Posted on October 24, 2021

 

Stories of Lore 13

 

We’ve at least discerned that Riley is still alive. She might need therapy, but she’s still alive. We don’t know if she will remain that way, or if she’ll ever be returned to normal. We also can’t contact Irae since Renjala is no one knows where and we haven’t been able to get him to respond to any of his messages. Sethis checked in on his phylactery and we know he’s at least…fine? Though communication with the KouKou is lost until Renjala returns from whatever mess he got into unless we use Ilex again. Though judging by what  happened last time, maybe we just wait for Renjala to come back.

In hindsight I probably shouldn’t have opened with that, that’s a bit of a…disturbing matter and now I’m just going to talk about colonization. So the starships went to explore the planets we’ve come across previously and look…well less promising. Some have a few potential resources though we have yet to fully exploit the ones already available to us beneath Somnus. Koura city is big but the planet has some space we could place more things on. Not to mention Orchard if anyone is okay with the cold.

Though if you really just want colonies all over space, we have a long list of planets who are less than ideal compared to Koura. Their atmospheres are even more imbalanced or the gravity is even worse, also a lot of dust balls as I hear the surveyors like to say. Though with some effort we could establish hostile colonies on them and see what becomes of it. In terms of resource mining, at best we found some common materials.

Though when we had a a ship bump into the Sahad entity, the ship captain described it as “like hitting an immovable object.” The ship is currently having its hull repaired. No major damage as they didn’t ram it too hard, just enough to confirm that this wasn’t making any progress. The entity seemed to take no offense at the attempt oddly enough. It just…ignored them and made sure they didn’t go too far past the rift.

As for Koura Cures, its still developmental. This is very sensitive due to the ‘window’ of parasite removal to yield the positive effects is about six hours long. Which doesn’t seem too bad for a major case but if we were to put it in the hands of less than experts it would definitely kill a lot of people just because the doctor forgot to check his watch while helping some other patient or another. They’re actually currently researching methods of getting it to stop on its own at the correct time or a separate type of injection that kills the parasite so slowly that it works through at the right time without needing such precise intervention. Technically we could start selling the idea now and particularly careful doctors would yield some success though the instant we get onto Sol News for spreading a mutating parasite that drives people rabid will be very bad for the long term future of the company. That being said, at least here on Koura itself we can have the experts apply it as necessary for any extreme medical cases. Which we’ve done a few time for trials to see about getting the process to work. Though we put the test subjects into a coma so we can keep their mutation process constantly monitors as its not a specific timer like baking bread. There’s just a certain point where everything is cleaned up depending on the initial condition of the patient and that is when the parasite starts renovating its new residence. So it has to be caught at that exact moment to make sure it doesn’t start causing new problems that cause the host to become dependent on the creature.

Oh and also Faelyn is planning to name the alliance something other than “The Frontier Alliance” before the invasion of Nelta so that if we make it through alright, they’ll print that name in the news instead of calling us the Frontier Alliance. A chance to start a PR campaign I suppose. So she’s taking input from various members. Though less so on the prefix and more so the suffix. We’re still trying to figure out if we want to keep going with “alliance” or something else. Some like Alliance, others want to call it an empire to project the strength of the inner empires as well to gain some air of legitimacy, though others are wary of that meaning we have to call Faelyn an empress if she doesn’t spread out her powers as the alliance leader any further. Which she seems less than willing to do regardless of her title. So just thought I’d bring that up in case you wanted me to bring anything to the floor’s attention.

 

So with Renjala currently missing, looks like ol’ Wolum is gonna be in charge around here. You there, squire, up the defenses. All of madhammer is currently impossible to contact and so is the first lance. I’m going to have to-

 

 

Actually in the absence of the grandmaster, command falls to me.

Given that our leader is an immortal lich, actually I don’t think we have an official chain of command for who takes over if we can’t contact him. I suppose with the champion missing as well then I gueeess Knight-Chancellor is next in line.

Oh its not because I’m Knight-Chancellor. It’s because I pretty much run the Moncayo Chapter house, and I have the last lance available to contact at all. So if I say we’re doing something, then that’s what the entirety of the order is doing since the entirety of the order is now just my boys and me.

