This is Exme Faythe reporting for the Sol News Network, brought to you by Koura Burritos. Koura Burritos, who knew aliens could taste so good?
Following the taking of a foothold aboard an alien ringworld now called Diadem, the Federated Void State has surrendered to the Hassani Empire after years of conflict and entered into a treaty limiting further armed conflict. Information of this development has caused political ramifications throughout the Sol Territories.
With new alien civilizations being found every few months, public opinion leans towards exhaustion over internal struggles and in favor of ending hostilities on the frontier. Many frontier colonists had hoped to escape the conflict in Sol between Alnae and Shetou in the first place, so seeing the two frontier governments reach an end to hostilities has proven favorable. This comes not too long after the revelation of the Hassani’s monstrous populace that resulted in them gaining significant foothold on Thenica in the form of independent colonies.
This treaty also brings the war between the FVS and the Demon Kingdom to a close as the FVS withdraw their military interests from intervening in the Council of Lord’s affairs. The Demon Kingdom has appointed a new lord to their council as the former lands of the Vloz’Khress enter under the joint management of Ecsanul and Aikane.
Mysteriously, Matriarch Kharla Vel’Vloz’Khress has suddenly resigned and the house has been taken over by one of her daughters. As one might expect, we here at Sol News Network do not have the resources to fully investigate just how it came to be, but after a brutal power play between seven of Kharla’s children, daughter of Kharla and Demon Lord Aikane – Sayane Vel’Vloz’Khress has taken over as Matriarch and been formally recognized by Yasrena Val’Hari. Many were surprised, since they did not even remember that the 16th daughter even existed due to how quiet she had been. It is theorized that the Astral Order had pushed her to power by working with Aikane. When reached for comment they said-
“No we…wait a minute….THAT BITCH!”
End quote.
Demon Lord Aikane has also taken over a large stretch of the Vloz’Khress territory that once belonged to other demon lords and as mother to the new Matriarch has seen quite a rise in power within the Council of Lords.
These developments have left Shetou in an awkward position. House Song still adamantly opposes the Hassani Empire but House Sharen sees this as the end of a stalemate and time to recognize the Hassani as not to get into a losing battle. Laesaari Val’Hari has declined to release any statement on the matter at this time as things are still developing.
This all comes soon after the return of the Hassani’s true empress. As Sakhessa stated, the empire was made by a Dracolich named Kanika Hassani who was just indisposed at the time of formalizing the paperwork. With her return and Sakhessa’s quick surrendering of the throne to this figure, many foreign nations both native and alien are experiencing diplomatic whiplash.
Kaylen Yuriko of the Heroes Guild has left the Federated Void State in response to the signing of the treaty. Promising to continue fighting against the monstrous Kanika Hassani no matter the cost. Though without the Federated Void State’s backing she has fallen from political relevancy and even her former home nation of Alnae has not bothered to acknowledge or respond to her developing situation.
When reached for comment, Azilath stated that she had no interest in any of this and would be continuing to focus on expanding the Valdir into other worlds. While no one has done anything about the growing Valdir, many are concerned that if left unchecked Azilath will become an overwhelming super power. However, it appears that no one wants to be the first to do anything about it.
Colonists are leaving Sol in large numbers as they are promised a new home in the Auwana system where the Hassani Empire capital is located. This has left Thenica in an even worse state as a large fraction of its economy is emigrating away. The Alnae Warlords continue their ongoing campaigns to reunite Alnae and continue to experience food shortages. Shetou continues to exploit the current situation and annex pieces of Alnae territory from individual warlords.
While former elven nobility are maintaining their position as best they can, the average citizens are struggling. Many of them finding the roles reversed as they now work for orcish gang bosses as their only option for protection during these violent times. With many others being captured and sold off to Kar’Soluth as slaves. The conquest of new territory and new populations has resulted in the sudden rise of a new Kar’Soluth faction known as the Great House of Kenduis. Lead by Matriarch Angaste Vel’Kenduis.
Many predict we are seeing the final decline of the Elves but a further rise in power from the Drow. Many Alnae Warlords are starting to turn to outside powers for help. With General Preskian turning to the Void State Federation in the hopes that their similar governments and technological ideas will help them find common ground. While they have stabilized their food shortage problems, they have been unable to take further territory and are having to disallow further members in order to avoid running out of food again.
Meanwhile General Vaquinal is exploiting the newly opened portal on Enohas to the Fae Wilds to try and get in touch with the Fae, who are closely related to the Elves by common ancestry. Since the Fae now have a route out of the Wilds they are hoping that in working together they can establish a new government that will benefit them both.
General Aramys is suspected to be consorting with the abyssal lords and the demon kingdom for bartered aid. Though whether or not they have made much progress in these negotiations remains unclear.
