Galactic Sector: 34.089 // C-14
Celestial Body: VX 2, Choros Maior
Local Designator: UNKNOWN
Standard Date: 15.4.3708 GSC
In the past month, 147 civilian surveying patrols have been lost throughout Imperial holdings. Of those 147, 15 went missing on one single rock: VX 2, of the Choros Maior system. In itself, the loss of multiple non-combatant units within a single system is not unheard of, and at times becomes (unfortunately) commonplace. Insurgent forces, restive natives, or even wild fauna may make particular planetary bodies dangerous, even to those whose job is as mundane as that of surveyors. However, VX 2 presents an alarming puzzle, for by all accounts and records, it is supposed to be an uninhabited speck in space, and one which is likely uninhabitable. Given these facts, my lancers descended to the planet's surface with a healthy degree of caution.
We landed in Sector 7 of the planet, near the craft of the latest surveying mission, that led by one Commander Erdo. Upon debarking, we found nothing of interest. The surveyors' ship was intact. It had not been plundered or damaged in any obvious fashion. In short, there was no indicator of any animal life, intelligent or otherwise, which might have explained the missing civilians. This however, did not ease our minds; the civilians were still missing, without any indication of what had befallen them.
With the ship's immediate surroundings scouted, I then split my lancers into two units. Twenty-two men were set to guard our ship, making use of the heavy turrets and mobile artillery if necessary, and the remaining eighty-six began running a widening spiral out from our position. My hope was that they would discover some indicator of what had happened there, and that their strength in numbers would prevent any harm from coming to them.
After forty-eight standard galactic hours had passed, they had found no track, nor any debris which might hint at the missing surveyors whereabouts. With such a lack of evidence on the ground, I deemed it prudent to regroup my forces and begin scanning the planet's surface from orbit. This we did for a full two weeks, creating a catalog of images that spanned 1/3 of the planet's surface, yet still we found no trace of any people, either living or dead. There were the scattered surveying ships, each as empty and lifeless as the others, and we did note an odd network of twisting spires that spread over some large tracts of land, but nothing to indicate that those were anything of significance. Rather, they seemed inert, being likely nothing more than some geological anomaly of that place. At any rate, not a single of my soldiers encountered any creature on the surface of VX 2, nor did our scans register organic life.
That being said, the latest lost surveying party indicates that there must be something there, and something which is both unlike anything before seen, and which has enough sentience to attack unarmed civilians and yet hide from Imperial troops. This is a worrisome fact, and one which cannot be ignored any longer. For this reason, I, Gunnery Sergeant Melissa Kendricks, am requesting permission to lead an expeditionary force to VX 2, in order to discover the source of the disappearances there, and if necessary, destroy whatever threat is hiding on that planet.
Gunnery Sergeant Melissa Kendricks
1st Light Lancers
Kyreti High Command