THE TRUTH UNVEILED
28 Nov 2023Jav Marlo
THE TRUTH UNVEILED06 APR 3309, system Arque.
The Electra II arriving to system Arque
This is commander Jav Marlo, flying the Electra II, arriving to Abel Laboratory, professor Palin’s base, in the Arque system.
The Electra II approaching Abel Laboratory
I recently learnt from the engineer Lori Jameson that my father was actually working for professor Palin when he disappeared in Merope in 3301. He never told me about that, even if we have known each other for so long, even if he knew that I have been trying to find out the truth about my father for years; and now I am coming back to confront my old friend about this. And I know he has been waiting for me.
The Electra landing at Abel Laboratory
Commander Marlo, Jav, my I call you Jav? It is good to see you again.
You may call me what you want... I have questions... And... on this occasion... I expect you to answer them.
Jav Marlo meeting professor Ishmael Palin
Of course you do.
WHY? Why you didn’t tell me? How is it possible that, after all this time, I discover that you knew my father, that he was working with you when he disappeared, and that I discovered that because Lori Jameson, NOT YOU, told me?
Well, those are very legit questions. Please control your anger until you hear what I have to say. First of all, Lori Jameson told you because I asked her to do so, because I wanted you to come back. Second, it is true, your father and I not only worked together, we were friends. He was one of the finer explorers of the galaxy, and he used to run missions for me.
Professor Palin and Jav Marlo at Abel Laboratory
Who was my father? (Sigh) Was he a Fed? Was he Alliance? I cannot tell. I remember him. But after all this years, everything I’ve found about him... I don’t know any more.
Cisco Marlo was born in Mars. He graduated with honours from the Pilots Federation school very young and joined the Federal Navy. His piloting skills and intelligence earned him a position in the Federal Intelligence Agency.
So, he was a Fed, not Alliance.
By birth at least. Early on his career, your father was sent to Alliance space as a covert agent to infiltrate on an aerospace company called Argent Aerodynamics Amalgamated Inc, that was suspected of being reverse-engineering Thargoid technology to create a new generation of hyperdrives. You know, after the First Thargoid War, the Galactic Cooperative had stored lots of captured Thargoid vessels. When Gal Cop collapsed, all that Thargoid tech passed to the newly founded Alliance.
I could not gather much information about him on the Alliance records. Almost everything about him is... classified. So he never was Alliance. He was a spy. For how long?
Jav Marlo and professor Palin at Abel Laboratory
For some years. Argent Aerodynamics Amalgamated Inc was a business venture founded my Meredith Argent and Mic Turner, that where also the founders of the Alliance. Mic Turner had died some years ago while on an expedition to the Pleiades Nebula searching for the Thargoids. Your father quickly won the sympathy of Meredith Argent and become one of the main test pilots.
When did he meet my mother?
About that time. Your mother Cia was a protegee of Meredith Argent. She was one of the scientists working on the hybrid Thargoid hyperdrive. They fell in love and you were born.
Professor Ishmael Palin at Abel Laboratory
And... and how did she die? My father never told me. I only know that she died having me.
That is not clear. Your father told me that both him and your mother suspected that other parties were interested in stealing the new tech they were developing. He had good reasons to believe that, being himself a spy. I do not know if he ever told your mother that he was a Fed spy. But I know that he believed that your mother death was not an accident, that she was killed at the hospital for trying to expose a conspiracy to steal the tech she was working on. There is only one thing I can be sure about what happened then, and that is that your father blamed himself for her death.
(Sigh). What did he do after my mother died?
Well. He abandoned the project. He quit from the Federal Navy too. One year later the Alliance developed a new revolutionary Hyperdrive that soon ended in the hands of Sirius Corporation who monopolized it and distributed equally to all the powers and factions. Your father became an independent commander for hire. He took you to Dublin Citadel in Gateway and tried to raise you there. I guess he was afraid about taking you back to the Federation, after everything that happened.
Professor Palin and Jav Marlo
But he came back to the Federation, eventually.
Yes, he came back, eventually. And he met a woman and created another family. I know you have met your half brother Zal.
Yes. I’ve met him.
Listen. Cisco Marlo might have been quite an absent father, but he cared about you.
I know... How did you met him?
It was some time later. The arrival of the Frame Shift Drive was a huge leap for mankind. Suddenly, we had the galaxy at our hands. I was working for the Federation and looking for independent pilots that were willing to venture themselves into the unexplored void seeking for alien artefacts. I hired your father and we worked together for some years. He... he was a good friend.
