New year's eve

New Year's eve. 

Bersirym will have to wait a bit - I've reported my findings back to officer Yazdegerd and promised him I would come back in the new year. 

I have returned to Mehatoor. The move of the library must take precedence at the moment. All seems to be packed, secured and ready to move. I do not have a lot of personal belongings but I do have a collection of artefacts in my hangar, the result of my first year's worth of exploration.

A new start is upon us. Not merely a new year, but a new home. My prayers and new year's wishes are for LUMEN and all its member to prosper. May the light of faith continue gaining terrain on the darkness, so help us God and Empress!

Blood Raider hidden outpost

I got the green light to track down the shuttle belonging to Boulette's organisation. There was an MIO raid on Boulette's hangars, but it did not yield any substantial proof, the place had been emptied. There were a few arrests "for impeding the MIO's operations". This means the guards of the hangar have been detained for serious questioning.

I undocked and waited for hours until the shuttle finally left Odra and appeared on my sensors. I didn't see where it took off from, I was not attentive enough during the long wait. I probed it down and followed it. It warped to what appears at first sight an abandoned mining station. Broken mining drills and equipment is scattered about, and there are still some precious ores in nearby asteroids. The mining station was built on one of the asteroids, and although the refinery part is clearly derelict, the landing pad and control tower were powered. Sensors also indicate the internal structure of the station, dug deep into the asteroid, is powered.

The shuttle docked at this outpost, and stayed there for about three hours, after it left again to Odra, making planetfall at the main spaceport of Odra Capital, rather than Boulette's private lauch pad.

Probably Boulette gets his materials from this outpost. But, I could not explore the "abandoned" outpost in more detail... I was not alone and was lucky that the Indigatrix was cloaked! A flotilla of Blood Raider ships patrols the outpost. I counted three battlecruisers and three destroyers. On the picture, you can see the outpost and a Blood Raider damnation class vessel in the foreground.

The Indigatrix, even if I would fit it for offense, is no match for this Blooder fleet. I need to ask for help from corp members. This help will not be easy to come by since LUMEN is again on the war path, dealing with the "Black Flag" pirates at the moment. Moreover it is in the middle of a move operation. And to make matters worse, Bersirym is in low-sec, and I've seen roaming gangs of "No Forks Given" hoodlums around...

A mission without a mission agent

The information they obtained from my murderer provided the Odra police inquisitors with the necessary missing pieces to connect the dots on their own surveillance of Boulette's gang. The gang has been the subject of surveillance for a long while before I showed up. Apparently, my appearance and subsequent murder has "stirred sh*t" as officer Yazdegerd formulates it. For better or for worse, the local authories feel they should make their move now.

Boulette controls a private shuttle landing pad in the industrial district of town, and his goods arrive by shuttle from an unknown off-planet location. The police inquisitors and the local MIO branch are still discussing who has the authority to set up a raid, and officer Yazdegerd thinks this bickering will give Boulette enough time to move all contraband away from his hangars.

Capturing the shuttle itself, that's another matter. Neither the local police, nor the local branch of the MIO has any jurisdiction off-planet. They also do not have space vessels in their fleet. Their interplanetary counterparts have been notified, but the matter is not high priority at the moment. Customs police that control the jump gates could confirm that the shuttle has not ever jumped out of system, but of course they cannot rule out that it uses wormholes.

Officer Yazdegerd agrees with me that this is typically a matter where capsuleers are contracted for help, and when I offered my help for free, he reluctantly agreed. He informed me of the shuttle's identification number. The Indigatrix's combat scan probes should have no problem locating and tracking a smuggler's shuttle given that it stays in-system. I was only asked to wait, to coordinate my actions with the raid on the ground.

An offer

Neither the shop manager nor Boulette are anywhere to be found - for the latter this seems to be normal. 

So, I decided to take initiative to meet the man.

