Rather long flight today, but I'll do my best to condense this AAR for easy parsing. Around 0038 SMT I undocked from Valravn and made contact with Revenant onboard the Achlys, as well as Lazurith, the Pentation, Heavy Beep, and Aspen of the SLRC. We were soon joined by an associate from the Rogues, Montes. We performed several jumps with the Achlys' hyperspace matrix to acquire scientific data about certain classified phenomena. The relevant scans were collected by Lazurith, the Achlys, and myself, and I believe Lazurith will—once they recover from gastric issues related to the incompatibility of their augs with the cheap oils contained in the Sunbucks donuts they foolishly ate—submit a restricted-access report to the appropriate channels collating this data and providing an analysis thereof. Scans were made of phenomena in Omicron Delta, Kepler, and Texas, at which point we performed one final hyperspace jump returning to Point Alpha. In Kepler we also made contact with another Rogue associate, Hemlocke, alias "Wolf", who followed our expedition thru the entirety of Texas but did not accompany our final jump to Point Alpha. Many laughs and much confusion were had by all, with Lazurith and Aspen in particular seeming to have quite an energetic friendship. In the future, these two should be reminded to behave more professionally when in open space.
Scientific expedition officially ended at 0222 SMT with the mooring of the Achlys at Valravn. Revenant, Aspen, Lazurith, and I briefly discussed the classified data we gathered and related subjects, and I inquired about the advancements in Technocracy neural augmentations made in the past two years, though unfortunately this line of questioning had to be cut short. Our team then split; Revenant departed on her own to conduct personal diplomacy with same aforementioned Rogues in Cortez's Paloma Cloud; Heavy Beep moored with Valravn to recharge; Lazurith complained of GI distress and docked; all assets outwith myself and Aspen in the Cryptomnesia dispersed.
I suggested a quick patrol through home space, into Cortez and the Barrier in Coronado. Aspen was open to the idea, and accompanied me to Echo-Two in Cortez, where we discovered a hastily scuttled space station. Scans indicated all electronics onboard had been wiped; I'm including an audiotextual log of our analysis.
Logs: 030413 – 030945 SMT Wrote:[03:04:01] A/)-Gestalt: Huh, decomp'd station.
[03:04:11] A/)-Gestalt: How long's this been here?
[03:04:13] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Ooh. Remarkable.
[03:04:39] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Sizable one. Multiple fighter ports. Military?
[03:04:51] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I can't pull any records. Computers must all be shot.
[03:04:59] A/)-Gestalt: Aye, looks like...
[03:05:16] A/)-Gestalt: Dedicated freighter ports, too.
[03:05:21] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Hrm. Considering where we are...
[03:05:47] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Might've been a staging point during the war?
[03:05:58] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: This was about the frontline for Liberty.
[03:06:07] A/)-Gestalt: That's what I was thinking. Something the Navy or the Baffers put up as an emergency staging ground.
[03:06:21] A/)-Gestalt: Which might also explain why it's just been left here.
[03:06:27] A/)-Gestalt: Nothing of consequence inside.
[03:06:39] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: No more war, no more purpose. Could've even been scheduled decommisioning.
[03:06:54] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I'm surprised nobody's taken up residence, though.
[03:07:01] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Junkers, at least.
[03:07:11] A/)-Gestalt: *A note of sadness enters her tone.* Too many systems turning into Leeds ever since that invasion started.
[03:07:27] A/)-Gestalt: Just junk everywhere.
[03:07:45] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: The Taus are littered with it. It's like the graveyard of Sirius now.
[03:07:54] A/)-Gestalt: Actually...
[03:08:06] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Mm?
[03:08:09] A/)-Gestalt: I know the jumphole networks have shifted a lot since I was last active.
[03:08:18] A/)-Gestalt: Do you know a surreptitious way to Leeds from here?
[03:08:34] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Mm. Mayhaps.
[03:08:42] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: There's an unstable route through Magellan.
[03:08:47] A/)-Gestalt: If you have the time, would you mind?
[03:08:56] A/)-Gestalt: I'd be able to make my own way back.
[03:09:05] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Not at all. Happy to show you the way.
[03:09:12] A/)-Gestalt: Thank you. Forming up.
At this point, I decided to cut our patrol short and head to Leeds. I am originally from the planet, though I had not been in the system at all since I departed civilian life to join the Covenant years ago after graduating university. In the wake of the Gallic Royalists' glassing of the planet, I wished to pay my respects. However, just before we entered the Corcovado Field, we were confronted with the prompt appearance of a Lane Hacker vessel. An edited audiotextual log of our conversational exchange follows—edits are to remove extraneous noise and also clarify where communications were made via one-to-one or group/local channels.
Logs: 030413 – 030945 SMT Wrote:[03:10:45] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Oop. A Hacker. Howdy.
[03:10:55] LH~Ling.Ling: Greetings.
[03:11:38] LH~Ling.Ling: Actually, you fellas wouldn't mind taking something off my hands for me, yes?
[03:11:49] A/)-Gestalt: What's that something, Hacker?
[03:11:55] LH~Ling.Ling: Uh
[03:11:57] LH~Ling.Ling: A someone.
[03:12:09] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: You're carrying a "someone"?
[03:12:29] LH~Ling.Ling: Yeah. He's not useful to me anymore.
[03:12:44] LH~Ling.Ling: I was thinking of putting him somewhere less conspicuous.
