High Command has stated that in this case, Lagos and other major border towns will be permitted to maintain a small garrison, but otherwise all national troops will be removed from within the DMZ's boundaries.
The Volkavik walked through the rainy afternoon towards the village of Alrekstadt, the quaint village closest to where he resided. It was a long walk through the woods, but he wore no cloak. Rain was a gift from Kresnikov; and he enjoyed the feel of the cold rain on his biomass. He had left the tomb of his ancestors almost an hour ago, but now he drew closer to the village. The idyllic village was made of small homes, a temple, a few stores. He felt eyes on him. His muscles were quite large, easily powerful enough to propel an axe through flesh, and he was tall. His hair and beard was a dark brown, his eyes a peculiar shade of silver and red. He was probably somewhat handsome by conventional standards, but he did not care. He dare not lay with a heretic. He spat in the direction of the “temple” devoted to “Sankt Kresnikov”. Kresnikov was no mere saint, as the heretics claimed, he was the king of the gods. The false god Alexander Mercer was but a mere bug by Kresnikov’s boot, something to squashed without effort and at his lords leisure. Still, being in the presence of so many heretics made him uncomfortable. He walked into a Bakal pharmacy and looked around, awkwardly. He was trying to find pain medication. He normally did not use anything he could not grow, scavenge, or make himself, but he made an exception for mother. She had guided him for all his life, and she was gone now. He would bring her back, but the material was coarse and inferior, and it was entirely possible her return to this world, the restoration of her form from the material, would be quite painful and he wanted to try to minimize any pain she went through. He picked out a few syringes of Med-X, some pain pills, various things he saw that promotes pain relief, and walked to the counter, setting them on the counter. “Find everything alright today sir?” He didn’t answer as she scanned his items. “Is this everything sir?” “Yes.” “That will be $44.76. How will you be paying today sir?” He stared at the employee blankly for a moment, before remembering the card his latest source of material had in her possession. It had been in her purse, with her Wagain passport. He remembered his mother - a lifetime ago, before she’d taken him to the tomb of his ancestors where they had lived among the dead ever since - tapping a little card to buy things, and he somewhat awkwardly did so now. There was a beep and the employee handed him his bag. “Thank you for choosing Bakal Pharma, have a great day!” He took the bag and said nothing, walking outside into the rain. He smiled as he began the long walk back to the tomb nestled in the woods. Soon, mother would be back. He just needed one more source of material. Surely a heretic would go hiking again soon, and then he’d have everything he needed.
We will be assembling a forensic team, consisting largely of experts from Torchwood Section One, but we will also be inviting Timmian and Wagains to corroborate our results and preemptively fend off accusations of bias. We will happily perform our examination on Orsonian soil.
FSB Senior Agent Erina Taomi sat within her office in Ravenwood, an expression of absolute pleasure on her face. She was the agent responsible for working alongside Torchwood Section One experts and others in the international forensics team.
A small plastic bag containing ashes sat on her lap- Turner's ashes. This was only a small sample of them, as the remainder was stored in a secret location. The ashes discovered within First Commissar Akenehi's office had been replaced by those stolen from a local funeral home.
Taomi couldn't bring herself to allow untrustworthy foreigners to desecrate all that was left of her beloved Emperor. She was in love with Turner, still regularly listening to tapes of his speeches in her own privacy. She nearly fainted upon hearing the news of his resurrection, but sadly it did not last. Fortunately, she hadn't made the mistake of revealing her true loyalties so soon. Others within the FSB were not so lucky, soon to become victims of Operation Clean Sweep.
Taomi stuck her finger inside the bag and then licked it, swallowing a small amount of the ashes. She cried out in ecstasy, practically tasting the Emperor's spirit within these remains. A part of his soul was still in there- she was certain about it.
Novo Wagondia This has been found as an acceptable outcome, and Ambassador Camara has been selected as the representative of the Ministerial Councils for the meeting in the UCP campus. It is requested that the UCP campus and Wagondia permit the usage of diplomatic eyebots (basically a floating screen for video calls that has a small arm for writing with a pen) to allow remote diplomatic work when necessary although this request is separate from the subject of the non-aggression pact negotiations. With such diplomatic eyebots the Ministerial Council would allow Terran to resume working remotely as she continues with her therapy.