General Helefiel has found allies in the form of elementals from the elemental plane who have also recently been expanding their own operations into the middle planes.
In all, it seems that the collapse of Alnae brought on by the Silnian invasion has resulted in the former elven oligarchs needing to find help to defeat one another and rebuild Alnae. However, many elven citizens are emigrating to other frontier colonies in the hopes of re-establishing themselves rather than continuing to fight over the ruins of Thenica. Some are even petitioning for Grand Marshal Yuriko to return since she was the last official appointed by the former Alnae council.
In frontier news, the legendary Phoenix has returned even if for only a brief visit. The eastern houses all showed up to Cayetano via the portal on Thenica to see her reappearance. It turns out the Phoenix has several half bred children that no one knew about, one of which being a dragon named Haleh who is now a member of the Federated Void State as the leader of her own member state.
A new colony has been opened by members from the fae wilds on Enohas, where a portal was placed by the Astral Order just recently. It was apparently done without the knowledge of the Astral Order and many are concerned given the reputation fae have. When reached for comment, new colony manager Yaezuki stated that she was just interested in getting her and her people out of the fae wilds. Stating that the stories don’t do it justice and that the place has become a living nightmare to reside in. She hopes that by starting her new colony she can find a new more peaceful life. Many are unsure of what to make of this development.
Both the Federated Void State and the Hassani Empire have made contact with a civilization known as the Playatis. A modern galactically aware civilization who acts as a trade station between our area of the galaxy and the eastern side of a place called “The Dead Zone”. Prospective explorers and colonists are advised to remember that this zone of space is considered extremely hazardous and should not be settled or lingered within.
More and more frontiersmen have been exploring the Western Reach ever since the establishment of Diadem and the revelation of a place called Kuhas Station. FVS Officials warn that the Western Reach is just as much if not even more of an lawless place than the Thenican wastes and not to expect any assistance if they get lost within it. Though many have found success already as traders within the vast network between the stars. Frontier traders might find familiar faces in the jydoq, FVS, Selona Syndicate and the Desoir family while they are out there.
Despite all of these exciting developments, space traffic and trade is actually down significantly overall due to the ongoing problem with ships corroding abnormally fast ever since the Astral Order went into the fae wilds. People are still unhappy with them about that.
That’s all for now, see you next time here at the Sol News Network.
With regards to the convention, still need to know what events you want to hold and when.
With the peace talks settled down and everything signed off on, there’s a lot of further paperwork and logistics moving around while all parties collect this or that for their various ends of the deal. Good thing we live out here in the Reach and don’t need to see everyone else in meetings or anything.
Haleh has wrapped up whatever she wanted to talk to her mother about and has departed from Diadem to reassemble her crew. Also possibly to escape the constant pampering of the Hasao Tei.
With the Iron Cradle’s trajectory, they are currently stopping off at Kuhas and that fits into the overall plan to find the habited worlds of the Reach. As many are not exactly an undiscovered mystery anymore. The one nearest to Diadem is on the other side of the border within the Hive Worlds. Immediately demonstrating one of the great oddities of the Reach and its way of life. The civilization living there are not technologically advanced but they have space ships. Basically they don’t understand how anything works but they keep trading and getting stuff from people who do understand how it works.
Also recent events have drawn some visitors to Diadem to see whats going on, so we have a few unexpected guests now and then. It turns out Laura was quick on the marketing and had connections in the Reach to spread the word to come and visit. So now we have twenty aliens sitting in a hangar bay selling random junk.
The nearest modern civilization to Diadem is a hop away to the south where a planet called Wula is host to a species known for its colorful semi-aquatic nature. They aren’t particularly known for participating with the rest of the Reach though since they are on the galactic edge and one of the furthest worlds from the heart of the Reach. They are also only recently capable of galactic transit by about two centuries and largely focused on matters regarding their own star system and two neighboring ones they have been attempting to colonize.
The Winter is on its way to Kuhas station though from Averill’s reports it seems not that difficult to set up a shop on the station.There are new vacancies almost every week as people get robbed or murdered for various trivial reasons. It is also a major hub for galactic travelers so they don’t have very many questions about us strange new aliens, we’re a drop in the bucket as far as they’re concerned. Though Sethis has already started to set up quite a large office there.
Which all brings another question in what you would rather focus on for the time being. Right now we have a significant fleet and military presence, the Reach is vast and filled with all sorts of civilizations, gangs, nomadic flotillas, station-state governments, and so on. We have the ability to likely overpower some of the more isolated or primitive members if we wanted a repeat of the incidents on Enohas or Zenaka, though there might be more to gain in dealing with the various greater powers that be. Also to be noted the idea of establishing contact with the super powers of the Reach that we definitely shouldn’t be picking fights with but could be a good start in making progress towards our goals. It’s a lot less random than before since we can just ask for rumors on Kuhas station and so on.
