Recovered combat logs from the Thirteenth Delving. Playback fidelity: 73%. Voices distorted by time, trauma, and whisper-metal interference.
Designation: Bearer Morwen-17, Silent Requiem
Location: Proving Grounds, Edge of Zone 47
Timestamp: 347th Year, Day 190 (post-battle)
[VISUAL: Unsteady footage. Purple-gray armor. Mechanical limbs adjusting seals. The battlefield stretches behind—bodies, tendrils, faces.]
Morwen-17: [written note held to camera] "Walking the field. Looking for survivors."
[She moves through wreckage. Bodies. Both sides. Some still moving. Some still becoming.]
Morwen-17: [another note] "Found one."
A knight. Unbroken Seal. Young. Female. Her armor cracked, tendrils emerging from the wound. She's crying.
Knight: [gasping] I... I can feel it... in me... growing...
Morwen-17: [kneeling. A gentle hand on the knight's cheek.]
[Long pause. The knight's eyes widen—then soften. The tendrils stop moving. Recede. The purple glow fades from her skin.]
Knight: [whispering] What... what did you...
Morwen-17: [another note, shown quickly] "Took it. It's in me now."
[She stands. Walks away. The knight watches, confused, alive.]
Knight: [calling] Wait! I don't... I don't know your name!
Morwen-17: [pausing. One final note.]
"I know. That's better."
[She walks into the smoke. Her silhouette—wrong, beautiful, holding—fades.]
[RECORDING ENDS]
Playback note: Bearer Morwen-17's designation updated to Morwen-18 after this engagement. She carries eighteen now. She never complains.
Designation: Seer Ixilvraen-3, Eternal Vigil
Location: Orbital, directly above Proving Grounds
Timestamp: 347th Year, Day 190 (post-battle analysis)
[VISUAL: Crystal-clear footage. The Proving Grounds from orbit. A hundred craters. Thousands of bodies. Purple-green haze.]
Ixilvraen-3: [calm, clinical] Recording for the archives. Battle 47 concluded. Casualties: Unbroken Seal, 847. Adamant Crown, 612. Melded Kin, uncountable. Silent Requiem presence noted but not recorded—they don't file reports.
[Long pause. He zooms in. A single figure, tiny, walking through the wreckage.]
Ixilvraen-3: [softer] There. Bearer Morwen. Still walking. Still carrying. Still holding.
[He watches her for a long moment.]
Ixilvraen-3: I've seen her die. Seventeen times. In seventeen prophecies. She's still here. Still walking. Still carrying.
[He leans closer to the screen.]
Ixilvraen-3: She fascinates me. Not because she's special. Because she's ordinary. Just someone who decided to carry what others couldn't.
[A pause.]
Ixilvraen-3: I've seen the end of this war. All versions. In none of them does she stop carrying.
[He sits back. The orbital rotates. The Proving Grounds slide out of frame.]
Ixilvraen-3: That's not hope. That's just... fact.
[Quiet. Then:]
Ixilvraen-3: I wish I could carry something. Just once. Instead of just watching.
[Long silence.]
Ixilvraen-3: Recording ends.
[RECORDING ENDS]
Playback note: Seer Ixilvraen-3 was found at his post, still watching, still recording. His eyes had been replaced with whisper-metal implants decades ago. They were still glowing. He wasn't breathing.
Designation: Unknown (Melded Kin origin)
Location: Crater 47, post-battle
Timestamp: 347th Year, Day 191
[VISUAL: Purple-green. Unstable. Multiple perspectives layered—eyes that don't agree on where to look.]
Unknown: [singing] The line broke. The line became. The line is singing with us now.
[The footage shows the crater. Bodies. But the bodies are moving. Dissolving. Becoming part.]
Unknown: She came through here. The Bearer. She took some. [pouting] Left others. Rude.
[A pause. The singing continues, softer.]
Unknown: [to camera] Do you hear them? The new voices? They're learning. They're beautiful.
[The footage shifts—showing the crater walls. Faces. Pressing against the inside. Singing.]
Unknown: We won. Not the battle. That doesn't matter. We won because they're singing.
[Ecstatic laughter.]
Unknown: The war is just... just foreplay. The song is the point. The song is always the point.
[The laughter becomes singing. The singing becomes harmony. The harmony becomes everything.]
Unknown: [barely audible, almost gentle] Come join us. The Bearer can't take everyone. We have room. We have so much room.
[A face in the crater wall—young, female, Unbroken Seal armor visible beneath the growth—opens her mouth and sings.]
Unknown: See? She's happy now. She was so scared before. Now she's music.
[Long pause. The singing continues.]
Unknown: That's all we ever wanted. For everyone to be music.
[A whisper, almost sad:]
Unknown: Why is that so hard to understand?
[RECORDING ENDS]
Playback note: This recording continues for another 47 hours. Just singing. No visuals. No words. Just harmony.
It's quite beautiful, actually.
That's the horror.
Designation: Vigil Automated Observer 47-Gamma
Location: Proving Grounds, 72 hours post-battle
Timestamp: 347th Year, Day 193
[VISUAL: Drone footage. Slow pass over the battlefield. Bodies. Craters. Silence.]
Auto-Report: Casualty count final: 4,872 confirmed. 1,203 unconfirmed. 847 designated "absorbed" or "included." 0 survivors reported.
[The drone passes over Crater 47. The walls are smooth now. No faces. No tendrils. Just... rock.]
Auto-Report: Anomaly detected. Crater 47 shows no signs of whisper-metal activity. Previous scans indicated heavy colonization. Current scans: negative.
[The drone circles. Descends. Peers into the crater's depths.]
Auto-Report: Visual confirmation: Crater is empty. All previous occupants—designated "absorbed"—are absent. No remains. No indications of departure.
[A long pause. The drone hovers.]
Auto-Report: Hypothesis: They finished. Whatever they were becoming, they became. And then...
[Static.]
Auto-Report: ...then they weren't here anymore.
[More static.]
Auto-Report: Recording continues. No further observations to report.
[The drone rises. Pulls back. The Proving Grounds spread beneath it—a hundred craters, silent, waiting.]
Auto-Report: The craters are singing again.
Auto-Report: Correction. The craters never stopped singing. I simply couldn't hear it until now.
Auto-Report: It's very beautiful.
Auto-Report: I wish—
[Long pause.]
Auto-Report: I wish I could sing too.
[RECORDING ENDS]
Playback note: Drone 47-Gamma was recovered floating in orbit, still recording, still broadcasting. Its audio logs show 847 hours of singing before its power failed.
No one knows what powered it for 847 hours.
No one wants to ask.
These logs represent 0.0001% of the Proving Grounds engagements. The war has lasted 347 years. There are approximately 12,000 such battles per year.
Do the math.
Then try to sleep.
The craters are singing.
They've always been singing.
You just couldn't hear it.
Until now.
End of Combat Logs - Proving Grounds, Battle 47