To: Thallia Thorn | Hans Von Goeben

[Enkidu]

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Sender ID: Templar Erinyes.
Sender Location: Classified.
Transmission Encryption: One-Time Pad.

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Greetings Mr Goeben, Miss Thorn. I've heard a lot about you both.

My name is Nesrin Khan, Auxesia’s resident materials science expert. I’m also a walking transhuman supercomputer who gets rather anal over small math, so don’t expect me to count your pocket change - and I will be personally present on the expedition as part of the extraction team. I’ll expect to see you both on the expedition.

I don’t know who has been educating you as to Auxesia’s mission statement, Miss Thorn, but it’s erroneous. Our intention is not to destroy. We are not destroyers. We are preservers. We are the sea wall keeping the krakens out.

How well do you know your Hellenic mythology, Thorn? A little etymology goes a long way. Αυξησια, or Hora, is the goddess who grants growth and prosperity to the fields; she is the personification of spring, the eidolon of the seasons, of human continuity. Whilst the mythos is long defunct, the sentiment is not. Our battlegroup is comprised of sinners, Miss Thorn, Mr Goeben. Many of us are people who have served individual human causes, in our own particular way. Some violently, some passively, we have all protected our own little rocks floating in the void according to our own attributes. I was a pilot in the BAF once, slogging my way through the sea of infected as the century turned around me. Now, I’m a flagellant, after a fashion. The rest of my life is devoted to potentially killing myself in the service of The Other, the human whole. It’s a job for Atlas, and we’re only humans - but we give it our best.

Be assuaged; we’re not the Order. We don’t torture people, murder from the shadows, or commit acts of terror against the mass of humanity we’re trying to protect. Nor are we the Core. We seek no profit from our cause, nor do we try to carve up the edge worlds into our own private dominions. We own no territory and lead, for the most part, a wandering, nomadic existence. In short, our goal is to save lives, not because we believe we have the moral high ground, but because terrestrial life in Sirius is at the short end of a very large, very powerful steam hammer that won’t stop trying to squish us into the mould until somebody puts a spanner with the gears. Simply put, we want to know what you want to know, Thalia. We want to know why the Daam K’Vosh preconfigured Sirius with a control variable, and how we can change the experiment’s rules. Bluntly, we don’t believe billions of people deserve to die on the whim of ancient, unknowable demigods. If that counts as a strategic or militaristic goal, then so be it.

Know this. The moment we believe humanity in aggregate is safe from dominion by hegemonistic entities, we will lay down our arms and you will never hear from us again. We only fight humans who commit acts of terror. We’re pacifists, Thorn. We just don’t like bullies who kill undefended civilians to stick a finger up at inaccessible politicians.

Anything of archaeological interest will be preserved for you - our intention on this excursion isn’t to rob tombs, it’s to obtain Azurite from the superartifact. As for Auxesia’s attitude to sharing K’hara inspired biotechnology - we share relics that could be used for civilian purposes and the defence of humanity against the mindshare. We do not share doomsday weapons, or anything that could tip the scales in the terrestrial balance of power. Our role is to play Saint Peter, not God. We’re here to keep heaven barred, not to judge its occupants.

In short, we have a mutual deal, Mr Goeben, Miss Thorn. Any additional data gathered will be shared between all our agencies. Since the safe acquisition and stockpiling of Azurite gas is something of a priority for Auxesia in this present time, we will attempt to extract as much as we can non-destructively. Mind you, I use the term “safe” relatively. Auxesia will provide significant escort wings to minimise the attrition risk to your assets and our science cruiser, but the dangers are unquantifiable. It’s the Omicrons, Sirs.

Auxesia is under near constant surveillance by infected acolytes, which means that the more rapidly we prep the expedition, the lower our interception risk. The soonest we can prep a significant task force for transfer to the Omicrons is by the 28th, tomorrow, 20:30 universal time (UTC). This will be the beginning of our operational window, and we will continue the expedition apace until our work is unanimously concluded or the involved asset risk is considered too extreme for continued extraction. Our RV point will be in Coronado, Barrier Gate Station. Barrier Gate combines significant distance from the Omicrons with the ready protection of the Colonial Republic, should Wilde operatives from Drake seek to impede our progress.

Our ships will be armed and ready. Bona Fortunam to you both - if we pull this off, it’d be another point on humanity’s tally.

See you in space.

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