I see negotiating went as well as one could hope. Now to prevent Lancaster from realizing any details of it in hindsight.
As for the convention, we’re still in the process of finalizing the details of what its all about and how to present it to people at large. No doubt Sol News will show up just to see if there’s anything worth documenting as well, so worth considering what the rest of Sol will see. Also whether or not we want to advertise it to the Reach, not that they will care unless they hear of prizes.
That being said, Lancaster is pretty rich by the standards of the Reach and offering substantial prizes for various concepts might be a sneaky way to feel out what they have out here in this region. Do a combat tournament, once we work out how to make sure no one kills each other, and then you can probably find out how strong the Reachers tend to be. Some sort of engineering contest might help you figure out who the best builders are. Maybe some sort of freakshow for just seeing some weird alien shit, I dunno. Worth considering though I think. Basically if you want to have a more local festival in celebration of the FVS, maybe stick to food stands and games. If you want to spy on the international community, prizes! Also some marketing.
Speaking of which, if you want the other areas of Sol it could be a little tricky especially for the first festival. It might be worth directly contacting and sponsoring likely candidates just as a way of showing off its international intentions and establish the tradition. Whether that be for their food stands, showing off fancy ships, or any sort of tournament. I doubt the Phantoms will be bothered to show up to humanoid festivities. At best we could convince Haleh to show up.
Marketing wise I do feel it better to focus on the demographic based on the region you host it in. If it is being hosted at Diadem, I doubt you’ll get much interest from Sol just because regardless of the portals it then begins to feel more like a frontier festival. If you held it on Thenica it might be of greater interest to other solians but definitely not getting any visitors from the Reach we haven’t even established ourselves within yet.
Kharla is on the way to Cayetano as Yasrena promised to meet up with Selah. We’re not entirely sure how that conversation went, though with all of our attention on House Vloz it does seem that some threatening pressure was applied. Kharla herself isn’t terribly affected compared to Kiel’Nada who seems more aware of how the situation has actually changed for the two.
Sooo what else are you doing on Jydoq? Other than fighting the assassin we still have the issue that we’re just sitting there not doing anything. I prepared an intel report on some basics for you to work with at least.
Ah-hem.
So as it stands, Jydoq is just as fucked as Thenica. The most notable thing we’re doing is fighting a cannibal so almost beat for beat. Arkaric really messed them up and used Merlan to make things even worse. They are currently split into a dozen or so smaller governments instead of the unified one they once had and those leaders are constantly arguing with each other due to resource scarcity.
They are all in various levels of being in touch with Solian powerbases with several having emigrated to the frontiers for some sanctuary from the wars on their own world. Many of them escaping into the Western Reach in particular, they’ve been quite familiar with that area of the galaxy for awhile now.
We know that Arkaric intended to integrate them into Sol though we’re still not totally sure why. However, it explains how so many different groups of them wound up talking to different powers from Sol and emigrating to there as well. Cayetano has a few hundred sitting around working day jobs and trying to lay low. One of the major corporate powers at Adelaide is a jydoq as well. It also explains why uniting their government again will likely be difficult. Every time they get close to reuniting anything, something goes wrong but often in subtle ways. If subtly isn’t working, the assassin hits the governor who is making too much progress. Worth noting, there are thousands of planets across the galaxy in similar situations. Where no matter what they do, for some reason events play out that force them to spread out into the galaxy and lose having a unified civilization.
Right now the major problems they’re facing are food shortages and then there’s some ideology conflicts between the various governors about changing the way things tend to be. We don’t have enough food to feed this whole planet, so be careful who and where you ship anything to.
There have also been a number of embassies, ambassadors, diplomats, and rogue explorers showing up here as the first intelligent civilization we made contact with. It helps that we can relate to their apocalypse just a little bit. So our colony isn’t the only Solian thing here. I should note that Kar’Soluth in particular is also here. With the treaty we can’t take direct action against them. Apparently house Jaal’Darya has set up shop on one of the continents. Not sure what they’re up to other than recruiting some goo folk to their side of things.
I am good at keeping secrets, I barely talk to anyone. However, the Phantoms have us infiltrated from top to bottom. If you had taken that war we would have been rotted from within in under twenty four hours. Half our forces would have turned and shot the other half of our forces. That’s how they’ve always operated. We got our start exploring the frontier that Faelyn was in charge of, who knows how many immigrants and colonists actually work for them by some chain of command they don’t even realize. For all we know, Vasia is the actual leak and Sakhessa just dropped my name because everyone would believe it. As a whole, we’re kind of terrible at stopping infiltration. Sethis is good at it, but we just assume if he didn’t find it then its not there. Taking action to prevent them from keeping eyes on us and moving us the way they want would involve turning into a paranoid military dictatorship. They had Alnae and Shetou fighting each other for half a millenia just because ONE of them was assigned to that while the rest did other things. They infiltrated GODS. Just assume they know everything about us except maaaaybe what is happening in Vasia’s lab or aboard the Closing Statement.
