User:Imperial Misanthrope/Grenade Journal

Journal 5792-6D, better known as the Grenade Journal, is a remarkable and mysterious Covenant electronic entry that was found aboard a lone Covenant CCS-Battlecruiser, the Ethereal Hierarch, that was apparently abandoned and then found in 2568CE by a UNSC Scout Patrol. The Journal was found specifically in a UNSC escape pod that had crashed into the side of the Battlecruiser.

Summary
The Journal is a spherical item similar in appearance to a plasma grenade, except that it has different markings and more pressure sensors, which make the item work. The Journal tells of a month long entry mostly by a human marine lieutenant, about himself and a group of marines that had accidentally crashed into the Battlecruiser. Later entries are done by the Corporal Whittier, and end in a mysterious manner.

The Journal itself was taken to the UNSC Orbital Platform above Reach II, where it is currently being researched by human and scientists. All findings have been relayed to UNSC High Command, and a separate detachment has been made to the Sangheili Council of the Navy.

Entries

 * 14th May, 2556CE. 13:45 Hours

Interesting little thing, hey John look, isn’t this a plasma grenade? It isn’t shining and buzzing like one, and there’s something weird about its pressure sensor…



Oh is that what it is? Cool, at least we can keep a log or something, keep us from going totally mad… Shut up, we haven’t even found anyone yet, could be Elites here, we don’t know.



Nah, I think we’re safe, looks abandoned anyway… Hey, just be glad Sam didn’t blow us up with that landing of hers.




 * 15th May, 2556CE. 09:14 Hours

Yeah we’re alone, looks it, no Elites, Brutes, hell we haven’t even seen a Grunt waddling around. Could be abandoned, but that don’t explain why the whole ship is up and runnin’. Engines are powered up, weapons systems online. Sure the AI’s been messed up beyond repair, but that coulda been anything, but it did give the name of the ship if that’s something… erm, it says right here… the Ethereal Hierarch. I swear, these Covenant guys came up with the weirdest names for their ships.

I gotta say though, it’s kinda weird in here. There’s only 6 of us, Lieutenant Archerson, that’s me, then there’s Corporal Whittier, Privates Jenkins, Koslov, Williams, and the Pilot; Sam Tierra… She’s hot, but she’s not interested in any of us, too professional you know

Crap, how do I erase that…? Stupid hunk of crappy…!




 * 18th May, 2556CE. 12:52 Hours

Things have gotten a bit tense, we’ve found what appears to be a blood splat stain on the floor, it’s light blue but it’s all… kind of stuck in the floor, old I guess, even on this metal it seems really dried, but by the looks of it whatever the blood came from was dragged off. The trail ends a little ways up the corridor, but there’s no body, nothin’.

Personally I kinda creeped out, we figured this place had to be abandoned, but there’s been sounds, like clatters and footsteps, like hoofs. First we thought it was an Elite or something, but when we got there it must have run off.



I’m entering a log… yes it’s important, don’t you think so?

???: No, I don’t. Sir, the guys are freaked, we’ve seen nothing for four days, just hearing noises, then we find this…

I know, it’s freaky, but this is important, if it turns out something’s out there…

???: What if something’s out there?

We at least want someone to know what happened here.

???: As noble as that is, I don’t plan on dying here. 




 * 19th May, 2556CE. 16:07 Hours

Sweet, bet the lieutenant won’t miss this thing for a while, now how do I turn it on…? There should be a little red light or something… Oh… hmm, is that an echo? Must be on then.

Okay, it’s been five days now, we’ve run outta ginger snaps and milk rations, L-O-L, hehe! Nah but seriously, we’ve run outta most of the rations on the escape pod, but we’ve found some Covenant stuff, like this milk, tastes like liquid shit but it does get you going. Then there’s some kinda meat stuff, already cooked and everything, that was like absolutely wonderful.

I swear, you ever had one of those times when you just really want to go to bed with someone, but all the guys around you are complete ass holes? Ladies, you know what I mean eh? Hehe. Anyway, the Lieutenant said that…



… Hey… is someone there? Hello?



Anyone there? It ain’t funny making them noises, come on out before I…



The hell is that? Hey Lieutenant, if that’s you it isn’t funny, sorry I took your diary thing, but enough’s enou…



Hey wh… '''Ahhhh! Ugh! Get it off! Oh God, where is it!? I’m… Oh God... I’m b-bleeding …! Someone hel…!'''




 * 21st May, 2556CE.

