Stories of Lore 7
It appears Sarden and Hastam’s attack on Eliza agitated her enough to exploit her new benefactor’s particular knack for violence. Hastam was destroyed in the middle of the street and Sarden was arrested by Hylavi. She’s currently in intensive care and we’ll see how long she stays alive. Upon debriefing Hylavi, apparently Shanhai and Dazzle were here to get revenge on Hastam and went through Hylavi for help with finding them. Thanks to the information from Nah division, Hylavi was able to exploit their presence to help with bringing them down. I’m just…trying to ignore the fact that Hylavi technically just aided the Selona Syndicate.
Currently efforts of convincing the Merkas to come along have been an issue of communication as they don’t fully understand the scope of what we’re asking them to even come to. That and Renjala still has them all at Jamalia. Atop of which they are insistent on that they, and specifically the individuals in question, need to keep fighting the arcurans to save their people. I don’t know if that trait is built into all of the merkas or just this band of what we’ve discovered are basically children. We’ve also yet to actually scan their tree to see about planting one elsewhere.
As for Riley’s efforts beyond the rift, there has actually been some success there. It didn’t seem to notice her and she managed to go near the planet in close alignment to Auwana and scan some things. They don’t tell us very much useful other than that there are a lot of strange life forms down there, but it was progress.
The local jydoq trader doesn’t seem to understand the concept of why Laura King is considered dangerous instead of a basic enterprising individual. They see her as having a strong sense of supply and demand in a starved market. Notably…they have been talking to her so that might be affecting their understanding of what a criminal is. As for sahad friendly aliens…what a coincidence…they were blown to extinction by Selona during the invasions. The others they suggested might yield some results but they’re deep into the galaxy, it would be a long voyage just to make contact with them and we have no idea what has become of them amidst all of this galactic collapse.
Construction of the Renjala’s Rift stabilizer has begun.
Well two of the new starships were easy enough to find crew for, three are still pending some interviews.We’ve sent them along their way to pursue the leads that Hylavi knows of.
The Koura elections Should be concluded within two weeks by the way.
The parasite research has found an oddity. Everyone who was infected but then had the infection removed by Doctor Si Yeon after a certain slightly extended period of time was notably cured of several other standing issues. Also, all of these previously infected patients became immune to Koura’s atmosphere. They no longer exhibit any symptoms from being exposed to the low toxicity and seem to do much better digesting local flora. Basically one of its first mutations is to adapt its host to survival on this planet, and apparently cure bacterial infections almost instantly. This is fitting with its previously observed tendencies on Koura wildlife to optimize them. While it doesn’t fully understand humanoid anatomy, if its mutations only get through its first phase then its quite beneficial. Take too long though and it starts doing weird things. Si Yeon is now dealing with an influx of people trying to replicate these effects on purpose, some with better timing than others. We have a patient with a tentacle sticking out of their nose now for example.
Oh also Vittles finished their first hydroponics harvest. So that helps with the food thing around here in Auwana and help with holding an expanding population. Also their own marketing team resulted in an influx of immigration all of a sudden.
The chapter house in Jamalia has finished construction. By construction I mean we put up a sign in front of the door to one of the prefab facilities. There are some reluctant merkas in there acting as “shaya” at the moment. Basically a word in their language for what we have as the order’s slaves. We’ve stuck to using that word since it has less connotations then slave and we don’t want to have to deal with explaining that political mess to a people who are still trying to comprehend why we need them to push the button that opens doors for the knights…or what a button is.
The reinforcements from the fourth lance have made it to Jamalia and joined the first lance, which had a few promoted squires while we have time to process paperwork and ceremony. They survived that battle with Ecsanul after all.
Daesta definitely doesn’t seem interested in peace with the arcurans, something about generations of war, grudges, so on and so forth. Though she does seem to be interested in just how powerful Reika obviously is so is sticking around the colony for now.
Oh and the Merkas call this world Enohas. Which means ‘first planet’ in their language basically.
So far the arcane moon doesn’t seem to affect pandem abilities all that much, though definitely is a link to the abyssal plane. Though its too far away for it to have much impact on our spells down here.
We’ll be meeting with the arcurans soon, lots to do after just getting here and setting up shop.
