Diamond in the Rough

A Biography of Bones

 

Welcome back. It has been approximate two years since your last access of this console. You have…two…hundred…thousand…six…hundred…and twelve new messages.

In your absence, the Moncayo defenses were breached by the Revenants. They stole several data files in a covert mission that resolved without conflict. We have seen no new developments since then regarding the matter.

Before you left, you and inquired as to the cost and requirements of building a titan. Since you returned, my calculations have been rendered obsolete by the discovery of Diadem’s shipyards. While they are still in need of repair and refitting, it does significantly impact cost projections one way or another.

In either case the estimations of this project would depend on the intended design and purpose of the ship. As well as the path to constructing it. As is, we have no current facilities that can produce such a large vessel. Refitting the shipyards at Diadem would actually be dramatically more time consuming due to the amount of pre-existing and defunct infrastrucure needing to be cleared as well as figuring out the utility systems of the ring. Though it would protect the shipyard and its construction with a physical wall. Another advantage to Diadem’s shipyards is the crews could work inside the atmosphere of Diadem, which would result in quicker construction times and safer personnel. Building a new shipyard at moncayo would be more expensive but significantly faster. Titan ships do not really have a specific standard of design that I am aware of. So the needs of the design would have to be discussed. Current estimates are an initial construction of 10,000,000,000 with an expected 30,000,000 in upkeep for the ship itself. The shipyard to produce it would is expected to be  $160,000,000,000.

It’s 8 orbital shipyards.

 

Koda has maintained Moncayo in your absence. Gem station was not destroyed in its entirety, alien salvagers actually hauled off most of the station while you were still inside Diadem. They also hauled off large chunks of Rahlken’s ship as well. They were impressively opportunistic.

Kaylen has also become a major figure of Moncayo leadership, acting as a surrogate crazy woman who keeps picking fights that are of questionable strategic decision making. It turns out without you around, people notice the lack of crazy shenanigans. This led to the launch of a study as to the impact of leaders such as yourself and Kaylen on the population of Cayetano’s settlements. Due to the lack of Aethernet all entertainment must be produced locally. Even if investments have been made into this area, particularly in Roha, it turns out that people were watching the news partially for entertainment. Because you were regularly on it and it had become something more like a game or reality show for people rather than the unbiased distribution of information.

Kaylen also has been targeting Phantom colonies on the outer edges of the frontier. Stating a desire to prevent them from expanding, though they have largely been focused on reinforcing Auwana and the warrens.

The scout ships had been recalled while you were away to deal with the issue that Haziel caused by altering the rules of botany while no one was looking. Jiyan had managed to return from the Western Reach and also found a map of many known stations out in the Reach, making it our best documented area for traveling. They sometimes claim various alignments but for practical purposes it is generally considered that rogue stations on the Western Reach are commonplace. So it does expand our options for pit stops. Though as reported by the last crew to venture there, it is a dangerous area of the galaxy where pirates are practically more extremely common and active.

Jiyan wound up traveling to the mysterious empire near the galactic core to find out what happened to the last crew that went there. She was the first one to have any success. With information you and Renjala recently brought back, we now know that this is indeed the home of the Blaiken and their Undead Star. Without you around Jiyan wound up exploring that region of space looking for stories and rumors but discovered just how little lives in that galactic neighborhood. It can be described as a barren wasteland, though she did find evidence of previous civilizations that lived on various planets. All bearing signs of violent eradication. Lot of ruins though for those archeologically inclined.

Also in your time away, the newly formed Hassani Empire ruled by Sakhessa has been sitting around and fortifying itself. On the outside it seems to be largely a game of politics as other powers debate how to handle its presence. Representatives of one of the worlds in Nelta arrived there and we don’t know what they talked about, but they were not destroyed and tortured as those very same people once were when they visited Sol. It appears Sakhessa is accepting diplomats and contrasting the Hassani with Sol. Making it very hard for us to say “no really they’re the evil ones you have to believe me.” Largely aided by the presence of Decaelys, a known galactic figure who lends significant credibility to the Hassani.

Kaylen has been throwing a fit for over a year about this development. She also started to refocus her efforts to convince people we are not genocidal isolationists by paying less attention to Nelta and more attention to the Western Reach. She also led an expedition into Diadem while you were gone in an attempt to rescue you, but could not find you. In reviewing your own report as to the matter, it turns out she was entering the ring thousands of kilometers off of where you were and in the darkness it was hard to even remotely discern that.

Welcome home sir, it’s been a fucking mess. Between a war with Kharla and most of our people either going into Diadem with Lancaster or chasing after Haziel, it’s been quiet around the base at least.

With some investigation the druidic order has determined that ships are likely about to get a lot more expensive real soon. Either the maintenance of the organic filters on these ships will be much more difficult or new materials will be needed. New very expensive materials. Fooor everyone but us. If you actually have a full time druid team available to sit around the ship it’s actually ridiculously easy to just keep using the old era ships. So while these developments have had very minor impacts on us, I imagine throughout the galaxy its been a bit more of a problem. Especially if no one has any answers like we do. Real shame galactic communication has been heavily disrupted for the last decade or so.

I’ve scattered soil in some various planters around Eden City as requested for your son. Also scales under the planters so we know which one he is in. It really only detects if an entire car’s worth of weight has been added to it or not, but gets the job done. The smiths also made him a suit of armor to protect him from chips and scrapes.

