Team Dispatched: Sea Lion
Team Members: Sea Lion 1 (Team Leader), Sea Lion 2, and Sea Lion 3 and Dispatcher.
Location: Merzse-Marsh, Budapest
Objective: Catalogue, contain, or destroy a reported anomaly in the nearby marsh.
Date: August 18th, ████
Summary of purpose: On August 16th a local school in eastern Budapest had gone on a field trip for the purpose of investigating the nearby swamp as part of an ecology study. 21 students and 6 adults were reported missing later that day.
Authorities found vehicles near their original intended destination, but outside of some bloodstains, there was no evidence of the missing individuals. A search of the nearby swamp resulted in the loss of 2 rescue personnel before the reports reached the local Mortfield offices.
The following log is a summary of collected audio and video recordings of the ensuing incident. It should be noted that this team was only recently assembled, with Sea Lion 2 and 3 being recruited only 4 months before this incident.
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BEGIN LOG
Sea Lion 1: Eyes up. Stay alert. Whatever killed those kids is still out here, and no one has managed to survive seeing it.
Sea Lion 2: Understood.
Sea Lion 3: Yes sir.
Dispatch: I advise caution. Take it slow and if you encounter anything strange, look at it so that we have a video record of it.
Sea Lion 2: Right. If it kills us we'll make sure to get good pictures.
Sea Lion 1: Just spread out and keep your eyes open.
The team begins to make their way down into the marsh itself. The travel is slow, but deliberate. The team passes by the still abandoned vehicles of the original field trip and Sea Lion 1 and 2 step out of the water to inspect the vehicles.
Sea Lion 3: A school bus in a swamp. Don't see that every day.
Sea Lion 2: What were they even doing here?
Dispatch: Reports say they were doing ecology research. Whatever that means.
Sea Lion 1: I think it means the teachers wanted an excuse to leave the school for a day.
Sea Lion 3: They got more than a day out of it, I guess.
Sea Lion 2: I'm not sure why the vehicles are still out here though.
Dispatch: They were left in place originally so that the search teams could have a place to start from. After they started disappearing too, I guess no one wanted to risk coming out to pick them up.
Sea Lion 2: But we'll come out and take a look. They're not worried about us.
Sea Lion 1: This is our job. We're trained for it. Cut the bullshit and get serious.
Sea Lion 2: Wait, where's Three?
Sea Lion 1: Dispatch, we've lost sight of Three.
Dispatch: His suit telemetry says he's right there with you. His camera went black just a second ago, I was about to ask for a response.
There is a delay of several seconds.
Dispatch: Sea Lion 3, please respond.
Sea Lion 2: Well that's fantastic. Not even out here for 5 minutes and people are disappearing.
Sea Lion 1: You read the report, you knew what you were getting into before we got here.
Dispatch: I need you to look for Sea Lion 3. His last video frame indicates he was standing in the water behind you when he disappeared.
Sea Lion 2: Probably got eaten by the bog.
Dispatch: I would appreciate it if you didn't speculate.
Sea Lion 1: Hold on. I'll check where I saw him standing
Sea Lion 1 enters the swamp water and takes several steps toward Sea Lion 3's previous position. Video footage from Sea Lion 2 captures him sinking into the water almost immediately. There is no time for Sea Lion 1 to make a noise as he disappears into the swamp.
Sea Lion 2: Oh god. Oh god!
Dispatch: Stay calm. Don't go into the water.
Sea Lion 2: No shit!
Water begins to shift as something emerges from the water.
The volume of displaced water quickly engulfs Sea Lion 2. The water then begins to flow back into the marsh, pulling Sea Lion 2 with it. Visual contact is lost as Sea Lion 2 tumbles down the embankment and into the marsh itself.
All active camera feeds are lost.
END LOG
Sources:
Dr. Jeremiah Cimmerian
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