You may have followed the story of the Ghost Ship on Elite: Dangerous recently, perhaps on my Twitch channel (in French), the Discord Remlok Community or via other content creators. It’s a really successful event for me focused onHalloween, after the return of the Galnet stories last month.
Check out the whole Adamastor story!

For Halloween, follow the guide and discover some scary & creepy stories!
Most of the Information Logs are fully voiced for our greatest pleasure.

It all started with messages in binary on Elite Dangerous’s Instagram account.
Over several days we received a total of 9 images to assemble together in order to decrypt it. The message was the following:

Coalsack nebula. The Stones. He keeps watching the stones

 

A story was recently received on Galnet, the game’s information platform.

An abandoned megaship that set out two centuries ago has returned on automatic pilot to the Chukchan system.
Local security forces were scrambled to intercept an unidentified vessel that was detected on a collision course with Chukchan 5 B.

The megaship displayed no signs of life, so tugs were deployed to wrench it into a safe orbit. This caused onboard power systems to overload with explosive results, damaging cargo holds and spilling debris.
The name of the ship was confirmed as the Adamastor, but no further information is available in the public domain.

Specialists from the Alliance Salvage Guild boarded the derelict to conduct an investigation. Their preliminary report stated:

“The Adamastor has been travelling at sublight speed through interstellar space for nearly two hundred years. There are no remains of the crew. All escape pods and secondary craft have been launched, and several airlocks were manually opened from within. A complete absence of identification suggests that this ship was intended for clandestine operations. All data drives have been deliberately erased. There is evidence of a reinforced cargo hold, fitted with what looks like the remains of environmental equipment. Recent fire damage makes it impossible to be more specific. The ship’s original destination is unknown, having returned to its launch point on autopilot. Calculating its trajectory implies that it passed near the HIP 61595, HIP 64011 and HIP 65201 systems.”

The Adamastor will remain in orbit for further examination.

We note the « Chukchan » system, planet « 5B« , as well as the three systems where this Megaship passed: HIP 61595, HIP 64011 and HIP 65201.

 

Go to the Chukchan system, planet 5B, to discover the Megaship The Adamastor.
Here, you will find a gigantic ship containing various interesting information.

Start by scanning the Megaship with your Datalink Scanner.
You get various additional objects to scan.

  • Ship’s Logs – Important to get the story, scan with your Datalink Scanner.
  • Cargo Bays – Containing Escape Pods (and their unfortunate people in there for 200 years) & personal belongings, goods, tools, …, scan with your Datalink Scanner and target the new option in your left panel, Target and select; Then send a drone from your Hatch Breaker Drone Controller.
  • An Antenna – Only if you want to collect materials, but avoid it because you will get a Fine. To be scanned with a Datalink Scanner and target the new option in your left panel, Target and select; Then send a drone from your Reconnaissance Drone Controller.

The ship’s logs provide the following details:

Log: 26 10 3331
Departing under private licence.

Log: 28 ………

Log: 29 10 3111
Entering system with a single K class star and 11 bodies.
Heading for third bodyu
Arrived at listening post.
Updating route to rendezvous with planetary survey team

Log: 30 10 3111
Entering system with a single M class star. Heading… metal body
Outpost latitude 11.86
Retrieve… cargo…
Emergency de… initiatied…..

Log: 31 10 3111
Currently 1.. LY…
Entering system with single A class star…
Security system offl…
Ship lau…
…

…

There are three classes of stars to note: M, K and A. You can sort the star classes via your galactic map and the star class filters.

  • There is a metallic body on the star M leading to a surface outpost with latitude 11.86.
  • On the star K there are 11 celestial bodies and a listening post
  • For the star A… heh, it doesn’t sound good!

 

I advise you now to go to a station of the Chukchan system, to rest a bit and think about all of this… Go to the Chamitoff Station.
Here, read the local news… by chance, a retired investigator will give you a hand !

A private investigator has uncovered some background to the derelict megaship that recently arrived in this system.
Little is known about the Adamastor, which returned on autopilot after two hundred years with no sign of its crew. But an experienced detective has come out of retirement to tackle the mystery.

Local resident Benjamin Chester, who was a founding member of the renowned Wallglass Investigations Agency, told reporters :

« I convinced the Alliance Salvage Guild to pass on some of the serial numbers that they discovered inside the Adamastor. Then I started scouring databases, interviewing sources and, well doing my old job. The megaship was owned by a company called Azimuth Biochemicals. This was taken over by a similar company called Pharmasapien, but both were liquidated long ago. No mission reports exist, but service crew reports mention that the Adamastor’s passengers included scientists, engineers and some kind of military. Eventually, I unearthed a flight plan, logged in October 3111. It plottted a course toward Barnard’s Loop, with fuel for approximately 370 light years, and was scheduled to pass by the HIP 39748 and HIP 33386 systems. I’m way too old to head out there myself, but I hope someone can use this information, and help satisfy my curiosity about what happened all those years ago. ».

