ABOUT THIS EPISODE
Something ancient and malevolent lurks beneath the rusty surface of Mars, and the Ares VI expedition has awakened it. Major Rob Elston's final transmission reveals the horrifying fate of what should have been a routine geological survey on the red planet.
When the team uncovers a mysterious obsidian mirror kilometers below the Martian surface, their scientific curiosity leads them to power it up. What they discover defies explanation - not simple reflections, but twisted, hungry versions of themselves existing in a hellish parallel dimension. The mirror becomes a doorway, and one by one, crew members are replaced by their nightmarish counterparts.
These entities move with unnatural grace, their eyes glowing red, their fingers elongated into obsidian claws, driven by an insatiable hunger that transcends dimensions. The Mars habitat, once a symbol of human achievement, becomes a hunting ground as Major Elston watches his colleagues transform before his eyes.
Alone and desperate, Elston attempts to destroy the mirror by overloading the habitat's power generator, but the reflections are too quick. His final moments capture the horrifying sensation of his own transformation, as the hunger begins to consume him from within. His last warning echoes across the void of space: stay away from Mars, stay away from what waits beneath the dust.
For those brave enough to listen to this transmission, prepare yourself for a journey into cosmic horror unlike anything you've experienced before. And ask yourself - what might be lurking in your own reflection when the lights go out?
If you have questions, comments or suggestions you can email me at:
Exxa0001@gmail.com and I will get back to you.
IN THIS EPISODE
SHOW NOTES 🔗
TRANSCRIPT 🔗
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Log Entry Number 387.
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Major Rob Elston, ares VI Mission Commander.
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This is Major Rob Elston, last surviving crew member of the Ares VI expedition.
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If anyone retrieves this transmission, understand two things.
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First, everything you're about to hear is true.
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Second, you need to stay away.
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The official mission logs will tell you.
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We came to study the geological anomalies in Sector Gamma-9, to sample and test the planet's minerals.
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Little did we know what was buried beneath this complex and it was waiting for us.
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I'm sealing myself in the HAB complex now.
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The others, christ.
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The others are still out there, just not the way I knew them.
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This is my final transmission.
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God help whoever finds it.
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The red dust of Mars swirled around the Hab Complex, a constant, gritty reminder of our isolation.
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We, the pioneers of Ares VI, were supposed to be building a future, but the past had other plans.
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We'd found it during the deep core drilling a massive obsidian mirror, perfectly smooth, buried kilometers beneath the rust-colored surface.
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It was alien, undeniably so, its surface reflecting not our own distorted images, but something else.
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Dr Eris Thorne, a resident geologist and a man with a thirst for the unknown that bordered on reckless, was the first to activate it.
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He'd rigged up a power source, a jury-rigged connection to the HAB's main generator and, with a nervous grin, flipped the switch.
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The mirror shimmered, the obsidian surface rippling like disturbed water.
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Then images bloomed, not of us but of ourselves, distorted, twisted versions of us, trapped in a hellscape of jagged black rock and perpetual crimson twilight.
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Their eyes, glowing with an infernal red light, stared back at us with a hunger that made my stomach churn.
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Incredible Aris breathed his voice thick with awe An alternate dimension, a parallel reality or a nightmare, muttered Lena Vance, our medic, her face pale.
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The reflected versions were wrong.
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Their skin was cracked and scarred, their bodies emaciated, their movements jerky and unnatural.
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They were like us, yet fundamentally not us.
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Their expressions were filled with a desperate, gnawing hunger, a longing that made my blood run cold.
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At first it was just a curiosity, a scientific marvel.
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We studied the mirror, analyzed the reflected reality, trying to understand the physics of it all.
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But then things started to change, subtle changes at first, a flicker in the reflection, a momentary distortion.
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Then a reflected hand reaching out, its fingers, elongated and tipped, with sharp obsidian claws grazing the surface of the mirror.
