Recapturing the Escaped Specimen — Data Log
January 23rd The administration has told those of us privy to the more sensitive elements of the situation to keep a log of all transpiring events pertaining to the missing specimen. The Director believes that such record keeping will be instrumental in the event of court proceedings, as well as beneficial to future incidents; our collected accounts are intended to serve as a guide of which techniques prove most effective during the course of the investigation. As it stands there is little to report, other than that the specimen from Tank #43 has been missing for over six hours, the official duration from which a mandatory lock-down of the facility must occur. It seems that many of us will be here overnight—they are opening the doors for no one. As to how the specimen escaped? The current conjecture is that it had assistance from an employee. We shall see. January 24th Surveillance footage and key-card access records have indeed proven that the specimen was, as initially believed, released by an employee. To the surprise of absolutely no one, it was a low-level technician here no more than eight months, who apparently had familiarized himself with the setting when staying overnight to organize data. Both he and the specimen are confirmed to have left the premises, and thus the facility has reluctantly removed its entry and exit restrictions. The next step will be to identify other conspirators and predict where the pair are going next. January 27th After multiple rounds of interviews with all members of the staff, it appears as though the technician operated alone in their activities. Why he selected the specimen from Tank #43 remains a great mystery—the organisms in tanks #40-45 were kept in the same area and thus all equally capable of being compromised, and #43 was the least able of the lot, having reacted very poorly to electrical stimulation and possessing nothing in regards to the regenerative or restorative abilities of its neighbors. It would likewise fetch the lowest price in illicit markets, if the intent was to sell the creature to a competitor bioengineering company. It may have perhaps been selected due to the relative ease of transportation compared to the others, but given that the scheme required a military-grade cargo vehicle, it seems that extracting the other contenders would have been no more demanding. With no motive fully discernible, the administration has decided to contact the culprit’s family to obtain more information, jeopardizing the very crucial confidentiality of the retrieval. January 28th We extracted very little from the culprit’s family, who seem to have no contact with him and were unaware of his fugitive status. In terms of motive, they only described him as ‘always wanting to do the right thing’, a platitude that explains his idiocy and insubordination both. If he is indeed the noble sort, there will be no reasoning with him, and thus hope for a clandestine resolution is fading. We have hired a private security service to assist us in both the apprehension of the disgraced technician as well as the capture of the specimen, though given the nature of the target they are understandably wary, and we cannot guarantee their complete cooperation—their lead officer has that bald, bloodthirsty look to him and may prove to be a difficulty himself at a later point. For now, however, our focus remains on the task at hand. The other researchers and myself have been told to halt all data collection on the other specimen and to expedite our analyses of the findings on the one that is missing to ensure we will be able to anticipate any contingencies. February 4th It has been nearly two weeks since the specimen was released and we have little to guide us on their whereabouts. The Director is becoming increasingly worried that the relative silence is an indication of an imminent attack on the facility, perhaps as either retaliation or as a means of ‘freeing’ the other specimen. The research team believes both to be unlikely, however. The involved human companion has former acquaintances employed on the premises and if he is as described would not endanger them directly; moreover, there is nothing to suggest that the specimen itself has any care for the others, let alone is even aware of their existence—by site of origin, its closest neighbor in our possession (from Tank #35, two floors below no less) hailed from a moon over 600 million miles from the habitation where #43 was discovered. In all likelihood, it is presumed that the specimen is attempting to, with assistance, flee the planet. As we dismantled its craft upon its seizure, they will need to procure essential and exceedingly rare materials the likes of which are only readily accessible in chemical plants and perhaps warehouses for storage of such compounds. We have instructed our security service to monitor certain high-risk locations accordingly. All of this is, of course, predicated on the understanding that the specimen and its human companion are actively in communication at this point, though how this is occurring, we still do not know. As predicted from our various stress tests, our analyses of the specimen’s composition, while still preliminary, indicate nothing of telepathic ability, the mechanism for which we are familiar with given our experimentation on the specimens in Tanks #13 and #22. Indeed, the creature seems to possess nothing in the realm of psionic faculties, aside from perhaps a heightened form of chemoreception, which appears to occur at a largely unconscious level. Still, we believe that it poses a greater threat in its discovery than in its actions. February 6th Our first lead. The security force’s reconnaissance team isolated a region wherein there have been multiple reports of strange sightings, including a very specific description of an ‘octopus-bug”, albeit from a considerable distance. This is problematic, however, as it means that the specimen has probably increased in size—we anticipated that its containment was stifling its growth , but not so much so that we would see exponential gains so soon after its release. There is more than visual confirmation, however; while the sample needs to be re-ran, multiple occurrences of the specimen’s DNA were found at a junkyard local to the area, implying that some considerable time was spent there, perhaps as a base for further planning. Groups of security teams have been dispatched to what would be nearby locations of interest in the event that terrestrial departure is indeed the objective. February 8th There was an encounter. Needless to say, we failed to retrieve the specimen. The circumstances have changed. If the surviving soldiers testimonies are even partially accurate, we will need to consider a new course of action. As anticipated, the specimen and its human companion entered a chemical storage house, apparently seeking large quantities of tritium. When engaged the specimen proved to be more inimical than previously determined. It seems that while we were correct that it has no regenerative capabilities, it is able to extract an assortment of carefully selected materials from the environment and fuse them to itself as a means of both rehabilitation and enhancement. Our various mutilations of its body, then, have actually aided it in its ability to weaponize itself (how were we supposed to know?), and by all accounts it is now nearly impenetrable to standard ammunition while also demonstrating supreme strength and agility. The brute like officer in charge of the security team was impaled through his eye by a half organic, half rusted-iron tendril. Other members of the team were killed in similar fashion, not a single one of them with all remaining limbs intact. The