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Description
Encounter ID: 031-06032-AB “Recalcitrant Cephalopod”
            Threat Level: Matssari

Description:

            Giant creatures attacking ships has been a constant theme of maritime horror since the invention of sea faring vessels. There are countless tales from antiquity of giant tentacled oceanic behemoths rising up from the depths to attack sailing vessels, and in the space faring age the tradition of telling tales about this persists. However generally megafauna like IPS-012 only would bother with a space faring vessel if they were provoked, and the few accounts of a unwarranted attack usually upon investigation are found to be false. In the last year or so there have been increasing numbers of sightings of a strange mega fauna that has rekindled popular interest in the idea that there are strange man-eating space creatures out there. Thus far of the two dozen or so ‘sightings’ only two are worthy of note. The first encounter was a year ago, by the DOSS Taodenni, which was investigating claims of what was being reported to civil authorities as a ‘seemingly derelict vessel cluster moving erratically with no detectable power emissions.’ Upon arrival the Taodenni began a standard search pattern in the region of the sightings expecting to find a derelict vessel that was being moved about by gravitational anomalies. The specific search pattern consisted of a radial series of zigzag maneuvers that maximized the area covered while using a minimum amount of time. After a two-hour search the Taodenni finally spotted what appeared to be a small derelict civilian craft with a fair-sized hole in its bow. The vessel was of undetermined origin and measured no larger than 42 meters or about the size of a moderate civilian yacht. Initially upon investigation the derelict seemed only to be slowly drifting in the direction of a nearby rouge planetoid. Observational records indicate that the appearance of the yacht indicated that it had numerous pieces of space detritus attached to the hull which included a few forms of simple astro flora or “space seaweed” for lack of a better term. The attempt at a detailed scan of the derelict drew a response as the wreck began moving away while emitting electromagnetic static and a pulsing electromagnetic ‘sound’. A brief pursuit followed before the now-mobile wreck darted into an impassible region of planetary fragments and gravitational anomalies now known as the Lere Rock Field for its numerous asteroids ancient planetary fragments and significant navigational hazards. The ‘vessel’ was not pursued any further as it was seen on sensors to be rapidly leaving the system. The incident was recorded, reported and all relevant data was sent to the ZSV.

View Sensor data: [Y/N]?

Listen to EM Transmission: [Y/N]?

View Optical Data: [Y/N]?

            The second encounter with a creature considered to be IPF-014, was recorded by three vessels; DOSS Konna, Mraka and Nara. The Konna and Mraka are Diasa keluso corvettes while the Nara is a Nlunolo class frigate, all three are operated by the System Guard. The patrol group was commanded by Captain Treis Nuru and the patrol group’s IFF identifier was GR-56. The three vessels were asked with surveying a region that civilian space faring traffic was reporting unusual navigational difficulties in including reports of sudden and unexplained malfunctions of their FTL engines triggering emergency systems which would spit them out in the area with no cause evident. When numerous reports of this type came in the System Guard suspected piracy. The whole disruption of FTL travel in a small region is a normal tactic for novice pirate bands seeking to home their skills. The area in which this was occurring also had another feature that drew suspicion. The reports happened in and around an area of space now called “the Tangle” due to its low visibility, large number of planetary fragments and gravitational eddies and anomalies. Within that area was a number of derelict ancient starship wrecks from empires that may have predated then entire Itanyii civilization. It was there that the trio of system guard vessels spotted something moving about in a peculiar way. They saw what looked like a small mass of ships somehow attached to each other moving around in the tangle. Faint but noticeable electromagnetic emissions as well as gravitic ones were detected and it was briefly thought that this might be a first contact scenario. A closer look at the strange ‘vessel’ dashed the hopes of a first contact scenario as the mass was spotted moving about the wrecks of several ancient derelict vessels excreting some sort of molecular super fluids (see attached image). While we do not as of this time have a sample of the material to study we theorize based on scans which suggest it functions like a binding agent not unlike a spider’s silk. The three vessels kept a modest distance and observed as the creature continued its activities seemingly oblivious the fact it was being observed. A series of electromagnetic clicking noises were detected at the time and it is still the standing theory that the creature uses the noises as a form of echolocation or communication. When the DOSS Konna attempted to use a higher powered sensor setting on what the creature was doing and to see if the derelicts had any life signs the creature emitted a high frequency electromagnetic ‘wail’ and promptly fled into the worst part of the area which is commonly called ‘the mangle’. The group loitered for several hours with no further sightings and nearly two months later passed through again to find the derelicts had drifted further into ‘the mangle’ beyond retrieval or study range but seemingly were in the same status as seen before.

