The Clear: Delta Squad’s Log of the Clear War
We are Delta Squad. We served from 2695-2700 A.D. We were only really active until 2696. In the war against “The Clear” as we called it. Essentially, it was an alien who possessed anyone who was seen as “suitable as a host.” This is my log after every few days, or weeks at times.
January 16, 2695:Clarence: I have been recruited. This has been a long, laborious task. It is now worth it. I have been assigned to watch over planet Venus. My squadron and I are very excited for this assignment, as Venus is known for it’s beautiful scenery and exotic life. Apparently, we are assigned mostly because of a few small protests on that planet. I assume we are more of a police force. Any further information has been classified on my duties.
January 30, 2695:Smith: We began our departure today. I was allowed to bring whatever family I have. Which is none. My squad member, Andrews, had a whole family, a wife, and two little girls. The rest of my squad was like me. We adopted Andrews’ family as our own, as we will live together for the next five years. The length of our trip is supposed to be a few months. I will log anything of importance on our trip. For example, malfunctions, running low on fuel, anything of the sort.
March 27, 2695: Griffon:Today, our main source of power went out, leaving us cold, and vulnerable to attack by anyone in the vicinity. To our bad luck, we were in fact boarded by Saturnian Colonists. Known through the galaxy for their ferocity, and poor treatment of prisoners, we had to hide in a locked, hidden facility. Felicia, Andrews’ 6-year-old daughter, lost her doll outside, and attempted to retrieve it. Luckily, Anderson succeeded at catching her before the Colonists found us. Although, the Colonists, being ex-military, did notice the doll. They took the doll, and ripped of it’s legs, laughed and left. Immediately, upon release, Felicia ran to the doll. Andrews asked the squadron,  “Does anyone hear a ticking?” We looked through the doll, and found that the Colonists had put an explosive pill in the leg stuffing of the doll. We run straight to the locked engine room, and lock the blast doors as you hear a distinct countdown. Right on time, you hear the pill say “one”, and the doors lock at the precise moment before the blast could reach us. We are stranded on our remains of the ship we left with.
April 5, 2695: Clarence: Today, our luck has finally come back. a group of nomadic Plutonian Colonists find our remains, and take us in. We tell them that we need to get to Venus. The Plutonian Colonists’ president tells us “Haven’t you heard? Venus is gone!” When I ask him what he meant by “gone”, he replies with “The Clear have taken the planet.” He then takes the time to explain to me and my squad what the clear are. They are a parasitic race of aliens. They are not very picky on what it is that they use as a host. When I ask how close they can get us to Venus, he says “We can take you into the atmosphere, then, we must send you on your way down.” I accepted the offer.
April 30, 2695:Smith: Today is the day. My squad and I are being dropped into Venus. We instructed the Plutonian Colonists to drop Andrews’ family back onto Earth. As we are being dropped onto the surface, we see the beauty of Venus all around us. Andrews is saying his last goodbyes until they see each other again on his helmet’s visor. We set the lander’s coordinates to a point on Venus where there was a city. hopefully, the city was protected from The Clear. As I talk to myself I realize that we have very limited ammo. We need to make supply stops.
June 3, 2695:Anderson: Well, the coordinates were wrong. We were brought to a small village, with overgrown trees all over. No inhabitants in the village. It was extremely eerie, especially with what the president had told me. Luckily, there were small gun shops with ammo in them, Markets, and small homes to take short shelter in. As we walked through what seemed the old town square, a huge quake came. We had to take shelter before the weak buildings all collapsed on us. We realized that Smith wasn’t with us, and when I looked back, there was Smith, holding onto a ledge of what seemed to be the edge of an old skyscraper. I rushed to help him, but before I could, he was swallowed by the planet. We have lost a great man today. The rest of the day seemed to go by peacefully.
June 19, 2695:Andrews: Today, we finally encountered a group of Venus’ Colonists, and Natives. They seemed to act normal. I asked questions, they answered. They asked much of the same things. One of the Natives, named A’mori had survived a Clear infection. He said they work on a psychological level. If your will is strong enough, you can’t be possessed. At least, that’s what I understand. Also, I learned that if you can fend off the clear for 10 full seconds, the Clear will die. The human colonists accepted us. We told them what had happened to us, and they let us join them to a mostly Clear-free city, New Chicago. The survivors warn us to put on our helmets, and Exoskeleton. This protects our heads, the place a Clear needs to take you.
