At one point, these logs were recorded on an old model black box, or flight recorder. The box was once part of a junk-sawdered ship barely functional for travel. Many of the mechanisms of this heap came from various pieces and locations strong-armed to function together either in haste or necessity. Regardless, it’s apparent that the original owner of the recordings lost them. It’s also unknown if the original recorder cared enough to try and salvage them from the mess or if they couldn’t, as there’s no forced tool marks or physical effort in the black box’s surroundings to show a struggle for recovery.
Whoever finds them now, if anyone, or if they rust and become inoperable in whatever scrapyard, the spoken recordings tell a small tale of the history of an individual seemingly unimportant in the grand scheme of things. Most of the recordings seem to have been damaged by the crash, although some of them are more clear and understandable than others. Perhaps, a voice of the shadows within the outer planets that means more to the finder than the owner…
When turned on to listen to the recordings, the voice of the speaker sounds thin in tone, almost lacking substance. The person from which it came from is probably slightly meek in personality or appearance judging from the expressions. There’s a small whispering gravel accent to the voice despite the youthful upraised tone. It’s possible to surmise that the woman is a young adult with the spryness of inexperience but that whispering gravel undertone of her voice suggests a harsh environment or perhaps an injury that aggravates her vocals. It’s hard to tell beyond those potential guesses.
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Ship’s Log Entry 1
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Wow, I cannot believe that my brother found a working black box in the recent pile! Every now and then some off world vessel drops a load of garbage and scrap and this time it wasn’t just all pointy bits and glass. Here I am, making the first recording after he spent hours-
“It wasn’t hours!” An older guy’s voice is heard in the background spoken in slight protest.
Fine fine! Way to make my dramatic first entry ruined!.. Well. Since this will eventually be put in the bird, I suppose I should make this more serious anyway. Make this informative in case its needed for some emergency crew… right. Okay. Let’s start for real. I don’t know how to delete the logs in this so whoever is listening, hope I’m not annoying you too much!
Ahem. My name is Uwi Vassji, future pilot of uh… right we never named the ship. … so much for the serious recording…. Uh…
Uwi is heard calling out to someone in the background “Hey ma who should name the bird?!”
“Uhhhh.” An older woman’s voice is heard in the background. “You do it I guess? Never thought about a name being important.”
Right. Fine. Okay…a name …think think….hm…. how about Trove 1? Since we put it together from the scrape troves?
“That’s fine Uwi, stop wasting time with the stupid box and help me with this iron. We have a shipment due soon remember?” The voice of the older guy is heard again in the background
Ugh. Fine. I’ll do this later.
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Ship’s Log Entry 2
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Uwi speaking. Let’s uh… try this again and try to be more informative. Right. Okay.
The Trove 1 is … admittedly unlicensed and unregistered, being built out of scrap and salvaged parts from all these large dumps around us. Please don’t use these recordings just to try and take us to court or something, we don’t really have many credits or whatever to our name. Maybe when it’s done, we can see about fixing that problem…heh…hehe…
Anyway… there’s no real working ships to use that we could afford, and our family wants to get out of this place and go find another home. Don’t get me wrong, there’s big flashy light cities here but the majority of them are kind of tough customers and deal in less-than-savory trades that ma and pa think would be bad to get involved in. I personally don’t care as much but they do and family is family… We’re not really allied with anyone in the eternal conflict. Most of us are salvagers by trade, getting whatever metals and parts we can to use for either the Trove 1 or for food and drink…. Mostly the food and drink sadly.
Let’s see what else…right. Don’t really know what planet this is but I know it’s very far away from all the main planets. I think the last time we visited a trades-town nearby they referred to our space as… what was it again… uh… the outer rim? Yeah that. Nobody here really cares though; we just call it the blue dust-ball. It’s a funnier name.
The blue dust-ball has really strange air apparently according to the occasional visitor in the larger towns. It constantly has this slight grey-ish blue shine to it, ma says its from all the metal dust. I doubt that but well, what do I know. The surface is mainly covered in massive landfills of junk, trash, and scrap where we live. There’s so much of it that whenever it rains there’s these sewage rivers that form and they can be rather toxic. Usually, the weather is very cold though. I don’t mind it.
If for some reason this log becomes a crash log though, don’t bother really going to whatever this planet is. Chances are, we’ll all be gone and as far as my parents have said, we have no real known historical importance. Then again, they don’t ever really tell me where they’re from. …gosh I don’t even know if they know where they’re from… I wish they would tell me.
As far as passengers to look for in Trove 1 just in case of a crash, there’s me, my older brother Rreco, my ma Myrua, and my pa Sinrud. It’s just the four of us, sadly no pet… yet. If there’s anyone else, don’t trust them! They’re probably not very nice. Or a hijacker. Or a creepy stalker. Clown? I don’t know. Just don’t trust them.
Hmmm… that’s all I can really think of for now. Trove 1 isn’t very operational yet as we’re missing some parts for the accelerator and fuel depot. There’s also non-flight important stuff but one thing at a time…flight first…protection later. Lot of work, but its going to be fun!
Uwi out!
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Ship’s Log Entry 6
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Uwi here.
