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Intercepted transmission from new Yu Knight camp. They're all stirred up about something. Sent troops out to find clark, searching for something. Don't know what and they don't seem to think it's there, but they're looking anyway. More talk of man-dates, concerned.
On a more positive note, have succeeding in connecting to MADMEN via rover's transmitter. Uploaded new instructions, standing by for confirmation. Could take awhile to get results, moving on to other phases of plan. Perhaps absconding with one of the blue Yu Knight ships while they are busy searching the desert is in order.
Far from new colony, in pristine wilderness. Stunning landscape, absolutely beautiful. Proceeding to exploit it.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
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Colonist's Log, Wedensday, 9 Cancer 2034:
Another former colonist who called himself "Trebuchet" arrived at the base earlier today, demanding that Flint be released or he would make some Cobra guy launch an asteroid at us. He offered a jug of malt vinegar in a trade, calling it "Saurian Brandy." Maybe this planet does weird things to the mind, he was also babbling about it being "Stardate 29.31.9, round to the nearest decimal point."
Later we found that Flint had escaped, but without a spacesuit he couldn't have gotten too far. We found a few bunny wabbits in an airlock that had fangs and kept trying to chew their way through our electronics, they must have been genetically modified or something. Had a nice dinner of rabbit, wheat bread, shrimp, grape juice, and goat cheese, at least the food is a lot better here than the MREs they had us eat on our colony ship, the Phoenix. I went back to the Phoenix earlier today to pick up some instruments for the Proteus, fortunately construction's moving along very smoothly.
Very, very strange things are happening here. If you need more proof of this, I found 20 pounds of science and air duct equipment missing from the hab, someone could build one hell of an artillery piece with that stuff. All our computers were down untill two in the afternoon today because of some virus that leaked into the system. Our computer expert got that fixed up pretty well, though, and the Proteus is looking good as far as the CFD software can tell. I looged onto the internet and found that apparently NASA is having some problems with their MADMEN asteroid deterent system, turns out we're not the only ones dealing with strange problems.
At the end of the day, we managed to get limited AM comms up and communicated with the north base for the fist time. Apparently things are going much better there, though they don't make much more sense. Had an interesting conversation with Cindy, the new base leader about Original Star Trek versus The Next Generation. Just a few minutes ago I saw a spectacular sunset and more stars than I've ever seen in my entire life. It's indescribably beautiful here, which makes this mess all the more tragic. I'm just hoping that none of us end up like Flint or Trebuchet, stark raving mad with not a clue what's going on. Something really, really bad must have happened to the original colonists, I hope we can figure out what before it's too late...
MAD GRAD STUDENT OUT
A mind is like a parachute- it works best when open.
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Journal of Trebuchet. Completely uncertain of date now.
These newcomers tranquilized my ass. They thought my warnings about the raving madman meant I was crazy. Haven't they ever heard of "don't shoot the messenger"?
I disabled the guard by pouring water on the floor and using wires from one of the lights to zap him. Clever Trebuchet! Tied the guy up and put him in the bed. Wonder how long it will take them to discover my clever escape. I managed to snag an EVA suit without anyone noticing and snuck outside.
Flint has escaped. I have no idea where he is. These people are building some sort of airplane, which seems harmless enough. I planned to see what sort of sabotage I could cause, but someone has already handled that by releasing wiring-eating bunnies. I relocated a few to 'interesting' locations in the base. Also removed a small tank of nitric acid from a sample probe. They have UMDH here, too, among the tanks of other fuels for use in vehicles. Hypergolic fuels + other flammable stuff + lots and lots of LOX = big explosion. See if you can fly that plane without fuel, suckers!
Have set bomb and heading back to my crater home.
