance, sometimes right next to us. It would make sense. Shatter Gates came from him in the first place. Other Winged Phenomena like him can make them, but they’re all blue, his are pinkish purple.
He freaks me out. Some teenager that can control shards of glass was one thing, but apparently he’s an immortal carrying the souls of his earth in those shards around with him? Creepy.
Actually, what’s creepy is the Earth we’re going to. The Winged Phenomena that sprouted there released some kind of airborne virus that mutates your cells and eventually turns you into some kind of flying serpent creature. The last research team that went there didn’t know about it until it was too late. That’s why we’re going—to retrieve them (Apparently they locked themselves in containment units before they turned) for study and download their research. I’ll update the log when we reach the end of shatter space, in about 3 weeks.
Seashell Corporation Science and Research Log Day 476
We’ll be landing on the surface soon. Carlos and Ben were woken from Cryostasis about a week ago. They’re a bit drowsy. They said I looked like I aged 20 years.
Seashell Corporation Science and Research Log Day 478
We landed on the surface yesterday. We have to wear hazmats to avoid catching the virus and becoming all scaly. Freaky how similar, yet unfamiliar it looks to my Earth. These serpent things are everywhere. They’re mostly in the big cities, but there's still a lot out in the wild. They mostly leave us alone. It’s hard to believe they were human once. We’re on our way to the research base established by the last team, out in a grassland. We are to retrieve all 6 of the mutated researchers and, if possible, look for information about this world’s Winged Phenomena. She’s a serpent thing too, likely the first one. I’ll update when something interesting happens.
Seashell Corporation Science and Research Log Day 479
Yesterday we reached the base and found all 6 of the mutated researchers alive in their containment units. The way they all turned and looked at us the second we entered the room without a sound gave me the heebie jeebies. They stared at us like there was no tomorrow. Carlos and I spent most of the day detaching the containment units and loading them onto our ship, while Ben retrieved the logs and data. Apparently they're called Serophs, the serpent things. The head scientist left a note on the outside of his containment unit with his name, age, height, weight, etc. There were similar notes on the other containment units. We made sure to tag them before we lost track of who was who.
Seashell Corporation Science and Research Log Day 480
We’ve departed from Earth-5482K. I was able to mod our ship with anti-dilation shields using tech from the researcher’s ship, so this journey through shatter space will only take a few seconds, instead of years.
Seashell Corporation Science and Research Log Day 521
It's been about a month since the last Log. I'm technically not supposed to be making this one. But I feel the need to anyway. We brought the mutated researchers back to SeaShell Corp and began trying to “cure” them. I personally doubt a condition as serious and physically altering as theirs can be fully cured. They creep me out. I can see the human in their serpent faces. I can see the human in their eyes. They haven’t made a single noise. When they fly, it's completely silent. We've tagged and attached monitoring equipment to each one, and put them all in one giant containment unit.
We found out pretty quickly when one of our technicians was exposed to the air in their containment unit that the serpents themselves breathe out the airborne virus that mutated them, constantly. Each one does. The technician, knowing his fate was sealed, offered to be tested on, and, eventually, dissected. We found that the airborne virus, which we've dubbed “Scale” completely attaches to and mutates every single cell in the human body within a period of a week.
We also found that mutated brain cells form a psychic link with any other mutated brain cells in the surrounding dimensional plane. Which means that if there's a Seroph in universe 1229A, in the Aroxima Galaxy for example, another seroph from any other location in that universe can communicate with them. The link only severs in death or when traveling to a separate dimension or universe. This partly explains why Serophs make little to no noise. They communicate and make noise almost entirely through a connected hive mind.
Seashell Corporation Science and Research Log Day 522
I and the team I work with have been asked to continue researching Serophs until we either find out everything there is to know or create/find a cure. I don’t see myself updating this log any further as I am legally not allowed to. If the Corporation found out about this log and the last one, I could be jailed for life. So, I will continue studying the serpents until, hopefully, one day, I can publish all