I wrote a note and put it under the door of Tacky Parts. In my missive, I explain that I am just a simple friar and that I am not after his business whatever that might be. I only pursue academic knowledge, which ultimately benefits all of society, including monsieur Boulette himself, even if the returns are not immediately tangible. 

And, if contributing to historical research would not be enough of a reward to the man, I also kindly offered to take confessions and explained that this is necessary to get any chance of remission of his sins (after all, since he is Gallente, he might not know about the rite of confession). As a reference, I mentioned that I have had the honor of being confessor to the Duchess of the entire Fekhoya constellation, Lady Ithiria Deritan.

Officer Yazdegerd was not pleased with my initiative and forbade me to try and contact Boulette again. He did not explain to me why, as he was rather upset.

Thinking it through, I admit I should have provided another reference. Shortly after the confession, the Dutchess fell out of grace with King Farokh and vanished. I do not see how Boulette might think someone insignificant as myself can have anything to do with that. Boulette must be a very sensitive man and in the future I will refrain from writing him about powerful people that coincidentally vanished after I met them.

Indeed, I have not heard back from Boulette.

Boulette

The Tacky Parts shop is closed for now. A note on the door says the shop manager is on extended sick leave.  

I would have been stuck with investigating my death if it were not for the police inquisitor, officer Yazdegerd. He has been very helpful, and has taken me under his wings, allowing me to follow the investigation. 

The good man has heard of LUMEN and knows that it is a capsuleer alliance of "PIE and the other guys". He is a big fan of capsuleers and always plays LUMEN characters in some sort of hologame that is the current rage. I must remember to write a letter of commendation for him to his superiors.

Officer Yazdegerd explained to me the background of Boulette, the gangster who apparently corners the Takmahl biodrone and biofluids black market on Bersirym. He's a Gallente thug that started his career as a bouncer for a club frequented by notorious local Blooders. He took a bullet protecting one of these Blooders, and that got him noticed and earned him respect. With good connections for his supplies and the trust of the blood raiders, he became a local gangster boss.

He carries that bullet on a chain around his neck, and nicknamed himself "Bullet". When people take pride in talking about themselves as a third party object, you know something is amiss. Anyway, he was always a bulky man but after he became boss his muscles turned into fat. To make fun of that, and of his thick Gallentean accent, he is now called "Boulette" behind his back. It's a Gallentean word for "meatball". A gangster pun.

Seeing me dead

When I arrived back at Odra, my body had already been found. The dead body, I mean. I went to the police station to identify myself in the morgue. It is a very unsettling experience. 

They put the argicultural brochures and my "Udder Chaos" mug in a plastic bag next to me, but I wasn't allowed to take it back with me. It's evidence now for a murder case.

I've been shot!!

Unimaginable! Me, a cleric from the Empire, chaplain and librarian, the victim of cold-blooded murder? What manner of evil creature would do this and condemn their soul to the fiery pits of hell?

The police investigator told me it was Harry the Hulk.

He's a henchman working for a local gangster kingpin called Boulette. He shot me at point blank range in a dead-end alley close to the restaurant I was going to. He panicked when he realized that the man he shot was actually a capsuleer. He ran as fast as he could to collect his bug-out bag and get off planet. He was arrested using false papers at the spaceport, and after enhanced interrogation admitted the murder in exchange for protection.

He'd been ordered to take me out because had been showing too much interest in the source of the biodrone material at the Tacky Parts store. Apparently, it is common knowledge that the shop sells not only biodrone parts but also rare drugs based on Takmahl phrenic appendix fluids. There is too little hard evidence to prove the drug sales at the moment. Boulette feared I might be a scout for a competing gang trying to take over his market by going for his supply chain, and wanted to make a statement.

Rude awakening

This evening, I woke up in my backup clone, with no recollection of the past two days. At first it didn't dawn on me that I had lost two days, I thought something had gone wrong while making a backup clone in preparation for my trip to Bersyrim.

The technicians and medic explained to me that nothing had gone wrong, on the contrary, everything had worked perfectly, and I had been gone for two, almost three days. 