In don’t know what time it is, and I don’t care right now… Shut the f#@% up Williams! Ain’t no time for your crappy jokes right now!.



It’s alright, just leave me alone for a bit yeah?



Okay, it’s bad, worse than before. We’ve been hearing these noises all the time, but… God this was just the last feather on the chicken, you know? Couple a days ago, Sam went off somewhere, didn’t tell us where, but she took this, the erm… the grenade journal. I thought one of the privates had taken it, but when we noticed she was gone, I deduced that she’d taken it.

She hated me using this, thought it was a waste of time. I hoped she was right, but she proved herself wrong.

There has to be something here, something we haven’t noticed. We’ve been up and down these halls for nearly a week and found nothing, no bodies, save that one splat no gore, nothing. But Sam… God rest her soul. We found her, we assume all of her. Her uniform was utterly shredded, so was most of her skin. Her neck has like no skin on it, her chest is just a blood splattered mess, and… the look on her face… I’ve never been that religious, but God help us now.




 * 22nd May, 2556CE. 22:25

The freaky, gets F%@#ing creepier! We were about to go back, give Sam a decent burial, maybe put her in one of the escape pods and jettison it, you know, but Hopkins got back, freaked out of his mind. There are no escape pods!

Apparently when he checked the computer for the log files, it said that they were all jettisoned simultaneously, no life forms aboard em.

Hopkins, he ain’t got a tough name, but he’s no coward either, and to see that look on his face… any lesser man would break down, he just keep going on about the footsteps, getting closer and closer, he was sweating like he ran 50 laps. He finally calmed down enough to tell us, back in the hangar bay, we sealed all the doors so were sure nothing could get in.




 * 23rd May, 2556. 07:47

We haven’t had a lot of sleep, but crap this is no dream. If anything, this is a nightmare.

We went back for Sam, at least bring her back and put her on one of the banshees instead of the escape pods. It took all of us to go out, the guys are scared, and so am I, whatever this thing is… I’ve seen a Hunter tear people in two, them Flood things dig into people and turn ‘em into zombies, but not even any of that is as freaky as whatever’s going on here.

We got to the place, we’d put Sam atop a couple of crates, at least we thought we did, because she wasn’t there when we got there. The blood stains on the floor were gone too, it was like she was never there.

What’s worse than that? God this is just… this is insane, Koslov started screaming when we couldn’t find Sam, and ran off into some corridor. Before we could stop him… that sound, it’s like having a stomach full of vinegar, it fills you with terror we daren’t not move, we heard him keep screaming, but we couldn’t do anything, none of us would move…

'''Oh God we’re all F#@%in dead! We’re all gonna…!'''

<Whack!>

<End of Transmission>

The Corporal

 * 1st June, 2556CE. 12:00 Hours

The Lieutenant’s out of it, he flipped out a couple of days ago, but this is important. If you find this, don’t come in here.

It hasn’t come in the Hangar yet, we don’t know why, but we know it’s out there, something, or somethings. Hopkins said the other day “What if there’s more than one!?”. I said “Then we shoot more of ‘em”. If I’m going down, I ain’t going down without fillin’ whatever this thing is full a good old UNSC bullets. Let’s see it make big bad footsteps with a grenade wedged in it’s ass crack!

Corporal Whittier, signin off!

<End of Transmission>


 * 3rd June, 2556CE. 19:12

We’re in trouble again, yeah. The Lieutenant’s gone, there’s no trace of him at all, he’s just up and vanished. The doors are still locked, though if he left he could have locked them on his way out. Why would he do that though?

Nah, I think ‘it’ got him, I don’t know how, and I don’t care, all I know is, there’s three of us now, and the hangar ain’t safe no more.

<End of Transmission>


 * 4th June, 2556CE> 08:55

We decided to move out today, the food we gathered is almost gone, and no one is coming to get us. There’s no planets nearby, so we can’t fly anywhere. There’s no beacon, at least no beacon in any part of the ship we saw.

Jenkins and Williams don’t want to go, I know what they’re feelin, it ain;t safe, but I explained to them that it likely ain’t safe in the hangar either, and we’re running low on food. Upon hearing that they plucked what little courage we have left, and hoisted their rifles.

It’s scary, only three people, somewhere in the ship are three others; Sam’s dead, Koslov… everytime I think of him… that sound, like a thousand of your worst nightmares screeching right at you, eyes watching you so closely you know that if you move you’re dead. What kind of creature makes that kind of noise? It’s madness, just madness, but on an alien ship with some phantom murderer, you;ve gotta have ya wits about you. Only thing that’ll save ya; wits, and bullets.

