Stories of Lore 63

The Nekhul expedition was short but has already had vast ramifications. Due to Renjala and Eerihild’s binds in particular, the ‘thing’ known as the Sixth Disaster of the Ika got loose into the Evershar colony, Eden, Enohas, Mokihi, and afflicted Yasrena as well. While you were away, Director Hex took over to declare martial law after she was warned by a New Age researcher about the ongoing development.

Over half of the expedition was lost and almost every mech is gone. According to investigation by New Age, who are in possession of the defunct carriers now, the few mechs remaining show heavy damage and many of the pilots were found to be among the survivors. Implying that for some reason hundreds of mechs were abandoned on the surface of Nekhul and never returned to the carriers. We do not know if their pilots abandoned them to take shuttles back up for immediate retreat, if the mechs were damaged too greatly to continue operation, or if something else happened.

Unfortunately, due to the radiation hazard all equipment went through thorough decontamination upon returning to the carriers which also destroyed a lot of what could have been used as evidence to what might have happened down there. All sensor, video, and comm logs were destroyed in an attempt to save those remaining aboard from the memory destroying parasite.

Diadem Apparel and Lancaster Reserve have been established as requested.

Vittles doesn’t have much of a stockpile, it is one of your largest assets and has made a significant dent in the famines of the Reach but it doesn’t tend to store extras long term as the supply of food is still under the demand generally speaking. Not to mention the Vessians who live on Diadem take a lot to feed and you have a habit of sending food all over the place so it never piles up for long.

As it turns out, asking the Ruffians and Haleh to act as security has resulted in some unintended consequences. While they are protecting food shipments, they are accusing people of theft every time they get bored. Haleh is deliberately hunting vessians in the north whether or not she can prove they are the problematic targets. She “recruits” them to join her ruffians. They’re getting stronger as a result now that she has several vessian officers she has been personally training to serve her. If they refuse then she murders them on the spot just to show off that she is in fact stronger than vessians. Spreading her dragon supremacy to other Reachers. So a great number of food shipments are safer now and the vessian hunters are being either pushed into the hive worlds or back south to get away from Haleh intentionally hunting them for sport.

VIPER and the Caelkians are a bit more chill and helping control the pirates in the north as intended. Though the Caelkians have been conveniently forgetting to do their paperwork in order to smuggle vessians south without Haleh finding out about it.

Speaking of Rahlken, the latest RBN update noted he was moving north. We also know that he goes from station to station selling what he can along the major path of the Reach. There is a series of stations along what can be thought of as a major highway that he goes along. Given that he is almost always being tracked, we could send a team to the stations along his path to see what he is selling. He will often offload huge amounts of ‘pristine salvage’ at one of a few key stations on the interstellar highway and individual merchants will pick through the spoils and divide it up for distribution. It is likely this most recent offload occurred at a huge station a bit south of Elasyn.

As for increasing the Ring section’s defenses, we can try building more outposts and turrets. Seven layers, two sides, giant ring’s width, it’s a lot of ground. The enemy is adaptive as well, we have to adapt to their adaptations that were counters to our adaptations to their adaptations in the first place. That being said, despite the threat level of these machines the attacks have been less prominent lately. They tend to be a bit lazier when we don’t have any deep expeditions for awhile, but when they launch another assault it is often quite severe. Currently the Diadem guard rely on shuttles to travel the width of the lines and scan for problems as best they can with the outposts providing long range turret fire from raised positions whenever anything is found. There are also independent hunters who are not enlisted with the guard but we pay them a bounty for what they bring down. Basically mercenaries who specialize in hunting along the plate lines. Seventy percent of these mercenaries are arcurans who hunt the bounties to afford their power armor some day.

Beyond additional outposts and arms, there isn’t much we have been able to do to more permanently resolve the situation. We tried to build fields that repel the machines, they adapted to it within two months. There are already mine fields out there, and they figured out how to spot those too. Right now we’re in an arms race to deal with the sneakier productions they’ve been sending that go around the outposts and try to reach the farm plates. Though the large protective domes Renjala constructed kept them out of the food  supply and the improvised militia of vessians were able to deal with them.

In regards to your question about the Evershar colony, the insectoids previously mentioned are just wild creatures. They chose that planet deliberately for its lack of intelligent competition.

In regards to their relics, Utewa generally refuses to sell or trade them. They get a lot of offers from Reachers at times, but the vaults they keep are to preserve the historical and research values of their collection. Reachers can be a little rough on any archeologically relevant artifacts and prone to trading away priceless items for a pack of cigarettes only for it to wind up on some ship dash for twenty years until the ship gets blown up. Utewa is one of the few planets in the reach that can really hope to hold onto anything for any foreseeable length of time due to their planet’s ability to just leave the plane at will. Though given that it they might be in possession of an Ika device that they want back, they are open to considering a trade.

Specifically they want one of Kanika’s grimoires she scattered across Thenica’s history. The Lakaaj are a known threat in the eastern galaxy and the Reach doesn’t have much in terms of necrocarnate research to rival that problem. It has come to their attention that Sol is home to one of the most talented necrocarnates in the galaxy, and she wrote a ton of books then just left them laying around for people to discover. They want some of these to further their research. Walters had haggled them down from one of Ankathi’s books. She only ever made one and Renjala has it locked up annnd probably wouldn’t want to trade it off for a variety of reasons.

I have pre-emptively looked into some options for that. Obviously we can’t ask Kanika herself as she might stab the messenger. However, those books are not particularly important or well protected by her. We know that Rozanis had one and it is likely now in the possession of Sayane. We could also try to get a demon to look into acquiring one for us since they would be under less suspicion from the Hassani for asking around. Faithrae says she knows how to get one, though isn’t sharing where it is or how she would get it. It is also likely there are a few scattered about the undead nations of Necrosi. Jhaeros also likely had one though we have no idea where to find him. That’s all I have at the moment.

Also Walters has been talking with Utewa a lot lately and they mentioned something related to a whole other problem we’ve been having. They actually know that the Ika expedition to leave the galaxy occurred from what we’ve labeled as plate section 5 of Diadem. There might be information, particularly logs of their departure, there that we could use to calculate which direction we should be looking.

As for Gunhild I’ve compiled a list of options I can find in my database. In terms of cybernetics, we would need Daiheb’s help. Selona’s are of good quality and his androids are totally machine, but Daiheb is the only one who has the ability to transplant an organic person’s consciousness into a totally machine body. If you crack open Aryn’s skull there isn’t an elf brain in there anymore. The Ika Pods could attempt to restore more of Gunhild’s organic body parts but that might actually be worse for her than letting her remain cybernetic. Her complaints that it hurts to move her cybernetics will be just as bad once she’s in an old woman’s body. Though Faithrae just recently acquired Hyeon and her artifact while everyone else was too busy to hunt her down. The Exerlus have the technology to make someone an exerlus, as they demonstrated in the process of restoring Echo Prime. However they are unlikely to do this for a random human soldier. Blaiken have the technology to fully reverse the process of aging. Pandem binds can extend lifespans as well though would require the recipient to be proficient in pandem magic. Renjala knows how to make a lich, not the most enviable fate for some though. Demons can convert other sapients into demons somehow with their contracts as we heard from Lilli some while ago. Demons are naturally much longer lived than humans. Koura parasites might also be able to give Gunhild a new body specifically under the conditions that were used to create Si-Yeon. Preacher said he would be down to try some ideas, Hex reported that Preacher has no credibility to attempt this but he did offer to try and turn Gunhild into a voidforged core. He has no idea how to do this but he is excited at the idea of trying. Then finally there is throwing her into Larazja’s ichor and hoping for the best. Technically my database also contains the information that Kanika specializes in this though obviously won’t help us.

