Scouting Eve constellation

The Eve constellation is rather quiet - nothing unusual there. Eve gate - the Mouth of God - is still as radiant and beautiful as I remember it. I took a picture from a spot near the Kor-Azor and Sisters of Eve research complex orbiting New Eden I.

But perhaps the quietness is just a lull between periods of combat. I saw many stations reinforced or being unanchored on my way here. The focal point seems to be the system of Promised Land. There is a stellar observatory, and a joint Edencom - Imperial Navy fleet patrolling the system. This provides a certain security for miners, and leads to improved mining yields. 

Most operations belong to "Gjallarhorn Incorporated". They have three Athanors, a Fortizar and a Raitaru in Promised Land. All of these stations are reinforced, facing shield timers two days from now. This corporation describes itself as "farmers during the farming season, and fighters during fighting season", and base themselves in low security space. They used to be part of the "No Forks Given" alliance, up to, well, yesterday! While their stations are reinforced in Promised Land, the stations closer to Exit are being unanchored.

The culprit is likely to be our former nemesis in Genesis, the "White Sky" vandals. Nowadays they are represented in the constellation by a group that calls itself "The Death Korps of Krieg.". The dot at the end of the name is important to distinguish them from some other barbarian alliance. Here is what little information we have about them:

The Death Korps of Krieg are Imperial Guard Regiments raised from the world of Krieg. Notoriously grim and fatalistic warriors, they seek to atone for their planet's past rebellion by dying glorious deaths in service to the Imperium. For this purpose, Death Korps regiments routinely request to fight in the galaxy's deadliest warzones, grinding their enemy down through long battles of attrition and siege warfare.

Charming. 

Also, I have not heard of any planet called Krieg in the Empire. At first I thought it was a nickname nickname, or some dialect? But, more likely, they do not refer to the Amarr Empire. Rather, I think Krieg is a world controlled by the barbarian kingdom that calls itself "the Imperium".

Return to the Gate

Mozzidit is a few jumps away from the Eve constellation, which has the New Eden system where Eve Gate can be seen. It has been a while since my last visit. 

I used to spend quite a bit of time there, trying to reach the Gate or at least triangulating it to get better idea of the distance to the Gate. Sadly it lies too far away to reach at subwarp speeds. There is a Kor-Azor led scientific station in the system to study the Gate, as well as an outpost belonging to the Servant Sisters of Eve. 

The theory that I was investigating at that time was that Ilash Toth's expedition was taking the Ametat and Avetat to the Gate in an attempt to unlock it and enter the supposed paradise that lies behind it. The expedition stranded on the way to the Gate or was intercepted by the Jove - both versions of the story go around. 

I was helped at the time because LUMEN owned a station in that system. "Farthest Shore" was the perfect base of operations for me; and in fact it was because I was allowed to use the station that I started to trust the Societas as a force for good. However, these investigations were cut short when our station was destroyed...  

Being in the neighborhood, I feel compelled to go back there and see how the constellation is faring now, and who its current inhabitants are.

Booking

I quickly found the offices of Galactic Tours; the Eve Travel station is well organized. At first, the salespeople at Galactic Tours greeted me very warmly, and gave me a ton of brochures. 

When I told them what I was interested in, they were surprised, to say the least. And they got very nervous.

"It is not a usual cruise for an Amarr priest, are you from the Tetris Order?" (firstly, I am not a priest, but a friar; and I assume they meant Tetrimon in the second part). Even though they did not appear to trust me, in the end they booked the cruise for me. They made very sure to tell me their paperwork is in order, and showed me the permit.

I asked for a simple cabin, but they only have a luxury suite available on the next cruise which, by the way, does not leave very soon. Perhaps they thought the price bump would deter me? Before I became a  capsuleer, it would have been completely impossible for me to pay for this; but for a capsuleer it is loose change...

Anyway, I now have a ticket for the Mezagorm cruise.

Mozzidit

The Eve Travel agency - named in honor of a travel blog by a famous capsuleer explorer - is a hub for tourism agencies and travel companies that cater to the (rich) beyond-borders interstellar traveler. The station itself is a rare one not built by Upwell or the empires:

Here you see it, orbiting above Mozzidit VIII, one of three beautiful oceanic world in this system. In the background, a large cyclone can be seen raging on the southern hemisphere of the planet. To its left is a storage pad and to its right is a shipyard with several tour vessels and a research vessel. 

The station is close to a strange object also in orbit around the planet: a rock arch with a broken asteroid  geode containing bright orange crystals inside. A dust cloud is present around this structure, giving it a mysterious air. This location was chosen for the station, no doubt to put the potential customers in the mood for exploration.

The dust cloud is due to the tidal forces of the planet, that very slowly break up the formation and over many millions of years will reduce it all to rubble. This means that the megalithic structure is probably a young(ish) formation, certainly less than a hundred million years old. But how could two very different types of asteroid be captured by the planet's gravity in exactly the same location, immobile with respect to each other? 

Also, the composition seems somewhat deliberate to me, like an eye under an arched eyebrow or a pagan symbol. So, who knows, it could even be much younger and has been placed in orbit by a civilization that has now vanished.

Let me dismiss a cynical impulse in me that whispers that it could have been placed there by Eve Travel Agency's marketing department though they deny knowing its history...

A billion beats

Amarr is on the way from Mehatoor to Mozzidit, where I am headed to book myself the cruise to Mezagorm. So, I took the opportunity to visit the Imperial History Museum again, and in particular its extensive library. Being surrounded by the embrace of old bookshelves, filled with books from floor to high ceiling, gives me a sense of safety and inner calm, a feeling of comfort and belonging. 

Unfortunately, there is not much available to the general public about the mad emperor or his megalomania. This lack of information stands out, like a stain that has been removed with a detergent that is so powerful it leaves behind a conspicuous bleached-out spot.

In such a magnificent library, I cannot help but being distracted by beautiful tomes and browsing them, even if they have nothing to do with my current interest (or if, as today, I cannot readily find the information I look for). I came across an old book on mammalian biology, and there is a table that struck me; I put it into this little graph:

I think I had heard about this before, but never given it much thought. It appears that the heart has about one billion beats before it gives out. 

This is true across most species - whether you look at a mouse, with a short lifespan at a hectic 600 beats per minute, or a whale, that lives 90 years but with a pulse averaging only 20 beats per minute. This countdown clock ticking away in our chest is a potent and constant reminder of our finitude: beasts and humans alike have been given a Divine life-gift of one billion beats.

Well. We humans are a bit of an exception. At 50 beats per minute, our expected lifespan according to this rule is about 40 years. We live much longer, as we have learned to mend, maintain, and ultimately replace our heart with cybernetics. But even within our own species, there is a correlation between pulse rate and lifespan - those that live stressfully with high pulse rate tend to live less long that the sportive type with a low pulse. Of course, correlation is no causation, and your heart may be good up to a couple of billion beats... but not that much more.

Space Cruise

I went to the website of Galactic Tours, and found the following flyer (I diligently censored names that should not be spoken nor written):

Explore the Mysteries of Mezagorm! 

Join Galactic Tours on an unforgettable space cruise to the abandoned city of Mezagorm, built by the mad Amarrian Emperor Zaragram.

Highlights:

• Exclusive Access: Step inside the haunting ruins of Zaragram's celestial wonder!
• Guided Tours: Expert-led explorations of the city's fascinating history and secrets!
• Luxury Travel: Travel in style and enjoy top-tier comfort aboard our state-of-the-art Victorieux Luxury Yacht!
• Free Time: Enjoy personal time to wander and discover the ruins at your own pace! 
• Unique Photo Opportunities: Capture breathtaking scenes of the abandoned city and the stars beyond!

Book your adventure today and journey to a place where history meets the stars!

Galactic Tours – Making the Impossible, Possible.

Call your travel agent now or book in person at the Eve Travel Agency in Mozzidit!

It sounds rather unimaginative as cruise ship advertisements go, and it has an annoying overuse of exclamation marks. The colors of the flyer were also screaming and painful to look at. 

But since the DGCHP does not seem to hand out permits to individuals to visit the ruin, I might as well take the only "official" tour that exists.

