{Damnatio Memoriae log system Ver 1.5.1*CSE} - For personal use and reconciliation only, please extend the user help manual for software guides and reference.
Please connect your Neuro-Sync interface to the device to transfer Bio-Health, Augmentation diagnostics and Psionic readings.
Ver 1.5.1 Patch notes:
- Stabilised Neuro-Sync system build, previous augmentation restrictions lifted and system statistics unencrypted. If information is presented erroneously, contact Enigma for further investigation.
- Health alerts now presented with option to establish immediate health support contact with Damnatio Memoriae, option also granted to declare 'Stolen Soul' protocol.
- (CSE Modification) Psionic readings unstable, interface device is maxing its capability, annoying. Waiting on further studies to work on translation matrix for something between the cybernetics, myself and any extra-neural activity.
> Enabled Data Handler UI;
> Loaded record explorer;
> Enabling Dark mode;
> ▓
░░░░░░░░░░░░░░Private Archive Data Handler - Record Explorer░░░░░░░░░░░░░░
Item Description: A small handheld device with only two data ports with rubber covers on either side, the casing of the drive is riddled with sandblasted metal and any markings made unintelligible. The port seems clogged with years of dirt, yet the structure integrity seems pristine while cosmetically eroded. Yet a clear cosmetic addition has been knife-etched in the side. "Shelter of Ghosts"
"I never thought they would come knocking at Thuringia, the separation of the military from the agencies allowed us to excel within fields that could fuel a purpose for people rather than war. I feared the technology it carried falling into abusive hands, even now my paranoia buried such a potentially capable beast away from those who invest in its infamy. But even now the temptation to return her into service within the Damnatio Memoariae beckons me to call her home of her spectres once again..."
Doc Hope suggests I keep a log for myself... She described even with my need to keep others going, my view that I am alone is true and that my efforts will only attract those willing to bare the burn, yet I will still persist that those sharing that burn are worth more than myself. Telling me to savour them if they come along. So as a result, she suggest I write down to remember what I think with a clear head after reflection rather than what I assume during the horror and disgust we jump into.
It's been a tough few years, we've quietly been building under the nose of this regime but our shadows move differently compared to the spotlight the imperials enjoy. Tennstedt has been favourable in salvaging equipment from the many battlefields of Thuringia and Frankfurt. I'll admit that it has started to grow tiresome ripping components from wrecks and sorting them according to binning grade. But our fleet has expanded enough that we can afford offensive efforts soon and hopefully send a clear message to the imperials after the loss of Bautzen... The urge to shed blood has been restrained for now but the calling is clear. We've come to an agreement within and we will support Klugmann in his efforts in the ways of the Damnatio Memoriae. I don't know where we will be asked to go, but if the need for an equalising instrument of fear is required against the Kaiserreich; we will be here.
Speaking of building up forces, The Klaxon, an Insurgency Dreadnaught has sought refuge with Klugmann and his flotilla. I must admit the idea of a liberty dreadnaught at our disposal would have some of the Imperial Military drooling at their teeth for either a trophy or exploitation... Their crew have become extremely valuable during their stay with us, not just an inspirational introduction to their means of direct democracy but especially helping with maintaining services for those under the Bundschuh's refuge. Thankfully a mix of our abilities kept the seclusion of Howe and their vessel uncompromised within the Sigmas has created an aura of co-habitation... I will need to speak with them again soon, potentially to assist Commander Howe in returning the Klaxon to her intended operational state at his crews will.
Another thing... I've been exploring more ever since the Gate network blackout, makes me feel like I'm truly chasing up on something instead of living a mundane life. I don't know if it's the Jump-space projects, the memories of Weimar's bloodsoil or whatever scars the Mindshare ha-- no... Mindshares, there's more of them now and I'll have to come to terms with the possibility of something beyond the hive of festering hatred that puppeted the lost souls of Weimar. But they have to prove themselves to me this time, if they truly are even capable of standing by a word of trust. But if I was to deal with what I've been told are monsters lurching from the darkness...? The pains of Weimar were either my limits or preparation for what is to come, but the minimum of my hopes is that humanity can survive.
There is a lot to catch up on in Sirius, I feel old, decrepit and obsolete. Even in these feelings I'm reminded of what I am to become if it's empowered in the wrong direction. Raven... -nant... Revenant had to remind me of OPSEC for once, their lines joined with the Gammu AI are waiting embattlement against the Corpo-Mercs of the Core. Quite the initial surprise when she threatened to kill me if I didn't keep my word on its secrecy, I don't blame her... I only knew her through Hunt, we've been distant and never talk much other than between whatever mundane attempt of personal repair that phycological genocide-factory made, but when she was married to the man that left me for dead, what do you expect? I think I'm only speaking to her because she's a familiar voice in Sirius that I know of in these matters. It's fucked... I feel like my augments are also frying themselves over this information. So now I have a choice, trust her word that she and her people will help The Platform in its need, or I can try and investigate in that system for whatever this oncoming storm is and get ejected into the void and left for dead like her Ex left me... Although she'll promise to do both the shooting and the leaving.
