Stories of Lore 42

For some reason the Merkas are confused as to who you are and believe the last time they saw anyone by your name it was a human woman. I’m not sure how they can tell the difference anyways actually.

It turns out the issue is that their resistance is largely controlled and revolves around Asmodan. So they just want you to go meet with him to figure out what’s going on. They’re not totally aware of what any of the conspiracy talk we come up with is about and they don’t like us that much. Without Nihlav or Daesta not many of them were there for learning about the phantoms and as far as they’re concerned Renjala may have kind of gotten those two killed. In short, diplomatic relations are iffy with the merkas unless we can somehow make them like us more than Asmodan. However, they did tell us where he is. He’s near one of the merkas cities hidden in a mountain.

Also as your advisor, do not take their offer to meet with Asmodan. I approximate it to be quite dangerous. Something something demon lord, something something politics.

Also the VSS Winter’s scanners report several incoming ships from several directions outside of the system. Likely Asmodan’s pirates, who rely mostly on smaller ships. Though there is a larger signature approaching from the direction of Auwana. A very large signature. I have deduced from previous records that warning you of an approaching Phantom titan is a trope by now. So I’ll give you three guesses instead. We are really only detecting general energy signatures at this range and speed, a clearer scan will come through once it is too late. I mention this due to the misunderstanding the scanners produced during the Nelta invasion where we mistook Guardian for being a fleet. Because we are detecting a second titan coming from another direction of no particular landmark.

I got a text from Captain Andel whose gravity is under examination. It just says “Asmodan’s fleet is made for ambushing.  So if you detect fifty signatures, there’s five hundred lmao.” I do not know how serious or exact he is being. Though we do detect over two hundred signatures, I think he might be unaware of our upgraded scanning equipment. That or Asmodan has the same level of proportionate response that Arkaric is known for. Though I do not believe this is terribly significant, even if every pirate in Sol appeared they do not use ships intended to attack battleships let alone super battleships. The Nomads are still the only crew to do this successfully more than once in their careers. At worst, they will contest our smaller ships and carrier deployments. In a prolonged battle, Koda’s super battleships will eventually overpower them regardless of number. Unless its something crazy like every pirate in the galactic neighborhood and we are swarmed by hundreds of thousands.

Khymin reports that the second iteration of the design is coming along, he’s trying to fix some mobility issues it has with the joints. While the previous design could fly quickly, it has become evident that close quarter situations which could be expected with the sword leave some room to be desired.

Laenadra asked if she gets a custom design too with her promotion. She seemed to be, taking her shot as I have heard the expression used.

The explorers you sent out to Jydoq made it there, they’re currently poking around. Satsujin’s work she left behind is still yielding results, with her former team still trying to relieve efforts. Ever since the collapse of their government and then a pamphlet about their new leader in Merlan they’ve been having a rough time. The jydoq are naturally inclined towards following leadership, it might be part of why they are all psionically talented. There are several stories of roaming bandits getting into fights with vigilantes.

In trying to determine where Valadeus was taking the enslaved merkas, as well as the arcurans, we have reason to believe they were being sent to the demon kingdom. They left in the direction of Sol but no one on Thenica reports seeing mass shipments of aliens.

Steampowered mechs might be reaching a bit for what they can do. A door without ethi tech is fine, a functional mech might be another thing entirely. I’ve told them to look into it but they just stared at me for an uncomfortable while.

We’ve invested into construction of defenses around Enohas’ moon. Well we mounted a lot of them to the existing refinery we left there, it still floats around orbit so that works. Though we can only build so fast.

Actually it turns out Zenakans are weirdly enthusiastic about pandem. Aside from the completely understandable interest in planar travel, learning the universe expands along a whole other axis they didn’t know about that they can go exploring, something about their culture seems predisposed to shaking hands with strange entities for power. Though they are also notably interested to learn that incarnum is a thing, might just be the alien ‘wow’ factor we have going on.

Also Garden City has seen its first major construction efforts going well. We’ve been building some big residential towers on the platform. So far it is holding stable, Robert actually just hid more rifts in the buildings so they would weigh down on the platform less as well. So…it’s just a city full of rifts.