There can be only one conclusion: I have died.

I am glad I keep a logbook, it is proving its usefulness now to reconstruct the previous days. This led me to believe it must have been something I ate at this restaurant or pub I was going to, The Four Stomachs. I do react very badly to spicy food, but I've never died from it before.

I contacted the authorities on Odra and notified them of my death. 

I contacted the authorities on Odra a second time after they hung up on me the first time, thinking it was a prank. They don't deal with capsuleers often.

They had not received any reports of a dead capsuleer, but would look into it and send someone to my hotel. To be honest, I think I've only been dead for an hour or so. The officer got a bit nervous when I mentioned I was going to The Four Stomachs to dine with the store manager of Tacky Parts. Perhaps this restaurant has a reputation of kitchen hygiene problems that the police officer is not allowed to tell about due to privacy regulations. But they were going to look into that as well.

Meanwhile I think I'll take the interbus to go back there, the Indigatrix II is still docked in Bersyrim.

Sights of Odra Capital

Odra Capital is a city that grew slowly and sequentially and with very little planning. And so, it is a bit of a maze. I like to wander about in such cities, to get a sense of the place, and I don't mind getting pleasantly lost. 

I did get lost. 

I was searching for the implants market, instead I ended up at a trade fair for agricultural machinery and ditto vehicles. The connectors on my neck revealed to any onlooker that I was a capsuleer, and since we are known as rich folk, I attracted a crowd of salespeople. I should not have mentioned our yaks in Mehatoor station. They did not let me go after that. I've been shown the newest models of agribots for milking and dung cleanup. I witnessed a demonstration of how cheap cattle TCMCs can help with herding and also read out the status of the cattle. I was explained that herding drones can also do that, and are equipped with scanners to detect sick cattle. I've received more brochures than I could carry, as well as a coffee mug that says "Udder Chaos Milking Corp", two pens (one has a small flashlight) and a miniature 3D puzzle of a argibot.

I'll give this to Aria on my return.

After a morning spent learning about the latest in cattle tech, I was finally able to find the cyber implants market in the afternoon. I put the hood of my robe over my head so that I would not be immediately spotted as a capsuleer this time around. 

The implants market is situated in and around a large square hall with a high glass-paneled ceiling decorated with wrought iron flowers and foliage. There's a central plaza bordered by colonnades, like a cloister, but three levels tall. The walkways under the colonnades give access to the shops, while the central plaza is for the market, with stalls and merchants arguing loudly about the offer of the day. I was surprised to see that most traders and visitors were armed.

It did not take much time to locate the source of Takmahl biodrone salvage. There's an outlet store for them! It's called "Tacky Parts" and private clients can't buy there, it is where manufacturers of implants would get rare parts. After I made a generous donation to the store manager's pension fund, he took me aside and promised me he'd reveal the source of his valuable stock. He couldn't do it in the store, but he agreed to meet me tonight, alone, in a pub called "The Four Stomachs".

I dread there will be more cattle stories.

Bersyrim

Preparations for the move are now at full speed in Mehatoor. Many of the most precious items have been packed, and my instructions are being followed very professionally by the moving team. I even feel I'm standing a bit in the way.

There's not much to do in Nasreri yet, luckily the volatile ice storm there is subsiding somewhat. I'm not sure what this kind of space weather does to books, and must talk to the haulers to install additional armor plate on their ships.

Feeling a bit restless, I decided to leave for a trip to Bersyrim, the Kadorian system where the reports from Arek'Jalaan indicate a high density of Takmahl biodrone salvage, that is used to build rather rare cyber implants sold on the local technology markets. 

I reviewed the general information on the system. It is neither new nor really old: the system has been colonized over five centuries ago (note that by then the Takmahl empire had already collapsed). The largest ethnic group is Ni-Kunni. Bersyrim is now a rather backwater system, but it used to be an important Kador fiefdom due to its large agricultural exports. The exports suffered from the trade agreements between the Empire and the State, and from the resulting competition by Caldari traders. 

