Alright, flick your flashlights when I call your name: Alexander, Rachel, Daniel, Maddy, Inez. Fantastic. We made it through the Rift, but the hard part is still ahead. It seems we’ve got the drop on the nanos, but surge density is at ninety and climbing. I imagine they’ll be spawning in shortly.

I must implore you to follow the safety protocols. The Crust Fields will be unlike anything we’ve dealt with. Thirty meters wide, and probably twice as long. Plenty of space to drop some equipment and establish a small camp. Of course, the surge will prove to be a puzzle. It’s so thick in the air that it’s crusting along the walls. Inez, good call on the hazmat suits.

There’s no one coming after us if things go pear shaped, so remain strapped into your lines, work quickly, and never let your guard down.

Alexander, hang back by the Rift. I’ll only be a minute.

Our initial hypotheses about the Crust Fields were incorrect; it’s not the surge that’s reacting to us, it’s the nanos. As Rachel’s put it, they’re adapting. They get harder to damage on each reentry. It’s as if our being here has triggered some kind of autoimmune response. Fortunately, both Alexander and Inez are scientifically minded. Their hunch about the nano’s knockback state continues to save our lives.
It’s a good reminder that running projects in a lab is very different from maintaining a field expedition. It behooves us to be deliberate with how and when we access the Crust Fields.

Yes, Alexander, I’m — that’s strange, I thought he said my name. He must have just stepped through. Perhaps I will institute a new safety protocol: from now on, we enter and exit as a team.

Forget the plan! Inez, Alexander, lure the Tyrants across the Field. Take care – they’re going to try and corner you, so be ready to make a hard turn. If you harm some of our equipment, fine. That’s a small price to pay for a Crust Pod.

Rachel, you and I will draw the remaining nanos away from the Rift. It is paramount that you keep moving. We won’t have time to administer first aid until we get back to base, and there’s a very good chance the nanos’ aggression will only escalate from here.

Maddy, you’re going to grab that Crust Pod and run straight through the Rift. We’ll keep the Tyrants from following you, but you cannot stop. If one of us gets trapped, so be it. You're the least injured of us, and we’re going to keep it that way.

As long as we keep our wits about us, we’ll be fine.

It’s been three days, Inez. I’m calling off the search.

We’ve blown through four months of ammunition in just under twenty four hours. Forgive me if I sound callous, but Maddy’s whereabouts are not my priority right now. She chose to go back to base; there’s nothing more we can do.

This project, it’s always had a high mortality rate. My colleagues took to calling each other by their employee numbers instead of their names. Kept things less personal when someone didn’t come back from a mission. I thought that if I kept my teams small and implemented tight protocols…

We’ve recovered Rachel’s body. That’s nothing short of a miracle. The ground by the watchtower is soft, from the rain. If we take shifts digging, she’ll be buried by sundown. Please. She deserves a grave, at the very least.

Hang back by the Rift, Alexander. This will only take a minute.

My colleagues never understood why I chose to run experiments in the labs at base. They were delighted by the Meridian’s strangeness. Wanted to be as close to it as possible.

But I watched our field agents come back to base in shambles. They reported all kinds of nonsense; some heard voices, others saw relatives. One even ran into a doppelganger. My initial hypothesis was stress, but now I believe their reactions were effects of the Crust Fields. It adapts to our consciousness, and targets accordingly.

Which is why I’m not going to follow you through the Rift, Alexander. You’ve been dead for nine days. I’ve been seeing you for seven. Hearing Rachel for eight. At first, I assumed I was mad with grief, and I am. But I think it’s best if I stay out of the Crust Fields, my friend.

Maddy? Is that you? I can’t see anymore. A nano got to my eyes…

You long argued that every new discovery we made about the Meridian was a win in the wake of the Collapse, but Shinar never should have created the Rifts. This place isn’t human. We had no right poking around without asking for permission, first. Perhaps, if we had, we wouldn’t have been punished so heavily. And while I do not have the time to test that theory, the bodies we’ve left behind seem evidence enough.

A Shinar anthropologist once told me that all human knowledge is cooperative. She said the Morpheus chip was groundbreaking because we’d be able to find the answers just by taking a quick peek into someone’s mind.

Has the Meridian changed that, Maddy? How do we ask the right questions if we no longer know who we’re talking to?