Galactic Tours

The Amarr Civil Service is perhaps not the natural biotope of a friar of a comtemplative order, but nevertheless I do not dislike being there. I do not feel ill at ease among the vast registries and archives, and I think I have a bit a knack at navigating administrations.

So, the point-blank refusal for a permit was not going to deter me. As I could no longer get in touch with anyone at DGCHP (due to lack of staffing you can only submit requests once every three months), I started searching in the records whether anyone had gotten a permit before. This can help me give a valid reason to get a permit at the next application round.

Surprisingly (or perhaps not) there is no record of any Amarrian ever getting a permit. 

However, in recent times, one permit has been issued. It went to a Caldari company, Galactic Tours, affiliated loosely to the Nugoeihuvi Corporation. 

The amount they paid for it is censored, but the length of the black bar shows that it must have been rather astronomic.

Inaccessible

The Amarr Civil Service information center in Riavayed looks unsettlingly like the city of God. Except that it is of course a fully operational station, and does not have quarries and workers habitats nearby.

It turns out to be not so easy to get in touch with the Directorate General of Cultural-Historic Patrimonium. You cannot drop by or call to make an appointment to meet someone in person. First, you should submit your question via a website, at which point an 'expert' will decide whether it can be answered via mail or whether it warrants a call or even an in-person appointment. How they decide is not explained. They claim -like many services- to be understaffed and overburdened, and these hurdles are the result.

The problem is that their website does not work, it is down for maintenance and it is impossible to submit any question at this point. I think it has been down a while. I tried calling them, but only got a low-level AI on the line telling me to use the website to submit my query. 

I found one loophole, while questioning the AI chatbot. Apparently, if you are unable to use the website because you are blind, then you can record your question via the call. A strange way to define exceptions, as now also the seeing cannot use the website? Anyway, I told them I had trouble seeing the correct website (using a very broad definition of 'seeing'), and could record my query.

After several days, I got a call back, telling me flatly that my permit is refused. Exploration or scientific research is not a valid reason to go poke around in Mezagorm. When I asked why, I was told that since it has already been completely explored and documented, there is nothing left to find there any more. All objects of any scientific or historic value have been taken, studied, and purged a long time ago. There is no reason for any faithful to visit the site. Case closed. Mezagorm is inaccesible to the public.

The DGCHP

I returned to Mezagorm, and waited for a quiet moment when the Blood Raiders were not present. I will definitely have to deal with them if I ever want to do a long exploration of the ruin, as the Indagatrix cannot stay cloaked in close proximity of the ruin.

But for now, there is another hurdle. As I approached the structure, I received an automated message "Access forbidden without DGCHP permit".

My political officer Ivan immediately insisted we should get this permit first.

We had to look up what the DGCHP is. It turns out to be the Directorate General of Cultural-Historic Patrimonium, one of the many agencies part of the Amarr Civil Service. 

Their website says: "The Directorate-General of Cultural-Historic Patrimonium oversees built architectural and archaeological heritage and performs conservation, exercising a normative, regulatory and supervisory function, defining and disseminating methodologies and procedures for intervention in Cultural Heritage, monitoring, technically supervising and adopting, whenever necessary, the measures provided for by law."

The universal translator was of no help to understand what this actually means. Luckily, there is an Amarr Civil Service information center around Riavayed XI, just two jumps away.

Royal mail

Do these people in the Vale all communicate with deep-space pigeons or horseback messengers? 

Today I received another message that took a very long time to get to me. This time it is a royal missive! From king Basil Vulpine, supreme ruler of the Grassbladians, no less. 

Hi Theodosius,

apologies for the tardy reply but life has been busy. For reasons I haven't had a chance to look up yet your alliance is red to us. Normally we wouldn't provide temporary blue standings anyway but I figured I'd make you aware of the additional wrinkle.

This being Null-Sec you are of course free to be a free spirited explorer anyway so long as you don't mind people potentially chasing you and sending you back to your clone bay.

Best Wishes,

Basil Vulpine

He is surprisingly informal with me. This shows the prestige one has, as an Amarrian cleric, in the outer worlds. So, apparently LUMEN is red to the Grassbladians. No wonder the peasants were afraid of me. Now, curiously, the Grassbladians appeared neutral to me, so I wondered where all this fear and trepidation comes from. I must ask Lord Pitoojee or Amicia Cora from the diplomatic corps if I see them. Meanwhile, I wanted to reassure king Vulpine that the Imperial fleet is not bearing down on his realm, so I started a letter,

Your Sublime Royal Highness, King of the Grassbladians, Illustrious sovereign of the 88G-M4 constellation, Lord of FMBR-8, Duke of FH-TTC and Khan of MQ-O27,

but then I remembered the other Grassbladians told me he prefered to be addressed as Basil. Perhaps he is an egalitarian, and this is the perverting result of being closer to the influence sphere of the Federation than that of the Empire. Or it is related to "Basileus", an ancient word for king. Anyhow, I decided to start with 

Dear Basil,

It sounds wrong to address a king, even a barbarian king, in this way. 

Thanks for your answer! I have already completed my exploration of 88G-M4. The view of the Jove nebula is very nice! I also enjoyed a few pleasant conversations while exploring, please give my greetings to Dr. Rebot.

I do hope this will be understood as I meant it: a compliment. Hopefully it is not interpreted as an act of treason by dr. Rebot, leading to him being hanged, drawn and quartered.

Members of your corporation showed as neutral to me, so I hope in the future relations between our alliances will improve! 

As a token of rapprochement, I have left a gift of Pax Amarrias (books) in a jetcan in front of your Astrahus in JZV-F4 when I returned back to the Empire now already a while ago. If you need more, let me know.

Kind regards,

Brother Theodosius Savnar

See? Proselytizing and diplomacy can go hand in hand.

Raiders in the ruin

How should we deal with the architectural legacy of an evil dictator, a mass murderer? Should it be dismantled and erased, should it be kept for historians to study, or should it be used to educate the public? 

For most of the mad emperor's legacy - his actions and writings, even his effigy - the first choice was made. He was erased and his name stricken from the Book of Records. His actions were undone.

Yet this option was not chosen for Mezagorm, the palace-city of the mad emperor. Perhaps it was too much effort to blast it to pieces, as it is a large and sprawling structure, with quarries and worker's housing at the perimeter. Or perhaps it served another purpose, as I hypothesized earlier... However, nowadays, it is just left to decay in space, all but ignored. No garrison protects it any more from prying eyes. 

In fact, it has become a playground for hoodlums and blood raiders to hang around. 

I went to visit the site today - Shastal is not very far from Mehatoor - and to my dismay found a small blood raider fleet ambling about, doing their dealings. The picture shows one above the main entrance leading to the inner part of the palace-city. I think it is an outrage that these blood raider ships are left alone!

Cryptic message or nonsense?

I am back from my Jove expedition already a little while now. To my surprise, another "contact", one of the people that allegedly went into Jove space, answered my mails from back then.

In gibberish. 

I already thought the first contact I talked to was very disconcerting, but now I am really at a loss how to respond. He wrote:

We put Inducer in because of the CCP robot problem. I think this is a BUG. After inducer, there is no communication inside. We can only go to 21-U. This BUG has been fixed and nobody can go anywhere anymore

That is it. That is the entire message. The message was in Amarrian, so I think he must have used the universal translator, which may have had severe problems finding the right words. What does he mean with Inducer ? And what is a CCP robot problem ? Probably a rogue drone infestation.

I checked out if Inducer could be a person. There are only five capsuleers with "Inducer" in their callsign. They are all quite colorful (one is called "Diarrhea Inducer") but none of them are part of a corporation related to that of my second contact. So Inducer might not be a person with whom they lost communications in TO21-U, but some piece of equipment to fight the rogue drones.

Another possibility is that there is some sort radiation out there in Jove space that corrupts capsuleers' minds. Something there that drives them to madness. This particular contact has been extremely active in TO21-U, with a large amount of kills to his name. Spending much time there might have exposed him to a larger dose of whatever radiation boils the mind...