The local astronomers have been noting that since Eden is actually on the other half of the galaxy from Sol that there have been some interesting things to find. With what we now know about galactic culture we’ve learned for what markers to look for when searching for extraterrestrial intelligence. Somehow Eden is in a very quiet patch between two very chaotic regions of space apparently. Though also having an observatory so far from our own system has allowed much better galactic charting. Since we’ve always relied on an orbiting planet to give us the same view from two positions and create a binocular measurement of distance, having a much further away location pretty much lets us pinpoint where everything in the galaxy is much easier. Honestly I don’t get all of it, but the space nerds are having nerdgasms all over Garden City.

Sarnai also said to tell you that Ankathi has an assignment for the Fate Chapter once we’re done on Enohas, specifically for Selah. We’ve been asked to provide her with a ship for her to use in such scenarios. Sarnai then stumbled through pointing out that Ankathi demands it to be fancy. Because Ankathi is an empress with expensive tastes.

As an advisor I read a lot of history whenever you have a random question about how anything works. Vasia makes me.

Rhazin’s powers allow him to fly short distances but he has freakish aerial agility in these bursts. He can also fire telekinetic shockwaves rivaling a 105mm tank shell. Cassir’s were bigger but she had the cult boosting her. Also spawn psiblades. He can also just enhance his speed as well as that of his drones. After some work we learned

So if provided with clay and paint she…makes things like a five year old I guess? Somehow that makes her creepier, the soul stealing alien with the creepy girl ghost stare has the faculties of…a creepy girl. She’s getting better though. Also I don’t have a fridge to hang anything on, she does keep them on the lakeshore though over there.

The main difference between her drones and the regular model is that…hers store essentia. They also have less teeth and claws, they have what I would call navigational mutations like Grinhys. So they can get around an area and find essentia to harvest.

We started readying a deployable colony as requested.

Setal points out that the outreach program was cancelled due to the knights being stalked around, so while we were making progress we’re sort of in the dark as to how amicable to the idea they remain. Though the knights just took some back home with them as new recruits anyways, that doesn’t give us much of a foothold in the demon kingdom.

With the aethernet servers up they’ve begun some basic broadcasting. More accurately its just a Moncayo based video hosting service because ain’t nobody got time for scheduling otherwise. Though no luck on the pre-invasion media samples. Blame the cloud. Also no public theaters yet, we’re still solving housing and other basic construction problems. We’re a bit of a way from dedicating a large space to ‘watch some shows’.

Also I’m not sure we really need signs around the lake. While I am here the drones are docile enough to give people rides down town if they don’t have a car. Long as they don’t go too far to the town outskirts at least.

As for the male merkas, correct. Too bad the merkas are at war for their freedom, survival, and being pulled between multiple factions for various reasons. Given their disposition towards stealth and guerilla warfare against the arcurans…I can see why the Phantoms are so interested in uplifting them at least.

As for warding the moon, that’s basically what a planetary shield is.Given that it is an arcane moon it would be pretty strong due to practically limitless mana available there. Which is probably why the Phantoms decided to take this specific moon instead of just any other one.

Well finding a lunatic prophet among the lucid cult wasn’t that hard so…we have some you can run experiments on. Though candidacy wise they’re pretty much just cultist with questionable cybernetics. Actually one of the most devout is the woman who found “Cassir’s cat”. Though none of them are on par with Cassir, and if they were you wouldn’t want to use them for the overmind since you’ll be erasing them with yourself. Though also with all the reports going on about jydoq, maybe we should go recruiting over there since they like having a leader. Granted that’d make us about the same as the bandits.

Stories of Lore 41

More than installing a planetary shield it appears Valadeus took over Jamalia’s. Also it appears that in our absence a system was put in place by Valadeus to ship thousands of merkas ‘elsewhere’. There were multiple destinations. He has also been “enslaving” arcurans. Similar to our own experience with them, they don’t take much convincing. So he has an arcuran army as well now, though its still a small grouping and I think we have more of them. Interestingly, Asmodan is here as well ‘rescuing’ merkas. Given what we know about them, it is kind of obvious. Though to the merkas it probably isn’t so evident that the Phantoms are just splitting the two races apart to take to different campaigns for the time being in preparation for the destruction of their moon.

To our advantage, they weren’t really focused on preparing to defend the planet from us as they had other things to deal with. To our disadvantage, Valadeus’ army is larger than ours. The initial charge brought down the planetary shield though Koda said to double check with you if you want to bombard them despite the risk to the native life. Particularly the captured merkas.