<End of Transmission>


 * 6th June, 2556CE. 11:01

We found something today, something we hadn’t seen on the rest of the ship. We’re going through these corridors, the doors opened with that usual serene beep sound before they open, you just know that wherever the bastard is, it knows exactly where we are, and we don’t’ know jack about its position. “Beeep, there they are!”

I swear, whatever it is I’m gonna ram my gun down its throat… Anyway, we found this room see, but we couldn’t get in. We found another door that went in, but this one was blockaded. Someone, or something, had set up these weapon pod things as some kind of barricade along the door. The door we tried to get into first was just buried under the things, that’s why we couldn’t open the door from the other side.

We’re in her now, it’s some kind of control room, these computer screens are hoverin on a platform, little pictures and stuff movin, but… the hell was that!?

<Indistinguishable>

Seal the door! Bust the lock!

<Serene beep, followed by gunfire and a small explosion>

Okay, we should be good, barricade the other door before it gets smart enough to come around the other side.

<Spine tingling hiss/roar/screech sound that turns your stomach upside down>

Oh crap! It’s trying to claw its way in! Stand too marines! That thing gets in, give em hell!

<End of Transmission>


 * 8th June, 2556CE. 05:43

We just got back, all of us. Jenkins and Williams… they’re in bad shape, shit I’m in bad shape… lock the doors! Do it now!

<Indistinguishable>

We got food, we found some on the way back. The thing didn’t get in, but it got close. Thing is though, the door did open, and that sound, that sound it makes… there was nothing there! It must have got some active camo or something, it tore the doors apart, that door beeped until it turned into a flatline, the metal bent and shifted, but I swear there was absolutely nothing there, just a snarling, hissing thing. We shot it, but nothing happened, it just kept trying to force the doors open. I don’t know man, it was just F-ing crazy, like it had seen us and just couldn’t bear to let us out of its sight until it got us.

<Indistinguishable>

We’re alive ain’t we? Let’s try to keep it that way! It ain’t got us yet has it? So stop your groaning and lets add up what…

<End of Transmission>


 * 13th June, 2556CE. 06:02

Haha! You know what my watch says!? This is hilarious. It’s Friday the 13th!

It’s been like a month since we’ve been here… oh wait, Jenkins is gone… yeah, I remember now, I think we killed it though. It was mania, we thought we locked the doors god, got crap stuffed up against it, we thought nothing was getting through the barricades. Three days ago though, it found us again, it started that whole “Scratching and clattering” noise routine, I bet it was trying to psyche us out, the little bi@#%! Smart, I’ll give it that, but yeah, for like the whole day it makes these noises, like its stalking us, you could almost see it pacing outside the door, that’s some scary shit.

The like a frikkin bat outta hell, the doors get slammed by something heavy, or maybe strong, or worse. Next thing we know, there’s this gaping hole in between where the door closes, the door’s just bending and groaning under this invisible force, and then it starts… the noise, that insane noise it makes.

We all pull up our guns, I even got this plasma rifle I found, and blasted a crap load of death intot he hole, but it keep coming, this thing is like frikkin invincible! The what does Jenkins do!? The crazy Bas%@#d goes on a suicide run! He gets these two grenades, primes ‘em, and dives through the F#@$ing door! Williams nearly dived after him, but the barricade collapsed around the hole.

I don’t know, we haven’t heard anything since, Jenkins… crazy guy as he was in his last moments, he may well have saved Williams and me…

<End of Transmission>


 * 15th June 2556CE, the apocalypse

Yeah, the apocalypse. The things still there, thinks it’s smart, but I’ll show the little F@#%er! It took Williams from behind me! Right from behind me, that wretched sound it makes, and suddenly he’s gone, nothing but the sound…

If you find this grenade journal thing, don’t come in this ship. I’m putting it in the escape pod, damn it’s good to see some good old human engineering after so long, I never thought I could get bored of Covenant style, it’s so future-like you know?

Anyway, don’t come in here, you won’t get out, I tell you that now. It’s hell. Not the hot place with the devil, not the cold place where you walk around forever, not that piece of crap endless walkway where you’re always afraid to fall off but never will, no, this is hell. This is the Pit, Ethereal Hierarch, whatever you are… demon or alien F@#%er, I’m coming for ya…

<Final Transmission>