[03:12:48] LH~Ling.Ling: But you are also...
[03:12:51] LH~Ling.Ling: You know...
[03:12:57] LH~Ling.Ling: Not conspicuous.
[03:13:09] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Trust me, if you knew me, you wouldn't feel that way.
[03:13:17] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Hold on. Who are we talking about here?
[03:13:32] A/)-Gestalt: We'll drop your "friend" off somewhere so long as you clue us in a little re: the circumstances here.
[03:14:05] LH~Ling.Ling: DSE employee by the name of Cornell Jacobson. Large time manager of the mining project on Pittsburgh.
[03:14:24] LH~Ling.Ling: Also, one of the few who had knowledge on a little stack of papers I'd like to have.
[03:14:51] A/)-Gestalt: Huh.
[03:15:03] LH~Ling.Ling: You know how it is, every so often "crimes for dimes" lines up with "by any means necessary".
[03:15:17] A/)-Gestalt: Aye, I get it.
[03:15:17] LH~Ling.Ling: You pick up a VIP off his transport and run off with him to ask some questions.
[03:15:25] LH~Ling.Ling: Because you're a fan of his work, yeah
[03:15:53] A/)-Gestalt: Well, I won't pry too much into any of that.
[03:16:29] A/)-Gestalt: He'll get home safe, eventually.
[03:16:37] LH~Ling.Ling: Yeah, just put him somewhere "pop-up"able, you know?
[03:17:08] A/)-Gestalt: I'll make sure he lands somewhere he can catch a shuttle back home.
[03:17:12] LH~Ling.Ling: Back to business, saved a trip to Texas, all kinds of good things today.
[03:17:16] A/)-Gestalt: Pittsburgh is a little out of my way, though.
[03:17:21] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I could even ferry him straight back to Pittsburgh.
[03:17:31] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I sorta need to stop by the area.
[03:17:49] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Appreciate you bein' forthright, buddy.
[03:18:11] LH~Ling.Ling: Something like that, huh?
[03:18:36] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: In the realm of it.
[03:18:50] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I reckon if I was to ask what kinda papers you needed, that'd be confidential?
[03:19:06] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Pardon the curiosity. It really sticks to me.
[03:19:21] LH~Ling.Ling: Some of them would be. The rest of them are family matters. [03:19:57] A/)-Gestalt: Pardon the interruption, Raven; we're touch-and-go but not guns-out with the Lane Hackers, right?
[03:20:05] A/)-Revenant: Neutral.
[03:20:17] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Mm. That's rough. I won't pry or nothin'. [03:20:25] A/)-Revenant: Recall, the Lane Hackers deal with Information.
[03:20:28] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: We'll return your wayward DSE fella to... somewhere. [03:20:30] A/)-Revenant: Including blackmailing others, so be wary.
[03:20:38] A/)-Gestalt: Right.
[03:20:41] LH~Ling.Ling: Appreciated! You have a good day, yeah?
[03:20:50] A/)-Gestalt: Likewise. Safe flights.
[03:20:55] LH~Ling.Ling: Ah, and if you meet some weird cultists...
[03:21:04] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: It's certainly goin' uphill from here.
[03:21:04] LH~Ling.Ling: Call 'emselves the Commune.
[03:21:07] LH~Ling.Ling: Kill them. [03:21:14] A/)-Revenant: We caught one attempting to mess with the anomaly in the Taus. Or, at the least, in some form of subterfuge.
[03:21:21] A/)-Gestalt: Dangerous, and been in the area, I assume?
[03:21:28] LH~Ling.Ling: Just one.
[03:21:28] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Commune? Like, socialists?
[03:22:01] LH~Ling.Ling: Commune, like something, I dunno.
[03:22:16] LH~Ling.Ling: Didn't bother to ask him.
[03:22:22] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Just wonderin' why I aughta be killin' people I never met.
[03:22:47] LH~Ling.Ling: Well, you know how no matter how kind, generous, and understanding you can be
[03:22:51] LH~Ling.Ling: Some people can't be saved
[03:23:03] LH~Ling.Ling: Those guys are "some people"
[03:23:26] A/)-Gestalt: Hm.
[03:23:30] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: O-oh. So, like. They're like "those" people.
[03:23:37] A/)-Gestalt: I think we understand.
[03:24:02] LH~Ling.Ling: Yeah, but they're less of a "those people" and more of a "their kind", ya know?
[03:24:25] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I wasn't actually sure if I did know 'fore you said that.
[03:24:32] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: But I think I'm pickin' up what you're puttin' down.
[03:24:38] LH~Ling.Ling: Like you can't call them "you all", you gotta call em "you and your... compatriots" [03:25:01] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I'll be honest.
[03:25:08] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I have no idea what he's talking about.
[03:25:12] A/)-Gestalt: Sounds awful like how others view us.
[03:25:37] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: So what did you see this one do? [03:25:47] A/)-Gestalt: Me neither, but it's best not to piss off the Lane Hackers, and sometimes they're on a short fuse.
[03:26:04] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Compared to Wolf, this guy is like Saint Peter. [03:26:07] LH~Ling.Ling: This one? Ah, I just heard him speak.
[03:26:08] A/)-Gestalt: So I'm just playin' along.
[03:26:17] LH~Ling.Ling: You know, I used to know him but I don't know him no more.
[03:26:32] LH~Ling.Ling: Salvation this and solution that.
[03:26:44] A/)-Gestalt: Aah...
