Seo Jin-ae is not dead. But it might be much worse.
21 Mar 2023Ember Lacson
Author's note: this entry contains spoilers for the minor scavenger hunt introduced later last week.-------
I will confess I haven't been very engaged with my career as of late. I feel like the stereotypical eccentric billionaire becoming a recluse after the love of his life breaks his heart and runs away with another man, not having the strength to get out of bed and take care of himself, let alone fly combat missions. I'm depressed. That much is clear. Part of it is Nicole's departure, but part of it is just general malaise. Depression doesn't necessarily have an event associated with it; sometimes things just suck for a while.
The other night, I got a voice message from Nicole saying she'd gotten a message from Aden Tanner about Seo Jin-ae. She said other new CMDRs had gotten the same message, so she asked if I could check it out for her. I didn't feel like it, but I hopped in the cockpit and checked to see if I had a message as well. Sure enough, Tanner had sent a wide band message out to most if not all active CMDRs asking for help finding Seo Jin-ae. I hopped over to the system he indicated and found a hacked comms beacon with a series of logs. I'll hide the rest of this entry in case anyone else wants to go follow the trail for themselves.
The comms beacon contained voice logs between Tanner and Jin-ae, who has been missing for a couple months. She talked about a secret Azimuth project that she referred to as Nemesis, designed to store a person's consciousness—namely, Caleb Wycherley's consciousness—electronically in the event of bodily death. While she lacked any evidence the project ever came to fruition before the disaster in HIP 22460, if it did, it meant Salvation could have survived the incident in some manner. Before they could get too much into the details of the tech, which I assume is Guardian-based, Seo's COVAS warned of a scan on her ship, after which she boosted away, giving Shangdi as her destination.
I hopped to Shangdi immediately and found debris field marked in my contacts panel. When I dropped in, I feared the worst. I was in my unarmed Krait Phantom, so if an Azimuth goon jumped me, there was no way I could defend myself. But nobody was around. I scanned the comms beacon in the debris field and found some text logs from the ships, presumably Azimuth, that had come after her. She gate crashed a wedding and escaped in the chaos. Smart. But the assailants had wake scanners enough among them to get system headings for the high wake signatures.
I checked each of the four systems and found a large debris field in the Ankaa system. When I dropped in, it computer told me the security link was unresponsive and system security would be unavailable. I kept my head on a swivel for enemy ships, but when nothing happened I turned my attention back to the task at hand. My heart sank as I flew around the debris field, searching for signs of what might have happened. There was enough wreckage for it to have come from multiple ships, so I thought, at least she put up a fight. Azimuth wants her alive, but I think she knows this and would rather die fighting than eject and go back to them, considering what they did to her.
I checked my contacts panel to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and I found another comms beacon amongst the wreckage. I scanned it and read the garbled fragment of the message. It was too degraded for the computer to transcribe accurately, but I think it speaks for itself.
The message title is "E-*ENGHY.....6E...88-#@". The message contents are, "W4HHATIN TH@ EFUU9....##'.'@%%AT".
I searched the galaxy map for "enghy" and came up dry. I thought that was the end of the trail. Well, it kind of is, actually. Nobody knows where she is. But I doubt this message was from her ship. More likely, someone—or something—dropped in on the operation. The message is a clear "WHAT IN THE F**K IS THAT." The simplest explanation is a Thargoid interceptor. There was no green fog, but I've seen another CMDR say there was a Thargoid sensor amongst the debris, which is something I completely missed.
I have only one conclusion. Seo Jin-ae is alive, and she is in Thargoid custody. If there is a path to peace, she is the key. But only time will tell. There is no good way to look at this situation. God help that poor woman. And God save us all.
I hopped to Shangdi immediately and found debris field marked in my contacts panel. When I dropped in, I feared the worst. I was in my unarmed Krait Phantom, so if an Azimuth goon jumped me, there was no way I could defend myself. But nobody was around. I scanned the comms beacon in the debris field and found some text logs from the ships, presumably Azimuth, that had come after her. She gate crashed a wedding and escaped in the chaos. Smart. But the assailants had wake scanners enough among them to get system headings for the high wake signatures.
I checked each of the four systems and found a large debris field in the Ankaa system. When I dropped in, it computer told me the security link was unresponsive and system security would be unavailable. I kept my head on a swivel for enemy ships, but when nothing happened I turned my attention back to the task at hand. My heart sank as I flew around the debris field, searching for signs of what might have happened. There was enough wreckage for it to have come from multiple ships, so I thought, at least she put up a fight. Azimuth wants her alive, but I think she knows this and would rather die fighting than eject and go back to them, considering what they did to her.
I checked my contacts panel to make sure I wasn't missing anything, and I found another comms beacon amongst the wreckage. I scanned it and read the garbled fragment of the message. It was too degraded for the computer to transcribe accurately, but I think it speaks for itself.
The message title is "E-*ENGHY.....6E...88-#@". The message contents are, "W4HHATIN TH@ EFUU9....##'.'@%%AT".
I searched the galaxy map for "enghy" and came up dry. I thought that was the end of the trail. Well, it kind of is, actually. Nobody knows where she is. But I doubt this message was from her ship. More likely, someone—or something—dropped in on the operation. The message is a clear "WHAT IN THE F**K IS THAT." The simplest explanation is a Thargoid interceptor. There was no green fog, but I've seen another CMDR say there was a Thargoid sensor amongst the debris, which is something I completely missed.
I have only one conclusion. Seo Jin-ae is alive, and she is in Thargoid custody. If there is a path to peace, she is the key. But only time will tell. There is no good way to look at this situation. God help that poor woman. And God save us all.