Trails of the Past - Salomé's Requiem
04 Jun 2024Kasumi Goto
"The world saw her as a terrorist, a misfit, someone to be reigned in and controlled. The truth, however, is far more complicated than that... and that truth is something she was willing to die for. The questions I am sitting on, now, upon seeing it, are... what can I do with it, and how can I help other people see it? Because, ultimately, more people need to, so that something about the system can be changed. Without enough support, it would be like fighting a mountain."
Location : HIP 17519
April 13, 3310
A relatively quiet system. Less than a hundred thousand inhabitants, closest other populated system was around fifty-three light years away. Only noteworthy station in it, an asteroid base, everything else was just small-scale surface operations, though lots of them. I could imagine better places to call my final resting spot, but who was I to judge... considering the rather weird preferences I had, it would certainly have been rather hypocritical to do it... too much.
On top of that, the only "factions" in the system considered themselves to be 'anarchistic' in nature, whatever that meant these days. It could range anywhere from pirates to people who simply preferred to go without a centralized authority to rule them. Considering how the Empire and Federation had turned out, I couldn't blame anyone wishing to live in that way... in the latter case, at least. Pirates, not so much. Legal "lawfulness", of course, made absolutely no distinction between the two and just slotted them into the same bunch, so somebody deciding to slaughter a bunch of innocents just because they happened to be the occupants of a settlement with valuables to obtain, wouldn't suffer any repercussion whatsoever. And that, it was actually disgusting. The same happening to a pirate settlement, however, I'd probably be more likely to turn a blind eye to.
This place, almost felt like it reeked of them, too. Matters not helped by the asteroid base being named 'Pirate's Lament'. As if I needed to be told more.
I always hated places like this., Kira's 'spirit' remarked. You never know if the ship behind you is just going to the same place you are, or getting ready to try and ruin your day. Especially if you have cargo or something else onboard. Same thing on the stations. That guy in the corner might be looking at you sideways to try stabbing you in the gut for basically nothing. Eventually, I just stopped going to them.
I can see why. But I do not want to stay here longer than I need to. And no station visits.
Good idea.
I'd certainly been recommended by someone who grew up here to visit the asteroid base, but I was not exactly feeling particularly like I even wanted to. Not for the only reason of it being her "home"... because it felt like most people that grew up here would also not be too interested in staying in it. I'd also never heard of the "Denial Operatives" in charge of the port, so I wasn't inclined to find out what they were about. At best, they sounded like one of those mercenary groups that I wanted nothing to do with because they'd pick any contract regardless of its legality or morality, as long as it paid enough.
My interest was in the 'Panacea Medical Center', anyway. It orbited around the first moon of the closest gas giant to the primary star, and I assumed it was what I was looking for, the place that people generally appeared to refer to as 'Salomé's Requiem'. Hopefully, I wouldn't be bothered around it - locals likely wouldn't, as I hadn't upset them, and I held no cargo either... on top of that, I tried to be a bit subtler by having my carrier wait fifty light years away, roughly, until after I'd arrived at this... whatever it was. Navigation referred to them as "Installations", if only to differ them from other orbital infrastructure. The distance of the carrier itself was more just coincidental in where it ended up due to the five-hundred light year distance limit to one of its jumps, but hopefully, that would not give anybody from this 'Club' I was looking into as much of a clue that I was here.
I began to think about the whole carrier deal while I set my ship on its way to that place. Mostly, the crew... they appeared respectful around me, but I was unable to tell if it was because I kept them paid and employed - if largely handled through automated transfers - or because of how I'd treated them in the past. There certainly was no... close personal relation anywhere. And they also seemed to keep a healthy distance to me, in corridors, though I had reasons to suspect it was just to give my big hips the room they required. I hadn't been on the bridge much either, but the seat thoughtfully had been replaced with a... more adequate version to my current proportions. And, also, not without some teasing about the look the bridge crew put on as it was getting put into place... which I'd declined to comment on. And it did seem like they were being careful, around me... because of my still recovering mental state.
I couldn't yet say, how long it would still take me to go back to "normal"... whatever normal meant, because I had little real impressions of my own, still. Only of how other adult people behaved and spoke. At least the speech, I did want to become better. But it hadn't improved significantly in the month and a half since I'd left the Aegis headquarters, only a little bit. Yet I didn't want to be in this state for another few years.
I was almost there when I got through my thoughts and arrived at one of those mental dead ends, thinking there was something else, but nothing would come out of my brain's fog. That, at least, didn't appear to be new, or something caused by the damage to it... instead, it was something that had always annoyed me, even prior to any of the madness I was going through now.