Koharrel and the fleet support have been looking into the Sugnam situation. The Caelkians have agreed to send someone if you want them to meet with them over there. The Sugnam Government is actually several smaller kingdoms with varying opinions on the matter based on their proximity to the fuel mining operations. Koharrel just appears to have walked into the one nearby first. There are definitely peasants who would very much like a couple of rulers removed and the slavers chased off to which end they’re very cooperative with Federation ideals. Especially the slaves. We had Koharrel look into things regarding the demon presence in particular. As far as she can tell they’re mostly interested in the fuel resources and see an opportunity to expand business into the area. Though they’re a lot less interested in the natives, as various demons would be able to import their own labor forces that apparently have expanded greatly in the last twenty five years. Half the reason they’ve been so prevalent in the Reach lately is that they now have more of a labor force than they really know what to do with and need to start on some projects.

There is some tension between the demons and the local mining operation though they’re on opposite sides of the planet for now to stay out of each other’s way. The Tungsten Teeth have arrived and are shopping around for contracts between our fleet, the slavers, the demons, and Sugnam themselves whose small nations can pay in the very fuel everyone is here to get. The situation is slow to develop since the Sugnam themselves aren’t particularly modern or efficient, the demons are debating if its worth the effort while our fleet is there, the Tungsten Teeth are checking for bids, and the slavers are in disarray because of everything else that was mentioned. Essentially the rogue slaving miners have no shot at keeping in this race unless they win the bidding war for the Tungsten Teeth’s assistance though they don’t seem to have full awareness of the status of the situation.

Koharrel has initiated talks with the demon’s Lord Hrath, who is a somewhat minor player looking to get his businesses going to maybe alter his current standing. Not as big of a deal as Euron, Lilli, or Asmodan for example. More like a Rozanis at best. Hrath is really just looking for something to work on for the time being and is negotiating land usage rights with the Sugnam in a calm and orderly fashion in the other hemisphere. Though Eerihild might have some thoughts on that given what happened to her people’s lands in Alnae, and now nefariously talented demons are with bureaucracy and contracts.

Vynnoth doesn’t mind working with the Federation for PR reasons though isn’t sure what exactly that entails. Though she points out that Haleh is kind of the dragon’s matriarchal figure here on Diadem. While dragons tend to exist in solitude from one another, it would be a potentially risky idea to push draconic relations for the Federation without looping Haleh into them. It would be a little disrespectful and Haleh is a little dangerous to be on the wrong side of. Though Vynnoth is pretty sure if you ask Haleh directly she will get bored and wander off immediately, but at least won’t be mad about it later.

As for the desire to construct an AMZ weapon, first step is finding someone who knows how to even cast the spell. Nah division reports that they know of a Revenant who can do it but not many others. The spell is particularly rare, even archwizards of the modern era will rarely know how to do it or where to find out how it works. This has led to a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories as to why its so hard to find people who know anything in particular about it. Though given that it is rare throughout the galaxy, it is likely that it is just really difficult. After extensive research, everything we have leads to long dead wizards. So we can go find that Revenant, or we can ask Yasrena to trade secrets.

I’ve been reading up on Diadem to see if I can retain it as per orders from Director Hex. According to these notes it’s been sticking as of late. It’s weird that I felt like nothing was wrong but looking through all of these reports apparently something terrible happened that killed no one?

In accordance with Federation enforcement and the recent State of Emergency, the portal network was disabled and we’re still under quarantine from New Age here at Eden since Eden herself being infected has been troublesome to deal with.

Enohas is at least manageable since everyone lives rather spread out through the forests. However the elf population require special procedures since they don’t naturally sleep the same way most do. So it’s been a bit of an effort to systematically destroy their APT’s and then tranquilize them but at least maintaining isolation is easy. I’m currently at New Jamalia since Eden isn’t cleared yet.

So far from reading all this, it seems as if Si Yeon is the only reason there weren’t even more deaths and a galactic scale disaster. I’ll send her a gift basket.

Hisashi says an experimental pandem radar might help with locating Zero but that is a multi-billion credit spitball of his at the moment as he’s not entirely sure how far into the Wilds it could feasibly detect. He’s currently working on a prototype to see if he can open a rift and detect any meaningful data. I’ve approved his funding request for his prototype though since that was only thirty grand so he could buy some parts.

On the upside Inya and Irae haven’t had any issues, on the downside its because Evershar colony got hit by the Sixth. New Age showed up to lock the place down. They opted for doing what the scary people say instead of being collectively blown to pieces. Though given how non-apparent the nature of the thing is, they have no idea why any of this is going on. Irae recognizes New Age enough to tell everyone else to just go along with it at least.

I set up the missionary program and looped in the plans you asked for into that program. Though currently no one is allowed to leave Eden so slight delay on sending them out.

Oh-ho-ho, putting on the big girl shoes this month are we? We should take pictures of you being firm and authoritative and put up posters everywhere. Don’t worry you were on security feeds when you were doing so, way ahead of you. Gonna need a catch phrase though…

Oh right so I’ve been in touch with New Age. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. Is the gist of what I got from them.

Diadem’s portal network was disabled and since the administrator was not present, several communication devices were physically destroyed to prevent incoming communication. Quarantine procedures were also initiated to halt incoming traffic from physical ships.

While most of the afflicted are fine, losing memories of Diadem’s existence is not life threatening, it has caused some degree of chaos due to the severity of Vasia’s actions to contain it before it got into the galactic network. Had this occurred before Selona destroyed galactic communication relays, it would have been impossible to stop. Which might explain what happened sixteen thousand years ago or whatever. Diadem’s portal network was disabled and has stranded some people wherever they might be. Millions have no memory of it’s existence anyways.

While Doctor Si-Yeon has found a way to get it out of people, requiring me to invent a voidforged sedative in the process, cleaning contaminated areas goes slowly. Despite how simple the fix is, just knock people out, it turns out to be a logistical nightmare to knock everyone out at once and also destroy all the memory storage in the area. Turns out psi-crystal storage doesn’t really mind being turned off then back on again and it persists under those conditions. So containment involves manually destroying every hard drive in the colony, including people’s APT, then isolating people, then rendering them all unconscious. Then getting them all new APTs.

Further notes have arrived that the thing is capable of spreading through sixty meter contact with literally anything. A big part of how it functions is psionically so doing some semaphores is fine, all comms rely on psionic technology though so be careful about that.

We’re going to need to find a way to deal with it particularly on Eden City. If we destroy all their computers, it is liable to drop out of the sky. Though currently that project is being handled by Steamworks as they have a talent for this kind of non-magical engineering.

I’ve been prepping some designs for a few research surveys on the idea of the ‘mature’ frame swaps. We’re waiting for Adrienne to get back from the north, there’s also a rival elf engineer from Adelaide who was interested in what is slowly turning into a competition though they’re on lockdown. Though preliminary surveys definitely show a trend in preference towards the early generation series.

Deniau is currently responding to market trends for various medicinal base components rather than finished products. Basically processed ingredients that can be mixed together, this is largely because in the Reach all these aliens need wildly different things. Should demand for such things fall we could easily just start mixing them ourselves for designer products anyways so its not a bad place to start with production.

Aryn and the task force were able to retrieve Kaylen surprisingly smoothly, but now they have a new problem. Diadem is still on lockdown and they are now in possession of a rather dangerous prisoner. More specifically, they found out that Kaylen has been bound to one of the Hydra’s heads. Had she been awake for even a second during that abduction, Hydra would have known about it instantly and the whole operation probably would have gone very wrong very fast.

Though this adds a new problem, they’re running out of supplies to keep Kaylen sedated. They have her practically in a coma to prevent her from waking up and transmitting that information to the Hydra, but also because they’re not sure if they can really keep her in a cell for very long. Any assessment as to Kaylen’s mental state will have to wait until she can be more safely restrained. Currently they’re headed to Moncayo with the hopes of using Vasia’s old prison facility she once made that housed Qhus’tha. Though the problem with that is Kaylen would likely be able to recognize that facility as it was in the territory she once controlled as the leader of the Hero’s Guild.

