The Plot Thickens
12 Jun 2021Iridium Nova
Sol is a favorite vacation place for those who are wealthy enough and influential enough to have access to it, for good reason. Luxurious stations, legendary cities, unique amenities, luxuries from the farthest reaches of the known galaxy, and that old worlds charm steeped in history going back millennia. It's all here. One day I'll probably retire here - or maybe on my own planet. No rush to figure that stuff out though. Earth is as awe-inspiring as ever - the birthplace of mankind. Seeing where we all came from is an important experience I feel like everyone should be able to do. But sadly Sol is locked off to most people. If more people could visit Earth our civilization may not be so violent and destructive. Or if history wasn't at the mercy of GalNet and the big three. So much has been covered up, so much fact replaced with the fiction required by the state and military to advance their own conflicting goals. I know I am one of the few left with the memories of the way things were - but no-one believes me anymore, thanks to the narratives driven by the galactic media. Ah, but I am getting off topic.
Solomon
On Mars High, I met an interesting individual by the name of Solomon. It turns out he has a copy of this mystery file - and his story is much the same as mine. Hit by the same Galnet burst that disabled my ship, left with a mystery file containing Omega Company correspondence, and two viruses battling each other over the fate of it. Like me, he was able to neutralize these two viruses, but unfortunately his version of the file was also partially deleted. However, it seems that different parts of the file were deleted in his case. After discussing the situation, we agreed to swap copies. I sent him a copy of the broken file I had, in exchange for a copy of his. With these, I have begun the process of attempting to reconstruct the file by essentially merging the two copies. With different areas of the file corrupted in both instances, by taking what's intact and putting them together, I should have a much more complete version, and will hopefully be able to learn something useful, or at least end up with something someone will pay good money for.
Aside from this meeting, the bars at the various Sol Stations were mostly what you'd expect - a den of rumors, idle banter, and aristocratic tourists. However, there was a common thread in some of the rumors floating around. Apparently Salvation has been contacting seemingly random people, bringing them into a galaxy-wide search for something. It could just be a rumor, but my contacts in Canonn have confirmed that there is indeed something going on, and it has to do with beacons of some sort. At the moment, there's not much I can do with it other than keep an eye on it. It probably has nothing to do with me, but it never hurts to be aware of the shady things going on around you.
Ariel
The "unofficial" reason for my vacation to Sol. This moon of Uranus is, at least for me, one of the most interesting places in Sol. A seemingly barren rock orbiting a rather ordinary ice giant, Ariel does not draw much attention to the passing traveller. It first caught my attention when I visited it over fifty years ago. Its deep canyons and occasionally misty trenches, glimmering in the refracted light from the ice, often create beautiful light shows. Since then, I've made a point to visit whenever I vacation in Sol. Today there were no ice mists, sadly, but instead I found something more interesting...
Pavlenko's Reception
A small tourism office on Ariel, featuring local flights through the misty canyons of the planet. In the past, it'd be common to find pilots and tourists hanging out in the bar here, waiting for their next flight. As I approached I could tell something was wrong. The facility was dark, save for the orange glow of fires visible through some of the windows. Landing nearby, I deployed my SRV and drove in for a closer look. My headlights fell across the bodies of security guards and I stopped, shut off the lights, and prepared my ops suit. Time to work. Deploying on foot, it wasn't long before I saw flashlights among the farther buildings of the facility, probing the walls, searching. Scavengers, most likely. I grabbed a spare power regulator from my SRV. I always like to keep a nice supply of the things on hand, since they've got quite a few uses. Making my way through the installation, stealthily picking off scavs as I went, I reached the power station, slapped my power regulator in, and engaged the systems. Damage to the station made the prospect a little more difficult than it would have otherwise been, but nothing I hadn't done before. Sure enough, when the lights came back on, the remaining scavs got spooked. Fortunately, these guys were not well prepared or very experienced, and I was able to make short work of them. With the facility clear of hostiles, I was able to do a proper investigation.
