u/Soft-Zombie3057

I've been working on my very first full-scale (ish) spec evo project for a long time now, probably just around 6 months. I've been working on it in the shadows of this subreddit, asking for advice and looking at other peoples' work for inspiration. And I've gotta say- you all are a creative bunch. Im very limited in my online resources, so yall are going to have to settle with some low-quality pictures of my traditional art for now. Im going to do my best to keep the world or universe itself relatively mysterious in order to not stray too far from the spec-evo part of the universe.

Im a huge fan of sci-fi, specifically jurassic Park (mostly the book) and Alien. So, I probably took some inspiration from both of those. I recently finished my first story part of the universe/main planet this project focuses on. I took on a different writing style for this one, filled with redacted text on a log-by-log style.

I'll stop beating around the bush now and just ask for feedback from y'all. I've got TONS more art and ideas for writing, and id like to know the best direction for it all. I rushed the writing a little bit because it was for a school project that just grew into something much more. I'll also answer questions, though most of everything about this universe is still a WIP. I also want to not explain everything at one time in order to make future changes to lore or some other things like that.

Thanks for your help, even if you didnt know you were helping. Just keep up what you have been doing with your ideas!

Constructive criticism is encouraged and appreciated!

(Image is one of the animals featured in the story, though briefly)

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[Extraneous logs removed]

Crew Log - #28

The captain just changed our course only a couple minutes ago, now we’re planning to make a stop at an unmapped star system on our way to Iumenta for a gravity assist. I recommended we go straight there, but a gravity assist will cut our ride short. Thankfully. If I have to sit here and listen to Harlan talk about fake or theoretic animals more than I need to, I might throw myself out of the airlock.

One thing I noticed though, is that there are no meteorology probes or satellites anywhere in this star system, nor any information about the conditions we might experience. Usually this wouldn’t be an issue out here in our farming sector, but an unmapped star system in such a high-traffic area is... irregular. Either way, I’ve been overruled. The nutjob Harlan- the xenobiologist or whatever he calls himself, just wants to get to Iumenta as fast as possible for his “studies”. The rest of the four others are passengers like myself plus our captain. Captain Kuznetsov. More like a glorified newspaper boy than anything, but who am I to judge? I just need to get to Iumenta so I can get off this sorry excuse for a farming vessel and hitch a commercial ride to the nearest Alt-E (Alternate Earth) to finish my meteorology degree.

Crew Log - #29

We had to make our unexpected landing approximately 60 minutes ago; the hour is 1500 East Celestial Sector Time. Last known coordinates are as follows: ████, ██████, ██°███, █ ████, ██ ██████.

Of course, why would we listen to the meteorologist? We got Captain newspaper boy and the guy who talks about fake animals deciding the fate of our vessel- which has already had it bad enough. Complications arose with our attempt to utilize a gravity assist apparently- and now we’re here. Captain said we blew out one of the engines trying to escape the planet’s sphere of influence, so we can’t lift off. Fantastic. Fortunately, the atmosphere seems breathable- even though it feels like I’m drinking more water than I am breathing air. Environment seems very rich in biomass, and oxygen levels are through the roof. I feel... lighter too. Most likely less gravity. The temperature fluctuations are very indicative of an unstable climate, though I’ll need to grab some of my instruments from my luggage to confirm my suspicions. At least Harlan seems excited about the plants, so I’ll probably go see what his deal is.

Crew Log - #30

Day one here is going well. My instruments confirm the climate’s instability, which means we should be expecting drastic temperature shifts and probably some serious storms. Just the cherry on top of our cake, right? Nobody knows what to do. Our Captain’s a farmer and we’re all just passengers. Nobody here knows what is going on or how to get our ship back into the air. Harlan seems to be doing fine, and I actually sat down to listen to him. Well, half-listen anyway. He was talking something about evolution of the plants or something, said they looked like ██████ and ███ ████ from Earth. I wasn’t really fully listening until the sounds of constant, humid dripping was suddenly interrupted by a rustling in the bush. Out popped the first case of fauna on this planet that we had encountered, and it was nothing like I had ever seen before. It was roughly the size of a cyber ball that we played with as kids, though it walked with a strange, almost mechanical feel to it. It wasn’t fleshy like us or the livestock on Iumenta. It was like it was covered in sheets of rock that ground together in a quiet scraping rhythm. It had lots of legs, a broad body, and two large arms tipped with broad, two-fingered, tweezer-like appendages. Harlan recognized it immediately- said it was a ███. I’m just gonna trust him at this point. Though he did mention that they were supposed to have gone extinct back before the war, before all the Alt-Es were fully established. For some reason, his mind was constantly stuck on evolution. I walked away after the little animal rapidly dug underground with its large arms to escape Harlan’s curiosity. Kuznetsov said we should spend the first night in the ship, then start to explore in the morning. I’m not gonna argue, and neither is anyone else.

P.S. Harlan sketched down the little animal on a notepad, the image I will upload below.