I need to prepare the a portion of Tennstedt to handle Fringe-Science operations... We of Rheinland's darkest has known the unpredictability of the Void for a long time. I just hope Klugmann realizes what we do to defend his right to life, no matter what punishment will inevitably fall on us, I accept that in hopes those after me are better.
They're probably fucking with me again, or at least trying to talk to me... One or the other its not something that I'm losing too much sleep over.
Of all the mundane numbness I've felt around Sirius, one thing stood out to me of all the things I've eavesdropped on, it was something a little less than the usual business chatter and military might. Open on the air yet it was something personal... A tarot reading...? Cards, not the gambling kind but they seemed to be a lot more than just numbers and colours.
First person seemed quite invested into it, instructed to speak to the cards within their mind with a question. Initially this was nothing more than an experience for someone else. Like every other time I observed and watched to understand the method, construct a meaning out of empty words for myself. I still didn't fathom it, maybe because those cards were... Not for me? Camille continued to offer and to at least gauge an understanding of a respectably honest offer for a provided experience; why not? Coined it as communication with my subconscious? Either they truly believed in such or worked it off as a cultural experience that was appreciated nevertheless...
Forty credits later is found myself next staring at these cards. shuffling around for me, watching them exchange places between the deck. Even as those hands moved with natural flow... the falling cards I could see moving like silk with an accurate order of acceptance to work and refined combination. I was told to "Ask the cards a question" as to which I struggled to think. This wont help me source the keys to strategic victory, the means to end a peoples suffering, or to finally rest my fears of humanity signing its galactic death warrant. The cards would have more social meaning, personal to its core. If there was one piece of intelligence I would pay a heavy debt to know with security is... "Who am I?"
At first I doubted the question, the fear of what i represent came closer as I questioned who I am in the eyes of good and evil within its place in the universe... But the cards couldn't wait, one feel from their fingers before giving her a chance to take one at will. She noted that its rather that her deck wanted to speak first in a need of urgency... Calling the card the "Seven of Swords, upright." Now without doubt I was unsettled to hear what it told me as a being. One of trickery and deception within its blood... It was like hearing your unethical regret manifest and condone you in an empty room with no doors or windows.
She placed three cards face down, my comm screen displaying of her silken dressed table of pristine condition presently in my view, told me as if they were my present entity, the question was no longer doubted. Those decorated long nails ensuring the position of the select three with those nails ensuring absolute levelling between each other. Nudges on all cards asking for no more than less of what was required.
The first card of the present was flipped, The Hierophant, unfortunately a resemblance of a holy redeemed individual and not too fitting at face value... I don't know how to feel, I carry the power and marks of infamous seclusion with a deathly toll and I continue to integrate it's service into something ethically mirrored as people watch on. Within the worst soil I've stood on, for all my fuel and my dedication was for the consolidation in favour of the few and what I see as a selfish evil. But that power and service is transferable... I've done for the sake of others, even if its a chance to remove this unsettlement within myself. The disappearances, the observations, the network of knowledge... The foresight to question outside the order of things but towards a people I truly believe are good, for all their faults they are a shining beacon within Sirius. But I have no doubt should we cease when our dedication is no longer required. I've seen what happens when our type of being elates to the power and greed of it all beyond our desperate call... My predecessor turned out to be nothing more than the pride of their own ego and it was never more clear when he stood in favour of selfish oppressive authority.
The second of the future. "Four of Swords, upright." or "A Long Rest", there were many ways my mind raced to decipher the most obvious to the likely alternatives of their meaning... Or I was trying to kick myself back into some sense that I was reading this a little too deeply. Three swords displayed over a resting knight, the fourth at his side signalling an end to his fight. Tempting i know but the idea of finding myself resting...? This is the future we are talking about so how much more I have to fight through may have me concerned enough that while resting, what would I have laid waste to? Or what couldn't I save...? This probably wasn't meant to send me thinking about all of this in a few seconds but one still stands all above the rest. Resting... For what? The potential to rejuvenate and regather my strength and to bring my ability to fruition again. But I always question that last blade, will it hang up on the wall? Or will that sword seal the tomb for good? I reject rest on the notion I am not fulfilling my duties towards those who deserve their defence for the peaceful betterment they can bring. Not I, I must- N-Need... Damn..
I fear... The crossed keys return to my head and I'm creating an endless loop of panic and trepidation coming back to me. The same thing that fuelled my constant drive to protect with unending fury, there is no rest until that is broken, maybe that is why the third card of advice came to play.
"Ace of Pentacles", garden of the flowering haven, it wasn't the stunning visual beauty that I know rarely within our dimension of cold resilient metals and engineered harmonic veins, our brutalists concrete monoliths and atomically balanced perfection that I truly understand and refine with personal heartfelt investment. What that card was a mirror image of what I currently live; but that of harmonic breathing life. Within the garden that displays a wonderful experience within its verity of life and flourishing off the glow of the pentacle star that we hardly ask for, yet provides at the expense of its own atoms. I was getting myself lost again.. A few seconds feels like minutes living within the data-lanes of my augments. But it that garden worked as flawlessly as a well maintained and cared for system, but that care must come from somewhere.