A new hypothesis

A book I just read drew my attention back to this other theory about the Ametat and Avetat, a theory unrelated to the Takmahl.

A while ago, I looked into the possibility that the Ametat had been taken and hidden by the Tetrimon order who did this on behalf of the Council of apostles when things started to go bad for them during the Moral Reform wars. I visited the Tetrimon fortress Teakh Tak-Teakh on Ibani VI but did not get any useful information there, so I sort of put that lead on pause.

However, while recently reading Edilon Macke's new (massive) book on the history of the early Tetrimon, I was struck by the strange connection that they seemed to have with the palace of the mad emperor. This palace - a megalomaniac space structure called the 'city of God' - turned to ruin soon after Saint Tetrimon killed the mad emperor. 

The site was guarded by Tetrimon knights and placed under the supervision of the Council of Apostles, in order to prevent cultists or followers of the mad emperor to use it as a pilgrimage destination. This control lasted way longer that necessary - there was a garrison for about five centuries! Guarding these ruins ended after the Moral Reforms, when the Council of Apostles was disbanded, and the new councils took no interest in these ruins.

So, I am starting to think that this could have been a good hiding place for the Tetrimon or the Council of Apostles to stash anything they did not want Heideran V, the Reformer, to find. No-one would suspect that the Tetrimon hid their precious loot in the very place built by the enemy of Saint Tetrimon!

The difficulties of proper censorship

People don't quite realize the hard work that comes with being a librarian in the Empire. For example, the Theology Council or the Ministry of Internal Order decides to put a new author on the Index of forbidden works, Kámi Diá. She writes agitating essays and poetry about the Turnur incident, in a way is deemed a corrupting influence on the faithful. 

On the surface, what she writes appears as a critique of the Republic, but the Theology Council has seen through that.

To someone unacquainted with library work, the task of the librarian seems easy: just get rid of all the works authored by Kámi Diá. Hah! It is not that simple. Some of her work has become part of anthologies, or appeared in magazines, or as quotes in theses, ... so many different places, and of course these are not all properly indexed or searchable, and will not show up on a computer-generated list of her work. 

That is why for each and every item put on the Index, there is a separate study group at the TC collecting all references to secondary material which should be edited or partially censored, to remove all traces and mentions of Kámi Diá. 

Any librarian can send suggested items to the proper study group. Conversely, we can find on the website of the Index the list of secondary works affected by any particular ban, and the action required to censor or remove offensive parts of a given secondary work. For example, if one of my colleagues reads this public log entry and adds it as a suggestion, I might have to censor Kámi Diá's name from the entry.

This is a living list, which needs to be monitored regularly. Acting on the daily aggregated list is one of the first tasks every morning for the assistants, and one of the reasons why a large library like ours requires many assistant librarians.

Back to the flock

We are back in Mehatoor, and I have mixed feelings about this expeditions. As far as new leads go, there is not that much to show for; except maybe that strange story about using clone bays to get into an abandoned Jove system. Of course, there have been interesting encounters, and I have a newfound appreciation for the Astero.

I did not have much time to ponder all of this, as it has been very busy as soon as I got back. Several capsuleers were in need of confession or just spiritual advice. 

There is a particular capsuleer concern that comes up from time to time, especially among young ones. 

They do contract work for a good Amarr corporation or institute, say the Theology Council, and are tasked with getting rid of some horrible heretic sect. The heretics then start pleading for their lives and spreading lies in order to sow doubt in their executioner's heart. Being human, and having an unspoiled conscience, the pilots then start questioning whether the assessment of the Theology Council was really right. Luckily, most of them perform their duty. But afterwards, these doubts gnaw at them, and they need reassuring. This I gladly do.

The way into Jove space

The contacts all have strange callsigns; often just a list of meaningless symbols such as "DY HEII K", "jie11 jie", or "JFZY2". But in the end, one of them agreed to talk.

There was something out of place about the man, I could sense it as soon as he entered the little restaurant. He did not fit in, like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. He acted at the same time nonchalant, flattered, and paranoid. 

He spoke a language I have never heard before; not even among the Grassbladians. Somehow the universal translator seemed to manage, but it did slow down our conversation a lot and I think some things got lost in translation.

He told me his alliance had a secret way in; it was not any lost gate like the Deathless stumbled upon. Rather, they have managed to keep a cloning facility running in one of the abandoned stations in the system of TO21-U. 

Apparently, there are no Jove to be seen in the system. They have abandoned the system altogether. A capsuleer (or several, that was not clear) from his alliance is able to clone-jump to that abandoned station, and has access to a ship that can generate a cynosural field. That is how they bring in others.

There are no gates to other systems from TO21-U. There are no pirates, or any activity in the system. My contact did not see any wormhole appear, but could not exclude that some might open up, as he was not actively looking for them. So, what are they doing there? They are there because they can, he said. I think it is some show of power or prowess among the barbarians. 

I would certainly not be allowed in, unless I broke ties with the Empire and joined their alliance; a thing I most definitely will not do. They would probably force me to adopt a callsign like "Th3O 7r". 

And that's it. That is all he wanted to say. He did show me some concord combat logs to prove his presence in TO21-U; then he left.

I am not sure what to make of this strange tale. Are the Jove really gone?

Meeting place in Jita

The informant gave me a list of potential contacts who had traveled, according to her, into the restricted Jove space. I tried to get in touch with several of them over the last few days, but none of them responded yet.

Meanwhile, we traveled back to Jita 4-4 for supplies and crew rest. This vast station has sprawling districts for entertainment, shopping, food, services, and just about anything you can imagine. It offers plenty of opportunity for the crew to relax. 

I cannot decide between Avindya and Levular for the job of cloak technician. So I decided to keep them both on the payroll; they have proven their mettle during our long expedition, camping out of station in deep-space safes. Both are exhausted, they have been on edge for nearly a month now. I think they've been sleeping for the last 24 hours straight.

Jita 4-4 is also a good place to wait for any of my informant's contacts to get in touch and meet up. There are many places where one can meet discreetly. 

I have picked a small Ni-Kunni eatery hidden in a back alley of one of the less popular souks. They serve half-way decent baby eels, the kind of food that scares away the locals. The coffee is dark, unfiltered, and strong enough to dissolve tritanium. The place offers privacy: each table is in its own nook that can be closed off by a curtain, and is rather dimly lit by candles in copper Mishi lanterns. The owner is never seen without a cheap cigar in his mouth, in violation of several food and health laws I am sure. He serves the food, and makes a show of pouring the coffee. He calls me Baba Amarr. Other than his wife in the kitchen there are no other employees. In short, a place off the radar. 

I have let the contacts know that I'd be there every day around noontime.

The informant

I talked to the "informant" as she likes to call herself. Perhaps more of a conspiracy theorist. I do not quite know what to make of it.

Her story is that Fraternity - that is the overarching alliance that the Grassbladians are vassals of - found a way into the Jove systems, much north of where I am trying to probe. She could bring me in contact with someone who traveled there. 

Sounds interesting, but she also showed some signs of capsuleer dementia or perhaps just old-fashioned conspiracy theory. She believes there is some organisation, deeply involved with the Jove and in full control of the cluster, and that organisation could make any person that trespasses into Jove space disappear. 

Nevertheless, I will continue to follow this lead. But first, I must give some rest and relaxation time to the crew, and get new supplies for the Indagatrix.

Timeo Amarri et dona ferentes

With the crew being tired, and the Indagatrix scaring the locals, we decided to head back. I left a parting gift in front of the Grassbladian's fortizar: a crate full of Pax Amarrias.

I then abandoned ownership of the crate, so they can safely take it and its treasure inside, rather than blast it to smithereens. Which they may still do, fearful as they are of strangers bearing gifts.

I was inspired by our blesses Empress' speech. Although the speech focused on the latest Upwell cloning shenanigans, the Empress also exhorted us to spread the faith, quoting scripture that says "You will bring its message to every planet of every star in the heavens", and adding her own emphasis: "Not only the reaches of our holy Empire, but 'every planet'."  I have done my bit to heed the Empress by bringing the good word to JZV-F4 !