They have requested advisement on what to do before they run out of medical supplies to keep her in said coma. Since if she wakes up and knows where she is, the Hydra will too. They were trying to contact Renjala but he’s been out of contact for an oddly long time, the taskforce doesn’t know about what happened on Nekhul in any detail yet.

After a series of investigations, Euron’s two missing companions were found to have left to Eden City shortly after the festival. Though with the lockdown it’s not particularly easy to chase them down. Euron himself already left to return to the Demon Kingdom as it were. His other associates went to the Reach station network and Rampart reports that they seem to be transporting something or someone southwards.

So far our teams at Jydoq think that Kennae went east, which from Jydoq would imply he’s headed towards the galactic south. This would imply he was either last seen headed towards Cayetano, the Playatis network, or the Dead Zone created by the Blaiken. At least those are the locations of interest that we know of.

Stories of Lore 62

Greetings, this is Nakka’s News from the Reach Broadcast Network. Today, we examine current supply and demand trends to better plan our investments. Together, like one big happy family.

With the influx of immigrants from the northern galaxy, the famines have flared up once again. Food is very profitable, especially if your customers haven’t been here long enough to understand when to haggle lower or not. This has resulted in gang conflicts particularly in the northern part of the Reach where demand is highest. Vessian tribes in particular have grown increasingly violent over food supplies and will sometimes prey on our newcomers to reduce competition and find a free meal at the same time. If you are in the food business, you may wish to reconsider your security procedures. As well as who you meet with. Starvation has a way of making people desperate enough to do stupid things after all.

The weapons market has begun to bounce back from its recent decline. The increase in newcomers as well as recently ascended civilizations has helped to stabilize the demand. While the higher end and cutting edge weapon producers have weathered the downturn, salvage and weapons of lower quality are now finding their way into the hands of the resurging demand. If you still find yourself holding a great many of these, adjust your market value assessment as necessary. Especially if you are in the northern section of the Reach.

The market for materials, particularly those relating to the manufacture of apparel, continues to rise. With most farms interested in food production and most labor interested in ships and weapons, the shortage of textiles continues. Though the demand is still rising, it does so at a slower than previously predicted rate as station fashion of minimalism continues to gain popularity. With many refusing to even buy lower quality apparel that they feel will simply not last long enough to be worth while. Instead focusing on higher quality clothes for longer use even with lower coverage or practicality. This has in turn boosted the popularity of skin marking traditions, so the materials for the inks necessary is also seeing a strong stability in the markets.

Another industry similarly impacted by the food market is medicine. With most deliberate farming and harvesting turned towards food production, medicine and drug production are at an all time low. Unusual for the Reach, resulting in unwilling sobriety across the network. This has led to an all time high in suicide rates, if we count ill advised actions of desperation as suicide.

In other news, the Reach has seen a recent influx of new competition of unusual caliber. Our resources tell us these individuals are members of a place to the south known as The Demon Kingdom. Their anatomy is wildly unpredictable, as you can see from the pictures on screen they tend to have horned growths on their head of various styles and a sinister gleam to their eye. However, what cannot be easily determined is the sub species of demon. Their life cycle begins as a small creature, this is called an imp. As it grows in age and power it takes on new forms and this continues for a long while. Ending at what is known as a Demon Lord, one of which was seen at the recent Diadome thirtieth anniversary tournament. He crushed vessians, solians, and southern sweetheart Narl’Rey. If you cannot discern the difference between a regular demon and this sub class of demon lords, it is advised to act with extreme caution. They are physically more powerful than vessians, more conniving than krextal, and more meddlesome than solians. Though, it turns out they are from the same system of Sol just another plane of reality.

They are natural schemers, violent rule breakers, predatory tradesmen, and dangerously aggressive. So they’ll fit right in.

For this month’s Rahlken Report, King Rahlken is currently moving westward from the core sectors with a new haul, likely looking to sell his acquisitions. So stay safe out there. This has been your free report from the Reach Broadcast Network, and as usual we are watching. We know everything, and we could tell you what you wish to know for a price. Please contact our official offices if you wish to buy some specific information.

Walters made his offer to the Utewa, though they rejected the idea of joining the Federation. It would harm their main service to the Reach to provide impartial education. While they maintain amicable relations with us, they feel it is of key importance at this time that they remain notably independent. They also do not feel there is enough benefit to it. This is the summarized version after four hours of back and forth pleasantries with Walters.

More importantly, Winter was present to guide the conversation and try to hint about the key. From her empathic abilities she has gleaned that Habrah can either protect themselves from her abilities or doesn’t know they even have the diadem key. They collect a vast amount of historical relics and treasures. It is likely the person they acquired it from didn’t know what it was, and neither does Utewa. Perhaps it is just regarded as some interesting Ika memorabilia. Though telling them they have it and what it is risks opening another can of worms, given that they are kind of intentionally mysterious it is difficult to predict what interests them.

Koharrel made a rocky first contact with the forces of the Sugnam planet because independent forces had been causing trouble before VSEC even arrived. Given how sparse galactic communications can be, they appear to have assumed that they were forward agents of ours since they were solians. As it turns out, the local powers on Sugnam have been capturing and selling their own to the slavers. She reported it to the fleet Admiral who has sent messengers to relay the information to us. Koharrel intends to topple the entire government violently, as her mother once did to her homeworld under VSEC’s banner. The admiral noted that if he just eliminated the foreign mining operations it would at least break up the slavery trade hopefully without having to enter into a full invasion of the planet. Though the situation is still developing, there are two more notable variables. Independent solians have been meddling with things on the planet as they see fit. Likely a Revenant cell of some sort whether authentic or not. As this all developed, demons were spotted on the planet’s western hemisphere poking around though we’re still not sure what they’re up to.

The Nekhul team is currently en route.

The exploration fleet reports a surprising lack of being ambushed by pirates compared to past adventures. Because who is looking out beyond the galaxy for food shipments? Though they haven’t found anything quite yet from scanning and are on the way to push further out in the hopes of finding anything.

We’ve sent the troops down to Evershar’s project planet to help out with the bugs. There are a lot of them it turns out. The mining colony is a sealed facility as if it were still in space that has to burrow through caves right underneath it to keep things from getting in too easily.

Waianoa says she can get you some mining elementals, actually its the same team that helped excavate the collapsed continent on the Diadem plate. They are, as before, prone to partying on their lunch breaks but they can’t be infected by egg laying parasites and are exceptionally good at clearing through the earth. Evershar appreciates the help. This actually fits into Waianoa’s plans to increase the prevalence and relevance of elementals in the middle planes so she’s happy with it.

I read the recap of your discussion with her regarding Lailah. What. The. Fuck. Is this normal? How is this not in the news that someone…oh….I see the classified marker now. I’m uh…going to need to take time to process this. Oh my gods wait that’s why Lailah…ohhhh that’s who was…oh no. Do advisors get bodyguards?

Hisashi reports that he has begun his work into looking for Zero as requested.

So with the primitive pandem plans, I can set up a missionary program if you like. We don’t really have anything for spreading the good word beyond the university and some minor advertising through Diadome showcases. Going to primitive worlds is something that can probably be done with small teams not requiring much direct intervention unless something goes wrong.

Saved the station location, not like it’s going anywhere after all this time. Also sent Irae and Inya to help with the Evershar project. As advisor it is my responsibility to remind you that Evershar are drow nobility who were heavily involved in the Solian conflicts and Inya is an elf. So, hopefully that goes okay.

Wait what do you mean I should go to the desert world? I don’t even know how to open rifts to create water. I’m still taking the 101 class. I’m just going to send that random knight standing around over there, he looks bored and like he knows how to do that. Also I can’t leave comms range or I wouldn’t be able to sort through the emails.