[03:26:48] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Went through a real spiritual kind of awakening, eh?
[03:26:57] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: A downright apotheosis?
[03:27:30] LH~Ling.Ling: Yeah, maybe. He did have a knack for thinking with his heart and not his head.
[03:27:48] LH~Ling.Ling: But I'm something of a record keeper.
[03:27:50] A/)-Revenant: I am uncertain.
[03:28:05] LH~Ling.Ling: And the two files labled "The Commune"...
[03:28:16] LH~Ling.Ling: Well, hard to tell which is worse.
[03:29:06] A/)-Gestalt: "The Commune"... actually, wasn't that the name of a group of mercenaries working with Malta some years ago?
[03:29:12] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Mm. So you'd definitely advise against flying up, saying "hi" and asking them how their day is going...
[03:29:38] LH~Ling.Ling: Yeah, that's one of them. Worked out of Malta, got exiled, came back with...
[03:29:44] LH~Ling.Ling: More colorful friends.
[03:30:01] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Of the blue-ish purple variety?
[03:30:01] LH~Ling.Ling: The other one was in Bretonia back in 800.
[03:30:06] LH~Ling.Ling: They were the colorful friends.
[03:30:12] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Ah.
[03:30:26] LH~Ling.Ling: Yeah, I don't suggest chatting with them.
[03:30:28] A/)-Gestalt: What did the conversationally former, temporally latter group get exiled over?
[03:30:44] LH~Ling.Ling: No clue. Stricken from record, like most things to do with them.
[03:31:22] A/)-Gestalt: Curious.
[03:31:26] LH~Ling.Ling: Either way, there was a name I haven't heard in a while floating around here.
[03:31:47] LH~Ling.Ling: I know what he is. I know what his friends gotta be.
[03:32:00] LH~Ling.Ling: Probably nothing to worry about
[03:32:08] LH~Ling.Ling: But if they're around, yeah.
[03:32:29] A/)-Revenant: Perhaps.
[03:32:31] A/)-Gestalt: We'll be sure to be wary of them.
[03:32:33] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Watch our step. In more ways than one.
[03:32:44] LH~Ling.Ling: Yeah.
[03:32:52] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: You sir, are quite the courteous gentleman.
[03:32:53] A/)-Gestalt: Anyways, we have an errand to attend to. Two now, actually.
[03:33:08] LH~Ling.Ling: Yeah, you do that. Thanks for taking that guy off my hands.
[03:33:19] A/)-Gestalt: Keep safe.
[03:33:24] LH~Ling.Ling: You too.
[03:33:25] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Yep, off we go. Fly safe.
==[TRAVERSAL TO MAGELLAN VIA JUMPHOLE]==
[03:33:41] A/)-Gestalt: That was sufficiently disorienting.
[03:33:43] A/)-Revenant: Dark Matter and the anomalies, or other hyperspatial disturbances?
[03:34:06] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I guess I'll be shuttling a guy to Pittsburgh.
[03:34:20] A/)-Revenant: Hm?
[03:34:28] A/)-Gestalt: To Leeds, then?
[03:34:42] A/)-Gestalt: Aspen is showing me some jumpholes.
[03:34:44] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Yep. Should be due... thisaway.
[03:34:55] A/)-Gestalt: In the process, we encountered a Lane Hacker by name of "Ling Ling".
[03:35:11] A/)-Gestalt: Handed off a DSE hostage to us that he wants returned to Pittsburgh for some reason.
[03:35:27] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Didn't have what he was looking for. Or, did, but he's done with him now.
[03:35:33] A/)-Gestalt: Warned us of a cult called "The Commune", apparently remnants of the Maltese mercenary group formerly
[03:35:35] A/)-Gestalt: of the same name.
[03:35:35] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Honestly an enjoyable guy.
[03:35:39] A/)-Revenant: I know of them.
[03:35:41] A/)-Revenant: We clashed.
[03:35:46] A/)-Revenant: Commune were fanatics.
[03:35:46] A/)-Gestalt: Hacker also instructed us to kill said cultists any time we encounter them.
[03:35:49] A/)-Revenant: Nomadic warshippers.
[03:35:57] A/)-Revenant: Aehm.
[03:35:59] A/)-Revenant: Aaah.
[03:36:01] A/)-Revenant: Worshippers.
[03:36:27] A/)-Gestalt: Apparently they were cast out of Malta's good graces and vanished for a time.
[03:36:32] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Worshippers in warships, warshipping! Oh my.
[03:36:59] A/)-Gestalt: Ended up reforming by way of merger with another group from the time of the Nomad War also known as The Commune.
[03:37:16] A/)-Gestalt: According to Ling Ling, this radicalized both groups in a further dangerous direction.
[03:37:30] A/)-Gestalt: I'll post the transcript in a report later. [03:37:43] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Here we are... careful goin' through. [03:37:43] A/)-Revenant: Gotcha.
[03:37:51] A/)-Gestalt: Copy that. [03:38:16] A/)-Gestalt: The Hacker seemed unusually polite. Leaves me curious what makes this DSE guy so special, but it doesn't matter.
[03:38:30] A/)-Gestalt: I intend to drop him off at Freeport 3, or perhaps Aspen will return him directly to Pittsburgh.