We shipped in some earth Elementals to start working on the giant pile of dirt. By the end of the second shift they were hitting on half our colonists and had created a new night club. If nothing else, they are committed to the bit at least.
As for the Rixa plane near Diadem, war. Endless horrific war on a scale Sol cannot even conceive of. The Valdir crusade and all that is in that area. Just uh, keep that rift closed.
From Averill, he’s on his way back. Most of the biotech stuff he heard about from Kuhas again won’t work on an incorporeal being. Though Quinae wouldn’t mind the job of sitting around as a Reach guide if it pays well.
As promised, upon the treaty getting signed the rot suddenly started clearing up around Roha, with such speed that its kind of annoying to know they just casually had an off switch for it. Though the infection itself is only dormant as it is still basically incurable, Deinuu sort of closed the pipe that the mana has to go through for all those symptoms to be showing.
We’ve sent Allison to Kuhas Station and she has been setting about getting some offices there to keep an eye on things. Actually pretty easy to do since they don’t really care who is there as long as station security isn’t having any issues with them. Though it has been made clear that station security is a very shoot first and ask questions second so its best not to do anything to piss them off.
It should be noted that the rampant crime on Kuhas is only solved by more crime as it is an otherwise stable social ecosystem. So for Allison to take over as a private security gang, she’s probably going to have to murder a few other gangs to prove she’s the better gang, and to get some turf of her own. Not that she can’t, just stating what she has to do to get set up there. Though she can’t take the vehicles with her very easily as the heart of the station doesn’t allow them to just roam around with a standing ground force that could invade security. They’re relegated to the hangars if they’re on sale. So we might as well leave those around Thenica or bring them to somewhere else until they’re needed.
We also had the super battleship added to the Nomad Flotilla, though its technically still in transit it’ll be there soon. Unlikely that pirates attack something like that at least.
Aryn points out that talking to Arkaric doesn’t involve very many slips of accidental information. He lets her know what he wants us to know. To the point that all she can do is just outright ask about Daiheb and see if he decides to share anything. He did not in regards to Daiheb at least. Though as for Elasyn, he has pointed out that they have his weapon brands and various alien tech as well that he’s collected. It appears that once again he has an arms factory somewhere and once again no one knows where it is. Though given that we produce our own weapons in house it might not be terribly appealing to us. Even if he has collected half a dozen artifacts, they tend to go to Daiheb as the justification for her not shutting him down despite having lost all control of what he’s up to.
As a correction, with the peace treaty signed it is hopefully the end of conflict for at least longer than a year with the Hassani. Basically they completed their quest that took them two thousand years and now get to run off and do their own thing. Without the federation being involved, its likely that no one else in Sol is going to try and take them down. House Song doesn’t represent all of Shetou and Kaylen is basically just a roaming serial killer now if she keeps it up. Us signing this basically ended the war and recognized them as a new empire of the Sol territories with all the gentle touches that politicians like to apply. With Kar’Soluth being somewhat known to be actually theirs they are the new super power of Sol. The age of elven rule seems to have reached its end, and now is the era of dragons. Sure things are still shuffling around and settling down, though we’ve been in this game long enough to see the writing on the walls. I expect she will take a new capital on Thenica, sign off on something with the other remaining super powers like the Demon Kingdom and the Fae, and then to all outside forces she’s the ‘one to talk to’.
As another correction, Kennae is at Jydoq not Zenaka but I’ll assume that’s what you meant and just change your flight schedule.
Michael is on his way back, Sakhessa just put him on a ship and sent him to Cayetano without explanation. I get the impression she was using him to help her get that treaty somehow and now she’s done with him.
Annnnd we are away! So sets forth our great not quite maiden voyage but close enough given that we’re going over a hundred thousand light years! All abooooard.
Man this is a lot of travel time.
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Are we there yet?
Well we made it to Kuhas station and dropped off Allison and all her stuff for Sethis. Whew boy, this is going to be a long trip.
Anyways, core testing for hand manipulation has proven that some are just better or worse at it though the generations don’t seem to play any factor into how common they are. What we do know is that Adrienne has no serial number and no records of her creation in Siwa database. Wait what if she’s actually a Daiheb android? An android posing as an android posing as a cyborg…that’d be pretty meta. That’s what the kids say right?
Basically we’ve made no progress in replicating or deducing why Adrienne’s hands are so good.
As for the armored core project, on it but still takes a bit. I’ve done it once before though, this whole ship station thing is a voidforged just like us after all. Just takes a lot of awkward wire placements.