I kept looking at these cards on that comm monitor, but every inhale within the confines of my helmet brought me back to realize those are just three cards. They won't do anything beyond what is told to myself... But I had to continue asking those questions every half a second... Repeat. But maybe this has provided me the time to digest something greater. I may not be able to plan an absolute future for the betterment of mankind to be fair and just within the expanse, but I can at least prove to others that we had the ability at some point to ground those foundations.
Even if it was all in spite of the institutions that grew me up as nothing more than a... A Tool! A tool for their own selfish and ignorant betterment! I won't taste this garden, but... Maybe someone else can that can truly appreciate its peaceful synergy and hope to maintain it. My blood in the soil I will defend that garden in the way of the seven swords, but to stand within it and grow it with my ways will rot it to the core. My head no longer hurts since I sat down and recorded this, I needed to confirm what i was fighting for with my own acknowledgment and willpower from what judgements I make. I can not promise that garden the audience it deserves in the case of those that wish to ignite it to oblivion, nor can I dictate its growth into my support. But only hope that what comes from that garden is hoping to stand by my side to what I am willing to give, blind hope with insidious fury. Some may say its risky and I have fallen victim to another manipulative beast. But from my high throne of deception and elusion, I treasure what is the existence of real trust, no matter how unorthodox... That garden, I trust even if in hope.
I thanked Camille for her service, ensured further payment to feel satisfied that her efforts were justified. Although I question that she said the cards had potential to show compassion. I doubt that, there isn't much compassion for the likes of us. And even if it knew me, would they truly trust what it sees in me as the truthful good? Even if I've been deluded myself?
But now Camille, potentially with all her innocent ignorance, has been escalated on my entities of mindful interest. Any similar event will create startling speculation.
I haven't eaten In a while, I'll need to visit the vending hall. FH and EE are usually around there so maybe they'd like to talk free of concealment within our quarters... I returned from Kusari baring treats from passing through, FH has taken a liking to the 'fruits of Sirius' since she's weaned herself off the comfortability of rations packs, seeing them enjoy things like this wasn't imaginable during our previous time... Its nice seeing them get a chance.
[20.10.2023 21:37:22] Laplace.Vector: C: [The card flips. A woman in a cleric's robe, the moon at her feet, flanked by black and white pillars. The High Priestess,--
[20.10.2023 21:37:27] Laplace.Vector: --reversed.]
[20.10.2023 21:38:08] Laplace.Vector: C: The High Priestess, reversed. Your future may contain hidden meanings, false masks, and the repression of your own--
[20.10.2023 21:38:28] Laplace.Vector: --intuition and an inability to make sense of things. Your inner voice will be confused, even quiet.
[20.10.2023 21:38:52] Cherry.Blossom: Th-That does n-not sound pos-sitive..
[20.10.2023 21:39:03] Laplace.Vector: C: It is one potential path. Not the only one.
[20.10.2023 21:39:08] Laplace.Vector: C: Now, for advice.
[20.10.2023 21:39:50] Laplace.Vector: C: [The card flips. A man in a papal tiara and robe sits on a throne, keys crossed at his feet. The Hierophant, upright.]
[20.10.2023 21:40:30] Laplace.Vector: C: The Hierophant, upright. The deck advises to look at tradition, conventional methods... to heed the words of others, of--
[20.10.2023 21:41:06] Laplace.Vector: --experience and education. Beliefs will be founded in learning and practice from that which is established.
[20.10.2023 21:41:19] Laplace.Vector: C: This is the advice the deck gives.
[20.10.2023 21:41:19] Cherry.Blossom: Elaine: Quite funny how this fits to your current situation. And that Camille is there to give you advice for things.
[20.10.2023 21:41:29] Cherry.Blossom: W-Well I m-mean..
[20.10.2023 21:41:42] Laplace.Vector: C: I assure you, Elaine, there is no slight of hand.
[20.10.2023 21:41:59] Cherry.Blossom: Elaine: I bet she read your diary.
[20.10.2023 21:42:00] Laplace.Vector: C: The deck provides perspective on our present issues. Illuminating that which we may not have considered.
[20.10.2023 21:42:20] Cherry.Blossom: N-No! Sh-She can't.. It is.. l-locked by a fingerprint s-scanner, r-retina and v-voice match.
[20.10.2023 21:42:52] Laplace.Vector: C: [A smirk.]
[20.10.2023 21:43:07] Cherry.Blossom: W-Well th-then Camille! G-Give m-me adivse.
[20.10.2023 21:43:16] Laplace.Vector: C: The cards did.
[20.10.2023 21:43:35] Laplace.Vector: C: Listen to them. See what you feel.
[20.10.2023 21:43:42] Laplace.Vector: C: The truth you glean from that is what to heed.
[20.10.2023 21:44:15] Laplace.Vector: C: [They leave the cards out for a bit.] So. It resonates?
[20.10.2023 21:44:50] "Civil'Servant": I'll give it to you, listening to cards isn't really on my list of things to look out for.
[20.10.2023 21:45:12] Cherry.Blossom: W-Well.. I think.. I un-nderstand a b-bit of it..
[20.10.2023 21:45:17] Laplace.Vector: C: Do I sense a "but" coming?
[20.10.2023 21:45:38] Cherry.Blossom: F-From who? M-Me?