From all these information we can start to make a map of the surroundings.

  • In 3111, the company Azimuth Biomechanicals bought by Pharmasapien sent a team to Barnard’s Loop to carry out studies with the megaship the Adamastor, starting from the Chukchan system .
  • … They went through the HIP 39748 and HIP 33386 systems and had fuel for 370 LY.
  • … By establishing a line of 370AL between Chukchan, HIP 39748 and HIP 33386; we can find a class K star with 11 celestial bodies and a listening post… by scanning it, it gives the following message :
    • 8BFGTY4PLU67-RTYO06.45:GN63-74PHGJI E67-:F563-21-574.9 ER34.6-DER8+WEST U.5 -RTG10 RTH8-4 6T.WR4564-21 +G134.2 RT55.4 GDW THE42.1LY 764.2Y-45TG4.BTJ-Y. 6ORT437.1D341-67.Y5DS 243 45TY-3234

  • … This Listening Post gives encrypted information asking the team to join a search towards « the west », on the Coalsack Nebula, as announced by the binary code we translated earlier…
  • … On site in the Coalsack Nebula, they established a base for geological studies… A base on the surface, with a latitude, and consequently we know that the story continues with a class M star…
  • Go to the Coalsack Nebula, in search of an M-class star!

 

There are a lot of Class M stars here Nicou! Yep!
That’s where the community gets its strength: the search by hundreds of players who are fans of puzzles leading thousands of other pilots to follow them.

So we found our class M star and a site prepared for surface geological studies, site 23B, on the Musca Dark Region PJ-P B6-1 system, planet 3.
On this system there are many « Thargoids » traces like a planet with ammonia atmosphere, other planets with ammonia traces but also many Barnacles sites, these biological & mechanical creations of the Thargoids. It is a building made to terraform a planet and make it suitable for Thargoid life. In addition, Thargoids « Interceptors » ships can replenish themselves on it to repair & re-supply their ships with materials. The Thargoids are an alien race that you can learn all about in the link attached to this paragraph.
While humans are based on Carbon, Thargoids are based on Ammonia.

Here, 4 Logs are to be found on the site by scanning various information points with your VRS and Datalink Scanner.

Log 20th of October 3111

It’s Friday the 20th of October, 3111. This is Professor Penelope Carver. I’m making this log for our own records, and keeping it separate from the official logs we’re sending to our employer.

Why? Well, I’m still concerned about working for Azimuth Biochemicals, to be honest. Obviously we take on all sorts of contracts for a living, and this isn’t our first top secret commercial project. But the rumours about this corporation… anyway, my people can handle anything, I’m sure. Azimuth are certainly paying well for our skills, I’ll give them that. And those debts of mine aren’t going away by themselves.

The Coalsack Nebula has turned out to have a lot more scientific value than I expected. We established a site on this planet on the 13th, after we detected some very odd signals, and the whole team is excited about what we found. That’s another reason I’m logging this – if this turns out to be a big discovery, I want our names attached!

The things growing here are like nothing on record. Definitely organic life, but with crystalline or metallic elements, and chemistry that even O’Keefe can’t make sense of. They’re giving off signal bursts on all sorts of frequencies.

Are they living organisms or machines of some kind? Murphy and Sheng both think they’re alien in origin – as in, constructed by non—humans – but Kumalo found that so hilarious we had to turn off his comms.

Our transport ship is long gone by now, but Taylor’s using the beacon to transmit our findings back to the company in the Chukchan system. She said the built-in encryption software is top of the line, which makes me think the stories about Azimuth and its rivals might be true. They obviously want to keep whatever we find all to them –

*noises of people cheering or crying*

Something’s going on. I can hear everyone shouting. Did the scouting party find something?

Log 270th of October 3111

This is Professor Carver, 27th of October, 3111. Hopefully this log will record – half of our equipment isn’t working properly right now.

Everything’s changed since we found the crashed ship. For one thing, it’s… it’s alien. Definitely non-human technology. I should sound more excited, I know. Every scientist’s dream, isn’t it? But something about this just feels wrong. I know the others feel the same. Even Kumalo isn’t smiling any more.

We’re still mostly in the dark about the object we retrieved from inside the wreckage. Is it the pilot, or the cargo, or maybe some organic component of the ship itself? It seems totally inert, but… we’ve had electromagnetic interference all over the base since we brought it back, and that can’t be a coincidence.

Storing it has caused problems. Sheng lashed something together using the strongest bulkheads he could find, but apparently it’s still breaking that down. The equipment failures meant O’Keefe couldn’t fully analyse its chemical structure, making him so angry that he actually attacked Kumalo for telling him to calm down. I’ve never had to break up my people like that – we’ve worked together for years.

It’s Murphy I’m most worried about, though. He can’t tear himself away from those growths on the surface. ‘The stones’, he calls them, like the Neolithic standing stones on Earth. We keep finding him out there in his suit, standing under the jet—black sky, staring at them. He won’t tell us why.