[DATA EXPUNGED]

Crew Log - #31

Last night was relatively uneventful. None of us could sleep very well though. The constant sounds of water moving and strange clicks or chatters were so unfamiliar to all of us. It seemed as if the very air we were breathing was alive.

However, as time progressed, even I was able to get some sleep. But I woke, startled awake by Kuznetsov who had this sense of urgency on his face. I couldn’t figure out the problem until the hull of our grounded vessel groaned loudly, like it was hurling. The entire thing began to shift and groan even more, and I could barely stand up straight after the captain went back into the quarters to help the others. Even as I held the wall leading up to the exit, I was thrown against it and a searing pain escaped from the side of my head. Harlan was next to me at this point, but I was pulling ahead.

I don’t remember what happened after this or how I got out. All I remember is looking back at our vessel to see it getting engulfed by the Earth itself. The mud rose around the landing gear and had consumed the entire right wing by the time the rest of them got out, with Kuznetsov tailing behind them. We all watched in disbelief as the vessel eventually came to a halt halfway buried beneath the mud. The main entrance was completely obscured, but the cabin remained protruding from the ground like a hill of steel.

Everything was silent, except for the drip.

I looked down at the source, and the red pool at my feet continued to grow. It was coming from me. My head. I remember reaching up and feeling a warm liquid running down the side of my face, coating my ear in a viscous, red substance. I pull my hand back, and it’s got the same red spread across its palm, and that’s the last picture I see before the world starts to spin.

Crew Log - #32

I woke up in the dirt, though not the dirt I was left in before. I attempted to move, but my legs wouldn’t listen. Nothing would. I began to panic, but Kate was there. She had a medical tool in her hand, moving with small mechanical arms and needles. She explained to me a bunch of long words and told me to get some more rest. So I did.

Kate is the only medical student on board with us, and I’m definitely glad she was there. We had spoken only briefly before we had to land, but she seemed smart. Smarter than me at least. When the muscle relaxants finally wore off and I could move again, I reached up to feel the side of my head, but I was only met with the coarse fiber of the bandage. Pretty sure Kate had given me some sort of numbing agent, because I felt great. However, the solemn of our group told me they didn’t feel the same.

One of us was missing. Rich.

But I could’ve sworn that Rich had gotten off the ship. Because he had. The only one willing to talk was Harlan. He explained that an animal like the one we had seen the other day, a ███ had… attacked. This one was larger. Much larger. Harlan explained the animal with a lot of detail- its vibrant green and blue coloration, how its mouth seemed to have its own hands, the way it moved like the construction machines we have back home, and how it dragged Rich away into a tree before dismembering him. I guess I had a really worried or shocked face because then Harlan switched topics to something about behaviors and adaptations. Maybe the antibiotics hadn’t worn off fully or something- because he was speaking total gibberish. Talking about ███ and ███████. Things I’ve never even heard of, but he seems like he knows more than we do about these animals.

All I know is that I don’t want to have to be conscious if this happens again.

Crew Log - #33

The remainder of today after my last log was walking. The tension was high among our group, and soon it became too much after the numbing agent wore off. This whole situation is Kuznetsov’s fault- and I wasn’t about to just stand there and blindly follow him anymore. Without him Rich wouldn’t be gone, and we would still be in our ship on our merry way to Iumenta. Pretty sure I got in his face first, or maybe he did. Either way, I swung on him. I could feel the clatter of his teeth beneath the throbbing of my knuckles as he fell to the ground with more of a splash than a thud. Kate got between the two of us, and Harlan stiff-armed me away. I could still feel myself fuming, so I walked away. Off into the bushes, away from the group. I walked until I couldn’t hear Kate’s reassurances anymore.

My mind was racing, trying to pin the blame on Kuznetsov. The ship. The last sliver of hope drowned in the depths of this godforsaken planet. The side of my head. Rich. My freshly painted knuckles, which hung at my side. However, it wasn’t long until my thoughts were abruptly interrupted. My foot struck something on the floor. Something heavy and hard. I trace the silhouette until I freeze. Every hair on my body stands straight up and my stomach sinks. The same feeling in the ship. I stand there, soundless and motionless for what seems like hours before the group starts to call my name. The mound of armor doesn’t move before I do. I step slightly to the side, getting a better view of the animal. My foot glides over the green foliage on the ground, then strikes the armor with a sickening crunch.

I wait for it.

And wait.

But nothing. I’m not getting dragged into a tree and dismembered. Matter of fact, the piece that I had struck flaked off like rusted metal and stuck to my boot. Immediately, I felt a surge of relief.

It was dead.

I called out to Harlan, and he promptly moved through the foliage towards me. Together, or mostly just Harlan, he determined this was a different offshoot of ███. The only others that we had seen had been no bigger than the couch we had on board the ship. This one was much larger. And I mean much, much larger. As in- the size of some small private vessels.

Then Harlan made an unsettling discovery. This wasn’t a carcass- this was a ██.

Just the armor.