The second lance is getting started on their work at Moncayo which might take awhile. The abyss is a finnicky plane sometimes. Though one thing we weren’t told about, is that we were not the only ones invited to do this. Apparently Vloz’Khress was also hired to do the same work, and it was explained as a way to make sure all angles were covered including any ‘backdoor’ tricks either side might come up with. The Moncayo supervisor appointed by Faelyn made a note of the fact that an alliance between frontier colonies is bound to have some representatives who don’t entirely like one another, not to mention aliens. Also Faelyn’s Moncayo also operates for the Sol system at large to keep them appraised of any alien approach so she is liable to at times consort with the empires as necessary. At the very least we’ve maintained things to be somewhat professional, since Alexander and Sarnai were not actually at the battle and the Moncayo forces are terrifyingly well armed. Something something fortress. While this was the most interesting, it was not the only alternate group of pandem experts to show up. There were five parties in total with a presence, two of which are from the frontier – ourselves included. Suffice to say, Moncayo will definitely become truly unassailable by the time Faelyn is done with whatever her plans are.
Inquiries into establishing a chapter house as an embassy in Moncayo seem to be going well. The city pointed out that it would take some level of investment into construction to build the chapter house as it doesn’t have too many empty buildings laying around that would be suitable. Though that probably works fine for us since we could build it to not use ethi doors and the like. There are a few building codes to observe but nothing too bizarre or difficult. Mostly having to do with the space from other buildings for its oddly wide roads and a maximum building height…again not really going to affect us. If we wanted to construct the place it would only cost about five million credits to do so, since its not a full blown colony just a nice house. Okay it could be done for just five hundred thousand but then its not really an Astral chapter house is it? So five million for proper levels of ‘bling’ as the kids say.
We’ve started steamworks up and began some research into the matter. Not much done as of yet though as we just finished setting up the building in the Somnus lower decks.
Joe is still against the alien immigration angle, the main problem with it is he and many of his buddies have a natural distrust of aliens after you know…the invasion. Most people don’t know or would even believe what the phantoms did, so to their perspective aliens decided ‘fuck these guys in particular’ as their first contact protocol. Atop of that was also the Valdir first contact. Oh and the parasite problem. So far the track record isn’t so good, and he lives on Koura so is barely even aware of the fact that Hylavi is chief of security on Somnus. While he states something to the effect of at least allowing for it if they prove themselves trustworthy, there is a notable xenophobia to him and his supporters veiled by logic.
Also everyone is always interested in free healthcare, we don’t have any insurance companies here in Auwana yet. Well a few are trying to get started, but its pretty hard to get ordinary people to oppose the idea.
As for exposing the Harlus loophole in voting, the experts think it’ll definitely hurt Harlus’ campaign especially against those who are a bit closer to being on the fence rather than firmly in one camp or another for other reasons. The worst case scenario is Harlus can spin it to somehow be about improving migration to Auwana. They see no reason not to make a huge story of it and would love to run with that dirt. However, Nah division has another perspective. From a security angle, calling out Laura King’s operations on behalf of Harlus directly could attract her attention in ways he hasn’t thus far. So its a gamble if we think nothing terrible will happen as a result.
Sarden was arrested recently and I think this conclusively proves that I am not Sarden’s alter ego. That’s right I hear you when you talk to the other directors. So with Sarden’s arrest by Hylavi and Hastam’s destruction by…we’ll call that one Hylavi too, Cassir has finally deployed out to hunt down the other cultists. Though she’s still traveling. There is a bit of a collective unease among some of the cult though, this is the first truly aggressive act by Cassir and her followers. Prior to this they could argue it as a necessity for survival, but now she’s hunting for other reasons entirely. Though really this is just part of the transitional period from the old version of the cult to the new one I suppose. Had we gone with the mystics we’d have the aware members leaving, if we’d gone with the financial ones we’d have the more yoga inclined people bailing. Its just a time of turmoil over all no matter how you look at it for them. Though the upcoming slaughter will be the first major act of the cult’s new era. I brought popcorn, I’ll put some in your feeding tubes.
On to new Age. Slightly different issue, Setani isn’t willing to just hand out essentia for another batch of experiments similar to 004C for nothing given that she has to collect more to keep it going. Though Vasia took her blank check and ran with it, buying another fifty slaves from Ohalyn to feed to Setani’s soul collecting. Maybe we don’t tell Lancaster about that one. Moving on, they’ve at least started the next batch with replicated environments in the containment cells. Progress ongoing.
As for finding our own necrocarnate, that might be more challenging than you think given how rare and taboo the art is. Its frankly amazing we know of so many let alone have regular contact with two of them. However, if you really wanted to find one, I’m pretty sure Laura King can go looking as all necrocarnates tend to operate in the underworld due to the rampant persecution they would otherwise face with the sole exception of Song Yi. Though we’re not getting her help I’m sure.
I’ve been able to contact Faelyn, though I think we fall under the blanket of Somnus as it is right now and are thus represented by Winter currently. So I used that as an excuse for why I’m not there myself personally. Though there is definitely an interest in the growing alliance for the services of 40th Day and New Horizons. If nothing else we’re on her network as a shipyard that can dock and do necessary maintenance for any ships passing along through the frontier.