Valadeus himself has disappeared, though initial strategical reports suggest he is likely to be buying time. We have a very short window before they could mount an effective retaliation. Sethis warns that Asmodan is Sol’s signature space pirate king. Until recent discoveries about the bigger pirate in the Western Reach he was number one. His fleet is immense though unlike Faelyn it does not utilize many larger ships which may be to our advantage.

We also know the Areti will be ready to deploy soon, and that they originally planned for the arrival of Decaelys. Thus increasing the necessity for fast action, and increasing general frustration at the inability to find Valadeus. To add to the pile, the moon has no shielding beyond the station Renjala built for harvesting from it. So if Decaelys does arrive, it is relatively unguarded without the active presence of our fleet.

Casualties so far include Gheir, Akuhiko, and Yonam. Rennyn has crashed on the planet’s surface and is presumed to be alive but that might be a temporary analysis.

We have control of the orbital situation and have retaken Jamalia. However the orbital shield was damaged in the attack, though it should be possible to repair within a month or two. Though Valadeus has several arcuran camps under his command and Asmodan is somewhere out there. Current troop movements are hindered by the jungle itself though we are regrouping at Jamalia.

Yes the academy increases chances of finding crew members for the ships.

The Pandem Radar complex is reconstructed to the best of our ability. Our early detection system has been improved by it though there is a crystal component we are missing to restore its full functionality it once had. According to the servers that Nah division has been rummaging through, those crystals were made by Sakhessa and specifically amplify its range and the speed of its analysis. We can imitate the effect but only for a brief scan, targeting either a specific ship ID we’re curious about or getting a clear readout of a particular area of space.

Khymin reports that your new prototype toy is ready for testing. Testing meaning three years of careful stress tests before finalizing- or you can just take the keys now. That works too….annnd it’s gone. Khymin’s working on some improvements to stabilize the design…again.

We’ve retaken Jamalia, home sweet home, at minimal losses. Actually it was surprisingly easy, I suspect we got there faster than they could mount a defensive force since they were expecting us to be busy with other things. Also Eerihild and the wolf knights are rather dominant on Enohas. No I did not recommend her outfit or carrying four swords, apparently she got the idea from Reika.

While we have taken Jamalia, it is worth remembering that the jesai’s objective will actually be the moon. Which is a lot harder to protect, its nature as an arcane moon means that it is dangerous to set foot on. Also we don’t know how the jesai can…move a moon?

Eerihild has been investigating the state of the planet. There is a resisting force of merkas…again. Though they are definitely weaker than the ones we last saw, probably because Haziel hunted down so many of their strong spirited members before. Morale for the merkas is at an all time low. When we met them they were losing to the arcurans and being dragged out of their warrens for slaughter, then dealing with us, their princess died, then Haziel hunted their resistance down, then falling apart while the arcurans reigned, and now Valadeus. They…haven’t had a win in awhile.

Haziel has been preparing to leave for the Fae Wilds after deliberation with Ankathi. Neither Ankathi or Haziel told us this, I found out because Sarnai eavesdrops on everything. Is it eavesdropping if its her body that they’re using as the telephone? Eerihild informed me that after the campaign on Enohas she will be going with her mother along with her best knights. Haziel has objected to Eerihild going but Eerihild is being stubborn. Sarnai says Ankathi told Haziel that some key to restoring the fragment of the primordial Wilds soul she has is there. So I’m sure they’re preparing for some ludicrously dangerous adventure.

In the assault, Akuhiko was killed by one of Valadeus’ minions and Yonam fell victim to Ki’Ralcht. Bill almost died too but that was more so because he flew around as a bird most of the time and birds are fragile when half the forest is exploding.

Also still no word from Renjala? It would be nice if we at least knew if he still…existed.

It’s somewhat hard to determine the results of your project’s testing since you’re doing it to people in the wild as opposed to Vasia’s lab. Also everyone likes having a pet cat, as you may have noticed by now, though the way you want to go about this is definitely a long process. Vasia points out she could speed all this up. Actually her words were “I can make them suicidal in a couple of days give or take.” I also feel you could accomplish this whole thing a lot faster with the lucid ritual, they’re already cultists willing to do anything you ask. Including creating a large scale psionic ritual that super charges your own abilities and leaves them quite vulnerable to anything you want to do.

