2400.7.1

[dumbluck]

I'm starting over with a new game. Hopefully Vista will manage to hold together long enough for this game to run it's course. I'll post some of the game settings soon. For now, just know that the game is SE4 with CB1.6c; the Belanai are Brainiacs, and there are (hopefully) LOTS of AI on this small map. It will make this low tech start, high tech cost game a gritty battleground. (My only saving grace will be that it's not a human vs computer team game)

2400.1.0
My name is Capt.... no. I am not a Captain anymore, for there is no military anymore. My name is Arabna Jelocu, and I served in The War. As the captain of the Ice Skimmer Jetiyu Melka, I unleashed horror and death upon Our enemies from kilometers away. While I do not regret that The War is finally over, I must admit, I miss my job. I miss the respect of my Bela. I miss the day to day fine details of running a ship of war. I miss the unique camaraderie that exists aboard ship, when brothers-in-arms are all dependent on each other for their lives. There is no place I'd rather be. And so, when this position became available, I could not let the opportunity pass me by, despite the perils of deep-space exploration. This is in all likelihood as close as I will ever get to home.

Now that the Society is finally victorious in our long, bloody War, we finally have peace. The vile Brotherhood has been crushed, and finally we can put the atrocities of The War behind us. The War ravaged Belanara. She cried out in anguish all those long centuries, protesting the abuse our ancestors put her through in the name of Victory. Her cries fell on deaf ears, and now we reap what our ancestors have sown. Our world is a shambles. Belanara's ecosystems have been ravaged, the precious ores all but mined out of her. She can no longer sustain our people. We must look elsewhere for the necessities that furthering our fledgling Peace will require. Such a place exists. It's been overhead for countless millennia, moving across the night skies, orbiting Xtreme alongside her sister, Balanara. But we were too preoccupied with The War to see it for what it was.

And so now the Belanai Society sets out on it's latest quest. Xtreme IV shall sustain us as we attempt to heal Belanara as best we can. Perhaps it is impossible. Perhaps the damage has been done, and nothing can save her. Perhaps it is out of our hands, and She must heal herself. I do not know. I am but a simple Belan, bound for the outer reaches of our Xtreme System. Our telescopes have seen many things, now that we have taken the time to look through them. And our astronomers made many discoveries. There is one, an odd.... something... out here; two of them to be precise. They are not planets, for the exert no gravitational effect upon their neighbors. Nor have they measurable mass or energy. They glimmer in the night sky every night, yet they have no mass to reflect light, nor energy to emit it themselves. Most peculiar. These are my destination. I will be studying these phenomena up close.

And so while the major shipyards are constructing a HUGE ship, designed to carry all the supplies necessary to establish a gleaming new home on a new world, MY small ship was constructed at an old Wartime factory, converted from it's original purpose of building heavy bombers. Well, I say constructed. Perhaps a more accurate term would be "patched together from spare parts". I think that the main reason they did not object to my inclusion of a few long-range missiles was that ... well, ... they just didn't care. Mine is a minor mission, compared to the awe inspiring task of colonizing a new planet, and missiles are a dime a dozen now that there is no use for them. It costs more to disassemble them and dispose of the radioactive cores than it does to store them. I suppose they assume that it's a few less missiles for them to keep track of. They laughed when I insisted on them, but I've too many years of military training to venture into the unknown without SOME means of defending myself.

Now my ship, the Scout, has finished construction and is ready for it's shakedown cruise, so I have but a short time until I depart. I do not know if I shall return. There is no one to mourn me if I and my crew of 3 should perish in our little endeavor (which was probably one of the deciding factors in my receiving this position). Therefore, .... I don't really know who would receive this journal should I not return. I think that I have a cousin in New Marakna. I haven't keep touch with my family; they were not pleased when I joined The War. Someone had to fight for the Society's ideals; they would hear none of that. Most of them are probably now ash scattered to the wind, thanks to the Brotherhood's bombing of Xelra 11 years ago. Some of them may have survived. Honestly, I didn't bother to find out. I made my choices, as they made theirs. I chose to confront our obstacles, they chose to pretend that the Brotherhood didn't exist. I hope that their ends, if indeed they did not survive, were painless. I hope that mine shall be, too, when it comes.