[1] overview
[2] new players and characters
[3] plotline // planetshine // the long version
[4] plotline // planetshine // the short version
[5] plotline // planetshine // what is this i don't even
[6] plotline // everything else
[7] closing words



[1] overview

After yet another week and then some of general cognitive failure, it's high time for that newsletter I've been putting off. How do I know? Well, if I start maintaining a 'Plot' section in my simulation's encyclopaedia page, that tends to be a solid indicator that overview is sorely necessary.

So, without further ado, I bring you Planetshine.

And some other stuff, I guess.



[2] new players and characters

Hi, Larisa.

Okay, no, actually, there's a little more than that. For one, Diethyla keeps waiting for a means to introduce his character, who so happens to be related to Shoe's Mandalore character. For two, Mandalore is also new. Didn't see that one coming, did you? Yes, it's been that long.

There's also Saru with their character Saru Kosoku, but no one seems to know who that is! Saru, if you're reading this, hello! Introductions in #dataclaw? :) Maybe? Please? ^_^



[3] plotline // planetshine // the long version

So, Planetshine was, the last time we looked in its general direction, almost mindnumbingly straightforward for our clones Citizens. The Aspen Wisp had picked them up two months prior and treated them not at all like second class citizens, but as equals. As it is, all Citizens that were around during the last newsletter are at least Ensigns by now. No more cadetting around!

However, that does not mean all Citizens are endowed with a rank; since the last newsletter, Corinthian was found by Kasabian [#171] and joined the crew [#173], as did Amithia [#179] (acquainting herself with the others a bit more in #188) and Mandalore [#186]. Mandalore's case, however, is interesting. But to understand what happened with Mandalore, you need to understand Planetshine as a whole first, because much has happened:

Early on the 30th of January, The Aspen Wisp was notified that communication coming from Argider Virgo had cut out unexpectedly a few days prior [interlude 'The Ripple']. While general consensus at the time is to brush it off as a local issue entirely, given it was a research outpost in the first place, and there is no greater haste to figure things out, Kasabian assumes a connection to the clones (the Citizens), since such a large group of them unattended and the Argider system event together seems like a large coincidence to her.

Adino Vulpecula decline sending a search party, having no resources to spare for the endeavour, but Avani Eridani sends a civilian scouter on the 29th, before news even reaches the battle cruiser. Kasabian, however, wants eyes of her own out there and immediately sends a Zirkon class scouting vessel out to take a look at Argider Virgo. Aboard are Ensign Sirena Blades and Lieutenant Karan Cheshire.

As they reach the system and are confronted with no sign of the Avani search party and no sign of life in general, Cheshire advises to caution, then finally to an early withdrawal, deeming it infinitely more important to get the information back than to try and be reckless acquiring more. Most notably, he is strongly against landing or approaching the dead planet. [#174]

While they are gone, the Citizens muse about the sudden 'plot activity' in the simulation. At the time, with no data from the system to work with, Citizen consensus is that an invasion might either be in progress or imminent. [#175] The data that returns, however, does not do all that much to support that theory. Instead, it seems to be some kind of cosmic catastrophe, seeing as tectonic shifting and stellar pulses seem to be involved.

A day later, the civilian scientist Lynn Laninga is paired up with Sirena as an eyewitness to the system, asking some intelligent questions that the raw data gathered does not yield, [#176] but ultimately applies a slightly too generous helping of Occam's Razor to their theories. On the first of Feburary, she thus delivers a dry, 'nothing to worry about, this was unfortunate but won't happen again' style report that, as it's made available, prompts more discussion about the sim's plot by the Citizens, largely questioning whether or not the whole thing was a red herring of sorts. [#177]

Another day later and elsewhere in the simulation, Mandalore connects, promptly having a run-in with some rather politically paranoid individuals who believe him to be trying to sabotage their ship, the Adwaita, in Adino Vulpecula (a system that only recently peacefully seceded from Tuyet Sagitarii but has no real way of defending itself currently). [#178] He's shunted into a room after a generous decision not to kill him is made - only to be hauled out on the fifth of February by a frantic Gordon Sewick, one of those that had roughed him up in the first place, wanting to know what he did to their internal sensors, desperate and frightened about some alien force. [#180] The invisible affliction kills him not much later, but leaves Mandalore untouched, letting him pilot the ship thanks to the ship control design being the same in an MMORPG he played, toward the Khalil Scorpii jump node. There he's picked up by a search and rescue party, there because Adino Vulpecula blinked off the map.