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We dismissed it as a glitch, a trick of the light.
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But the changes grew bolder.
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The reflections began to mimic our movements, their eyes fixed on us with a predatory intensity.
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It was like watching a dark reflection of ourselves, a twisted echo of our existence.
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Then the first crossover.
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It was Mark, our engineer.
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A quiet, methodical man.
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He was working on the comms array, his back to the mirror when it happened.
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A ripple, a flash of red light, and then he was different.
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His movements were stiff, his eyes glowing with that infernal red light.
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He turned to us, a grotesque parody of a smile twisting his lips we're hungry.
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He rasped his voice, a distorted echo of Mark's.
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Lena tried to examine him, but he lashed out, his hand now tipped with those obsidian claws tearing through her suit.
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She screamed a raw, terrified sound.
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Panic erupted.
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We tried to contain him, to subdue him, but he was stronger, faster, more vicious than Mark had ever been.
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He moved with a predatory grace, his movements almost insect-like.
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He wasn't Mark anymore.
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He was something else, something other.
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The crossovers began to accelerate, one by one we were replaced.
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Eris, his eyes wide with a manic glee, was the next.
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He stepped into the mirror, his reflection pulling him through the obsidian surface, rippling like a hungry maw.
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When he emerged, his eyes glowed red, his face twisted into a grotesque grin, the hunger he whispered, his voice, a chorus of distorted echoes.
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It consumes us all.
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Lena, despite her injuries, tried to fight.
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She was a survivor, a woman forged in the crucible of hardship.
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But the reflected versions were relentless.
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They were like a plague spreading through the hab, replacing us one by one.
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The hab, once a beacon of hope, became a charnel house.
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The air was thick, with the metallic tang of blood and the acrid stench of burning flesh.
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The screams echoed through the corridors, a symphony of terror.
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I found myself alone, hiding in the hydroponics bay, the lush green of the plants, a stark contrast to the crimson horror that had engulfed the hab.
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I watched through the security cameras as the reflected versions moved through the corridors, their movements fluid and predatory, their eyes glowing with an infernal light.
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They were searching for me.
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I knew I couldn't hide forever.
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They were relentless, driven by a hunger that transcended reason.
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They were like a virus, replicating, spreading, consuming everything in their path.
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I looked at the mirror, its obsidian surface reflecting the hellish dimension, the distorted figures of my former crewmates moving within.
00:07:54.560 --> 00:08:00.182
They were waiting for me, their eyes fixed on the reflection of the hydroponics bay.
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I knew what I had to do.
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I rigged the generator, overloading it, preparing to destroy the mirror, to sever the connection between our reality and theirs.
00:08:10.843 --> 00:08:17.442
It was a desperate gamble, a suicide mission, but it was the only way to stop them.
00:08:17.442 --> 00:08:26.831
As I activated the overload, the mirror shimmered, the reflected figures reaching out their claws scraping against the obsidian surface.
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They knew what I was doing.
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The generator hummed, the power, surging the air crackling with energy.
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The mirror began to glow, the obsidian surface pulsating with an infernal light.
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Then the reflected figures began to cross over their bodies, phasing through the mirror, their eyes glowing with a malevolent triumph.
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They were too fast, I was too late.
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Now I can see their faces, their twisted, hungry faces, their red eyes glowing in the darkness.
00:09:01.817 --> 00:09:09.942
They're upon me now, their claws reaching out, their voices, a chorus of distorted echoes we're hungry.
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They rasp, and now you'll be hungry too.
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The light just exploded.
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A blinding flash of red just consumed everything, and now the darkness closed in.
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I can feel the hunger, the gnawing, insatiable hunger begin to consume me from the inside out.
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I'm becoming one of them, a reflection, a dark echo, a hungry shadow in a hellish dimension.
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And soon there will be nothing left of me but the hunger.
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And soon there will be nothing left of me, but the hunger.
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The reflection will replace the original and the original will fade into nothing.