Milkweed: Day 1, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. The other members of the crew are dead and the engines remain non-operational, though ship integrity remains good and life support systems are still active. I successfully jettisoned the intruder from the airlock, but it remains alive and continues to try to access the ship. With a little luck I can repair the distress beacon and somebody will pick me up. This is Jennison Milkweed, the last survivor of the Wretched, signing off.  

Milkweed: Day 2, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. I took the bodies into the airlock today. I laid them out, one by one and placed a blanket over each. I thought if I couldn’t see their faces I’d be able to do it--to eject them, but I still couldn’t. I kept thinking about Captain Lane Eastplace. He, um, he’s the reason I’m still here at least. 

When… it first started he was the one to seal it in the conservatory with him. We could see it eviscerate him from the window. It didn’t stay in there long, but it was enough time for us to work out a plan for ejecting it. Like that fucking worked…. 

It found me again when I had my hand over the button to eject them. I heard it from the clinking vents above and fled. It chased me up and down the halls, slashing and breaking everything. I was able to double back though, and fix up some of the holes it made. 

It pulled out some of the… lets call them wires, since I don’t want to get technical, in the engine room. I had to cannibalize the back up generator to get the damn ship moving again, not that there’s anywhere to go anyway. I’m lightyears away from anyone who can hear me and there’s nothing, repeat NOTHING on the monitors. I don’t think… I don’t think… I don’t know if I’ll feel the sun again.

Milkweed: Day 3, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. It's after me. It's still after me. No matter where I go, no matter how I hide, it can feel me, or smell me or something. I don’t think it will stop. It won’t stop….. I have to find a way to kill it, or contain it. If space can’t kill it… I don’t know if I’ll be able to…

Milkweed: Day 4, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. It trapped me in the crew’s quarters again today. I could hear it whistling through the hallway and scraping against the pipes. Um… I saw that damn toy that Elick had. The bear, the one his kid gave him, the one with the name Brownie stitched into the side. I put it on his corpse in the airlock. I think he would have wanted that. 

*5 second pause*

Milkweed: I had to disable the proxy alarms today. Hope I don’t get hit by something…. Not that anything is out here to begin with.  But that thing was on the outside. I saw it through one of the portcullises. I nearly shitmyself… I’ll edit that out later.  I need to find out how it got on the outside. If there is a hole anywhere I need to fix it.

Milkweed: Fuck, maybe I should have recorded it before I killed the coms. Shit. 

*recording stops then starts again*

Milkweed: Day 5, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. The creature has shown more signs of intelligence. It, um, it started to use The Wretched’s comms before I shut them off. Since I’m the only one still alive they aren’t much use to me anyway. I didn’t want to hear what it was…. Screeching? It sounded like a thousand voices in the wind, all howling in anger. Before I unplugged it I could swear I heard it say, “Join us.” I need to keep it together.

Milkweed: Day 6, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting.  I had to fix the shitter today. I mean the silo, where we keep the shit. The literal shit. The.. uh.. The sewage.  It had a hole in it that was completely corroded, like someone deliberately placed a corrosive tile on it or something.

I’ve seen other patches around the ship… I know it was the creature. Something about it eats away at other things. I think it can release a gas. I’ve seen something in the air but I don’t know what it is. 

But I was able to trick it today to buy me some EVA time. Since there is absolutely nothing within range and I cannot begin to tell you how I feel about this I had to boost the fucking antenna. 

,I um, went back to the airlock, to where I put the corpses. I took the rifle out of Engineer Enfix-Mountain’s grip. I couldn’t… well, didn’t want to take it off him before since Rigor Mortis had set and I didn’t want… I didn’t want to. It’s not like the rifle helped before and I hadn’t come up with a plan before. But today I did. 

I rigged it up to start firing in the cargo bay when I was outside the ship. I think it distracted the thing since I didn’t see it when I was outside. But I --

*5 second pause*

Milkweed: *whispering* The lights went off. I think it knows I’m here. I can hear the whistling and the scraping again. I’ll have to stay in the dark for now.

Milkweed:Day 7, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. 

I saw… In the hallway, it was … I don’t know blood? Goo? Oil? It was slick and viscous. I haven’t seen it before even though we’ve shot the damn thing so many times. ...There wasn’t much of it either, just small droplets.It trailed down the hallway and into the water purification system. The thing tried to destroy it but I fixed it up… somewhat. It’s not working right and the water smells like ammonia. It makes me feel sick. I hope I get used to it. 

Milkweed: Day 8 and Day 9 and Day 10, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. 

I have been… SO busy. I.. first I was cleaning out the mess hall. I figured I could use it for something eventually. There were… bodies everywhere. More people, I thought I could put them into the airlock too. Um, fuck, why, did we really need to send this many people into space? For one cargo mission? One transportation? We could have used mechs, or robots or whatever they call them. But no, people are cheaper I guess. 