Back on the Aspen Wisp, the news hits like a ton of bricks. Karan Cheshire all but dissolves at the news, blaming himself for not having done a subspace scan at all and essentially begging Sirena - who had wanted to stay in the system longer and gather more data - for guidance. [#181] They decide on another scouting mission, this time with an armed wing in case there's something sapient out there armed with a planet buster weapon. This prompts Sirena to approach Frederick, hoping he might do her the favour of passing on a few words to her family back offline if she dies (again) in the line of duty. [#182] The conversation doesn't go quite as planned, but of course, the show must go on.

On the sixth of February, the second Aspen Wisp scouting mission is sent out, a fighter wing headed by Captain Sven Haugen, with Karan Cheshire piloting Sirena's craft and helping her with the read-outs. [#183] Rather than discover opposition, however, they discover what is later called 'Cosmic Rain', a plasmatic substance apparently eager to weave in and out of subspace during its travels. Unfortunately, they get a bit too close trying to gather data, and lose one of the Larimar and its pilot. The rest make it back safe, however, along with the information that the Cosmic Rain seems to move along 'subspace crevices', little imperfections in real space puncturing into subspace that subspace-capable craft leave behind.

It is then that Mandalore reaches the Aspen Wisp, his survival and the surprise at his lack of identification in combination having come to Kasabian's attention. Sure that his survival cannot be chance, she wonders if his survival is a trait of his own, or if it's a general 'clone' trait - but does not choose to push her luck. She does, however, ask him various questions, [#186] and given her knowledge that he piloted a ship, has him assigned to a crashcourse in flying the fighters and on completion of the course immediately bestows him with the Ensign rank, making him a usable part of the crew.

Regardless of Mandalore, with new care taken not to approach the substance, another mission is sent out on the eleventh of February to explode a subspace drive in the path of the Cosmic Rain to 'see what it does'. [#187] The mission is a raging success in that it causes a lot of fractures into subspace that noticably slow the Rain down - but unfortunately does not stop it - and that both Haugen and Sirena, who were sent on that mission, came back safe.

The success inspires a concentrated effort called 'Escher Project' setting out to not only find a way to create a subspace jump entirely artificially (the existing ones are natural, with the major ones stabilised), but to cut off the end point and twist it in on itself enough to make a trap that cannot be escaped. Since the necessary geometries are not very realspace compatible, the name 'Escher' was chosen. The product of their efforts is, accordingly, colloquially referred to as the 'Escher Bomb'. Sethiss gets to be one of the people to work on it [#189].

On the 17th February, a prototype finally exists. The theory of it seems sound enough, but engineering was given a shocking timeframe to work on it - the urgency being due to the observations of Khalil Scorpii 'Pulsing' and fresh Rain leaving that system in direction of Helios Cassiopeiae and Avani Eridani, two of the five established inhabited systems. Captain Sven Haugen, Sirena and Mandalore are sent on a mission together, with Haugen meant to deliver the prototype. [#190] The prototype malfunctions as it's triggered - or rather, had no means to function properly - and the resulting 'space ripple' tears Haugen's craft apart and nearly does the same to Mandalore and Sirena's.

The failure upsets both Sethiss, who reveals to Frederick that she has plans to - if the sim and its solving allow - stay here rather than move on to the next world [#191], and Sirena, who feels at least equally responsible for Haugen's death as engineering [#193]. Mandalore, being fresh into the network and used to playing games online, is considerably less bothered by Haugen's death, which prompts the Puppets to put him in a room with the Ensign counsellor Teiresia in case his appearance is only a mask. [#192]

Then the until that point unthinkable happens: Not stopped in time, the Cosmic Rain passes into Avani Eridani and thus marks the first time one of the primary inhabited systems is in imminent danger. Having watched Khalil Scorpii with care, the Puppets understand that the Rain - aside from being hazardous to their health - triggers some kind of reaction from a system it invades that causes the stars in it to mass-produce more Rain, which then strives to leave it. The same event is what causes the planetary tectonic shift and the very... abrupt death of anything on the planet - though admittedly, since Khalil Scorpii was evacuated from any human personnel, the last point is certainly only inferred. Needless to say, however, they don't want to see that happening to Avani Eridani. A somewhat desperate mission attempting to buy the Escher project more time is launched to explode a few subspace drives in the path of the Rain both on its way deeper into Avani Eridani and pre-emptively just at the edge of Helios Cassiopeiae. The effort is estimated as buying them two days more time.

