Icarus Base

Exitus Global Group

Incident report

Name: Stella Mayr

DOB: 03/08/2040

Occupation: Marine Geologist

Date of file: December 5th 2071

Location: Icarus Base, South West Pacific Basin

Date of incident: June 2nd-June 21st, 2071

Scale: Internal only-Restricted

Transcription of A lost recording made on September 13th, 2071 about an incident that took place on an underwater base named the Icarus.

Stella Mayr: Are you sure we have to record this? I-I mean, I’ve already talked about it plenty and it's getting late. I don't really want to think about this again.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: I assure you Ms. Mayr, this is important to get on record for the -static- Global Group HQ, so all of this can be behind you. Just start from the beginning and tell us exactly what happened in your own words. Don't worry about what was said on the news, we just need your exact testimony. This will be the last time you will have to explain this.

Stella Mayr: . . . Listen, it wasn't supposed to go down like that. The Icarus was supposed to be the most secure underwater base ever made. I know your company put a lot of money into possibilities of it but the team was just excited to be going down there. A fully functional underwater research base, six thousand meters under the ocean right on the Abyssal plain. I mean, who wouldn’t be? . . . that’s just a part of the underwater basin. It's not anything weird, though I guess in hindsight maybe the creepy name we gave to fifty percent of the unexplored section of the ocean was more in line with what we found down there.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: And why did you want to go on this underwater expedition in the first place Ms. Mayr?

Stella Mayr: Oh… well I mean, I guess the reason I wanted to be down there is for the same reason any Marine Geologist or hell, any -Static- who loved the ocean would. A forty room, fully functional lab, WIFI, and even a self sustaining greenhouse for food! You all really made a paradise under the ocean. But I guess if I could explain the reason I wanted to go down there is simply because I've always been obsessed with the ocean. You know, anyone else that went through what I went through as a -Static- would probably hate the ocean. I was only ten in Miami in the summer of 2050 when the city -Static- to the ocean. I'm sure you remember that.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: I'm sorry to hear that. An unavoidable tragedy.

Stella Mayr: Yeah that's what everyone always says. . . what does why I wanted to go down there have anything to do with what happened? You don't think -Static- something to do with it, right?

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: Of course not Ma’am, we’re just covering several different points. Now if you wouldn't mind, please go into your stay in the Icarus base.

Stella Mayr: Right. . .okay, well, there were seven of us down there during the month of the incident. The start of the first day was normal.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: Dates please, Ms. Mayr.

Stella Mayr: Sorry. . . I guess I should start on June first of 2071. I know nothing started to get really odd until the next day, but that was when the transport of other team members were supposed to arrive. As you probably know, the cyclone above the ocean was stopping all boat traffic in that area and had killed our communication with the mainland. From what I heard it was a bad one. I think they named it -Static- or something , but all I know is it stopped anyone else from being down there. So I'm sure that there were only seven of us. . . at the time. Dr. Johnson, Dr, Keller, the maintenance manager; Mr. Hemlock and the three lab assistants: Luise, Hanna, and Jada. If you include me that makes the -Static- of us, but you recovered seven bodies, right? If I wasn't one of them I don't know how Joseph Rodriguez got on the Icarus. Maybe he had something to do with it.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: Ms. Mayr, Dr. Joseph Rodriguez was stationed on the Icarus with you.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: We will come back to that at a -Static- time, for now just continue the course of events as you remember them.

Stella Mayr: Uh. . . okay. After the storm stopped the other crew from arriving there, we all just bunkered down that night to watch some old flicks. I don't remember what they were really, it was just that I didn't have any interest in watching some guy with guns killing people. I was already working on my project in my own room, and the night was pretty much quiet. Cyclones like that don't really affect anything so deep. Although, the high lights outside of every window did catch the occasional fish and debris falling from it.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: So then nothing of consequence happened the first night?

Stella Mayr: No, nothing that I can think of.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: Then let's push on to the first event that happened on the Second of June. With a time of day please, Ms. Mayr, if you can remember.