Dropping out, it seemed like the machinery at work, both the mechanical and more esoteric one, wanted to make this my requiem too, because the FSD set me off way too close to the structure, and I narrowly avoided colliding with its exterior. At least, this Phantom, unlike my deep space explorer, also had decent shields and a reinforced hull to take such impacts. I could have seen the Club's work at hand, if I had a bit more tinfoil on my head, but put it down to poor placement of the installation itself. A few ships were circling around, but appeared to be more concerned with other matters than me arriving and beginning to poke around.
I thought I would have to run the whole thing through the data link scanner, but apparently, there was no need for that with this one. I already had various contacts showing on its surface, the most interesting ones being the log uplinks... I presumed I'd find what I wanted on them, anyway, as those oddly obvious mechanisms seemed to be a common design feature in both megaships and structures such as this one. After scanning the first of the set, it seemed there were eight in total, so I set to searching - due to the size of the installation, I couldn't have all of them on the scanner readout at the same time. For that reason, I also gathered them all first, before deciding to listen to any... nothing else here looked like it was of interest, likely years after the death of Salomé, so I moved a certain distance away, then looked at what I'd got exactly. Beyond it being audio logs, anyway.
SALOMÉ’S REQUIEM 1/8
If you’re scanning this, it’s because I am dead. Frankly, after all my tribulations, I welcome the oblivion of the void. My closest friends are dead, and I have nothing to live for. Perhaps I will find peace as I return to the stardust that made me. Know that this was my choice.
Some of you knew me as Salomé, others as Kahina Tijani Loren, a Lady of the Empire and former senator of the Prism system. I was branded a murderer and a terrorist, and there is truth in these accusations. I have made poor decisions. I killed, or caused the death, of thousands. To these crimes I freely admit my guilt. I am content to let history judge me.
Some part of history, apparently, had judged favorably so far. Though, given the circles where I had found out more about Salomé, or where to find more on her, rather, it was... not too surprising, they chose to put their focus on the actions she had undertaken to try exposing the conspiracy, rather than some of the less respectable acts performed to do so. I wouldn't judge, myself, because... this was far in the past, already, and it wouldn't serve to judge a dead person. And it was... rather unlikely, that I would be able to commit to this cause without killing anybody, either. But I would do my best to keep anybody innocent out of it.
I began to think - was I really here to be sure any of this was real? I doubted it... the evidence was more than enough already. But, maybe, like the strange message I'd found in the Formidine Rift - on the Zurara - suggested, I just needed a little more guidance. And I doubted I'd be sent or guided here by two different people, if they were, without anything like that to be found...
SALOMÉ’S REQUIEM 2/8
I bring you this message in a time of turmoil. You have little reason to believe me, and less to trust me, but nevertheless I ask you to listen. Because you have been misled.
I was sent on a quest into darkness. I did not know what I was looking for. Many people assisted me, sometimes altruistically and sometimes to further their own agendas. I am grateful to all of them. Some, to my shame, I manipulated to my own ends.
My contact guarded her secrets well – even from herself to ensure they would be revealed only at the proper time. It seems that time is now.
Secrets which I'd already caught more than a glimpse of. But, I had to wonder... why allow these messages to exist in the first place, if they - those people - were so powerful and protective of their secrecy? To give the illusion that a resistance could be organized? It was unlikely I'd ever get to ask one of them.
Or to have any straight answers, rather than deflections of how what they were doing was all for the "good of humanity", and I obviously understood none of it in my "limited view of the world". As if they knew it any better while the Thargoids existed, and remained an enigma to basically almost everyone. And decided that being at war with them was better than to at least understand them. As if that wasn't asking to be slammed on the head with a hammer by the far older species.
But all that was just a symptom of the problem which this 'Club' were. And if there were more secrets about them revealed here, I was willing to hear them.
SALOMÉ’S REQUIEM 3/8
There are patterns of events. A tapestry, if you will.
Treaties were abolished, bringing us closer to the brink of war. Those flashpoints in Mu Koji? Engineered to fan the flames of conflict. Wreaken Construction was a beneficiary, with its naval shipyards. It was no accident that the share prices of Gutamaya and Core Dynamics rose dramatically.
The Empire turned against me, concocting a ridiculous crime and sentencing me for it. It was just a ruse so they could hold me hostage and access the exploration data I had. Ultimately, it was Imperial forces that saved me. At least some honour remains in the Empire.
