Asteroid Blues - Departure

#Connecting to Maya Hexahedron Secure Net
SOURCE HANDSHAKE: … Accepted
//-Sourcing Maya Stream: “Asteroid Blues – Departure”
-*WARNING* Stream Interrupted…
WARNING – THIS BROADCAST HAS BEEN CLASSIFIED INDIGO-DARK BY THE INNER HEXAHEDRON – Rebroadcasting this material without appropriate authority will result in official sanction.
//-Enter Authorisation: ************
-Authorisation Accepted..
//Loading…
// Mayacast Begins…

Admiral JCJ [REDACTED] – Flag Aboard POS Phoenix – OIC PanOceanian Fleet Detachment “Taniwha”

Support operations for Boomerang Corps, and Long Range Operation Group deployment, complete.

Frigate POS Monash sweep of the Helicon Belt and Trojans successful, one pirate vessel engaged and destroyed.
Frigate POS Chaytor sweep of the Orthys Belt and orbital facilities successful, Shasvastii infiltrators and Combined Army engineering team uncovered on the Jˇıng Qì facility and eliminated by boarding teams.
Cruiser POS Melbourne, Frigate POS Nasution and Transport POS Riker holding station by Abyss Gate.
Battleship POS Phoenix, Frigate POS Bonifacio and Transport POS Reynolds returning to the Abyss Gate from Novyy Bangkok in the Homeric Belt.

Light casualties to Long Range Operations Group assault teams due to operations against Combined Army and other actors on Novyy Bangkok. Requests for resurrection attached: {attachment HIGH PRIORITY}

Operations at Liberty Cargo deemed successful, despite late Haqq intervention. Operations on The Strip cancelled. Operations in The Gorge and Gallery Maze ineffective, cancelled on request of ALEPH.

Detailed report follows.

//- …Mayacast Ends
– Access recorded: LOG 3085I-74
WARNING – THIS BROADCAST HAS BEEN CLASSIFIED INDIGO-DARK BY THE INNER HEXAHEDRON – Rebroadcasting this material without appropriate authority will result in official sanction.
Hexahedron Secure Net #Disconnecting…

As the POS Phonenix and her support ships manoeuvred away from Novyy Bangkok, the Admiral could not help but smile. To be fair any operation which required only the deployment of Spec Ops teams and no ship-to-ship combat usually did.

Although the difficulties of deploying teams quietly in such a remote location had stymied their offensive efforts, and even made supporting ALEPH more challenging than expected, the Status Quo had largely been maintained. As always, that meant another win for PanOceania.

Boomerang Corps had proved to be an effective tool for the Inner Hexahedron, and the Long Range Operations Group a suitable personal proxy. Proving that had been worth the cost of involvement in these “Asteroid Blues” as Maya had dubbed the crisis.

His Geist was streaming the maya feeds from the analysts, pouring over what had been found regarding the Shasvastii infiltration, and the expected purpose of the Combined Army engineering teams. He offered up a quick prayer that they were wrong. If the Evolved Intelligence really was building a gate, for another wormhole into their space, and bypassed the Archeron Blockade (with all the attendant losses that the passage and blockade extracted) as well as the bottleneck of Paradiso entirely…

He shuddered, the smile swept clear from his features.

The hell of the breakthrough which had led to the Third Offensive on Paradiso danced through his memory. Just one EI gunboat had smashed aside the pride of the Human Sphere, O-12, PanOceanian and Yu Jing alike. The idea of a whole fleet making it through without disruption was a true horror.

Glancing across the bridge, his eye landed on the Pnoenix’s pilot, the Omn Starfish Lassit, and Fleet Sensor Officer Warwick. He tried not to imagine them floating, bodies ruined by the void. But even in this effort, he failed. Knowing the power of those Combined Army ships made it all too easy to imagine even the tough old Phoenix broken open by that furious plasma fire.

Hopefully someone had a plan.

But it was hard to imagine how any plan would be more than a suicide mission…

Asteroid Blues - Profile: Juan Silagast

All by faith

Juan Silagast is just a name. An unusual name, of French origin, but well known within the PanOceanian Christian church. On the battle front few recognize him among the troops of hyperpower. But if the XIII century is mentioned ... then that changes.