Stella Mayr: The first thing that would have happened was around four P.m. Auckland time zone, the Red wing of the base went dark and the power cut off. Mr. Hemlock was all over it the second it happened but the base was so large for just the seven of us it really didn't matter. The only concern was green house two also -Static- down. So we all just moved over to the Blue wing. Some of the lab assistants acted like it was a fun sleepover to all get together in the blue wing. Me and Doctor Johnson were worried about the legitimacy of an underwater base losing power, however Mr Hemlock insisted that it was just something with the lighting and the rest of the functionality was designed to work independently of the rest. He said he would have to reset each room one at a time so it would take him a while and he was going to wait on some of the rooms until the rest of his maintenance team had made it down once the storm had ended. No one seemed to mind him not keeping some of the lights on. . . Oh! I just remembered. Jada, I think, Dr. Keller's lab assistant, was being very insistent that she woke up the night before to some really bad shaking in the base. And the way she had described it we all assumed we would have felt it too so she had probably just been dreaming.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: So just to recap, one assistant said she heard shaking and the lights went out and none of you believed this Jada Syied.

Stella Mayr: Well I don't know if I would go that far, but yeah, there was no real reason to believe what she said. Well, not yet anyway. I decided to move all the way down to room number six. It was a lot smaller than room two like I had before but my lights had gone out and I wanted to be further away from the rest of the rabel in the base. I preferred to work in peace. Which is why I'm pretty sure I was the only one to hear the knocking the first night.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: Knocking? Like on the door of your new room?

Stella Mayr: No. . . from the window that pointed out to the open ocean. When I heard it the first time it was just four little taps. -Four knocks on the wood interview table- just like that, a soft rhythm. I was trying to sleep and you know us being five thousand -Static- hundred and twenty three feet under the ocean, I just assumed it was the base settling under the pressure. But I didn't stop. A few minutes later it happened again. Then again and again. It didn't stop for an hour so I finally got up and turned the lights on inside the room and on the outer window shell as well. Then it stopped. So I just waited for it to happen again but it never came. I felt stupid and a little freaked out I’ll admit, but still when I turned the lights back off and the knock came again but so hard I thought the window would bust I freaked out. I decided I would go sleep in the Blue wing with everyone else now. I was convinced that it was just my mind playing tricks on me but I don't know, it probably wasn't.

-The door opens and shuts in the room-

E.G.G. Operations officer: Just pretend I'm not here and continue.

Stella Mayr: Like I was saying, I spent the rest of the night back in the Blue wing with the rest of the crew. I wasn't sure what that knocking was but I wasn't going to be in that room. I guess it could have been an angry crab or something. But I woke up the next morning and my neck was stiff. The atmosphere had changed in the base though. Everyone seemed tired and irritated.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: What do you think was the cause of this irritation?

Stella Mayr: Well when I asked Hannah about it, she said that she just had a lot of nightmares and didn't sleep well. I asked her what they were about but she didn't really want to say so I didn't push her. But regardless, I think everyone decided not to do much that day. I just hung out in the lounge and read. Though thinking back now I can't remember what it was that I was -Static-, at this point a lot of the details start getting fuzzy, but I know sometime around the middle of the day is when Dr. Keller used the intercom to call everyone to the lab Six Observation room. It was the room that hung over a pretty nice sized trench. She was pointing to a small shimmering light at the bottom of the trench.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: You are saying you saw a Light at the bottom of the trench under the base?

Stella Mayr: Yeah and not just a white light more like a Magenta or a hot pinkish purple color. The rays of light were reaching up pretty far. Everyone was trying to make guesses at this point. I was saying it was an underwater volcano that must have cracked, letting a little of the mantle out. But just about everyone would end up wrong. If I remember right nothing else really happened that day but we spent it convincing Mr. Hemlock to power back up Lab Four so we could take a Sub out to investigate it. I'll admit I was just as eager as anyone else because what was the harm?