The Alliance and the Federation were collaborating behind the scenes. Tsu exposed it, and they ostracised her and left her at the mercy of bounty hunters. The Alliance is no innocent bystander. They know what happened.
Mu Koji definitely didn't ring a bell with me. Neither did Wreaken Construction... so I decided to go looking for what those were about. Even if I didn't need the context to get the idea of the argument presented, I still wanted to know. In case it helped me understand better.
Sure enough... it wasn't difficult to find information on either. Apparently, in the second half of 3302, a conflict had taken place between Federal and Imperial forces in Mu Koji over some intelligence from one or the other's fleet. The Imperials had won out,, but the whole matter did, at a superficial glance, seem to awfully lack any real... context, to the encounter occurring in the first place. As if it'd just come out of nowhere. Seemed about right, considering what I'd just been told.
Wreaken... it was a little more complicated. They seemed to be one of the oldest corporations in the history... of human space exploration, at least, founded in the 23rd century by a 'Tobias Wreaken' from Earth. Beyond that... records seemed to be practically nonexistent, and there were few mentions of them throughout an entire millennium. In the public domain, certainly. The one most interesting being that, apparently, they had shipyards, or at least construction sites of some kind, in the Col 70 Sector region, which was suspiciously close to Thargoid space... and entirely locked with a completely impassable permit, at that. Or so the GalNet news article said, but that itself was already nearing a decade, too. If that wasn't a heavy clue they had ties, or were outright controlled by the 'Club'... I wouldn't know what was.
Aside from that, I'd read about the supposed sentencing of Salomé on some tourist beacons in the Prism system, pointed there by that same Anti-Club Accord who had kind of sent me further down the rabbit hole. Though part of that was also just my own doing.
Had to wonder who 'Tsu' was, too... one of Salomé's collaborators, maybe. There had been a few who'd worked with her at the time of her death, but I had no way of knowing if any of them were still alive now. If so, they were likely not inclined to reveal their identities to avoid persecution by the morons who thought they were steering humanity toward greatness, but only seemed to be driving it toward doom instead.
SALOMÉ’S REQUIEM 4/8
Scientists were bribed, discoveries were leaked and people were abducted, some never to return.
The Sirius Corporation attempted a hostile takeover of MetaDrive. They murdered the chairman. MetaDrive was developing secret hyperdrive technology and Sirius wanted it. Raan kept it out of their hands and they tried to kill him for it.
Meanwhile, the organisers of the arena catalogued the best pilots in the galaxy. Ask why you would want a list of combat experts…
Explorers are rewarded with cold, hard cash for their discoveries. The Federation tried to buy our service. We showed them what true loyalty was. That exploration data cost many souls.
I had a number of ideas for what you could want skilled combat pilots for, but whatever it actually was, I wouldn't know unless I was told - if it wasn't just the war with the Thargoids. That certainly seemed likely... or they'd wanted to build their own elite combat force to whatever end. Because assassins were high in demand with this conspiracy.
My interest was more in that MetaDrive incident. Some poking around revealed they'd, apparently - thanks to a leak which made the information public - worked on wake suppression technology, though that was denied as a baseless rumor by Sirius, and that it had no relation to FSD technology. Of course. Then the CEO, or chairman, of the company had mysteriously 'fallen ill' and died... the research to never be seen again. Of course, wake suppression technology would be of great interest to a movement in the shadows, and even more so to not let it become publicly available material. God forbid it wasn't possible to track anybody however far you liked or needed to, any longer.
This explained why there was concern of some people about the Achilles research into Titan drive technology - not that I approved of how it came to be in the first place - particularly now that they had produced a working prototype... some time between my visit of the Zurara and arrival here, at what could effectively be considered the very outermost edge of the Bubble. If the judging criteria was the presence of human population in relatively close vicinity to Sol, at least.
Also told me that Sirius was almost certainly acting in concert with, or as yet another puppet of, the 'Club'. And it didn't exactly make me feel particularly great, when considering the fact that Sirius... had its fingers in basically everything, or tried to slip into everything as much as possible. Though, if they were going to be a target for me as well... not something I could really do alone. And I'd have to contemplate what I'd do and where to act, later - still had four logs to go through.
SALOMÉ’S REQUIEM 5/8
Well, so what? That’s what you’re thinking.