[20.10.2023 21:46:00] Laplace.Vector: C: More meant for our civil servant, here.
[20.10.2023 21:46:05] Cherry.Blossom: A-Ah!
[20.10.2023 21:46:20] "Civil'Servant": No I'm just surprised someone can get that much from someone from the mere notion of a select set of cards.
[20.10.2023 21:47:04] Laplace.Vector: C: The human mind is an incredible repository of symbols and interpretation.
[20.10.2023 21:47:23] Laplace.Vector: C: The medium of the tarot cards gives us a way to interpret our own unconscious self more effectively.
[20.10.2023 21:48:01] "Civil'Servant": My unconscious self? I think sleep tends to--
[20.10.2023 21:48:49] Cherry.Blossom: I w-wonder if you d-do that again on another d-day, if it w-ould be the same.
[20.10.2023 21:49:31] "Civil'Servant": Anyway, these... Cards.
[20.10.2023 21:49:50] Laplace.Vector: C: Mhm?
[20.10.2023 21:50:34] Laplace.Vector: C: [They return the cards to the deck, shuffling.]
[20.10.2023 21:50:51] "Civil'Servant": If its my unseen self that will be... communicating this to me.
[20.10.2023 21:51:50] "Civil'Servant": Then how am I to seek what it says?
[20.10.2023 21:52:05] Laplace.Vector: C: Ask a question.
[20.10.2023 21:52:16] Laplace.Vector: C: Ask it of the deck. Forty for the reading is little to play.
[20.10.2023 21:52:42] Laplace.Vector: C: Only forty credits for answers. For guidance.
[20.10.2023 21:52:54] "Civil'Servant": Asking me of anything is already a heavy burden, 40, per-card.
[20.10.2023 21:53:03] Laplace.Vector: C: No. Per reading.
[20.10.2023 21:53:31] "Civil'Servant": I care little for these digits, and I think you'll get more use out of it than me.
[20.10.2023 21:54:06] Laplace.Vector: C: Suit yourself, stranger. The butterfly effect doesn't always work out, hm?
[20.10.2023 21:54:28] Cherry.Blossom: N-Now I can s-see you.
[20.10.2023 21:54:47] Laplace.Vector: C: [Camille is in fact there. Shuffling the tarot deck in the seat.]
[20.10.2023 21:55:09] "Civil'Servant": The trade is done.
[20.10.2023 21:55:15] Laplace.Vector: C: Excellent. Do you have the question in your mind?
[20.10.2023 21:55:22] Cherry.Blossom: [Cherry reaches forth with her hands, seemingly making a zooming notion with her hands. There was a faint shimmer in the glass]
[20.10.2023 21:55:44] "Civil'Servant": I think I do.
[20.10.2023 21:55:54] Laplace.Vector: C: Keep it there. Ask it of the deck in your mind.
[20.10.2023 21:56:04] Laplace.Vector: C: Once you have done that, I will draw.
[20.10.2023 21:56:48] "Civil'Servant": Odd but... I have asked the deck.
[20.10.2023 21:57:43] Laplace.Vector: C: [As they shuffle, a card falls out. An image of a man making off with seven swords, stealing them from a camp. The Seven--
[20.10.2023 21:57:51] Laplace.Vector: --of Swords, upright.]
[20.10.2023 21:57:59] Laplace.Vector: C: Oh! That doesn't always happen.
[20.10.2023 21:58:15] "Civil'Servant": I wish that sounded new.
[20.10.2023 21:58:20] Laplace.Vector: C: Whenever a card falls out during a shuffle, I consider it as the deck very much trying to tell you something.
[20.10.2023 21:59:03] Laplace.Vector: C: In this case, the upright Seven of Swords signifies betrayal, deception, escape... all manner of cunning and trickery.
[20.10.2023 21:59:16] "Civil'Servant": Ah...
[20.10.2023 21:59:19] "Civil'Servant": Aha--
[20.10.2023 21:59:31] "Civil'Servant": I think I'll take your word on these cards.
[20.10.2023 21:59:42] Laplace.Vector: C: The deck says this energy is present... somewhere about you. Past, present, future... anything. But it is there.
[20.10.2023 22:00:14] Laplace.Vector: C: Now. For the actual draw.
[20.10.2023 22:00:31] Laplace.Vector: C: [Three cards are laid out, face down.]
[20.10.2023 22:00:34] "Civil'Servant": I guess the deck couldn't wait.
[20.10.2023 22:00:52] "Civil'Servant": Most things usually don't for me.
[20.10.2023 22:01:11] Cherry.Blossom: Elaine: Captain, I think such was already achieved.
[20.10.2023 22:01:22] Laplace.Vector: C: First card. [Flipped over. A man in a papal tiara, sitting on a throne and holding a scepter. Keys crossed at his feet.--
[20.10.2023 22:01:29] Laplace.Vector: --The Hierophant]
[20.10.2023 22:01:39] Laplace.Vector: C: Hm. Drawing a lot of you lately...
[20.10.2023 22:02:16] Laplace.Vector: C: The Hierophant, upright. Representing tradition, education, experience, conformity... all the established things.