You make an excellent point. Very well sir, well the Grandmaster is currently missing. We’re not sure why, though from Jamalia we detect no super weapon detonations that could have wiped out everyone all at once, and his phylactery is still operating as normal. So I assume he is in some sort of scenario that prevents communication rather than physical destruction of his body. Likely drow jamming.

I see. Well before he went to battle he had the foresight to have me initiate traveling to Jamalia in case it was necessary. It does indeed seem that was the correct play. I will continue my standing mission to travel to Enohas and I will go to his last known location to provide reinforcements. Do we have any shuttles remaining at Jamalia?

Yes, there are two in reserve.

 

On behalf of the Moncayo Chapter Master, I will offer Nihlav any material possession within my power, including weaponry, to grant her if she does one favor for me. I need her to take the merkas to the last known locations of the conflict and scout the area for us. They know the land, they are naturally good at stealth. With Renjala under jamming he could be anywhere, and I need-

She left two days ago with the other merkas to return to her city. Said something about a long talk with Reika convincing her she needed to go home and take care of things. Also relaying the message that they need to prepare their defenses in case Kar’Soluth should find them.

Well that is mighty unfortunate for us. I guess we’ll go in the way a knight should, face first into an obvious trap. We don’t know what kind of danger Renjala is in, though we do know he is still in possession of his material body and that is good enough to know that there is something worth reinforcing. Now, while I am in transit, are there any other matters Renjala needs to have tended to in his current absence?

Why yes sir. We alerted Faelyn to our claim over the Paizarus system for registration. She said the registration is accepted and the system is marked as being a primary claim. We may declare a capital claim if we wish. Though I’m just reading the aethermail. I’ll have to get clarification.

That is a matter for which we can hope Renjala will return in time to deal with. Its a primary claim because its the first colony we established on our own. Which means unless Faelyn herself rules in favor of another party, no one else should be settling there without our permission. A capital claim marks it as our capital, which only we can do because we have colonies in multiple locations. A capital claim essentially states that we have full authority over it. With a primary claim, settlers who establish another colony can establish another government that is just an ally under the frontier alliance. With a capital claim, Enohas is ours and while Faelyn can allow others to colonize there, they have to abide by our laws and governance while on the planet. Usually the only case for her to bypass us on a capital claim to allow colonization without our consent is military in nature. For example allowing her people to establish a military outpost. Though she put a sneaky point in the fine print. A capital claim is only available to those with large scale investments in multiple systems, however whatever you make a capital claim of cannot be changed. Ever. She said this is because people have a tendency to get over-eager and want to move their claims around as they see fit with new investments. Its a whole thing.

Basically you’re getting a lot of paperwork as a result of us declaring Jamalia and its moon station, because Jamalia is larger than some of the other colonies within the alliance and it is technically our first full fledged colony outside of Auwana. The rest of our stuff has all been in the same star.

However, it’s likely that we won’t make a capital claim on Enohas because as the Order we technically fall under Somnus. So it is more likely that once everything gets sorted out, Lancaster will put that on Koura. Basically, it’s just a lot of paperwork. We can wait for Renjala to get back to deal with it, or just forward it to Lancaster.

You spend a lot of time talking to them about fine print don’t you?

As Moncayo chapter master, such is my duty as a primary liaison to the frontier alliance. Also its good for Somnus’ interests to have me and Winter just there all the time. It looks good when we have people actively involved in alliance politics on a regular basis and keeps our position as one of the top members of it in a nice cushy lead.

Wait a minute, I run most of the administration for Renjala. I know he declared you knight-chancellor but I don’t even see the rank “Moncayo Chapter Master” anywhere in these documents. Did you just make that title up?

I have been spending time with the ARC fleet admiral, a Sir Vamon De’Sartori. He has advised me to try just calling myself by a title and assuming the responsibilities of that title and see if anyone bothers to stop me or just assumes its true after long enough. I said that seemed improper but after a bit too wild of a night I accidentally blurted that out to Winter and have been kind of stuck with it ever since until someone stops me. It’s pretty much true anyways.

So…anyways. Steamworks profits are up as we produced an automatic door that works without ethi technology. It makes a bit of unnecessary noise, but its not too shabby. We’ve been approached by a distributor who would like to buy steamworks products in large quantities so that he can resell it elsewhere. Specifically I think he’s going to try to sell it in Kar’Soluth knowing that normally we wouldn’t have any dealings with them.

