Stuart Retreat is an abandoned settlement in the HIP 15329 system, on body A 3 c, at -62.6148, -44.2474 (in Live/4.0 and Legacy/3.8).
It was operated by the Intergalactic Naval Reserve Arm (INRA), a co-operative between the Federation and Empire that operated during the last war with the Thargoids. This facility appears to have had connections to the project that created the mycoid used against the Thargoids, and for a time hosted the researcher who originally stumbled across the mycoid.
The facility contains a number of agricultural tents, habitation modules, and a communications tower. A couple of small tanks marked with the symbol for the mycoid weapon are present, and the ground is stained in a manner consistent with leakage of the agent.
There are Engineer Materials scattered around the ground, and within the facility there are two Data Points which may be scanned for an Intel Package, and for Engineer Data; both need to be scanned within 20s.
Logs
Around the facility there are four Settlement Comms Log Uplink points, scanning them gives some of the history of the INRA:
WHISTLEBLOWER 1/4
…Bypassing security protocols…
…Secure connection established…
I don’t have long. Once they realise I’m gone and the data has been copied, they’ll send their attack dogs after me, I know they will. But someone needs to show the galaxy what the INRA really is – what it’s doing, what it’s hiding.
WHISTLEBLOWER 2/4
…Bypassing security protocols…
…Secure connection established…
I’m sorry for the part I’ve played in this. Truly.
I was a researcher at a facility in the Hermitage 4 A system exploring agricultural applications of Thargoid-derived technology. The lab was owned by the INRA.
Publicly, the INRA likes to emphasise the whole altruistic and cooperative thing, but in recent years it’s become much more focused on weapons testing and manufacture. Believe me, it’s a military contractor in all but name.
WHISTLEBLOWER 3/4
…Bypassing security protocols…
…Secure connection established…
The nature of my field was the study of disease-resistant crops and mycoproteins, that sort of thing. I was getting good results, even if my superiors took no notice. Then everything changed.
I was running a bunch of control experiments, just trying a few things out really. It was an afterthought – it wasn’t even related to the main body of my work.
The results were interesting and I didn’t think they were particularly significant, but something made me take it directly to one of the INRA guys. I didn’t want to go to Dr Prince, she’d always been pretty dismissive of my work.
I would give anything to be able to undo that decision. Anything.
WHISTLEBLOWER 4/4
…Bypassing security protocols…
…Secure connection established…
All my equipment and samples were whisked off to some remote facility. Later, I found out they’d been taken to a weapons-testing site in the Alnath A 2 A A system.
My research was used as the basis of a new super weapon designed to destroy the Thargoids. I heard they experimented on live captives. I doubt any of it was strictly legal. It certainly wasn’t ethical.
To the public, the INRA is a symbol of all that is possible when superpowers set aside their differences and work together. Well, it might have started off like that, but it’s something very different now. Progress at any cost, might makes right – all our worst impulses channelled into an unaccountable organisation focused solely on making bigger and more powerful weapons. Bigger and more powerful weapons. God.
If you find this… if someone finds this, make sure it gets out. Please. It’s time people knew the truth.
The logs contain references to the Hollis Gateway agricultural laboratory in the Hermitage system, on body 4 a, and the Klatt Enterprises weapons-testing site in the Alnath system, on body A 2 a a.
