Discovery Gaming Community

Willard Research Station

Bingham-class orbital, California

______________________Between the idea
______________________And the reality
______________________Between the motion
______________________And the act
______________________Falls the Shadow
__________________________- T.S Elliot, The Hollow Men

Welcome Aboard

The air feels cold, even for such a small station, as you walk out of the main dock, it probably doesn't help that the station is made out of a giant chunk of ice. You follow the directions you received in the message, following one poorly lit hallway after another. As you turn a corner, you're met with a glaringly bright light, temporarily blinding you.

Once your eyes adjust to the bright lights, you see a Marine in solid black armor, his helmet has an opaque visor, blocking his face from view. He takes a step forward. "Identification, please." You slowly pull out the appropriate paperwork, handing it to the Marine, waiting as he reads it. "This all seems to be in order, proceed." The Marine steps out of the way, the door behind him, unnoticed until now, opens by itself, beckoning you forward.

You take a moment to be sure of your resolve, walking forward into the brightly lit room...

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ESRD EYES ONLY
Report - 12 January 823

ID: FADM Fieldson, High Command

High Command has received an automated ticket recently, regarding the use of Lt.Commander Grahams personal code, while he had been declared KIA, to access one of our orbital storage facilities. It is now a responsibility of the ESRD to investigate this matter and report directly to FADM Fieldson regarding any relevant findings at the earliest possibility.

HIGHCOMM out.

Relevant Information: ::: - ::: - ::: - :::

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COMM ID: LT TYLER, Clara
TARGET ID: ESRD Section 'WILLARD'; FADM Fieldson
SUBJECT: Information
ENCRYPTION: ESRD ALPHA
PRIORITY: HIGH

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Ma'am.

Lieutenant Tyler, reporting. I have been assigned, along with other agents of WILLARD section, to follow up on this 'Graham' incident.

According to Houston flight control, an unauthorized launch was made from the Austin Drydocks, matching the vessel ID reported by ACIS. The vessel in question was an impounded Montante-class gunboat, and it quickly vectored toward the Bering system before dropping off our scopes entirely. Given the path of the vessel, its likely that it intends to escape into Rheinland, and perhaps the Edge Worlds beyond. Our strained relationship with the Bundesrepublik will make this difficult to follow up on.

I'd recommend that officers assigned to this case investigate the Coral Sea's wreck site, as well as Graham's quarters aboard NOF Long Island. We may have an impostor in our midst, some lowly recruit or janitor who thought he'd be clever, snatching up a still-active identcode and making off with a ship. Let's let a dead war hero lie, and catch this [--------] before he causes any more harm.

Lieutenant Clara Tyler, out.

Important: This communication remains the property of the Liberty Defence Forces and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Neural Net Communications Act 807A.S, Section 30. If you have received this message in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the communication.

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COMM ID: Commander DEGRANGE, Elisabeth
TARGET ID: ESRD reporting center; HIGHCOM
SUBJECT: Defecting vessel
ENCRYPTION: ESRD ALPHA
PRIORITY: Medium

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ESRD EYES ONLY
Report - 12 - February - 823

Greetings.

I have been instructed by the Fleet Admiral to post here every important news regarding the defecting vessel, The.Cincinnati.

First batch of information comes from Battlegroup Auxesia. Following continuous troublemaking from their activity in Liberty, Command authorized that the ESRD try an unofficial approach to this group's leadership in attempt to resolve this problem. I personally volunteered to uptake that duty. Even though it proved ineffective, in accordance with the recent notification from Command, I was able to retrieve some information regarding the fugutive vessel. Based on evidence from the then Vice Admiral Fieldson, I conducted an interrogation which proved to give us useful information, regarding the vessels, the network involved as well as their intentions.
Below I will attach the report along with the evidence used.

Recordings BAux The Cincinatti

This interrogation proved a real treasure in terms of information retrieved. The plausibility of this information may be doubtful, but taking into account the pressure the Liberty Forces were putting on them, they might have used this as a "trump card" to help them maintain their status quo with the Liberty Republic.

Some sensitive information however, has been made available to the Fleet Admiral only, at their own request.

The other case is about a freelancer by the name of Inge Wexler than contacted the navy regarding a sighting of this vessel out in the omicrons. Her report involved some sort of an organization named the "Blackguard" that I believe has contacted the Navy relatively recently. Bellow I will attach the relevant recordings.

Recordings Inge Wexler

The plausibility of this information is slightly doubtful too, however considering the money oriented nature of the freelancer, it has high chances of being quite useful. Either way, considering this "Joker" from the Blackguard seems to have relations with Maverick O'Howel, we must allow a meeting with this individual as it may prove as another way into finding out more about the ship and the network it is involved.

I am ready to handle this task if needed as well as provide a full report afterwards.

Commander Elisabeth DeGrange, over and out.