Aryn and the team are headed to Sol in the meantime. We’ve begun the process of turning Rampart into more of a profitable business rather than an undercover outpost. While we retool Rampart, Allison is still there running Rampart for lack of any  other orders. Also Allison is just kind of used to living there at this point. I think…I think she just lives on Kuhas now. Haven’t told her we have a mansion back here now days though.

Well we know Euron was here to meet with Faithrae to some extent. Whether or not that was the full purpose of his visit is questionable. According to Faithrae, he was mostly interested in her information on the gang networks in the northern parts of the reach. Though there’s a quirk to this, related to your other question a little.

Currently we suspect Hyeon was trying to get to Euron via the tournament because, the instant he passes through the doors to return from the Arena he is surrounded by four major demons as well as armed with his actual weapons. For the arena matches he was practically unarmed the entire time and also not surrounded by demons that would significantly worsen everybody’s day. Each of those demons could have taken on almost everyone we know if they meant business. It was at least as far as we can tell, the most vulnerable position he has been in for the last few centuries. Though calling him “vulnerable” seems a bit comedic to say.

This leads to further complications. We believe he entered Diadem with six companions not four. However, the other two were not demons. They likely entered through the side passages into no-man’s land and then either went into the depths of the exerlus controlled plates or looped around through the Squats to enter somewhere else in Federation controlled plates. Euron might have been meeting with Faithrae in a way that as very noticeable on purpose to disguise his true objectives.

As for the location of the suspected former Revenant Hyeon, they are a very difficult person to find. Especially with all of our best agents away on other operations. Your sister said she would take care of looking into it since everyone else is clearly stretched thin and she’s assembled a new team she wants to try out.

Hrmm…smaller frames…standardized designs…remote operation…I’MA SUPERGLUE THEM INTO- ow.

I mean at a certain point we’re just going back to the original models and then developing mechs they can pilot aren’t we? We already know transitioning them between chassis can have detrimental effects, as well as a calibration period to figure out how to operate the new limbs efficiently. While Vanessa has coped well with her redesigns they’re all just slight modifications and additions to her existing operating method. Not to mention that Vanessa is one of the best of the best we have. She’s one of the few who voluntarily train themselves. If we really need the cores to be mobile between frames especially for juveniles though I can go back to putting them in the standard frames and we’ll have to do a long term study on the effects of moving from the gen 1 style of frame into more specialized designs afterwards. Though Auvray definitely isn’t coming out of that ship. I can move him into something bigger but not much room to go smaller. Same problem for the Cradle itself. Cradle’s core is the size of a starship already. Remote control drones might be doable for them though. The amount of systems those two are in control of to make entire ships crewed by an individual turn out to require an awful lot of parallel processing power.

I’ll put the next gen into the old style of frame for the upcoming batches and we’ll see how they go from there. Particularly in monitoring their transitions to upgraded frames and compatibility with it.

Deniau is working on booooring medicine like health and tissue repair. I still think he should have gotten into the meth business since he can’t get addicted to his own product and we could definitely build a brand around robotic quality control.

I’ve sent the fleet that is just hanging around with us to begin surveying the northern border where the stations that guarded against the hive worlds are. Sent Adrienne too since she’s just been sitting around taking up half my workshop. Apparently her pet project was modular limb systems for Gen 1 frames to replicate the effects of organic cybernetics with enhanced customization so that you wouldn’t need to move cores between models but rather just replace limbs one at a time. Pfft, so I sent her to go get some actual work done.

Arcanist The Next Generation

Patch notes!
No Man Alive – Now effects minions as well instead of just heroes. Now limited to direct command.
No Man Behind – Now effects minions as well instead of just heroes. Now limited to direct command.
Super Slayer: Altered natural crit damage bonus to be +2 damage instead of x4.
Intimidation: Altered to not impact entire battlefields in mass combat and instead only affect on a per squad basis.

Fixed hero unit paychecks not being calculated into expenses
Removed Hero Unit influence generation
Fixed a bug where sam was getting infrastructure upgrades for free
Reduced influence gain from military assets since they were sort of made back in the day when your army was 300 dudes and the formula hasn’t scaled well.

Diadome was an absolute clusterfuck if you don’t mind me saying. It could have been worse but those arcurans also tried to interfere with a match directly but couldn’t figure out how to get through the barrier spell.

Walter and Winter are on their way to Utewa, with some traveling involved. Koharrel is on the way to meet up with the first fleet.

I’ve prepared some information about Koharrel’s mission beyond the news report. The planet is called Sugnam, home to a race of hard shelled aliens that have until now been the victims of slaving efforts. Sugnam was discovered to have primitive sapient inhabitants over four hundred years go, with technology equivalent to the industrial revolution. Though the ones who discovered this established slaving and mining operations. With most enslaved Sugnam serving to mine the fuel resources of their own planet and turn it over to their captors. The independent company holding them captive has continued these mining operations for the last two hundred years. Though recently we have reason to suspect the authentic Revenants dealt a major blow to their operations that resulted in a few of the slaver’s starships falling into sugnamian hands, which they prepped in secret. It is also suspected that the same Revenants may have helped them figure out how to work the ship enough to leave the planet and seek help within the Reach.

Currently a moderate Tungsten Teeth fleet consisting of a carrier, assault carrier, and accompanying destroyers, starhips,and cruisers is on the way to auction their services to the highest bidder. As well as other independent mercenaries from the local galactic area. As advisor I will caution to be careful, the Reach is already wary of us behaving as galactic police and might push back on the matter.

Wonaya mentioned there are perhaps hundreds of golden worlds she has seen in the Hive Worlds, you practically can’t throw a space moth without hitting one. The problem is that unlike places such as Koura, these worlds have things living on them. The Hive Worlds are overflowing with life, and every world that is perfectly habitable to us is also habitable to things that can eat us. If you want she can just tell you where to find one based on whether or not you would rather deal with intelligent species or a wild world where nothing really involved for higher intelligence. No matter which one you pick you can expect disease, parasites, stinging insects, big things with big claws and big teeth, and it is a very real concern that you can bring them home with you without knowing. Spores from hive world plants can get on your clothes and very few eco systems outside of the hive worlds can find a balance with such highly evolved alien organic elements. One spore from a hive world can threaten to overrun any other planet’s natural vegetation entirely in a few thousand years give or take. However, there are three within a month’s travel of Diadem, which is already a border station to the hive worlds and though we’re a bit off to the side of a place like Kuhas we do still have a local economy catering to the few reachers that make this voyage already at the far docks.

In all it isn’t a matter of finding golden worlds, it’s picking which kind of problem you want to deal with of those available. Two months voyage in a standard ship will lead you to one such world inhabited by an intelligent space faring species who sell food to the Reach. If you wanted to try something easy to start off. It belongs to the Exny though, who have certain reputations to be considered.

There is a nearby golden world that is currently the working project of House Evershar to begin colonizing which already has an orbiting station that can be used as a pit stop. It is mostly a mining operation featuring aliens from around the reach to do the physical labor while Evershar works to keep them from being eaten by ravenous termite looking things.

The first problem with expanding the broadcast network is range. We’d need to set up Aethernet beacons at each station along the network, which includes tens of thousands of stations. We could try to negotiate with the Reach Broadcast Network to help us figure out how they did it, though they aren’t quite like solian broadcasts. They also have limited coverage throughout the Reach and this is all in part due to the various powers that be all resisting nationalization of the Reach. One notable example nearby is the Quavaol station a short distance aways. They have a particularly critical position as a major trade hub connecting the central Reach to the Northern Reach where we live. A few other similar stations are similarly notable bottlenecks, but the important detail is that even the Reach Broadcast Network cannot jump through this station because they refuse to let anyone set something up like that. Also the last beacon we tried to deploy six years ago got scrapped and salvaged by pirates during a conflict in the area. We could put about four beacons between us and Kuhas to get live information feeds with them and they’ve been fairly cooperative ever since Allison figured out the conspiracy that doesn’t really seem like a conspiracy to us still.