Haziel apparently relied on the advice of Ankathi over your greater seer. Likely because Ankathi has accomplished ascension, which is what Haziel is trying to do. So an experienced professional who knows the step by step instructions is probably more appealing than a fortune teller.

Though if you’re curious about the Wilds, it was a primordial force back in the days before the rising. So it ranked above the old pantheon because it was older. It being dead has not helped historians piece together what it actually was by modern magical understanding. Basically it liked natural landscapes, made minions who liked natural landscapes, and maintained Thenican ecosystems. We killed it because of Haziel actually. She destroyed so many towns and cities that she got added to the purge list, and that meant going after her god. Actually after we killed it there was about two hundred years of awful. Specifically droughts, floods, and a very large extinction event. It was actually during this time period that Shetou became a really big thing, because the underdark was spared from the worst of it and its inhabitants were already adapted to extremely harsh conditions. People have mostly forgotten about it, Haziel likely spent centuries as various animals and never revealed herself. If she had turned out to be a Phantom it would have made perfect sense, though she was probably a squirrel for awhile there and they didn’t even know she was still out there. Kaylen would probably have more to say about Haziel being alive given how dangerous to civilization she was, if it weren’t for the fact that Haziel now just mopes around all day and Kaylen has enough problems and not enough time to solve them.

Kaylen has no idea who Gellix even is.

Also yeah putting muzzles on drones wouldn’t be hard, though what do you want to do with them then? It’s not like they could fight like that.

The noodles do tend to develop hobbies. Rhazin sunbathes and plays tag with some of the others, but Craylin has been making random things out of junk. I think she was making baskets out of leaves and mud most recently. It’s a long way from being useful but I guess she’s a creative type. She has apparently making excursions into the city and stalking people as well.

Grinhys is on his way back to explore Cayetano as asked.

Setal has been implementing Lancaster’s plan for Zenaka.

Vasia points out her chat group has fallen apart thanks to you. Also she knows of at least one rogue Desoir who became some sort of musician and was last seen on Thenica. They probably wouldn’t miss her. Though for the moment she’s busy at Enohas. Very busy. I have a feeling Vasia would be happy to see us lose so she could see Decaelys in action, as she did not know sahad users could just eat moons or whatever the Phantoms are planning.

Oh if you’re curious about Kaylen’s new student, her name is Genevieve. Apparently something about being in constant physical pain while her mana well tries to explode makes her very cranky. Like…abnormally cranky. Si Yeon points out It’s less of a treatment for her mana rupture as an active method of preventing it from killing her. Imagine it as if she needs to constantly flex every muscle in her body to prevent herself from bleeding out. Apparently Si Yeon has been building a sort of chamber that might help the girl maintain herself while asleep as she wakes up on the brink of death every day.

Wait what do you mean, “Baltun” to Zenaka? I have a handgun and do paperwork here at the office. Though Vanjin went without any complaints at least.

Getting Michael out of Auwana might be harder than expected, ever since Lancaster showed up they’ve been improving security. We’re looking for an opportunity to extract him though it might take a bit.

We still actually don’t know who has the White Lion. Past intel suggests that Sakhessa should have it but she’s also not the type of combatant to use a sword like that. If she gave it to Deinuu that would make sense but we did not see it with him at the duel. It is a huge sword, the fact that we haven’t physically seen it being carried by anyone is an indicator that it might not be where we think it is. That or someone has a bag of holding. Aryn points out that only specifically qualified people can wield the full power of any of these artifacts. A theory tested by having anyone other than Reika hold the Ryner. So her theory is they might be passing it around trying to see if they have a suitable wielder for it’s full potential. Given they have an army spread over the galaxy, it could take a bit for the sword to get into any new hands.

As an update, Allison is in Sol establishing her uh… ‘crime ring’. There isn’t really much crime anymore though. Shetou doesn’t care and Alnae fell apart. So she’s more of a bandit queen right now I suppose.

Stories of Lore 40

We’ve been in the process of subjugating Zenaka as necessary. Setal is apparently visiting the countries under the pretense of getting to know them and also ensuring their loyalty. However, according to Ilex she is actually just shopping for the best place to set up her new office and trying to determine which countries have the most scenic landscapes.