Important: This communication remains the property of the Liberty Defence Forces and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Neural Net Communications Act 807A.S, Section 30. If you have received this message in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the communication.

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COMM ID: Commander MORISS, Mary
TARGET ID: ESRD reporting center; HIGHCOM
SUBJECT: Liquid Cardamine and nomad biological remains; SirLagsalot
ENCRYPTION: ESRD ALPHA
PRIORITY: Medium

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ESRD & HIGH COMMAND EYES ONLY
Report - 21 - March - 823

Greetings.

This report is to confirm the successful extraction to Headquarters of the samples of liquid cardamine along with Nomad biological remains, 'seized' from the Freelancer known as SirLagsalot. What I am more concerned about is the Freelancer in question. A bounty of 150 million credits is no small feat for a man to achieve. Someone like that is bound to know something that will interest us. Not only this, but the Freelancer mentioned being familiar with Hayes, which only brings us more questions. An entity named the AEGIS 'initiative' was apparently behind the hit. I'm afraid I'm not personally familiar with them, but I'll dig deeper into this. If they're willing to go so far for only one pilot, who knows what they're truly after?

As I understand, you've also put the crew of the Star Pathfinder under arrest. This is my best lead on them so far. If allowed, I will interrogate the Captain myself, test the waters and see what I can get, though considering their greedy tone, I doubt they know much besides there was a large sum of credits involved.

As for the cargo - our science team has already confirmed to me that the nomad remains included what essentially are batteries for their cloaking veil. They will immediatly get to work on them and see what they can gather for theoritical and practical purposes. The other goods will follow standard ESRD procedure for exotic commodities.

Uploading...

Commander Mary Moriss, over and out.

Important: This communication remains the property of the Liberty Defence Forces and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Neural Net Communications Act 807A.S, Section 30. If you have received this message in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the communication.

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COMM ID: Vice Admiral Alan Jones
TARGET ID: ESRD reporting center; HIGHCOM
SUBJECT: Liquid Cardamine and nomad biological remains; SirLagsalot
ENCRYPTION: ESRD ALPHA
PRIORITY: HIGH

Greetings.

Agent Mary, good job out there. The liquid cardamine units will be deposited aboard Willard Research station until they can be moved to Liberty Research stations in the classified restricted areas.

We've had reports before regarding some extraordinary activity going on. Fleet Admiral Fieldson might be aware of more, though before we start putting the pieces of this puzzle together we first need to collect them all. I got the feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg and this network probably reaches who knows where.

You're given the green light from High Command to Proceed with the interrogation of the Individual "John Silverstone" going by the alias of "Sirlagsalot". My gut tells me he's a loose end, and a hundred and fifty is a good amount in trying to cutting it, so I think he'll prove a real treasure in terms of amount of information we can retrieve. Make sure he is safe and is not harmed.

Afterwards you are to interrogate the person behind "Star.Pathfinder". Extract as much as you can from him, and then we'll perhaps prosecute him accordingly. But it's important to know what he can reveal about the reasons behind the bounty and his contractors, I'm afraid it won't be much but I'd like to hear what he'll have to say.

Keep us posted once you're done, then we'll put whatever we've got together and figure out what the whole picture is.

Vice Admiral Jones.

Important: This communication remains the property of the Liberty Defence Forces and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Neural Net Communications Act 807A.S, Section 30. If you have received this message in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the communication.

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Identification Number: N-090889-Z91
TARGET ID: ESRD reporting center; HIGHCOM
SUBJECT: Reporting in.
ENCRYPTION: ESRD ALPHA
PRIORITY: HIGH

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Good afternoon.

In light of the recent changes to my status on the personnel roster, I've been reactivated and my transfer to the External Security and Research Division has been completed. High Command knows everything necessary and on their orders I'll be serving within this unit, and out of the public eye for the time being.

Gunslinger Out.

Important: This communication remains the property of the Liberty Defence Forces and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Neural Net Communications Act 807A.S, Section 30. If you have received this message in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the communication.

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COMM ID: Lieutenant Avery Reeves
TARGET ID: ESRD reporting center; HIGHCOM
SUBJECT: Reporting
ENCRYPTION: ESRD Alpha
PRIORITY: High

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Greetings, whomever this may concern.