Silagast was a young boy with a French father and a Spanish mother when the neo-colonial wars had barely begun. His proximity to the city of Santiago and his mother's devotion led him to enlist among the ranks of the soldiers of Christ. First as a sergeant of order, years later as a volunteer among the magister knights, he soon won the appreciation and admiration of his comrades. A little habitual reflexive temperament, and rarely given to exacerbated fanaticism that the rest showed with pride, as well as a clear altruistic vocation made him win various distinctions. After several periods of service he ended up with a shot in the back during an evacuation operation in enemy territory in which he saved the lives of 4 team members before falling.

Many soldiers fall in war, but that casualty weighed heavily for his immediate superior and he was put forward for the church supervised resurrection program.

Silagast was brought back to life with a mature-looking lhost. In fact, at the time of his death he was 60 years old and had an aged appearance, with lush white beard although in a body with a portentous physique.

His reinstatement was done by assigning him directly to the order of Calatrava and was a recognition of his extensive merits in high-risk operations in which Juan always put the welfare of civilians and their comrades ahead of their own health. In his new position, already a father knight, Silagast earned his XIII century nickname as he showed good judgment in every situation and always offered insightful and ingenious advice in conflict situations. His appearance of affable old man also had much to do. It was during these years when he had several missions in various diplomatic destinations in living conflicts, such as the first disputes in the colonization of Paradiso and in some skirmishes with organizations, such as the Druze, in the same Earth.

Reassigned to Paradiso months after the 1st offensive he dedicated himself to training and acclimatizing the newly assigned knights in the front of Norstralia to temper their momentum and teach them that the combined army was not an enemy that could be overcome with brute force and a frontal assault.

During the same 1st offensive XIII century had the opportunity to liaise with a Merovingian detachment in the north of the Norstralia continent. There he would have a good friendship with a young Zuavo officer, extremely bright in lightning operations and of an affable and dialogic nature. The personality of both caused a certain complicity to be forged and the coordinated operations between the Merovingian and Teutonic forces on the northern front were really successful. It is worth mentioning the episode in which Officer François Foxep led an offensive under the command of mechanized forces of Zuavos with the aim of rescuing a company of knights, among which was Silagast, who had been pocketed by Morat troops. That just sealed a relationship of respect and appreciation that would last for many years.

After a few months and after hundreds of hours of sharing experience and advice among military order officers, during a shasvastii raid Silagast met his destiny again. A specular command threatened to end the life of Father Commander Ibarra, at the moment in command of the 46th Sepulchre Guards Regiment, an elite force with base near Runenberg to reinforce any point in the front. Silagast detected the infiltration thanks to his knowledge of human behavior and observation skills and got in the way of the sword that would end Ibarra's life, costing his own life in return.

Ibarra was not to forget the gesture and urgently requested the reinstatement of Silagast in a last model lhost and his assignment to the 46th Sepulchre Guards. As soon as he woke up and saw himself in a mirror, Silagast demanded to recover his previous appearance and this would only reinforce the myth of the XIII century name. The father knight Juan knew well the temperament of men and soldiers and his appearance as an elder was as much an advantage to instill confidence and respect in his diplomatic tasks as well as a trick in the front line, where more than one rival had taken his old appearance as a weakness only to be crushed by his colossal brute force.

Already in its third cycle in the PanOceanian forces, Silagast was sent to different fronts such as Flamia's during the crisis that took place there, at the Wotan jump gate and ultimately at Kurage, as a link between the panoceanic military forces and the JSA and where it carried out some clash actions defending the Panoc-23 base from yu jing incursions as well as CA.

In the present, after a brief period in Paradiso where he coincided again with the already promoted to diplomatic delegate François Foxep, he was entrusted with the mission of coordinating the hospitalier and sepulchre knight forces with the troops of the Ariadna expeditionary force to maintain free the pulasky communications route to Strelsau. It was during this operation that the hexahedron intelligence corps informed him of the shasvastii  incursion and Silagast was assigned to deal with it in the Human Edge system.

It was time for Father Knight Juan Silagast to embark again and give his best in a new destination. His tactical brilliance and good hand in diplomatic relations were to be required in Novyy Bangkok. Silagast would put his experience at the service of hyperpower as a diplomatic delegate of the Panoceanian high command ... and if we talk about experience, few human beings are treasured as much as XIII century, who has (after all) earned his nickname for good reason.