The second and third planets have a sizeable population. They are temperate worlds with large land masses consisting of alluvial plains and grassland. The center of imperial administration is on the second planet, Odra. Outside from the capital city, the land is divided up between large landowner Holder families. Towns are built close to the Holder citadels, and are rather far apart if one travels by land. However, I think the local peasant population doesn't travel much. There are nomadic brigands called the Chikra that sometimes make a nuisance, but apart from them these worlds are by and large peaceful.

I've booked lodgings in Odra Capital, in the district where the main technology markets are. The hotel room can be described as quaint.

Museum plans

I am positively impressed with the professionality of the movers who take care of the chapel. There's scaffolding now and slowly each piece is delicately removed and tagged and wrapped.

There was an opportunity to start discussing my museum plans with Lunarisse, and she pointed me to the architect for plans. Apparently, the LUMEN offices are much larger than I imagined. maybe the humble amount of space that I need can simply be incorporated in the offices. 

I knew the housing part was large, but there is also an immense cargo space down. And I don't mean the cargo containers in the hangars for the ship. No it is storage for more... sensitive cargo, old collections from previous wars and missions. Most of it off-limits.

I've also told Luna I would like to collaborate with prof. Valate on this, and investigate if we could give her free passage based on the scholarly nature of the visit. She didn't refuse flat out, but it is not going to be easy. There are a lot of tensions in the Amarr capsuleer community, and appearances and diplomacy matter. Well, that's okay. It will probably not be before late spring that I can really work to the fullest on that project.

Checking out the new home

I went to check out the new home station. It's in a volatile ice storm now, which makes it look quite nice and... luminous. 

This is our own structure, one jump away from where the trade bureau office station is that will house Gottin's Lamp library and chapel. I've also visited that station, and the office rental overseer tells me there is space for rent adjacent to where the library should come. I've taken an option to a 10000 square meter hall for my museum plans. There's possibilities to expand it, but for now it should be more than enough. The hall is completely empty now, but can be fitted walls to section it in exhibition rooms. It's got a high ceiling, so it will be able to display the three meter high gilded statue of Emperor Queron that I recently purchased.

Logistics and standings

Two weeks ago, I was bemoaning the dismal status of my capsuleer standings with the Empire, notwithstanding my lifelong devotion as a baseliner. God answered my prayers - yesterday our alliance has organised a day of missions for the Emperor Family, to boost standings! Well, they are not quite Amarr Imperial standings, rather they are those of the Empress, but still. 

I had to participate, even though I am not well versed in combat. I bought and fitted an Augoror class frigate for logistics service, and I managed not to have it blown up. And, on several occasions, I found myself giving armor reps to fleet members who would not have sustained the onslaught without me - that much was clear from the rate they were taking damage. The role of repairer feels good and right for me - it confirms the goal I set myself in fleet operations for our corporation.

Tomorrow, I will head to what is to become our new home system, to have a look at the space that was hired. I'll see if there is extra space that I can hire for my museum plans.

About our new home

It's official now, all LUMEN members got a notification by the directors, so everybody knows that the Chapel and the library are going to find a new home. And it has also been revealed where we are moving to!

I'm not too unhappy about our new destination. A Theology Council station would have been even better, but at least we're going to be near the record keepers of Amarr trade. This will facilitate research into old merchant ships and wrecks: whenever an identification number can be pulled off the wreck it can be traced. The trade records have been rather meticulously kept for at least two millennia, and there is also information that is older, although it is more patchy. It is conventient to request copies of these old records and have them scanned from central archives and forwarded to local offices.

Yes, I am quite sure the new home will be more conducive to an academic atmosphere than the old place, a station that we share with the 24th Imperial Crusade.

Another benefit is that the new place is much closer to historically interesting constellations! That means less travel time to get to places where I can investigate my favorite ancient races.