How did he died? What happened to him? Please... tell me the truth.
Jav Marlo and Professor Palin arguing
Early in 3301, right after I too became independent, I identified some strange signals coming from Merope and its surrounding systems, clearly alien in origin. I sent your father to investigate those signals. He found an Unknown Artefact orbiting one of the bodies of Merope. It was emanating the same alien signal I had been catching. The artefact was a Thargoid Sensor, but we did not knew that yet. We did not knew it that it was corrosive too. Your father scooped the sensor that soon started to corrode his cargo hold and melt every system of his ASP. Being aware of the importance of his discover, he was not going to send an emergency signal. So he transmitted me his coordinates, jettisoned the Thargoid Sensor and jumped into a scape pod himself before the total system failure of his ship. I receive his message and came to the rescue on a Type 7 I had modified for the task. There was no space traffic on Merope on that time, so I could find him before anyone else did. I scooped the Thargoid Sensor too and made a hastly run to my base before it corroded my ship too. I believe that my long time friend Lori Jameson told you the rest. We were ambushed and had to stop for repairs at Leonard Nimoy base.
Video record of the attack on Palin’s Type 7
So, he made it alive from Merope. That is why they never found his body. Just his corroded ship adrift. But... how?... what happened to him? ANSWER ME!
You need to understand... The moment we found that Artefact... that Thargoid Sensor... we set in motion powerful forces... dark forces... that relentlessly started chasing us.
CUT THE WITCH’S TALE. What happened to my father? Who was chasing you?
You tell me. They are chasing you too.
Do you mean... the Club... the Dark Cabal that was uncovered Salomé, or those Black Flight guys that nearly killed me so many times, or maybe the Witch? You are right, I am being hunted, but I do not know who they are.
We did not knew them too but, suddenly, most of my closest collaborators started to suffer strange accidents. We soon realized that it was related to the alien technology we found. Someone wanted it to remain... undiscovered. Your father decided that he would rather take his odds on space. I helped him engineer a MkIII Cobra. And he launched to space. He said he was going to the Pleiades and then beyond, pursuing the alien signals, and hoping that nobody would dare to follow him there... (Deep sigh) And that was the last time I saw my friend... your father.
Ishmael Palin
And that’s it? He just... vanished... Did he ever contacted you? Did you ever thought about going looking for him? You claim he was your friend? DID YOU TRY ANYTHING AT ALL?
OF COURSE I TRIED. I sent ships looking for him... good friends too... good commanders... and they all disappeared. VANISHED.
YOU NEVER TRIED YOURSELF!
I HAD PROBLEMS OF MY OWN... a lot of people depends on me. The Federation took over my laboratory and the Thargoid Sensor research project and moved it to Fort Harrison only to terminate it and bury all my work. When they released me, I moved back to my Institute at Christian Dock, and relinquished its directorship to my friend Cora Shaw in an effort to save what we have built. I retired to the Maia system with the intention of taking again the research of the Thargoid Sensor. But those bastards of the Black Flight followed me there. They kidnapped me. Interrogated me. Tortured me. When they finished they sold me to the Blue Hand Gang criminal syndicate, but only after infecting me with a strain of the Cerberus Plague. It was by chance that I was rescued after a campaign on the Blue Hand. And then, when I made it back to my base in Maia, the Federation put a blockade on me. THEY SENT A DAMN FARRAGUT BATTLECRUISER TO BLOCK MY BASE. The same Federation I worked for most of my life. (Hard breath) You know I had to evacuate my base in Maia in 3305 after a Thargoid raid. And here I am now. Continuing with my work under the protective wing and the watchful eye of the Alliance, in the Arque system. And during all this time I have NEVER... EVER stopped caring about my friend, and watching over his son, as he would have wanted.
I... I do not understand... what do you mean?
Jav Marlo and Professor Palin at his office in Abel Laboratory
Think about it. All these years... all your commander career... I have been there... guiding you... gently pushing you on the right direction when it was needed... and using my influence to help you when you were in trouble. I’ve always looked out for you Jav.
Looking out for me. HOW? You lied to me. You told me I should ask Bill Turner about my father and he sent me hunting ghosts to the Formidine Rift. I almost die there.
I WARNED YOU ABOUT BILL TURNER. I’ve helped you all this time... I never lied to you... I only didn’t tell you the truth about your father... but you have to believe me... everything I did... I did it in your best interest.