As the Rain breaches Helios Cassiopeiae and political tensions spike noticably, the Aspen Wisp returns to its home system, Bhaskar Cygni, a single jump away from Helios Cassiopeiae. Serious discussion on whether or not to find a way to collapse the subspace nodes and cut off the infected systems before the Rain can spread any further and become unmanageable is had, especially in light of the full Pulsing estimates available at that time. Thanks goes to Kor for transferring my spreadsheet into something for public consumption!

And that is where we are right now.

Ergo, pretty fucked.



[4] plotline // planetshine // the short version

The raw facts. Some of this stuff I didn't even write in the longform version.

27.01: Argider Virgo communication cuts off unexpectedly as the system Pulses.
28.01: Nothing of note happens.
29.01: Avani Eridani send out a civilian scouting party to investigate.
30.01: News reaches the Aspen Wisp, who immediately send out a scouting party, as well. Research shows a tectonic shift on the planet but comparatively little seismic activity - the research station is still standing - but no sign of life, not even in orbiting ships. The orbiting ships show a microfractured hull. Spectral stellar analysis shows fluctuations reminiscent of a stellar pulse. Unnerved, the scouting team returns back to the Aspen Wisp without landing.
31.01: The data is analysed.
01.02: A report goes around, whereby the Argider Virgo event is described as a stellar gravitational pulse and mass ejection that radiated everyone to a crisp and damaged the already tidally ravaged planet's tectonics by providing an additional stressful geologic tug. The Citizens are not quite convinced by this.
02.02: Mandalore links into the sim, and Cosmic Rain (see 'Terminology') passes from Argider Virgo into Adino Vulpecula.
03.02: Nothing of note happens.
04.02: Amithia finally reaches the Aspen Wisp as advertised.
05.02: Mandalore becomes the sole survivor of the Adwaita as communication from Adino Vulpecula cuts out, making the Aspen Wisp (and the head of the first scouting mission, Lieutenant Cheshire) very, very upset.
06.02: A scouting mission with fighter backup is sent into Adino Vulpecula, expecting some kind of alien force to battle, but finding, instead, finally, the Cosmic Rain.
07:02: Nothing of note happens aside from generic 'how do we not all die' plotting on part of the Puppets and Citizens.
08.02: More of that.
09.02: Cosmic Rain passes from Adino Vulpecula into Khalil Scorpii, something that is, this time, a well-documented event.
10.02: Mandalore reaches the Aspen Wisp and is interviewed.
11.02: A mission is sent to Khalil Scorpii hoping to intercept the Rain with a subspace drive explosion. It manages to slow it down.
12.02: The success inspires work on The Escher Bomb.
13.02: Focus is on the Escher project.
14.02: Focus is on the Escher project. Khalil Scorpii Pulses, added further urgency to the plan.
15.02: Focus is on the Escher project.
16.02: A prototype Escher Bomb is built.
17.02: The prototype is delivered into the path of the Cosmic Rain heading toward Avani Eridani, but fails and kills Captain Sven Haugen in the process.
18.02: Cosmic Rain passes from Khalil Scorpii to Avani Eridani, marking the first time an inhabited system is in imminent danger. It prompts a mission to delivers a few tactically placed Subspace Punches to the edge of Avani's system near the incoming Rain. The same is done to the edge of Helios Cassiopeiae. Estimates are that it buys them two days.
19.02: The pressure on the Escher project reaches a breaking point and more desperate alternatives such as jumpnode collapses are considered.
20.02: The Rain passes into Helios Cassiopeiae, where it funnels toward the Punches. Political tensions skyrocket, but that goes without saying. The Aspen Wisp jumps back into Bhaskar Cygni, knowing that it cannot help anyone if it gets itself caught in a Pulsing system.
21.02: There are firm discussions about whether to cut off Helios and Avani from the rest of the subspace grid.

Terminology:

• Cosmic Rain: A plasmatic substance triggering Pulsing that is attracted by Subspace Crevices and subspace jumps in general.
• Escher Bomb: Subspace weapon that creates an entry-only jumpnode, in part by providing no exit point and in part by having a complex subspace geometry that does not permit exit through the point entered. And if we say 'complex', we mean 'not actually possible in real space'. Which explains the name, like, ttly.
• Pulsing: An event in which a star sends out more Cosmic Rain and the planets in the system undergo a tectonic shift, and everyone dies. Quite distressing, you'll understand.
• Subspace Crevice: Path left behind naturally by subspace capable craft, their drives causing the creation of tiny subspace jumps by 'damaging' real space.
• Subspace Punch: Detonation of a subspace drive in an attempt to deliberately 'damage' real space enough to attract the Cosmic Rain significantly.