I was about to head out of the system when I was hailed by a Grassbladian who wants to remain anonymous. She wants to meet me, and tell me about a way into Jove space. She believes communications in space are being monitored by some sort of agency with vast powers, and will speak to me via secure communications of her own. 

She sounds paranoid to me. Perhaps she is some sort of conspiracy theory nutcase. But I will listen to her, and accept her gift of knowledge. For I do not fear the gifts of strangers.

The pirate witch of the Vale

Just as we were making preparations to return, I got an answer (in words not combat probes) to my daily message declaring my peaceful intentions! 

The Grassbladians must have grown a tiny bit accustomed to my continued presence, or perhaps they tire from going red alert every time I send a friendly message in local.

Theodosius Savnar > Greetings, Grassbladians.

Theodosius Savnar > I am an explorer, interested in the regions bordering Jove space; I am flying around in an unarmed anathema and my intentions are peaceful.

Theodosius Savnar > Have any of you observed any anomalies, perhaps abandoned gates, specifically related to the Jove? 

Dr Rebot > I have not sir, pardon the histeria but the unarmed exploration ships tend to be the most dangerous

Polite, even! 

Dr. Rebot must have recognized a fellow academic, or looked up my record, and that instilled trust in him. This could be either my academic record, or my 100% snuggly combat record. 

Dr. Rebot explained that the Grassbladian peasants have been tormented by a deadly gang of robber pirates. They are led by a devilish woman, only known by her mysterious callsign "Flight Deck". She pilots a buzzard-class exploration vessel, fitted with a cynosural field generator. 

She approaches unsuspecting travelers, peasants, miners or any other Grassbladians that she encounters, sometimes luring them with siren calls or false promises. When she is close enough, she paralyzes her prey's warp drive and then her associates jump over to her ship, and kill all those nearby. 

Flight Deck has been a real scourge all over the Grassbladian systems, and their King cannot deliver his subjects from this robber gang. The poor Grassbladians have been living in terror of this witch. Naturally, when I appeared in the Indagatrix, they assumed that it was a ruse, that she had used some witchcraft to disguise herself in a respectable Amarrian friar. That was the cause of their "hysteria" as Dr. Rebot diagnosed it. 

Ah, if only I were a valiant paladin! I would offer my sword to bring peace and justice to the Grassbladians. King Vulpine would offer his daughter in marriage, but I would refuse, contenting myself with the knowledge of having done a good work. Alas, I am but an unarmed friar, unskilled in combat. Moreover, I have a vow of celibacy.

Anyway, the good doctor offered a simple remedy to gain their trust:

Dr Rebot > perhaps an Astero might be a better choice as it cannot fit a cyno

Of course! I will remember this next time I explore barbarian lands in the outer rim. Soon, the other Grassbladians were chiming in with less useful tips:

Perfect Stance > explore with a drake next time

I think I will stick to the Astero. In fact, I have one, the Ratakh Hubrau. I consider it a gift of God at the start of my quest, even before I joined the Societas. Now I finally learned its purpose, and for that Dr. Rebot has my gratitude.

Exploring in inhospitable territory

Despite being hunted, we manage to do some exploration. When new anomalies appear and I am the first to scan them down, I know I can safely warp to them and explore as long as no other scanner probes appear on d-scan. This has proven quite successful to go through these sites, although I did not find any useful artifact.

Nevertheless, these relic site explorations are like poking a stick into a hornet's nest. Grassbladians will scramble to try and locate me, ignoring a message declaring my peaceful intentions that I keep repeating daily on local chat. Their time and their warp disruption probes are being wasted.

JZV-F4 is quite a large system, and I managed to set up a safe warp spot that is more than 15 AU away from any celestial object. Of course I remain cloaked, and make sure cloak stability is maintained. But the long expedition is taking its toll on the crew. 

Mr. Firth starts to venture out of his panic room (he has been camping in the escape pod of the emergency life support backup unit) from time to time to offer suggestions. The cloak techs are getting tired. Both these things are signs that it may be time to return home.

Not a Jove gate

On various occasions, I have investigated the wormhole connections from the 88G-M4 constellation,  and searched them several jumps deep into Anoikis. There are no links to the Jove regions. All sorts of shortcuts to get (near to) home quickly, sure, but not what I am looking for. The wormholes here just like all the others that appear in that they do not link to Jove space. This makes me wonder if there are any wormholes in the Jove regions.

After an extended search, I must also conclude there are no broken gates. Also no warp gates that look anything like the ancient Jove gates leading to Zarzakh. Perhaps they are still cloaked. I did however find that the Grassbladians have built a gate of their own, or rather, have bought one from Upwell. It is shown below, with their Fortizar and the Jove nebula in the background.

You may wonder to what wondrous and far-flung lands this gate leads. Perhaps another pocket of Grassbladian worlds, disconnected from 88G-M4, or could it be a gateway to Jove space? No! The gate must be an attestation to their lazy nature, since it leads to a system a mere three jumps away, 7G-H7D, in the same constellation. Or perhaps not their lazy nature, no, it must be their overly cautious nature. I bet they do not trust the usual jump gates, just as they do not trust strangers.

The King's answer

We have been camping out in space, as I do not have docking rights in any station in the constellation. Having two cloak technicians has proven especially handy, as they can take shifts maintaining cloak, and keeping cloak stabilization.

Today, there was a unique occasion! King Basil Vulpine was in the system, probably for an inspection of his domains. I tried to contact him on local system-wide chat:

Theodosius Savnar > Hi Grassbladians!

Theodosius Savnar > I am doing some exploring in these systems close to Jove space; they intrigue me. I'll be flying around in an unarmed anathema with peaceful intentions!

Theodosius Savnar > <url=showinfo:1376//648365165>Basil Vulpine</url>, greetings! I sent you a mail a couple of days ago, about me hanging around in your space. 

Theodosius Savnar > I have not yet had the pleasure and honor of an answer, I hope you do not mind me being here.

There was no answer. Or perhaps, there was an answer, but not in words. An ice mining fleet docked up, a gnosis and a heron undocked and sent out combat probes. 

I consider that rude. 

Perhaps there is a certain ceremonial way of addressing the King of the Grassbladians? Have I offended them? I used the servile tense of the verbs, but perhaps it is different in their language, and the universal translator made a mistake between the servile, polite, familiar and and imperious tenses? Anyway, they should have given me the benefit of the doubt.

Most barbarian tribes are known to be hostile to strangers, but if I compare the Grassbladians with the Zerg of Feythabolis, the latter eventually grew to trust me and started conversations. And let me use some stations.

When I get back to Mehatoor, I will write up a sermon to be handed out to our capsuleers in Syndicate, about hospitality and answering foreign explorers reaching out in local. Using words, not guns.

An utterly boring border

I have been covertly exploring the border zone of the Jove regions now for a week. And sadly, I have to admit I did not get any results. This is an utterly boring piece of space, far from civilization, and cast aside by the large Fraternity alliance as a putrid morsel that is not worth picking up after it fell from the table.

There are no hidden conduits or locked gates that I could scan, even casting my probes way out to the edge of the system. There is an absolute infestation of Guristas sites, they form clusters around every planet in every system in this constellation. There are relatively few anomalies to scan down.

The Amarrian outpost that is supposed to orbit the first moon of JZV-F4, the one named "Vote Gigx for CSM XIV" in honor of the former king Gigx, is no longer there. Perhaps it was destroyed by his successor, king Basil Vulpine. Perhaps it is still there, a cloaked Amarrian listening post. If so, it did not respond to my hails. Not even to my "Hail the Empress".

In the background a very pretty nebula is visible - this is the direction towards the Jove regions, tantalizingly close yet out of reach. Actually, this nebula is inside Jove space.

More crackpot theories

While waiting for the barbarians outside the station to club each other to death, I am meeting interesting capsuleers that are Jove fanatics. There are many weird types of Jove devotees here. It is not just the Thoughtologists.

There exists a belief related to that of the earthers. Earthers believe that all of humankind evolved originally on one and the same planet, a motherworld supposedly on the other side of Eve Gate. The earthers get their name from calling this original cradle "earth". The Goners are an example of an Amarrian earther heterodoxy. 