Scans reveal Rahlken’s Ship is currently just a little west of the Vessian homeworld.

The Viper team has been sent to…actually that Quavaol station I just mentioned to check in on piracy activity. Such bottlenecks are obviously a prime place for piracy.

I’ve compiled the locations of the “high chance” places to find the Diadem keys we’re looking for.

We’ve covered the Utewa Academy and Blaiken Throne World. Nekhul is the original homeworld of the Ika and might have one. It is in what are now the hive worlds. Reachers say the place is pretty bad, no one seems to come back from it except some hive species by sheer quantity of unintended attempts. There is still a high chance that Nelta has one but that is still a bit of a shot in the dark without further investigation. The last one we are 80% sure has one going by reports that a crew of frontier explorers had one ‘just in case’. The problem is finding it. It was one of the Ika’s many attempts to explore beyond the galaxy. The flotilla that left the galaxy has never been heard from since it left communications range of the Ika. For all we know they made it to the next galaxy, they could also have been lost somewhere between galaxies.

Nyah! Hehe, no that one was on purpose because it drives you crazy. Your door guards love it though. Anyways I got that report you wanted. It’s a long list, hundreds long. Pre-industrial primitive civilizations exist everywhere in the galaxy and usually just aren’t worth the notice I guess. Some are being exploited by Reachers like the Sugnam and others are largely left alone. I got some options though I put near the top of the list.

There are some very plant-like people in the Hive Worlds nearby who are known to be intelligent but their current technological capability is very primitive. A few of their members are actually in the Reach network, some were abducted to be used as livestock during the famine. This sort of solidified why people take strong quarantine precautions against those worlds. A few got loose by growing spores in the people who were eating them and caused a whole Dread Space incident on one of the Reach stations then they just sort of stuck around since then rather than go home. So, approach, sample, and transport with extreme caution. That station is just theirs now, no one ever went to reclaim it. They can’t leave it since they don’t know how ships work but they get enough solar radiation to stay alive. Actually we could go to the station instead of the planet if you’re feeling brave. It’s been left alone for the last two centuries.

Meanwhile here in the Reach, there is a poor defenseless primitive world who most  people ignore since their world is so barren of resources they will likely never become galactic anyways. They live on a world with incredibly low metallic resources or moisture, its basically a planet with abnormally high occurrence of deserts with the natives living in the oasis’s in between. Good opportunity for a safe contact for experimentation with whatever guidance you want to offer. Not highly contested, not very strong civilization, and somewhat scrawny people.

If you want to go gambling, I have this one for you. There is a planet on the southern side of the reach, so already a problem as it is a long trip. Reachers tend to avoid the place because the natives are psionic life forms. Violent tribalistic psionic life forms who live in other creatures psyches. So upon landing you won’t know which squirrel contains one that might hop aboard you. They can be resisted with wards but not communicated with unless the wards are down or they inhabit something that understands language.

In terms of uplifting projects, well you can pick a fight for the good stuff. There is a planet of terrifying warlords who took down a Reacher starship with bows. Though the Tungsten Teeth like to ‘uplift’ small communities of them to act as recruits along with some of the local network stations. So if you start spreading Federation ‘guidance’ on that world, we’re going to have to fight a few stations and merc bands for colonization rights.

In all, lot of options but they’re generally fairly meek. Pre-industrial and not already uplifted usually means we’re plucking through the ones who weren’t interesting enough to anyone else either. I could just set up a missionaries program for the order and we can let that take a few centuries to pay off though if you like.

If I knew what we’re trying to accomplish here I might be able to narrow down the options a bit better and see what else we might find.

Also you’re up to about seven hundred and eighty six binds because you keep handing them out. There are measurable differences with your plane and abilities, kind of. In the realm of ‘hypothesis’ rather than ‘definitely correlated’. They suspect its having an effect on the energy levels according to some of their readings but over such a scale as a whole plane its really hard to say if that is the case or if they just turned their measuring equipment two degrees to the left. The current theory is that because you made a universe in there, that the effects of worshippers are less pronounced though less required. Had you made a private sanctuary type of plane like Jaerda did it might have more impact but also you wouldn’t have Renjala’s Rim. Also umm, I’m kind of new. Did you name that yourself?

As for our current diplomatic relations, umm here we go.

Demon King: Thinks we’re flakes because Valencia still isn’t a god.
Archons: Aren’t even paying attention to us except for Mahuea. There are also a surprising number of them. We confirmed the existence of another fire archon in the elemental plane somewhere around where Zenaka is.
Abyssal lords: There are fourty eight of them that we know of. Valnacht is the big one near the Sol system though. We have made no contact with them up to now, though it is likely they are on negative terms with us because Kanika already contacted them to smooth things over with Abyssal plane.
Necrosi: It’s on sight with these guys. They are not formally members of the Hassani but they have a very strong defensive pact now. They love Kanika and Sakhessa, the two undead rulers.
Celestials: They’re on our team already. Though I understand from your notes here that it would be a ‘tense alliance’ with Ankathi?

In all if they’re not your friend already they’re probably Kanika’s friend at this stage. Meaning altering relations with them will be a bit of a political undertaking. Also I’m still not sure why Lord Euron is here.

Chevalier stated he would remain in retirement for now, still pursuing the path of philosophy and writing archives to pass down the results of his studies to future generations of Voidforged. He’s over in section 3A and built a little museum garden library thing where he continues to ponder the meaning of existence. Like a nerd.

Vanessa agreed to come back though, she doesn’t have as much going on. She’s up in that corner over there, the shadowy one. Still not the most talkative and I think she’s hiding from the rookies. Now that she’s the veteran, the OG, the most combat experienced, the wise old woman in the barracks, and what have you- they try to ask her for war stories a lot and she is still a loner. So I think she’s hiding in the control room so that the rookies will ask you questions instead of her.

Ever since trying to work on Arsene I have been attempting to better standardize core interfaces methods, though the problem of transferring them between bodies is sort of where the hiccup is. I actually experimented on this by swapping the cores of Vanessa and Adrienne. Vanessa did not gain the ability to use her hands, if anything it was worse, and Adrienne could not stand up without assistance from a rope. Unfortunately, Vanessa is made entirely out of sharp things so the rope plan went south and Adrienne was stuck on the floor until we got a lifter to put her back on the maintenance table.

Currently we can move things around a lil bit, though cores can sometimes be unique. Auvray is a particular example, so is the Cradle. Their cores aren’t going to fit with aaaaanything else purely due to size. Souris I might be able to put in a little drone though. Maybe I can come up with some sort of little robot dog for Malgier and similar classes of voidforged. Though I’ll revisit the adapter work to see what might be done. There probably is some merit to making sure they can all enter into humanoid bodies just to give them access to the rest of the Federation if they want to hang out with the humies.

As for formalizing a guide to the diadem wild life, which we still have since we made the first one so this would technically be the second edition, to be noted one issue is that they keep coming up with new models to probe our defenses with. Actually it’s been a real problem, over the years things get progressively more dire if we refuse to adapt to their adaptations to our adaptations to their adaptations to our adaptations to their adaptations. Though that is sort of why I created Malgier, he can hunt the big tunneling shits that keep popping up in the Squats behind the front lines. Souris is good for dealing with the ceiling stickers too. Though I’ve gone ahead and updated the survival guide as you asked.

