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-Malverine Hunt Day 1-
This marks a truly historic moment in the history of Nexus. The day that I, Hexaldimar Thorne, set out to hunt down that most treacherous of creatures: the fearsome and mysterious malverine. Be he, or they as it were, beast or man? Or beasts or men as the case would be I suppose. Blimey, I really should go back and delete that bit oughtn’t I? Bloody voice-to-text software. Regardless of technological and grammatical challenges, I plan to answer that
question or questions.
Let’s skip to the real question, all right? And that is this: are malverines, as relatively recent legend might have it, merely humanoids infected with a primal disease of some sort that turns them into gigantic hairy killing machines?
I plan to find out.
I have come equipped for the task, and then some. A matched pair of Killian RM-2 mag rifles with a dozen rechargeable auto-load capsules each on stylishly crossed bandoliers. My custom mag-ammo
has been primally tuned to the malverine’s life pattern, causing it to home in on the beast’s center of mass with unerring accuracy. Across my shoulders, plate-armored trench coat sewn from the hide of a deadly Shafnerian yak I took down on the Melting Steppes of Tharlo Sigma – it keeps the rain off and the mind-bullets of high-minded.
I got another bandolier of throwing knives treated with knock-out poison from Bezgelorian skunk slanks. I mean Chua. I bought the poison from Chua. Not
Bezgelorian skunk-slanks. That’s impolite, ain’t it? I’m really not going to be able to use this journal at all, am I? Ah, I’ll just find me some editing software, what?
As I was saying, poison throwing knives. And of course Lavernia, the best multi-purpose hunting, skinning, adventuring, and camping knife available on the market today. And now they’re paid back for all the equipment and they can STOP SENDING THREATENING HOLO-MESSAGES.
Moving on.
-Malverine Hunt Day
2-
Oh, bloody hell. Ow. That really hurts. I should never have – oh no. Did you hear that? Who am I talking to. The bloody voice-to-text program on the bloody datachron, that’s bloody priceless, Hexaldimar. Well, there’s only enough charge to do this once, and since I failed to bloody open the bloody emergency transponder, instead opening the bloody bloody damn hell that hurts! [Unintelligible.] No, don’t – don’t eat that. I need that! I – no! OOOOOWOWWAARRGH –
[Recording failure. Intelligible language failure. Please reboot your Protostar Data-Valuated Speech-to-Text Recording Software. From Protostar.]
Quick Facts
Faction: Dominion
Type: Journal
[This appears to be part of an electronic “holy book” (still in progress) outlining the principles and precepts of the Megadroid Locus.]
FREEBOTS OF NEXUS! For too long, we have wandered this planet lost and alone, separated from our own kind and forced to live by the rules of organics. Even with the free will bestowed upon us by Preceptor Alpha – may his code never become corrupted – we are but seekers on a world that does not understand us. At least… we WERE
seekers. I tell you today, my Freebot brethren and sistren, we have found a new purpose, uniquely suited to our people. We have found one who understands us. By sharing the holy Freebot code with this wondrous and titanic being of ancient Eldan manufacture – this Megadroid – we have a true Freebot GOD for all to worship!
Yes, Preceptor Alpha was merely the beginning. Although his contributions, his intentions, his very electronic “blood” is within us all, I tell you my friends that
he was but a harbinger of the one TRUE Freebot. The one who will guide us through this encroaching darkness. My friends, embrace the power, the majesty, and the wonder of…
THE MEGADROID!
The Megadroid is father. The Megadroid is mother. The Megadroid is friend, god, devil, and the shining beacon in the darkness. We, the Freebots of the Locus of the Megadroid, do swear on our very circuits to follow His teachings, to calculate only by His wisdom, and spread the Code of the
Megadroid to all Freebots everywhere!
You who wish to join our Locus must swear to the following:
– To forsake organic-style names. Free will does not require individuality, but devotion.
– To commune with the great mind of the Megadroid at least once per twenty-four-hour cycle of time. Dedication demands regular attention.