Asteroid Blues - Liberty Cargo

Welcome to Liberty Cargo: Novyy Bangkok

Liberty Cargo’s activity in Human Edge is intense. As an independent company, separate from the big transport giants such as Compass Transportation or Interspace Trust Corporation, Liberty Cargo is more flexible and sympathetic to the needs of its customers.

This company boasts a bureaucracy adapted to a frontier setting like Human Edge. This is another way to say that while all the procedures regarding permits and certificates are automated with respect to the Novyy Bangkok authorities, who receive a bonus for facilitating these processes, Liberty Cargo never asks questions about the cargo they are hired to transport.


Liberty Cargo’s facilities on Novyy Bangkok are located on the surface of this asteroid, where it has a small astroport equipped with a point defense system sanctioned by the government, given the hazardous nature of the area. The astroport has surface anchors as well as semi-subterranean hangars connected to the second level of the facilities: the cross-docking area and the main warehouses. Protruding from the superficial regolith, stands the traffic-control dome. This structure, also semi-subterranean, houses the administration offices and the quantronic server.


If you are looking to transport goods anywhere in the Human Edge, or beyond, contact Liberty Cargo: Nobyy Bangkok today!

Join PanOceania on Novyy Bangkok NOW!

Asteroid Blues - VIRD Team 1 Field Report

#Connecting to Maya Hexahedron Secure Net

SOURCE HANDSHAKE: … Accepted

//-Sourcing Maya Stream: “Asteroid Blues - VIRD Team 1 Field Report”

-*WARNING* Stream Interrupted…

WARNING – THIS BROADCAST HAS BEEN CLASSIFIED INDIGO-DARK BY PAN OCEANIA SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND – Rebroadcasting this material without appropriate authority will result in official sanction.

//-Enter Authorisation: **********

-Authorisation Accepted..

//Loading…

// Mayacast Begins…


Lieutenant Colonel de L’Arbre – VIRD Team 1 – POSOC Forward Operating Base Sianfiarge


VIRD Team 1 has been operational in the sector for 23 days (NeoTerra standard.) We've been tasked with identifying and establishing contact with the non-aligned elements (NAEs) operating in the sector.  Because of Team 1’s previous experience liaising with NAEs during the Japanese Secession, and again during the Kurage conflict on Dawn, PanOceania Special Operations Command felt our team was uniquely qualified for the role.


Enclosed is a summary of our findings:


Japanese Secessionist Army (JSA): Special Operation Command's communications with the JSA during Kurage were channeled through a Japanese-controlled corporate front, Tasaka Strategic Consulting, which was was plugged directly into the intelligence, recon, counter-intel and clandestine warfare efforts of the Japanese Secessionist Government.  However, our attempts to establish contact in this theater haven’t generated any results.  We’ve confirmed that the corporation still exists (the funding they received through Hexahedron shell corporations during Kurage has certainly kept them in business.)  We speculate that the heavy casualties they suffered during the Yu Jing incursion around Kurage has forced them to temporarily withdraw from field operations.  It is not yet clear if the Secessionist Government has secured an alternate contractor in the interim, and whether they plan any joint combat operations with PanOceania forces during this time.  I advise we abandon backchannel communication, and pursue open dialog via broadband Diplomatic Channels.


Druze Bayram Security (DBS): The DBS were heavily invested in the Kurage campaign.  While we’ve detected their combat teams present in this sector, they’ve avoided or rejected our attempts to make contact.  We attempted to coerce dialog by interdicting one of their smuggled arms shipments, hoping to use it to trigger negotiations, with plans to return the shipment as a sign of good faith.  Rather than negotiate however, DBS staged an op against us, trying to reclaim their arms through force.  Team 1 succeeded in annihilating the DBS incursion team in self-defense, also securing 4 prisoners during the skirmish.  Unfortunately, they all succeeded in killing themselves via wetware implants before we could put any neurological restraints in place.  Our advisers suggest that further punitive action may encourage them to negotiate, but with recent upheavals in their leadership structure, there’s no guarantee they won’t simply escalate their attacks against PanOceania-held targets instead.  DBS is a wildcard, and we can detect no figure of central leadership willing to negotiate with PanOceania.