You need to understand that these events were carefully orchestrated. Nothing happened without a reason. I don’t know the identities of those involved. If I did, I would expose them. I do know they control corporations, the military and some of the galaxy’s most powerful individuals. Their reach is wide. You cannot trust anyone in a position of authority. Some are active collaborators, some are mere figureheads. Some don’t even know they’re being used.
And they are manipulating you. Those of you who trade, who fight in their proxy wars, who sell them exploration data from the depths of the void. They are using you to further their agenda. You, me – all of us have been their tools. They believe themselves the ultimate arbiters of humanity’s destiny, above reproach and accountability. They consider themselves the true elites.
Factions and powers, economies and systems, even the arena – they’re just tools they use to make us enact their will.
Or "So what?" would have been what I'd be thinking right now, if I hadn't already seen some of the signs for myself, first hand. Nor did it surprise me to learn their control extended this far... and I was far from really trusting anybody in power, right now, with the possible exception of some of the people in charge of Aegis. And that had been shattered in a different way, thanks to the giant pile of ridiculous nonsense that the war with the Titans was, now. Or maybe had always been, and just took on a whole new dimension of stupid recently.
The "true elites" were also expectedly not suited to actually acting as the "arbiters" which they believed themselves to be, because they were egotistic enough to believe they were not accountable to anybody. Except for themselves, and untouchable. Would they still think that if their little empire happened to be destroyed from within, or by a much larger fleet of Titans actually intent on destruction, unlike the ones that were already here, in the Bubble?
I wasn't even sure about that, because they somehow managed to believe themselves to be above the Thargoids, despite repeated signs that we weren't all that relevant to them. Short of magical Guardian technology that somehow managed to not be vulnerable where everything else was, Titans were completely invulnerable to anything that we had against them. Not that any Guardian weapons other than the torpedoes could even be used against them, as it was, but it was clear that we would be hopelessly outmatched without any of it, even against their general war fleets.
I'd be happy to see it all burn. But how far would I be willing to go? As I did... still want something of human society left after it. Which a Thargoid assault to destroy humans would likely not have as a result, but there was a very probable risk of it going that far... if I liked it or not. I just shook off the thought there, and began the playback of the next message.
SALOMÉ’S REQUIEM 6/8
They have murdered countless thousands, pitilessly weighing their plans against human lives – the lives of innocents, of friends and family. They claim to act in humanity’s interest. They consider us sheep to their shepherds.
They hatched a secret contingency plan – a comprehensive list of earth-like worlds and terraformable planets. We have all contributed to this plan. Only recently did we discover it had been underway for decades. The evidence has been found: a planned subterfuge out in the void.
They can no longer hide from the facts. We have found them.
But had we?
Sure, the Dynasty project had been uncovered, but it'd been... more than five years since, and it didn't appear like anything at all had changed.
And as much as I believed anyone that carelessly tossed lives into the wind didn't deserve to be in any position of "caring for humanity" - if anyone ever should be, instead of letting the species as a whole decide its direction, not the whim of a few megalomaniacs who'd lost all touch with reality - it didn't change how things were. Or that it was beginning to look increasingly unlikely I even could do much of anything... and I wasn't exactly in a spot where I could go to a Thargoid and ask it for help. They were liable to not even care, anyway.
SALOMÉ’S REQUIEM 7/8
Why all this duplicity?
Because they know everything. They have the history – not the sanitised version from the public records, but the truth. Those reports of strange ships in the void, discounted in the news? Believe them. This is the catalyst. The wheels turn and darkness will fall.
So what can you do?
Challenge the authorities. Force their hand. Refuse to be manipulated. Do not rise to their provocations. Make your own powerplays, organise embargoes and blockade the ports. Break their hold and force them out into the open. Blaze a trail. Visibility is the one thing they cannot abide.
Or do nothing. Be content to be a pawn in their game.
'Strange ships in the void'... had to pretty much be referring to the Thargoids. But I wasn't sure what to do with the rest of that log... it seemed a little too open-ended, and less guidance. Or maybe I would just have to decide for myself where I was best at... or, I could just follow the plans of people who were better at it than me, and clearly interested in overthrowing the conspiracy themselves. However they had learned of it - likely not by accident, unlike the original discovery of the Zurara, which I'd made not long before the arrival of the Titans. And only, because I'd forgotten to watch the speed of the ship while approaching a planet's surface.
'Doing something' seemed like a better alternative than just burying my head in the sand at how monumental of a task it seemed. Maybe I'd just have to come to terms with it, that a mountain couldn't be moved in a day. But, with some luck, eventually the small crack would bring down the whole structure with it, and then a new foundation could be built from what remained. Something that was better.