As for the sivataur team, I asked Nah to ask Laura for us. There are actually a lot of them with pretty solid reputations despite the general stereotypes if you know where to look apparently. Some of them are particularly obsessed with honor and ‘the hunt’ and so on. She recommended we send representatives to SR2 to perhaps interview a few potential hires. However, SR2 is a dangerous world so don’t send just anyone. The planet is shrouded in a permanent eclipse and is basically the sivataur capital. It was an abandoned wasteland of a world that they started terraforming…by hand. They just picked up trees in the abyss, transported over, and planted. Over time it has become their playground and if you don’t know…most undesirable and violent criminals are sent to this world. For a small fee, Sivataur operates the largest super max prison in the system. A very very small fee. Because whoever is sent there is just thrown onto the planet and told ‘good luck’. The only security systems are the docking ports and ships are not allowed across the rest of the planet to make sure no criminals escape. Whether or not said convicts get eaten by sivataurs is anyone’s guess and kind of the whole point. There are also roaming abyssal monsters they transported to the planet that can survive without the sun. This is SR2, the sivataur playground and where you go if you want to hire some sivataurs. As I said, choose carefully who you send. This world was built to be dangerous on purpose, so its pretty fuckin dangerous.
Actually, if we caught some of those giant monsters on PZ142-2 that are roaming around…we have a kaiju freighter. Could probably sell those on this planet for a nice profit. Sivataurs sure do love giant monsters. To the point of being an unhealthy obsession. Just a thought.
As for Salied, Vasia has been putting her on the backburner while working on the 004C experiments. So far psionic probing causes the device that probes to suddenly experience some faults. Vasia has pointed out that due to the nature of the affliction, any psion who gets too deep into her head will suddenly suffer the same condition. She also lost a researcher to proving this in the first place.
Speaking of Vasia, she hasn’t really looked into shades but thinks she could get several to outright volunteer. Her people are naturally curious and all.
The Dreamwalker still has no interest in working with Cassir and sees her as a general abomination to everything the cult stands for. Keeping in mind he has no idea what the cult actually stood for and his faction has sort of brainwashed itself into believing its own hype. He also considers you to be an abomination talking about enlightened and so on and so forth. They sincerely have no idea about the origins of the cult and being told they’re wrong causes them to just dig themselves deeper into their position. They also believe themselves to be the true new prophet for the whole cult and you to be someone exploiting Cassir’s violence to silence your competition and mutiny against the other financial section of the cult.
Defense turrets have been put at Phoenix Colony, which is nearing the end of its construction. Also sent the mana batteries to Jamalia to help with experimentation on the trees and natives as necessary. Vasia says we should send her some arcurans for sahad viability testing by the way.
Tests with the Koura crystals ability to feed plants proves to be quite viable. The sunlight they release slowly over time does emit all stored radiation patterns of the light they absorb from. We also found this works with fiber optics by the way, someone just decided to try that real quick while playing around in the lab. Due to its inability to retain it for long periods of time this isn’t quite useful in any practical manner but it has promise.
We’ve also had time to figure out how to store more sunlight with the crystals, as it is affected by the crystal purity. Which can actually be refined. The method for doing so hasn’t been settled on yet but doing little tricks like removing impurities or filling air pockets with various types of transparent resin does seem to improve performance overall. Not much yieldable result yet but its an exciting time to be a geologist! Which I am not, I’m going to go get a drink now.
Aside from her actual meeting with Laura, Vaeri has confirmed to some extent that Laura’s contacts are quite vast. Though this is due to a few factors. The first of which being that they change regularly, she has the current status of being the top crime lord in Auwana, which means by default new criminal elements just treat her as being the go-to. Which means they join her network for as little as a day due to the assumed cooperation between them. This is part of criminal culture apparently, its generally assumed that the biggest crime boss in the area doesn’t have as much to gain from backstabbing you over a shipment as someone smaller whose profits are less stable. Also Laura has a reputation of being ‘that kind’ of criminal who take their word a little too seriously. Which is comical to some criminals, but at least seen as reliable.
Another factor is that Laura possesses a Solvang membership, I mean so do we but this does expand the number of options she has available when trying to secure deals and other things of that nature. It also turns out that with Arkaric visiting our system due to an interest in Eliza, she was able to meet with him due to her being the biggest criminal in the area. I suppose that defaults her to being the one who has the right to approach him. Hence the sudden influx of selona brand toys on the black market right now, speaking of which tell Hylavi to be a little more careful of any ongoing criminal activity. They might have new guns and Selona weapons are famously effective against aliens specifically.
