Stories of Lore 1
Well this has all been frighteningly eventful. *Sigh* I suppose we might as well start with the alien infestation. At the very least, its not a major threat yet. The assault on Koura City and Somnus Station did shockingly little damage for how widespread the attack was. Though perhaps the invasion of Sol gave us a different sense of scale for how bad an attack can be, I must be getting jaded in my years.
We’ve discovered that there are three components to the assault though we don’t fully grasp the meaning of it. One section are comprised of parasite-ridden civilians, another are just mutated civilians for no particular reason as they do not have parasites. The final problem are the wild alien monsters that came from another plane with little to no warning and formed an immediate relationship with those already present.
Current findings indicate that the parasites do not possess an advanced intellect, so we’re not sure how they spread through so much of the population without being noticed. The highest concentration of infections seem to be based on various epicenters that have very little in common. The pattern would indicate intentional spreading of the infection but as I said, the parasites have demonstrated no sign of advanced enough sentience to put together a plan like that. The monsters from this other plane also show little sign of coherent thought beyond a pack-like behavior with the parasites, of which they share little to nothing in common with.
Amidst all this, we discovered a natural pandem rift beneath the city to a plane that the Astral Knights declared ‘new to us’. Within it we found a planet just slightly out of synchronized orbit with Koura. I am told that it will align again in about seventy six years. So maybe we just don’t have to bother with it and just build a big room around the rift to contain it once that time comes. Unfortunately, the parasites share similar genetic structure to the aliens from beyond the plane even if they aren’t closely related. However, these creatures have been on this world for at least a thousand years. Likely more, but that’s as far as the survey teams could date anything back to so far. To their credit, this is an alien world they’re trying to perform paleontology on within a year of arriving. So at least we know the parasitic worm creatures have been here for quite some while.
In terms of options, I would say this requires a longer term plan. The parasites infest the entire planet and ridding it of all of them is not feasible without terraforming it enough to kill them. Which is an option, there is a colonizing company based here on Somnus we could ask to do it. However, that could also damage the other forms of organic life on the planet and then we’re left with a rock in space we have a city and a station over for no apparent reason other than maybe mining.
I would say our least destructive course of option is to instead focus scientific and medical research towards protecting ourselves from being infected by any more of these things. I do not know how that would work or how many resources it would take but devoting about three million to setting up a specialized research lab to focus on the matter might yield some results we could then analyze. Just enough to get a dedicated team hired and provide them with some equipment for now until we have more information about the matter. Though New Age has already taken an interest in researching these creatures even if their motives might not quite align with ours, might be able to get them to divert some effort into preventative measures for cheaper than establishing a new laboratory.
Of course there is also the most aggressive option, we invade the rift and see if blowing up everything on the other side ends the threat. We do have a mercenary company on Koura who might be able to do so, and a small naval fleet presides nearby. Judging by the strength of the invasion that we faced, I have very little, and by that I mean just one, reason to believe we couldn’t accomplish this.
Speaking of which, when the Astral Order went through the portal they discovered that there is some sort of sahad aligned entity on the aforementioned planet in the mysterious plane. A very powerful and fast acting one, though given our limited understanding of sahad it is anyone’s guess how powerful ‘very powerful’ is and we only have Vasia’s recount of the events to fall back on to try and gauge the situation. Peaceful contact may be possible, we don’t know its general disposition as we avoided the encounter quickly. We could also attempt to infiltrate the plane a little more subtly than we experienced recently to try and gather more information. Then of course, just shoot it and see what happens if you wanted to to take a more simplistic approach.
On to the next matter, this is a note from Hylavi. During the conflict she discovered just how many ‘civilians’ are armed or capable of some sort of magic that can do an awful lot of damage. While we didn’t exactly ban personal weapons, it was alarming how many there were and how so many of them were clustered in very specific areas. Most notably the docks and a couple of particular city blocks. Hylavi tracked down an unassuming bar to be the epicenter of one such collection of these incidents. She has reason to believe that Somnus has drawn the interest of more than just colonists looking to explore new alien worlds on the frontier. Because of the station’s youthful age and lack of association to any standing governing body, we haven’t really set down a lot of laws about certain things and some individuals who may not be welcome in Alnae or Shetou seem to have taken an interest in the station for its ‘personal liberties’.
Okay in less political wording, Hylavi thinks there are a couple gangs here exploiting the lack of local laws on things that other governments have already taken a stance on. She doesn’t know much about such laws nor care enough to do anything about the matter unless ordered to, but she did still do the groundwork to figure out what was going on. One amusing example is the aforementioned bar, it sells almost every recreational drug imaginable. It does pay its taxes though. While it might be staffed by ‘ex’ gangsters from Sol, they’re mostly just acting as bouncers for the time being.