Salomé might have said it in this message that darkness would fall, but I was reminded of something I'd heard in an old, possibly ancient, game that had somehow managed to survive what had happened on Earth, between its wars and climate change, over a thousand years ago...
Even a Shadow wants the wheel to turn. For without a Sun, there can be no Shadow.
There was no mythology anywhere in this, of course, but for one reason or another, it seemed fitting of a saying. The "shadow" in that game had failed to accomplish what it wanted, too, and while this was far from one... maybe this one could be brought down, too, and some kind of proper equilibrium established. I just had to figure out... how.
One final recording remained.
SALOMÉ’S REQUIEM 8/8
For those who killed me, i bear you no ill will. For those who wanted me dead, you have your wish.
For those who loved me and swore allegiance to me, your service and dedication were the brightest light in the darkness of my life. Do not let my death be the end of what you would see done.
My last request is that you always… remember.
I definitely would remember. But I couldn't help to feel... a certain melancholy at this being how it ended. I wondered, had this been recorded for the event of her death, or just before it? The 'weight' of the message... would be very different, based on that. But, at the same time, I didn't feel like knowing, and just sighed.
I couldn't decide if I was off worse or better, knowing this, and bearing the weight of all that knowledge. It had really been becoming obvious, particularly in the, maybe eight days, of travel back from the Zurara, to here, which had given me plenty of time to think it all over. But really being told how far it all went, how deeply it was all connected, it was... less like carrying a small stone, and more like having a boulder dropped on my head.
What I didn't expect was to be pulled out of it by a direct communication request... relayed through the - presumably - medical facility. Cautiously, I accepted, though gesturing at EDI in a way to - hopefully - signify to close ship systems off from comms. Just in case. What spoke, then, was... a voice clearly hidden behind a modulator. Identity protection. Had to be.
"Ah. Good. I wasn't sure if you'd accept."
"Accept? Accept what?"
"The communication. You're careful - I know that. And given what you're looking into, you've got all the reasons to be."
"And you are... who? How do you know?"
"I keep an eye on things. Namely, those who oppose what you refer to as the 'Club'. Let's just say, you caught my attention, and I pointed you where you are now."
I'd started suspecting that already. "What do you want?"
"Want? I want nothing. Even if it's what you expect from people in this galaxy. What I'd like is for you to carry on what you're doing." There was a brief pause on the other end. "Look, they might be listening in on this, so we'll have to keep it short. I take it you are where I pointed you?"
"Yes."
"Good." They paused again. "I know it might look hard from where you are, and it's not wrong. Nothing's going to be easy about this, but you just have to keep digging. Keep watching for their influence, and oppose it as best you can. I can't tell you exactly where to go, because only you can decide where you best put your time. But you've got a few points to start at, now, and it's better than just randomly picking away hoping you're at the right spot."
I remained silent. Just... listening, seemed better, right now.
"Still there?"
"Yes."
"Good. Listen up - I know things. A lot more than I probably should, and it's something you should know too." I was going to say something, but they continued too quickly for me to interject. "I'm going to send you some data. Nothing harmful, at least to your ship's systems. View it, or don't - that's your choice. But you're connected to this more than you realize."
"O-kay ..." I watched as said data arrived.
"If anyone 'asks' you, this conversation never happened. I'm wiping the comms log clean once we're done here. Any more questions? Because you probably won't hear from me again for a while."
I shook my head... even with it only being me who could notice it. "No."
"Understood. Terminating connection. And remember to remove the log of this chat from your ship's systems too. Good luck."
The link cut off as suddenly as it'd been initiated. Now I was wondering even more who this was... but it seemed rather unlikely I'd ever find out.
My carrier, when I went to check, was already in the system, right by the moon... even though I'd forgotten to bring it in. At least EDI hadn't - definitely someone I could and had learned to rely on.
I quickly distanced myself further from the installation and went back to the fleet carrier, which I considered as a safe haven even here, in this 'lawless' system. And... looked at the files I'd gotten, without opening any, while the landing pad descended into the safe confines of the hangar. It wasn't many, and none of them particularly large.
"EDI... what do you say? Should I, read them?", I asked, kind of wanting some advice.
"My own analysis of them suggests that you should, yes.", the AI replied. "But you may not like what they say."
I took a deep breath, and... after another moment of hesitation, just decided to do it.