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Robots hard at work, no complaints. Should be at depth in two days, expect sufficient fuel to have been produced shortly thereafter. MADMEN are on course as planned, though hoped for catastrophic collapse of colony from the mutant rabbits has yet to materialize. Fortunately the virus has given me backdoor access to the colony's systems. Perusing their database has forced acceptance that magical sand colony exists, questioning fabric of reality. Prepared a series of timed airlock malfunctions, comm. blackouts and cool flashing lights. Shall plunge them into chaos when bored to make up for confusion. But not before acquiring one of those newfangled goats that showed up on the latest cargo manifest.
Geostationary Blaster Up in Space (GeBUS) will soon be ready for deployment. Hopefully clark can keep Yu Knights busy, otherwise... merde. Perhaps now is the time to send robots to retrieve the hermit's railguns. Will paint their heads blue and add Yu Knight insiginia to make them seem non-threatening. Everything proceeding as foreseen.
Also, new generation of fanged attack rabbits shows promise. On a related note, must search colony database for precise combination of mutagens leading to Rxke's finger regeneration.
Standby: Lost data feed. Plume of smoke rising from colony location. The rabbits will be missed. Will send robots to rescue and interrogate survivors when their shift ends. Ares is pleased with developments.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
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Journal entry,
Have travelled three sols into the dust storm. I've had to figure my position using some landmarks, most notably Olympus Mons. Like a tower of Babel, it rises from Mars out beyond the skies horizon. This would be easier if I could use the global positioning sats, but that might give me away.
Still not sure if this is a fools errand, but I need to try. He said the roots ran deep, but that might have been the senility. A few more days travel and I should be near the first marker. Only time will tell.
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Colonist's Log, Thursday, 10 Cancer, 2034:
Jeez, this colony just gets weirder by the day. Trebuchet escaped from the infermery, those gaurd must not be doing a very good job. Shortly thereafter we found that some UDMH had just dissappeared, about an hour later there was a massive explosion, I guess that explains where it went. It looks like either Trebuchet or Flint tried to destroy the colony but didn't do a very good job, there was far too little nitric acid in the mix, and it became more of a stink bomb than an actual weapon. Incidentally, it did get highly toxic dimethylhydrazine all over the place, it took me three hours in a biohaz suit to clean it off the greenhouse.
Those weird mutant rabbits started attacking a few of the colonists today, but fortunately our goats managed to eat most of the rabbits before they were able to cause too much harm. They've actually become quite useful for cutting and modifying metal parts for the Proteus, they'll eat just about anything. I had people working round the clock on the Proteus, and we're very nearly done, all I need to do is place the instruments and make a few other minor details, and we'll be ready to leave this madness at the base. By Saturday I plan on flying up to the new one...
A mind is like a parachute- it works best when open.
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Couldn't find Trebuchet, so after stealing a pressure suit I went looking for my rover. Couldn't find it either. I thought this might happen, so I hid my unpressurized fourwheeler in a cave just in case. It's not camouflaged but it is fast. I also mounted a tracking system on the handlebars. I just signal the big rover to transmit all its recent telemetry by AM radio. I can't pinpoint the big rover, but I can see low quality video recordings of its travel along with shots of the interior.
Clark...should have known. Why did he put a sheet over the seats? Anyway, I took off at top speed following his video. I should catch him in about 19 hours at this pace.
It feels good to be free again, but I have the strangest urge to put that hospital gown on again...
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Journal log - unknown date +5
Managed to make good my escape. Hopefully I managed to dent their airplane program. If not, oh well. Explosion wasn't quite as cool as I hoped, but at least I've delayed any pursuit.
I've reoccupied my crater dome home, and need to rethink my strategy. Or maybe not... maybe I should just lie low. I have the supplies and wherewitheral to wait out the current madness, unless something big happens.
Alcohol production is up. I keep looking at it and thinking that it would make an excellent rocket fuel. If worst comes to worst I can contact the colonists who left the old colony when the UN goons came. Maybe they're still sane. We could build some missiles and prevent these new colonists from trying to arrest us or whatever.
Still trying to figure out a method of secure communications...