My best interest... how can you know what is my best interest? I only wanted the TRUTH.
YOU WERE NOT READY TO HANDLE THE TRUTH... TO UNDERSTAND. It is only now... after everything you have endured... the things you have witnessed... the battles you have fought... the places you have been... that you are ready to understand.
Jav Marlo confronting Professor Ishmael Palin
Why... why are you telling me this now?
Five years ago you were just a mechanic at Asellus Primus with little prospects and being rejected by the Pilots Federation. And, suddenly, you qualify as a commander, as you always wished, and your first destination are the Pleiades. Some skirmishes with pirates and Thargoids later you come back to the Alliance to start a shipping business. You got involved with the Alliance Elite Diplomatic Corps, but the Pleiades called you again. That was when we met for the first time. And when you really started to unveil the secrets of the Thargoids. Then the explorer inside you took over, just like your father, and you joined the Distant Worlds II expedition, a huge endevour that aimed to build the first space station in the Galaxy’s Core and to reach Beagle Point, the farthest corner of the Galaxy. After your long voyage back home you found your half-brother Zal and partnered up with him in several enterprises. As a freelancer, you took more trouble that any freelance contractor would have taken to rescue some Sunflex pilots from slavery. A testimony of what kind of person you are. It was during a visit to the California Nebula when you found who has become your most loyal ally, though you did not know yet. You visited Guardian ruins and found who Ayumi truly was. Together you ventured into the Formidine Rift, and found the Zurara, and found out about the Project Dinasty and the Club, and confronted one of their assassins for the first time. You reached Amudsen’s Star and explored the Barnard’s Loop. And then THEY found you. The mysterious faction of commanders leaded by Salomé, the demised senator of the Prism system, lured you to the Panacea Medical Center, where their martyr leader left her last message to mankind. You joined them at their home in Serebrov Terminal and they shared some of their secrets with you. You thought you finally had found a home, but you never got over your father’s disappearance... the Pleiades kept calling you.
Jav Marlo’s first Thargoid encounter in Merope
You almost die fighting a Hydra in Merope. It is thanks to you allies: Ayumi, the notorious commander Jordanna Frost and the mysterious commander Zedakiah from Serebrov Terminal, that you are still breathing, even if it is through some unknown alien technology. And you endured, and you got better at fighting Thargoids. But the affairs of the Superpowers entangled you and you got involved in the wars of the Federation where you distinguished yourself. Ayumi left you to pursue her own quest and you came back in despair back to the Pleiades to continue fighting the Thargoids along your allies. Your Alliance military training and mechanic formation paid off and, again, you distinguished yourself in several planetary operations. You unveiled more Thargoid secrets and rejected an offer to join the Anti-Xeno Defence Force to help your partner Ayumi who was messing up with very powerful foes. You got involved into a conspiracy within the Empire, and got captured by Imperial Admiral Denton Patreus. Somehow, you managed to make a deal that put you on his service. It was under the patronage of Denton Patreus that you finally achieved the Triple Elite rank. You fought a war for the Empire and broke into a maximum security prison to rescue Ayumi. You infiltrated into the Pegasi Sector chasing Ayumi’s past and almost die again on the hands of a mysterious bounty hunter. It was Ayumi again, with her many talents, that rescued you from being ripped apart by a pirate scavenger clan, causing a killing spree on the way. From there you both travelled to the fringe of the bubble to liberate the slaves kept by the pirate clan of Lemmy’s Rock. And then you answered the call from Salvation.
Jav Marlo being pursuit by a Hydra in Merope
You took part on the battle over HIP 22460, and witnessed the devastation caused by the Proteus Wave. You heard the Thargoid Roar and pursued the Thargoid Anomalies across the Barnard’s Loop for months. You witnessed the terrible power unleashed by Taranis and were one of the first commanders to navigate the interior of a Maelstrom. Convinced that the Thargoids were now threating our very existence you started a quest to discover who Salvation really was and his motivations, that brought you to Iraxon Lane, and finally to a long tour through the abandoned INRA bases where you learnt the truth about the First Thargoid War. The information you uncovered gained you the attention of the Black Flight again, and you were ambushed at Jameson Crash Site, where you were rescued by my long time colleague: Lori Jameson. And now you are here.
Jav Marlo visiting the Proteus Wave site
Should I be impressed? Do you keep a file on me?