At this point, we entered Leeds. For the sake of thoroughness, I've included a log of our conversation there, but it is not tactically or strategically relevant in any manner. However, it does contain personal information about myself, as well as a discussion about the psychosocial nature of unaugmented humanity, Bretonian industrial and demographic history, philosophical musings, a brief but surprisingly-pleasantly civil encounter with a Bretonian Police Authority officer in a large transport, and other errata.
Logs: 033847 – 053037 SMT Wrote:[03:38:37] A/)-Gestalt: Yep. This is Leeds alright.
[03:39:10] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: So. Have you... seen it before?
[03:39:17] A/)-Gestalt: Oh yes.
[03:39:27] A/)-Gestalt: I'm from Leeds, actually.
[03:39:37] A/)-Gestalt: I... haven't seen the planet since a few years before the glassing.
[03:39:43] A/)-Gestalt: I just wanted to pay my respects.
[03:40:04] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I understand. If you need to express anything, feel free.
[03:40:26] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: It's more than a little shocking.
[03:41:01] A/)-Gestalt: Thanks.
==[TRAVERSAL TO PLANET LEEDS NEAR-HIGH ORBIT, GEOSTELLAR EAST SIDE]==
[03:41:40] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: What was it like? Before this?
[03:42:36] A/)-Gestalt: From up here, in space?
[03:42:50] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Up here. Down there.
[03:42:59] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Your experience of it.
[03:43:01] A/)-Gestalt: It looked mostly the same. On the northern continent, there, you can see a volcano erupting right now.
[03:43:10] A/)-Gestalt: That didn't happen before.
[03:43:22] A/)-Gestalt: The bombardment broke the tectonic plates.
[03:43:29] A/)-Gestalt: On the surface, though...
[03:43:42] A/)-Gestalt: It's nothing anybody ought to feel nostalgic for.
[03:44:02] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: No?
[03:44:10] A/)-Gestalt: Half of my family's monthly budget went towards replacing our air filters.
[03:44:37] A/)-Gestalt: Average life expectancy for those who didn't bother was somewhere around 45 years old.
[03:44:50] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Goodness...
[03:44:58] A/)-Gestalt: Cancer and straight-up liver failure were the most common causes.
[03:45:08] A/)-Gestalt: Followed by gang-related murders and industrial accidents. [03:45:49] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Times were hard, then. More "survival" than living.
[03:45:58] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I hear so much of the same about Houston.
[03:46:28] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: And... judging by all the smog... I imagine the countryside was hardly different...
[03:46:36] A/)-Gestalt: What countryside?
[03:46:50] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Oh? You mean... ?
[03:47:13] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: It was that built up?
[03:47:28] A/)-Gestalt: On the eve of King Charles' declaration of war, the population of Leeds sat at fifteen billion, six hundred eighty seven thousand, two hundred thirty people, give or take.
[03:48:05] A/)-Gestalt: More than half of them worked for BMM, and the rest were involved in shipping or civil administration.
[03:48:44] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: We weren't meant to live like this...
[03:48:47] A/)-Gestalt: Every square inch of Leeds that wasn't devoted to residential activities was a strip mine. *Imogen's voice is cold and emotionless. She sounds more like a text-to-speech program than an organic being now.*
[03:49:45] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: That's... mindboggling. Growing up on Erie, there was always this strict separation.
[03:50:19] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: The cities, the gateway to the Houses, and then the country. Small towns. Tight communities. Nature unburdened.
[03:50:51] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: We... are probably far luckier than we deserve, back home.
[03:51:11] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Do you... have any good memories of it?
[03:51:21] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Growing up? Maybe one or two?
[03:53:40] A/)-Gestalt: Any good memories? Of Leeds?
[03:53:56] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Of friends. Family. Strange happenings.
[03:54:41] A/)-Gestalt: We'd have food -- so-called "real" food, not synth paste -- usually twice a year.
[03:54:56] A/)-Gestalt: Once on Founder's Day, and once on the New Year.
[03:55:11] A/)-Gestalt: I remember every Founder's Day feast my mother and I celebrated.
[03:55:27] A/)-Gestalt: Those are nice memories.
[03:57:09] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Memories worth keeping.
[03:57:32] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: A little reminder that there's some measure of joy to be found, even in a dark place. A little spark of life.
[03:57:44] A/)-Gestalt: Roast turkey with mushroom gravy. Blood pudding. Rheinbier.
[03:58:07] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Mmh, Lord, mushroom gravy...
[03:58:23] A/)-Gestalt: On New Years, we'd have rice, noodles, and wheat ales.
[03:58:38] A/)-Gestalt: Sometimes with fried pork.
[03:59:49] A/)-Gestalt: The air outside smelled like sulfur and made your nose bleed if you didn't wear a mask.
[04:00:13] A/)-Gestalt: If it rained, you'd have to get around via the tunnels for days. It would burn your skin, you couldn't go above ground.
[04:00:49] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: So much in the name of the bottom line, hm?
[04:01:22] A/)-Gestalt: In the 200s, the Crown gave BMM carte blanche in the entire system. The Bretonia landed late, compared to the other colony ships, and our ancestors were afraid that if we fell behind in industrialization, they would be made slaves.
[04:02:30] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: So sacrifices had to be made. Build quick, big, and dirty.
[04:02:47] A/)-Gestalt: Exactly.
[04:03:12] A/)-Gestalt: In school, we learned that the smog was the pride of Bretonia. Our planet made Bretonia possible. Our cobalt, our platinum.
[04:03:41] A/)-Gestalt: Our lung cancer.