We could start a new drug company though sourcing for manufacturing is to be considered. The farms up top are strained to the limit as it is so we might want to consider where we get our supplies. Unless we figure out a way to synthesize some stuff from motor oil. To that end, the Federation has left a wide open hole in their drug laws. Lancaster opted for the ‘eh do whatever you want to yourself’ approach back at the founding of Somnus government. So we can inject these suckers with anything! Deniau has been been trying to make the most addictive thing possible but I need more test subjects since Voidforged don’t do drugs.

Who do you want to send to look for Kennae and where? Also I get the impression no one can humble your sister. She’s just not a humble person.

As for the Phantoms, I’ll give a brief summary of the requested information.

Kanika is usually in Thenica but not where you would think. The capital of Thenica is the former Shetou city of Sacheon as it has the most infrastructure to serve this role. Reports indicate she is more frequently found in a random swamp in the countryside rather than the palace. It actually wouldn’t be hard to reach this unguarded swamp she uses as her personal sanctuary. Apparently it is due for construction to get it into shape to serve as her new castle, but she hasn’t bothered to divert the resources to the construction yet since she is still investing heavily into rebuilding Sol. This is the most vulnerable location we can think of as per your request. Though she is just as often at the palace, Aureum, aboard the fleets, or just wandering the galaxy to sort through various external affairs. It is hard to keep track of her as she has powerful pandem casters as her assistants who both learned the Renjala’s rift to take her wherever she wants to go whenever she wants to be there. Honestly the problem isn’t getting to her, its what do you do once you get there?

Sakhessa is usually at the capital of Sacheon trying to manage things. She goes everywhere on her golden hover-throne and her real home is still Aureum which she returns to at the end of each day. Though, portals. She is at all times guarded by members of her golden legion and the notorious basilisk that is usually curled up on her hover-throne’s extended platform. She is most vulnerable while at Sacheon obviously, which is where she spends her work day.

Deinuu is usually hanging out with Sakhessa or somewhere in the galaxy causing trouble. He’s actually really hard to track. Last we saw him he was in the eastern part of the galaxy but we have no idea what he was doing out there as it is beyond our current network. However, if he isn’t with Sakhessa he is frequently alone.

Faelyn: Mostly lurks around Aureum and manages their fleets. Her primary activities as of late have been preventing piracy and alien invasions. As well as maintaining border security and intercepting suspicious visitors who are on their way to Sol. The problem with picking her off is that Aureum is unassailable. The Warrens entrance is now so heavily guarded that we would lose our entire fleet trying to approach the planet inside the Warrens entrance. However, there are two ways in and security is a lil more lax about the side facing the deeper Warrens. Though that requires finding a Warrens entrance, scouting a path there, and not getting found by the Blaiken. Let alone approaching through narrow tunnels undetected. Infiltration is the most viable option but they do not allow any mortal into Aureum unless they are implanted with ‘security assurances’.

Eliza Pierce as you learned, is a horrifying aberration that has transcended all logical ability to understand as a creature. She’s usually at SV2, the capital estate of the Jaal’Darya where she continues her experiments. Ever since the war, Jaal’Darya has been reinforced heavily. Though honestly Eliza herself is more terrifying than the turrets, security systems, and standing army of monsters that protect the facility.

Valencia Desoir can often be found either at the Desoir estate in the northern continent of Thenica or at the Sacheon capital keeping up her work maintaining all the money. She is surrounded by her own family members and has been provided guards by the Hassani. It is likely that at some point in between those two places she is at her most vulnerable but we don’t have more information on her day to day life.

Yasrena is not even where she appears to be at any time. The true Yasrena, also known as The Shadow, is in the Shadow Plane at all times and just possesses people to make appearances around the galaxy. Technically they show up to the Astral Order meetings, that is when they are most vulnerable. The obvious danger there is they cannot be killed outside their own plane and the first person to piss her off is going to lose the war within a year.

Agallias isn’t even in Sol or Auwana. They’re just hanging out on some alien world they conquered and rule over three alien systems as their deified ruler. Which to be fair, he is a titan. So…can’t really say they’re wrong. Agallias as a member is somewhat disconnected from the rest of the Hassani council. He is powerful enough that they have to acknowledge him but he’s much more concerned with doing his own thing. Apparently his hobby has become trying to build new worlds as he once built Thenica. Apparently he’s got great approval ratings though as he is genuinely trying to create new paradises for his mortals. He seems them as his personal ant farm or something. He seems interested in however Renjala started creating a new pantheon lately and has been researching into the matter to see if he can do so as well to seed life for his new people. He really just shows up if they call for him.

Sabrae is in her newly reconstructed Beldobaan fortress. She almost never leaves it.

The Hydra never leaves Aureum as far as we can tell. Relying on agents to do anything that would otherwise require them to go somewhere. They’re the size of a small mountain so for obvious reasons, they don’t really go places since they can’t fit through most locations.

As fro Kaylen, she also spends most of her time at Estelcar, the former Alnae capital that has been rebuilt for governing that hemisphere of Thenica and keeping the ex-alnaeans and drow a good distance apart from each other. Though efforts are being made to ease racial tensions and Kaylen has been, likely forced, into a marriage with a drow to act as a celebrity couple. Not sure if that’s being done to humiliate her further, begin easing public tensions between the two races, or both. There has actually been a lot of effort on Sakhessa’s part to calm that ancient war down. Especially now that so few elves are left. Anyways, Kaylen is usually at Estelcar and while she herself isn’t under the heaviest guard the building she works in is guarded by beholders and liches. Actually several of them just work there but they happen to be a significant obstacle to consider if we were to raid the place. She is also often in the direct presence of higher members of the Hassani as she is in the highest ranking position of any mortal so she has to report to the Hassani council’s delegates. I would however say she is most vulnerable at night when she is at home and sleeping. Though the estate includes other elven councilors and is at least decently guarded. Also as a note with this whole rescue operation, if she’s thoroughly brainwashed enough to fight her rescuers don’t forget she’s still a grandmaster and fighting her is a big enough problem. She likely is the guard for that estate.

Also you know an actual lich, they can probably teach you incarnum better than Natasha but yes she technically could.

The Exiled Generation

To fill your rosters for the new generation we’re having a draft. You get to pick members of the draft until you have filled all 8 of your roster slots. You cannot see their stats and pre-existing characters haven’t had their Sol War xp paid out yet. Choose wisely. Pretty much all of you except sam have yourself, your advisor, and one holdover who never retired or had anywhere else to go so you have 5 slots to fill. Sam has 4 slots because he has two agents who never moved on.

I ran out of time in getting to the character exp updates and will just do that over the next week since that is also when i’ll be doing the stats for anyone that gets drafted. For the same reason I did not have time to proofread, prepare for jank and blind spots.

The draft page is here.

Today we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the unification of Sol across the middle planes. Sol News Network covers a retrospective of the last quarter century spent under the rule of Empress Kanika Hassani, eternal may she reign.

Some people might be too young to even remember before the Hassani empire, though old timers like myself can tell you that the twenty five years of peace we have enjoyed is unprecedented. For over a thousand years the elves and drow waged war with one another across the system, and for a thousand more before that kingdoms did the same. Even the insistent attacks on Sol from galactic forces have done far less damage than the initial Nelta invasions. Though some would argue that the Hassani defense policy is a little too aggressive.

Though things haven’t been perfect, rebellions still occur throughout Sol. Some peaceful protests and lobbying. Terrorist attacks from the Hero’s Guild that advocates for elven superiority to return. Crime is at an all time high due to the lack of enforcement under the Hassani Council, though this could also be blamed on the drow territories becoming more integrated into other elements of the system and their lax views on enforcement.

After the Nelta invasions Sol was left in ruins, with a few pockets of civilization remaining while the elves who once ruled became tribal cannibals. Even more was lost during the war between the Void State Federation and the Kar’Soluth territories, as well as the immediately following war between Shetou, Valdir, and the Hassani. Thanks to the work of the Hassani, multiple cities have been rebuilt and are now economically thriving once again. It is amazing how fast things get done when elves aren’t locked in a racial war against one another.

