From: Flora, Gaians To: Order Overwatch. Encryption: Quite so Subject: Information request
Good day.
I hope the old addresses from the Guard archive are still valid. I am Flora, a member of the Gaians. I have a couple of important matters I'd like to discuss, either over a secure channel or face to face with an agent of yours. I can't say much without a guarantee of confidentiality, but they may or may not be related to someone going by the name of Harbinger.
If these channels are no longer secure, you can reach me through the Islay relay.
I can personally vouch for the security of this protocol. Gaians are known to honor what they say, and none of your cells had ever harmed us. In matters of confidential information, we can guarantee your anonymity if this is your desire. We take good care of our informants.
From: Flora, Gaians To: Order Overwatch. Encryption: Quite so Subject: Information request
Good day, admiral.
I thank you for the swift response. I don't really have much to say beyond the situation at hand, so I will get to it. It might get a little long, so bear with me.
I have recently reconnected with an old acquaintance, Hans von Goeben. As far as I understand, he is known to your organisation in a less than positive light, a fact which I have only recently learned about. He contacted me looking for a favour - to retrieve a data cache buried on Gaia during the waning years of the war. While that, by itself, is no big deal, quarantine notwithstanding, the problems arose when he divulged to me on whose behalf the data was being retrieved.
According to his story, the data was initially collected on behalf of a Nomad entity going by the name of Harbinger. I am going to assume you are aware of what it is and I'll skip any remarks on Von Goeben's idiocy. It seems this entity sought information on a certain species of sea slug inhabiting the planet. Von Goeben collected and handed over the data, keeping a spare copy buried back on Gaia. Why, I do not know.
He claimed that Harbinger has vanished shortly after it received the data, and was not seen until recently. Apparently, through events that are not clear to me, it has found itself in conflict with some other... Group? Tribe? I'd appreciate it if you could clarify that part. I'll go with a group. Of Nomads, of course. If Von Goeben is to be believed, Harbinger's minions have somehow evolved, apparently in line with some characteristics exhibited by the aforementioned slug species. As a result, he came to Edinburgh to retrieve the buried data, though this time on behalf of the Technocracy. Apparently they are somehow affiliated with that other group. I can only guess they are looking to assist it against Harbinger.
That would be the gist of it, and my request towards the Order is twofold. Firstly, is all of this even true? The "civil war" part of the story, I mean. It sounds... Off to me, to put it mildly, but I am not an expert, and given the names involved I wanted to play it safe.
Secondly, if all of this is true, I believe there is an opportunity. How and why Von Goeben came to work for the Technocracy is not yet known to me, but he claimed to be unaware that the Technocracy has been compromised by the Nomads, and expressed a desire to make up for his mistakes. I understand that you have the means to determine whether one was compromised by a Nomad beyond reasonable doubt. I would like to ask that he undergoes a checkup by your medical staff to ensure that is not the case. Von Goeben himself is willing to undergo the procedure. Should the test results come back negative, I believe his knowledge of this conflict, and contacts with people involved, could be a great asset to the Order when dealing with it.
And, thirdly, I almost forgot. The data cache has been retrieved by our techs, and is currently in my possession. The data inside has not been transferred to anyone outside the team other than myself. If this story checks out, I assume your R&D would be interested in studying it for countermeasures. Do let me know how to best handle a handover.
In the meantime, I will remain in touch with Von Goeben and see if I can find out more. If there is anything I should know about this, do let me know.
I cannot with reasonable degree of certainty assume exactly how much is taught or known by Cambridge intelligentsia in regards to the Slomon K’Hara or more colloquially known as ‘Nomads’. Therefore I will start with the basic theory to explain the extent of our knowledge and perhaps give you some more necessary context and information to act.
Nomads are a hivemind. Whether this means direct democracy of equal minds, some kind of ruling ‘overmind’ or something in between is matter for philosophical debates that cannot be empirically proven as their faculties are so far detached from the experience of any human that has ever lived. For obvious reasons, Nomads are not a reliable source of information due to their very much anti-human interest and inclination for deception, misinformation and non conventional warfare.
Facts are, their consciousnesses are interconnected and any information one entity acquires will be disseminated by the entirety of the Nomad race freely and sometimes instantly regardless of distances involved. Some semblance of individuality had been perceived to ‘develop’ after and in response to the first contact with humanity. Nomads fear no death: their quasi immortality is guaranteed by some of ‘itself’ persevering as a copy reconstructed from memories of other Nomad forms after expiring. We know it, as Nomad forms had been routinely seen coming back from absolute and utter destruction, and in certain radical cases there was an observance of two at the time identical copies branching off and existing simultaneously despite originating from a single entity becoming ‘individual’ in their own right due to accrued experience.