[04:05:26] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: An awful calculus, that. Setting up fifteen billion to live that way.
[04:05:56] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: ... I don't know if doing anything different would have saved the planet from the Gauls, though.
[04:06:10] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Nobody could have planned for that.
[04:06:26] A/)-Gestalt: They glassed it because of all the industry.
[04:06:59] A/)-Gestalt: In the end, they thought destroying Leeds would destroy all Bretonia's supply lines, and the will to fight.
[04:07:18] A/)-Gestalt: The Gauls realized things were getting tight for them, even if every Bretonian was living in fear.
[04:08:52] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: It's so hard to imagine how they'd bring themselves to press the button. I'd even read they had so many of their own.
[04:08:59] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Still on the planet at the time.
[04:09:26] A/)-Gestalt: They... they h-had soldiers, fighting block for block.
[04:09:51] A/)-Gestalt: Most of the population had already fled, but three million died trying to hold the planet.
[04:10:28] A/)-Gestalt: Skirmishes with everything from rocks to plasma rifles and flamethrowers. The militias broke their airtight windows, letting the cancerous air in, so that they could shoot down at the street from fifteen stories up.
[04:11:16] A/)-Gestalt: There were several hundred thousand Gallic marines on the planet when the bombardment started. And still over six billion civilians who couldn't or wouldn't evac.
[04:12:19] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: A remarkable will to resist from people who had to bear Bretonia on their shoulders almost single-handedly.
[04:13:04] A/)-Gestalt: If your family had tried to evac, and been stuffed into the cargo pods of a Shetland, barely refitted enough to maintain pressurization so that they could breathe in there...
[04:13:30] A/)-Gestalt: And Gaian collaborationists had blown up the ship just as it pulled out of atmo...
[04:13:41] A/)-Gestalt: Would you take your chances with the evac, or would you pick up a gun?
[04:14:33] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: ... I don't know. I think-...
[04:14:50] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I don't think I would be me anymore, after that.
[04:15:15] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Nothing left to lose... I see your point.
[04:15:53] A/)-Gestalt: *Without warning, Imogen cuts her comms -- no incoming or outgoing transmissions.*
[04:17:13] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: [Silently, the Plover falls in behind.]
==[TRAVERSAL TO ~32° NORTH OF PLANET LEEDS' SOUTHERN POLE]==
[04:19:18] A/)-Gestalt: *There's a brief crackle of static as she turns them back on, the silent radio signal receiving interference from the irradiated atmosphere and metallic microparticles surrounding the lifeless planet.*
[04:19:26] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: [The pilot fiddles with their belongings a moment, and procures a harmonica. They begin to play a short, sorrowful tune.]
[04:21:30] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: [A brief, bluesy sendoff for the lives lost, steady and even. They sigh upon finishing the musical number.]
[04:21:43] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: [Rolling the instrument between their fingers.]
[04:22:33] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: How are you holding up over there?
[04:22:57] A/)-Gestalt: I didn't know you played. *Her voice is no longer so monotonous -- instead, it's emotional. She was crying while her comms were disabled.*
[04:23:58] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: [Their expression turns mildly sheepish.] O-oh. I'm far from good at it... it's just, helpful to have on hand.
[04:24:20] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Puts feelings to sound better than words can.
[04:24:44] A/)-Gestalt: ...I enjoyed it.
[04:25:41] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Mm. I'm glad. The people deserve a better sendoff. But I'm happy to give what I've got.
[04:26:04] A/)-Gestalt: I'm grateful to Raven, and to the departed Curator.
[04:26:28] A/)-Gestalt: They didn't have to take me in.
[04:27:16] A/)-Gestalt: I could have died here like the rest.
[04:28:14] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: And now, you carry the memories of the place.
[04:28:42] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: The good, and the bad. The suffering, and the aspirations.
[04:29:25] A/)-Gestalt: I still have hope for the future.
[04:29:49] A/)-Gestalt: You know, a lot of the Royalists tried to defect.
[04:29:54] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I know Raven would say that's valuable. To carry forward the dreams of a people who had no better lot to look forward to.
[04:30:00] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Mm... ?
[04:30:03] A/)-Gestalt: When they received the bombardment order.
[04:30:08] A/)-Gestalt: Even the Gauls were horrified.
[04:30:26] A/)-Gestalt: They tried to establish contact with the Armed Forces, and to turn their guns on their comrades.
[04:31:02] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I didn't know that, actually.
[04:31:17] A/)-Gestalt: I don't know what happened after that. I've just heard the rumours
[04:31:38] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: That... puts a lot into perspective.
[04:32:01] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: She told me, you know, they were raised from birth to hate us.
[04:32:25] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Immersed in an environment where everything wrong with the universe stemmed from something we'd done to them.
[04:33:04] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: That kind of conditioning is hard to break.
[04:33:58] A/)-Gestalt: Most people don't have the emotional capacity to question the things they were raised from birth to believe.
[04:35:06] A/)-Gestalt: I don't mean this as some kind of personal observation.
[04:36:08] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Cold comfort maybe, but... even in an army like that, someone had the decency to say "no" eventually, at least.
[04:36:51] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Be better if it didn't have to go so far.
[04:37:06] A/)-Gestalt: It isn't about decency.
[04:37:12] A/)-Gestalt: It's about development.
[04:37:57] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: How's that?
[04:38:39] A/)-Gestalt: It's social psychology, and it's particularly apt to use it to analyze what happened here.