In galactic news, the Reach has been home to those that refused to abide by the Hassani’s rule over Sol for the last two decades. Jydoq continues to maintain its independence. The Yelkin hemisphere still keeps a stance of absolute neutrality though the Karhast hemisphere is at least amicable to the Hassani presence and remains a popular tourist destination after the wars.

The northern galaxy has become traversible again as the war between the two exerlus collectives reached a stalemate. While the fighting continues, resources have become so sparse that both sides have retreated to their original positions to launch small scale skirmishes against one another. Though the galactic north will likely take thousands of years to recover from the destruction of 90% of their metallic resources. Leading to the extinction of 4 sapient species and the collapse of sixteen civilizations. With the fall of their border control checkpoints, we are seeing the slow but seemingly inevitable expansion of hive world species into the galactic north. Many express a lack of concern for the long term possibilities since it is likely that the jesai will curb this before it gets too far as they would be the next ones affected. Though that has brought little solace or aid to the people living in those places.

Others from the galactic north welcome the hive worlds expansion, with the loss of so many civilizations and their metallic resources the organic mass growth that comes with the spread of the Hive World’s influence brings them valuable resources for food and access to new possibilities.

Nelta has managed to reach a ceasefire with the Jesai after the destruction of four hundred planets, thanks in part to an intervention by the Exerlus. The lost worlds now remain as a part of the newly coined “shattered expanse”. A place with no remaining inhabitable worlds that has become the new border between the Jesai and Nelta territories. Despite the agreement to a ceasefire, relations remain tense. Public opinion leans towards, in the quote of our orc anchor “the Jesai are dicks”. Leading to a general distrust of theocracies. In particular it has increased wariness of the supposedly neutral “New Pantheon” created by solians but primarily housed at Diadem under the flag of the Void State Federation. Which remains hostile to the Hassani in general.

This retrospective brought to you by public funding from the Desoir family. Don’t forget to pay your taxes!

Greetings, this is Nakka’s News from the Reach Broadcast Network. Today, I’d like to talk to you about some unique business opportunities. Our field reporters have uncovered some movement in our great anarchic corner of the galaxy.

It is the 30th anniversary of the Void State Federation moving into what we now call Diadem in the northwestern corners of the Reach network. After thirty years, it has become largely accepted that they will not be overrun by the native machines of Diadem and it seems the Federation is here to stay. It being their 30th Anniversary means they are planning an extra special festival as they host every year, there has never been a better time to visit. Their border security is particular lax at this time of year to admit Reachers to the festival. Prize money can be won at a grand variety of events, paid for by the Federation itself. It is also a great opportunity to make connections and find potential contracts. Diadem itself specializes in farming and food production, a lucrative market in a nation of space stations. I also have it on the good word of  my contacts that Bakara is experiencing a famine, while it is some distance away they would likely be willing to pay a premium.

For those unfamiliar with the inhabitants of Diadem, they are exiled solians and very multi species friendly. They also include the likes of the Caelkians, the famous Ruffians, the Zenakans, and of course the Nomad Flotilla. All of which are technically members of their government expanse. They also maintain amicable relationships with the Utewa and Vessians. Making this festival a great opportunity for networking with otherwise elusive forces of the Reach. Diadem also provides some of the strongest investments among the Reach into education networks similar to Utewa. Offering alternative academies for those interested. They also boast strong immigration policies, for those who would like a place to settle down.

Diadem also offers the unique gate network into other planes, for those inclined to exploration and pioneering in new realms. Rumors say their Pantheon contains a member who can send a whole fleet to anywhere in the galaxy they desire. Should the price be right of course.

Some are concerned that they are overstepping their position and trying to instate a galactic government akin to Nelta or the southern Hassani here within our beloved Reach. Do not be concerned, the powers that be will tend to them if necessary. Their laws are only applicable within their own borders, should they try to extend their enforcement beyond we can rest assured that they will meet the same fate as the last to try.

For those visiting the ringworld of Diadem for the festivities, it is advised to be culturally aware of their current position. They are a diverse group, but they do prefer conflicts be resolved in non lethal fashion while within their borders. Stick to fists and knives while you are there, and be aware that they have multiple enforcement agencies. It has only been twenty five years since they entered into exile from their homeworld among the solians, but that is a significant portion of some species lifespans. See this image to understand the differences between elves and drow in particular. These are very common species within their collective who have lived long enough to still be sore losers about the matter. Notice the ears. Most other races will be of shorter lifespans, and are a part of what they call the “Exiled Generation”. A group born since the day after the war was lost. They can be a little disassociated from their lost homeworld, true Reachers like ourselves. Consider your business propositions and partners accordingly.

Nearby, Kuhas is also seeing an expansion of its facilities. With the Hive Worlds expanding into the galactic north thanks to the loss of the border stations that kept them in check, now is a great time to make some investments there. A great deal of ships are passing through to prospect the worlds due to be infected. Piracy and security are likewise at an all time high near Kuhas and other northern border stations. Several organizations, including the Silver Fleet are preparing expeditions to see what might be gained. Providing stable employment opportunities. Our informants report a sixteen percent increase in economic activity since last month’s report. It is expected to continue rising with initial projections estimating a few decades of growth. If you aren’t in the northern networks, it might be time to make the journey.

We are seeing a general decline in activity in the southern network. The Jydoq embassies at Elasyn have seen a twelve percent decline in contract offers as the rebuilding of their planet begins to slow, with many projects having been completed. Elasyn itself remains the most profitable world in the Reach, but still sees an overall decline in its economy of eight percent since last month’s report. Continuing a trend for the last five years.

The Hassani employment has increased by seventeen percent, though seventeen percent of only a handful of opportunities is still a very low number of opportunities. These offers are usually made by smaller agencies within the Hassani Empire, as the Empire itself still maintains its strict self reliance. Most of these opportunities are often run by rebels and outlaws of the Hassani civilization. So don’t be too loud about your offerings, as they remain the most militarily powerful civilization in southern galaxy barring the mysterious dead zone around the Blaiken.

Meanwhile, the Reach welcomes yet another enterprising group. That little backwater swamp world southwest of Elasyn finally figured out space travel. Thanks to their capture of some slave ships that made the mistake of misplacing their keys. Despite two centuries of harvesting there, it appears that an outside group may have played a hand in this mistake in operations. The masked solians, who Diadem swears they have no association with. Despite both Diadem and the masked ones having a notable distaste for slavery. Curious. Though either way, the planet has reached official galactic awareness. They are in the usual stages of realizing they cannot defend themselves while others leap upon them. Initial prospecting reveals they are rich in fuel resources, and poor in ideas of how to use it. Whichever side of the matter you fall upon, this development means there is work to be found and resources to be gained whether with these primitives or with their slavers. Particularly for practitioners of the profession we call security. Though, we also have news that the Tungsten Teeth are already on the way, but not who will win the bidding for their services. Consider your moves accordingly.

We have also seen an influx of immigrants from the northern galaxy, seeking refuge from the Exerlus wars. Now that the fighting has settled down, transporters have been finding work extracting those with anything left to trade for passage to a more civilized place. You know its bad when we’re the ‘civilized’ option. This means expect newcomers to be looking for work, newcomers with no associations here in the Reach. For those of you who are looking to hire rather than to work, these newfound independents might be just the right kind of people for your business. The Silver Fleet in particular has been scooping up quite a few to serve as their guides and experts for the upcoming prospecting expeditions into the northern galaxy.

Also for this month’s Rahlken Report, King Rahlken is currently near the core sectors. So stay safe out there. This has been your free report from the Reach Broadcast Network, and as usual we are watching. We know everything, and we could tell you what you wish to know for a price. Please contact our official offices if you wish to buy some specific information.