[20.10.2023 22:03:21] "Civil'Servant": Concerning... But--
[20.10.2023 22:03:25] Laplace.Vector: C: Now, the Hierophant appears in your current, present situation.
[20.10.2023 22:03:39] Laplace.Vector: C: Think on that, and I shall draw the second. A potential future.
[20.10.2023 22:04:58] Laplace.Vector: C: [The card is drawn. A man sleeps in a church, in death-like repose. Three swords hang on the wall, one by his side.]
[20.10.2023 22:05:22] Laplace.Vector: C: The Four of Swords. Rest. Gathering strength. The calm before the storm.
[20.10.2023 22:05:42] Laplace.Vector: C: Sanctuary and recuperation is in the future. Healing.
[20.10.2023 22:06:16] Laplace.Vector: C: Especially after suffering.
[20.10.2023 22:06:18] "Civil'Servant": *His speech gone, but his own breath remains as he slouches back into his flight-seat with a slow creak.*
[20.10.2023 22:07:02] Laplace.Vector: C: Now. The third. Advice from the deck.
[20.10.2023 22:07:42] Laplace.Vector: C: [A hand emerges from the clouds, holding a coin with a five-pointed star over a lush garden.]
[20.10.2023 22:10:26] Laplace.Vector: C: Now, the advice given to you, Civil Servant, is the Ace of Pentacles.
[20.10.2023 22:10:28] Cherry.Blossom: S-Scary.
[20.10.2023 22:10:49] Laplace.Vector: C: It represents rebirth. New beginnings. And the plenty, security, and stability that can come from reaching a new paradise.
[20.10.2023 22:11:17] Laplace.Vector: C: Look for the new dawn. The new prospects of life.
[20.10.2023 22:11:25] Laplace.Vector: C: They will guide you true.
[20.10.2023 22:12:08] "Civil'Servant": Well--
[20.10.2023 22:12:30] Laplace.Vector: C: Does the reading resonate with you?
[20.10.2023 22:14:03] "Civil'Servant": Your cards are certainly quite the listeners themselves.
[20.10.2023 22:14:14] Laplace.Vector: C: They are very compassionate, in their own way.
[20.10.2023 22:14:20] Laplace.Vector: C: I find their readings are often hopeful.
[20.10.2023 22:15:31] "Civil'Servant": Hopeful? Potentially... But I have to say that their compassion is wasted on me.
[20.10.2023 22:15:50] Laplace.Vector: C: Mm. Best not to presume the utility of the deck's judgements.
[20.10.2023 22:15:56] Laplace.Vector: C: They simply are what they are.
[20.10.2023 22:16:25] "Civil'Servant": In my line of work, a rock isn't always a rock.
[20.10.2023 22:16:32] Laplace.Vector: C: I know.
[20.10.2023 22:16:37] Laplace.Vector: C: The card said so.
[20.10.2023 22:18:00] Laplace.Vector: C: So, I wonder what you will do with this... perspective.
[20.10.2023 22:18:35] "Civil'Servant": Well if the 'first' card was to say anything about me, would you believe what I say?
[20.10.2023 22:18:59] Laplace.Vector: C: Mm. Lie to me, if you like. So long as you learn to not deceive yourself.
[20.10.2023 22:19:25] "Civil'Servant": A lesson learnt through blood and salt.
[20.10.2023 22:20:25] Laplace.Vector: C: I do believe that, despite your initial skepticism, you see the value in the cards.
[20.10.2023 22:20:33] Laplace.Vector: C: [They return the tarot draw to the deck.]
[20.10.2023 22:21:32] "Civil'Servant": Was I skeptic about the cards?
[20.10.2023 22:22:36] Laplace.Vector: C: The transport captain heeded the cards, though they came true in a way I did not expect.
[20.10.2023 22:22:49] Cherry.Blossom: D-Did he e-explode?
[20.10.2023 22:22:52] Laplace.Vector: C: Danger was not on the way, but in the place he was coming from.
[20.10.2023 22:23:01] Laplace.Vector: C: An earlier ship.
[20.10.2023 22:23:19] Laplace.Vector: C: An interesting development.
[20.10.2023 22:28:57] "Civil'Servant": Your cards have a lot more insight than they wish to have I think.
[20.10.2023 22:29:18] "Civil'Servant": I wouldn't have figured it would be so eager to share what it thought.
[20.10.2023 22:29:31] Laplace.Vector: C: They are agents of fate. They share what they know, do not keep secrets.
[20.10.2023 22:29:39] Cherry.Blossom: L-Last time I ch-checked.. I w-wasn't a boy..
[20.10.2023 22:29:41] "Civil'Servant": Although I did admit, the question in itself was very simple.
[20.10.2023 22:30:02] Laplace.Vector: C: Sometimes simple questions are good questions.
[20.10.2023 22:30:13] Laplace.Vector: C: Especially for smaller draws.
Endless fire, whistling death.
The trees are sometimes louder than my breath.
Screaming whispers of the furious gestalt, mutilating both body and mind.
While blind hope and material strength drive our souls, possessing physical horror that would instil fear of all kind.
Both of us fighting, caution thrown into the wind.
Was their purpose as selfless, possibly in the defence of their kin?