The Free Company of the Star (StarCo): StarCo represents a unique challenge.  While apparently free-lance, both their operational ethos and their close ties to the Nomad conglomerates mean that StarCo tends to do whatever their Nomad handlers want them to.  During Kurage, they proved unreliable to the Japanese Secessionist Leadership, tending to align more closely with Nomad objectives.  This seems highly likely to be a pattern we can expect to see continue in the Human Edge.  In an attempt to make contact, we staged an operation to spring one of their Data Manipulation specialists from local lockup.  That operation was successful, and we’ve delivered her to a safehouse while we negotiate pickup by StarCo.

Dahshat: At present, I advise against negotiation/collaboration with Dahshat.  Preliminary surveillance indicates a large contingent of Helot freelancers in their organization.  We’re still filtering the results through Hexahedron, O-12 and Blue Sea databases, but we have identified at least six Helots with active ties to the Libertos Paramilitary group on Varuna.  If any armed crisis escalates in the region, I strongly advise authorizing field operations against Dahshat.  Taking any of these Helots alive would be invaluable for our counter-terror efforts on Varuna, particularly in identifying the off-world funding channels that are keeping the Libertos armed and active.

Foreign Company (ForCo): Foreign Company’s priorities are, as of yet, unknown.  At present, their operational priority seems to be VIP escort and high-profile protection assignments.  Their corporate negotiator mentioned they’re finalizing contracts in the area (longest contract duration: 6 weeks, NeoTerra standard) so we should expect them to become a committed regional player.  At present, we’re liaising through their established client channels, using one of their client encrypts in order to establish dialog.  Has the Hexahedron discussed the possibility of leveraging/coercing Valkyrie, as well as ForCo’s large contingent of PanO veterans?  If possible, we may be able to secure partnership (or at least non-aggression) from ForCo by promising expanded Aristeia broadcast rights.  Another suggestion is to offer them exclusive contracts, with non-compete clauses, to protect PanOceanian personnel and corporate holdings.


Spiral Company (Spiral): It’s confirmed that Spiral has already been operating in the region for the past 3 months, with contracts focused entirely on anti-Shasvaastii investigation and interdiction.  They’ve staged at least 4 highly publicized raids in that time period, supposedly against Shas cells and/or Sepsitorized targets.  However, our own intel indicates that the Combined Army presence, even at highest estimate, is nowhere near pervasive enough to justify the kind of escalation and field operations we’re seeing from Spiral.  It’s strongly implied that they have an ulterior motive for launching their operations in the area, potentially in tandem with the remnants of Triumvirate High Command.  We recommend that the Hexahedron investigate immediately. 


Conclusion:

Based on our intel efforts, I believe that Non-Aligned Mercenary Companies will play a minimal role in the sector.  Their individual power is negligible, and they’re utterly devoid of central leadership.  Additionally, given how critical mercenary support was to the Japanese defensive efforts in Kurage, the lack of mercenary support renders the Japanese Secessionist holdings extremely vulnerable to external assault.  Given the staging of multiple Banners of the Yu Jing Army in the sector, and the increase in perimeter foot patrols by Yu Jing military and security personnel, I believe a massive Yu Jing offensive is simply a matter of time.  Team 1’s operationally ready, and will keep you apprised of any developments.


//- …Mayacast Ends

– Access recorded: LOG 3228D-29

WARNING – THIS BROADCAST HAS BEEN CLASSIFIED INDIGO-DARK BY PAN OCEANIA SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND – Rebroadcasting this material without appropriate authority will result in official sanction.

Hexahedron Secure Net #Disconnecting…

Asteroid Blues - The O-12 View

At this point in time, when the pressure exerted by the EI forces seems about to breach our defenses on the Paradiso front, the conclusions reached by our team of analysts may seem farfetched to you. But you must believe us, this threat is real and dreadful. I beg you, do as we have done: look beyond the turmoil and the conflagration of the combat on Paradiso. Lift your eyes to the unfathomable void and see what’s hiding there.

It may very well be that the most noxious consequence of the entire Third Offensive launched by the Combined Army on Paradiso is that it has served to divert our attention away from their infiltration into Human Edge.

Admittedly, we already suspected that some isolated teams of Shasvastii operatives might have broken through the Abyss Blockade that protects the Jump Gate connecting Paradiso and Human Edge. Our suspicion was based on reports of certain irregularities in that Gate’s traffic, and we had also extrapolated it from the incursion that went through the Daedalus Blockade towards the Ereeva system; there’s more information in the [files classified as Daedalus’ Fall]. However, we could have never fathomed the real magnitude of said infiltration.