The one I met in the station believes that after the collapse of Eve Gate, part of humanity got trapped here in our cluster. These colonies were cut off from the motherworld, and slowly but inexorably started to decay. The focus lay on preserving the tools and technology from the motherworld, but no new science or development was taking place. After a while, as more stuff broke down and could not be repaired for lack of replacement parts, infighting took place over the ever scarcer resources. 

Worlds declared their independence from the colonial governance and broke off - in their story the religious colony of Amarr was one of such worlds. Wars between the former colonies precipitated the coming of the dark ages, where nearly all technologies of the motherworld got lost.

A small group of scientists foresaw the coming of the dark ages, and planned to run away to a remote part of the cluster. There they would build an academy to centralize whatever active knowledge was left, and attempt to learn new things. They set out in one of the last jump capable colony ships, named after a planet in the motherwold's solar system - a gas giant called Jupiter. 

This particular earther believes that the Jove are the descendants of that group of scientists, which thrived from the preserved knowledge of the motherworld. The Jove got their name from the ship they ran away in, the Jupiter. They learned how to repair and eventually even upgrade the technology, and planned to use their superiority to intervene in the other worlds (us) in subtle ways in order to bring about a more rapid end to the dark ages. They would lead the rest of us into a new age of cluster-wide peace, and ultimately reopen Eve Gate to reconnect with the motherworld.

Well, some things must have gone wrong along the way.

((ooc: I think the dark ages from Eve lore and from Asimov's Foundation would make a nice match))

House Vulpine

The Blades of Grass barbarians are ruled by house Vulpine - not an Amarrian House, but for convenience's sake I will call the leading family a house. Basil Vulpine is their king, and his wife Eingang Vulpine is lead diplomat.

I have tried to contact lady Vulpine and her diplomats, but these scoundrels are not answering my letters or calls. I do not ask much: right of passage, unharmed, and if possible docking rights at just one of their stations in the constellation 88G-M4, one they can choose. I have given them the callsign and the fitting of the Indagatrix, and moreover promised to hand over to them all exploration loot that is not relating to the Ancients. But, no answer. Perhaps they are too busy with this conflict, which seems to involve the larger alliance in Vale of the Silent, even if it does not involve them themselves. 

So be it! I shall go forth even without having obtained their explicit right of passage. Hah, it may be of little use anyway to get these rights, for perhaps next week yet another group is in charge.

Well, I only got a few hundred meters out of the station before I had to dock back up. Landed in the middle of a battle between rival groups, right at the front door of the SoCT station in FDZ4-A. They tried to attack me as well! Even though I am neutral to their bloody conflict, and a member of the clergy of the Empire! Their attempts at bubbling or targeting did not work, luckily, but I must await a quieter moment to undock from this cursed place.

Lost and Found

I found frustratingly little new information on the Jove. For a school that celebrates a link to the Jove empire, they do not seem to have special knowledge about them that cannot be obtained at Hedion University.

Something that I did find and which relates to my quest, is that under the Jovian Directorate of the third empire, there was an agency called the Lost and Found Section Unit. This agency was in charge mostly of searching and retrieving missing Jove technology or artifacts that had resurfaced in the wrong hands.  Whatever they considered to be the wrong hands. More often than not, that would be us Amarr. 

The agents of this section unit, referred to as the 'Lost and Founders', were not just looking for Jove technology. In fact they were going after any advanced technology that would be harmful to a lesser advanced society that came across it. Think of cavemen finding a suitcase nuclear weapon. The job of the Lost and Founders was to identify and retrieve things like the suitcase nuke in the cavemen society.

They seem to have been quite interested in our relics as well, especially the Ametat and Avetat. They do not believe that these were a gift from God, brought by the Sefrim to emperor Amash-Akura. To them, these relics must be potentially harmful advanced weapons that the emperor has received from renegate aliens, perhaps Jovian dissidents. As they fixated on this blasphemy, they have searched for the sceptre and crown around the cluster. 

It is telling that they have been particularly active in areas and systems where also professor Bathana has been looking.

Thoughtology

The Society of Conscious Thought is quite eager to teach but at the same time secretive about the Jove. The emphasis on education is clear and their schools - including the one in this station - are renowned around the cluster. Their alumni, in every subject from biomedicine to physics to politicology, are generally successful and hold positions of importance.

I got a tour of some magnificent labs and libraries with all the latest equipment and technical gadgets. I got a library card and have started using the facilities. But, as I said, there is relatively little here that one cannot find elsewhere about the Jove.

Looking for other sources here, I encountered a group calling themselves the Church of Thoughtology. They are also both eager to teach and secretive about their knowledge. They say they have their information straight from Ion Labron, the Jovian who founded the SoCT. They claim to be linked to the School, but as far as I can tell they are not officially affiliated. 

In order to get access to what they know, they ask that you become member of their church, then follow some purification rituals for a couple of years, and then 'level up' in exchange of a hefty fee, to 'operational status'. Which means that you are allowed to pay even more in order to get piecemeal parts of their texts about aliens and Jove redemption.

I suspect they are a Jita scam, and will keep looking elsewhere for information.

SoCT station

The crossing from Jita to the Society of Conscious Thought's schools in Geminate was the first real test for my new cloak technicians. We left early, choosing a time where the local residents would not be very active, and once in nullsec I made sure not to jump directly from gate to gate. 

Both the cloak and the interdiction nullifier were manned. Although I control these modules from the pod, smooth and fast operation is ensured by technicians monitoring and tuning these delicate pieces of equipment. All went perfectly well, we did not encounter gatecamps or metaliminal storms.

The SoCT station where we docked looks unlike any I've seen before. Although a strong influence from Gallente station architecture is clear, there is also another, more alien, element. The hangars do look definitely Gallentean, but once you disembark and venture inside, you feel the same alien undertone in layout and atmosphere. There is something more organic to it, perhaps? 

I get the feeling that this station is past its heyday. Oh, it is still a fine place, services are up and running. Everything functions normally, but nevertheless there is this subtle sense of a grandeur passed. You see shops that are boarded up, and there are many offices for rent. Parts of the station meant for housing Jove are closed off for the general public, probably these habitations are still kept as they were in case the Jove return. The offices of various Jove corporations are still active, but no Jove are to be seen, and the personnel appear to act as caretakers waiting for their masters. 

The Society of Conscious Thought itself seems more active, they have found their own purpose. Or perhaps they are still maintaining some tenuous line of contact with the Jovian Empire even though they will not discuss this with outsiders.

I will spend a bit of time here, and try to gather information from the SoCT. Better not to go out of station much: an Astrahus citadel from Fraternity is reinforced in system, and Goonswarm pilots seem to be forming a fleet right here in the SoCT station. They seem utterly uninterested in Jove or their technology, and look at me with suspicion when we meet in station.

Schools of conscious thought

Rather than going straight from the Forge to Vale of the Silent I decided on a little detour via Geminate. Well, the shortest route is arguably also via Geminate, but I plan to go first to the constellation N-K4Q0 which is held by the Society of Conscious Thought. 

There are two stations, that the SoCT calls schools, in FDZ4-A. They are open to the general public, and even offer cloning facilities for capsuleers. This seems a good base of operations, until I get permission from the Woodland Nymph Lovers to use one of their stations closer to the edge of Jove space. 

I am also curious to see the SoCT stations, and talk to people there. At one point, when the Jove were still in contact with us, they passed on their knowledge - or at least the part that they saw fit to share with us - via these "schools". Schools have libraries, these ones should not be any different. If I can spend some time there I might find information about possible links between the Jove and our missing relics. Perhaps even why they are so interested in Anath, in faraway Aridia. 

Jita 4-4

I remember my previous visit to the vast trade hub of Jita 4-4. It has been three years since I came here. It has changed a bit, parts have modernized and the hangars are even more flashing with advertisements all screaming for your attention. The whole place is maddening and insalubrious like an Achuran pachinko gaming hall at its loudest and busiest. That hasn't improved. It got worse. 