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I like these robots. Once you have enough robots to start making robots there's just no end. That hermit was on to something, too bad he's probably a radiation-cooked corpse by now. Five robots dispatched to colony site to assess damage and grab a few goats. I didn't care for the original bare-metal finish so I painted them black with red devil faces on their heads. Diablo-bots on course, Jebus giving me grief over it.
More robots working on GeBUS and launch facility. Need more fuel. Unsure of design, will either place devices in orbit or make really cool explosion. Either way it's worth the trouble.
Proceeding to secret volcano lair. Had to repaint rover, it was all white with the letters "U.N." on the side, whatever the hell that means. Stupid Yu Knights. Considered something flashy, but unavailability of window-tinting and chrome dubs forced decision to camouflage it as a boulder. That moves. Also, added missile rack, sick of those UAV's flying around.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
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I fell asleep at the wheel and crashed into a sand dune. Hurt my wrist pretty bad. I'm really close to clark now, but since we're in a dust storm I can't see much.
He has been heading toward Olympus Mons...
As I was digging my fourwheeler out of the sand, I uncovered something. It looks like a polished black rock. It didn't look natural, so I dug around it's edges. It is perfectly flat with a deep black sheen...I could stare into that blackness forever...
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The sun is setting. I must have sat there staring at that thing all day. Weird. It's so interesting...so lovely...so precious...
[shaking head to clear thoughts]
I pulled out a strip of cloth from that hospital gown to use as a measuring tape. (I've got a freakin' tracking system on my vehicle but no measuring tape!) I don't know how long the strip of cloth is exaclty but the ratios of the sides of the black stone are 1, 4, and 9. What does it mean?
I think I'll sit and look into that beautiful blackness a little longer...
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Haven't heard from the robots dispatched to the colony. Will smash them for desertion. Ascending Mount Olympus, expect to reach caldera before sunrise.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
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Another journal entry, date +9
Meeting frustration with secure communications. Have fired primitive pressure-fed LOX-Alcohol rocket from crater base that I assembled from several robots roaming around nearby. Some had hopper rocket engines which I have modified. The rest of the robots I have disassembled for later use.
Fired rocket over Olympus. It is carrying a transponder, several potatos, and a bottle of potato moonshine in a padded container with a parachute. Hopefully someone will notice, investigate, and associate me with potatos from among the old colonists.
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W1AW-4>M1ME: Mundaka has new mail, please kill after reading:
W1AW-4>M1ME: mSG# TR Size To From @BBS Date
W1AW-4>M1ME: 5892 N 2400 M1ME K1CE W1AW 090408
W1AW-4>M1ME: M1ME de W1AW: at 2107z on 090408
W1AW-4>M1ME: 14 active msgs, last msg #5946
W1AW-4>M1ME: (A, B, D, H, I, J, K, L, R, S, T, U, W, X)>
Dear Chris (or Mundaka or whatever it is you are calling yourself these days),
Oh, NOW you write me -- me and your poor father of course. Finally you get around to writing the decrepid peasants back here on Earth? Your own family? And all we do is worry. We hear all these terrible things about Mars but do you ever write your poor parents who sacrificed everything for you? Your grandmother would turn in her grave if she knew what an ungrateful son I raised. I could die but would you send a postcard? Oh I'm sure you would say its too expensive. Too expensive? For your own mother?! No, I'm stuck with this Godawful email thing. Its not even real email this ungrateful son of mine sticks me with, its some kind of shortwave business. More like shortchanged, you cheapskate, ungrateful, miserable son. So go ahead, go to Mars and go crazy with all those lunatics up there and leave your poor mother all alone -- except for your poor father, God bless his soul, left behind by an ungrateful son who now calls us with some sob story about crazy people on Mars! What did you expect, you lunatic?! To run off into outer space with people who are stable?! You leave your own family for some outer space hippy commune with that girlfriend of yours? Why aren't you married? When will I have some grandchildren? And what's this about some man in leather chasing you around!?!? And Cobra snakes?! I can't take it anymore, how do I shut this thing off?
cmd: C
cmd: A
cmd: X
cmd: D
***DISCONNECTED
Macte nova virtute, sic itur ad astra
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I pulled out a strip of cloth from that hospital gown to use as a measuring tape. (I've got a freakin' tracking system on my vehicle but no measuring tape!) I don't know how long the strip of cloth is exaclty but the ratios of the sides of the black stone are 1, 4, and 9. What does it mean?
