Spoilers ahead
This page may contain story spoilers! Proceed at your own risk...
Excerpts from the personal logs of a Pneumatube Technician named Clive (source: David Okada, Progress Report on Missing Persons) who witnesses first-hand the effects of instability on the Zone's delivery system.
Evidence would suggest that the Pneumatube system was a Remnant and that Clive became fixated on it in the way all Remnant users do.
These in-game documents can be found scattered throughout the Zone, and then stored inside of the Fax Machine at the Auto Shop.
The Mailman #1: Pneumatube Status Report
There is evidence for continued network degradation and/or interference.
Of 607 packages received this week, 7 arrived late in a fashion that cannot be explained.
Four packages were sent exactly one year earlier. However, these packages had been already received, meaning these were duplicates of some kind.
Three packages were mistakenly dated. They were stamped with a date exactly one year in the future and contained messages irrelevant to their recipients or current events. I can only conclude that these were pranks of some sort, and will append these to my report about misuse of our sensitive and most vital infrastructure.
The Mailman #2: Skunks in the Tubes
Animals are in the Tubes again. At first it was possums, which would scuttle in from the forest mailboxes and be violently blasted out at pneumatube operators.
Now it's whole families of skunks. We're guessing they pile into the Tubes when it's raining or too cold. And then *whup* they Iand on a desk at Data Processing, or ARDA Communication Central, or in the Colonel's intray. They scurry into a corner and spray when they get spooked and somehow it's MY FAULT that there are now skunks dashing around every government office in the Olympic Exclusion Zone???
The Mailman #3: Why Would You Pour Things into The Tubes
ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Someone's pouring liquid into the Pneumatube system. Usually it's coffee. Other times it's cough syrup or soap solutions.
I'm baffled. Firstly, why? Secondly, everyone's denied responsibility. We installed sensors to trace its source, and as far as we can tell, the liquid just appears. There are no entry points, no cracks in the Tube, no leaks in packages. How is this possible? It's a series of tubes. No fancy LIM shenanigans.
I need to get to the bottom of this. Immediately.
The Mailman #4: The Messages From the Future(?)
I'm LOSING my mind.
On Sunday evening, all arriving Pneumatube mail was labeled with dates six days ahead. Their senders insisted they were not responsible for them.
We thought nothing of them at first. Until a mailman noticed that the messages and documents referred to events that had not happened, but started to happen, one week later. Enclosed inventory reports lined up. The meteorological data was precise. Items reported to Lost & Found were consistent with the messages sent the week before.
Clearly, this is some hazing ritual. Clearly, some bored ARDA employee with access to the Central Pneumatube Terminal is trying to spook a new recruit. Fine, I get it. I get awfully bored too. The difference is that I'm a professional. Who's painfully aware that this is federal property, servicing an active research compound, with an entire country hinging on the results of our work here!
CLEARLY I AM SURROUNDED BY IDIOTS
The Mailman #5: Resignation
That's it. I've had it. My supervisor told me to record all the Pneumatube problems as another Anomaly and get back to work.
No one else cares about solving this problem. No one cares about the Tubes like I do.
So I'm taking things into my own hands.
Consider this my official resignation. After 15 years as the Pneumatube Technician, I've found my true calling.
I'm going in. I will figure out what's happening in there, if it's the last thing I do.
The Mailman #6: Inside
I did it. I crawled inside. I've seen where they lead, where they go. It makes so much sense now.
I found it between Junctions 5A and 6C. Sometimes, you pass right through like normal. Other times, you come back where you started, but in the opposite direction. But you never turned around, and there are no loops that could have led you there.
And when that happens, sometimes, you get a glimpse. A red light in the distance. It's waiting. Looking for something it lost a long time ago. Reaching out.
I'm certain: that's the answer to it all. And I'm staying in here until I find out what it is.