Starry Day

Autochtonia

Copernicus Research Station

Nicole Taylor

Doctor Cormac

`*Our database contains limited intel on this mission. If you were assigned to this mission, please deliver your report to your supervisor, and report to room 101 for a friendly briefing on the importance of timely mission reports.*`

This mission takes the team to outer space - a first for most of the team. Gaining access to their own ship - the TUS Resilience - their missions is threefold:

* Broker a ceasefire with the Sons of Ether at Victoria Station
* Meet with Iteration X to smooth over relations after the events of The Pogrom
* Head over to the Cop for some PR and assorted tasks

Meanwhile, to further educate the team, each member personally gets a secondary assignment, with the objective to keep that mission hidden from the rest of the team.

## Part 1: Victoria Station

### Mission Report, Nicole Taylor

 CLASSIFIED TU RESTRICTED

 Mission Report, Diplomatic mission to Victoria Station and associated investigation [ACMR20150101-T-A]

Investigator Nicole Taylor, Void Engineers, NSC, Antwerp Construct

### 0. PREAMBLE

This mission took place at $DATE. As part of a larger mission, we were to head to Victora Station, a Sons of Ether base, to establish a temporary cease-fire.

### 1. BACKGROUND

As part of the Traditions, the relationship with the Sons of Ether is fairly hostile, although with no open hostilities lately. Meanwhile, intelligence indicates that there is a major operation incoming soon, which makes it undesirable for future hostilities to erupt. To that end, we were to go to Victoria Station under the guise of diplomacy, to broker a temporary peace of a year or so.

For reasons of operational security, it was desirable to give out as little information on the upcoming events as possible, although that meant walking a fine line between not divulging information while making the temporary peace palatable to them - with as little concessions as needed from us.

As a token of goodwill, a shipment of high-quality coffee was procured. Additionally, we were granted the use of a ship, the TUS Resilience (comparable to a Qui la Machinae, but of peculiar design). A fighter escort was also arranged.

### 2. SYNOPSIS

Mission succesfully completed. A temporary peace of one year was brokered, without major concessions required. As a bitter secondary point, the loss of all Icarus station personnel was noted during this mission (although not as a direct result thereof).

### 3. DETAILED MISSION TRANSCRIPT

#### 3.1 Initial reception and introductions

After being granted docking permission and docking, we were cordially, but coolly greeted by station personnel, which escorted us to a circular meeting room. No Etherite representatives were present, although cigars and whiskey was served to us. The room was stocked with copies of the Sons of Ether journal, Paradigma.

After a short while, we were greeted by Sons of Ether dignitaries. The main dignitaries present were:

 \* Alexei Hastings

 \* Dr Victor

 \* Commander Verne

 \* Helena Wells

Pleasantries were exchanged, as well as mutual gifts - we were all given a copy of the Kitab al-Alacir.

#### 3.2 First meeting

A full transcript of the meeting is beyond the scope of this report; I will stick to the broad strokes here.

Operative Duvalle presented documents empowering us to speak on behalf of the Technocracy, on request of credentials. In the discussion that followed, although they had no objections in principle, the Sons of Ether pressed us for our reason for requesting a temporary peace. Agent Jane offered the pretext that there was some degree of internal strife within the Union; according to her, we needed some time to settle such matters. Feeling such a story may lead to the opposite effect (as a view of a disorganized union, however incorrect, may invite the Sons of Ether to attempt to exploit it), I quickly corrected her, and stated the real reason; we were in preperation for a large operation against enemies that pose a serious threat to humanity, including the Sons of Ether. That argument appeared satisfactory, and I was thankfully not pressed for further detail.

However, the Sons of Ether did have a serious issue in that the day before, the Icarus Moon Base opened fire on Victoria station. While damage was apparently minimal, they did feel that such an attack just before a peace negotiation showed bad faith, and pressed us for an explanation. We had none - after looking up the logs, there was no attack on Victoria station logged at all that day.

The Sons of Ether then refused to sign off on any treaty until that issue was dealth with, and requested that we go there and deal with it. We told them we would look in to the issue (without making any direct commitment, as we did not yet know the reason for the weapons fire).

#### 3.3 Investigation of Icarus Moon Base

As Icarus Moon Base was not responding to any communication, we took the TUS Resilience and headed there. When we got close, however, the base's defense platforms opened fire on our ships. The first shots were evaded by evasive maneuvres; afterwards, I managed to deduce the platforms' firing pattern and calculated a route to counter it. This bought Engineer Salisbury ample time to disable the platforms.