The tunnels are freezing and the possessed echoes lurk, incomplete comfort yet a familiar and tolerable state.
Just keep ignoring that my brain feels scarred and my legs are burning, but the bloodsoil leaves little room for debate.
Living afar, ignorant yet admirable. Do they not see what innocence they drag into our grounds?
The pain, horror, the export of our limitless unethical rage that we promise to end what we corrupt around.
A campaign of desperate to ask the final question.
Who will come home, to carry on in this oppression?
I was made to see all, I know this was their land too...
But maybe things would be different, if both of us just knew.
Within this dream I remember this place.
But only now I can look back and question this trace.
This war seems petty, but I feel I am without choice.
An enemy of goals in vain, against most of us without a voice.
They come back sickened with grief, "They're not possessed souls, they could have been more than me!"
I get their feelings, my inability to speak, I find myself alone screaming the same plea.
For what? Land, money, pride and fame?
Even as I see all, they pursuit it without shame.
I once viewed them with respect while fighting in the darkest battles.
Now I see from the top, they bind us all in corporate and bureaucratic shackles.
Stars and stripes, glory and pride.
The generals count the efficiency of lives.
Stocks and shares, money and power.
Executives rejoice while their ethics sour.
But down here I see their faces, witness me with dread on the bodies I tear.
How one can butcher so many, yet continue on as if I don't care.
Their guts in half, screaming while they cower.
Yet not us here, this battlefield isn't ours.
This Kaiser is evil like the screaming rage.
But this time inane, suppressing all under their oppressive wage.
I never wanted to be here, I never questioned this place,
Never was I so sure, as I remember the blood on my face.
I'm here again in the service of the many.
But now I've seen the injustice, of those with excess of plenty.
No currency turns my heart, a language the corporates abolished.
And their grins and oblivious egos, without a means to counter, demolished.
My silent sentence is clear, for my crimes against the public souls.
I will serve on in blind hope, engraved in my name as if allure to a holy scroll.
My blades, my mind and my devotion on demand.
My faith in them to build better with my powers in their command.
But to truly love what humanity can bloom.
To defend the morsels of hope that can nurture it in this depressing gloom.
Yet hope to bury my unforgivable horrors, so they never take my place.
They are my drive, my reason to defend their egalitarian grace.
Pathetic, limited invaders. A body of cold and steel.
Butcher themselves just like ours, yet they expect us to kneel.
Our void consumed, wasted and ravaged like a virus on our treasured petal.
Infected across the stars, what remains are their coffins of empty metal.
Now a instrument of our use, we reign your material death.
In the shadows they can't feel, your husk of our breath.
Corruption of land, slayer of innocence.
Now our hands know the blood, and will wield their violence, limitless.
A trade takes place, your rest for our gain.
Thank you for teaching us how to deliver this pain.
You shall no longer wield the power to question this place.
Your home across the stars abolished, murderer of our race.
ShellSys01: FtlErrLog.Sys > [ALERT] Neruo-Sync.Sys ERROR LOG SAVED
> Do you wish to store the error report in a hidden repository?
> " G E T O U T , I T H U R T S , W H Y D O E S I T N E E D T O H U R T"
CS was quiet and dormant, his helmet removed within his quarters, sitting at a desk and twiddling his thumbs while glaring at the broken artifact on the table. His quarters were not as typically spartan as one would imagine but he at least had some furnishings for comforting familiarity. He was occasionally sipping from a glass of soda and snacking from a bag of rations he'd been grazing through all day. The soda was a rare indulgent extra since usually around this time he'd spoil himself on something if the challenge required a relaxed approach. But for now he was too enchanted by the artifact recently, an almost alluring mystery puzzling his mind had him locked silent as his eyes darted over every millimetre of that golden wrapped crystal.
He'd been here for the last hour, almost half an hour since he deactivated a majority of his augments, and only five minutes since he'd logged off the DM comm network. He almost needed absolute peace to work his understanding around the artifact. "But... Why?" He questioned it's silence, holding such a gem up to his face as the purple polished quartz was dark and dim within, a crack had shot itself deep inside of the gem that almost looked like a spiders web reaching out. Although the fracture never seemed to reach the edges, the surface was still as smooth and uninterrupted as a perfect glacier, the sounds that run silent to others keeps his dreams and heart rate unsettled at night. Sometimes the tapping and the clicking can be heard in his wall safe, distinctive to any other sound, yet it's hollow echo gives a feeling as if it was both there to him and absent to anyone else. Any attempt at further investigation like this morning, as soon as it was removed from its secure compartment... The sound stopped.
"This isn't me suffering hearing loss, I know no one else can hear you..." He talked to it like it could hear him, it had been with him long enough and like with any other functional possession he has... He will talk as if he respected and expected it's action in return. Although the notion of expecting anything from it has disappeared long ago, instead his mind queries if it demands something from him. The crack could be less of a sign of deteriorating wonder, but more of a opening. "Especially how it the web funnels down to..." The finest webs of the crack began to shimmer, his hand froze like the thoughts had taken over as he attempted to verify it through his own mind if he wasn't hallucinating, he observed closer as his eyes squinted into the shimmering purple...