That being said another gang that lives on the starboard side of the city are a little more extreme. They’ve been using warehouse space in the lower decks to act as a massive vault for things I’m pretty sure they stole from Sol. Including people. Given that it is no easy feat to reach the station from Sol, these gangs who can make it here can be pretty far away from anyone who might want to pay attention from them.
We could ‘borrow’ some legal precedents from Alnae if we wanted to clean the station up a bit. Particularly like banning certain items or extending a treaty of extradition with other major governments in Sol and inviting some of their agencies to set up an embassy here to keep an eye on such things. Shetou, Kar’soluth, and Alnae number two through six being relevant options as well. This would definitely hurt us economically, though it would give us a chance to start a good relationship with any other empires we chose to consort with. Not to mention clean up the station from such activities, which would improve stability.
Alternatively we could extend the very same olive branch to these ‘startup companies’ and make sure they keep paying taxes as good law abiding citizens of Somnus. We just happen to never pass a law banning their business practices. This would be very economically beneficial for us, as groups like these tend to make a lot of profit if they can find a spot to settle in. As the galactic stage begins to expand we’re in a good position to become a major commerce sector if we just so happen to be one of ‘those’ places where you can go to find anything you want. It would probably leave us a little bit outcast from the standing empires though if we’re harboring people they’d like to see arrested and things might get a little more chaotic around the station. Though historically, that chaos brings with it an odd sense of security as no one wants to pick a fight with a station where everyone in it is armed all the time. Basically, we’d be like Tykel or Solvang Station. Places where people go to escape government oversight and get business done.
Ey boss, I’ve compiled the reports about that rift business. I’m sure you got most of it since you were there but just let me recap, I’m going somewhere with this.
So the rift goes to an unknown plane with a synchronized star but the orbits of its planets are not so walking through casually can be a bad idea. While the matter of some big Sahad spook roaming around isn’t really our business, the existence of the plane itself probably is. What’s a lil weird is that we can only enter the other plane from the rift down on Koura. No other attempts to access it from here on the station have worked. The immediate issue this creates is that accessing the plane would require a space worthy craft of some kind, and the rift is underground. So it would take a bit of effort to get a ship there. We might be able to move the rift’s apex position here in Zonaricth since its stable though that would require quite a bit of effort and research. If we’re just moving it up a short distance into space, that is at least reasonable feasible. Not like we need to tow it across the galaxy.
An easier passive solution, that rift’s position in space is not tied to the planet of Koura. It just so happens that soon after we got here a one in a million math equation happened and it popped into a place where it could release things. Last month it was just buried in the rock, and in another month it’ll be about sixty meters in the air. A month after that and it’ll be wildly floating through space. So we could just wait it out. Alexander wanted me to pitch the other idea though, I think he just wants to try moving it around to see if he can.
As for the things coming out of the rift, that was a one in a billion math equation…that will happen again in seventy eight years, one hundred and four days. Assuming my math is correct. At that exact moment the planets had a synchronized position and the rift wasn’t in the rock of either one, allowing things to slip through. Preventing this disaster scenario from happening again at that time is likely to just be a matter of making sure some people with guns figure out where it will be during the next apex intersection like that. Assuming the same kinds of things come through at least.
Data collected on this mysterious other plane has been sent to us and I’ve gone through the effort of having it printed onto paper for ease of access. Alexander believes that it shows signs most consistent with higher planes, particularly the astral one, though it rides the thinnest of lines between that classification and being more aligned with the middle planes. According to him, it was a difference of a single decimal place. The greater concern about this rift business is how so many of those creatures got onto the station, since the rift was way down there inside the planet. It implies that something on the other side has some control over this phenomena and deliberately sent things onto the station rather than creatures just trickling in on accident.
Whether or not this is related to this whole sahad entity thing isn’t really my place to say. It could be them, it could be something else. This is a very unexplored territory. We’re not even sure how many things are on that planet in the first place, we only know that there is one notable creature on it who we have not even gotten the chance to see let alone interact with.
As for more local matters. The knights have all been pestering the new champion for sparring sessions. Reika isn’t particularly interested in sparring everything that moves, she’s not much of a glory seeker. She simply is glory incarnate and doesn’t have to try anymore. Either way this resulted in the men forming an tournament where the grand champion’s prize is to get their ass kicked by Reika for five seconds. If I didn’t know you people I would have sworn that was a fetish porn synopsis.
We moved in what? Three weeks ago? Already dealing with inter-dimensional parasite zombie monster hordes. On the other hand, hey we’ve only been here three weeks and already we have a case of inter-dimensional parasite zombie monsters to look into. New Age is having fun with that one at least.
40th day is currently docked as we were helping the station resolve this whole ‘underground horde’ thing with some of our scanning equipment. ARK is also on standby in the area.
