#Sekitember: Shell Trace, Sentinel, "Avarice"


ANALYZING…

FILE TYPE: Dead Drop Message

PERIOD: Present Day

TOPIC: Shell Trace, Sentinel, "Avarice"

SUMMARY: A corrupted message recovered from a Dead Drop Location at AI Uplink.

=================================================================== 

I've been in this fucking swamp for days... I think. I've managed to stave off the degradation by plugging myself into Relays, and I've been boarded up indoors so long I've lost track of the solar cycles. More often than not I keep track of time by how loud the voices are; they're worse at night. So, so much worse. I can't recall the number of times I've heard them. It's usually the same ones, always shrieking, always blood curdling. Ever so often it sounds like children, but those are always weirdly cut short. You get used to it, you learn to tune it out or chalk it up to the ambiance. Sometimes I think it's the Skracs, those things freak me out; though I think I'm more comfortable with the voices coming from the birds than the Anomaly. It's easier to digest when you imagine fauna repeating things its heard as opposed to a wall that has voices trapped in it. 

I'm looking for something, or someone, somewhere? maybe? I can't even remember. I'm pretty sure I came here for samples, but I also feel like I've gotten those already, a few times, or just once... maybe I haven't yet? I lost track of the Icon and Locus units I came here with. That dumbass Thief decided they had a "hunch" there was "something good" in Bio-Research so they went to check; I guess we'll never know. Ever so often I hear them, maybe it's the birds again. It's a real shame what happened to the Locus, trillion dollar mobile weapon turned into a pile of carbon fiber plated shit. I did manage to get his Punch once the pack moved on, not that I expect it to do me any good at this rate, especially if I run into more of those things. I'd never seen one with shie- 

[Data Corrupted]

-ten I'll hear the excited naivety of fresh Infils, I don't know if they're reckless or stupid, but it always goes the same way. This morning I heard one of them overhead say that all they had to do was get to Complex; I don't think 2 minutes had passed before they ran into the local Arata. I couldn't tell you if the screaming or the carving was louder, or the laughing.

I could leave, but then I'd be returning empty handed and no one ever tells you that they tack the data transfer fee onto your tab. Let's do the math. A trillion credit shell that costs maybe a billion more to infil, for the purpose of recovering an average of 50 thousand, if you actually make it out. What are we even doing this for? Is the debt even real? All I know is I'm not the one paying for it, and I really have no intention to. Oh, and if you kiss enough ass maybe Gaius or Vulcan will send you down here with a couple thousand more in free shit they don't expect anyone to pay for. Really the only thing I can do is try and get out of here whe-

[Data Corrupted]

-e thing I was looking for. Hazard Capsule. I think this is what I came here for. Even if it isn't it's got to be worth something. I heard those poor bastards open up the greenhouse so I went to go check it out. Wasn't too long before more of those Aratas came around. More screaming, more shrieking, more impassioned mechanical butchering. Once night fell I managed to sneak in there; they didn't even take anything. Those freaks just left the shells strewn around like confetti and left seemingly everything else exactly where it landed. I can't even tell what series they are, or were, I guess. No matter, it's what happens to everyone who rushes around the Marsh. I've been rewarded for playing it safe. That Icon could've learned something from me. Too bad. To whoever comes across this message, you may spend a month on this God forsaken planet before you can leave. But take it from me, it's better to wait a month and have bounties land at your feet than get flatlined 30 minutes into an excursion and owe Sekiguchi another trillion and change because you wanted to bullshit. 

It's funny. After a month of sitting around losing my mind to the voices, I think it was worth it. I've seen the corpse of every line and series sink into the Marsh, their consciousnesses returning empty handed, much to the disgruntlement of one fat worm I imagine. You know what shell I haven't seen though? Mine. I'm thinking if I keep going how I'm going I can just wait around for more idiots to open up rooms I can scavenge. I won't even have to go back and face the debt. I can just keep it all. I think I just heard some soft shells open up the Server Room, more for me. I'll let you know what I get this time around.

=================================================================== 

TYPE: TEXT [X]; AUDIO [ ]

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