Harvest of Betelgeuse Crystal

Novus Project

(Journal recording...)

He called it "the flicker".

It is my first day here in the Octagon Underground. 

I never new Panissia had built such an enormous subterranean fortress here several hundred meters below the ground. But it doesn't look like it belonged to the Panissian government either. 

The flag hoisted on the suspended posts belongs to HuKaMa. It's not so obvious, anyway. A government as weak and as corrupted as Panissian's can never achieve a majestic and state of the art engineering of whatever is in here.  It's my first time to write on this journal too, the truth is. 

I'm nervous.

 I do not know if I can trust these people, or what I will do here will be questionable if it's even humane.

The media has classified HuKaMa as a neo-fascist organization that resorts to extremism to take over the collapse of Panissian government. 

They aired multiple graphic photos of corpses of Pannisso civilians killed in war between Ackyllan Forces, Mangsics and HuKaMa to accuse HuKaMa of such atrocities.

 The Panisso people on the other hand supports HuKaMa as the hope to keeping the country stable and rejects the accusations of the international media against HuKaMa.

I do not know what to believe anymore. The photos could've been edited, you know what technology can do nowadays. It could be genuine either. *sigh* I don't know. I'm nervous but I'm still alive and I'll probably be safe here underground. 

Dr. Haik Kawan heads the project launched by HuKaMa's research group, and he personally assigned me to team up with several mineralogists/ petrologists, you know, people who study rocks. I don't even know what's my involvement in their project. 

I've spent 5 years in quantum mechanics profession and have no idea why HuKaMa got so interested with a god-damned rock.

This rock better save people. I'll find out later. Dr. Kawan announced there will be a briefing of the team he calls the "Novus Project" or "New project".

They seem to be cool people though.

(...)

Day 2- It's 0500 H. I just ate corn porridge and rice cake for breakfast. They make really good food here despite of provision shortages.

 I wasn't able to sleep well last night though the air is 7 degrees cooler than average room temperature in the surface. 

It smells too artificial, and I'm not comfortable with it. It's not too fragrant nor too nauseating like a smell of vinyl, like the smell of a brand new car. 

Anyway, Dr. Kawan elaborately briefed us about our Novus Project. Our task is to study the existence of the controversial "Blue crystal" the nations have been contesting to decipher about. Only 4 samples have been reported throughout the world to be here on Earth.

1 kilogram is in custody of Ackylla, 2 kilograms in Mangsics, and 1 kilogram here in Maharlika. (HuKaMa people call themselves Maharlikans. ) I have lots of things to know about this place. It's just my second day here but there tons of information to digest. 

I might not be able to cope up. Their facilities here are way too ahead of time. I feel like a cavewoman in a spaceship. Things must be serious down here and that crystal rock must be something. That I have to find out.

(...) 

1230 H- Rice cake again, this time with shredded chicken barbecue for lunch. I feel stuffed. We have undergone 2 hours of orientation and training about the facilities with the team.