I thought it best to submit the information I had acquired during my time spent independently in Omicron Delta.
Firstly the living conditions aboard Freeport-11 are terrible, and with the amount of people currently aboard with no place to go, this is hardly the life they should be forced to lead.
The effectiveness of Core assaults seem to have been on a slant since the first bombardment, the first being the most effective. As of now a defense force of mixed origins may frequent the system, ready to defend it from any core attackers.
The Rheinland Military has been officially sent to scout and survey the system in order 'to bring peace' to it again, I have noticed them get into engagements with certain core ships and in fact seen a core ship destroyed by a Rheinland war vessel at one point.
Battlegroup Auxesia and the Order also periodically deploy war vessels to defend Freeport.
The Cincinnati being close to Freport-11 is not an uncommon sight, it has been there from nearly the beginning of the conflict and rarely seemed to leave the sector if not to re-arm or resupply.
The Core does not seem to have grown any less hostile and will probably resume further attacks when prepared to do so without any form of hesitation. I am unable to pinpoint the true source of these attacks. And as such have been unable to establish any motive to cause such a large scale of destruction as well as loss of life.
All parties involved have suffered heavy losses and the quality of life around and within the station does not seem like it will improve much further, given its stellar location and the natural tensions of the area around it. It is however worth considering, that rectifying the tensions in the area will give us more easy as well as clandestine access to alien materials, the remote nature of space might also serve well for a distant research post.
These are my notes and all the information I have collected thus far, I await further orders on what to do next.

Lieutenant Reeves, over and out.

Important: This communication remains the property of the Liberty Defence Forces and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Neural Net Communications Act 807A.S, Section 30. If you have received this message in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the communication.

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COMM ID: Commander DEGRANGE, Elisabeth
TARGET ID: Lieutenant Avery Reeves
SUBJECT: ------
ENCRYPTION: ESRD ALPHA
PRIORITY: HIGH

Reeves.

While information may be of use regarding the situation, as we are to soon operate in the area for a cargo pickup duty, the Republic of Liberty and the Liberty Navy, are not going to interfere or take part in anyway in the events of Omicron Delta, unless otherwise specified by the Department of Defense. Our relationship with the core have so far has proven to be unaffected by their policies in the region and have provided themselves as a friendly entity to the Navy. The involvement of the Rheinland Military does raise a few eyebrows, yet if Liberty is to be involved there in any way it would be the LSF, as it's their profile. Remember we're military intelligence, not an intelligence agency. Anything we do is always relevant to homeland security or of use to the Navy's operational duties and showing our presence in the midst of those events is not something the Navy wants.

And one more thing, there's no such thing as operating independently and unprecedented in territories of that nature without confirmation. We need people who can follow their orders correctly, not heroes. Wouldn't want to hear that again. Either way we've got things to discuss.

Commander DeGrange, over and out.

Important: This communication remains the property of the Liberty Defence Forces and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Neural Net Communications Act 807A.S, Section 30. If you have received this message in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the communication.

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COMM ID: Lieutenant Avery Reeves
TARGET ID: ESRD reporting center; HIGHCOM
SUBJECT: The issue has hit the fan
ENCRYPTION: ESRD Alpha
PRIORITY: HIGH

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Greetings, whomever this may concern.

This may or may not come as a shock, but we do have an issue now. I had been monitoring the Shamrock Bay ever since Hemlock expressed eagerness to go out to the Deltas, he did not know it was me since I was under my ESRD call-sign. He was supposedly granted permission to perform medical and supply duties at Freeport-11. I kept monitoring even then, since staying on top of a situation I have a bad feeling about seemed a key thing to do at the time.
A few days later, a cruiser was spotted by Order forces in Omicron Mu, which was the Shamrock Bay. Hemlock, the person in charge of the ship disclosed that he was an Order Agent and his identification number checked out to be legitimate. He had been doing this for the past twelve years and had been in serious deep cover. Having heard this, I stowed aboard his ship with a small contingency of agents, I could not allow him to defect with the Bay, at least not with it intact. We tried to get his crew to stand down and transfer control over to us, but they opened fire, so we returned the same. The entire ship broke into a war-zone for several minutes. In a fit of sheer desperation we tried to sabotage the drive systems and destroy the bay, but it failed since the agents charged with this were shot. We managed to shut down the drives in hopes of keeping the ship stationary and calling for reinforcements, but they activated a device that jammed all communications. Several crew members were killed in the cross fire along with one agent, and a few wounded. Those of us able to move managed to hijack a few pods and escape. We were unable to stop Hemlock from defecting and unable to cripple the ship from leaving Omicron Delta. But now his operations are out in the open and we can react accordingly. It is now in our best interest to see what Hemlock has done for the past twelve years does not continue any further. I will await further instructions on the matter and was not able to file this report sooner. We aren't in the dark anymore, perhaps this can serve as an advantage despite us being unable to stop him from keeping the Bay and defecting with it.
On a relevant side note, how the LSF let this go on so long without knowing is beyond me, but I guess we were all a little blind to what was happening regarding this.

Lieutenant Reeves, over and out.

Important: This communication remains the property of the Liberty Defence Forces and is subject to the jurisdiction of the Neural Net Communications Act 807A.S, Section 30. If you have received this message in error, you are requested to contact the sender and delete the communication.

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Max Morse

Arbs

Wildkins

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Pinko

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Sarawr!?

Reeves

Arbs

Reeves