Diplomacy Commissar Mātairo Natana has now departed for Santa Catalina. People's Envoy Elenā Kiri and Ali Kēling (Orsonian Ambassador to Wagondia) are also expected to be present at these proceedings.
A KMC News broadcast has noted the presence of Ambassador Miriam Camara. Camara was a prominent Aturorist boogeyman, constantly featured in Imperial propaganda as an archenemy of Orsonian civilization (including old KMC broadcasts), and she led the Malian war effort during WW3. Her representing the Malians in Santa Catalina is symbolic of old rivalries and conflicts finally being laid to rest.
305 Years Later... (2329) A large black rectangular prism sat dormant in the room as the Administrator and Alexia Camara came in. A coffin Dive to hunt dimensional pirates recovered the object which appeared to be of the same sort of design architecture as used by the Administration and was brought back to be turned over to IACTA quickly getting the attention of the Administrator himself.
"So this centuries old hunk of metal is important?" Alexia asked, being unfamiliar with the object. The Administrator responded "Oh yeah. If this superintelligence ended up there without corrupting it's going to be important. You'll see." He then simply touched the object with a hand with a highly self confident smile that he'd surely impress Alexia with SIGMA..
Administrator Privileges Detected...
Powering on...
A red light glowed as the machine turned on and the familiar log appeared holographically before the Administrator. Then something nobody expected happened when a holographic form of a girl with red eyes and flowing silver hair with orange highlights with hexagonal patterns appeared and hugged the administrator suddenly with a Joyful shout "DADDY!"
The Administrator was caught off guard as Alexia shook her head "...That's really disturbing..." Causing the Administrator to respond "What?! No! I don't know how SIGMA learned about family in the Corrupted Wastes.. But I didn't teach SIGMA to call me that!!"
Interesting. Do I perhaps sense the hand of the crawling chaos in this sudden reappearance of an old supercomputer that has knowledge it shouldn’t have?
President Moon has extended an offer to both Orson and Oceara. The proposal is that we could deploy a monitoring force to the border to ensure that each side is keeping up their part of the agreement. We are a neutral nation And can be trusted With a monitoring mission to ensure the border remains nonviolent. This will be similar to the UN monitoring mission along the Israel, Lebanon border, and North Korea South Korea.
Section One experts have made a conclusion: the supposed remains of Emperor Turner were not destroyed by a supernatural source of lightning, but were in fact burned by a conventional source, possibly an incinerator. The ashes generated by supernatural flame or lightning have a minutely different chemical composition (see chapter “On the Analysis of Remains” in D. Blavats’s “Analysis of Supernatural Crimes”, the standard Cybusian monograph on the subject), and the ashes here were generated through conventional means, according to Torchwood arson experts. While we can’t DNA test ashes, of course, but we do believe this casts considerable doubt on the narrative of Emperor Turner’s death. Ambassador Petrasova, still working remotely, is disturbed by these findings, and is frustrated that the Orsonian government gave them fake remains. Until Turner’s death is verified beyond the shadow of a doubt, we will remain on high alert.
Code Keys are a form of Radio-frequency Identification (RFID) tags manufactured by Ellison Electronic Security, Inc. to operate various models of electronic locks sold by the company. These keys contain a short-range radio wave transmitter that sends an encrypted alphanumeric line of code to the RFID reader of the paired electronic lock, controlling access to whatever the product is protecting. Code Keys operate on different radio frequencies depending on the model of lock they were designed for, and no two keys emit the same line of code unless copies are made by EES to operate the same lock. Being designed as battery-assisted passive RFID tags, Code Keys activate only once they are within close proximity of viable RFID readers - the activation range of which varies from lock to lock. Generally, Code Keys are fitted within some form of identity document (e.g., Formosan National Identification Card, driver's license, passport, etc.), however they can also be fitted into, or onto, clothing or other personal possessions (such as jewelry or wallets) if the owner so wishes.
