>open_log.data:The Corruption

...

...

...

[success]

>log.data_begin

The Corruption

The Corruption is a collective of related alien species first discovered by the outer edges of the Milky Way. Flight recorder records collected from boarded ships show that the early beginnings of the collective remained hidden on a world planned for exploration and colonization by a frigate-turned-colony ship. Upon the colony ship's arrival and deployment of it's orbit-to-ground craft, The collective would wait and commandeer the orbit-to-ground craft, before returning to the frigate and successfully overpowering the crew.

The Corruption gained it's name due to many of it's habits and practices. These practices and habits include taking whatever humans throw at them and either destroying it or using it for their own benefit. Lose a gun fight? They've got guns. Lose a ground war? They've got military grade gear. Lose a naval battle? They've got a fleet.

It's most notorious and wicked crimes are what happens to people who survive their slaughters. They don't kill those they can capture, but what they do is much worse.

Early in the war a protocol was written which stated that any and all people designated as missing for over 48 hours, would be killed on sight.

People could go missing in a battle, and the next time they would be seen they could be responsible for putting bullets between eyes of their best friends. Standing right alongside those chitinous freaks.

Autopsies on people who had been "corrupted" by those things show no physical change in their bodies. Whatever drove them to forget everything they knew and fight against their own brothers ran deeper than that. Researchers have never seen anyone become corrupted, no one has. At least not anyone who wasn't also corrupted. No one is sure how exactly the corruption does it, all we know is that 48 hours seems to be roughly the minimum amount of time it takes for the process to occur.

As of writing, the collective consists of 5 distinct alien species, and any humans it's managed to take for itself.

They waited.

It was only a matter of time before someone decided to check in on the colony ship whose crew was acting kinda strange,

and not only did those clever bastards win their battles, they let their wretched little plague run wild.