To: The Corsair Council of Elders

[Yak]

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Transmission Start: GG_encryption="cactus"

Sender: Initiate Robin Maldon
Location: Holmfirth Base, Manchester
Recipient: The Council of Elders
Subject: Ecological Survey Request

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Good day honorable gentlemen. Dr Robin Maldon here, arid-zone ecologist and Initiate of the Gaian Guard.

I've had the pleasure of visiting your beautiful Planet Crete on a number of occasions, while delivering food supplies from our mutual friends in Kyushu. Considering my area of expertise I would very much like to stop for a more extended stay at some point. My particular interest is the adaptations of animals to dry conditions, and I am very keen do an ecological survey of Planet Crete. With your permission of course.

If you are willing to grant me this request, I would need some temporary accommodation on the planet, and I will of course share my findings with the Council. If you have any scientists willing to collaborate on such a project that would be even better!

I will await your response with great anticipation. In the meantime gentlemen, thank you for your time, and best wishes to you all.

Initiate Maldon signing off.

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Transmission Status: GG_transmission="end"

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[CorsairCouncil]

Buenas dias Senor Robin Malden!

It is always good to hear from our Gaian friends!
About your Ecological Survey Request we would like to tell you the following:

Primeramente: We agree on your request of temporary acccomodation. (Until revoked)

Segundo: You are responsible for the welfare of the animals you want to study on our mucho bueno Planet Crete.

Tercero: You must share all of your findings with the CoE !

This channel remains open for responses

Signed:
|Dimitris de la Ramirez
|Elder and voice of the Corsair Council

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Corsair LawsCorsair Court
Our forces combined, no-one shall stand before us. Our enemies shall be burnt and cast to the wind, our troops marching forward over their mangled corpses. True we stand alone, with wolves circling, but our isolation lends us our strength, for we are one and they are divided.
The days of Darkness are no longer, for we are the Corsairs and we are fear incarnate! Viva los Corsairs, the Empire shall rise!
The blood of the Hispania runs in our veins. The blood of our enemies shall wet our hands.

[Yak]

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Transmission Start: GG_encryption="cactus"

Sender: Guardian Robin Maldon
Location: Holmfirth Base, Manchester
Recipient: The Council of Elders
Subject: Ecological Survey Request

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Hello Elder de la Ramirez, and thank you very much for your quick decision on my request.

Of course I am more than happy to abide by your rules during my stay, and as an ecologist I can assure you that the welfare of any animals I study is paramount. Occasionally I may need to trap specimens in order to examine them in detail, but I will always use live traps and return the animals to their habitat after inspection.

With permission from my superiors I plan on arriving within the next few days. So I'll be thoroughly looking forward to seeing your planet properly, and getting to know your people a bit better very soon.

Thank you again, and goodbye for now.

Guardian Maldon signing off.

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Transmission Status: GG_transmission="end"

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[Yak]

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Transmission Start: GG_encryption="cactus"

Sender: Guardian Robin Maldon
Location: Holmfirth Base, Manchester
Recipient: The Council of Elders
Subject: Ecological Survey Request

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Hello again Elder de la Ramirez,

Escorted by my colleague Lily Collins, I landed on Planet Crete a few days ago. We brought some exotic food items from the Zoners out in Omega 49, which I hope you enjoy! As you can see I "sampled" a few of the items from one of the crates, just to make sure it's up to scratch of course, and the stuff gets my thumbs up!

In any case, I've spent the last few days getting used to life on Crete, and found myself a guide for my expeditions. I have to commend your people for their open hospitality, I'm sure I'll really enjoy the rest of my stay.

For now, thank you again, and I will keep you updated on the progress of my studies as and when I have anything interesting to report. Goodbye for now, and wish me luck!

Guardian Maldon signing off.

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[Yak]

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Recording Start: GG_encryption="cactus"

Sender: Guardian Robin Maldon
Location: Planet Crete
Recipient: The Council of Elders
Subject: Ecological survey of Planet Crete: Project Logs

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Hello, members of the Council.

After a couple of weeks in the field, we've just got back to my lodgings to archive collected data and recover from advanced heatstroke for a couple of days! I've attached a couple of excerpts from my research logs to give you an idea of the sort of things we're finding out there, I hope it's of interest. Well, I'm craving a cold drink, after 2 weeks of drinking warm water, so I'll be off to find the nearest taverna with a bit of shade!

Thanks for listening, and I'll be reporting in again soon.

Guardian Maldon out.

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Cretan Ecology: Excerpt #1, 2704823

First day in the field. We have landed at the northern point of our planned transect, which runs from 37.35° latitude, -5.93° longitude through to 10.29° latitude, -3.79° longitude. I've spent the last few days planning the expedition with my guide, Carlos. He's brilliant company, and is at least pretending to be interested when I talk shop with him.

We've had a heavy day putting out traps in the baking sun, but I'm sure it'll be worth it. All of the species I've spotted so far are recognisable Terran species, as you'd often expect on a settled world. A wider range of flora and fauna than I expected, especially considering the harsh conditions on the planet.


Cretan Ecology: Excerpt #2, 0405823

The last few days have been a tough haul, but we've got some fantastic data. The genebanked plants and animals on the Hispania seem to have been similar in composition to other assemblages of Terran life found throughout Sirius, but the morphological changes exhibited by some of the species here are much more striking. Ants of the genus Cataglyphis seem to be the most common insect life in this region, highly adapted for desert life, the specimens found here are significantly larger than records from Sol would indicate.

Some of the other wildlife here has taken very well to the environment, examples of Oryctolagus cuniculus found here tend to have much leaner bodies, and longer ears and feet than their counterparts on Cambridge for example. Adaptation of the common rock dove, Colomba livia, is visually obvious, but minor at first glance. The primary obvious difference between these pigeons and those found in the parks and streets of New London is feather colour. Probably driven by predation pressure, the entire population seems to display a pale tan colour, in contrast to the usual grey of the species.



Cretan Ecology: Excerpt #3, 0805823

Our first stint out here is nearly done, we'll be heading back to civilisation in the next couple of days to download our data and resupply.

We've collected scans and DNA samples for a lot of species, both plant and animal. One species of particular interest is a scorpion. Uniquely, this species seems to lack venom production, and oral morphology is distinctly unusual. Whatever the reasons behind these adaptations, it is likely that a drastic change in diet since the species' arrival on the planet was the driving force. The species is genetically distinct from previously described species, so will be investigated in detail further in to the survey.

Time to go and help Carlos pack up the gear, and get back to the city for a well-earned ice-cold cerveza!

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♺ Reduce your carbon footprint: recycle your synthetics

Transmission Status: GG_transmission="end"

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