While this meeting wasn’t likely anything alarming, we did have his sister working with us for awhile after all, it does indicate that Laura’s influence is spreading. With her being able to contact such major criminals she’s able to network a little more. Essentially, she’s growing rapidly and moving without us being able to fully keep tabs of what she and her family are up to. Importantly, we found out she’s in contact with someone from Moncayo and two other frontier colonies. She’s on track to expand into being a multi-system element if we don’t do anything about it.
If we wanted to replace her, we’d have to make sure Joe wins the election to decrease her power and then take the opportunity to raise a replacement and cut her off. Ohalyn might be an okay replacement, she’s a respected member of the underworld unlike Raiben and she has the demeanor it takes to not be as problematic for us. That being said, she’s far less talented. I suppose you have to consider if trying to work with a difficult mastermind is better or worse than an untalented puppet when thinking about how to move forward with the Laura situation.
As for the Raven II that the engineer was hauled off to, its a bit hard to find much information on it. As might be expected of Kanika, she’s good at keeping secrets. Apparently, it was constructed by a labor force that cannot remember ever working on it. At least they won’t admit to knowing about it. That’s at least a few hundred mechanics and engineers with a blank spot in their memory or a very adamant desire not to reveal that they do know anything. Which is highly unusual, but its worth remembering this ship is the successor to a facility that brainwashed serial killers into loyal bodyguards. So its not out of the realm of what this place can do. However, we were able to learn that its not as well protected as you might expect for a super carrier. Because it was refitted as basically a space station that can go places, most of its firepower has been stripped off in favor of its facilities. It relies primarily on stealth and coasting out in space where no one would go looking for it unless they were invited as prospective clients.
At this point we could try to send Vaeri posing as a client….not like we haven’t done this one before. We could also just send the stealth cruiser with the full team to try and infiltrate it through brute force. Also we could just tell House Song where it is again and let them cause a ruckus given what happened last time and try slip our way in amidst the chaos.
As for the drug market on the newer colonies, we still can’t even corner some drug markets here on Koura. We don’t really have a drug lord on staff given our ongoing back and forth with Laura. So we don’t have anywhere that we’re growing them at the moment in order to take elsewhere to sell. We could look into that but I’m not sure how Lancaster would feel about using the land on Orchard or the hydroponics labs to grow drugs for selling in other colonies given the current value of food.
As for exploiting tax fraud, doesn’t that make us still a financial burden just with more steps? Taxes go to Lancaster, so we’d be pocketing money that would have already gone to her and then just saving her some money on keeping us afloat.
The men are back at base on Koura now after a lengthy trip, taking a brief break to recover from the campaign. More accurately, getting drunk at local bars.
Also winter sort of covered it, but basically my parasite research indicates they can actually be kind of miracle cures if you do it juuust right. If you do it wrong you grow a new tail.
When it comes to looking for our next job, I have noticed there is a posting on the Solvang boards, that Nah has let me see, to assist a warlord in repelling Kaylen’s upcoming invasion of his territory on Thenica. I also checked with Nelan, we could make 750 million for siding with Alnae proper, which is a bit less but I think our host like her more than the warlords.
Some notes about these jobs. They’re much shorter campaigns since its just two specific forces fighting, we won’t have to spend months hunting down every mole rat burrowed in the dirt while trying to secure a whole planet. So its actually a pretty decent payout for a little bit of work. Also this is not going to be hunting a bunch of bitey bugs or warding off underequipped and underinformed aliens. This will be real, full arsenal, Sol on Sol warfare. Alnae versus Alnae is a playground of tanks and bombs. Losses would be heavy. Also if we took this job we’d have to load up and ship out soon, so we’ll probably not be here for contact with the Exerlus. Not sure if we’ll be needed for that or not but its something to consider as there is no way in hell we’re walking into a Thenica warzone with anything less than every gun we’ve got.
This could work towards strengthening our relationship with or against Alnae, whether or not the directors are still interested in that stuff. Though not sure how it’ll look to Faelyn and any other new alliances we’re working on. Not to mention it will take us awhile to recover from the losses and we won’t be deploying for awhile after a conflict like this one.
Alternatively, we could ask Winter to mention us to Faelyn to see if there are any more small time colony jobs we could take on the frontier to clean up some more bugs here and there. Safer easier work, pays less and takes longer but at least half the men don’t turned into red paste overnight for it.
Also since you didn’t, I went ahead and named your new arms manufacturing company for you. I call it Pretty Pink Unicorns.
Nah I’m just kidding, I named it Whitetalon Armaments while filling out the paperwork. Factory is just down the road from our current base for easy shipping…also land is still cheapest out here in the outskirts.