Setting down some distance away, we suited up to head to the base on foot. There was no response from Icarus, either on comms or by action. After arriving, we performed various scans on the base; most importantly, Doctor Cormac did a scan on life signs. He managed to get an excellent scan, revealing no humans alive, but instead finding that the base was infected with the Ebola disease. All but one of the listed personnel were recovered, dead, with no trace of the last.

To sterilize the base, it was decided to vent the atmosphere of the base; this was done by Operative Duvalle gaining access to the base's computer systems. This also allowed access to the station's logs, including camera. As it turns out, as his last action, one of the scientists on board activated the automated defense systems, setting it to fire on any target not positively identified as friendly. Victoria Station, some time later, passed within weapons distance.

I contacted the PDC, notified them of our findings, and handed the further handling of the situation off to them.

#### 3.4 Preceeding with negotiations

After informing Victoria Station of our findings remotely, we headed back to the station to deliver proof and to proceed with negotiations. They were satisfied with the answers we provided. In the resulting talks, we managed to broker a peace for a time of one year, without any serious concessions. For full details I must refer to the official document.

Afterwards, we were invited to stay for some time to further diplomatic contact.

### 4. CONCLUSIONS

#### 4.1 Primary mission outcome

Mission Success. The peace negotiations were completed, with a favorable outcome.

#### 4.2 Icarus Moon Base

The fate of Icarus Moon Base and its operators is unfortunate. Further handling of the cleanup, and finding the source of the infection, is up to the PDC. However, the infection happened prior to our involvement; as part of this mission, the handling of the situation was a success.

#### 4.3 Thoughts on Sons of Ether interaction

The Sons of Ether on the station behaved much as expected. Their primary paradigm is still close to that of the Technocracy; however, over time it has shifted considerably towards a traditionalist view. Many are still somewhat sympathetic to the Union, although a lot of bad blood exists. No specific potential recruits were identified this mission, although there is clearly still a lot of opportunity there.

Conversely, compared to other traditions, the Sons of Ether may appear more appealing to some impressionable Union personnel, and care should be given to those send out to them. The Etherites' quick acceptance of Technocratic procedures and devices make defections all the more dangerous.

#### 4.4 Casualties and material losses

Icarus' automated defense platforms were damaged as a result of the mission. The loss of Icarus Moon Base personnel was noted, but not caused, during this mission. Standard fuel and armament expenditures as noted in the ship's logs.

### ADDENDUM [ACMR20150101-T-A-a]

 CLASSIFIED TOP SECRET CODE WORD VOID SPEAR

 Several sensitive facts were left out of the official mission report filed. Specifically:

### 1. Catherine Nichols

 One of the unnamed "Sons of Ether" present was Catherine Nichols, ex-Void Engineer. As it turns out, she went to the Sons of Ether to find sanctuary against "Technocracy" attacks on her. When pressed for details, she described the cyborg encounterd by the team with Henry Lemaire, as well as Henry Lemaire himself. Since she described multiple such attackers, it's quite possible that these were clones of some kind. Finding these agents, in multiple, actively attacking Technocracy personell is obviously highly disturbing.

 Nichols were informed that these were not members of the Technocracy - at least not anymore - and that it would be best for her to return to the union. For security concerns, however, I could not offer details. As of this writing I have not received further response.

### 2. Engineer Texado

 The identity of the last, missing engineer on the Icarus station was one miss Texado. This is the third agent of that name we encountered, and the third to be linked to highly disturbing events. While no evidence exists, that, combined with here disappearence, makes it likely that she had a hand in the events at Icarus. That means that these agents are operating far outside of the confines of the Antwerp area.

## Part 2: Autochtonia

The team headed to Autochtonia, where they were promptly ordered by sergeant Ripper, whom they had met before in The Pogrom, to head to the deep levels of Autochtonia to get rid of an infestation, to "repay" Iteration X for the insults during the earlier missions. Any use of Dimensional Science was strictly forbidden.

Heading down, the team found a large, dangerous EDE, which they promptly executed (sustaining minor injuries during the process). Heading back, they were send back on their way with minimal interaction.

## Part 3: Copernicus Research Station

The assignment on Copernicus was mainly one of PR, assisting with recruitment efforts. Additionally, the team could get acquainted with one of the Void Engineers' main bases in Deep Space.