It seems the fate of Pavlenko's Reception was not random bad luck. Someone had raided the place. The scavs would have come off with a pretty good haul considering how much loot there was in the place. But that alone was interesting - whoever hit the facility wasn't after the loot. This time, I wasn't simply quickly grabbing all the data I could find. I had reason to believe Ariel had something to do with the Interloper virus, and so I was paying more attention to the data I was pulling from the various systems in the facility. It painted a fairly typical picture of a moderately busy tourist port - with a few exceptions. A high-ranking member of the Pilot's Federation had been staying at the facility at the time of the raid. This person, whos name I could not find, had requested exceptional security measures for their hab. Along with extra guards, the hab had L3 security restrictions (unusual for a hab), and what appeared to be some kind of anti-personnel turret installed right outside the entrance. Of course, all of these measures had been disabled by the time I got there. It was also the only hab in the complex with its own data terminal. Items found inside the hab looked like military surplus, and a few encrypted memory chips, which I would have missed had I not looked behind the toilet. I'm keeping these separate from the rest of my loot. They might have information I can use. Most of the data had been wiped from the data terminal. All I could find was some inane cat media and a brochure regarding the services available at Avery Manufacturing Hub, a factory also on Ariel. Whoever had raided the place had paid extra attention to this room, so I have to conclude that this mystery individual was the target of the raid. And yet they left much of this loot. I wonder if they might have taken these encrypted chips had they found them. Given where I found them, it's reasonable that they might have simply missed them. Or maybe I'm just hoping there's something juicy on them. Either way, I intend to decrypt them as soon as possible.
Avery Manufacturing Hub
This industrial complex was my next stop. I had intended to visit all the settlements on Ariel, so I might as well go there next. I can't say I was too surprised to find it in a similar state. The facility was dark, fires burning everywhere. No scavs this time though. With my trusty power regulator, I powered the place up and started investigating. The facility had a wealth of useful data on the terminals - including a set of manufacturing instructions. It was fairly obvious the same people who hit Pavlenko's had also hit this place. So what was the connection? I found a clue on a memory chip hidden in the hand of a dead worker in one of the industrial buildings - after prying it out of his rigor-mortis fist, I added it to my collection of memory chips to read through later and continued my investigation. When that later came, I was sitting in my Dolphin parked some distance away, shrouded in the darkness of the pitch black Ariel night. Here's the relevant data snip:
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PROJECT HYPNOS - SERVER 16 ADMIN LOG
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June 10, 3307
I suspect Lazarus is not far behind now. My colleagues are disappearing one by one. I'm probably next. I can't stay here. I'll be too easy to find. I'm going to have to pull in all my favors. Pavlenko's will be my next stop. I can pose as a wealthy tourist there, maybe lose them for now. I'll have to distribute the data. If it's all in one place it'll be too easy for them to find it. I can distract them for a while. I'll switch ID's at Pavlenko, load up some poor sap with a boon and send them on their way. That should throw Lazarus off for a while. But not long. They'll find me soon enough, but maybe I can delay them until the next phase. That's all I need to do. The other operatives will pick up the pieces. That's all we can hope for now. Maybe the Dreamer will save me. I heard she was headed this way, but knowing her, that's not something I can put my hopes on. It's been a while since the Incident. 7 years now? And yet only now has she really awoken. Ugh. I hate talking in riddles. If only it weren't necessary. No time. Have to go. Hopefully this won't be my last entry. I'll give a copy of this to Jared here, tell him the fate of the galaxy relies on it or something. Just so he doesn't give it away too easily. Hope that helps.
- D.The previous log entries suggest that this "D" person was maintaining a file server for something called Project Hypnos. Most of it is pretty typical boring server admin stuff. The guy was apparently posing as the administrator of this facility, running this server on the side for a secretive organization. That's actually not that interesting. That kind of thing is happening all the time, everywhere. In a galaxy with a population in the multi-quadrillions, there's a lot of secrets. Looks like I've managed to stumble on yet another one. I can't say this is the first time it's happened, and it isn't likely to be the last. Well, mysteries and secrets are usually a good recipe for adventure, so I guess it's time to be a detective.