We’ve been sending back reports, but Taylor just relayed a message that made my blood run cold. Azimuth has ordered us to cease all transmissions and await the arrival of their megaship, the Adamastor, which will transport us and our samples to a ‘secure facility’.

And now I’m wondering why I got involved with a corporation that’s rumoured to have its own private army. Have I put everyone at risk by taking this job?

Log 30th of October 3111

I’m going to try making this log again, while the data drives are still functioning. They could go again at any time. Nothing works properly anymore. Especially not us. It’s the 30th of October. The object in our storage cage has become… noisy. l have a suspicion it’s even noisier on infrasonic frequencies, which would explain why everyone is on a knife’s edge and unable to sleep. I would ask Mahmood to do some studies, but he’s in the lnfirmary after his run-in with Kumalo. God, I’ve never seen my team like this. What’s wrong with them?

But that’s not the important thing. I don’t think the ship that crashed was alone.

Yesterday, O’Keefe came bursting in through the airlock like a pack of wolves was after him. He said there were lights shining down on the growths and on Murphy, who was just standing there. He couldn’t make out where they came from, only that the nebula above us seemed to be moving. He said… he said the night was opening up like a giant mouth.

I don’t know where Taylor’s got to, so I tried the comms beacon myself, and found a message saying the Adamastor has arrived in the system. That should be a relief, but actually it twists my gut.

What are Azimuth going to do with the thing we found? What are they going to do with us?

 

Special Log - Penelope Carver

It sounds like this should come later in the story, with the crashed Sidewinder and SRV…

It’s working… suit link is working. Can anyone hear me? Is anyone still back at base? This is… I don’t remember. I’m not – Dominic! Dominic Murphy. That’s who I am, yes. This is Dr Murphy reporting. I’m a geologist, part of Professor Carver’s planetary survey team. But… I think they’re all dead.

I was out here with the stones when the Sidewinders arrived. I watched them come down like birds with broken wings, lights flickering on and off, just like the base has been for days. Then there were soldiers everywhere, with rifles and armoured suits. I think they loaded the cage onto one of the ships, which took off again, just about.

And then a few of the soldiers… I saw the flashes inside the buildings. Gunfire. Something exploded – the main comms relay, I think. But then came more lights, strange lights that rippled like snakes, and… and that blackness again, opening up in the sky.

They tried to get away on foot, running out to where I was hiding, and I thought they’d see me, but then they were all flying up, little toy soldiers thrown in the air, pulled up into the lights…

Now it’s just us. Me and the stones. They’re all I can hear, much louder now, but not hurting like people’s voices used to. Loud but far away. So far…

 

From there, we had to go back to Chukchan, still with our straight line to find the needed A class star.
We know that the Adamastor came back in a straight line and auto-piloted between Chukchan and three systems obtained in the Galnet’s story. So we draw this line and go back to an A star upstream… the HIP 69200 system.

Here while studying the system, we find the traces of a crashed ship on planet B1, a Sidewinder having escaped from the megaship the Adamastor. This is unfortunately Penelope Carver, leader of the team who had shared her logs earlier on the planetary base.

She seems to have crashed in the Sidewinder, and her SRV tried to escape but at the sight of the caustic traces caused by the Thargoids weapons around it… Penelope seems to have died in a tragic fate.

Her log:

This is Professor Carver. I’ve just got time to record this before the others join me. In case we don’t make it.

Things went to hell on the Adamastor much faster than before. When it left orbit without picking up the rest of my team, we were furious. Weirdly, so were some of the soldiers. They demanded to know why half their squad had been left behind, but the bridge crew refused to explain anything.

Then the power fluctuations started. Sheng, O’Keefe and I knew what was coming. The cage they’ve constructed in the cargo hold isn’t going to be strong enough. Even the Adamastor’s hyperdrive keeps failing. They’re making emergency repairs to it now while we’re passing through some unexplored system, with half the ship in darkness.

This sounds crazy but even though the nebula is three hundred light years behind us [Note that it helps to triangulate a line from Chukchan to HIP 69200, with Musca Dark Region PJ-P B6-1 in mid], it feels like it’s reaching out, trying to drag us back… swallow us whole.

When all the security systems crashed, I took my chance and broke into one of the Sidewinders. We’re going to jump ship. I need to get my people out. The few who are left. I’m the reason they’re here, my stupid selfish greed.

I can hear screaming. Shooting. It’s happening again! Where’s Sheng and O’Keefe? I think the hyperdrive is coming back online, I need to launch! Damn it, where are they?

 

I’m sorry. I have to get out. Oh God… I’m so sorry…

Not far away, we can also find traces of a Thargoid ship, an Intereptor, crashed here for many hundreds of years.

 

That’s it for the disastrous story of the Adamastor!
I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and that these adventures on Elite: Dangerous make you want to discover more about the history of the game, its Lore.

You can browse through our menu, Guides, and discover all the stories of the game.

Here is the roadmap of the Adamastor.