Chapter 1

This thing turned out to be stronger than a spider not only by the look. But for Fido’s dead shots, no one would be writing all this… It seems like something terrible has occurred on this planet… Something that has given life to such dreadful life forms… But what happened to the people that had been living here before the cataclysm? Honestly, I’m afraid to think about it And the longer I’m staying here, the more nervous I get about my crew members. I need to make sure that Anderson is alright and find my instructor, Margaret.

Chapter 2

We’ve had our first encounter with people on Utopia. True, there wasn’t much that was human about them anymore. These were feral looters dressed in rags and armed with whatever they could get their hands on. We were simply potential prey to them, and they immediately attacked us. Apparently, after the catastrophe, living conditions here became so severe that the only way to survive was to be the first to attack in any given encounter.

Chapter 3

Yet another puzzle on Utopia are the creatures that look like giant spiders. Not one of the old reports made mention of them. But in the not-so-distant past something changed… Now these monstrous spiders are simply everywhere. They are multiplying like a virus. and attack us, and the gangs of local thugs. What worries Margaret most of all is that the spiders are completely devoid of any instinct for self-preservation. They spot prey and immediately rush to attack. Even wounds do not stop them. They fight until they drop dead. As a leading specialist in alien fauna, Margaret had never seen creatures this aggressive and indifferent to their own survival. Their behavior is unnatural and frighteningly abnormal. Where did they come from? Ultimately, what strange processes were underway on this planet?

Chapter 4

The gang that we encountered while looking for the iron deposit calls itself The Red-faced. They smear blood on their faces, like savages, and tie red bands around their heads, or sport mohawks of the same color. I’d wager the Commander’s epaulets that for them the mohawk designates special status. The Red-faced are extremely warlike, but are rather afraid of a certain Black Legion. This is probably some other gang they feud with.

Chapter 5

Our technologies are restoring the planet to the original state it was in that at one time so impressed the first explorers. Now I get why they named it Utopia. The views unfolding before us are simply perfect! However, I’m struck by the speed with which the strange “corals” disappeared from the areas affected by terraforming. Now, even with Fido’s help, Elizabeth is unable to find even the slightest trace of those purple thickets that very recently were everywhere! She maintains that terraforming has never so swiftly and ruthlessly subdued any form of life. I have no reason to doubt her. Apparently, there’s some hidden link between the “corals” and the terraforming, and this enigma disturbs me…

Chapter 6

We expected to see a Utopia of lush gardens, but ended up in this dusty, dreary desert In all likelihood, these changes were caused by a shutdown of the alien terraforming machinery during the destruction of Green City.

However, these wastelands are not entirely devoid of life: Scattered among the dunes, strange purple formations stretch toward the sky, like withered trees. Their height reaches hue meters, and chemical analysis of tissue samples shows that they are closer to the composition of sea corals on Earth. For now there is no reason to assume that these plants represent a threat to us.

Chapter 7

Today we almost fell into a trap: sniper fire opened on us from behind some cover in the cliffs. To our surprise, the ruthless shooter was a young girl, armed with an outdated but serviceable army rifle with an optical sight.

Over the past few days we grew accustomed to dealing with male raiders, so it was a surprise to encounter a woman attempting to kill us. Margaret makes a good point when she suggests that if even the fairer sex has taken up arms on Utopia, the situation is even worse than we thought.

Chapter 8

Our first encounter with a Demolisher (a nickname Margaret came up with) was close to being the last for us. We’ve yet to come across such well-trained, powerful fighters among the local thugs. The Demolisher is freakishly muscular, and this makes it child’s play for him to operate a 100 kg machine gun taken from a military helicopter. In addition, this burly thug can easily haul a huge box of ammo on his back.

As a result the Demolisher has unprecedented firepower for a foot soldier and almost limitless ammunition. No doubt this is one of the most dangerous opponents we’ve come up against on Utopia.

Chapter 9

We uncovered some missile silos at the base where Kronos carried out their psionic training drills. Anderson suggested that this may be one of the first prototypes for Phoenix, used by the corporation’s engineers when they were working out the bugs in biomechanical formulations and the psionic control interface.

Such a find, like the Phoenix itself, has only added to our questions. It would be foolish to deny that these technologies have tremendous military potential. But why would the largest best-known engineering corporation on Earth, after deciding to transform Utopia into a paradise, and while engaged in constructing cities here, simultaneously create such a devastating weapon? Added to this is the mystery of why they decided to use psionics to operate the weapon. Or could it be that behind this was the desire to play it safe by providing access to the weapon to only a small circle of individuals who each had their own psionic signature? But the very idea seems crazy to me – what could be the purpose of concentrating absolute power in the hands of a small elite?

Chapter 10

Today we were finally provided with an opportunity for a closer examination of one of the monstrous Dominators, whose silhouettes we see in the distance from time to time. These creations appear to be entirely designed for battle, but they do not attack people under any conditions – God knows why. As it is, I am glad that they are peaceful, for a battle with such a colossus would require something more powerful than my grenades! Even taken out of commission, a Dominator is a terrifying sight That must be why the local bandits have covered the automaton with their mindless graffiti – so that it put less pressure on their already strained nerves. Elizabeth and Anderson spent several hours climbing up and down this mountain of metal, but they couldn’t say what destroyed the powerful robot The bandits, armed with only light weapons, could hardly have done it themselves.

Investigating the innards of the giant also turned out poorly: The components and circuits we were able to get to were damaged and burnt and to penetrate into the depths of the machine, we would need several days to break through thick armor made from a material unknown to us. I could not allow myself to waste so much time, and gave the order to move on.