I CARE FOR YOU. I have followed your career, and helped you more times that you are aware of.
How so? Why do you care for me? What do you want of me?
Nothing... everything. I wanted you to fulfil your potential. To become a man, a commander, that your father could be proud of. And... believe me... Oh! Jav… you have surpassed every expectation.
That’s it. You claim you have been helping me, that you kept the truth for me for my own shake. What for? Do you expect that I work for you, like my father did? Do you want me to fly your missions? Is that it?
I do not expect anything but that you continue being the commander you are. This galaxy needs more commanders like you.
I do not understand. That’s why you have kept the truth for me all this time.
Jav Marlo discovering the truth
Think about it. You have nothing to do with the naive commander that boldly left the Bubble five years ago to explore the Pleaides on an Adder. You couldn’t have grasp the truth then... only now you are ready. You hold high ranks both in the Federal and the Empire navy, plus the Triple Elite rank in the Pilots Federation, yet you are not corrupted. You’ve been involved in countless conflicts, and always found a way to help the victims. You have powerful allies, that seek the truth, just like yourself. And you have found some of the darkest powers that scheme in the dark, confronted them and survived. You have a huge net of contacts in multiple factions and a vast fleet of ships at your disposal. And some friends in high places... like me.
I do not trust you anymore.
It hurts me you saying so, but let me finish. Mankind needs you... the galaxy needs you. Our future... our survival... is constantly threaten by forces, both alien and from within. The Thargoids are the catalyst that set in motion most of those forces, and the arrival of the Maelstroms is the turning point that will decide our final fate. All the conspiracies, all the schemes that you have uncovered... has led us to this invasion... to this war. The Thargoids have come to exterminate us, and we are not innocent. I just want you to go out there again... and continue doing what you do best... fight the dark forces... expose their conspiracies... protect mankind... and try not die by doing so. You will always have a friend in me and a haven here.
I am done with you. I’m leaving.
Jav Marlo leaving Abel Laboratory
I understand your rejection about me but... eventually... I would like to earn your trust again. In the meantime, I am transmitting to your ship all my files about Cisco Marlo. All the intel I gathered about him along this years is there. I know is quite unlikely, but he was never found, unless as I am aware of, so he still might be out there. I really wish you the best of luck and that you find out what happened to your father. I miss my friend.
o7 Commander Marlo. Godspeed.
Jav Marlo signing out.
Jav Marlo portrait
This last chapter of the Jav Marlo chronicles ends the main plot of the series.
Five years ago, I commenced playing this glorious game and started writing logs with pictures telling my adventures. I gave my character, commander Jav Marlo, a typical Sci Fi quest, that was finding his disappeared father, with the goal of role playing and being consequent in my actions on this vast galaxy. Soon the huge scope of this game, its rich lore and its multiple mechanics, along with the great community and my interactions with several other commanders enlarged the plot way beyond my original plans. Sub plots appeared, like the ones related to Salomé and The Club; detours occurred, like Distant Worlds II; and I even created a spin off character, Ayumi.
This publication makes the 132th of the series, and it closes the circle by, partially, solving the main quest of commander Marlo. I hope you enjoyed it.
Jav Marlo will continue flying and publishing his logs, but real life is taking over, and I cannot keep any more with the amount of publications that I did in the last years.
I have many commanders to thank for the great time together, starting with commander Zal Marlo, who is actually my real brother; commander Zedakiah Massacre for introducing me to some of the biggest mysteries in the Galaxy; and commander DNA-Decay, for his tutoring on the Back Ground Simulation and in the Alliance story.
Special mention to commander J-Dog162 for our great role playing together, and for helping me with my logs and plot. The Jordanna Frost story is one of the most beautifully written Elite tales that I have read and I fully recommend it.
I would also like to thank every commander that ever wrote me to say something nice about my logs, to give me clues for my story or gave me a shiny, specially commanders Ouberos and Kara Walden, Maggie Oz, Cosby714, Shapherd, El_Guapo_Gaucho, Fatcat_25, Akanaeth, Kris Afron, Aurora Adair (Radiumio), Meowers, Triple Razor, OrlanLesage, Lambast Mercy, Godthab, JemmaRoe74, and many more.
My last thanks to Frontier and the Inara community of developers, supporters and writers, and everybody that creates content based on this amazing game.
My most sincere thanks to all of you.
Godspeed commanders. o7
I’ll see you in the void.
Jav Marlo signing out.