"The Void." At a near instance his face froze of utter realisation, those cybernetic retinas whirring as his eyes blackened completely and his legs rose him slowly off his seat. The ambient hum of Tennsdedt was drowned out by the angelic chorus the web of cracks harmonized, rotating slowly as it funnelled the purple void into itself. Cupping the artifact in hand up to his face, his other hand proceeded to grace his bare digits onto the surface... It was like the hairs on his body elated and stood with a field of energy that he could feel surging though his body, but as rhythmic as the pulsing flow of the shifting tunnel within the artifact. "She knew, she..." He stumbled backwards gripping the artifact in hand, knocking the chair over his desk before narrowly catching himself as he scrambled over to his couch-bed. Swiping from under the pillows a steel necklace... Kissing it, praising it and thanking it under his incoherent mumbling as he struggled to segregate his constant calculation from an overwhelming pain that made him weak to the knees. "I'm so sorry I... Thank you--" the necklace pendant... Or hollow computer data card was held close to his heart as if it eased the flourishing grief that had concealed itself for years. His breathing struggled out of sync, there wasn't a rhythm anymore, a sequence of emotional distress and cold sunken despair. "I wasn't there... I'm so sorry, I said I would be..." His betrayal, not out of choice of his own, one unseen by them both that could not be possibly rectified before disaster; but as far as CS's logic was concerned it was his own betrayal.
-----
"I know we both couldn't stop the strike, We didn't know about the attack until they were there." He was talking to the empty chip while hiding behind crossed arms and resting on his raised knees, he knew very well it wasn't talking back but he'd like to imagine, willingly letting his woes out at it for the past 30 minutes. "I just wish if all the power I have, I could have done something.""You still can." CS' face shifted from smiling melancholy to stoic annoyance to the presence of that voice. "I don't need you providing me options.""But that was the option I gave you, many times, absolute and certain violence for survival: The Valhalla failure, Fall of New Berlin, Slaughter of Camp Haus." A voice of true conviction, but one no difference from CS in any shape or form. CS was in no mental shape to argue, he knew that in a fragile state of mind, he couldn't prioritise the feelings of- "Don't even find an excuse for it, you lost her...""Don't you dare speak about--" If his eyes could well up, they would do it by now, the prior shock of his departed other and now this condoning wasn't what he was expecting from the crystal puzzle. "WE'RE THE SAME PERSON...! You couldn't bare the thought of a human being the teacher of unethical killing, questioning your actions meant questioning what you have passed on... You manifested me, to remove your responsibility for the consequences of their orders and your actions." A exact copy of CS stood there, helmet bound in his bloodied, oil stained and torn flight suit, dripping his stains and essence that sizzles on the carpet into nothing... Misery, desperation and defiance. "This universe took her from US! The life was always dangerous and you knew that, I've known that, always known... But the message is clear. She told you to--" A sudden grab to the neck of the manifest, yet it was nothing more like attempting to strangle a statue. "GET THE HELL OUT OF MY MIND!" CS' eyes had blackened until the whites had vanished into an empty void. His own hand, leeching the blood and oil from the neck of the manifest as every human muscle in his arm bulged from the force of his grip.
"--Find what she left you." The manifest had both artifact and chip in hand, hovering the hollow centre over the purple gem to see what the vision had hidden in chosen sight.
There she was, hidden under all sight except through those that know. A black ship with a broken bridge, piercing the hole with the brightest of lights as its bow endlessly collided with a fury of ricocheting streams of energy. As if all his work still remained intact and looping in function, stuck with no command.
------
CS woke up, sitting on the floor with head tucked between his knees. The manifest was no longer present and whatever stains had scarred the floor were gone, a mental lapse would be the most obvious answer, the traumatic loss, and the regret of inability and inaction. Although the suspicion remained, "dream or not?" Lifting the artifact up with slow anticipation only to widen his eyes as the lungs tremored with air, the void remained.
Rheinland, its always had a more frequent history of asking the question of what people want more than money. To base a beings personal worth down to the amount credits that they have seems to defy the logic of the universe to me...
You... You ever think nomads even have a system like that? I've thought I've met enough at this point to even think that they do have... Uh-- No. Its messy, the only way I can think this correctly in my head if they were like a... Meshed isolated network.
[Amused laughter, but slowly reducing to a questioning err as he attempts to start his next sentence; coalescing thoughts interrupting him.]
A meshed isolated network with a decentralized data system... Sure, Its like saying servers are bigger, faster and more knowledgeable than clients when they obviously reach a point of data capacity; within relation to AI learning skills. Individual AI's? Sure, easy as can be with access to indisputable data sources... But amongst each other? Would you think they'd argue because they've been right for so long and reliant upon a method of calculation that when a new data source comes along they instantly declare it anomalous? Or would they actually take time to compare, contrast and calculate to potentially work out a more suitable solution to a potential problem, or simply just to learn about something...?