EDI was right. I wasn't fond of what I was reading. Genetic engineering, a program to create a 'breed' of humans with which to colonize worlds easier, by making them more physically resilient, stronger, and smarter, all without changing the body and its proportions in a significant or any way... and I was one of them. The only survivor, even. Apparently, I had destroyed it all when something went wrong on the surface of the planet where that 'project' had taken place. And all of that, except my escape, was planned, by the 'Club'. Yet they thought me valuable enough to leave alive... whatever the reason.
Now... I was not just that, but a human-Thargoid hybrid, and further enhanced in those aspects. At least, physical resilience and strength. Nothing had changed about my intelligence, as far as I was aware.
There were coordinates, too. Not for a planetary surface, but within the galaxy. And some instructions on 'how to be able to access it'. It referring to... a system, somewhere, a good distance below the galactic plane, southeast of the Bubble. Ish. Could also have been southwest, I didn't quite manage to tell... or maybe I just wasn't bothered, because it wasn't too important, other than "It points away from the commonly explored directions in the galaxy". Punching said coordinates into the system finder also just... yielded absolutely nothing.
I could have tried to follow the instructions, but... if this was where it'd all started for me, did I really want to be going there already? Was I ready for it?
... maybe I wasn't. I didn't feel convinced about it, and... something else, far deeper, but not quite discernible yet, really made me feel hesitant about visiting that place. Fear of what I would find?
I wasn't sure. After a few minutes of pondering, I decided to turn to my 'old self'.
Did you know about... all this?
In a way? Kind of., she replied. Before Azimuth tried to fry my brain - it wasn't pleasant, bad enough that I kept having phantom pain through my entire body for months, even when there was no active memory of it - I could still remember it, but after that... barely. I hid the system's location way inside my logs. Never told anybody about it. I don't think you should, either. It's been enough trouble for... both of us, just to have this damned Thargoid thing going.
Why did you not tell me?
I felt the mental equivalent of a sigh, before the response.
It... really isn't that simple. I can't just 'give' what I know to you. That's not the kind of control I have over the implant, and it returns the memories to you as your brain fixes itself enough to let it return.
I just... wanted to ask., I cautiously 'remarked'. What will I find there? Is it bad?
... depends, on how you define bad. But... best for you to just find out yourself. It was... still is, my memories. But you're me, and... they are yours, too. You should know.
I could feel... a strange, almost uncharacteristic sadness, and softness, to her 'voice'. Even... compassion. Yet the first two 'tones' made me decide it was better left untouched, for now.
Then I will go there. When I am... ready. And not alone.
There was no further response, but... I definitely felt encouragement. Genuinely so, from that side of my 'spirit'. Even though, deep inside, I still knew 'I' was an... odd, accidental creation, made by the damage of the implant as it had attempted to preserve who 'I' was within it, even as the brain itself just failed completely. I really did wonder, what kind of instinct had been implanted into it, to make it fight so much to keep me alive, past any reasonable expectation... or even purpose, as I was not there for whatever the Thargoids intended with me. And allowing me to 'modify' my body's shape to something I really desired, too. Despite its impractical nature.
I came to a decision, too. I would fight back against the "Club"... what they were doing, with, to humans, how they caused wars, against ourselves, but the Thargoids, too... and I knew where to start already.
"EDI... jump the carrier into, HIP 5840, please. I have things, to do, there. And give me a list of where to find the new Frame Shift Drive. I would like to try one, for myself."
"Of course, Kira."
I decided to stay inside of my ship, remaining seated in the cockpit. No reason to leave it - I was very much in the mood and ready to get started on making some kind of a difference, no matter how small it possibly was. And that starting point was... opposing Azimuth's latest - and only - attempt to expand outward from where they continued to hold the Musashi, in Xi Wangda. Because, in my mind, there was no doubt about their involvement with the Club, whether it was direct or merely receiving support from them. And they were responsible for everything I was going through now, making it... even more fulfilling.
Though I wasn't quite sure about the FSD with the overcharge feature myself... thanks to the nature of how it had been developed... I'd heard good things about it from those who had given it a few test runs, and I wanted to get an impression of it for myself. If I could use it to do some good by opposing the instigators of the Titan's invasion, that would just... make it even better.
And it felt good to have that purpose. Enough to make me smile in anticipation, as the hyperspace tunnel opened.
Author's note - chronologically, this entry is set within the universe before Azimuth got the boot out of HIP 5840, in case you're confused. (Or to avoid confusion.) Just, really, didn't get to that point within it until now, because real life does like to interfere with this fun stuff.