Hmm, so you've found the monolith. Great. Wow, this is just getting too weird, guys, I'm bugging out, and it looks like nearly everyone else is, too.
Colonist's Log, Stardate 29.51.6, round to the nearest decimal point
We finished the Proteus today and over the course of three ferrying flights got everyone up to the new base. I found out that apparently the French colony's methane plant is running well enough that they can produce enough propellant for an Opposition-class Venusian flyby return to Earth. I've opted to go back, this planet turns everyone crazy, and I don't want to end up like Treb and Flint. I'll miss it here, though, it's so serene and beautiful, but you have to have priorities. Earth's not that bad looking itself, actually.
Mad Grad Student Signing off
A mind is like a parachute- it works best when open.
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CQ: M1ME bunker one to M7CV bunker two . . .
CQ: M1ME bunker one to M7CV bunker two, come in bunker two. Please relay message to all colonists, plan effective, Mad Grad Student has left the planet, return to hab now safe. Repeat, plan effective, return to hab now safe, UN and mutation costumes no longer needed, hab now safe, over . . .
Macte nova virtute, sic itur ad astra
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Ow.
{put hand to forehead, feel big painful lump there}
OUCH!
Where am I? {looking around, haze in my eyes}
Some room I don't recognize...
...locked in?
:-\
Is that a large pile of blankets over there in the corner, or maybe a person wrapped up IN blankets?
A machine (small robot?) over by the door. Something in here smells like a cross between farts and Froot Loops (and it ain't me).
I'm going to try the door. {-tries door-}
LOCKED!
Did Chris lock me in?? Did he take over the new colony? Or was the new colony just a hallucination, and some of us are locked up elsewhere? Last I knew, Chris was writing letters to himself, pretending to be his parents writing to him. Mad Grad Student...talking to me about original Star Trek vs Next Generation. Was that...a ruse on his part? Never trust anyone -under- 30?? Cobra fled into the wilderness. I never figured him for a chicken. :-\
Not sure I want to see who might be wrapped up in those blankets, IF anyone --
We all know [i]those[/i] Venusians: Doing their hair in shock waves, smoking electrical coronas, wearing Van Allen belts and resting their tiny elbows on a Geiger counter...
--John Sladek (The New Apocrypha)
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Trebuchet's Journal, Date Unknown, again
Hearing mysterious messages on radio. Something about it being safe and the UN gone. If the UN is gone, hopefully they didn't take Flint with them. Also hopefully, the old colonists have survived. Will maintain lookout from hilltop to see if they return when not doing anything else.
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Personal Log
1st Liberty Colonial Militia
Lt. Col. Zak Phd
I remember when I came here. This world, this rusted shell of a world seemed like a land of oppertunity! For a time it even was, my idea was perfect, set up the first heard of cattle on Mars to break up the monotony of a horrible veagen diet most of this world was forced to endure. Things were going great, the bussiness thrived, from the farm came the armory, building and selling the most advanced directed energy weapons and small arms in the worlds, then from that the ship yards. Now, now I'm beset by all sides of these raving lunes. My heards are being culled by misanthrope vegetarians and worse people who claim rabits are the only creatures with a rightful place on mars.
