Everyone has made it to Diadem to begin the first stages of the expedition, though the ringworld’s sapient controller is definitely aware of their plan. The upside currently is that the shifting modules are so large that we can comfortably fit battalions on each one, so it can’t split the forces up that much. Though from here on out, they will not be possible to reinforce unless they manage to retreat to the surface. Whatever they have is what they have now.
Initial landing was better than last time since we have a camp established to assist in landing and keep the robotic defenders at bay. The behavior of the ring indicates the exerlus is aware of how bad its position is, our expedition teams were looking for ways below the surface while not terribly invited into it. Eventually it became a matter of stalling until the exerlus had no choice but to lower them into the ring to increase its options. It is still contending with the invading forces of its neighbors and needs to reinforce those border modules eventually. One batallion was able to hitch a ride on one of the modules retreating in to rebuild after its conflict with the other robots. Another was taken down from the center, this is clearly a move by the machines to force them to contend with the volume of the interior modules so it can focus its efforts on the surface to stalling the other exerlus invaders.
Upon entering the ring’s interior, they were immediately met by the subsurface units. Further supporting my analysis that it is letting the surface units fight the other exerlus while using its interior ones to contend with us out of necessity. So we can say that progress is being made, and thanks to the study programs by the Voidforged we have some ideas of where to go and how to navigate though that doesn’t make the ever shifting modules easy to get through.
As for the rescue team exploring the galaxy, Jiyan reports that they’re doing fine all things considered, just trying to figure out why their ship is suddenly eating itself. They may not have been in range to hear the news that Haziel changed the rules of botany. So we may need to rescue them just to drop off spare parts. Apparently Jiyan has been using the comms to find other aliens and has traded with some passing salvagers for parts and materials. They’ve made it halfway back though they’re still in the Western Reach and have to constantly stop at various alien stations to repair. She says the real problem is that no one really wants solian credits so she has to constantly barter and she’s running low on things to trade and her engineer keeps having to work with alien tech to salvage. The VSS Raptor is held together by duct tape at this point, literally.
Shipyards are finding different solutions to the ‘ship that eats itself’. The Astral Knights are ahead on this compared to most others. Almost as if they knew what Haziel did before everyone else. Steamworks is also going full steam ahead on production of more stable methods of power generation and storage aboard ships.
With the portals constructed and in working order, all the advertising for population emigration to the Iron Cradle has started to take effect now that it is more reasonably and reliably accessible.
Funding to Quylla keeps her relatively stable in a time and territory enveloped in anarchy. As that keeps her as one of the major contenders in the territory despite the ongoing war between existing demon lords and those seeking to become one. Quylla in particular has a long standing reputation to draw upon and at the very least the funding we supply her with gives us an eye on how things continue to develop there. Though she only points out that things are chaotic right now. The appearance of Kharla and the death of Voriuk has produced a lot of extreme reactions between those who will risk everything and those who are just hunkering down and hoping things blow over soon. Even in the Demon Kingdom, Kharla is a well known and universally feared figure. Many of those vying for the territories of the fallen lords are seeking to join the Vloz and become her new demon lords. It is likely with the current absence of Vloz lords that Ecsanul has been promoted though this is just speculation. As the territories rebuild, the remaining strength of the Vloz is definitely leaning towards assisting those who seek to become Kharla’s new binds.
Asmodan is also doing well as the hero of the kingdom who helped repel VSEC despite the loss of Kharla’s flagship. Which has given him a lot of sway over things despite losing one of the cities in his territory to Kharla’s battle with Reika. The Phantoms also seem to be recruiting in the area for those who might become lords loyal to them. Not a lot of grassroots lords coming up except for a few whose life expectancy we’ll check back in on later.
Steamworks reports some working prototypes of higher end batteries and generation methods that don’t require much living mana filtration, but requires a lot more space for power storage aboard the ship to perform longer term deployments. Similar to how strike craft tend to work.
Bill is back from his adventure to Rixa with some spare time and managed to ‘balance out’ a ship to maintain most of its original design and functionality. Though the problem with maintaining the old method without a druid on board is that if the ship experiences any issues or takes damage the defense mechanism in its plants might flood the ship with toxic spores. Competing companies are trying to find what methods of living mana filtration don’t do all this stuff, Bill says they’re going to have it a bit rough given that Haziel intentionally made this difficult to do on a large scale. Really she made everything to do on a large scale.