Addendum:

            Just two months ago an encounter with a truly massive specimen of IPS-014 occurred. It is from this incident that we have finally gained a basic understanding of this creature’s anatomy as well as other scientific insights. The encounter began with a distress call from a unaligned bulk freighter which reported a failure of it’s faster than light engine’s ability to project and maintain FTL fields. The ship was ICSS Safi which was operated by a crew of Injinvilindi. The Injinvilimdi are for note a species that came with us on the Kujaxiid. They had opted to form their own independent nation in a patch of unclaimed space once we arrived near our core territories. Our nations have been on good terms and mutual assistance has been critical to each of our people’s survival. The encounter began when the ICSS Safi broadcast a distress call after it had attempted to ward off a large space borne megafauna that they understandably thought was just a space cnidarian. Usually a few low-power charged ionic energy bolts are enough to get a Cindarian to change directions with no actual harm being done. But unfortunately for the bulk freighter they had just encountered a truly massive example of IPS-014. We think the energy output of the Safi’s engines agitated the creature because as they passed through an uninhabited solar system the creature did not move until they got within about three million ILU. Then it began to move emit electromagnetic ‘noises’ and gravitational anomalies began to appear about the creature. As the Safi’s crew realized that they were about to be attacked they attempted to use the communications array to emit a sort of white noise known to get Cnidarians to realize a ship isn’t food. This did not work as the creature moved closer and it became apparent it was truly massive; it is estimated that it’s mass was above the million IMU range, and its estimated diameter at the widest pint being somewhere near six ILU. It was easily bigger than any ship known (to the public) and it was not slowing down. As the creature rapidly closed the distance Ensign Uhila a sensor operator on duty aboard the Safi during the current shift noticed something horrible. The thing was extending tendrils with what looked like rasping parts, they ranged in length but the longest were nearly one thousand ILU long. Then Uhila saw the gashing beaked maws full and several structures he was certain were eye-like structures looking eagerly at their next meal. The Ensign relayed this information and Captain Kalani attempted hard sublight evasive maneuvers. Meanwhile Gunnery Officer Anaru changed the power setting on the freighter’s weapons and began to hammer away at the creature in hopes of further reminding it that the Safi was not a meal. The shots fired seemed to have no effect as it closed and chased the freighter. If anything based on the surviving sensor log it may have further irritated the creature. Sensors then revealed the most chilling aspect of the beast, as its grasping tendrils reached out for the Safi to tear her to shreds sensors revealed that this creature had a endoskeleton made of destroyed ships. What seemed like a relatively smooth carapace at a distance was revealed up close to not be so. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of vessels, presumably previously attacked and their crews consumed had been repurposed into a horrific form of armor. Some ships were still recognizable and others barely discernable. Surviving scans detected that the ships were bonded on the molecular level and that some of the vessels insides were filled with biological life signs suggesting the creature had moved parts of its biomass into the hulls. Curiously, the creature seems to have kept adding to its shell over the eons, and as a result it has form a spiraling curve not unlike the prehistoric shell of the precursor to the creature called a Nautilus from the Human planet called ‘Gaea’. The Safi did not survive short range engagement with the creature and the only survivor of it all was Ensign Uhila. In his exact words regarding the encounter: “..Suddenly it had us; we were unable to outrun it, so we fired at it and the captain told me to put out a distress call, on the Safi, the sensor station did double duty as the comms station. Well there was this noise; we heard it on the hull. The shields didn’t do anything to stop it and then suddenly our ship stopped moving, the engines were burning hard but we were not moving. Right after that a rasping, like metal on metal, and compartments soon after began to depressurize. Crew were reporting ‘things’ in their areas and then they were silenced. Section by section the ship went dark. It was then one of the beasts tendrils burst through the frontal part of the bridge. It went right through and into the decks below. The Captain was about to give an order when smaller tendrils extended out grapping people. On contact they seemed to melt flesh, there was screaming…god the screaming. I wet myself and ran…I’ll never forget seeing the captain get liquefied… I got to an escape pod just barely. Somehow it launched, the creature ignored it and I got to see it eating the innards out of the ship. The engines had died and the Safi was gone…” Unfortunately the Ensign did not have time to download the ships data logs before fleeing the Safi. What we do have along with Uhila’s testimony paints a horrible picture.