Anomalous behavior continues to be detected and harassment of local forces continue despite the national surrender. Currently believed to be an effort led by individuals not representing their state.

For record keeping reasons I have to summarize the mission you already went on for archiving accuracy. That could have gone better, could have gone worse.

Saving Archive…

A sale for the construction materials has been stolen in transit to the prospective buyer. Given how short the distance between the Winter and its selling positions are, this is highly abnormal. We know that the shipping frigates were taken before arriving at the Winter, and the original buyer is no longer alive. The Winter has since started its return as ordered.

Khymin says the big robot suit is almost done. He said to ask what kind of weapon you want for its short range option. I feel like he has asked this before, and you have likely answered. Retrieving data….error.

We know of multiple other galactic civilizations that do exist though their expanse might vary. Nelta represents the largest open coalition in the eastern side of the galaxy, though the Jesai are actually the largest multi-racial civilization. Though their theocratic government is much more difficult to work with. Due to their reclusive nature within the Chromaclysm they are considered a less prominent political force than Nelta even if they are larger, wealthier, and much more powerful. Up until they started invading Nelta they were a non-factor to most other civilizations.

The Exerlus is the most widespread of single race civilizations. They are not reclusive and are even helpful, to a fault almost. Most feats of super-engineering are their doing.

The Silnians are the largest civilization by population. Even if you do not count the drones, they have more sapient life within their territory than all other empires by a significant margin. Joining them is often not optional, if you are within their slowly expanding territory then you are joining them.

We learned from Mahuea that another civilization is contained to a single star near the center of the galaxy. Though they are famous for being extremely hostile to outsiders. However, investigating this civilization may prove useful since we know they are working with Arkaric in some form. Though they are known to be extremely advanced, enough so that no one has decided to mess with them.

You know what, here is a map of what we know about. Not super accurate given it doesn’t account for planes, just hastily generated to help provide visual aid. Jydoq is a galactically aware civilization so they might be able to help us more with this particular question of yours.

One of the cruisers has started to move outward from Eden in careful search of silnians to scan. The ensigns have a betting pool on how long until it stops reporting back in. The other is traveling to Zero North a bit slower.

I put their adventures in our notes archived to prevent data loss.

Greetings Irae, I see you’re still settling into Renjala’s office. Don’t worry I’m sure he’ll be fine, he has a rock orgy festival to come home to. Never underestimate a man properly motivated by…rock orgies. Usually musical but in this case literal rocks work too. Still no word though? Strange…I suppose falling out of the known universe might be pushing even the limits of a pandem bind. I do have to wonder what that means for his phylactery though.

So far it doesn’t seem any of the squires are terribly traumatized by the trip to Mokihi. One just complains about the hangover.

After the operation to the Areti, it seems everyone actually made it back. Though Reika is badly injured and being kept in quarantine. She can normally regenerate but the rot seems to be inhibiting her ability to do so. Sarnai informed me that Ankathi is concerned about this jesai business. Concerned in the way an empress feels the need to ‘maybe crush some resistance’. I swear I have been trying to explain to her that she might be biting off more than she can chew with this one but she seems to refuse to believe anyone could rival her at…literally anything.

Also you have a filing system for ordering upgrades to be focused on for Garden City. We moved the big portal up onto the city platform though at least and are in the process of moving the refugees up there bit by bit.

As for the fog production, there are two options. Open a rift to the ethereal plane, it looks cloudy enough, or have a machine do it. Might take a lot of polypropylene glycol though. So…rift? No Irae I do not know why Renjala orders certain things. I just carry them out and handle administrative duties.

Also on an unrelated note, Yoshai has volunteered to lead the the squires in elemental reproduction habits and studying. Technically, we know how they normally do so. Waianoa’s predecessors invented a whole new way to do it. For a silent turtle, Mokihi might become the most powerful archon with this ability hidden among his mountain people. With the death of the primordials back in the rising, it sort of leaves the archons as the rulers of the elemental plane.

To that note, Haziel is back at Moncayo and grumbling about everyone building cities on this ‘beautiful planet’. Yeah…planet…sure Haziel. Anyways, she has been talking with Sarnai a lot lately and Ankathi has been ‘unavailable’ on the same days. I am concerned. The Chosen Wolves are happy to see her again though, even if she can be a bit uncharismatic.