I haven’t been recording any new information on the black box here because there wasn’t much to report. For the longest time it seemed like the ship was never going to be completed. We should have all the working parts and it wouldn’t matter if there wasn’t fuel or safety measures. Can’t really fly a bird through space if you don’t have sensors for asteroid detection while you’re asleep. Just sucks…
We did get some soldering done on the bright side, I guess. The acceleration should work fine, enough to push thrust and let the bird get out of the atmosphere, anyway. Hopefully in one piece. Fuel depot we hamstringed together and tested the channel with water. It flows right, but we won’t know for sure until we get actual fuel to make sure everything is wired and strung together the right way.
My bro thinks that the ship is a lost cause by now-
“It is a lost cause! You don’t know when to give up Uwi!” The brother’s voice, the older man heard before in entry 1, is heard across the room of the recording
Whatever Rreco!.. anyway…the only thing we could possibly do for fuel is steal it but that’s too dangerous. She says this noticeably in a much more hushed tone in the recording
On my spare time ma got sick. I found a small calling of scavenging around for medical supplies and formulating some stims to help her through things and she made a recovery. Maybe if I ever leave this place I can do that more. Ships and medicine, what a combination!
The voice of Uwi’s father is heard speaking up “maybe you should focus more on that instead of the ship. You could really reduce our expenses.”
S-sure pa, I’ll get in that each morning a bit more then…
“Good. Breakfast will be ready soon. Finish your recording Uwi and get over here”
Small silence for several moments
Mh….
I guess that’s all.
I want to get out of here… we all need to get off this rust planet…
Uwi out.
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Ship’s Log Entry 14
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Uwi here.
A few days after I recorded the previous log, I found a working old model blaster rifle. There were no cartridges nearby, but it had one inside. I figured I could train in secret and get us some fuel, although I think my family would kill me even if I survived doing that. Doesn’t matter though. We need to get out of here, right?
I built some cranked up scrappy targets using some useless parts and plastics. They kind of look like the tough looking fat goons guarding one of the gang sites in the nearby town. I spent several months training with the gun on them, damn thing had such a kickback that I had to get used to… The dumped piles had more ammunition, although I have seen some horrible stuff scavenging around for them. I think whoever is dumping the junk recently has been doing it to hide from nefarious deeds. Still, none of my business considering what I’m trying to do myself.
I got grounded after my bro found me yesterday fighting it at a few scrap iron targets I set up. Luckily I was able to hide the gun and ammunition before ma and pa got there. This ship is pretty much my second bedroom as this point, so they let me stay grounded here. That’s fine. I’ll just tinker with things more and then the moment this punishment ends…bang. Bada boom. Fuel. Escape.
Can’t record too long, don’t want them hearing me.
Uwi out.
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Ship’s Log Entry 17
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In the background of the black box, the telltale sound of the low hum sub-light thrusters are echoed like white noise. Several small, quiet computerized beeping sounds rhythmically pulse in a predetermined pattern, similar to that of a cheap security system warning the pilot of something. The sound is not being answered for a small bit of silence despite the recording being started. All that is heard for 5-10 minutes aside from this engine sound is the sound of a woman crying quietly, as if she accidentally hit the button of the black box and didn’t mean to start recording. A computerized voice speaks out, breaking the silence and monotony of the repetitive sounds
“Breaking atmosphere. Deploying Airfoils. Warning. Fuel consumption high.”
There is the sound of some shuffling before the beeping finally stops. A deep sigh is heard and then...Uwi’s voice finally speaks out. It’s filled with grief, sadness. Fear. While still meek, the empty tones in her voice are so much stronger. Her voice was cracking as if her throat was sore or her mindset was simply shaken so much she can’t speak well.
Oh… I must have accidentally… turned this on…
More silence aside from the engine sounds for a good minute
Someone was killing… everyone. The nearby town was on fire. They… f-fuck… uhm… they were shrouded in dark cloth and leather. Some … some kind of mask… they uhh… they came from some strange… I don’t know… weird triangle ship… I don’t know. So much screaming.
Ma and… pa… they told me to… erh… prepare the ship. They started… packing supplies. Rreco was… pushing me to get the engine started since the test flight worked. I… I got it all turned on…
Uwi’s voice cracks and she lets out some crying for a few more moments and coughs a bit as if she was trying to hold her emotions back a bit
We… we were almost ready to go… then I heard Rreco… he screamed… and the blood… I saw it in the house. Ma and pa… uh… closed the hatch to the storage and we all… we all saw the figure… they uh… they… ran at us… with some kind of long metal weapon… my pa… he… why… why… he… yelled at me to take off and they both ran at…
And then they…
They’re all gone…
It wasn’t supposed to be like this…
We were suppose to leave together…
The recording is forcibly ended there after Uwi starts to wrack in sobbing again
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Ship’s Log Entry 19
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Loud sirens are blaring as the engine, once smooth in its hum and torpid drone is now sputtering and the sounds of burning are heard in the background. A much more panicked and desperate Uwi is speaking outloud
Trove 1 calling out, mayday, mayday! Requesting emergency landing assistance to any that can hear!
Come on old bird you can hold…you can hoooold….
No no no no NO NOT THA-
Static. Recording ends. No more logs are salvageable in the recovered Black Box...