            It is clear as of the writing of this addendum that the creatures use electromagnetic clicks to find their prey and may also use them to locate mates. It is unknown if the creatures have gender as we know it. Up until the Safi encounter it seems we have only spotted very young specimens. We may be terribly under-equipped to handle a mature specimen if it decides to hunt in a fully colonized region. We have no idea what kind of damage these creatures can do to a planetary biome or even if they are capable of harming planets. We have no idea how old either of the two specimens are and, It is a guess that it may take several millennia for the creatures to get as large as seen in the Safi Incident. This may be fortunate as it may mean we have a lot more time before bigger ones start realizing our ships exist. On the other hand these creatures could be the work of the Oo’Ol. We have so many questions and not enough information.



[Author’s Note: You can view the original version of this IPF here:

www.deviantart.com/gratefulref…

This IPF was updated to reflect the current state of affairs in the galaxy.]

Description
Encounter ID: 031-06032-AB “Recalcitrant Cephalopod”
            Threat Level: Matssari

Description:

            Giant creatures attacking ships has been a constant theme of maritime horror since the invention of sea faring vessels. There are countless tales from antiquity of giant tentacled oceanic behemoths rising up from the depths to attack sailing vessels, and in the space faring age the tradition of telling tales about this persists. However generally megafauna like IPS-012 only would bother with a space faring vessel if they were provoked, and the few accounts of a unwarranted attack usually upon investigation are found to be false. In the last year or so there have been increasing numbers of sightings of a strange mega fauna that has rekindled popular interest in the idea that there are strange man-eating space creatures out there. Thus far of the two dozen or so ‘sightings’ only two are worthy of note. The first encounter was a year ago, by the DOSS Taodenni, which was investigating claims of what was being reported to civil authorities as a ‘seemingly derelict vessel cluster moving erratically with no detectable power emissions.’ Upon arrival the Taodenni began a standard search pattern in the region of the sightings expecting to find a derelict vessel that was being moved about by gravitational anomalies. The specific search pattern consisted of a radial series of zigzag maneuvers that maximized the area covered while using a minimum amount of time. After a two-hour search the Taodenni finally spotted what appeared to be a small derelict civilian craft with a fair-sized hole in its bow. The vessel was of undetermined origin and measured no larger than 42 meters or about the size of a moderate civilian yacht. Initially upon investigation the derelict seemed only to be slowly drifting in the direction of a nearby rouge planetoid. Observational records indicate that the appearance of the yacht indicated that it had numerous pieces of space detritus attached to the hull which included a few forms of simple astro flora or “space seaweed” for lack of a better term. The attempt at a detailed scan of the derelict drew a response as the wreck began moving away while emitting electromagnetic static and a pulsing electromagnetic ‘sound’. A brief pursuit followed before the now-mobile wreck darted into an impassible region of planetary fragments and gravitational anomalies now known as the Lere Rock Field for its numerous asteroids ancient planetary fragments and significant navigational hazards. The ‘vessel’ was not pursued any further as it was seen on sensors to be rapidly leaving the system. The incident was recorded, reported and all relevant data was sent to the ZSV.