Apparently Eleazor had the Rena stolen by alien refugees, and is running around the galaxy with Echo Seven trying to get their ship back while getting dragged into inter-civilization wars between planets. What the fuck? I thought he was just taking a trip to Zero North with no pit stops. Oh well, sounds fun at least. That does explain why it’s taking him so long though…

Did you just try to force me to give birth to more drones for you? I’m calling HR. Lancaster!!!

Hehe nah I’ll see about getting the paperwork processed.

Actually speaking of finding a particularly talented wild life explorer who is good on camera…actually nevermind we can’t find that damned gnoll.

So are you going to make a classic dog movie about a fenalis to promote the fenalis industry now? They are cute at least.

Also I managed to get Haziel to come by…I didn’t know I had to pull strings to do that. It turns out she isn’t a member of the federation, she’s actually a rogue agent. Did you know that? I didn’t know that. I submitted paperwork and made phone calls and everything and then it took six other people before someone finally told me they could ‘approve’ visitation and I said “Okay great when can she come visit?” then they pointed out they have no idea. They don’t even have access to Haziel, she just appears here and there and we had to go through more people to get to Eerihild and request her mother come by. I made so many phone calls for nothing. Now I have to make brownies and put the game on or something since this is a civilian house visit apparently rather than an appointment. I am not prepared for guests! We don’t even have a stove! I mean yeah she’s a druid but it feels rude to just ask her to come visit and then not have food.

Huh? Oh right, actual druid business. No she can’t reprogram the ichor. It also goes against her whole thing to do so. Though she can control drones, more accurately she can calm them down rather than control them. My own orders can outrank hers, but the drones just like being around her. Now that I am kind of like the animals that druids can empathize with, I am realizing their relationship to the wildlife is much more complicated. Though boils down to, ‘nice lady, don’t bite. nice lady wants me to go this way, i go this way’ rather than any actual form of dominance. Well…except  for Haziel and Eerihild specifically. They’re more of ‘they will win if it comes down to biting, better not piss them off’ on a primal enough level that you can just feeeeeeel that Haziel is the big bad wolf.

As for containing the synapse on planetary assaults…uh…we’re working on that. They really just love to bite everything once they get loose though.

Also yes your position to relevant things helps your greater seer. It’s why you have the cat tingles when you are near something that is about to go terribly wrong.

Traveling across systems is…finding a ship large enough for me and Rhazin I suppose. The drones fit in about anything else just fine.

I dunno, people dramatize everything I do. If I could end free will I wouldn’t need so many containment units. People would just do what I told them, it would be great…hrmm…desoir can kind of do that…I need a desoir for study.

Also no clue, if I knew what it did it wouldn’t be a new spell. I’m just trying to make it work. I’m going to go on a limb and guess that it destroys things judging by what these planetary bursts are doing. I’m just trying to replicate the effect and see what it does. That being said, I have successfully replicated the effect. Kind of…an iffy spell. It explodes. Actually it compresses the users mana and releases it in a super burst. Normally we can only use so much magic at a time as it has to flow here and there. The mana burst just blasts 100% of your mana reserve and knocks you unconscious immediately. Big boom though. If I can imitate Salied’s mana reserve than basically anyone with this spell would be a walking bomb. I’m actually working on converting it into a more utility effect, kind of like maximize augment for arcane magic. Not really much point to replicating an already known trick but if it works then it’s at least a proof of concept.

Anyways I have enough of a basis to work with, I’ll just use whatever data they send me from the facility. It’s time for me to get back to traveling. Oh right hi, I’m back. So where would we find some desoir vampires?

SDFLKJLSD I really wish you would just walk over here normally instead of appearing through the floor. Welcome back though.

Also Rhazin does speak fluent common so you know. He just doesn’t need to very often. If he growls at you, you stop doing whatever you were doing. Conversation over. Actually he gets along really well with Haziel…I am however concerned that Rhazin also recognizes Haziel as the biggest baddest thing around. For crying out loud, Rhazin is a wingless dragon built specifically for war, what the fuck is Haziel? I’m too scared to ask her directly.

Grinhys has found no spectacularly useful properties in the microscopic life other than flavor. I mean yeah they can absorb mana better than most but arcurans are kind of way ahead on that front. It is interesting that there is life at all though, before the planet explodes into a star I wonder if it would develop any more advanced life.