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: So then everyone was in agreement about going on the expedition?

Stella Mayr: Well everyone but Mr.Hemlock and Hannah. Mr. Hemlock seemed shaken a bit; he had spent most time just trying to get contact back up and running with the mainland. And Hannah took me aside to tell me we shouldn't go out of the ship. She did look in pretty bad shape like she had not slept. But I just assumed it was because she was having nightmares, plus she refused to -Static- on why we shouldn't go. But of course she was right, we should not have gone. Dr. Johnson gave a whole speech about how we should all rest and get ready to make a wonderful scientific discovery in the morning. That night didn't have any knocking or bad dreams for me, however I did end up waking up in the middle of the night to a cold chill.

E.G.G. Operations officer: And the next day on the exploration is when you found the object you spoke of in the earliest report.

-There is a pause-

Stella Mayr: That's right. We went down to the bottom of the trench in the sub and found the source of the glowing light. It was a luminescent Gemstone.

E.G.G. Operations officer: And then you brought it back onto the Icarus base correct?

Stella Mayr: Yeah we did, nobody on that sub would have elected not to bring it back up. You don't understand how amazing that stone was. It had grooves that looked like something had whittled it with a carving knife and the weird symbols that were inside of the stone. It was rounded on all sides and shaped like a teardrop. When you held it, it felt cold and wet. You can't even imagine how beautiful it was. It's like it was made of--

-there is several minutes of static and cuts back in to Stella speaking-

Stella Mayr: I understand that but listen, no one understood how Hannah got outside of the Base. I threw up when I saw her just floating there. No one knows where her arm went but the subs had already been damaged so we could not go back out to get her. Mr. Hemlock was nowhere to be found either so we just closed the shutter on the front windows and left her be. With all the lights out in the base besides the half of the blue wing and a few rooms we all just stuck together. That's when that thing showed up. The other person you all keep claiming was in the crew from the start Dr. Joseph Rodriguez walked into the room with us holding blankets. The crazy thing was, I was the only one that seemed to even notice that he was out of place. He was wearing the jump suit we all wore he had on one of those old professors suits. I even yelled at him and stood up but everyone looked at me strangely. They thought I lost my mind but I knew I hadn't. He did fit in, he wasn't one of us. They continued to try to tell me that I was just having a panic attack and that he had been there from the start. Even said that I was the one who recommended him for the trip down here. It made my skin crawl. I knew that wherever that Gem went in the ship this thing pretending to be a person had something to do with it.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: We have shown you the photos taken before you left the ledger and still you don't believe that the Doctor had been on the trip with you the entire time?

Stella Mayr: I don't care what you can show me, that thing did something when we brought that gem on the Icarus. It changed little details about everything. I know it did. It laughed at the fact that I was the only one that could see it. I think it liked that.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: Tell us what happened next.

Stella Mayr: The next day was even worse. It started with the room I had locked myself in. I opened the shutters and was greeted with the silhouettes of large Squids or something that had specks of that same light all across it. I shut it quick just to make sure whatever was lurking out there in the dark ocean didn't see me. When I looked out of the door to see the rest of the team, that THING was looking right at the door. Two other people were missing too as of yesterday before I went to sleep. There was Dr. Johnson, Dr. Keller, Luise, and Jada still out there in the small space in the mess hall. All sitting with that thing, But now Dr. Keller and Jada were not even there anymore. I made sure to find a heavy object to attack that thing with if it made any movement when I opened the door.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: So you planned on attacking them?

Stella Mayr: Only if I got provoked. I'm pretty sure it was the thing taking them... to do. . . whatever it was doing with them. . . so I wasn't taking any chances. That whole day was a nightmare. We spent some time looking for them only to find Mr Hemlock in the Greenhouse… but thats all we found-

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: What happened to Mr. Hemlock?

Stella Mayr: I don't really want to say it, I just can't explain. . .

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: Please, try.