Ever since the Revenants blamed two more assassinations on us, we’re definitely not terribly friendly with the demon kingdom. Neither Vloz or the Phantoms seem too keen to defend us either. There have been some official policies and security things put in place though that was obviously going to come about eventually.
Sooo…time to hang out with elementals instead?
We’ve gotten the refinery back up and running successfully. At least the mining operations so far.
Si Yeon did some studies on the aether as requested and pinned down that the rot belongs to Deinuu. While we’re at information gathering, we have the psionics interrogation agency that apparently now exists reporting that Alexandria doesn’t seem to be all that special. Though the bigger threat behind her was a mysterious shadowy figure who never met with her in person and was known only as a “director”. Like a certain someone in a tube I once knew…I’m starting to see how she might have thought she was the newly ordained leader of the cult. Ever since a certain someone in a tube disappeared, not to mention Cassir as well, a bunch of cultists might have made contact with a powerful psion with a lot of money and had differing opinions on which one was the real one.
Containing the rot is so far proving incredibly difficult due to its virulence and ability to spread through practically anything. We already had those infected volunteer to cut power lines throughout the city to better contain it. The city is still on lockdown enforced by the Hasao Tei. Si Yeon has left the city as well to return to the research facility in the Zenaka system on that cracked open planet. She says its nice and quiet out there. Most of the projects at Roha have been moved there for the time being to keep them safe from the rot. Again, mass deaths among the civilians.
Spinning it as a Phantom Attack takes very little effort, since it probably is and everyone knows the Phantoms have a mummy as their leader. To which end, Sakhessa has become relevant in politics all of a sudden. Aureum is one of the largest fortresses in the Sol territories as she continues an arms race with Lancaster for “who can buy more turrets”. It also has a large population thanks to shipping in assets from all over the place, including slaves. Which we just learned has had a sudden spike in market demand. Many are willing to trade with Sakhessa despite the whole pamphlet thing. Their own PR team is still doing a lot of work thanks to some vampire.
Several Alnae warlords already recognize Sakhessa as an empress of her own land and have extended all the political fanfare associated with such official business. Obviously Kar’Soluth is all but outright a Phantom subsidiary. Laesaaria, Empress of Shetou, is screaming about the matter though along with Kaylen.
This got to the point that there are now the Phantoms are recognized by the more official title of the Hassani Empire. With Sakhessa as the current Hassani Empress. I feel this is important to mention, assaulting this fortress to get to Deinuu is basically impossible. Also provoking them while VSEC is busy at Diadem for the next half a year or so will leave us terribly undefended should they retaliate.
Not that they aren’t having their own problems though. Now that they are a public entity recognized as a government, the Revenants are all over them. Not to mention that on the galactic scene several civilizations have come forward with “hey they ruined our lives, fuck those guys”. Apparently there are fleet movements from an alliance other than Nelta but still including Nelta that are looking to take a swing at Aureum soon. I’m guessing that without Kanika there, the remaining leadership of the Phantoms don’t really understand Arkaric and that establishing an empire invites his attention.
We’ve contacted Kennae, apparently the temple of Lucidity was infiltrated and destroyed soon after you left from the inside. He advises that you do not return to the body you left on jydoq, because its the only one left in the entire temple. So clearly the assassin wants you to return to it. He did get a chance to encounter this assassin we’ve heard so much about. They are of jydoq origin but he described them as being unlike any other jydoq he’d seen before. Local legend suggests a subspecies that was known for its cannibalistic habits, a sort of mythical creature that forms its structure entirely out of the ‘brains’ of other jydoq rather than the typical pliable ooze stuff. In time it grows to become capable of solidifying itself to any color and texture, kind of like an octopus but made out of psionic mass.
Basically, Kennae recounts encountering a legendary monster of the jydoq homeworld that might have been upgraded by the Phantoms. Not so eloquently but its what we’ve pieced together from the conversation. He’s still out trying to chase them down. Though it would explain the collective fear the jydoq colonies are experiencing if their equivalent to a Kanika suddenly appearing.
