Shibboleth

> **Precepteur University, Restricted Archives**, *Entry Rxeno-73686962626f6c657468*
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> Surviving records tell of horrible creatures of literally indescribable shapes, the Shibboleth are a pervasive threat to human space, yet their strange psychic aura renders them all but impossible to uncover by any save specially prepared investigators.
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> Researchers are unable to find a single unified body form for Shibboleths. “Clipped” researchers immune to the psychic aversion field exuded by the Shibboleth have reported hundreds of different shapes, ranging from chitinous horrors to masses of rank fur and tentacles. Were it not for their mutual aversion field generation, it would be impossible to place them as the same species.
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> The true purpose of the Shibboleth remains unclear. The Clipped report that Shibboleth infestations are rare, but they can grow overwhelming on isolated worlds that lack Clipped protectors, or those with defenses that have been overcome by Shibboleth attacks.
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The Shibboleth are mysterious creatures who are able to influence other humans to ignore and/or rationalize away their presence. They appear to prey on human worlds and selectively experiment on them. Shibboleth infestations usually are connected with the appearance of dozens or hundreds of humanoid biogelled drones, which mimic humans but sometimes exhibit odd social behavior. Some Clipped refer to these drones as ghouls. Mature Shibboleth are able to conceal their presence and control their ghouls quite well. Young Shibboleth lack discretion and usually instigate several violent acts in the local population as they settle in.

Where Shibboleth come from, and what, if any, concerted goal they have, is still unknown.

The surgery procedure to "Clip" results in very similar brain damage such as experienced by psychics when they torch.

## *Arcadia* Encounters with the Shibboleth

### Season One

The *Arcadia* unknowingly encountered a young dormant Shibboleth during their investigation of the Argus *Earnest Living* shipwreck on Anita during episode 101. When Captain Eleanora, after having torched, later reviewed the video logs of the shipwreck interior she was able to see green resin all over the ship that the crew did not notice at the time. Inside the wrecked cargo bay, a nearly awakened Shibboleth, a huddled mass of incandescent chitin and tentacles, sat morosely as Tempest rummaged around it, picking up some tungsten alloy bars to sell. As Tempest turned and left, its tentacles started to belatedly twitch toward him.

The ship's log and personal data the Arcadia recovered provided the Alliance High Command the first clues in 15 years as to where the root the Liberal 8 and the Minguet infestation may have begun, in the cavern city of Lihu.

Eleanora's psychic sifting of the Psylencer medic Gaur revealed that the nearly Russian mining outpost on Anita was apparently infested after they investigated and salvaged the shipwreck. Yanka was the sole survivor of that facility, having journeyed with the Rafan free merchant supporting the mining outpost to the Osario Belt. His sales-and-supply run ended up bringing the Shibboleth to Plymouth Rock in Episode 107, resulting in the mayhem and temporary quarantine. His ship was destroyed while attempting to break the quarantine.

During that quarantine, the crew encountered several ghouls and had to fight their way past them to reach the safety of the *Arcadia*. The Psylencer red squad team arrived at the end of episode 108 and quickly put down the infestation, killing the young Shibboleth and its ghouls. The assistance of the *Arcadia* in providing its sensor logs to the Cobalt Navy and Psylencers during the quarantine was not unnoticed, and when High Command decided to act on the Lihu intelligence the *Arcadia* was chosen for as the civilian transport for the Psylencer squad.

The season finale three-part episode covers the adventures of the *Arcadia* crew in the cavern city of Lihu. The Psylencers objective, not known to the crew, was to locate and (if possible) destroy the Shibboleth. As some crew members flee the white-clad White Guard after refusing to surrender, they discovered that the White Guard were in fact drones. Lihu must have had over a hundred thousand drones, if most of the White Guard were Shibboleth controlled. After the crew returned to the *Arcadia* and prepared to depart while under fire, the Psylencer team abruptly teleported into the ship's cargo bay bringing along 17 freed prisoners. These prisoners were family members of the Founders, and had been imprisoned for 7 years.

Upon mindlinking with Gaur and learning the intent of their mission, Captain Eleanora Raleigh agreed to vector the *Arcadia* further into the cavern city to strike the temple where the Shibboleth resided. While taking fire from TL4 flak batteries and ineffective surface-to-air TL3 missiles, the *Arcadia* blasted the hidden temple off of its cavern roof mounting, wrecking both it and the white Divine Chosen temple below. The heavily damaged Arcadia fired a final shot into the wreckage at the emerging wounded 30 meter tall "mother" Shibboleth, killing it.

It became apparent, after discussing with the surviving prisoners, that the Founders had worked in concert with the Shibboleth when they seized power 15 years ago, using the White Guard to quickly overwhelm and seize control. But the nature of this relationship changed, as the Shibboleth eventually seized and imprisoned the family members to control the Founders.

The true extent of the infestation on Minguet is not yet clear to the Cobalt Alliance, nor is the effects of killing the mother Shibboleth on the planet.