[04:39:20] A/)-Gestalt: Leeds is the greatest loss of life in human history, besides maybe the original exodus from Sol.
[04:39:35] A/)-Gestalt: But before then, over a thousand years ago now, there was a man named Casimir Dambrowski.
[04:39:58] A/)-Gestalt: His people suffered much like those of Leeds did. Their deaths were part of what was then the greatest loss of human life ever.
[04:40:39] A/)-Gestalt: Dambrowski was a psychologist -- I studied sociology in university, alongside engineering -- and he managed to live through this mass killing, mostly of civilians like him.
[04:42:20] A/)-Gestalt: At that time, the study of human behavior was still in its infancy.
[04:42:49] A/)-Gestalt: He wanted to know how people were capable of such horrific acts, but also of the selfless and divine heroism he witnessed.
[04:43:00] A/)-Gestalt: And he realized the academic theories of the time didn't explain this properly.
[04:43:30] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: So he'd formulate his own theory of development.
[04:43:47] A/)-Gestalt: Right.
[04:44:26] A/)-Gestalt: As we're born, our minds have a primitive socioethical integration with the world around us. Little more than instinct.
[04:44:44] A/)-Gestalt: We eat, we fuck, we shit, we sleep, and we give in to social pressures to avoid being hurt.
[04:45:02] A/)-Gestalt: Most people stay this way for their entire lives.
[04:45:55] A/)-Gestalt: Society is shaped most of all by the masses, and it evolves for the needs of the masses. Even when suffering and toiling,
[04:46:28] A/)-Gestalt: the moral instincts of the common man tell them that their situation is normal, and that deviations are wrong.
[04:47:05] A/)-Gestalt: They aren't really individuals. They don't really have personality. They... they're barely people. More like herd animals.
[04:47:25] A/)-Gestalt: No action, only reaction.
[04:47:58] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Sayeth Dambrowski's theory, thus far?
[04:48:05] A/)-Gestalt: Aye.
[04:48:14] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: This would be the foundation. I see.
[04:48:20] A/)-Gestalt: But this primitive integration can be broken.
[04:48:30] A/)-Gestalt: "Positive disintegration", he called it.
[04:49:22] A/)-Gestalt: When you undergo major traumas, when your basic worldview and ontology is challenged so majorly that you can't ignore it or play dumb or remain in denial...
[04:49:46] A/)-Gestalt: There's a chance to reassess, to rebuild.
[04:50:12] A/)-Gestalt: Most people go through this, but convince themselves that these personal crises are their own failing, and return to primary, primitive integration. If we don't do that, we have a chance to reconstruct ourselves, our morality, and the way we interact with the world. If you go through this painful process over and over, you develop more nuance, more personality, more individuality. Disintegrating your socially-trained and biologically-inherited impulses and becoming who you really are, a thinking, self-directed individual.
[04:52:32] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Mmhm. Like an awakening of your capacity for critical thinking? But, kickstarted by a traumatic event.
[04:53:03] A/)-Gestalt: Right.
[04:53:27] A/)-Gestalt: Because when "the system" around you, your whole world, simply works fine for you, there's no impetus to think critically in the first place.
[04:55:43] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: And it's that crisis, the scope of the massacre, that he says provides that shock factor. Turns people on to their potential. To explain the virtue.
[04:56:19] A/)-Gestalt: The captains and crews that tried to mutiny, according to the rumours, they were just those who'd undergone this positive disintegration before.
[04:56:37] A/)-Gestalt: Or maybe they realized the scope of the order and they had to rearrange their entire worldviews then and there.
[04:58:04] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Could you say the whole Gallic state underwent that process, after what happened?
[04:58:14] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: When news made it's way back.
[04:58:24] A/)-Gestalt: I've never been to Gallia. But from what I understand, it's possible.
[04:58:53] A/)-Gestalt: There was another man who lived around Dambrowski's time, named Dass, who thought that wide-scale collective trauma like this created the potential for humanity's consciousness to evolve.
[04:59:59] A/)-Gestalt: Dambrowski thought the potential for disintegration to be positive and result in individuation... was mostly genetically predetermined.
[05:00:31] A/)-Gestalt: If Dambrowski's right, then Auxo's mission is the only hope for us all. Becoming better than human, rewriting our own shitty code.
[05:00:47] A/)-Gestalt: If Dass was right, then the Gauls unknowingly did a lot of good by killing all those people.
[05:01:36] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Considering that sentence feels like swallowing ash.
[05:01:51] A/)-Gestalt: I know.
[05:02:02] A/)-Gestalt: The world is cruel, isn't it.
[05:04:00] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: "If" Dambrowski's right. It's a... comprehensive picture, I know. But, far from the only theory of psychosocial development.
[05:04:36] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Still.
[05:05:48] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I do... endeavor to see how you and yours go about doing such a thing.
[05:06:33] A/)-Gestalt: A lot of progress has been made in the past few years. I'm still not aware of all the details.
[05:06:35] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: There's no shortage of evidence that something has to change about us. And institutions are fragile things.
[05:08:01] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Mhm. Raven sees a lot of potential in the integration with the Gammu intelligence.
[05:08:09] A/)-Gestalt: Everything is fragile now. Even planetary crust, even time and space.
[05:08:45] A/)-Gestalt: I just want to see one thing that can last.
[05:09:23] A/)-Gestalt: Maybe our cousins from Gammu can help build it.