Director is furious. We have been forced to approach the government about the situation, and it is not guaranteed that they will make any attempt to obtain the specimen non-lethally. The details are being sorted out as we speak. The destruction at the storage house is in the process of being concealed, attributed to a malfunction of equipment which reacted poorly to the various chemicals present, but the media is already reporting on the sightings. It is most likely out of our hands now. There is some good news, however. The human companion was injured during the skirmish, wounded by gunfire, perhaps mortally. The specimen needed to assist him in fleeing. We also have confirmation that the human companion was using some sort of click-and-flash device to communicate with it, probably of his own invention; whether he had this device prior to his larceny or not is undetermined. It has also been confirmed that the specimen is indeed now the height (probably taller) of the average adult human male. February 10th All is not lost. The facility remains active (under watchful eyes), though as expected we have been effectively subsumed by the government. The Director now reports to the Department of Defense, though the relinquishment of such power is to our benefit given the scale of recent events. With new management, resources have tripled. The truth about the incident has been largely contained. Over a dozen men massacred and nothing beyond a candlelit vigil and some policy talk on chemical regulations and the responsibilities of private businesses. Extraordinary. As to the specimen and its (potentially deceased) human companion, I am told that an unprecedented level of surveillance is being used to aid in their capture. We are still unsure if they will consider a non-lethal approach on the former. I will continue with these entries until the matter is entirely resolved—the recent turns are troubling, but will undoubtedly be edifying in many ways should the facility survive. February 20th It has been ten days with no information. Three days ago, we were forced to surrender all data accumulated on the rogue specimen to two very haughty, square-shouldered individuals who I do not believe will be able to interpret them in the slightest. We have been instructed by the Director however (likely at the bequest of his new superiors) to continue our work on the other subjects and to disregard the current matter completely, effectively placing a moratorium on all Tank #43 discussions. What is happening now, we do not know. If there has been any movement, it has reached us neither here nor though the media, though that means nothing given our distance from the situation now. One thing that we do know is that the specimen is still terrestrial. Our celestial radar remains firmly within our control, and we would have detected if it had somehow managed to leave the atmosphere. For now, we simply focus our efforts as instructed. Today we are working with the specimen in Tank #4—we are going to try to induce its hydrokinesis through extreme temperature exposure. February 26th Still nothing. I met with the Director about an unrelated matter and he confided in me that he believes the investigation has went stagnant. I told him that I will continue my documentation for posterity. March 5th We received news on the rogue specimen today, though not through the usual channels. It was reported on the news that our former technician was found in a park two states over, eviscerated and nearly unrecognizable. Distinct signs of a struggle included a loaded firearm nearby and two bullet holes in a tree. Whether he initiated the attack or was defending himself we will never know. The media is understandably perplexed, failing to link it to the storage house event. They reported that he is believed to have been killed on March 2nd. The specimen has been on its own for over 72 hours now. March 8th I have no words. How I am even managing to write this, to string these thoughts together and hold a pen firmly enough in my hand to stroke the paper, I do not know. The charade is over; the specimen surfaced last night, revealing itself to the world. The footage is...difficult to even process, let alone articulate. It is taller than the average house when upright, some of its various synthesized appendages the length of its body when fully extended. It was attacking indiscriminately, reducing multiple city blocks to ruin before disappearing into the forest unscathed. The death toll is well over one hundred. Efforts to contain the creature have globalized, though I fear that this catastrophe is of the kind that cannot be averted once initiated. Our facility has closed, permanently. The Director has demanded that we destroy all evidence of our involvement, and that includes the termination of the remaining subjects. No one has obliged however, no one is left— it is bedlam, we abandoned our stations when witnessing the carnage and I am sure that none have any intention of returning. I have half a mind to do so if only to set loose the other creatures as some last-ditch attempt to find a means of combating Tank #43, but that would be fruitless at best, foolish at worst. All that I have taken with me are these notes, to have some testament of what has transpired. I pray that I will be able to write a resolution, and quickly. March 10th It was announced today that the country will be evacuated completely to permit a fully realized military assault on the specimen, which has reportedly nearly doubled in size from only two days ago. I suspect now that its ability to merge itself to components of its environment is part of a larger aptitude to recognize what is injurious to it and adapt to it accordingly—its exponential growth may even be due to increased familiarity with our gravity. It follows, then, that if there has been any attempt already to use weapons on it similar to what is being prepared, this strike will likely only serve to exacerbate the ordeal. I have attempted to convey as much to anyone who will listen, but have only managed to reach the ears of a few scrambling soldiers, who I do not believe will pass my message along. I have tried to broadcast my admonitions but the media is in disarray. I cannot find my fellow researchers. We can now only watch from a distance as the world unites to address this grave danger. March 12th The operation failed. The specimen is now, I believe, unstoppable. So many lives...just lost. And in such a manner! It no longer retreats, for it now has dominion over us. It rampages day and night and only grows stronger and more tireless. Our planet’s defenses have been all but eradicated. There is no salvation in sight. There is truly nothing more to be said now. march, or maybe april What great wonders must lie in the expanse of space, for God to have taken such care to distance us from them so! Wonders and horrors alike! This will be my last entry, and indeed, perhaps the last entry of all of man. The specimen’s mobility is unparalleled, such is the breadth of its strides. It’s form now is of a sort that no description could ever conjure it to the imagination, save that it is all of civilization’s fears meshed into one and magnified a thousandfold. The means by which it can destroy now are nearly as astonishing as the existence of the behemoth itself! We have dwindled to a handful seemingly overnight. There is no return from this, extinction is upon us, our only solace that we will perish before witnessing the full devastation of our beloved planet. How did this happen!? How, how did we find ourselves lined in the fabric of such nightmares!? Why doesn’t anyone understand that we keep these things locked up for a reason!?
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