Jan 2nd 2057, on the shores of the Lake of Lust in the canopy of the Ethereal Complex.
A Sumutan by the name of Salms, the head engineer of spatial affairs, climbs up into the top room of the First Citizen's command spire, the highest spire within the Ethereal Complex. Salms struggles a bit to pull itself over the safety bars before getting some stable tethering. The head engineer paces itself a bit with the hand grooves on the ground and sees the first citizen itself playing with some toys. The head engineer starts slamming its main body and the floor and slapping its hand tentacles all over the floor, getting the attention of First Citizen Somis.
Somis cautiously positions its toy figures for a bit before shifting itself around to face towards Salms. Somis is a very pale figure with artificially green tinted compound eyes and multiple clan markings covering its body along with multiple platinum bracelets from every major guild to signify its position as the first citizen.
Somis begins to speak.
"Head Engineer Salms, why are you here?” Somis acts in a very matter of fact way.
“This is the new year’s vacation week. Hopefully this should prove more important than the game I was playing with my good friend Virms.” Somis tells its head engineer. The head engineer in response, using its arm tablet to project on the aerogel window a simplistic orbital map highlights the orbital command station along with the recently launched military satellites and the orbital city of Talmac. The typical trade paths are shown, with multiple trade paths within the same longitude of the orbital command center being highlighted red.
Salms than elaborates as its tries to stabilizes its bobbling so it can be taken seriously by Somis, "I am just here to discuss our other interplanetary projects. We have been able work with the kobolds on the orbital city and a multitude of other space missions thus far, orbital commerce however is taking a hit due to the explosion at the Cindorian's orbital command station as our monitors have shown us. Lots of fear is running through the People's News and Liberty Daily on the potential of a cascading debris storm. We know the cleaners should take care of the worst of it, but we need you to assure this as they only listen to you. The only trade paths at risk of micro-debris are in the north, which is nowhere near the orbital city."
Somis stiffens its tentacles a bit, rubbing them across its wide head as its internal coloring becomes more vibrant. “It is great that our friends on Brui (or as the Novas like to say, ‘Cindorya…’) are finally seeing the light, but how do we know they won’t just get nuked? While we can privately celebrate how this disruption allowed for the Lustful Thrust and the Happiest Four to be deployed without being intercepted, we must play it cautious in public. The Dominion spies are likely already preparing to do some subterfuge as is.”
Somis starts to pace itself about the place as Salms hovers in position, rotating itself as Somis continues to rant. Somis after a bit of thinking tells Salms “For we will need far more if we are to be of credible deterrence against the fascists up north and to continue the campaign of global liberation. Have Toso from the Trader’s Guild call up whoever is currently running the coastal towns in New Auslassia to negotiate a trade deal, our current trade relations need to improve to pump out these kill satellites. Two a year is far too slow and we are racing against a clock with our society’s name on it.”
Salms takes notes on its arm tablet and then brings up again the media panic, “Will you still do the assurance?”
Somis briefly pauses for a bit. Than finally replies, “Of course, the people of the Soto need me!”
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Liberty Daily Evening News
Presented to you by our third generation velutian friend Virms Tarfled!
World At Large - On the Cindorian Orbital Incident: Do not fear, Somis assures
First Citizen Somis on the Orbital Command Station Bombing to the multiple trading guilds has spoken on the matter of the Cindorian Orbital Incident, claiming that any debris from the explosion will not affect trade in Low Mondai Orbit and that the trade paths are mostly safe. Analysts say that the brief wave of panic on ground comes primarily from media up north trying to cause terror by over exaggerating the potential danger of a kessler syndrome breaking out because of this terrorist attack. Rumors have it that the attack may have been caused by revolutionaries from a colony on the icy world of Brui.
The Full Transcript is below.