The time has come to end this tryany on Mars and kick out the socialist enemy of the UN occupying forces once and for all. I've moved my arms factory to a hardened facility under the Hellas basin and have been given command of the first aerospace assault group by General LeMay. I have to check the Gauss rifle on my hopper because I'm schedual to go on a mission to take out a UN staging area on Phobos, hopfully if we can grease all the 'blue boys' in orbit we can reseize the ship yards and take or war to Earth. I have also ordered a platoon to seek out and individual named 'Cobra' who seems to have the rank of commander. I have heard rumors he has a cannon of some sort and an army of robots. Hopfully we will have found an ally in this war against vegetarians and the UN...god help us if the rabbits get involoved (if they exist)
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Trebuchet's Log, Continued From Earlier
Saw rover full of beef butchered and being sent north, along with armed convoy. Approached peacefully, traded vodka for beef. Declined offer to join military action, but donated two sacks of potatos and a pistol I swiped from the base to the Cause.
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Ouch... Urgh... Whaddappen?
Hey... Why am i sewn up in a body-bag?
I know i don't look too healthy, but they could at least have checked my E.E.G. Oh. Nevermind.
But for crying out loud, what's that smell?
I hear rustling of clothes, I'm not alone... Should I let out a cry for help or play a stiff? Who knows who got me in this bag in the first place, could be C.C., deranged as he is...
Let's play dead. Just to be sure...
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Journal entry -- today. Whatever.
I'm in real trouble. I got some of our red corn from the storage shed to make some tortillas and some of our non-mutated bunnies got in and seemed interested in the meal, so I offered a taste to one of them. Dana came in and stopped me as fast as she could.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"Its full of ergot." she replied.
"Ergot? In our corn?"
That's when she said the words that have shaken my morning: "Oh, sorry, I thought that was the rye."
"The rye?"
"Yeah" she said, "the rye is full of ergot. You didn't eat any did you?"
"No, but I did take it into town to trade for rabbits . . ."
Macte nova virtute, sic itur ad astra
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Atop Olympus Mons. Someone fired a missile up at me, but the warhead was just some moonshine and a few potatos. Suspect that all proper ordnance has been exhausted. Robot army massing to sweep away the last remnants of the invader. I don't expect much from robots, but it is the Yu Knights we're fighting here. Still, given their less-than-stellar ability to deal with tactical shifts I've simply programmed them to fire on anything armed, blue, French or mildly threatening. Hopefully the righteous can stay out of their way.
On a related note, I have made contact with a Lt. Col. in a local militia gainst the Yu Knights. He seems to be under the impression that I'm an officer in some sort of navy. I'm fostering this impression with stories of space dreadnoughts. At any rate, have recieved pledge of non-belligerance and have programmed robots accordingly. Hopefully militia forces will identify themselves quickly should they encounter robot forces. Hope they don't have any blue in their flag.
GeBUS has run into a hitch, namely the complete lack of manufacturing capacity needed to place hundred-kilo diameter mirrors in orbit. However, robots have collected microwave ovens from colony and Yu Knight ships. Have assembled them into a large mazer array. Should be sufficient to begin. One more little detail to take care of...
You, robot. get over here. Bring the chisel.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
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Right now I am being protected by a colonial militia led by General LeMay (though the name tag on his desk calls him Jack D. Ripper). However, the situation continues to deteriorate. Wing Attack Plan R is being contemplated.
When I first came to Mars, I remembered that sugar cane photosynthesizes much more efficiently than most other plants, and I thought that I could get rich by starting Mars' first candy store. However, then came the wars, the mass insanity, and the mutant rabbits. It seems that people have better things to do than eating candy.
Time for a change in strategy. I will now be producing rum. As long as I can produce it more cheaply than Trebuchet's vodka, I should be able to run a profitable business.
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Trebuchet's Journal, Date +11
Someone is manufacturing rum in a nearby settlement. I now have a competitor. I've begun building another still so that I can convert some of my grain into whisky. Or should I spell it whiskey? I will be setting a liquor precedent that will last for all time, after all, must consider things carefully.
I have a new plan to bring peace. I will find the rum-making fiend and offer alliance, build the first bar on Mars and make a mint selling booze to militiamen, insane colonists, and sane but thirsty colonists. Everyone will be drunk but happy and concentrate on the things that bind us all together, like opposing mutant bunnies and Yu Knights.
Perhaps this bar will need bulletproofing.
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