By Gisel Mateo

Collected below is the official account of Lt. Quipree, Animal Behaviorist, 4th division. Lt. Quipree was the wildlife specialist selected for mission #3866 Ob-Co/192 by Field Commander Plutar. Mission #3866 Ob-Co/192 was terminated under code L100 and H27 respectively following an unauthorized encounter with a life form. By order of constitution #487: Any and all information sensitive enough to damage the emotional welfare and mental integrity, no matter how factual the information is proven by the International Board of Emotional Mathematics and Ethics’ Factual Statistic Probability algorithm concludes it to be, cannot be released to public record without said sensitive material being redacted.

Upd 1-D23-3866-P487

Status: Cleared for public record

Astronaut Unit 90WAB: Lt. Quipree, 4th Division specialist, Animal Behaviorist

Mission #3866 Ob-Co/192

Status: Green

Mission Statement: Study the primordial, yet densely inhabited, landscape of the current lifeforms. Retrieve soil samples, Structural samples, liquid samples, air quality readings, flora samples only. Avoid contact with terrestrial life forms at this time. Tests and first contact with terrestrial life slated for later mission.

Further record is taken from audio recordings made during the mission:

Lt. Quipree: My suit status is green. Atmospheric Pressure Equalization system is fully calibrated. It feels good to move around now in the open air, well sort of.

Srg. Aiml11 [Head field officer]: Suit status green. Yeah, I can tell you one thing, after all my years jumping I haven’t gotten used to the cramp pods. Can’t make them bigger due to something or other-

Lt. 8888888888888888888ah [Lead Botanical Scientist]: Suit status green. Interesting! The flora is a rich green this time around. This is odd as the temperature readings have been unusually high due to the planet’s axis tilt. I wonder if they respond to it.

Lt. Quipree: I have been wondering that myself. I have recorded on past runs that certain animals seem to take shelter and even consume the flora during the day! Like the screaming white creature we collected 75 missions back. You know, the one that eats almost everything.

Lt. 8888888888888888888ah: Oh, you mean [REDACTED]? I love him. He’s a riot.

Lt. Jinglee [Military escort]: Green here. Are you two done other there? I would like to get out of here as orderly and safely as possible-

Srg Aiml11: What’s the matter Jinglee? It’s not like it’s your first run. Nervous?

Lt Jinglee: Nothing. It’s nothing. Just want to keep my wits about me. Why is it so dark out here?

Ct. [REDACTED] [Intern]: Green. You’re right Jinglee; it is really dark out here. Even with the automatic terrestrial lights it is still spooky.

Lt. Quipree: Oh, they are back! The odd Light Bound Flyers are back! Guys, come take a look at them. [external light pod extracted] Amazing! Look, one is flocking to us! Look at the little guy go! [unintelligible sounds of delight]

Srg Aiml11: Come along Quipree. We’ve gotten plenty of samples of the LBF already. We’re here to collect new samples.

Lt. 8888888888888888888ah: I heard in the last mission a live sample came back in the soil. Maybe we’ll find similar species in the grey grounds here!

Lt. Quipree: [jovial tones detected] Really?! Let’s go!

Srg Aiml11: Jinglee, any terrestrial readings?

Lt. Jinglee: No, no signs of the terrestrials. All heat signatures are blue.

Srg Aiml11: Excellent. Looks like it’s gonna be a quiet run tonight.