Another matter which can wait until Renjala returns. Though if you ask me, I do suggest complying if nothing else to give Nah a sort of sneaky route into Kar’Soluth from many angles as who knows where things might be sold here or there. High chance of never using that angle, but hey money is money and you never know what Nah might need.

What else is going on?

Well Faelyn’s ambassadors have traveled to Kar Soluth and Valdir as they mentioned they intended to. We’re short staffed so it seems Somnus was unable to find anyone to send to Valdir with her ambassadors. Though they did alright. Yasrena Val’Hari has agreed to order the Vloz’Khress to cooperate provided the condition that this exempts Sarghess from being expected to show up to any ground invasions and that the Jaal’Darya be permitted to enter frontier space afterwards. Apparently Sarghess is currently still nursing its wounds from its fight with the Song Clan and so she is using the opportunity to say that Kar’Soluth contributed without having to risk their damaged ground forces. No one is really sure what that clause about the Jaal’Darya is for though.

As for Valdir, Azilath agreed to send assistance on the terms that all biomass be listed as a spoil of war to be retrieved and sent to them. So Faelyn is asking us to have Victor deploy the salvage branch of New Horizons after the battle and make sure they retrieve all the corpses to be sent to SR3. Which was renegotiated twice to make sure that New Horizons could act as the official salvager of the battle so that not every empire sends people over. Basically fifteen layers of fine print later we get to “ask Victor to send out salvage ships and distribute the loot as the contract states to get Valdir to send its pandem casters out with us”.

I am surprised Renjala did not ask me to visit the Valdir with the alliance ambassadors. Though given the situation we are now in, that may have been the correct call. I am proceeding towards Enohas with haste. Arrival time of three standard days. Hang in there boys, Papa Alex is comin.

. . . Papa Alex?

 

 

I may have been spending too much time with Sir Vamon De’Sartori.

 

 

I’m not sure if you remember this, but the Nomads along with the Raiders of Abbathor were actually the very first pirates to steal an alien ship. They also did it during the very first invasion. if it pays well they’re interested at least. Though they pointed out, the larger the ship the harder it is to take, and alien ones have a problem of them not knowing the controls. Also they no longer have Halaestra, so they can’t do pandem grabs anymore. They might be able to take over one during the pandem operation we’re currently trying to plan though with some assistance. As one of the big problems with these operations is that they have to  get the ship into a secure location so they can take time to try and figure out the controls.

Contact was established with Riley and that was…fun. I’m not leaving this station, pass me some wine.

As for Cassir, she’s been taken by Vasia for the journey to the strange event. Admittedly Vasia took way more stuff than she needed and was definitely hoping to stay there longer but we’ve discovered that doing so would result in a potential conflict with alien fleets coming to investigate the very same thing she was. Though she did find the last survivors of that race, who are too primitive to know about the rest of the galactic community. Also she just started looting the city and filling all the ships she took with herself to bring back for study.

Speaking of which, when I told her over the comms that we had found a sahad mage that is now roaming the station, she said to capture them until she gets back. All of her support staff is with her on her other operation, though I do know she called Sethis and asked him to kidnap the sahad mage and throw them into a convenient cell until she could get back. Because…that’s her solution to everything.

Also I’m going to point out that Vasia will kill you if we don’t capture Uneloj but still show them Salied. We still haven’t cleared Uneloj for certain levels of access to our facility. Specifically the existence of the lowest decks. Also Salied was taken with Vasia and they’re still on the return trip with their haul of stuff anyways. They left last month.

Vamon is back at Moncayo with the fleet in hand.

Also we conducted the ritual and Uneloj showed no signs of noticing, it wasn’t even very secretive. We were just up here at the fishtank when we did it. So we’re not sure what the limits of his ability to sense mana is, so far it just seems related to individuals mana capacity rather than mana itself.

40th Day has gotten most of the colonist shipped out of the warpath of the incoming Nelta fleet. We’ve also scanned the entity and determined that some of the exerlus scanner upgrades are hard to read. We brought back the data and are now going over the process of how to read it. We’re not sure though if  its the exerlus scanner or the entity itself being strange.

Adryn is currently still difficult to contact but reports say he’s somewhere deep across the continent on Ash checking out another ecosystem for anything interesting to hunt there.