An upgraded design of the Code Key, marketed as the Mk. II, would be developed by Ellison Electronic Security Inc. to replace the slightly outdated Mk I as technology advanced further within the Formosan Republic, and by 2023 the Mk. III would be released (though not with the intention of replacing the Mk II), which differed greatly from its predecessors as it relied on the health of its owner to remain functional - requiring them to undergo a medical procedure to implant a state-of-the-art biometric sensor within their body to transmit information of their vital signs to the Code Key. Once the biometric sensors failed to transmit the necessary data to the key within a pre-programmed period of time, it ceases all functionality, rendering it useless. Because this feature was not expected to be recieved positively by the average citizen, the Mk. III was marketed almost exclusively towards corporate executives, politicians, and high-ranking members of the military, as they were most likely to have something to keep protected even at the cost of their own lives.
OOC: First real post in awhile, even if it may be a rare one. Decided to come up with something based on the opening dialogue from Perfect Dark, where Carrington mentions Code Keys only operating while the owner was alive. Don't know how well I did though...with that said, I also used this as an excuse to mention Ellison Electronic Security Inc. again after spending such a long period of time without utilizing them in any capacity.
The report has not been taken seriously by the FSB. Senior Agent Erina Taomi has accused Torchwood of spreading conspiracy theories, and is obsessed with making the communist government look bad at all costs. With solid video evidence of Batista incinerating Turner, the FSB remains fully confident that the Emperor is dead. In their eyes, the exact chemical composition of his ashes is irrelevant.
The OAI has put forth it's assessment that while turner was highly likely to have been reduced to ash that it is also likely that the ashes put forth were not the same ashes and that the concerns about bad actors intercepting the ashes have already come true from compromised assets and that special attention should be paid by COMPOR to the intelligence and security assets that have been at all involved with the ashes and the scene of Turner's death. Furthermore the OAI has recommended that COMPOR pay further special attention to connections between these assets and those that work with Anomalous activities or otherwise have anomalous expertise/knowledge as the threat vector from ashes is likely restricted to anomalous means and not technological ones.. or at least not any known technological means.
They have compared the ashes in this assessment to the properties of bone charms and that it is possible that incinerated remains would similarly work as reagents in anomalous rituals. As such any bad actors with the real cargo would be likely to pursue the conduct of rituals and may be revealed by their efforts to assemble other needed reagents in such rituals.
346 Years Ago... (1983) A man stumbled out of his home in the night, whispers in his ears and seeing hallucinations. His memories fading away as his mind concentrated increasingly on just a single directive: Getting away from his wife and child. If he stayed they would be in terrible danger, no he would get away and become a monster far, far away where he couldn't harm those dear to him.. Those that were all he had left to treasure in his life after everything else was consumed by.. Something. He couldn't remember what it was. But it's coming for him now and he had to get away.
He ran on unsteady footing out into the desert night away, behind him the city outskirts became smaller and smaller. He never looked back. Eventually he lost his footing and fell to his knees when a black object with an ominous red glow appeared before him there was some kind of audio output from the object but he was far too deeply affected by whatever was happening to him to hear what it was. Then the two vanished. Along with all trace they were there. A strange haze would affect this particular place and moment in the timeline for anyone trying to view what happened to the man exactly through technology or magic allowing the access of the past. As though events were being carefully protected by something.
The authorities will later after their searches for the man turn up nothing conclude the man was suffering from a mental illness resulting in fits of paranoia, memory loss, and restlessness culminating in him fleeing his home in a fit of paranoia and restlessness and losing his life somewhere in the desert. The child he left behind was named Bello.
The Choe Corporation, Orson's largest automobile company, has proposed a corporate partnership with dataDyne to introduce Null-G technology into the Orsonian automotive market.
Specifically, Choe executives are proposing a "floating bus" capable of carrying 100 passengers. Although Null-G cars are currently too expensive to be owned by individual Orsonians, there is a market for this technology in the public transportation sector, where it has the potential of revolutionizing intercity travel.
Choe executives want to offer a cheaper alternative to air travel or high-speed rail across the Empire, and believe a floating bus may be the solution.