Rhazin has taken off with one of our kaiju freighters to NR147-3 to begin harvesting some biomass.
Craylin, with help from Si Yeon, got the 004C’s back to the lab.
40th Day reports the kinda not a plant trees also have the same mechanisms that others do when it comes to trees eating ships. Turns out a lot of wildlife in the galaxy is probably tied to the Fae Wilds.
We have not confirmed the location of Pierce or lack of location.
White doesn’t have too many new spells, and Nova is essentially functional though application of it remains the oddity.
The psicrystal experiment could be developed over time but only by another psion who can continually modify it. Letting them be self developing runs the risk of them suddenly becoming a bit too smart for their own good I imagine. At least that’s what has been on your tv station’s movie hour recently.
While Setal is the queen of Zenaka, that is mostly in name when we were setting up to position her for a demon lordship. Though that has gotten iffy now and technically the actual assets of Zenaka is owned by VSEC. Setal does some administrative work but it’s mostly a front for that whole demon lord project we had awhile back. The whole place is actually owned by Lancaster.
We have a report from Allison that recently the slave trade has exploded back on Thenica. It is the primary thing everyone seems to be shopping for. This has largely been caused by people with actual remaining wealth and power taking a sudden interest in this. Several Shetou and Kar’Soluth houses have suddenly taken a great interest in buying a lot of slaves in a hurry.
As it turns out, this spike in the slave trade is related to the sudden collapse of traditional ship building methods thanks to Haziel. The other type of ship that still works is the one that uses slaves as mana batteries instead of plants. Given that no one has a viable alternative and we’re in the middle of some chaotic times for the galaxy, a lot of people are turning to those designs to maintain military power.
We have reason to believe that Kharla is not too far away, and is just being temporarily held at the demon king’s castle until Vloz’Khress can stabilize, if it fails to do so she would likely end up as one of the King’s assets. Though we do not have confirmation of that, it’s just a suspicion. The problem is if the king is involved then he could use his influence to hide her anywhere in the kingdom. We don’t think she would be too far from the more chaotic territories though, just under careful watch by people better at preventing people like us from knowing her every move for the time being.
As for the reconstruction of Kharla’s original lair, Yasrena seems to be using it as a PR move. We think she originally planned to bring Kharla into the club as one of her assets and was trying to make a friendly gesture. I wouldn’t be surprised if Yasrena feels that she can keep Kharla under control enough to not be a threat to the other Phantoms. In doing so she would be much more powerful as well. Though the territory wars in the demon kingdom might be making her plans a little bit more complicated than when she first started the project.
Looking into Beldobaan reveals she might actually know of a vampiric secretive group that is propped up by the Desoir clan. Sivataurs who are a little less maniacal and a little more militant, but know how to play the part. A method of conveniently having the sivataurs hunt down problems for the vampire clans that can be explained away. Jhaeros might have been a member of this group.
Arsene has gotten a date on some sort of aethernet dating app by experimenting with catfishing using a profile picture of Vanessa’s illusory form. It didn’t go well after that, but it’s good to see that Arsene is trying unorthodox methods of accomplishing their mission.
Chevalier is on the lead team trying the hardest to reach the exerlus within along with Eleazor and the shut down keys for the whole place. Predictions are that it will be a long expedition, going through a moving mass the size of a planet and all. Sacha and Vanessa’s teams are apparently being a little more chaotic just to stress the focus and defensive abilities of the exerlus in charge of that neighborhood.
Reports are in that they’ve already encountered heavy resistance in all its various forms. I suspect the exerlus is probing the assaulting lances early to see what they can handle easily and what is more challenging. It already has an idea of what the battalions can do in a direct confrontation as proven by their assault on the surface. It is trying alternative approaches and different designs now. A lot of sneakier things trying to pick people off when they stop to rest followed up by moving modules with enough machines for a direct assault. At the very least we are confusing its data about how to deal with the organics, who it seems to be trying to sleep deprive. Our contributions are a lot less vulnerable to this tactic.
Also I managed to put the turrets on the cradle as asked. We’ve also experienced an immigration surge of organics thanks to VSEC’s advertising campaign. So we’re keeping a close eye on the life support systems to make sure we don’t suffocate them all on accident. I think that’s what I was supposed to prevent at least.