“This tragic act has no place in any civil society, we do not have the best relations with the Cindorian Empire, but we can’t express enough our concern for the innocent civilians who have fell victim to this wonton act of anarchy even as we oppose the existence of this very station. The damage done to the military station which the Cindorians for decades have used to limit the freedom of space commerce and a national right to orbital defense has caused much fear of what happens to the debris so many in the media have claimed to have apocalyptic consequences. But do not fear- the worst of the damage is far and away from Talmac or where any of our pioneers of space commerce carry out their business. Be it out on the moons of Unity at the Vostok Cosmodrome or on our outposts stationed on Sapia. We will continue our policy of avoiding any ties with the Cindorian Empire, and so the bulk of people will not be affected by any micro-debris provided they stay south of the Cindorian Imperial territory and as always- keep a distance from any orbital military installations.”
DISCLAIMER: This is a developing story, stay tuned!
Power Politics- The Violet Society's Charity Ploy
The Violet Society has for the past two decades been playing the role of opposition to the Builder’s Guild and their continued dominance of the Unified Soto. The Violet Society has continued to push for an emphasis on domestic values, isolationism and limiting the degree to which Velutians and Alt-Sapiens have been allowed into the Soto region bringing up concerns of living space and concerns on the cultural harm that these immigrants may potentially bring. This is in disregard of how immigration has allowed us to recover from the miserable economy the Violet Society let the Soto region languish in for so long.
Still, the Violet Society has managed to recover some of their image by creating a strong charitable network for the Soto people and has even branched out into Velutian territory, where many people still live a simpler life. However, no elections have been called and the Trade Guild continues to limit the extent to which they can get more organizations to agree on new elections. The last election held in 2055 has already affirmed continued support for First Citizen Somis and for the continuation of the Builder’s Guild as our head guild. But near future developments could give the Violet Society a much-needed opening.
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The Orbital City of Talmac, January 2nd 2057
At the ripe age of 7, fresh from the pond and ready to live life a Sumutan by the name of Supu finds itself working for its guardians in an antique shop. Supu is often playing around the antique shop, getting itself stuck in all matter of unfortunate places, playing in the low gravity areas and constantly needing to be fished back down to the floor all the while the shop keepers act as parents. One of these shop keepers, a wrinkly Sumutan with a popped head who travels via a motorized platform and speaks with a vocal device who mostly handles the inventory calls for Supu.
The wrinkly Sumutan says “Supu, there’s something important I need to tell you.”
Supu peeks out from under a dome shaped antique and floats itself down from the shelves, but keeps on its hand tentacles only gingerly touching the ground. The deep baby blue hue and dark red eyes of Supu look at the shriveled thing in front of itself.
The shriveled thing says “Our clan has decided that our children need to visit Soto. We believe it is needed to build your sense of character.”
Supu found itself absolutely stunned by this, before slopping to the floor limp and like jelly, deflated in despair at the suggestion before bleating, “The surface? Our generation will never need to go down there! We are the generation that will explore the Sapia and liberate every world in this star system! How can we go back down there? We don’t want your old world, I don’t want it especially!”
The shriveled thing through up one of its tentacles and coughs a bit as Supu continues to bitch before replying “Sapia is much like Nova Mondai, but the gravity is worse there according to the news. If you want to explore Sapia, you must be able to live on Nova Mondai too. We must wear suits out there, it isn’t always this free floaty fun you spawnlings have all the time these days. This is a very dangerous world, you must be adaptable or you may one day end up like me, all shot up, shriveled up and abandoned.”
Supu floats itself back up and hesitantly agrees, if only out of the fear that it may one day look like the shriveled-up thing if it doesn’t toughen up.
“Good. You will go down in a week, be prepared, our guild will teach you everything you need to know of the Soto and why we must liberate.”
Supu is a bit confused on that and asks "I thought I learned that as a larva."
The shriveled up thing pulls itself up with its three remaining limbs to get its eyes to Supu's eye level and says, "We only taught your soul, now we will teach your mind."