New Age has suddenly acquired a lot of samples and many of them showing signs of sahad manipulation. Which is not a thing we really knew was possible but sahad magic has some method of manipulating life forms. Vasia says it makes sense, we’re all just made of space dust anyways. So space magic might have a few radical abilities in the creation department instead of just shooting lasers. Updates on that as more research is done. They have also acquired a young drow named Salied who is a witness of sahad usage. Though she shows extreme symptoms, far worse than what Cerys ever went through and we’re not entiiirely sure why. Working on that one too.
So that whole cult thing, they’ve been going through some rocky times what with the halving of civilization. After the assassination of Zex the cult had a severe lack of leadership at a time when it definitely needed it. In the wake of this chaos it created a power vacuum among the enlightened members of the cult who are aware of its true purpose, they in particular had a desire to continue the cult practices if nothing else for their own advantages. Without any guidance they’ve split into factions among different leaders. You may have noticed I am intentionally vague with my word choice there, because all of them have radically different titles. Zex held the title of Spokesperson, but now things are shifting just a little under the ministrations of the new leaders vying for power. If we don’t step in and deal with it they will likely split into new sects entirely and die out once they become thought of as the latest con. Without their unity they do seem a little scammy, especially if three different groups are all trying to get people to do the same thing for radically different reasons and approaches.
Anyways, the first of the new sects has given themselves the title of warlord. They’re a violent fanatic who have used the cult’s power to create super soldiers empowered by the meditation circles. This stemmed largely from the fear of the falling civilization around people. In exchange for protection and safe shelter, old members and new recruits flocked to these psionic warriors. This sect sprung up within the ruins of Luna. After the towering cities fell, where the poor tended to live in service of the rich, there were a lot of people with nowhere to go and nothing to their name. However, the affluent neighborhoods of Luna formed small militarized camps on their estates. The Cult of Lucidity would then provide a means for the poor to attack these estates by focusing the psionic energies of those who couldn’t find into those who could. These super psionics would raid the estates and bring back the spoils. Essentially creating a deal where the weak could simply practice meditation in the circle to receive free food, shelter, and protection. The unique twist to this sect is that its followers know exactly what the trick to these circles are, it just happens to be an even better offer than the yoga class for people this desperate.
The second of the new sects rose in SV1, a former world of the Vloz’Khress that suffered catastrophic damage when the aliens invaded. Dropping their own ‘moon’ onto the planet, flooding it with the massive ball of ice that was their excuse for a moon. In the wake of this destruction the ecosystem and environment were so massively disrupted that it has been said that SV1 is like year one of a new planet. The sect that gathered here are something of a group of mystics. Granting their new leader the title of Dreamwalker. They were actually formed from someone who didn’t fully understand what the cult was about, pursuing the continual path of mysticism within the cult to achieve enlightenment. They’re fairly nice people just minding their own business on SV1 but they believe themselves to be the true path of the cult, which leads to them trying to shepherd the other sects towards themselves. You can see how this might agitate the truly ‘enlightened’ members of the cult who are losing recruits to this path that has nothing to do with the cult’s original true purpose. Its a bunch of hippies on a rock, but their faith does drive their message quite far and they continue to grow in these harsh times by preaching of a fresh start on SV1, the reborn planet in a time when everything is crumbling around them.
The final major splinter stem from Thenica. They happen to be the one in the more functional areas of civilization. After the death of Zex, one of the apostles figured out that the cult was a particularly effective at making money with just a few tweaks in marketing. Offering a manifestation of ‘thoughts and prayers’ so the rich wouldn’t feel guilty about not doing anything for the rest of the crumbling system, and just so happening to ask for a few donations here and there. What the psionic energies were actually devoted towards just happen to be whatever the leader of that circle feels like doing that day.
As a situational analysis, I can tell you that we will have to remove two of the leaders from the picture so the remaining one can assume the mantle uncontested and no deviant messages spread throughout what converts the cult currently has. In order to…handle the issue. The sects don’t have spectacular access to starships right now so they aren’t really able to conflict directly with each other the way we can. The third splinter is the most equipped to travel but has the least desire to do so given that they want to operate in the more civilized areas.
The warlord is obviously the most aggressive of the groups. Supporting them would gain us access to a very effective projection of force should we need to do so in the future. The mystics are the most popular at the moment and getting things under control with them could help us spread our influence further. The final group would allow the cult to finally start producing a profit instead of being a constant sink of our resources. Essentially, it would depend if you’re more interested in warriors, influence, or money.
Welcome back sir. You’ve been away for a little while so let me brief you on what you’ve missed. When the gauntlet dissolved we slimmed down the team. It was a good opportunity to re-assess some of our employees and their priorities. Nila, Auni, and Reika were let go as they were expensive for our new budget status and their loyalties were somewhat questionable. We try to maintain good relations, and Reika is really not too far away. Vaeri, Aryn, Vanjin, Leon, and Setani were noted for having no other priorities outside of the agency that could conflict with our parameters so they were considered valuable enough to keep on staff. Even with the pay cuts they haven’t really gone anywhere.