July 4, 2695:Clarence: Today we arrive at New Chicago. The infected areas of the large city are the west, and south. So long as we are in the northern part, and eastern part, we will be ok. I realize that the reason that the north and east are free, are because of fallen skyscrapers, and wreckage separating regions. As we venture in deeper, the group starts to get antsy about something. They won’t tell us why. I warn my squad to ready themselves for anything. The last thing I anticipated was exactly what happened. The survivors attacked us. We fought them back without much of a problem. Griffon had a stroke of bad luck, and after the fight, the Native, A’mori, apparently had baby Clear in his head. What happened was, as forensic officer, he had to declare the reason that they attacked. when examining A’mori, it became evident that he had actually been partially possessed by a Clear. Griffon was attacked by a Clear infant during the examination. As our squad tried to pry the Clear from Griffon’s head, we realized that, as an infant, they have less power. Griffon, who, while Clear-free, had a marred face, temple, and scalp. He could not walk without his helmet for the rest of our mission.
July 31, 2695:Anderson: Today, we realized that, while some clear choose to make the change in their host more subtle, others choose to completely change the host, turning their skin glowing red, their eyes completely black, and tear the clothes they are wearing. As we venture further into the city of New Chicago, more and more clear show up, getting larger, and more dangerous as we go. No further observations today.
August 15, 2695: Clarence:Today we reach the heart of the city. There was a huge, red, glowing bulb over in the South part of the city. We unanimously came to the decision that we investigate it. Looking back, that probably will come back to bite us in the behind. We started off in that direction, but didn’t get far.
August 18, 2695:Griffon: We reach the populated area of New Chicago, South-Side, but like the original Chicago, that is likely to be the worst. I believe that a Clear infection doesn’t infect someone’s use of objects, so the people there will probably have guns, and anther means of attacking us. We, as a group of four, had to weigh our possibilities, die, but possibly find the cure to this horrible disease, or run to the nearest space station and run home to Earth. We chose what we thought Smith and Griffon would want.
September 8, 2695:Clarence: Today, we go to South-Side, if we make it. On our trip, we encounter two huge beasts. presumably a native creature. these ones though, were possessed by Clear.  They were glowing , red, and instead of fur, they had horns.On top of all that, they were at least 10 feet tall on all fours. We knew there was no way to go through them. So we needed a way around them. We needed a distraction. We needed something. As if on queue, a group of indigenous natives attempted to kill the two beasts. Their chief looked at us, and nodded. We hurried to get to the bulb. Once we reached the inside of the building, there were what seemed to be soldiers and troops from different organizations. Luckily, since we stopped at an abandoned military base, we had a few grenades on hand. We threw a few down onto the ground from a railing, to draw the Clear’s attention. As the medic and forensic officer, Griffon was the one to go to the bulb to gather sample from it. With an escort of the town, we make it out to Cliff, a medical university nearby.
November 30, 2695:Clarence: Today. . . Today we really did it. While searching for a cure for this parasitism, we found an evolution to this disease. Called “The Clouded”, when left alone, it is a cure. Except, when agitated, this worsens the Clear. It turns blue, gets muscular, and becomes much faster. We made sure to conduct this on a previously infected Clear. I am worried to even attempt a human trial. Griffon wanted to find a plastic surgeon, to repair his destroyed face. Luckily, there was a amateur surgeon who had a few practices in plastic surgery. He gets the surgery done, and looks as he did before. The surgeon instructs Griffon to stay on life support for the next few days, and to not take off his helmet. Also, Andrews has gone crazy over the course of the last few months or so. He babbles on and on about making his family safe. He can’t go home, because as the rest of the planet Venus, we are stranded, until military come to pick us up.
December 15, 2695:Clarence: Today, we have reached a decision, for the sanity of Andrews, and for ours, we decide to find a radio tower. When asking the local humans, it is determined that the closest radio tower is back in New Chicago. Even worse, it’s in the South-Side. Apparently, the South-Side of New Chicago is even worse now, than ever before. Completely covered in Clear, you likely couldn’t get more than a mile in, without encountering a group of over twenty Clear. As any good marines, we stocked up on ammo, and repairs for our suits. These next weeks will be very difficult.