To that end, you got back at an incredibly interesting time. Lancaster and the expedition force also just returned from Diadem recently, they were in there for about two years. Many of them are exhausted and recovering from the adventure. Eerihild seems to be the only one unaffected by it. Yoshai might need a pep talk though, he seems dissatisfied with his own performance.

 

Oh hey neat, Lancaster is back. The local news reports were getting boring.

Anyways it turns out that Na’umi did not survive the invasion. This might be one of the catalysts besides you giving Kaisa your comm spell for Azilath turning into a monster lately.

I don’t get why everyone always picks on me over every little thing. I just sit here and mind my own business.

On the one hand, we learned we cannot call Vasia. Though we also learned why. She wasn’t in our little astral cluster anymore. To that note-

I’m back. What’s all this about mummy rot, psionic cult prophets, and such? Eh i don’t care. I just came by to check on my cat. Here have some kitty treats.

Don’t mind me, little manic. Passed through the Wild River, having attention span issues. Apparently its normal, I’ll put it in case file. Though honestly I don’t feel that different.

WHO LET ALL MY DOGS OUT?! For fucks sake Si Yeon. Anyways, I’ll be back in my office. I get the feeling I need to see what’s up.

Hrmm… you gave my office away. Well. This will have to be corrected. I’m going to need a new desk. I don’t like…used furniture. It’s gross. Also Si Yeon has a tentacle monster living inside of her, who knows what slime is all over that thing now. Also a new super computer. I’ll just bill it to you later. Time for a shopping trip. Peace bitches.

Vasia’s back…yaaaay…

Hide Craylin. Ever since her…maturing I suppose you could say she’s developed her abilities enough that I get the feeling Vasia will be more interested than is healthy. Well healthy for Craylin at least.

Anyways, we’re sending Alexandrea out to Jydoq as requested.I suppose that’s one way to get rid of her. Though it doesn’t really make us any progress on Jydoq. That assassin is squaring off with Kennae – Alexandrea’s going to fucking die. Deserves it though. Though that being said…Vasia is back. That might let us actually deploy lab projects more easily now that we have two people qualified to act as the lab director if the other one does more work in the field.

Si-Ye, err White, hasn’t had any progress on the 004C breeding so far but its a work in progress. Though over the last two years she did make progress on fixing mummy rot issues. However, the next step of her idea to manage it involves needing someone who can cast divine magic. There’s only one left and its not quite as ‘divine’ as Sarnai’s but Eerihild might be able to help her actually cure mummy rot in theory. Though it is a wild stab at it right now, it might be worth experimenting with. Though due to how contagious the rot is, it runs the risk of infecting Eerihild for the attempt. Not sure Renjala would be happy about that, or Haziel for that matter.

Oh the directors are just popping out of the woods this season. I suppose that is good news for us. Well at least all’s well that ends well.

At least our squad is back, and in recognition of their glorious adventure achievements the Federation has approved us to move forward with heavier production. With Diadem coming under the federation’s control they have space to fill. Also we look good on a world populated by machine beasts. Sort of blend in don’t you think?

Lancaster also just started wildly handing out land to act as a morale boost to the last of her men. Though our boys were there too. I told Lancaster no take backsies, so we should at least be able to snag some good real estate to open some new development. Granted she probably would just approve us to build whatever we want there but I just wanted to make sure you didn’t still feel guilty about retreating in the face of certain death. Gotta focus on the future, gotta mooch off Lancaster for all she’s got!

Anyways, Chevalier was severely damaged during the trip. He’s out for another month while we rebuild him. Don’t worry though, we have the technology. Vanessa broke half her blades and I need to fix those too. Sacha’s missing a leg and Adrienne is…perfectly fine actually. Not sure how that worked out for her. Sylvaine is also mildly damaged but apparently got separated from the group at some point and wasn’t even present from the worst of the battles.

This has also been a great stress test of our designs. In particular, I have discovered a voidforged can be exhausted if you push them hard enough. With the exception of Vanessa, the whole team needs some R and R. Not sure what is up with Vanessa, but she seems ready to get right back out there.

Either way, now would be a good time to consider some new projects. We’ve invested most of our efforts into helping the FVS with Diadem, now that its been effectively handled we’re in a position to do…I dunno that’s up to you. Though the machine wars are still going on Diadem, so don’t forget that tidbit. Eleven more sections to go.

 

We have successfully dealt with Luci, good job convincing her to meet with you one last time over lunch on a balcony we could just shoot her on.

For the last two years Allison has made fairly good progress with hijacking some of Aureum’s slave shipments, though they did end up taking notice. Instead of retaliating against us, they wrote it off as a loss and just started enslaving even more people.

In the hunt for whoever was posing as one of our directors we have found some leads. Mostly in that the incident with Alexandrea was not their only action. Some of our own agents have been a victim of this character, but they were much more minor occurences. Usually tasks to support agents who didn’t need anything. We suspect they used it to find out more about us and who works for us, though they have not made an overt moves against us just yet. So it’s not just Ilex that they’re messing with. We’ve also found evidence of someone posing as Renjala back on Sol for all of a day in order to meet with one of the Alnae warlords. Since he always wears a mask, no one really noticed anything particularly awry. Most people do not know Renjala as a lich, so they wouldn’t think to check for how bony his hands might be.

What we do know is that they used his identity very sparingly. They didn’t do anything major, simply visited the warlord as a guest. Currently we do not know what they wanted or why.