Declassified field log from UNS Tsiolkovsky’s six-person landing party, led by Commander Jakub Novák, deployed to Pluto’s surface on 19 December 2131 following the orbital engagement. Timestamps in Mission Elapsed Time (MET).
Surface Contact
The landing party touched down approximately 400 meters from a marked surface anomaly. Visual confirmed structure consistent with long-term wreckage — matching the debris signature from Styx and Kerberos rather than Pluto’s native geology.
At MET 221:07, Team 2 reported contacts: twenty-plus individuals, no EVA suits, holding position near the wreck site. Novák: “Nobody survives out here unsuited.” Visual confirmed no breathing apparatus, no reaction to atmosphere or temperature. Team 2 recommended treating as non-biological until proven otherwise.
Six suited individuals were identified near the debris field and marked as probable Argus personnel, non-combatant until demonstrated otherwise. Novák ordered weapons hot on the unsuited group only.
Twenty-one hostiles eliminated, zero landing party casualties. The units were autonomous — humanoid chassis with no organic material. Novák: “Same as Crowbar. Whatever’s guarding this place, it isn’t a soldier that thinks for itself. It’s a gun that walks.” The six Argus research staff were secured without resistance and reported they had been on-site “longer than makes sense for a standard rotation.”
The Surface Wreck
The landing party entered the forward section of the wreck at MET 221:22. Team lead described the command area: “One seat. No controls, no visible display surfaces, no windows. Nothing else in the compartment at all.” Novák ordered full imaging and no contact until Directorate xenoarchaeology review.
The Subsurface Facility
At MET 222:41, Team 3 located the subsurface entrance matching Argus’s site markers. A second engagement followed during descent — smaller group of autonomous units, eliminated with zero casualties.
The interior was unlit — suit lights only. All surfaces smooth, no seams, no visible panels or wiring, nothing reading as active electronics. All corridors converged on a single large domed chamber. The chamber held multiple reclined seats arranged in a full circle, each sized for an occupant between three and four meters standing height — considerably larger than the single seat in the surface wreck.
One seat was differentiated: active illuminated markings, already flagged by Argus’s own research team prior to Tsiolkovsky’s arrival.
The Remains
At MET 223:58, Team 2 confirmed the flagged seat was occupied. A single set of remains, preserved by Pluto’s ambient cold: humanoid in general shape, tall and slender. Pale grey-white skin. No hair anywhere on the body. No visible ears. No visible mouth. No genitalia. Two nostril openings, nothing else on the lower face. Eyes — two to three times human size, solid black, no pupil, no iris.
Novák: “Do not touch the remains. Full imaging, full documentation, seal the chamber the moment imaging’s complete. Nobody goes near that seat again until Directorate xenobiology is physically standing where you’re standing. That’s not a request.”
He ordered a channel to Tsiolkovsky opened — Boreas would hear it first.