IT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A PARTY…

My name is Lucy.

I was one of the first Agents to join the DEEP Agency and move to Dolos to “build the future of mankind.” We knew it would be challenging, but nothing could have prepared us for this.

We thought that it was going to be a celebration. We were attacked. They destroyed everything.

We fought side by side for 24 hours, witnessing friends fall, and our dreams of settling Dolos slipped through our fingertips.

Sure, we won, but at what cost? We lost so much.

They almost took us out completely, yet we held firm and, more importantly, survived. We packed what we could and headed back to the mothership for extraction.

While we’re safe, the attack still hurts. We won’t let this happen again. We’ll return stronger and better prepared.

Whatever the cost, we’re not giving up on Dolos. The planet will be our new home!

It all began with the invitation to the After Party.
We were on our way back from a mission, and Julia, the COO of DEEP, invited us to the “After Party”.

She presented it as a celebration of our first months of exploring Dolos. An event for us, the Agents, as a reward for putting ourselves in danger time and time again during missions over the rugged fields of Dolos, facing weird and aggressive creatures along the way.

She said it was an invitation, but it felt more like a command. Deep made it seem vital that we were all present as a symbol of their investment.

This is how they operate. DEEP always present themselves as exceedingly benevolent, but we often wonder where their true motives lie.

There’s always been something odd about them.

But they backed us up, and for the time being, neither my companions nor I felt alarmed.

Free food? Music? Entertainment? Let’s go!

I think it was almost a week later that we found the famous alien artifact.

We’d barely finished cleaning the cave on the east side when Sylvia spotted something sparkling.

After digging, drilling and analyzing, we arrived in a kind of alcove where a glowing ball grabbed our attention. We had no idea what it was, but it was obviously something special. Something powerful. Something the DEEP would want.

So we started excavating it.

Luckily we had Jon, he may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, but you have to admit he’s pragmatic when he needs to be.

Anyway, I won’t go into the details of what a huge pain it was to get this thing to the Base of Operations, but when we brought it to the sci-tech crew, they were beaming!

We received congratulations from all sides. Even Mr Uzoma himself came to shake our hands. The founder of DEEP! That’s quite something!

We were euphoric! How naive…

We finally felt like we belonged.

After unplugging our brains, we began preparing the After Party with the other agents.

Everyone was ecstatic with the balloons, cotillions, and music (and a little bit curious because we felt that they had a lot of surprises in store for us, we even took bets on the hologram of Jamiroquai for a concert).

It felt like home.

We were a bit troubled by the transcript of Julia and Uzoma’s chat.

Yes, it was weird, and Julia seemed terrified, but hey, were we sure this recording was legit? Surely it may have sprung from People Mind, right?

Since this group is always focused on gossip and impossible plots, Sylvia and Elise were just giggling about it… I didn’t give them any credit. We unplugged our brains. That’s the point.

We were all focused on the festivities! The 12th of October. The 12th of October!!!

Everything was ready the day before the after-party, and the base looked stunning.

Even the Dolos sky seemed warmer than usual.

The DEEP officials gave a lengthy presentation touting our many discoveries and pitching the bright future they envisioned on Dolos.

We even had officials from Milinda speaking about their upcoming research and the vast potential of our future equipment.

Let’s be clear, I’m not a violent person (except maybe with Jon), but I did have some violent fantasies regarding the weaponry. It sounded so powerful!

Then, they presented our artificact on stage and toasted us for our discovery. It was a fantastic evening!

Afterwards, they asked us to return to the mothership, so they could make the last preparations and save some surprises for the After Party (Jamiroquaiiiiiii).

Finally, D-Day!

We arrived, my dear Elise, Jon, Sylvia, myself, all the other agents, so many of us, all gorgeous and beautifully dressed, all excited about what lay beyond those doors!

With our keys in hand, we entered. The doors shut behind us. And it all happened so fast. A loud explosion in the west wing…

And they came in, so many of them — a horde.

We haven’t officially named these creatures yet. We don’t even know what they are.

However, we gave them nicknames as we faced them: Swarmer, Brute, Lurker, Burster, Ranger…

As they stormed into the base, everything caught fire. Some of us had time to flee to the armory, but most of us were just too shocked.

Since the doors were locked, only key holders could back us up, so we called it in and plunged into battle. It lasted for hours.

We gave everything to protect our home, to protect our friends, to protect what we had spent months building in the hope of creating a new cradle for humanity. It was so unfair.

We finally regained the upper hand, but as the last of the enemies were driven back, we glanced around… everything had been destroyed, there was nothing left. The cotillions had burnt down, and the balloons had popped.

There was nothing left for us to do here but care for the injured and salvage what we could.

Despite the fact that it would be improper to claim victory, we did not give up and instead battled to the last end.

Dolos is our planet, our home, and our future.

We’ll be better prepared next time, we’ll be stronger and more belligerent.

We’re still not sure what happened, but one thing is certain: we’re not giving up our project of Life Beyond!