December 25, 2695:Clarence: We began getting close to New Chicago today. I have began to see more and more Clear. They began to see us as well. As we approach the Clear group, the largest one, who almost looks like a Clouded, sees me, and rushes forward at me. On instinct, I rally my men, and we shoot the Clouded leader until dead. His group of Clear notice his dying scream, and they all run at us. My men and I, obviously outnumbered, run toward the nearest building. To our misfortune, it was a small market hut. We were cornered. As the Clear draw nearer and nearer, they get angrier, more chaotic as well. We use all our ammo up, and eventually, we realize that there will be no easy way into that radio tower. I have decided that Griffon and I have the least to lose, family wise. So, if push comes to shove, Griffon and I die.
January 6, 2696:Andrews: I regret to inform the readers of Delta Squad’s log, that our leader on the mission, was declared K.I.A. this morning, during a battle with a horde of 15 Clear. He pulled  the needle of a grenade, and saved our squad today. He will be ever known as a hero to us. The Radio Tower is now within not even a day’s journey away. Our squad was lucky to have such a great leader as he was. As second in command, well, now first, I must take command of this squad, and responsibility for both Clarence, and Smith’s deaths.
January 8, 2696: Andrews: We have finally reached our destination, the Radio Tower. As we reached the transmitting part of the building, we realize that this was Smith’s forte, he was our scientist. Luckily, Anderson was a radio host, and understands how to work these. He tells me that it should take a few days for them to understand whats really occurring here. I tell him “We don’t need to explain our situation! Can’t you just request an immediate evacuation of our squad?” Anderson answers “Do you want to be the guy who just happens to wander into this mess we are in?. . . Of course not. I’m going to explain.” Griffon tells Anderson something that I couldn’t hear, but Anderson looks at me strangely immediately after, but goes back to work on the transmission.
January 8, 2696:Griffon: On a clear consensus, Anderson and I believe that Andrews is going insane as a result of being separated from his family so long. He will begin saying strange things in his journal. Please disregard these if reviewing the mission.
January 10, 2696: Andrews: Today, Andrews, I mean Anderson, got a few patriotic people to volunteer to come pick us up. According to the guy on the intercom, or radio, it will come in 6 days. Who will wait 6 days to be rescued from this crazy jungle planet??!! I will fix a spaceship all by myself to get there sooner!
January 14, 2696: Anderson: We have to wait two more days until the evacuation team gets here. Andrews doesn’t know this, but we ordered a “crazy chair” for him, so that he doesn’t hurt anyone. He’s becoming angrier, more violent, less like himself. He claims to be fine, but I doubt that. Griffon and I have been trying to keep him safe distances away, just for good measure. We take out his full magazines, and replace them with empty ones. We are also not ruling out the fact that he could be becoming Clear.
January 16, 2696: Griffon: Today, Andrews turned. He woke up, feeling normal. he started complaining about headaches, and then growing pains. He turned to a Clear relatively quick, going from tan to glowing red in a matter of seconds. He grew horns where his spiky hair was. It was scary, seeing our squad member going through so much agony! I couldn’t help it, so I pushed him into the one solid metal room. What do we tell his family, or the other Marines? At least he didn’t turn on the ship. It’s just me and Anderson. When I checked on Andrews again, he looked like a Clouded, and broke through the two solid metal doors! He looked at me and charged. Upon impact, he flipped me head over heels into the air. Anderson shot at him, and bullets seemed to phase through him. Anderson and I ran out to the landing pad, hoping to find the ship. Just in time, our evacuation team shows up, with missiles. they shoot Andrews, and don’t miss. Andrews is gone. For real, this time. When they ask “What was that thing??!!” I answer, “You remember that crazy guy we were talking to you about?” “Yeah.” “That was him. or at least what was left. That was a Clouded person. That is what we faced since we landed, last year.”
  Griffon lived, but was paralyzed, and still had a marred face. Anderson lived perfectly fine, and even joined another squadron. He survived that as well. Griffon and Anderson lived together after that. They became the replacements in Andrews’ family. Since they didn’t have family, they were completely accepted into the family. They gave Andrews a proper funeral. Eventually, they found a cure for the Clear, so they cured his body, and gave him a burial. Sadly, none of the bodies of Clarence or Smith were found. Griffon died of old age, and Anderson died of a gunshot wound, unrelated to the war, likely an assassination, as he became a successful politician soon after, and was running for president. That was the las of Delta Squad’s activity.