Thanks to Nah division and Michael Haggard we were able to deploy the scorpion grass project within Beldobaan no less which should stifle their ability to keep track of what we’re up to. Though it appears Sethis Tyne’s sister also managed to get ahold of it and deploy it into our own systems, every time I try to make any entry of Faithrae it is immediately deleted. At the very least the project is liable to keep us safe for a little while from the Hassani’s attention. As long as Renjala doesn’t personally walk around screaming “Come and get me Kanika”.

The medical labs have managed to reduce infection issues and create more safeguards and protocols should we ever get into a war with the Jaal’Darya again. Protocols have also been devised to help quarantine respond to the mummy rot should that be utilized against us. There are two versions of these measures. One run by VSEC Medical which features several plans to slow such infections and another by New Age which hopes to eliminate their spread. You can guess which one involved flamethrowers. The secondary goal of creating a genetic weapon has seen development issues ever since the Revenants attacked and destroyed the lab. They did the same thing to the Jaal’Darya too in order to destroy a project we learned would have weaponized the mummy rot into an interstellar railgun.

The exploration teams have vastly improved our mapping and understanding of the Reach network though it is hard to do so with precision. The network is intentionally chaotic and explorers started encountering resistance when a rumor began that they were compiling information for the Federation to use in expanding to take over sections of the network. The various planets in between the station travel lanes have been further mapped out to discover hundreds of worlds with their own civilizations and colonization attempts by some of these civilizations. As well as massive craters from major cities that were stolen by Rahlken.

While some of the vessians are fine working at the farms to provide themselves with food, they are uninterested in establishing themselves as a member state at this time. In particular because Grand Chief Amasis is already involved in several diplomatic relations with other powers of the Reach and it would create several problems for these alliances if the Vessians as a whole were to join the Federation formally. Also because their homeworld is so far from Diadem it brings about the issue that their world would be the first one targeted by Rahlken if the Federation was perceived as growing too large and destabilizing the gentle balance that keeps the Reach in a state of anarchy.

Through a somewhat long complicated backwards process, we’ve made some progress on the Diadem keys. At some point a powerful civilization involved in the alliance that included the Ika and Kanis had one of the keys in safekeeping. The entire city the key was within was taken by Rahlken some while ago and the key itself was sold off. After passing through a few hands it wound up with the Utewa, and Nah division has a theory that its kept in an underground vault along with many other treasures of the galaxy that they have collected. We have never been able to see the vault so we’re not sure what to expect is within there.

Mornin’ meowstah….nyah. I’m sorry its a habit, I’ve been an aethernet streamer for six years, I’m sorry it just comes out. Please don’t fire me I need this job, with my viewership lately I’ll have to do GFE content and it’s all downhill from there. Once you do GFE you can only get creepy fans in chat and you can’t do porn either because those fans will stab any costars you have in a back alley and then no one wants to work with you except big tough orcs and I’m not saying I’ve tried it but I’m concerned my holes can’t handle that. Nyah.

Eden can’t remove memories as it turns out, that’s Vasia’s line of work. Side effects may include brain damage, worse memories, and developing a permanent problem.

Eden City is now located in my apparent home plane of Valjala and floating around randomly, though the concept of putting Eden inside your Rim never quite worked out. You know, it took me three weeks to figure out what that joke was and I was about to report some of the office staff for sexual harassment there.

We’ve started the project of infiltrating near-era reach civilizations with your little space moths and pandem projects. More accurately we left it to the Shadow Order since distributing information in secret is sort of their gig. Lot of industrializing planet’s don’t know the shadowy demon god is an alien, which keeps things simple for them.

Well if nothing else your sister is a good training partner, though the rest of the office is concerned when you come back from ‘training’ barely able to walk. It really looks like one of these days she’s just going to kill you on accident.

The agent that came back from Arkaric’s club on Elasyn filled half their report with ‘reasons that place is insane’. It is fairly sickening to be honest, but I don’t know why they had to fill half their report with ‘activities that were available’. As for contacting Daiheb, Selona pointed out that he can summon for them upon request, but only if you bring an artifact to trade to her. Wasting the time of someone with powers to rival a cosmic entity is generally ill advised. Though half of the Elasyn operation is a front for people to bring artifacts in, Arkaric serves as the front desk of Elizabeth’s storefront. There is apparently another one in the Nelta territories that Elizabeth also uses.

After years of keeping tabs on the Hydra, we’ve seen them integrate more formally into the Hassani as one of the major governors of Sol. Lancaster and Jaerda’s rants aside, the Hydra is well suited to managing a vast government and the productivity of the Hassani Empire is six times that of either Alnae or Shetou’s performance history. This has led them to recover faster than anyone else from the wars and the Hydra has become one of the main councilors under Kanika. Though they are mostly handling civil matters for the empire.

As for relations between the Hassani and the Blaiken, we’ve been able to confirm that Mother is just outright a part of Selona’s team and by relation comes into regular contact with Kanika. The basis of the connections is that the top leaders of both the Blaiken and the Hassani work for Selona. Along with Jarias the exiled exerlus, Decaelys the entity, and King Rahlken.

Which leads to another path of investigation we’ve been exploring. Decaelys is also a member of this top level group but it can be hard to remember that Decaelys is capable of time manipulation and now is in possession of the Renjala’s Rift spell. They can be anywhere at anytime, since we are most frequently watching the Hassani that is where we see them but our agents report confirmation that she is just as frequently found alongside Mother, Rahlken, or Jarias as needed. Though they still can’t figure out why she’s even hanging out with them. Decaelys is possibly the most powerful member of the entire group, she can literally move stars around after all. Though she is often doing favors and work for the others and we’ve not really been able to figure out why. I don’t think even Selona could do much to her, even if you can see the future how do you stop someone like Decaelys from doing as they please? Either somehow this group provides great value to her or the fact that the jesai worship a cosmic entity that can tell them the future plays some part of their interest in Selona who can do much the same and with much higher frequency.

Ah how young and naive we were when we thought your moocher of a sister could be placated and controlled. Now she owns both our asses, runs more of Diadem than any official government body, and getting her a husband is now the least of our concerns.

This generation continues to see a lot of new prototype designs more purpose built to their function. Though with the creation of the university I have to admit we kind of suck at art. Adrienne and I can do it, though our art is our prototypes and creations. However, data is hard to come by on the phenomenon. Chevalier was one of the most expressive among us, he and Sacha in particular were always the most interested in exploring what it meant to be a voidforged in particular. Their personalities are something of a rarity nowadays and I’m not sure if my designs are to blame or if the current generation is just a product of the times. As well as the new custom frames that we allow others to request with the company we set up.

Even if we live aboard the Cradle instead of Diadem and we have a lot less to be mopey about, the constant bombardment of the meatbags on the aethernet whining about how everything sucks might be taking its toll even on our own who have little else in their history to build context out of. Members with the new more purposeful and unique designs are part of a phenomenon where they exist in a galaxy not really built to give them the ability to express their agency. A great example of this was Arsene. Living in a world built for humanoids, Arsene was never able to interact with them beyond a few purpose built special facilities. We have been careful about that in the repaired section of the Cradle that we lost back in the Sol War, allowing for more access for different body types. The situation is still ongoing, though its something to keep an eye on. Machines like Adrienne and yourself in particular can easily blend into a humanoid world, though Auvray the living destroyer is limited in how they can ever interface with others. I don’t need to blend in, I make the world to my image. I create my companions with my own hands and craft this cradle of iron life to my desires. I AM A MACHINE GOD! That and I can fit in Diadem hallways just fine.

Anyways, for some reason the Director’s board is rallying up a new wave of agents. Allow me to present to you my newest meanest, leanest designs. Oh and Le Havre has been developing so heavily for so long that it’s having a bit of a homeless crisis at the moment. We might want to build more residential zones.