The fortuitous exposure of a Shasvastii cell in Novyy Bangkok (more information in the reports about Operation: Asteroid Blues and the related file “Incident in Bubba’s Khạntiǹā”) revealed a clandestine network capable of surreptitiously moving an Onyx incursion force and large amounts of engineering material into the Human Sphere. As this operation is still in progress, we haven’t been able to determine the purpose and the final target of all these logistic materials and of the Onyx forces. Nonetheless, if we consider the connections of the Jump Gates at Human Edge, there are two obvious targets: the Solar System and Concilium, the cradle of humanity and the core of our international government, respectively. Regardless which one it is, it’s obvious that the EI is aiming for our heart and that we must put both systems under close surveillance.

Therefore, it’s vitally important that all the powers work together in patrolling and performing search and destroy operations both against Shasvastii cells and Onyx incursion squads, as well as against the
engineering teams that the EI might have infiltrated into these two systems.

Even though the Shasvastii and the Onyx may seem like the most immediate threat, our analysts believe that possibly the greatest danger may stem from those engineering teams, since we haven’t been able to ascertain their purpose yet and, until we can shed some light on that conundrum, they pose a threat that we won’t be able to contain.

Surveillance and security tasks will still be redoubled in Human Edge, in case the Combined Army forces haven’t managed to breach the Jump Gates to the Solar System and Concilium yet. But the danger is too great to neglect these two strategic systems. The fleets of the powers collaborating with the Paradiso Coordinated Command will be authorized to carry out joint patrols in the Concilium system, where in principle the transit of armed spaceships is prohibited.

All the commanding officers and specialist troops will be in direct communication with the designated Bureau Aegis command in order to coordinate these operations and process all the collected information.

Our team of analysts would like to point out that, as with other scenarios where Shasvastii cells have been involved, paranoia and suspicion have led to our forces suffering casualties from friendly fire,
in addition to having been exploited by certain powers for their own benefit to gain an advantage over rival nations.

I urge you to prevent such situations from happening again. It is not an overstatement to say that what is at stake here is the very future of the Human Sphere. If the Earth or Concilium were to fall, the rest of the systems would soon follow. I beg you, act with determination, but do it together. It’s evident from the experience gained over all these years that divided we will not survive.

Thank you.

Colonel Mariëtte Wijnkoop, Bureau Aegis Officer, in a closed session meeting
of O-12’s Security Council. Access authorization required: Alpha.

Discover The Human Edge - Ready for Asteroid Blues!

The Human Edge

Out on the frontier—the so-called “Edge of Humanity”—lucrative prospects lie hidden within a chaotic morass of celestial bodies. Dangers commensurate to the possible rewards test the determination of colonial efforts, claiming the unwary and the unlucky.

The system also bears scars from its many battles. Its history is one of blood-soaked ledgers and corporate warfare. Power struggles, internecine political warfare, and the boom of frontier expansion all leave the system mired in chaos. For now a fragile equilibrium has formed where all major interests hold one another in check, but only just. Every newcomer might have the power to help usher in a new era of stability, or cause tensions to boil over into a conflict that threatens to completely destabilise an area still aching from the last war.

HOMERIC BELT

The edge of the Human Edge, the Homeric Belt has a high concentration of plutoids. These large dwarf planets are more suitable for establishing long-term mining settlements, making the belt home to some of the larger communities in the system. Outside of the plutoids, the Homeric Belt has a reputation for lawlessness, and is widely considered one of the most violent and dangerous places in the Human Sphere.

Novyy Bangkok:

This failed mining facility was abandoned after the collapse of the Rus-Thai Blinov-Ngamsan Conglomerate. The asteroid is a morass of unmapped tunnels used by the criminals as an anonymous graveyard for their victims. Of course, other things are rumoured to roam these tunnels and, if you listen to the talk, enough abandoned tech to found a new nation. If you care to go exploring in a glorified sewer, of course.

All this and more will be yours to discover as you join in this year's narrative campaign. Hosted by On Table Top and with story elements from Corvus Belli, 2019 will see us battling over the zones of the Novyy Bangkok Asteroidal Colony. Join us here at Heart of the Hyperpower and we'll keep you up to date with all the latest as the campaign unfolds.