Probe 4 Output [03/21/94]

Recovered result of Probe 4's last image.

The Altumverse Directory

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The Altumverse describes a Rift-World discovered trough a friction-perforation engine at GATE November facility in 1994. "Altum" has been borrowed from the latin word describing a geographical location or idea with a great sense of depth. Like other World Subject Directories, this one was created by the Anomalous Perforation Research Team [APRT] , which was the only team available at GATE November, qualified and permitted to begin testing the November Facility Rift.

APRT (Est. 1993)

A friction-perforation engine does not use magnetic resonance to find a point of insertion, but rather uses physical perpetual motion machinery powered by 7500 Watts of Direct Current. These engines are thought to have been outdated by 1991, but November was postponed their installment of new perforation engines due to harsh weather conditions.

During 1993, APRT Dr. Laura Klauser wrote multiple articles related to the theory of a potential world discovered in an extra, previously undiscovered form of existence, where neither time or space are capable of revealing information about a World Subject. Her papers included a draft about a physical space found , in theory, somewhere, but taking the apparent form of territory that does not allow human teams to properly navigate or charter. She called these Nullworlds, and suggested further testing.

In the summer of 1993, her papers were unfortunately debunked by Dr. Winslow L. Haufmann as a "indirect desire to chart the inexplorable, ignoring the rule-of-thumb that a system must have some amount of life to be considered alive. Anything else is to be considered as "worlds between worlds", and not entirely useful to the research facility or the APRT at GATE November."

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This is also widely considered as a character assassination against Dr. Klauser and a gross attempt to invalidate her research. The ethics of a paper are not our place to question in current circumstances, but i think it is worth nothing that Dr. Haufmann had a personal "dog in the race" at the time, which briefly deposed Laura of her position in the APRT.

During March 21st of 1994, the friction-perforation engine, having been completely dormant the entire day, suddenly awakened with a tremor felt facility-wide, and upon close inspection by the teams on-site, was concluded to have been able to finally open a Rift. At 10:15, the APRT was notified and immediately called on-site. Their first tests concluded that this event, though unwarranted, was not dangerous to the facility in any way. Once personnel resumed their daily activities, the APRT received permission to travel to the lower level of the engine, with Dr. Enzo Capello, the Supervisor on duty that day.

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Since it appears the people in charge of documenting the Altumverse are incapable of reaching a commonly-agreed theory of what happened next, i've elected to help. Dr. Capello tells me that he felt uneasy about travelling into a world opened by such an outdated engine. He wasn't directed by me or contacted by me in any way to explore or enter this World Subject. I was working on Anteverse III at the time. I hope this disproves any other rumors. Dr. Capello made an excellent choice, as it later was discovered that Dr. Haufmann was half right. You cannot navigate the Altumverse as you would any of the worlds we have discovered so far by 1993.

Three model IX probes were launched into the Rift, and they quickly picked up a few things of note. The Altumverse does not have a gravitational pull, it's gravity laws can change at any time. The first two probes were destroyed by what the APRT originally thought was an immense amount of pressure, but then the third probe had peacefully begun floating and constantly colliding with rock-like debris, until it's feed stopped responding.

Probe 4

One last Probe was authorized to launch inside the now nicknamed Altumverse. The APRT decided this name was appropriate, since the readings were very similar to launching a probe in Earth's own deep oceans. At first, it was believed that we had reached an entry point into a very deep ocean space on Earth, but we failed to get any geographical data. Probe 4 was also equipped with additional readers , which helped the APRT determine more about the World Subject, such as the fact that Probe 4 was constantly wet and moist during it's first minutes inside the Altumverse. It also took on a significant amount of liquid to it's batteries. It's been described as "water-like", though that effect remains to be debated.

After 10 minutes, the gravitational orientation of the Altumverse changed again, very rapidly and with no prior notice. Probe 4 violently crashed into something, but then had begun floating in an opposite circumference to it's previous voyage, as if it had begun "taking flight". At this point it was impossible to tell if Probe 4 was underwater, or if it had begun to float. We had decided to pull Probe 4 out, but were unable to guide it back to the Rift. Five more minutes had passed before the probe hit something extremely solid, which broke off it's rear parts. It was Dr. Capello's idea to try to develop a photo from the Probe, but all that got sent to the database were fragments of data, and nothing visual.

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This move was widely regarded as me wasting precious time on an impossible task. It wasn't until the later half of 1994 that the APRT's software engineers managed to piece together a viewable photo of what was the last thing Probe 4's one and only camera managed to see before being destroyed.

Analysis of the image presents a very distorted image of the Altumverse. It appears to be incredibly dark ,with no source of lighting aside from Probe 4's own frontal lights. It appears that Probe 4 crashed into some sort of metallic container, rusted and worn. This is especially concerning because this is considered a human object in a world previously inaccessible to humans. Next to this object is the Altumverse's only known wild-life, it appears to be a mass of flesh-like material, with tentacles sprouting out of a vacant, round organ (possibly an eye), as well as additional, smaller tentacles coming out of the rear. It is currently impossible to accurately tell the subject's features. But it does appear as if it took shelter inside the worn container.

Perhaps an Immurement Candidate Form will be completed if we ever learn more about this.

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We'll be taking it over from here on out. I just wanted it to go on record that our terrestrial sample testing using the proto-terraform tools at our disposal have allowed us to settle a theory that should clear things up. The Altumverse is indeed not found anywhere on Earth by our estimations, but rather it is a "graveyard" world. The Altumverse was alive possibly millions of years ago, with a completely different world logic and physical laws. We theorize creatures and possibly even civilizations could've once existed inside the Altumverse, furthermore the reason why Probe 4 found it in such a deserted state is because it suffered a mass extinction event. Please note we're not talking about a human society, or even any society at all, but rather that the biological systems of the Altumverse are too complicated to concretely tell what exactly is the type of life that once used to reign there. I would have liked to research more on the topic, but the Altumverse Rift closed in October, though the APRT is calling it "temporary". I'm currently completely unable to tell anything more about Probe 4's findings. I appreciate the work the APRT put together, but theories are all it's good for.

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The APRT was re-assigned to more important matters, and i myself chose to leave the APRT yesterday night due to personal resignation. I'm not sure we'll find out more about this phenomenon, this world, or even the creatures that reside...or used to reside in it. One thing is for certain, if we find more Nullworlds , we'll know the do's and don'ts.

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