View Sensor data: [Y/N]?

Listen to EM Transmission: [Y/N]?

View Optical Data: [Y/N]?

            The second encounter with a creature considered to be IPF-014, was recorded by three vessels; DOSS Konna, Mraka and Nara. The Konna and Mraka are Diasa keluso corvettes while the Nara is a Nlunolo class frigate, all three are operated by the System Guard. The patrol group was commanded by Captain Treis Nuru and the patrol group’s IFF identifier was GR-56. The three vessels were asked with surveying a region that civilian space faring traffic was reporting unusual navigational difficulties in including reports of sudden and unexplained malfunctions of their FTL engines triggering emergency systems which would spit them out in the area with no cause evident. When numerous reports of this type came in the System Guard suspected piracy. The whole disruption of FTL travel in a small region is a normal tactic for novice pirate bands seeking to home their skills. The area in which this was occurring also had another feature that drew suspicion. The reports happened in and around an area of space now called “the Tangle” due to its low visibility, large number of planetary fragments and gravitational eddies and anomalies. Within that area was a number of derelict ancient starship wrecks from empires that may have predated then entire Itanyii civilization. It was there that the trio of system guard vessels spotted something moving about in a peculiar way. They saw what looked like a small mass of ships somehow attached to each other moving around in the tangle. Faint but noticeable electromagnetic emissions as well as gravitic ones were detected and it was briefly thought that this might be a first contact scenario. A closer look at the strange ‘vessel’ dashed the hopes of a first contact scenario as the mass was spotted moving about the wrecks of several ancient derelict vessels excreting some sort of molecular super fluids (see attached image). While we do not as of this time have a sample of the material to study we theorize based on scans which suggest it functions like a binding agent not unlike a spider’s silk. The three vessels kept a modest distance and observed as the creature continued its activities seemingly oblivious the fact it was being observed. A series of electromagnetic clicking noises were detected at the time and it is still the standing theory that the creature uses the noises as a form of echolocation or communication. When the DOSS Konna attempted to use a higher powered sensor setting on what the creature was doing and to see if the derelicts had any life signs the creature emitted a high frequency electromagnetic ‘wail’ and promptly fled into the worst part of the area which is commonly called ‘the mangle’. The group loitered for several hours with no further sightings and nearly two months later passed through again to find the derelicts had drifted further into ‘the mangle’ beyond retrieval or study range but seemingly were in the same status as seen before.

Addendum:

            Just two months ago an encounter with a truly massive specimen of IPS-014 occurred. It is from this incident that we have finally gained a basic understanding of this creature’s anatomy as well as other scientific insights. The encounter began with a distress call from a unaligned bulk freighter which reported a failure of it’s faster than light engine’s ability to project and maintain FTL fields. The ship was ICSS Safi which was operated by a crew of Injinvilindi. The Injinvilimdi are for note a species that came with us on the Kujaxiid. They had opted to form their own independent nation in a patch of unclaimed space once we arrived near our core territories. Our nations have been on good terms and mutual assistance has been critical to each of our people’s survival. The encounter began when the ICSS Safi broadcast a distress call after it had attempted to ward off a large space borne megafauna that they understandably thought was just a space cnidarian. Usually a few low-power charged ionic energy bolts are enough to get a Cindarian to change directions with no actual harm being done. But unfortunately for the bulk freighter they had just encountered a truly massive example of IPS-014. We think the energy output of the Safi’s engines agitated the creature because as they passed through an uninhabited solar system the creature did not move until they got within about three million ILU. Then it began to move emit electromagnetic ‘noises’ and gravitational anomalies began to appear about the creature. As the Safi’s crew realized that they were about to be attacked they attempted to use the communications array to emit a sort of white noise known to get Cnidarians to realize a ship isn’t food. This did not work as the creature moved closer and it became apparent it was truly massive; it is estimated that it’s mass was above the million IMU range, and its estimated diameter at the widest pint being somewhere near six ILU. It was easily bigger than any ship known (to the public) and it was not slowing down. As the creature rapidly closed the distance Ensign Uhila a sensor operator on duty aboard the Safi during the current shift noticed something horrible. The thing was extending tendrils with what looked like rasping parts, they ranged in length but the longest were nearly one thousand ILU long. Then Uhila saw the gashing beaked maws full and several structures he was certain were eye-like structures looking eagerly at their next meal. The Ensign relayed this information and Captain Kalani attempted hard sublight evasive maneuvers. Meanwhile Gunnery Officer Anaru changed the power setting on the freighter’s weapons and began to hammer away at the creature in hopes of further reminding it that the Safi was not a meal. The shots fired seemed to have no effect as it closed and chased the freighter. If anything based on the surviving sensor log it may have further irritated the creature. Sensors then revealed the most chilling aspect of the beast, as its grasping tendrils reached out for the Safi to tear her to shreds sensors revealed that this creature had a endoskeleton made of destroyed ships. What seemed like a relatively smooth carapace at a distance was revealed up close to not be so. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of vessels, presumably previously attacked and their crews consumed had been repurposed into a horrific form of armor. Some ships were still recognizable and others barely discernable. Surviving scans detected that the ships were bonded on the molecular level and that some of the vessels insides were filled with biological life signs suggesting the creature had moved parts of its biomass into the hulls. Curiously, the creature seems to have kept adding to its shell over the eons, and as a result it has form a spiraling curve not unlike the prehistoric shell of the precursor to the creature called a Nautilus from the Human planet called ‘Gaea’. The Safi did not survive short range engagement with the creature and the only survivor of it all was Ensign Uhila. In his exact words regarding the encounter: “..Suddenly it had us; we were unable to outrun it, so we fired at it and the captain told me to put out a distress call, on the Safi, the sensor station did double duty as the comms station. Well there was this noise; we heard it on the hull. The shields didn’t do anything to stop it and then suddenly our ship stopped moving, the engines were burning hard but we were not moving. Right after that a rasping, like metal on metal, and compartments soon after began to depressurize. Crew were reporting ‘things’ in their areas and then they were silenced. Section by section the ship went dark. It was then one of the beasts tendrils burst through the frontal part of the bridge. It went right through and into the decks below. The Captain was about to give an order when smaller tendrils extended out grapping people. On contact they seemed to melt flesh, there was screaming…god the screaming. I wet myself and ran…I’ll never forget seeing the captain get liquefied… I got to an escape pod just barely. Somehow it launched, the creature ignored it and I got to see it eating the innards out of the ship. The engines had died and the Safi was gone…” Unfortunately the Ensign did not have time to download the ships data logs before fleeing the Safi. What we do have along with Uhila’s testimony paints a horrible picture.

            It is clear as of the writing of this addendum that the creatures use electromagnetic clicks to find their prey and may also use them to locate mates. It is unknown if the creatures have gender as we know it. Up until the Safi encounter it seems we have only spotted very young specimens. We may be terribly under-equipped to handle a mature specimen if it decides to hunt in a fully colonized region. We have no idea what kind of damage these creatures can do to a planetary biome or even if they are capable of harming planets. We have no idea how old either of the two specimens are and, It is a guess that it may take several millennia for the creatures to get as large as seen in the Safi Incident. This may be fortunate as it may mean we have a lot more time before bigger ones start realizing our ships exist. On the other hand these creatures could be the work of the Oo’Ol. We have so many questions and not enough information.



[Author’s Note: You can view the original version of this IPF here:

www.deviantart.com/gratefulref…

This IPF was updated to reflect the current state of affairs in the galaxy.]