I think a lot of it has to do with them being newborns so they don’t have as much need for advanced communication or concepts. They don’t need to tell you how they want their coffee, or complain about their boss, or monologue to their victims. They can speak all they want through the synapse with their peers just fine but they don’t communicate verbally. So to them, speech just isn’t a necessary thing to do too often. Maybe if they were deployed on independent operations where communication with the other branches was necessary than they would develop their speech a bit more?

Si Yeon reports that Kaylen’s new student’s mana rupture is unique. It might be because no one has ever thought to use the self mastery of the body that is zankou to treat a mana rupture. They also report that it is probably very uncomfortable but not as debilitating as it would normally be.

Have fun being the local kitty cat. By the way, consider building more housing around Roha.

Stories of Lore 39

Yes Ilex could call Eleazor.

Operations have launched the KouKou and Kaylen has gone to speak with Sanguis. Although, Allison will have to catch up with you as she was on a Solvang station at the time of deployoment. She should be there to regroup just outside Auwana though. Good luck commander.

Project Gundam is on hiatus while Khymin accompanies you on your operation. Though he projected it would be another two months until he had a prototype ready.

MPR has proven to be a popular idea. Mostly because it is the first step to restoring a sense of aethernet entertainment but is quite easily accessible.

In regards to equipping Gheir’s unit, he was quite disappointed at the desire for less of ‘blow everything up’. Though that would be Gunhild’s unit, but admittedly they still use a lot of explosives. Just with more accuracy.

Twilight station is currently in the process of constructing its shipyards. Though next month we can shift focus to a proper garrison for training. The cruiser fleet for exploration has also finished construction. While New Age has graciously agreed to make use of them, notably Vasia doesn’t pay much attention to them. Though she has the largest ship in the federation so that was to be expected.

The war on Zenaka continues, Koda has turned a pair of cities into craters with the super battle ship. This orbital superiority has provoked a surrender.

The Winter is currently working on the opposite side of the given routes from the Nomads to slow the progress the Phantoms are making on setting up Auwana. We’ve managed to get a few shipping freighters of materials out of the mass piracy. We’ve also lost several strike craft to other pirates in the area. Not terribly large losses but it should be noted that the operation is not considered invulnerable.

They’re pulling back out before the Phantoms come up with any nefarious plan that might prove disadvantageous for us if we continued to act too predictably.

The initial platforms for Garden City have been constructed. We can actually build some things on top of them now. It hovers above the tree line and Eden is there as a representative of herself so at least the winds are stable. We actually just stuck sails on it since she controls the wind for us as needed if we want to float somewhere else. The one disadvantage to this project is we can’t harvest Eden for construction resources. However, we can put the main portal up here and ship things in from Moncayo.

Hydroshield research and development is ongoing.

I see you had an…interesting adventure through the elemental plane. Apparently the earth elementals of that particular archon are an adventurous lot. makes sense though given they never stay in one place so live fast die…ancient? How long do earth elementals even live? Though it turns out doing surgery on a rock animated of primordial mana manipulation isn’t any easier for Eden than living fire. But uh…congrats?

We evacuated as many of the civilians as we could before Koda attacked with the super battleship. It is kind of a giant ship in the sky that can wipe out cities before lunch so that did get them to surrender for the most part as Zenakan technology cannot compete with it. Not for lack of trying though, they launched some sort of primitive high yield missile at the ship but they didn’t make it past the shields.

In other news, Haziel’s janky steamworks ship we made her is on the way back to Eden so we expect to see her next month. Eerihild is excited.

I wouldn’t mind a show where humanoids don’t win the day for fucking once. Does no one ever sympathize with the poor alien monsters in these movies?

Vasia has built a power generator that takes advantage of the mana bursts at the new research station. It releases so much energy in those bursts that turning the generator on seems to be helping offset energy costs around the place. Though she really did it to gather data and another researcher realized there was a more practical use for that then making a bunch of spreadsheet numbers. Vasia’s working on some sort of new spell with all this information and people are concerned.

Grinhys has also been scouting around the planet and has found microscopic life on the planet. It has so much energy that I suppose something was bound to take hold there. It’s really exciting to the science nerds but I don’t…particularly get it. Grinhys did eat some of it though.

Craylin can speak with her mouth if she wants. Her voice is a bit grating though. She also has little she ever feels the need to say. Rhazin is more talkative than her.