[05:10:00] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Think we can do better than the Kavosh did?
[05:10:15] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: They don't seem to be lasting much anymore, either.
[05:10:45] A/)-Gestalt: I pray every night that we manage to.
[05:11:29] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: And if we don't?
[05:12:00] A/)-Gestalt: Then every planet ends up just like Leeds.
[05:13:09] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: That, we'll have to endeavor to avoid. 'Least for as long as we can.
[05:13:34] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: How do you feel?
[05:13:47] A/)-Gestalt: Reinvigorated, actually.
[05:14:12] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I thought I'd picked up on a little of that.
[05:14:18] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Are you ready to depart?
[05:14:42] A/)-Gestalt: I am. We should probably drop off Mr. Whatsisname somewhere.
[05:15:16] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I'll pull up alongside. Pass his pod on to me, I'll drop him off planetside.
[05:15:56] BPA)Captivity: Gentlemen... I am curious to know who you are. Prepare for a scan.
[05:16:15] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Just some travelers paying respects.
[05:16:53] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: In fact - we've got this lost Libertonian VIP who needs a trip back to Pittsburgh. I was planning to do so myself just now.
[05:17:16] BPA)Captivity: I am concerned to see you have Nomad remains. May I ask why youhave them?
[05:17:16] A/)-Gestalt: Aye. I'm just a Leedswoman, here for some closure.
[05:17:48] A/)-Gestalt: I have nomad remains in my hold because I was attacked by some earlier, and I plan on delivering them
[05:17:53] A/)-Gestalt: to the appropriate facilities for secure study.
[05:18:01] BPA)Captivity: Good to hear...
[05:18:21] BPA)Captivity: Closure? you affiliated with the Leeds catastophe?
[05:18:54] A/)-Gestalt: I was born and raised on this planet. Through providence, I left Bretonia before the disaster struck.
[05:19:25] BPA)Captivity: No one has been unaffected. Sorry for your loss.
[05:19:36] A/)-Gestalt: Thank you.
[05:19:41] BPA)Captivity: good day ma'am, sir.
[05:19:50] A/)-Gestalt: Safe flights, officer.
[05:20:02] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: See you.
[05:20:03] BPA)Captivity: thankyou. Go well
[05:20:17] A/)-Gestalt: Shall we, Aspen?
[05:20:24] A/)-Gestalt: I'll follow you as far as California.
[05:20:45] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Actually, I need to return to Ikarus first before I jaunt back to Liberty.
[05:20:52] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I... sort of have a meeting to attend.
[05:21:13] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Might give me a chance to talk to the gentleman, too.
[05:21:16] A/)-Gestalt: Well, I'll escort you there if you'd like. Otherwise, I'll RTB.
[05:22:02] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: You may if you like, but there's no pressin' need.
[05:22:19] A/)-Gestalt: Nothing else going on, and you make for good company.
[05:23:22] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I'm glad you think so. I know I can be a bit, eh, hyperactive. Especially with Laz.
[05:23:42] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: But I'm told I'm a good listener, too.
[05:23:58] A/)-Gestalt: After earlier, I'd certainly say so. Thank you for that, by the way.
==[WORDLESS TRAVERSAL TO TAU-23]==
[05:24:21] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Thank you, for the perspective.
[05:25:03] A/)-Gestalt: I'm always happy to talk on anything that isn't classified, even if the subject of home is a little painful.
[05:25:48] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Likewise. I knew it was going to be rough for you, when you said you hadn't been back.
[05:26:08] A/)-Gestalt: Regardless, now you understand why we do what we do. Or at least why I do it.
[05:26:29] A/)-Gestalt: Why do you and your fellows subject yourselves to the harshness of life in space?
[05:27:08] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Plain and simple foolishness, maybe. Idealism. The reasons vary as much as they do among yours, I think.
[05:27:38] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Might just be describing myself.
[05:28:04] A/)-Gestalt: You weren't kidding when you called Tau the graveyard of Sirius.
[05:28:37] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I know for Sailas, Brad, the others, interstellar research has been a fixture of their lives since... long as I've known them.
[05:29:15] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: It's not uncommon for Zoners. Making the decision to leave the Houses usually means you're inquisitive, or industrious.
[05:29:55] A/)-Gestalt: I've met as many radioastronomers and xenobiologists on the Freeports as smugglers and fugitives.
[05:30:37] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: The Zoner creed has it's ups and downs. Part of it is acknowledging we're all making our own rocky paths through life.
Around this point, we arrived in the vicinity of Ikarus Station. Aspen and I discussed spatial-temporal anomalies qua objects of study with emphasis on tonight's earlier expedition. Again, for the sake of thoroughness, I have included the logs.
Some of this information may be classified, and as such, access to this data subpacket is restricted to personnel with CASE: Final Journey authorization.
[SPECIALLY RESTRICTED DATA. AUTHORIZED ACCESS ONLY.] Logs: 030413SMT–030945SMT Wrote:[05:30:57] A/)-Gestalt: Is this the SLRC's home port?
[05:31:11] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: My little home away from home.
[05:31:21] A/)-Gestalt: May I dock?
[05:31:32] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: It's okay. You can say it looks barebones. Junkers built it, it's not our fault.
[05:31:39] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Unfortunately not without a docking pass.
[05:31:49] A/)-Gestalt: Understandable.
[05:32:08] A/)-Gestalt: Before we part ways...