### Season Three

While docked at Platon's Stone during episode 307, Vladimir made a concentrated batch of Fractal Red. Tempest had discovered it sometimes provided a psychic boost. When Tempest tried this concentrated drug, he accidently overdosed. During his hallucinations, he saw many terrible, indescribable shapes looming around him. It was not until many months later, when Tempest saw a Shibboleth after having torched, that he recognized the shapes from his hallucinations. The link between the drug-induced hallucinations and the Shibboleth is unclear.

### Season Five

Sadaf's quest for the greatest sword in the galaxy led her to the Precepteur Archives on Argus, where she recovered its accompanying dimensional shield and later tracked down the dimensional blade. Both were discovered a hundred years before by another exploring vessel, the *Aurora*, possibly recovered from Katla. After having used the sword and shield for some time, it is clear the pair have "bonded" to Sadaf, accentuating their special abilities.

In episode 507, as Chel and *Arcadia* prepared for her impossible slipstream jump across the Cygnus Wall Nebula from Katla to Osario, an unexpectedly odd murder occurred on the accompanying *Liberty*. Tempest and Sadaf locked down the other vessel and boarded, hunting down a quite young Shibboleth and killing it. Tempest could see it easily, having torched, but the warrior Sadaf was surprised when her blade shimmered and hummed. She was also able to see the Shibboleth, although it appeared as a smokey outlined form to her. After its death, Sadaf's blade behaved normally.

In reviewing the *Liberty's* security cams, they were able to ascertain that it literally fell out of the air into a corridor several hours prior. It corresponded with a superpositioning of the odd gravimetric waves resonating throughout the Katla system, suggesting that those waves associated with the slipstream dimension influenced the appearance of the Shibboleth. The *Arcadia* and *Liberty* were able to maneuver and avoid such wave overlaps during the remainder of their short stay in Katla, and no other Shibboleth were encountered. Bisturi was not able to see the Shibboleth, suggesting the aversion field affects quantum AIs as well.

With this, it is worth noting that Shibboleth have appeared on Minguet, Osario, and Katla over the last several decades. All systems that border the Cygnus Wall Nebula.

Bisturi is able to recover some fragments from the Terran Empire's navy wreckage in Katla. The sector's squadron had tracked down the psychic distortion waves originating from Katla. Upon jumping into the Katla system, Shibboleth began to infest the squadron and within a few hours the Scream occurred -- driving the psychics on the ships mad. It appears no ship or crew survived.

### Season Six

In Episode 605, the crew of the *Arcadia* encountered a ghoul army attacking the stone-age villagers on the inhabited moon Freydis. The ghouls were observed kidnapping some villagers and stealing them away from the battle on the outskirts of the village. The crew identified that a few select, taller ghouls appeared to be coordinating the army. Finally, Sadaf encountered a Shibboleth that the crew quickly dispatched.

In Episode 606, an AI named Fantasma working with the AI Almirante discussed the Barrasa Pact's plan to eliminate psychics and prevent the next Scream. The crew of the *Arcadia* offered an alternative theory... that perhaps the Scream was something orchestrated in an attempt to stop the Shibboleth. Given the unique artifacts found originating from Katla, Fantasma found some credence to this theory.

In Episode 608, the crew finds that the Freydis Shibboleth appear to be working with Simmone -- an escaped crazed psychic from the Liberal 8 on Minquet. Simmone was the warden working with the Shibboleth there, and apparently had found some way to spawn dozens of Shibboleth and thousands of ghouls within a year. After defeating Simmone, Tempest finds the ring the mad psychic was using. It is of the same metal as Sadaf's artifacts. Tempest finds it appears to offer some boost to his psychic abilities, but also results in frequent nightmares and loss of psychic effort and system strain. He gets around this by only wearing the ring during waking hours.

In Episode 609, Governor DeWitt of Minguet recognizes the artifacts the crew has and notes their similarity with the harp that the Pimental psychic academy has moved to Minguet. Chel plays this harp and the crew realizes it appears to cancel the Shibboleth mental dampening field! All across the planet, suddenly the populace can see the 24 Shibboleth that still remained. Sadaf leads a team hunting down several. Tempest realizes the ring can also be used to sense the direction and rough distance of any of the alien artifacts.

In Episode 612, as the Cobalt naval task force jumps across the Cygnus Wall Nebula, they realize that the Shibboleth also can materialize with the use of psychic powers in this part of the sector. As the Cobalt task force arrives in Katla, a massive fleet engagement begins against the Rafans. Large numbers of Shibboleth begin to appear on all of the ships -- held at bay on the Cobalt ships by the harp.

In Episode 614, the *Arcadia* meets with the defeated crew of the *Coronado* and receives the last two alien artifacts, the crown and the hammer. The crew realizes that the increasing intensity and frequency of gravimetric waves in this system are culminating in the pattern that Fantasma warned about -- it appears another Scream is eminent within a day's time. The crew makes their way to the ocean world in Katla were the *Aurora* originally found the artifacts. There the artifacts allow them to interface with an alien AI that runs the ancient alien defense grid designed and built to kill the Shibboleth. But they did not build it right. Sadaf and Chel hold off spawning Shibboleth for hours while Vladimir, Tempest, and Bisturi attempt to reprogram the alien AI. They manage, in the nick of time, to succeed in correctly targeting Shibboleth and leaving psychics, quantum AI, and slipstream drives alone.