Ranks (totally not mentioned up there, actually!):

• Sirena got promoted to Junior Lieutenant.
• Joukahainen got promoted to Lieutenant.
• Everyone else sucks.

[5] plotline // planetshine // what is this i don't even

IC information saturation has roughly reached its peak. But if you're asking yourself what it is you're actually seeing and you'd like to know just for the sheer OOC novelty of it, there is, of course, an in-world explanation for these events.

Originally I was going to write my musings all over again in a way that flowed better, but then it ended up being ten in the evening and three hours into newslettering and I'm still coughing my lungs out, so I'll take the utterly cheap route and simply paste you what I told Morgrim earlier and subsequently pasted to Kor:

Oh, wait. This contains spoilers, by the way, in case you're dense enough not to realise that. If you want to figure it out by yourself in your spare time, don't read on.

Right. My ramble was this:

The idea behind the Planetshine event that you're currently witnessing is based super vaguely on plantlife. I figured there's a lot of 'living planet' trope use (usually sentient or even sapient), but what 'bugs' me about those is that they try to elevate a single planet into some kind of special position. Solaris, for example, is one of a kind. Chiron in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is definitely one of a kind, also, based on all native life on it netting together to provide neural patterns.

So, okay, how about all planets are alive? Scratch that, how about stellar systems are alive? If you compare, say, plantlife to animals, you usually have a massive difference in the timescales where observing the entity (casually) lets you understand that it's alive. Now assume we've got something that's even more lethargic on average. But also, like some plants - like the snapping carnivorous plants - still capable of in some scenarios acting in a significantly shorter timespan.

Planetshine is a world that allows subspace connections. Who says they have to be from open space to open space? Why not from the heart of a star to the planets of the system? You'd have planets like fruiting bodies or like leaves or whathaveyou, and a whole connected organism, entirely knit together through subspace.

What we're seeing is that we may have poked one of them a bit too hard and provoked a bit of a reaction. The tidal force research of Argider Virgo had probes pushing deep into the planet in question. It was, perhaps, a little too deep. It triggered something, like a sudden toothache, and the planet - I don't really want to say 'bloomed', because that's not the right analogy at all, but it's somehow the best word to describe the visual - well, something happened to it, something permeated through subspace and realspace both, and deliberately did a sort of cleansing sweep across the entire surface, a bit reminiscent of scratching. But it's an immune system reaction and the creature assumes that whatever it is dealing with may require warning its fellow creatures, in case its act was too late (only time will tell if there will be a health fallout from this intrusion), and so it sends out the information like informative... spores of a sort.

That is the Cosmic Rain. If enough of it touches another stellar system, it triggers a cascade that covers all planets of the system in that sort of protective real-space-sub-space cocoon, like a slime of sorts (P.S. it's really hard to find anything even halfway analogous to what I want to convey :[), in the hope that a penetration into the creature from whatever foreign threat it was becomes infinitely harder.

...for us, it's unfortunately pretty lethal, since the whole subspace-realspace fluctuations are not healthy for organisms that are firmly realspace-oriented and not expecting a suckerpunch from Elsewhere. >.> </gross oversimplification for the sake of brevity>

If the systems were sapient, Argider Virgo would probably have said: "...oops, sorry, reflex." But they're not. So they just react on very low level.

And that's all there is to it!

If you want to make me feel good, take a moment to tell me how brilliant it is. Of course only if you think so. By proxy, I will unhealthily interpret silence as 'Oh my god this sucks kill it with fire and don't let pinkgothic near the GMing end of the stick ever again!'.

<3 you all.



[6] plotline // everything else
Brought to you courtesy of Kor!

Note: This paragraph pertains to forward-dated plot; you can treat it as accurate for the timespan 13 SEP 2011 to 12 OCT 2011 (rather than the timespan mentioned in the newsletter headline).
Zapoc has involved... a lot of walking, actually. The group managed to find another Citizen who had been trapped, during an attack by a zombie child upon a faith healer who had been attempting to heal her illness. [#172] They then decided to steal liberate the Faith Healer's supplies for their own use and head south, looking for the rumored research facility at Stanford University.

Offline, Jen and Andrew have discovered The Musical Genre Man Was Not Meant To Invent, in a highly-NSFW log that has little to no relation to any sort of plot. [#185]

Addition from pinkgothic: Yes, we're just going to ignore #184 because (1) pure character development (2) no relation to main plot (3) lol super backdated.



[7] closing words

*eyes length of the newsletter and bursts out sobbing* Oh god why.