A few days ago, a fisherman in Chile found a diary on the beach. Some of it is damaged by seawater, yet a few of the entries remain intact. Here’s what we could salvage.

August 12

We’ve finally got these ignorant Goliath Group mercs out of the jungle and into their choppers. Adieu, fellas! Now the artifact’s safe in our hands, and we can bring in the scientists to start the tests. Looks like the next few weeks will be like a vacation – all we need to do is make sure the eggheads don’t shoot each other by accident. Not like Goliath’s coming back – I bet they’ll be licking their wounds for the next few months.

August 23

Ok yeah, no vacation whatsoever. The science team did some trickery and activated this ancient piece of [illegible] and it blasted a light bright as day straight up into the sky. Now the whole island is going mad, running around and coming up with theories. Looks like the tech these guys have brought with them isn’t enough to fully understand what’s going on, so more experts will be coming here in the next days. So much for chilling on the beach.

September 17

Looking after these highly-educated [illegible] took a real toll on me. Now I know what solar winds are, and how the Van Allen belt interferes with outgoing radio signals. This is by far the most useless information in my life. However, the tech team finally pinpointed the exact location, which the ray from the artifact was directed at. It’s on Mars! And they want to go there for “further inquiries”. Psychos. Don’t really know what to think about it: the ancients communicated with other planets? It sounds like an amateur conspiracy theory, but so far there’s no other explanation.

October 1
We’ve been reassigned to [illegible]…

Water damaged pages
 

December 25

Celebrating the holidays in the middle of the ocean is kind of dull. No snow, no festive lights, no Santa gifts. No surprises about the latter one though - we’re too far away from anything for St. Nick to find us. Last night, we had a nice dinner with the guys, but are back to work today. Turning this oil platform into a launchpad is harder than was expected, so my whole unit is no longer on security duty, but actually working around the clock, just like the construction guys. We’re getting overtime though, so it’s not too much stress.

April 9

The construction is almost over. There are some finishing touches left here and there, but technically speaking, this is no longer an oil rig, but a damn private spaceport. Kind of makes me admire my employers - not a lot of corporations can do that kind of stuff under the radar. I guess, soon we'll get that custom-made rocket and start preparing for lift-off. One small step for a gunslinger...