Now the part that I said to myself is if... what if that was some sort of framework to understanding more than just AI's... Whatever this is, doesn't need to be restrained to a synthetic origin. The Sirius has taught me early on that I have been condemned to the emerging horrors it contains and be-- I don't know. Something? It gives me a choice of Shoot or Talk and both tend to try and kill me...? W-Why?! I could be sitting in a skyscraper! Sipping on a vintage Gaul Bandeaux paid for by corporate sponsors and massacring rebellious underpaid workers because they hoped for just a little more in there lives... And I wouldn't lose even an ounce of sleep over it. Yet every bit of me would consider such a being irredeemable, a propagator of unjustly resource wars and silencer of mass populace progress.
Someone-- In hindsight that probably wasn't just one being behind that face... They told me I had to "Stop doing it for the sake of proving yourself, because that was merely just a meager bonus in the greater scheme of things." I laughed it off, figured I aimed to be impressive to climb my skills and career like the most devoted in my craft; young ambitions turned lethal when its spoon-fed to you.
Humanity of Sirius has encountered so many space faring and sentient species in the last 30 years that were getting close to not being able to count them on our hands... Now we have a new complication that could take that all away, all of us, indiscriminately; Sentinels is what Revenant called them.
While word by mouth doesn't seem to kill us, the mimetic and psionic prowess of these things exceed that of the K'hara or Vagrants. Trying to apply human diplomacy to this seems futile to say the least but we all have to make compromises in negotiations... But again dealing with 'living weapons' it usually takes a lot of bloodshed to get that far. Apparently even recognizing these Sentinels in their true form causes some sort of mental and life force elimination... I've heard whispers of Earhart, the graveyards that loom there and what relics people have hauled for themselves, maybe I need to visit there and see what this deathtrap truly hides about this malicious ancient race. But I believe I'll need to make a risky move... I'll need some advice first.
[Exhaling a long and staggered breath as the rubbing of fabric rustled in the background, along with a harder tapping of the heel of his foot is heard, rhythmic in combination.]
I've never dared to take a step like this when it comes to talking to something instead of shooting them up, and usually that person is a human... Usually. Because in the end I realized the one I trusted the most without even doubt.... wasn't. Every inch of my skin feels like its wrapped in spider webs as soon as I even try to think about it, yet every muscle in me moves without even the slightest hindrance to my will; can't deny that I am desperate enough to do this, even if I am repulsed by it. I have the facts in hand and I need to speak to the Vagrants, information is the key she left me.
Fuck me, don't let this be my Pre-KIA log, I don't want this at my funeral.
To think its like winding back the clock, its a familiar crossroad but not entirely, this time the looming threat of hegemonic reaction isn't there, the choice of helping to defend all of sirius against these hostile invaders is the right choice. The Damnatio Memoraie, our people are consulting with each other right now... I've never seen the helmet communication logs so dense with questions, curiosity and concerns. But even now it seems the decision of the incoming threat of the Sentinels has caused most of us to already accept extreme action must be taken.
I can't speak with the rest of the Damnatio Memoraie on what I saw last night, two relics from my own history that have had their dramatic shift in modus operandi... It's extremely hard to believe, that these two are more than likely to be either disgusted in ones past or have somehow grown to become unrecognizable from what I've always known. Although if I were to judge the actions of my previous self, before falling into Valhalla, I would have shunned my actions is irrational, irresponsible and dangerous for the sanctity of life here in Sirius. But what I won't deny is the potential that was birthed from it... I wouldn't have been there if it wasn't my curiosity, but now how do I act differently to before? Revenant had introduced me to what the story was like on the other side of Sirius, a small pocket of our infamous neighbours but I have a feeling I need to rewind the teaching this eternal conflict has given to me.
Leviathan and Harbinger, two betrayals on the same hour. One leaving me for dead to achieve his own goals of greed and power, the other disregarding our peaceful history with one intent outcome to vent me into space to show me I was as disposable as could be, but they weren't the malicious and self-centred individuals I once flew with. I was one between these two giants, although I doubted that old instinct for a second to understand that my old grudges were... Petty? While at the gates of their world, my impulses were already pushing the psionic suppressants as much as they could. I was only hoping for one elder, not three and a flurry of others. Revenant was subject to a overcompensating counter-signal leaking out my private communications, I had a moment to analyse my health systems to correct the issue. I was still preparing for the pain, but their chorus of many wasn't... It wasn't--
It's hard to describe, you run off the constant repeating cycle of violence with the hive in Thuringia that its an impulse that you don't even debate. But this time, the pressure of messing this up and losing the chance to make the right choice in this moment as I have known that the other path leads to what I've suffered and grown under the Agency for a decade. My hypothesis seemed vaguely in the right direction, finally discussing the information about previous conflicts, it seems I've come to more potential branches of what really has happened over the past 30 years involving our two species, and how menial and pathetic our hostilities were to what these Sentinels might bring to our frontier. I've known for some time now that I perpetuated the message of the great threat these aliens possessed, have done for a long time... But even as I was, wielding my doubt, I was hoping to secure something that would expose a truth to what that message obscures. And now the conclusion is inevitable.
The Nomads are here to stay.
To deny their place with the same persecution is to establish ourselves as unjust within Sirius.
Those fractured hives have proved to end this conflict between us without extinction.
Then we must judge them how we judge ourselves.
Towards rectifying the alienation from their own home.
Therefore the will and the intent of the Platform is clear.