Opportunities

Maybe this move is also an opportunity. I've been thinking about the design of the Takmahl history museum. There is some office space available in Mehatoor's 24 Imperial Crusade station, space that I could transform into museum rooms, they are not quite connected to our library. Perhaps this could change when we move, as we could find space that allows for my little expansion. I'll have to talk to Lunarisse about it.

I'm seeing it as a complex with four large display halls, through which the visitors could wander, and one entry hall that also has a museum library - collecting the works on the Takmahl and allowing for lectures. The four rooms would center on Takmahl Origins, Talocan Influences, Takmahl Society and Customs, and The Downfall. 

One small problem I see is that it would be nice to involve the cluster's expert on this - actually I already have a Takmahl statue on loan from her. But, prof. Valate is a Sani Sabik. I must still think how to solve that issue...

Moving

So, I finally know why there are workmen taking measures in the chapel. Apparently, we're moving it. And the library too! Within... about three weeks. I fell of my chair when Luna told me. 

I don't know why this is necessary. Perhaps the recent falling out between LUMEN and the Amarr militia makes it hard to stay in a station of the 24th Imperial Crusade. Perhaps there's some other deep strategy being hatched out by the fine admirals and paladins of LUMEN - not my business, and that's all right.

Now, it is important to realize that our library holds some very rare and old books, scrolls and maps. The kind that one can only touch with immaculate gloves and watch under dimmed light in a room with environmental controls. To move them would require special casing and transport experts familiar with treating delicate works of art. I just can't see how it'll be done in three weeks. I was told that at least the library structure is modular, and the shelves and storage cabinets can be sealed off and the whole thing moved as a whole. Last time I heard of something that brutal was people using orbital mining lasers for archeological digs... I must hurry and work with Aria to make sure the most precious items in our collection are secured properly. In just three weeks. Madness.

The Chapel appears to be even more difficult to move. It is an architectural masterpiece made of wooden panels and beams that interlock into a magnificent and light-filled space that directs one's spirit upwards to God. It will have to be carefully dismantled plank by plank and moved. Altar and relics will probably move separately. 

To think all of it will be exposed to danger out there, in space full of gankers and pirates and Triglavians... it makes me shudder.

A deepening divide

Since the incident where the militia attacked a Lux Invicta structure, relations have been deteriorating between the militia on the one hand and LUMEN on the other hand.

Khimi Harar, with SFRIM and PIE at its core, is now by far the largest alliance of Amarrian loyalist capsuleers. The militia, in particular Local is Primary (LiP) under the command of House Newelle, opposes the cooperation between Khimi Harar and Electus Matari and Phoenix Naval Systems. The Throne supports limited collaboration in the context of EDENCOM - but for House Newelle, and house Yassavi, the collaboration is going too far and threatens their operations in the warzone. 

I think that's nonsense. Lord Lok'ri and our young Kor-Azor diplomat, Amicia Cora, have explained LUMEN's motives and refuted the allegations leveled against us thoroughly. To no avail.

The tone of the debate has become ever more harsh, and standings have been reset. It looks like we are heading for an Amarrian capsuleer civil war. Of course, the ones to benefit most from that are the Kybernauts and the radical Matari, and they are egging on the feud.

I pray the Empress or the privy council would intervene...

New cloak technician

In preparation of another expedition, I have advertised a vacancy for cloak technician. My previous cloaker, mr. Gerulf, passed away during the expedition Deklein, and having a technician around just saves a couple of precious seconds so it is well worth it in a dangerous environment.

I don't like taking job interviews. I never know what to ask. Most people that apply will have a decent CV and some solid references from people I don't know. I tell them a bit of how I like to work, and if they're ok with it then that's fine for me. I don't have them take tests, I prefer to trust my instinct, that's been fine thusfar. 

So, now mr. Idesbald Eggeward is my new cloak technician. He's worked with covert ops cloaks before and his previous employer stopped her business and retired, going planetside. He's familiar with the Anathema, the Helios and the Pilgrim, but not that much with Sisters of Eve ships. He enjoys Nakrian brandy. Hopefully not too much.