Crew Log - #34

Nothing has been the same since earlier today. I walk at the back of the group and Kuznetsov walks at the front. Everyone has been on edge since the skin we found. If it can even be called skin. Biological rock probably fits the description better. Harlan took a sample and stuck it in a glass vial. Don’t know what the heck he’s gonna use that for- but I wasn’t the mood to start anything else. My head was throbbing too much.

We walk through game trails as we travel. Some look like we could drive cars through them; others barely fit me between the dense flora on either side. The more we walk, the more alive everything feels. Harlan has to have catalogued over 16 species at this point. Most are small, no bigger than a chair. Few were larger, but those that were didn’t seem interested in us. Harlan theorizes the vast majority of these species are either devoted herbivores or eat things that are already dead.

One particular species especially caught my eye. The one we saw looked a lot like the rock skin we found earlier, but it is much smaller. Harlan assured me they were different species, but I think I’m right about this one for the first time. Might be a child. We saw it at the base of a huge boulder in a flooded, marsh-like field. Its back was towards us, and it was scooping some plants into its mouth. It has the same general body plan; a wide body, 8 thick, powerful legs, and two tweezers. Harlan said they were something that started with a “P”, but I can’t remember, and they look like Kate’s tweezers. This one’s tweezers are different though. One is smaller and looks like it is used more for eating stuff. Sometimes it even walks on this tweezer. The other tweezer is much bigger. It rivals the size of the ███ itself. Due to this, it lays this huge tweezer on top of its own wide body. What this tweezer could possibly be used for is beyond me.

I think I’m starting to see what Harlan has been talking about.

Crew Log - #35

The mood was high. We emerged from dense ██████ to see the all-familiar metallic domes rising above the tree line. Easily recognizable farming █████; they’re all over Iumenta. We started to celebrate. We could get there, gather materials, and send out a distress call for any passing vessels.

That’s when we saw them.

I looked across the clearing- just in front of the tree line. It looked like a bunch of logs laying around- until one stood up.

On two legs.

This ███ was long, not wide. It had a large, segmented tail and its 8 pairs of knife-like tweezers are tucked under its body in between its head and legs. It was almost in the shape of a dinosaur from our archives of old.

Then another stood up.

Then another.

Soon, they were all on their feet, prowling towards us. This was when Harlan saw them. I saw the excitement on his face completely vanish, replaced by a horrified pale stare. Then all of us saw them. There were 5 of us and 6 of them, and each of them stood just below my shoulder while standing parallel to the ground. Harlan was studying them as they crept closer, quickly and quietly determining we were being hunted. With no other options, we retreated back into the brush. My heart was pounding out of my chest. As we struggled to move deeper, I could hear the long strides of the ███ around us. They made a short squelch in the soft ground as they walked, accompanied by an occasional jitter or click.

I could hear them but not see them.

Then it struck. Harlan.

The ███ jumped from the dense foliage, tackling Harlan to the ground. I stood only feet from him as he screamed. Screams I’ve never heard escape from anyone’s lips as long as I’ve been alive. Pure fear. Helplessness. They didn’t last long. The tweezers picked Harlan apart like he had described to me only earlier that day. His scream turned into a gurgle, then a whimper, then silence.

Crew Log - #36

I couldn’t control myself. The fear too great, the guilt too unbearable. I left them. Kate. Kuznetsov. The other passengers. I ran towards the farming █████. If there was any hope, I’d have to get there.

Only after I had left the foliage once more did I realize Kuznetsov and another passenger had followed me. As I looked back at them, I could see Kate breach the tree line and get ready to run but was tackled by two of the █████. I had to look away- I couldn’t put another face to a scream.

I didn’t- I couldn’t have done anything else. With no way to defend myself, I just had to run. My lungs began to burn. My sweat destroyed the bandage fastening across my face, and I felt the poisonous, humid air slice through my open wound to pierce directly into my skull. But I wouldn’t stop. Couldn’t.

It didn’t take long to get to the front doors of the farming █████. I was the first in, followed by Kuznetsov. I turned and saw the last passenger running up the stair towards us with a █████ right behind him.

He wouldn’t make it. He’s gonna let it in.

Without a second thought, I slammed the door. His gurgling screams muffled from the thick steel. Kuznetsov turned to me to say something, a horrified look on his face. I just ran.

Eventually, I found the main ████████ room. Kuznetsov seemingly understood what I was trying to do and we both slumped down behind the control panel. Usually, old tech like this would have some sort of behind-the-scenes emergency power supply. Kuznetsov found it and twisted two colored wires together- burning himself in the process. I don’t know if more humidity or sweat was on my forehead, but I hooked up the log recorder to the main ████████.

The sound of glass shattering and metal groaning filled the entire █████ as I wrote out our distress signal. Or rather- our warning. I gave Kuznetsov a somber look, then handed him the log recorder so he could write down his own words. With the press of a button and the whirring of some systems, I had to trust that it had worked.

The thump of feet hit the steel floor, and I was staring into big, endless eyes.

Nature really is fascinating, isn’t it?

[ATTACHED DISTRESS SIGNAL BELOW]

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