I was somewhat prepared for this, but my crew, mostly new, was not. 

Mr. Firth and Avindya were clearly impressed, looking at everything with eyes as big as dinner plates. Levular was mostly looking annoyed, I cannot blame him. He proved to be a good help in negotiating with the merchants to resupply our ship, he is better at haggling than I am.

After dealing with the thieving merchants and ever-present scammers, I took the new ones and the rest of the crew to a nearby food district. Just as the advertisements are a full frontal assault on the eyes and ears, the food district is a massive attack on the olfactory system. We escaped it, and nausea, by going to an overly expensive restaurant (capsuleer funds provide), all the way up in one of the spires. It has a clear view of the moon colony below, and of its space elevator. 

The sight is amazing, the moon looms large over the station and takes up a good portion of the sky. The circular structures of the moon colony are clearly visible. The moon illuminates the station's vast exterior on which cities seem to have been built, right atop the hull of the station. Once you get away from the noise and the haggling merchants, you can start appreciating the engineering miracle that the Caldari have built here.

We'll stay the night here in Jita. The crew can book a nice spa hotel on my expenses. I think I will spend the night in the dark and quiet of the backup life support unit.

Crossing over to Jita

The life support backup unit has been installed in the Indagatrix. Of course the crew did not want to give up the ping-pong room, so the only possibility was to give up some cargo space. The unit takes up about one quarter of what I had for cargo space! But, if it makes mr. Firth feel safe enough to allow us to go on this expedition, it is worth it, I guess.

We loaded up on copies of the Pax Amarria as well, to spread the good word, but for the rest we travel lightly. Our first stop will be the trade hub in Jita, in the State. We can easily get all the  necessary supplies there, apart from the Pax Amarrias. 

The journey through warzone systems from Mehatoor to Jita will be a first test for the new cloak technicians. I'll let each of them do one half of the journey, and measure system response times. Perhaps simulate a malfunction (in highsec parts).

New personnel

Two candidates remain. The one preferred by mr. Firth is Avindya Alijia, fresh out of the Academy, head full of the kind of war propaganda that mr. Firth is also fond about. Personally, I prefer Levular Damus, who has the advantage of experience flying with capsuleers and handling cloaking in difficult circumstances. But he's a cynic, a trait not liked by mr. Firth.

Rather than keep discussing endlessly with Ivan Firth, I hired them both. They can take turns and then we'll see who is best.

When the enemy of my enemy is still my enemy

I have scheduled interviews with various applicants for the post of cloak technician on the Indigatrix. Of course mr. Firth will join me in interviewing and selecting a proper candidate. 

There were a lot of applications... I am always surprised at how eagerly people put their fate in the hands of us, capsuleers. They must be lured by the spiritual rewards that come with greater impact for the glory of the Empire. Yet they are wrong to think that somehow work in space is worth more than work, say, in the vast wheat fields of Nakregde.

Anyway, I should not complain. The faster I get a new expert, the sooner I can quit collecting conduit data. The appearance of so many of these conduits does worry me a little bit. What if the Triglavians and the Drifters start fighting here in our space? Without guidance of the Empress, what side should we take, or should we just be happy to let them slaughter each other? The Triglavians threaten to drag our systems into Pochven, and the Drifters assassinated empress Jamyl I, both are dire enemies of the empire. But what if we are forced to take sides due to the nature of the conflict, for example if it threatens our populations? 

In that case, with Luna is still on leave, the acting directors of the Societas -whom we now met during the 'meet and greet' session- will have to make a choice.

Conduit data

Hopefully I can soon return to actual exploration rather than collecting data from these collapsed conduit sites. 

It is a menial task, but nevertheless half of new Eden's capsuleers seem to be going for these sites: It is hard to find one untouched by other explorers. One practically has to queue to get into them just like for a favorite ride in a theme park. Well, perhaps I exaggerate, but they are really quickly looted after they appear on the scanners.

They do not contain all that much of interest, to an archeologist interested in the ancients. There are some pieces of technology that will help access new parts of abyssal deadspace - and this is of course what matters to the Imperial Navy. So, I diligently hand these things in. 

The appearance of these collapsed conduits is, according to the Society of Conscious Thought related to a war between Triglavians and Drifters. It is set to spill over from abyssal deadspace into our own space. The navy seems to push capsuleers to construct filaments to access this abyssal battle space, which makes mr. Ivan Firth quite nervous. Suddenly, exploring conduits seems less of a priority to him.

Objections

There has been a bump in the road to Vale. The political officer disagrees with going there. Mr. Firth objected that it is not safe, and pointed out that there is plenty of exploration to do, even on Amarr itself, to which the recent discovery of an ancient lance point testifies.

I objected that this kind of exploration can be done by non-capsuleers, and that our particular gifts as capsuleers should be employed for situations that require our unique skills. God wants us all to make the most of our given talents, after all. 

I know where his hesitation comes from - he is unwilling to venture beyond concord controlled zones. I tried to assuage him by pointing out that the Indigatrix is already fit with extra measures to ensure crew survival after ship loss. 

He wants me to do more, and install a "life support backup unit" - a unit costing over hundred thousand isk. These were developed during the Triglavian war to reduce crew casualties. I agreed, even though that means that we will have to give up the zero-gravity 3D-obstacle ping pong room. 

This compromise was not enough: we will have to hire a new cloak technician before leaving highsec. I still have not gotten round to doing that. In the meantime, he has suggested I investigate the collapsed conduits that have popped up in (highsec) Imperial space, and bring whatever we find there to the MIO. That would be the Amarrian thing to do, he claims, and a proper use of capsuleer skills.

Tale of the King and the Judge

The outpost's name, "VOTE GIGX FOR C S M XIV" refers the Council of Stellar Management. The elections for CSM XIV took place in YC121. This Gigx was no candidate then, rather he was a deposed barbarian king. The constellation had been part of his kingdom "Circle of Two" just a year before, in YC120. 

According to legend, Gigx built his vast kingdom by being uncompromising, deceitful and brutal. He commanded absolute loyalty from his murderous troops. He reigned as a god, and his soldiers worshiped him, fueling his narcissism. Rumors have it that he started to believe that he was indeed a god, or at least an equal to the Amarr Emperor. Divine punishment was inevitable. Beneath the veneer of fearful worship, discontent was growing in his kingdom. 

It was growing also at the royal court, in the dark heart of the Judge, a member of the king's privy council. This judge was often ridiculed by the king, even though he was a great diplomat. The king took joy in the downfall of those whose success became threatening. So, he used the judge's diplomatic skills and reputation to gain the trust of the neighboring kingdoms only to betray them more effectively. Humiliated, the judge vowed to take revenge. 

For years he schemed and prepared the biggest heist ever recorded in the outer worlds. The king, believing all his followers were fearful worshipers of his godhood, had left the judge in charge of the treasury and of the keys to the main keep. One fateful day, when all preparations were done, the judge set his plan into motion. He stole 1.5 trillion ISK, and handed the keys of the keepstar over to the enemies of the realm, who slaughtered a large portion of the royal fleet. 

Though it was a hard blow, the king might have recovered from it, were it not that the judge had still prepared a final act in the theater of his vengeance. One from which the king, and his kingdom, would not recover. He had installed hidden cameras to record the king's temper as he heard the news of the theft and the lost ships. Oh, how disgracefully the king raged and frothed at the mouth! How he wailed in despair and panic as a little child! The judge streamed it all, so all his subjects could see it. The image of the God-King was shattered, and his followers scattered, demoralized. It was the end of Gigx's reign: he was forced to flee, never to be seen again, and his lands were divided up by his foes. 

Yet he must still have had some staunch supporters that believed in him, as this graffiti from a year after Gigx's fall from grace shows.

((ooc comments: I found the station and its name on Dotlan, and that is what led me to look up Gigx and find the tale of a heist that actually took place in Eve, which you can read about here. Of course, I can make no claim to know what really happened, nor do I know any of the persons involved, so beware: Theo's romanticized story must not be interpreted as an accurate portrayal of events or persons involved!))