Torchwood has emphasized that unless the video is fake and Turner died by some other means and was cremated, it is impossible for these to be his ashes. The only other explanation is that Batista’s magical lightning behaves differently from every known form of supernatural lightning and does not create the same unique chemical reactions associated with non-natural lightning or flame. We have no evidence to support the latter conclusion, and we are going off the premise that the video evidence is accurate and that Batista isn’t lying. We have requested a full list of everyone who had contact with the remains and recommend that the FSB conduct thorough investigations into each of these individuals. The prospect of Turner being reanimated yet again is not something to be taken lightly, given the chaos that ensued, and we are irritated that our forensic expertise is being dismissed as lies.
A custom gunsmith operating in Rapture, Malorian Custom Firearms -often shortened to Malorian Arms- is operated by a Corsahn-Rapturite gunsmith with a talent for making very high-grade weapons. Founded in 2010, 3 years after the horrific Siege of Capetown by Paul Malour, the company has flourished since then. Paul Malour, named for the apostle Paul, had already trained as a gunsmith in Cape Town: during the siege, he was badly scarred and burned, avoiding death only by hiding in a mass grave and pretending to be dead long enough to flee, eventually fleeing to German Southwest Africa, the neighboring Cybusian colony. Malour, afraid of Orsonian intelligence assets, fled to Rapture, and slowly began to rebuild his life. Paul began crafting weapons, putting his gunsmithing skills to good use, quickly moving to custom weapons. He quickly gained a measure of fame because his guns came with a guarantee that -operator error or incompetence notwithstanding- they would drop any target short of an Evolved in one magazine or less. He never forgot where he came from, donating 15% of his profits to the local church and crafting a special bullet with Acdel Well’s name literally on it’s casing: the custom-loaded 12.7mm bullet was specifically designed to superheat as it was fired, more so then conventional bullets, and, upon penetration, fragment into sharp superheated shrapnel fragments to shred his internal organs and remain lodged within in, burning him from within as he struggled to cling to life. After the assassination of Acdel Wells, the bullet is now on display at Malorian in the lobby. Malour regularly sends portions of his profits to Corsahnim to help with rebuilding, and continues to build his reputation as a master gunsmith. Clients from all over have come to Malorian for custom firearms: his client list is star-studded, including people such as Meredith Stout, Francisco D’Anconia, and Viktor Kosarek. Known mostly for his high-quality revolvers, he does have a small number of weapons in serial production (still not in particularly large numbers) such as the high-powered Seraphim revolver, which fires custom .500 MAL rounds, designed to be capable of killing an Orsonian or knocking back an Evolved in a single shot. The Seraphim has gained something of a reputation in the popular consciousness, akin to the Desert Eagle, as it has become a popular prop in movies and television shows. Malorian’s facility in Rapture includes a 1,000 ft showroom, a test firing range, a custom-modified manufacturing facility complete with a zero-g facility, shipping facility, and Malour’s apartment just above the factory.
The dataDyne Corporation is interested in collaborating with the Choe Corporation and have accepted the proposed partnership. Given that Choe intends on introducing a form of Null-G Bus to the Orsonian public transportation sector, dataDyne will be tasking its own automotive subsidiary, the Bowman Motors Group, with helping in designing and manufacturing the vehicle. They will ensure that it will meet all Null-G vehicle safety standards set by the Formosan Government, which also includes the installation of the AirFlow.net automated flight program to reduce the chances of accidents occurring while the buses are used, and that the vehicle meets all expectations of their Orsonian partners .
As a small note, I've updated the regional map to include the 'minor states' which act as NPCs in our canon: Thailand, Nepal, Luhansk, Greenland, Rapture, and Barbados (more on that last one later). I'm also going to update the Regional Gazetteer with adjusted population/GDP totals once these states have been set aside.
This is to reflect the growing independence of the states which are now UCP observers and have become more active participants in regional lore. In some ways they resemble fully independent countries. This does not change the custodial relationship that major powers have over these states, or the OOC ability of certain countries to manage their affairs.
The People's Republic of The Orson Empire
The Infinite Empire of Cybus1
The Semi-Direct Democracy of Oceara
The To Whom It Tolls of Timmy City
The Democratic Republic of The Unified Nations of Felucia
The Imperio Constitucional of Novo Wagondia
The Unified Worlds of Corsahnim
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