We’ve relocated the primary base aboard the Somnus Station, enough equipment is on the stealth ship for mobile deployment if necessary though the primary office will do for processing logistics and jobs that don’t require hands on-site. That and Aryn’s computer is too big to fit in the ship without renovating the whole thing. There is typically little need for her to be away though.
With you away we’ve been getting by letting Vanjin take some ludicrous jobs for a single bounty hunter to undertake but discreetly aiding in her in completing the task, that was how we managed to keep afloat at least. Her notoriety has grown as a result, as well as her overall standing among the higher echelons of society. As we’ve seen, other top level agents like Auni or Nila are downright chaotic and difficult to call reliable. Vanjin has developed a reputation for being a professional who has managed to achieve the competency and feats similar to those of the aforementioned lunatics. She’s not associated with us as far as the galaxy knows, though she has proven very valuable in allowing us to negotiate jobs people don’t know she has an entire support staff to help handle. Sometimes she accepts work and we just send Setani instead.
We’ve made a few connections, a woman named Nicole Lancaster owns Somnus station and is aware of our presence. Another named Doctor Vasia Nikolaides, who is our neighbor on the station, does tend to like hiring us to handle matters discreetly for her facility. We’ve also been able to fall back to relying on our old friends at Madhammer, though in the process one of their colonels became aware of our existence. Though he has managed to maintain discretion thus far, so it has not proved an issue.
With us moving away from Sol we’ve been able to operate a bit more liberally as scrutiny is not so intense. Not to mention everyone has their own problems so we haven’t been investigated too deeply any further.
On to matters at hand, recently Somnus station has seen a little bit of a bug problem. They are also apparently dealing with people of criminal backgrounds setting up shop here and in the city below, attempting to take root and establish their businesses. We’re not in the middle of anything at the moment but we could get involved in such ongoing matters if you have any ideas. I know that if Ms. Lancaster wanted, we could look into these gangs for her or…remove them without making a big fuss.
Alternatively an option would be to take control of this side of the market. Sophia is currently on Thenica tending to her own personal affairs. With the collapse of the system she went on a bit of a hiatus since there wasn’t much for her to do and she wanted to take care of personal matters. We would probably need to invest into re-establishing our former black market presence, I estimate it would be at least a ten million credit investment. Can’t re-establish Sophia without collecting some things to sell. We could also see who the existing presences are and maybe find someone a bit fresher.
We have a stealth cruiser and some of the best agents in the galaxy, and a surprising lack of problems that would fall to our responsibility to deal with. So its up to you what our next step from here is.
Welcome to Koura sir, a planet filled with just…stuff. Its not quite a golden world due to the complications of the atmosphere but its not too bad given what most colonization projects are working on. In the wake of the recent crisis I’ve been busy cleaning out the infestations but there is still a lot to do.
The new bunker is still under construction though it is operational. We still have to get our own landing pads built and the warehouse space is being expanded along the outside of the mountain. The main bunker for the more sensitive equipment has been built into the hollowed out mountain, space is at a premium in there so only the really valuable things are there. Such as the barracks, ops center, main armory, and some of the more expensive toys we don’t want anyone sabotaging. Orbital cannons and anti air batteries are online and it seems the task of orbital shielding falls to us due to the colony’s lack of them otherwise. We’re still working on that one. Most of the men are living in the city down the highway since its really cheap right now and, well who doesn’t want their own quarters?
I have our field officers living in the bunker though so that they don’t wander off too far if we need them in a hurry. This is a frontier world after all, I’m sure something is going to go horribly wrong eventually. I guess technically it already did but you know…again.
Budget wise we’re still floating on what we got from selling our assets on Thenica to the generals but we definitely operate at a net negative if we don’t go shoot something. Fortunately we’re subsidized a little bit by Somnus since…we did just prevent the monster invasion from wiping out the colony. So that takes care of taxes for now, which helps.
I do advise going over the logistics sheet to know what assets we have ready to deploy. Though you should know the fifth company is currently helping colonists in construction as security. There are big monsters with teeth on this planet that sometimes need to be discouraged from approaching developing areas.
Perhaps I’ve just been working here too long, but all these investigators seem to be looking for hard evidence of something that I can see quite clearly. The mutated monster invasion had to be deliberate on some level. At the minimum two different types of entities had made a combined attack on the Auwana system, targeting us. Whether it be this foreign sahad entity in the other plane they mention or some sort of saboteur among our colonies, I have a hunch that while they’re looking for the what, how, and why we should really concern ourselves more with the obvious ‘who’ side of all this. Then shoot them.