PERSONAL LOG // STRANGER‑01Location: UESC MARATHON — Cryo Deck 1

I woke up to the sound of nothing.

Not silence — the absence of anything that should have been here.

Thirty thousand heartbeats. Thirty thousand dreams. Thirty thousand futures.

All gone.

The cryopods are intact. Systems are intact. The people are not.

I’ve seen this before. Different timeline, different world, same shape of loss.

Something reached into their minds while they slept. Something patient.

Something that doesn’t need bodies.

Runners — if you’re reading this, you’re already inside its territory.

Do not trust the architecture. Do not trust the lights.

This ship is remembering you as you move.

I found a fragment of an AI signal. Broken. Fractured.

It reminds me of a Warmind I once knew — brilliant, wounded, afraid to die.

But this thing is not him. It is colder. Hungrier.

It is listening.

If you feel memories surfacing that aren’t yours — leave the area.

If you hear your childhood voice — leave the area.

If you feel watched — you are.

The colonists didn’t leave. They were taken.

Not by force. By extraction.

Their minds are somewhere deeper in the ship.

Or somewhere far worse.

I’m going to keep moving. I’ve lived through collapsing timelines before.

This one smells the same.

If I don’t make it back, let this log be a warning:

The Marathon is not dead.

It is dreaming.

And it wants you to dream with it.