I think… I think I saw something among the bodies. There was something festering on their skin. Like it was a large bunch of boils growing and decaying. I think they got infected by the creature, but I don’t know what infects a body after death. I don’t want to touch them anymore…. 

Um, the gravity failed while I was in there anyway. I had to spend the entire day avoiding that thing, and fixing it. ...It’s back on now, which is good. 

I tried to work on the engine the next day, on Day 9. But, I can’t get the fucking thing to work. I just can’t. I can’t even concentrate… I just keep thinking about that thing. When I heard it speak it said “Us.” Is there more than one? Why does it sound the way it does? Like the winds back home when they are cutting through the city. I wonder if that's what it thinks it is. The Howling Winds.. 

Anyway, the next day, uh, day… *paper rustling* Day 10. I got the Distress Beacon activated. So, if you’re listening to this, that’s why. It took me all day, and maybe all night? But it’s fixed, and it’s boosted, so… *shouting* COME FUCKING GET ME.  *cough* 

Sorry. 

Milkweed: Day 11, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. It went into the airlock today to look at the bodies. I couldn’t get a good look at it because I was hiding behind the controls. I thought maybe I could distract it enough to gain some time, so I fucking jettisoned it out but… The airlock won’t seal. It won’t shut. It just stopped halfway through and now there I can’t even use it anymore….

The life support system started to make noises too. Horrible teeth shattering grinding noises. I can feel it vibrating my bones. Ltd. There-Was-An-Innocent-Verdict said zey had heard it in zeir dreams. 

Zey told me zey had a dream where everyone was in the mess hall eating but when they opened their mouths to speak all zey heard was that horrible noise. We all laughed and said it was nerves. Zey were right though. We should have checked on it beforehand. There’s nothing I can do if it fails. I think I need to be prepared for that. Or maybe I can just lock myself into a cryo sleep and hope the Howling Winds don’t kill me while I'm in there. Maybe someone will find me in a million years. 

I can hear it pounding on the outside of the ship and scraping along the sides. I think it can attach itself to the sides somehow and pull itself along. I’ve seen more of the oil down the sides of the ship on the outside, I think it’s an adhesive for the creature.  

I found access to one of the landing modules today. But… *sigh* guess what happened? We got hit, big time, by an asteroid. It damaged the module, so… no escaping that way. 

Milkweed: Day 12, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. I heard the creature pounding from the outside. I’ve been systematically sealing every place I can think of where it can get in. Today I found the only window in the damned place and saw it’s hand, it’s human like hand, pounding on the glass, trying to break it. I welded sheet metal over it. I don’t know how long it will last.

Milkweed: Day 14, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting.  I could hear it pouding and howling outside again. How it can howl in space I don't know. I was in the crew quarters again…. I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself. I was reading Ensign Rifkeck’s journal. She was writing about her mom’s cooking and how much she missed it and how much she hated the food on the ship. 

I hate it too, but it’s all I have and now half of it is gone. The climate control in the freezer is on the fritz. Some of the supplies melted and started to mould. I sealed it up good but I don’t know how long it will last. 

If you are listening to this and I’m still alive, here are the locations on the ship I will be. 

1: The freezer of the mess hall. If I have my suit on, I can survive in it for a while.

2: In the back of the conservatory, there will be a large tree, turn left and look for a row of metal crates. 

3: The captain’s quarters

4. In engineering, there is a small room to the back

And finally 

5: The cargo hold, if I can clean it out….

Milkweed: Day 15, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. There was a fire today in the engine…. Some of that oil from the Howling Winds got into something and set it all ablaze before the suppression system kicked on. I’ll have to clean up that stuff if I see it again… 

There’s going to be a lot more too. I can hear it… It’s in the vents now, skittering and pounding and rushing around. I don’t know what it’s waiting for…. I don’t know how long it will be until it finds me. I’m going crazy--I think I can hear it everywhere I go. 

It plugged in the comms today. I heard it, from all over the ship. The voices from other people, on far away ships. They can’t hear me no matter how hard I tried to reach out to them. I hear phrases like, “cargo,” and “wait,” and other things before I unplugged it. Just standard ship-talk, everything is so normal out there.  

I keep trying to tell myself that I'm going to be fine. I will say it over and over and over again until I believe it. I don’t think I ever will….

Milkweed: Day 16, salvage ship The Wretched. Flight Engineer Jennison Milkweed reporting. I can see it in my dreams. It looks like me in my dreams, but I know it’s the Howling Winds. It reaches out towards me, in an embrace like it is my old twin. In my dreams I’m not scared but comforted. I embrace it and I am again. 

*10 second pause*

I am so tired. 

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