The outpost in the vale

Blades of Grass seems to have been in control of the star system JZV-F4 and its constellation for two years now, and for the outer worlds this is a long reign. Perhaps they have built up some infrastructure, and I have been looking for possible stations that I can use as a base of operation. I was quite surprised to find in the records of the Amarr Trade Registry that there is an Amarr outpost in neighboring VORM-W. It is orbiting the fourth planet, an uninhabited oceanic world. 

This seems to be an old outpost, and it is odd to find one so deep in the wilderness. The records list that it was built on initiative from Ducia Foundry, to explore the mineral wealth of the constellation. Ducia is indeed known for far-flung operations, but I think the mining was just a front, as most personnel seems to have come from the Amarr Navy. So, in all likelihood this used to be a listening post to keep track of Jovian activity. 

Anyway, it was abandoned a long while ago, when the Jovian threat receded. I guess it was sold off to the  local barbarian warlords. Of that, there is no record, and officially it still belongs to the Empire. But there are no regular transports to or from the outpost any more. And, it has a strange name now, a name that is almost graffiti. It is called "VOTE GIGX FOR C S M XIV". 

Praise

The Amarr Certified News reported on the praise given by our blessed Empress Catiz to the Imperial Crusade for quelling the Cartel pirate insurgency in Mehatoor! 

My heart swelled with joy and pride hearing those words. Ah, that the loving gaze of our most holy Empress rested, however briefly, approvingly on our labor here in Mehatoor, and makes all those efforts worthwhile. I did good to join the Crusade's militia, at the right time, even if my stint with them was short and seemingly ineffectual.

No doubt this will boost the morale among our brave pilots and among the baseliner staff here at the Lamp.

Shores of an unknown sea (2)

((continued from 24/4))

The region that lies closer to Jove space than any other region is Vale of the Silent, to the southeast. It has a couple constellations just about 2 light years away from the Jove constellation 4I-WP1. In particular, the closest distance is the star JZV-F4 (in constellation 88G-M4, Vale of the Silent), which lies only 1.4 light years away from N-FKXV. If there are still hidden jump gates they are likely to be found there, in the constellation 88G-M4.

This constellation, the bridge to Jove space, is under the control of the "Blades of Grass alliance", in particular the corporation "I Love Woodland Nymphs". The title seems perfectly pacifist to me, evoking love rather than quarrel. They are the ones I should probably contact first to obtain right of passage through their lands, to explore the shores of Jove space. 

The figure shows the star systems within 3 light years of the southernmost Jove system of N-FKXV. Jove systems are indicated in red, stars in accessible space (all belonging to the nymphs of the Vale) are shown in blue. Coordinates are in lightyears (with x-y being the galactic plane and the origin centered on Amarr).

To complete the list: the remaining regions to the east of Jove space are Kalevale, Oasa and Cobalt Edge. They are buffered from Jove space by an uninhabited region, UUA-F4 that lies in between. These regions are controlled by "Pandemic Horde", but given their distance from Jove space are of lesser interest for my expedition.

Shores of an unknown sea

I have been reading constellation reports from the Ministry of Assessment on the geopolitics of the regions bordering Jove space. As fickle as the barbarians of the outer rim are, there appear to have been alliances that endured for a little while now in this corner of the cluster.

To the northeast of the Jovian regions J7HZ-F and A821-A  is our cluster's northernmost region, Tenal. It is governed by an alliance called Azure Citizen. The Azures have a treaty with the Fraternity alliance, which still owns the gateway systems to other regions.

Slightly south of Tenal, lies Venal. This region is the heartland of the Guristas, and visitors from the core worlds are generally not welcome there. Although, it appears that my non-violent stance resulted in my negative standing with the Guristas to be only -2.34, so I shall at least not be shot on sight.

The next region anticlockwise around Jove space is Tribute, to the east of A821-A. It is held by the Fraternity alliance. I note that their name does not refer to a religious brotherhood. There is one  system that is relatively close to Jove space, namely QFF-O6. It lies only 2.91 light years from W-WQM5 in Jove space. 

((to be continued))

Archaeology in the news

There was an interesting news item on Amarr Certified News (copied by the Scope) : it appears that archeologists have discovered an ancient lance implying that tournaments between Holders are older than previously thought. 

The common belief is that such tournaments originated during or around the Udorian wars, at the height of knightly culture. It was fashionable for young nobles to make their reputation during these wars on foreign shores. Back home, they were keen to show off their prowess and bravery, especially to the ladies of the Imperial court, during jousting tournaments.

The lance from the news has been discovered on Amarr island itself. That makes sense if it is to challenge the common belief that such tournaments originated around the Udorian wars. Indeed, if the practice is older than that, is has to take place on Amarr island, because before the Udorians arrived on our shores, we were not a seafaring people.

Tournament lances are different from combat lances, as shown below: 

To the right, you see a common combat lance. The lance-head is sharp and designed to kill. The left shows a blunted lance-head typically used for jousting. They were mounted on a heavy, difficult to control wooden lance-pole. The knights would thrust at each other with the heads of their lances, and try to unseat each other rather than kill each other. They would do so by first shattering shields and then very often splintering the opponents lance. In fact, knights inviting each other to a joust would do so by asking to "break lances with each other".

So, it is no wonder that very few tournament lances were recovered. Surviving lances from the early Udorian period are rare, and mostly identified from heraldry. It is not just the helmets and shields that were used for heraldic displays, but also the lances - they could bear inscriptions identifying the owner of the lance. In connection with the Book of Records, this can be a very useful method to date the items, perhaps more accurately than with radio-isotope dating. This must have led to the surprising conclusion that the lance mentioned in the news is indeed older than any other tournament lance found previously.

((ooc images attribution: The Metropolitan Museum of Art))

A hunch

During my explorations in Aridia I noted on several occasions interesting signs of Jove presence. They are not around today, but were in the past, and possible the recent past. They were quite active, especially in the Fabai constellation. I have already conjectures that they were monitoring the Blood Raider trail, waiting to intercept relics. 

The Jove have always been quite controlling about which technology should be available to the Empires and which should stay hidden. Yet it is not their will, but God's will that we should have back our holy Ametat and Avetat, even if these items hold unimaginable power! The Jove have no right to keep these hidden, but I am sure they tried, and certainly tried to get their diseased claws on the sanctified crown and sceptre. 

I am of a mind to investigate the Jove somewhat more. They are gone now - no one has seen any of them for years. Their empire consists of the regions known unpoetically as A821-A and J7HZ-F. These are the regions that they retreated to after God cast them out of heaven, or rather the Heaven constellation. Their regions seem no longer accessible, there are no official jump gates into them. Whether the Jove still persist in their isolated space or whether they have gone extinct is not officially known. To find out, one would have to access the inaccessible regions.

Now, there are still abandoned passages and jump gates and jump technology scattered throughout space. The best evidence are the gates to the hellhole system of Zarzakh, and the Jove station that the Deathless has appropriated there for himself and his cronies. So, why could there not also be secret passages into the Jovian regions? 

I am considering exploring the regions bordering the Jove domains to find out.

The new Ivan

My short-lived and ill-fated enlistment in the Amarr militia for the defense of Mehatoor did have one beneficial effect after all.

Mr. Ivan Firth, my political officer, took a fright when he heard about my enlistment. Indeed, he was a good enough judge of character to see at once that this was not a good match for me, and that keeping tabs on me while I tried out this new profession would only lead to my podding and his premature demise. We came to a mutual understanding that he would keep a close eye on the docked Indigatrix while I tested my mettle in the militia in other ships.

Now I have returned to scientific research in the Indigatrix. We do not talk about our previous arrangement - he seems keen to forget this episode. And he seems to be more relaxed (somewhat) and less high-strung and critical. I can even put on a glacial drift skin on the ship without getting a lecture about un-amarrian color schemes. 

I wonder how long this will last.

Space oddity

Gaun Arel found something interesting in space, an old wandering spaceship, and was thoughtful to report it back and bookmark its location. Of course, my interest was piqued. Moreover, the ancient ship was just one system away from Gamdis, a system of particular archaeological interest.