[05:32:13] A/)-Gestalt: What of that anomaly there?
[05:32:21] A/)-Gestalt: Two of them, even.
[05:32:41] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Ah, yeah. Part of the reason we're headquartered here.
[05:33:07] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: The further anomaly is... erratic. Reactive. And quite persistent.
[05:33:27] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: If I recall, Rev said it appeared after damage to one of the jump gates in the system.
[05:33:39] A/)-Gestalt: Mmh.
[05:33:53] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: And, it's pretty intimately connected to those Sentinels they've been talking about.
[05:34:08] A/)-Gestalt: I'll have to read those files when I return home, aye.
[05:34:09] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: All Baxter objects are, in some respect.
[05:34:20] A/)-Gestalt: Interesting.
[05:34:39] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: If you do, I hope you aren't too averse to danger.
[05:34:57] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: They weren't kidding when they said those things hunt. It's definitely a 9 out of 10.
[05:35:11] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: As arbritrary scales go.
[05:35:45] A/)-Gestalt: I'm already running experimental brain augs that are half a decade out of date, and persona non grata in half of Sirius.
[05:36:04] A/)-Gestalt: One more group of aliens shooting at me is something I can adapt to.
[05:36:39] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Ah, right, Technocrats and getting shot at. I forgot those usually go hand in hand.
[05:37:12] A/)-Gestalt: Hm, reminds me to look into anti-cancer drugs, too.
[05:37:23] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Because of our position, we spend a lot of time passively analyzing the data from these breaches.
[05:37:33] A/)-Gestalt: Never followed up on that once I switched from breathing smoggy oxygen to recycled.
[05:37:52] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Oh lordie.
[05:38:13] A/)-Gestalt: What have you blokes learned?
[05:39:09] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: In general that each of the anomalies might be connected in a sort of greater network. Which is sort of confirmed by the...
[05:39:16] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Erh, Triage, I think they called it.
[05:40:03] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Also that they're deeply tied into the workings of hyperspace. Hence, the relation to jump gates.
[05:40:27] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I think Brad mentioned that it's possible the increasing frequency of hyperspace technology on ships might be...
[05:40:38] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Erh... exacerbating their appearance?
[05:40:56] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: But, it's just a theory of his.
[05:41:30] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: The Sentinels are tied into it somehow too. They might be openin' breaches for some purpose of theirs.
[05:41:41] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: But, I'm working entirely off secondhand knowledge there.
[05:42:06] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I might be buddies with Raven, but I don't think that earns me top-secret clerance at Valravn.
[05:42:25] A/)-Gestalt: Realspace translocation by means of hyperdrives causing additional nodes to appear... hmm...
[05:42:25] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I just happened to be on the racetrack with the wrong people.
[05:42:31] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Or... maybe the right ones.
[05:42:46] A/)-Gestalt: The right person in the wrong place can make all the difference in the world.
[05:42:51] A/)-Gestalt: Someone said that once, apparently.
[05:43:01] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Hey, I'd believe it.
[05:43:20] A/)-Gestalt: Anyway, I'll stop keeping you. Thanks for tonight.
[05:43:43] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Glad to be of a little service, bud.
[05:44:01] A/)-Gestalt: Let me know if I can be of any help to you or your comrades at any point.
[05:44:28] A/)-Gestalt: Oh, and one last thing. [05:44:35] 2023-04-14 05:44:35 SMT : SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia is attempting to disconnect from the server
[05:44:48] A/)-Gestalt: Or not, heh. Seeyah. [05:46:18] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Good for nothin' Plover on the fritz again.
[05:46:25] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: This is why I miss the Spatial...
[05:46:35] A/)-Gestalt: Sorry to hear it.
[05:46:52] A/)-Gestalt: As a last note, I know that Doctor, erh, what was it... Gerda?
[05:46:57] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Sorry if I missed anything there.
[05:47:08] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Ah. Doctor Lillian Genda is her.
[05:47:14] A/)-Gestalt: Dr. Genda, right.
[05:47:39] A/)-Gestalt: They said it's unlikely you folks would be using machinery for your operations in Pygar's caves.
[05:47:58] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: She did? Oh.
[05:48:11] A/)-Gestalt: Still, if it's not too much trouble, I'd like to draw up some rover designs, something like an APC,
[05:48:19] A/)-Gestalt: if not for future use then for my own amusement.
[05:48:35] A/)-Gestalt: Would any of you be able to send me some data about the composition of Pygar's underground,
[05:48:39] A/)-Gestalt: and topology of the cave system?
[05:49:13] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Hm... you know, that I think I can do. Gladly.
[05:49:26] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: So long as, if you do get to a production stage on that lil' number...
[05:49:41] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: I might want to carry one of those around in the future. That alright?
[05:50:11] A/)-Gestalt: If we build any, I'll ensure at least one makes its way to you in specific.
[05:51:08] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: Fantastic. I'll do my part in makin' sure that comes to fruition.
[05:51:19] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: If we don't, uh, get caved in. Or fall.
[05:51:25] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: We'll be fine, we're professionals.
[05:51:47] SLRC-XV>Cryptomnesia: You have yourself a fine night now.
[05:51:56] A/)-Gestalt: Likewise. Take care, friend.
My return to Valravn from this point was entirely uneventful. The XB materials the BPA officer mentioned in a preceding log were dropped off at the Citadel with the appropriate department. Now, I think I'll get some well-earned rest. Glory to the Technocracy.
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