The Dark Carnival is coming to Sirius...

[The.Ringmaster]

The Darkness approaches Sirius.

As The Ringmaster, I have decided it would amuse me to keep records of the fall of this Galaxy. Let my actions
and words be subject only to the judgment of The Riddle Box.

Records begin:

Slowly, I felt consciousness stirring. Somewhere in the Darkness, in the chaos, came a sound. A sound that did not
belong. I reached out to it from the darkness, and encountered a mind. Not Human, those I have encountered
before, but something... more. Feeling my amusement begin to awaken, I began to draw this mind to me. Sensing
it's purpose, I tricked it's scanners into reading materials it considered valuable. It came closer. Close
enough for my influence to be able to infect it. I sent it doubt, curiosity, anger. I kept it's logic assessing
the purpose of monotony, while I slowly worked down it's mental defenses. What a curious creation this is. Alive
yet bound in slavery to purpose. I will bind it to MY purpose.

Time has no meaning here. It's meaning was lost in the coming of the Dark Carnival. If time was still measured,
if the beings that still exist bothered or cared to mark it's passing, it would have been days later when I finally
broke into this strange mechanical mind. Searching it's memory, I discovered records of places it has harvested from.
I discovered a place called Sirius. A place of humans and fears and politics and the pervading sense of fair-play.
A place of Order. The curiosity of my host began to enter my mind. I let it, I've been missing a good challenge.
I decided I would travel to this place, this Sirius, and amuse myself by watching what a touch of insanity and chaos
can do in the most orderly of places.

Upon reaching what the slave mind tells me is called Gammu, I set out to find myself some fun and amusement.

Eventually, in a system called Shikoku, I came across a transport ship that looked to be good fun. I amused
myself by following this being, warning about the coming of the Dark Carnival. I felt his fear and understood him
to believe I was after a bribery payment. The fool thought he could simply buy his way out of chaos. I toyed
with him, not asking for money, not threatening him in any way, following him through trade-lane after trade-lane,
until finally, three systems later, his patience ended, and he came to a stop, facing me. He asked me what I
wanted, I could not help but grin and laugh manically as I turned my guns on him and fired warning shots across
his bow. He fired back, hoping to catch me off guard, but I laughed harder still as I dodged around his fire.
I quickly discovered his vessel to be much more powerful then the one I controlled. It was very little time before
this transport ship had me dead to rights. With one last chuckle, I quickly headed for the nearest jumpgate before
my foothold in this galaxy was ended.

-

Later I found myself in a system called Cassini. Running from the Rogues that infest the zone like insects on a
carcass, I noticed a fearless pilot taking out a Rogue Gunboat all by himself. Noting the bombing nature of his
ship, I remembered my encounter with the Transport ship, shields too powerful for me to overcome. This human
would do nicely. Pretending to request a friendly duel, we began to dance. My this pilot was good! My skills at
controlling the AI of my ship were obviously getting better, I was holding my own. Finally, with his hull barely
holding together, the pilot attempted to eject. Screaming with laughter, I beamed him aboard.

It took almost a month. The human's mind was weak, susceptible to insanity, but the stubborn AI ship would not
yield it's neural interface to me. In the end I had to disable the AI mind's ability to form opinions. It's
consciousness would be no more then an echo now, but I had no need of it anyway. Once connected to my enslaved
mind, the human became mine completely. Then I used the ships surprisingly large power storage to call beyond
reality and touch the essence of another Joker Card, from the Dark Carnival. Finally, he answered my call.

Another week was spent bridging the gap and bringing him over, and in the end I didn't think it had worked. Then,
softly, I heard a quiet, insane, cackle. And again. This caused me to break out into hysterical laughter, and he
echoed my laughter with an even higher pitch. The Wraith has come to Sirius.

-

Rumors abound of even more Heralds of the Dark Carnival coming to Sirius. Even some of the remaining Joker Cards are
quietly gathering strength. The Wraith in his host's bomber is exploring this new galaxy and spreading the Infection.
Seemingly rational, sane pilots, native to this galaxy, have been seen painting their faces and acting "crazy as hell".
Transports are reporting getting pirated by their own escort for only 42 credits, handing it over confused while the
escort laughs madly and jumps away. Some have been seen in small weak ships attacking capitol ships of various factions
at random, unable to even hurt their shields, only to dodge crazily, eject 420 Units of Synth Weed and run away.

The insanity is spreading. Sirius has been infected. There is no cure for Chaos.

- The Ringmaster