I had little trouble finding the artifact using Gaun's directions. It is a most gorgeous solar sail ship:

There is a gold-coated solar sail in front, and it carries along a small gondola attached by swaying cables to two masts, to which the sails are attached. The gondola is actually a kind of shuttle or lifeboat, with a ring not unlike the Stratios:

Note that the perspective here is deceptive: the gondola is actually quite smaller than the Indigatrix which here stands at a distance. The ship is comparable in size to a modern solar sailer such as the Zephyr designed by the Intaki scientist Valsas en Dilat. Perhaps en Dilat encountered this ship or one like this and got inspired? The back of the sail has a different reflectivity:

This ensures that there is a differential light pressure even in a cloud or diffuse light. There were no life-signs in the ship, but the vessel is still active, and powered up. It is just slowly sailing along. Concord has tagged it "Tom's ship". Someone must have scanned it and sent that information to concord. The pilot Tom must have passed away a very long time ago, as this ship shows signs of being adrift for many thousands of years. It was moving along at 0.2 - 0.3 m/s, perhaps it will accelerate somewhat when it gets nearer to the star.

Even though I find it suspicious that the vessel is so close to the Takmahl sphere of influence, it is clearly not a Takmahl design. Nevertheless, I was tempted to board the ship, and perhaps take it back for research. That would pose only minor difficulties, as it is not compatible with capsuleer technology, but that is no real obstacle. 

However, I  did not want to be the one who after all these thousands of years interrupts the journey of this magnificent  and majestic vessel, perhaps a tomb but certainly a monument to the ingenuity of humankind, and its indomitable spirit of exploration.

The answer

I received a letter from the Office of Captain Marshal Sirdan xer Qosh. How gallant of his lordship to answer me so quickly! 

Although, the answer itself is a bit disappointing.

"Ave Theodosius Savnar, valued Paladin Crusader,

We received your message from the frontlines in Mehatoor . We have read it with the greatest interest and you have our assurance that we are doing everything in our power to deal with the concerns raised by you. 

Amarr Victor!

PS. For quality assurance, this and future communications are being recorded and forwarded to the MIO."

Mehatoor corruption suppressed

Praise God, for he has granted us victory in Mehatoor! 

The Angel Cartel uprising has been stemmed, and the corruption suppressed in our home system. This time, Mehatoor will not descend into the lawlessness of a low security system. 

The dedication of our pilots, and the fact that the system itself was better prepared than the last time, paid off. Or, as the Directrix put it: "I guess the Empress yelling at the Holders worked".

For me, it is time for self-reflection. I zealously tried to participate, enlisting in the Amarr militia on impulse, driven by the will to serve the Empress. But I have to face the facts: I am simply no good as a soldier. 

I learned a lesson that, in fact, I already knew. It is one that in the past I have tried to explain to others. Namely: there are many ways to serve the Empire, none inherently more praiseworthy than the other. One must choose the path that best suits one's talents. For me, that is my clerical and academic service to LUMEN, and my explorations.

Cobbler, stick to your last.

Logistics lessons

I tried to give some logistic support today, using the Inquisitor class ship. Although finally I was able to do something within the confines of my vow, it was not much, nor was it very effective.

We tried to hold a "small" outpost against overwhelming odds in the enemy's preferred time zone, and ultimately failed. I could land some repairs here and there to fleet mates, but too little to turn the tide... Also, my little logistics ship got shot to pieces several times. But at least I learned a few basics of solo logistics: stay far enough from the fray, be fast enough to be hard to track, and do not forget to re-anchor when your anchor dies.

Despite my own failures, the combat against the Angel cartel seems to be going well overall, or at least better than during their previous incursion into Mehatoor. I pray that this time we can avoid the system turning lawless.

Pacifist attempts at warfare

The Angel Cartel corruption finally spilled over once again to Mehatoor. 

A third letter to lord Sirdan xer Qosh is in order. I found that not all available navy resources are used to combat the Angel Cartel in systems corrupted with pirate insurrection.

I took the Velocitas to a large Amarr outpost in Raa. I was able to use the acceleration gate. At that moment, the system contained a fleet of fifty-five Angel pirate capsuleers and not a single ally. Praying to God to keep me safe, I started orbiting the outpost at maximum speed, expecting the Angel pirates to come chase me away. They did not show up. A neutral appeared, and warped out, perhaps defeated by my so-called speed tank.

I proudly awaited the rise in suppression status after completing the task. Nothing happened! Moreover, I was informed that the job would not earn me any loyalty points in the Amarr Militia as the system is a rearguard or such. Scandalous! 

It turns out the outpost was not monitoring any Angel Cartel activity - only Minmatar rebel activity. All this while Raa is absolutely infested by the Cartel. Marshall Qosh probably does not know about his troops turning a blind eye to anything outside of their original assignment, I shall inform him. 

It gets worse. The only way to deal with the pirates - at least the only way I could find today - is to be on the offense rather than the defense. One has to warp to the Angel Cartel complexes, and actively combat them. For such attacks, the Velocitas is absolutely useless. Help comes from, no, not the glorious golden fleet, but Mordu's legion. What an outrage. 

The only way I see now to assist without breaking my vow is by providing logistics in fleets of our own capsuleers. I am not very experienced in that, although I did get some training by lord Utari Onzo-Gallius, paladin of the Excubitoris Chapter of the Order of the Sacred Throne. He also showed me a very cheap (so it can be sacrificed without concern) but quite effective fit of an Inquisitor class ship. Perhaps it can be of use to help in Mehatoor.

False advertising

I am writing another letter to marshall Sirdan xer Qosh, to inform his lordship of a severe defect to the Empire's acceleration gates, and I am putting the Secure Trade Commission in copy to warn them of deceptive advertising.

The gates do not permit shuttles to enter!

Yet, the structure, probably they bought it from Upwell, says: [This accelaration gate] "handles battleship size ships or smaller". Either they have really tiny battleships at Upwell, or this is clearly false advertising.

I have to change my plans, and use an unarmed, uncrewed frigate in stead - hopefully mr. Firth will not find out, or he might feel obliged to join. Well, mr. Firth will probably not want to find out, so that helps.

I will try a Punisher class ship, fitted with an oversized micro warp drive, a trick I learned from Dr. Moriarty during my stay at Eve Gate. It is cheap, and quite hard to track when circling around at ten kilometers per second. I think I heard Faith Griffiths once refer to this as "speed tanking".

Political Officer Panic

I was busy writing a letter to Sword Marshall Qosh, warning him of the dangers of allowing just any capsuleer into the Amarr Militia without proper vetting, when mr. Ivan Firth burst into my office, hyperventilating and not making sense.

He was having a panic attack. I calmed him down by reciting a very soothing passage of the Book of Trials while having him breathe in a paper bag.

"You... you enlisted in faction warfare? I thought you were an explorer, and only an explorer, and mostly highsec? That's what the Abbess told me!" He was about to cry. "You haven't fired a laser ever, and now you are taking us to the war zone in an unarmed exploration vessel?!? Is that your plan to kill me?"

I reassured him, "There is nothing to worry about. I will not take the Indigatrix. I will use a shuttle."

Now he cried.

"I intend to keep my vow, I will not engage enemy capsuleers."

That still did not reassure him.

"I can assure you I am quite good at running away."  I continued to explain, "I have read up and talked to friends. Apparently, one way to contribute is to assist our heavily armed Imperial Navy vessels while they are patrolling. You just have to hang around with them at an outpost and be an extra pair of eyes, and wait till a timer runs out. It is called 'defensive plexing'. Now, how dangerous can that be, hm?"

He cried again. 

"I am not taking the crew along, nor you. You can stay with them, here in station. On the Indigatrix." I added, "They like having you around and need your guidance." I will need to do penance for this lie.

He looked at me with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "But I am assigned to keep an eye on you. To go where you go."  I told him that he had been assigned to keep tabs on my exploration activities. The Reverend Mother Kahoudi did not specify that I should be monitored on a shuttle that cannot do exploration, and what if I sneak back to the Indigatrix, certainly his place should be there. It was not difficult to convince mr. Firth, and for the first time in a while I will be flying without the commissar.