Stella Mayr: His body was twisted, in a way I will never be able to get out of my head. It was like his bones were stretched around the base of a small tree in the green house. I can't understand it. It was wrong, all of the light in the greenhouse was pulsing the same color as the Gem we found. His feet were under the soil like he was rooted.

-she takes a pause-

Stella Mayr: You want to know the weirdest part? Even though it looked like his body had been broken and rung out like a damp rag, there was no blood. We didn't stay for long, but I think I saw his eyes blink.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: What happened to Dr Keller, and Miss Jada, and how were the others handling this?

Stella Mayr: I found Dr. Keller sitting in one of the labs. . . bled out, both of her eyes were sitting on the ground in front of her and she just sat there cross legged like she was resting. But you know, now that you mention it, it was weird that Dr. Johnson and anyone who wasn't missing just didn't react; they seemed like they were in a trance ever since we brought that thing on board and -Static- happened. But that thing pretending to be a part of the crew just had a half smile the entire time. It was more interested in the corpses than anyone else. It kept trying to get people to touch them.

E.G.G. Operations officer: I want to know about the project in lab seven, you said you went to check on it-

-there is several minutes of static that ends with the sound of a door closing-

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: Now getting back to at hand, it is now June 8th you are alone in the base you have confirmed the deaths of Dr Alandre Keller, Mr Ronald Hemlock, and three lab assistants by the name of Hannah Tillows, Jada Syed, and Luise Godfre. Is this correct?

Stella Mayr: That's right, at that point on the Eighth I had locked myself within Lab six or the observation lab, with Dr. Johnson. He was just sitting next to the windows and staring out at the dark ocean and repeating some kind of verse. I am not all that sure what he was saying but it was something like: ‘What happens to the ghosts of the fish and the squid, where would they go if they can't go to heaven?’ He said that over and over. That thing you said is a person stood outside of the airlock doors and watched us. He never blinked, he never moved, he just stood there mouthing something.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: What was he mouthing?

-long silence then she whispers-

Stella Mayr: ‘The waters will rise for you, they fill your shoes. They wish you to drink from them, so they can be inside of you.’ I don't know what it means. But it was around that time I heard the voice come over the PA system that a breach was detected. The whole base started to tremble. Icarus was falling apart and filling with water and I don't even know why. The water was filling the hall outside of lab six and I could see it slowly cover that thing from foot to head and he never moved, he just stood there in place mouthing those same words over and over even under the water. Until lab six broke off the rest of the base and plummeted down into the trench below. That's when I blacked out. What woke me up was the sound of the radio coming back online. You were all paging for anyone to answer. That's when I saw Dr. Johnson had that massive bite taken out of half of his body. He was laying there cold and missing the right side of his body. So I didn’t even question how long I was out. I heard I didn't get rescued until the twenty first. The whole time I was out I just had strange dreams.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: What were your dreams about?

Stella Mayr: I had dreams of odd streets made of black sand clinging to the sides of ivory pyramids. There were flying fish and loud whispers that I can't remember. I don't think I'll be going near the ocean again.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: I see. I think that will do for now, Ms Mayr. You just continue to rest up and we won't bother you any further.

Stella Mayr: What they said about me on the news. . . Did the company come up with that?

E.G.G. Incident Reporter One: The official story released by the company was as follows: The cyclone pulled a cable that was latched to the base. It caused a shift of weight and busted an unseen pocket of toxic gas trapped in an underground cave for who knows how long. The gas got into the base through the water filtration system and caused mass -Static-. There was a string of suicides and homicides committed by one Miss Stella Mayr. Other than her there were no survivors.

Stella Mayr: I know what happened down there, I'm not going to stay quiet about it after this is all over. We found something. . . something wrong down there.

E.G.G. Incident Reporter Two: Don't work yourself up, ma’am. You should focus on recovering. The company doctors are well aware of your situation. I'm sure you will get better in no time and you can make all the claims you would like. I'm sure the company will take good care of you. We would hate for you to succumb to your illness because you have been stressing yourself out with what may, or may not have actually happened.

-Recording clicks off-