Si Yeon is seeing about teaching people how to be a field medic.

Also Zenaka finally surrendered after the super battleship just blew their asses up. So that was a thing.

Aryn is currently deployed with Lancaster for their latest operation so she can’t really help with the ship signature thing at the moment.

Lucidity are already hanging out with the heroes guild but there isn’t much for me to report on that. They’re a support unit supporting another team. Not terribly exciting if you ask me. Though if you must know, they’re helping with the psionics department. However, most of the cult is about the meditation circle which, while we know is a big thing with the jesai, doesn’t lead to quite as much without a central point anymore.

Experiments wise, as  a quick review..
You managed to disrupt the synapse link between a drone and the rest of the synapse. It still tried to bite everything. The instant it exits the synapse, it bites everything. So the watch guard idea is not terribly effective. The whole synapse is set up to use commanders as nodes, just print more commanders. This is a biotech that has contended with the jesai, the most powerful psionics in the galaxy, so they have a lot of failsafes against typical psionic manipulation. Though it is peculiar that failsafe is ‘start attacking everything’.

They do work as memory storage though that we can retrieve if implanted on them. Though it degrades almost immediately. What’s interesting is I can tell what the information was in pretty decent detail, but it degrades in such a way that it becomes a garbled mess to most others. I think this is part of that same anti-jesai stuff we were talking about. To make sure no psionics can run a spell out of the drone’s memory and it can only transfer basic information. Garbled as it is, I can still read it even if every three letters is missing for example. Though if you chain this between drones it does get kind of messy. So its sort of transferrable, but only if there is a commander in every other step of the chain.

Also any drones that do need essentia tend to fall under Craylin’s command. Though the synapse doesn’t like to break things down after it already made them if they are still functioning. If it isn’t desperate for resources it’ll just keep the essentia drone in operation.

Also even i cannot rewrite the ‘out of synapse’ programming. Once they don’t have the synapse, bite time. I can produce more independent specialized critters like Grinhys, but drones gonna drone. They’re just a work force with a war protocol as their default. The assumption being that without a present synapse, something has gone horribly wrong and they need to rebuild immediately. Also even if nothing has gone horribly wrong, a commander will come pick them up eventually and more ichor can’t be a bad thing. Again, the motherships have synapse ranges over entire continents so getting spread out from the synapse isn’t a regular problem for silnians.

Michael has been skulking around the Phantom shipyards. He noted that it has several strange design elements that are definitely not standard. Some of it he can’t figure out what it’s even for, but he’s starting to recognize the handiwork of Sakhessa’s engineering. He also discovered the mines in front of Renjala’s Rift are also rigged up by her and are laced with mummy rot. Even if they don’t destroy a ship, they will infect it and all its occupants quickly given how virulent this particular curse can be. He recommended that if Lancaster does manage to steal a big ship, that she exit through the warren tunnels not the main rift as those mines could be a problem with longer consequences than expected. Though we still have the route to Eden mapped at one of the nearby exit points.

Security is sort of lax since it’s hard to secure a perimeter still under construction, the shipyards are being built at the same time as the ship they’re building. So there’s a lot of gaps that could be snuck through. However, Deinuu is protecting the ship mummy style. Sitting around it like lurking at the end of a dungeon. To take control of the ship Lancaster would likely need to deal with him. It’s other defenses are just whatever officers happen to be lurking around. Specifically he knows that Mikael is also there overseeing construction. Faelyn is usually on Riftgard but that is a short distance away, Elder Black is also there.

The shipyards are otherwise too far away from Aureum and have no portal network to get Sakhessa’s golden legion to the ship at the least. It is also notable that the bulk of defensive choices within the rift is centered around protecting Aureum rather than the shipyards so that is convenient.  However, if the operation suffers any delays Sakhessa’s carrier is nearby so that might be a hazard to consider even if Faelyn’s fleet leaves.

The Nomads are currently out preying on any phantom movements they can get on top of without running into the big fleets. That does turn out to be a lot of things. Then they promptly keep those slaves for their growing flotilla city they’ve been weirdly keen to work on lately.

Also Allison and Aryn are both on excursion with Lancaster at the moment. Though a note about asking Allison to contact Kaylen…Kaylen’s down the road remember? She built her new city just to the south of Moncayo. You can just walk over there if you want.