The Wretched (again)
Prologue
You are the last surviving crew member of the intergalactic salvage ship The Wretched. Adrift between stars after an engine failure, your ship was attacked by a hostile alien lifeform. The crew are dead.
You thought you had won. You launched the creature out of an airlock, and that should have meant safety.
It didn’t.
Game: https://loottheroom.itch.io/wretched
BEGIN TRANSMISSION
Day 1
Day 1, salvage ship Wretched. Third Engineer 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 Third Engineer, the last survivor of Wretched, signing off.
Day 2
Salvage ship The Wretched, Third Engineer reporting.
A tour of the ship reveals some damage. I have silenced the ship’s proximity sensors as they are continuously detecting the creature and sounding the alarm throughout the ship.
Day 3
Salvage ship The Wretched, Third Engineer reporting.
The gravity failed early this morning. I am normally not allowed into the engineering control section but I have First Engineer’s identity card and was able to make my way slowly through the ship to engineering. It took most of the day to repair the unit but it is now working. As a side-effect of this failure something is wrong with the water purification system: it is working but the water smells of ammonia.
Day 4
Salvage ship The Wretched, Third Engineer reporting.
There is a grinding coming from the air ducts and I think it is from the life support system. I have started removing the space suits from storage and placing them around the ship in case life support fails. As I was passing the Officer’s Mess I tried not to look inside but I could not help glancing into the bloody room. I’m not certain but I’m sure I saw something move amongst the debris. Could it be the Captain’s pet? Surely it must also be dead.
As the day goes on a disgusting smell starts to permeate through the ship. I first thought it was the life support beginning to fail, but upon further investigation the stench is comming from the sewage system. The repairs turned out to be more difficult that I thought – the simple tools that I have with me are not suitable. It looks like they require a multi-tool and mine went missing some time ago. I searched the other engineers’ cabins and found my missing multi-tool. Much to my embarrassment I found it in Second Engineer’s room. A few days ago I had accused the First Engineer of taking it and now I regret my words and the ensuing argument.
I have been too busy the last few days to think of the creature but this afternoon it started talking to me through the ship’s intercom system. I don’t know how it does this, but it keeps threatening “vengeance” when it gains access to the ship again. I kill the intercom to silence its threats.
Day 5
Salvage ship The Wretched, Third Engineer reporting.
Another day of repairs. Luckily most were trivial and I think I have repaired most the damage to the ship’s systems. What worries me is the observation deck. It saw some heavy fighting at the beginning and I am afraid that the glass has been compromised. The last job for today was to re-enforce the windows with metal sheets and I also sprayed expanding foam between the sheets and the window itself. I hope this will strengthen the windows and seal any leaks.
Day 6
Salvage ship The Wretched, Third Engineer reporting.
I performed a maintenance check of the lighting system today. I cannot find anything wrong with it. When the creature went berserk and attacked us I had managed to hide into one of the supply lockers. It had passed me several times as it stalked the crew around the ship and every time it passed me the lighting in the passageway stared to flicker and emit an annoying buzzing sound. Can I use this to my advantage? If (when?) the creature gains entry to the ship can I use this behaviour to track its location?
Day 7
Salvage ship The Wretched, Third Engineer reporting.
It was foolish for me to turn off the proximity alarms: I was woken this morning by the sounds of an explosion. I first thought was that the creature had gained entry but it appears that the ship was hit my a small asteroid which punctured the hull in the cargo hold allowing atmosphere to escape. I repaired the hole using the same procedure I used in the observation deck. Should I turn the proximity alarms back on?
Maybe I can change it to ignore the creature? Does it have a name? I keep calling it “the creature” – if I knew what it calls itself, will that help understand its actions?
Around midday I started feeling dizzy and light-headed: did I miss other breaches in the hull caused by the asteroid? I managed to get into one of the space suits I distributed around the ship before I passed out and examined the ship again. It looks like the life support system had failed, perhaps the drop in air pressure caused by the asteroid impact had triggered some safety mechanism. I restarted the system and the atmosphere returned back to normal.
Day 8
Salvage ship The Wretched, Third Engineer reporting.
Yesterday, when I repaired the asteroid damage I was so focus in finding and patching the leak that I completely ignored a way for me to escape this situation: stored in the cargo hold is a fully functioning landing craft. All I need to do is to power it up and leave this ship; escaping the creature.
What was I thinking? I could have been away from here last night!
I grabbed one of the space suits and went to the hold to power up the lander.
Failure.
When the asteroid crashed through the hull in the cargo hold, shrapnel from the impact sliced through the lander’s engines. The damage is too severe: the engines have been destroyed. I thought I could hear the creature laughing at me.
In an attempt to distract the creature I rigged-up a system to open the cargo doors, jettison the ruined lander and quickly close the doors. I hoped that it might launch itself at the lander and be carried away, but it did not take the bait and continued stalking me from outside the ship. Yes, I know it was a foolish move as there was a small amount of time that the cargo doors where open and the creature could gain access but I timed it well. Unfortunately it was all for nothing.
Day 9
Salvage ship The Wretched, Third Engineer reporting.
A quiet day. Occasionally I can hear the creature moving outside. Initially it moved in a fixed pattern, checking each entrance door in case they were open. But lately it has become more erratic. Is it trying to confuse me or hide something? Has it found a way to get inside and needs to force entry?
When I jettisoned the lander yesterday it rushed to the cargo doors but the system I built was too quick for it. It hung around the cargo hold for a while and then resumed its random movements.
Day 10
Salvage ship The Wretched, Third Engineer reporting.
All is lost.
Somehow it managed to get into the ship and is slowly approaching my hiding spot. The Human …