Your discovery

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ISitInA
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Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:26 pm

Your discovery

Unread post by ISitInA »

To: Cpt********.1465.UNSC.THESEUS
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Subject: Your discovery

Captain,

I'll get a new data log out to you here in a couple of hours. I'm still deciding how much I want to include and how much I should just skip over. I have to watch my total file size still. But I wanted to address what you discovered.

You're going back to before Reach fell on this one, Captain. I'll make a prediction -- it'll be a material not unlike obsidian. I don't remember what the original was made out of offhand and my AI has decided to be unhelpful again.

In Olympus there was one place that was both revered and dreaded by the Orions. Shortly before the start of the Orion IV program, a monument was constructed. From a distance, it looked like a big, black chiseled rock. On it was the call sign of every Orion that had died. It was something of a way to call them back; everybody returns to Olympus. That sort of chest pounding pride that's instilled in boot camp. (I'm not knocking it, though. It's there for good reasons, I say.)

It wasn't until the IVs started going on missions, and dying on them, that they realized that it might mean something more. Orions didn't have funerals back then, Captain. They were just gone. Nobody really talked about it. That chunk of artificial rock was the only memorial that they had for the fallen.

Their first Christmas after graduation, ONI noticed an unusual behavior in the IVs. That Christmas, they left small tokens to those that they remembered and thought highly of. A couple of them left tokens for people they didn't actually like, but who had died on a mission with them. It was symbolic, and about as close to actual voiced spiritualism as many of them ever got.

At first, this was seen as a bad thing. It meant that they were clinging to the fallen. We had hoped to eliminate this. Eventually, we changed our tune. It was a form of therapy for people that normal councilors didn't do much for anymore. So we let them, even set up a small, long chest for them to put their tokens in. To protect them from the elements, you see. The IVs liked that, I think.

Every Christmas after that, the tradition continued. They were stubborn like that.

It's also where the 20 Orions left at Olympus made their final stand during the invasion. They'd been informed that Olympus would fall, and asked for volunteers to "make it hurt those split-lips." They had to turn away volunteers. They set up an impressive perimeter on short notice. The entire time they fought, there was one IV, P433, who was inscribing names into that stone. He probably shouldn't have been there, he was a G3 only two years into his training. But he insisted that somebody had to inscribe the names of those who fell in the defense of Reach.

They lasted twelve hours, three hours after Roland blew his horn, before a cruiser blew the entire facility to hell.

I think that this is another sign that it's F484. But one thing that I'm not sure I understand... It's March, not December. They only left the tokens on Christmas day.

Another mystery. Great. Just what I'm sure you wanted.

Sincerely,

Chair
PsycoJoe
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Re: Your discovery

Unread post by PsycoJoe »

Chair,

I've got a few more puzzles for you.

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Hive, include the image found by Raschad here.
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This image was found on a bulkhead during CN Raschad's shift. You may have seen it already. Would this tie in to the Christmas theme we've been encountering?

Then there's this:

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Include the drawing recently brought to me here.
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This was found on the back of another crewman's helmet after he reported hearing Christmas music over his comms channel. He was EVA at the time, and had difficulty using an airlock to swap equipment. This is most troubling due to the potential safety issues involved.
ISitInA
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Posts: 47
Joined: Fri Mar 18, 2011 9:26 pm

I'm not sure...

Unread post by ISitInA »

To: Cpt********.1465.UNSC.THESEUS
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Subject: I'm not sure...

Captain,

To be honest with you, those could mean anything. Christmas, sure. I could see the first being a Christmas tree. A very poorly drawn one, possibly.

The second one... It might be an inverted tree? If it came from Foxtrot, it could also be a reference to Diego Communications Company. He always loved their programs the most as a child. Or even a hazardous chemicals sticker, or a take on the logo for Marta's Bakery that was made up in the shape of how her bread split while baking, or any number of things.

I'll see what I can come up with. I can honestly say that I've never seen that particular image before.

Sincerely,

Chair

*************
Note by Hive: Captain, I have encountered additional encrypted data within this message. The encryption keys are old enough to be added to my own databanks upon my creation due to our frequent status in the outer regions of humanity's occupied zone, in case we encountered any of the number of missing ships from the war. Below is the unencrypted message.
*************
Play nice. Don't foul up their things if you can help it.
*************
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