Latest Situation

OC: This page represents information reasonably widely known enough that any character could choose to know it from sources relevant to themselves.

• Following a joint operation between the Galactic Cooperation, Zeitgeist Research Department, and Borderland Botanists, a successful planetfall has been made to the dangerous planet of Hive IV.
• The fauna of the planet is considered extremely dangerous, having previously brought violent ends to past expeditions, but the discovery of a Kylalian Pentagonal Site in the Fifth Sea and discovery of a form of gate that links to a safe location on Kylal near Kyholt has meant that a safe forward base has been established named “Beachhead”.
• The Kylal-Beachhead Gate is free to use for Missions provided they check in with the Borderlands Botanists who are operating the base camps.
• Further operations onto Hive IV can safely start from Kylal, using the Beachhead base as a forward operating point.
• Navigating Hive IV remains dangerous, with both Decay on top of the Beachhead as well as largely undocumented wildlife.
• Ongoing efforts to catalogue the wildlife will add to the Zeigeist Bestiary.
• For full information on the operation that achieved this, see the Mission Report.
• The ability to visit and potentially settle Hive IV has brought hope to the star system which has been suffering unrest due to concerns over the availability of resources and options for those stuck aboard the Stranded Fleet.

• The last words of Warded Path as she saved the Endeavour in The Heart of the Matter indicate that a twin Ship Heart to Endeavour had been destroyed and its power scattered across Hive IV.
• Researchers are greatly interested in discovering how this integrates with their current understanding.

• During Operation: Beachhead, something went drastically wrong aboard Endeavour resulting in the complete abandonment of the vessel.
• In an incident in which Startouched describe the Ship Heart Endeavour to have had a serious internal failure, the Ship Heart ceased to support numerous shipboard functions including life support, artificial gravity, and rescinded its protection against the Decay.
• Due to actions of explorers to help evacuate the ship, loss of life has been minimal, but Endeavour itself has gone dark. Communications are being ignored, the Ship Heart is only giving Startouched perfunctory and obtuse responses to requests, and Decay has been sighted slowly taking ahold of the ship.
• As of recent efforts (The Heart of the Matter), the Ship has been saved from destruction but the Ship Heart has entered a dormant state.
• Most individuals have been accounted for, except for the ship's Captain (Prof. Blistering Quarry) and its chief Mystic (Undying Dawn), the former who stayed behind and the latter who is MIA.
  • UPDATE: Undying Dawn is believed KIA, while Blistering Quarry is recuperating aboard Unquiet Journey.
• Firebrand and Her Glorious Command are flying a cordon around Endeavour - no ship is permitted closer without their express permission.
  • UPDATE: The cordon has been lifted for the main body of the ship, but a large floating chunk of Decay is being investigated by Unquiet Journey.
• Suggestions for solutions or investigations to the problem here are being actively sought from explorers.

• Following the events of a mission to transport cargo that crashed on Ace's World, tensions have been raised between the organisation headed by Aces High (ACE) and the Altarian vessel Her Glorious Command after the HGC vessel performed an indiscriminate orbital bombardment over a wide area in order to prevent ACE from claiming the cargo (a Ship Heart, as it transpired).
• Tensions have not deescalated as Her Glorious Command and Aces High both are levelling accusations against the other of warmongering as Aces High possesses what the Dynasts claim to be an unnecessary number of combat robots, while Aces High points to the excessive use of force on their world.
• This is not the first instance of Ace's World being the focal point for arguments about what is or is not legitimate, with the planet being the ground for a small diplomatic incident between ACE and the Aspexx Corporation over hacking and industrial espionage, accusations which did come to nothing but still linger in the air.

• Multiple sites on Kylal, and one on Hive IV, have been found that exhibit evidence of a civilisation that once inhabited the Keter Borderlands.
• The sites - which predate the surveying for terraforming seeding by aeons - all exhibit similar stonework architecture and are fixated around inverted regular pentagons (that is, with a flat top and pointed bottom).
• Explorers have entered these ruins and encountered guardians that continue to operate after considerable time that are made entirely of stone. Some advice has been given to simulate having 5 limbs in order to interact with these, but this advice's efficacy has been mixed.
• Evidence from attempting to interact further has indicated some sort of custodial or guardianship role of these stone constructs, indicating these sites held high importance.
• No direct evidence of what sort of being once lived here has been found so far.
• Importantly, one site contains a large pentagonal gateway that links to an identical structure in the Beachhead installation on Hive IV and allows instant travel between the two.

• Since the Orion Gate Incident, the gate has remained inoperable and the area has been cordoned off as heavily Decaying.
• Investigation teams have determined there is very little structurally surviving from the Gate, and have retrieved a partial Solar Shielded Flight Recorder recording of the final day.
• The data is not complete, and teams aboard the Firebrand have determined that at least two fragments of the data have been deleted at different timestamps.
• Explorers who discover the missing data would be exceptionally well rewarded.