So far the poaching deals have been sketchy, largely because with how close to extinct they are, finding them is proving tricky. I mean we got some birds shipped in though I didn’t really think those were all that exciting. I suppose it helps build up the Vivariums attractions though.

Also the Maker alien is already in a very non hostile environment. That’s part of what makes it so dangerous. It clearly likes to live underground in caves so we have no windows into its habitat and scientists have to round the corner into that thing’s lair to get to it. Also we think it might get along better with one particularly young keeper, though that’s the one who brings the food so that could be related. He has not been attacked though so maybe that’s paying off.

When it comes to looking for new diplomats, do you mean for Nah divison or Somnus in general? Or do you mean someone who is more of a socially talented agent? I can find that last one inside one of our departments. Though if we were to recruit from Somnus security, there is a couple of promising fellows that I like because of their background in military operations.

 

As for Uneloj, I can’t tell if he’s a bit quirky or if that’s just how his people are. They are at the very least very opinionated on a wide variety of things. I also think he’s learning about Somnus in order to take that information back home with him once he gets a ride out of here. That being said I can’t tell if thats actually espionage or more of a ‘hey i found this vacation spot’ kind of information report. He’s not really asking about defense systems, he’s much more interested in what coffee is. Though he seems convinced its a chemical stimulant that all our soldiers must be having shot into their veins twenty four seven for maximum combat potential. Aryn gave him an energy drink as a joke and watched him bounce off the walls for a few hours. By the way,  do not steal any energy drinks from the company fridge labeled Aryn. She doesn’t label them herself, we have someone that does it after she puts in there so people know not to drink it. Not because she gets uppity if someone does, but because its made for dragons. That shit will give a kobold an immediate heart attack.

As for initial scouting into Lynatael’s dealings, he is…very secure as mentioned before. He rarely leaves his personal bunker and all details of when council meetings will be held are secret. As in only one person knows when they will be and then just gives them all a fifteen minute warning to get in the car and head to the capital building. They are kept under extremely tight security at all times, either they’re in the bunker or they have an entire military company with them. Mechs and gunships included. With how many of these guys have been assassinated that lead to Kaylen coming to power, I can kind of get it honestly.

Vanjin and Setani are setting up an ops base on Thenica, did you know they haven’t really worked together before? They’ve always been kind of on separate gigs. Vanjin pointed out we should send Leon. She’s a hunter but he’s an assassin. A violent one, but he’s a bit better at finding an opening to strike whereas Vanjin is about counter tactics. Setani is just managing the ops center until we need her to go murder something.

The councilor has thorough pandem protections on his bunker, and the city itself has some across major roadways as a safety precaution so civilians wont warp themselves into the middle of traffic. So basically high security everywhere. Vanjin has a way to get him but the problem is she can’t guarantee whoever pulls the trigger gets out alive, so that’s being workshopped. Aryn is looking into any security holes she can and hasn’t found an access code or anything but she did get ahold of the architectural plans behind the bunkers. So that’s a start if we wanted to do a more brute force approach.

We’re also tracking people he regularly meets with, though they all come to the bunker instead of them going out for coffee so that’s not as much of an opening as we’d hoped. So far its obvious his main vulnerability is his transit between his current base and the capital building for major meetings. Though he is under heavy guard during those moments. Multiple military vehicles and a lot of infantry escort him to the building where there is a special garage that takes him directly to the lower levels of it which are even more secure than his personal bunker. We at least can get an advantage of laying a trap for him as they always follow the same route, a major highway is the only way they can move so military assets to protect him. There are also enough dissidents that we might be able to use them to incite some sort of riot if we wanted a distraction, we’re still probing that one but he’s definitely not popular.

So there was a bit of confusion, we last had the Nomads looking to hijack slaves from Ohalyn. Which they did, but it was the shipment for Vasia…who still needed them. So that sort of went in a weird circle.

We’ve also received a unique offer from Laura King, who figured out what Vaeri is up to and apparently knows someone else who is curious about that factory. In exchange for making sure we share the results of the operation with her, she’ll provide Vaeri with something that will get her into the good graces of the executives of Siwa to catch their interest and get her deeper into the fold. Specifically, she can get possession of weapon tech that Siwa doesn’t have. Which will legitimize Vaeri’s position as being a ‘weapons tech’ kind of person to move among their social circles.

 

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