grunk/vault/story/docs/manifesto.md

Captain's log. April 18, 2448.

My name is Captain Frank Tannenbaum. I am the commander and, by all indications, sole survivor of the Dogberry HK-409 Cargo Depot.

Approximately three weeks ago we came into contact with an "alien organism", a form of "life" utterly unlike anything previously found in the Earth-sphere. It is unbelievably dangerous to humanoid life. It does not feel, but it does "think". It is a cunning hyper-predator, a wretched biological "machine" built for the sole purpose of murder. It somehow managed to evade our security protocols, infiltrating my own "crew" and infesting the entire station from within. You must believe me when I tell you that if this life-form is allowed to escape this station, all life on Earth is doomed. This is an "extinction-level event".

As I am writing this, I am currently preparing to destroy this station and wipe out every last trace of "the adversary". The fact that you are reading this means that my plan has unfortunately failed. It also indicates that you yourself have not yet been infected, which means there is still time. I must then ask you, for the sake of your loved ones, for all mankind, for all Earth, and for everything anyone has ever held dear, to do the following immediately:

1. Return to your vessel.
2. Remove whatever garments you are wearing and destroy them.
3. Detonate the external propellant tank and destroy every last trace of this station.
4. Destroy your vessel and kill yourself.

I recognize the "gravity" of what I ask, and I do not ask this lightly. I am sorry that fate brought you here, to this baleful place. I wish it had not. Please understand that this is simply the only way to be sure.

I have not identified the precise method by which "the adversary" arrived on this station, but deep-space theta-ray bursts seem a likely suspect as per usual. The first indication of trouble was the appearance of a strange creature in the medbay, suspended in a small tank. When I confronted my chief medical officer Doctor Brooks, he claimed it was simply a "pet" which he'd shipped from a previous posting on L2 -- a story which immediately drew my suspicion. Looking back, the doctor's effete manner makes him a natural point of ingress for a being which preys on the mentally-weak.

I do not know why I alone appear to be immune to the influence of "the adversary". I am certain it could overpower me if it really tried -- perhaps for the time being it is simply "playing with its food". My "luck" will surely run out soon. It stands to reason, however, that as the strongest, most "physically-optimal" member of the crew, my body may simply possess a natural resistance to "alien infection". One month ago, I began taking daily "natural enhancement supplements", which have improved my "confidence" immensely and may have inadvertently given my body a "superhuman" resistance to foreign influence.

I hesitate to speculate what dark world could evolve a being such as this yet, not content to confine its bestial hunger to one planet, as a life-form disposed only to murder it must have escaped the confines of its homeworld to make a feast of the universe.