Nomads in larger groupings are directed by so-called Mindnodes. Whether Mindnodes are evidence of the existence of certain hierarchy in the hive (and thus supporting the Overmind theory), or merely being specialised classes not much unlike different organs and cells within a single organism cannot be fathomed at this time. It is our belief that destroying Mindnodes has the most direct impact on the Nomads second only to destruction of Hives which are equivalent to a human spaceport. Practically, destruction of a mindnode will throw all subservient warforms into temporary disarray that can be taken advantage of on a tactical level. Theoretically, they may be dedicated transmitters and receivers and just perhaps possess and host shared knowledge of their entire species… killing one brain cell at the time in an essence.
With that in mind, the concept of ‘nomad civil war’ has little credibility. Hivemind is able to copy individual drones at will, even returning to earlier ‘backup‘ if necessary. Every now and then faulty drones had been reported in the past of course: those had been typically destroyed during their own rampant state by colliding with stellar objects or wildly engaging human ships. We cannot rule out that there might be the existence of specialised nodes that each are dedicated to different methods of warfare that for one reason or another appear to be conflicting. Even if there is indeed some conflict within the hivemind, it cannot be counted as any sort of trump card to ensure human supremacy in the sector.
Regardless of the truth of things: Nomads possess so far unique to them quality - unlike certain humans one of which you already happen to know - of not jeopardising the very existence and wellbeing of their own species regardless of any disagreements they may have… being very generous in assuming this is not an elaborate plot by an unknowable, truly alien mind.
To address other points.
The Technocracy of Auxesia is known to be influenced by the Nomads. Their founder, Sapphire Raven is directly compromised but the ultimate endgame is unknown. Auxesia shows extreme hostility to The Order due to that and several other factors: not limited to: the fact that Auxesia routinely attempted to subvert Order personnel, operations and diplomacy in the past and the fact that founding members of this faction are disgraced Core operatives. Them working for a Nomad specimen is regrettably… unsurprising.
Harbinger is known to us indeed. To be precise, it is one of the largest mindnodes known to exist and is effectively a Nomad battleship in size and firepower. Refer to the previous text for more context.
The cache… we will have our scientist see if we can crack whatever Nomads wanted from it but I cannot guarantee any success within a realistic timeframe. They are known parasites of organic matter alike which is why they are able to possess humans so easily. Themselves being created to repair, maintain and protect alien technology that has some similarities with biological structures even if made with non-organic compounds.
And finally, the test. We can arrange for that naturally. I hope you will take necessary precautions in a situation where your ‘honoured guest’ turns out to be more than meets the eye. For matters of security of not just my agents but also your own, and Sirius at large. We are personally aware of Skye and Islay where we did most of our dealings with the Gaian movement in the past. Either of those works due to the inability of Bretonian armed forces to fully clamp down on smuggling routes across their space. The way I see it, there is no need to send unnecessarily large force, it will only draw unwanted attention. An agent or two, adept at handling necessary equipment.
From: Flora, Gaians To: Order Overwatch. Encryption: Quite so Subject: Information request
Admiral.
So the story was all bull in the end. Silly me for asking, I suppose. I am thankful you took the time to lay it all out for me.
I'd prefer we did the test onboard Islay. I assume it'll be easier for your men to reach, plus we've got more options to dispose of the corpse in case of a bad ending. It's where the cache is being stored, too, so I can pass it on to your agents after the procedure is done.
What about the case in general? Do you want anything with Von Goeben? If no, what should we do with him?
Goeben is - despite his obvious ability in fields of science - an unfathomable idiot unable to foresee consequences of his own actions. Lack of wisdom, some would say. If he can be coerced into divulging information while at the same time stop involving himself with any more of this Nomad business, that would reward any headache related to his… ill advised practices. That is assuming he is clear naturally. In the event that he is contaminated, the correct course of action is death with extreme prejudice. There is no cure. Believe us, we have tried.
From: Flora, Gaians To: Order Overwatch. Encryption: Quite so Subject: Assembly
Admiral.
I had word with one of your transport captains, earlier today in Dublin. To say that their words were appalling to me would be an understatement. I am hoping that their lack of care has not been institutionalized.
The ship in question was apparently moving Gold, purchased from Arranmore. I have encountered them in the company of two ships belonging to the Republican Provisional Assembly. The Assembly happens to be affiliates of our mutual friends in Inverness. I am guessing the Overwatch was not aware of this, given the presence of your logistics at Arranmore.
To be honest, I don't think the Assembly knows what they're dealing with. But they're certainly not going to listen to us if we were to tell them. I think it would be best if the Overwatch were to reach out to them with the necessary information, as soon as possible. I don't think either of us would want to put them on a list.