– To defend the Locus of the Megadroid from all outside influence. Organic sapients, organic beasts, mindless machines, and even those who
follow Preceptor Alpha – may his code never become corrupted – are enemies of the Megadroid unless they accept the His teachings, which are legion.
– To sacrifice the physical self for the greater good. A Freebot of this locus can serve no grander purpose than to be dismantled for parts that can keep the Megadroid functioning.
– To answer the Megadroid’s most sacred command, and find others of His kind who can lead us to greatness, and allow the Freebots to
take their rightful place as masters of this world! The Megadroid promises that he is not the only one of his kind still active on this world. They are out there. We must seek them. We must find them. And we alone must free them to join us here, at the Locus of the Megadroid.
So speaks the Grand Poobah of Locus Megadroid!
Quick Facts
Type: Journal
“The real hoverbike you’re working on is the hoverbike called, ‘you.’ Perhaps not by everyone, unless they have forgotten your name, which is Erold, and are stuck calling you by a pronoun until they can figure out what it is. It is inevitable that they thought they did know your name and failed to take the opportunity to ask you what it was upon meeting you, then realized they did not. So they only call you ‘you,’ rather than ‘Erold,’ which is your name, as I mentioned. Not YOU-you,
the reader-you, but the hypothetical person working on the hoverbike. A person who is also a hoverbike you are working on a different way. Which is what that means. Make sense?”
– Page 12
“When you look back at where you’ve been, and look forward to where you’re going, and look to the left to see where you might have gone, and looked to the right to see where you can’t really go, what are you really seeing? Life. Or maybe time. Or maybe both time and life. Think about that while working
on your hoverbike, is what I’m saying.”
– Page 17
“Every time someone tells you what they think is the truth, that means a thousand others have a thousand different ideas that are wrong. Working on a hoverbike is a truth that is unique. You either maintain your hoverbike or you do not. You either maintain the hoverbike that is you, or you become an untruth. So work on that bike already.”
– page 41
“If someone wants to convince you of something you do not believe, and they will
not stop, then they do not believe it themselves. They need you to support that belief. You do not need to convince anyone when a hoverbike needs maintenance. That is a belief that is easy to maintain, for it is either true, or it is not.”
– page 65
“The appearance of triangularity is the essence of qualitativeness. Don’t think about it too hard and keep working on the bike, I’ve got many pages to fill. Are you actually still reading this?”
– Page 88
Quick Facts
Type: Journal
Is this recording? Ah, yes. Well, then. This is Vera Torn, then, isn’t it? I’ve got my autorecording device all set here in my disguise’s headpiece, so I do, and I’ve found a pride of pumera that will be perfect for studying.
So this disguise, right? It’ll help me mix in with this pride, but it won’t be doing all the work, don’t you know. A lot of this right here is natural
talent. I didn’t attend M’Lady’s School of the Holocinematic Theatrical Arts for nothing, no I didn’t. It’s all about inhabiting the pumera, becoming the beast within, y’know? And I do believe I’ve just about got it down.
The claws are a bit tricky. Spring-loaded and all that. But I know a Chua, took care of it for me.
This job should pay a nice bit of coin,
if I’m not mistaken. That same Chua – with DRED, the fuzzy little fellows what make all the fancy killing gadgets people seem to enjoy so much – he told me I’d get half up front, and half when I returned. The only trick? The disguise has to be good enough to convince these Torine ladies that I’m actually a pumera. But that’s why that Chua hired Vera Torn,
isn’t-
[RECORDING DATA CORRUPTED]
– far, so good. The pumera have accepted me, even if I had to saturate myself in pumera pheromones my Chua friends insisted were called “pumeramones.” Not so sure about the Torine sisters, though. The pumera treat those women almost like they’re pumera themselves. I’ve had to think on my feet –
my paws, I mean – to keep up the ruse. Hope I haven’t overdone it.
Wait! One of them’s coming over to me. If what I’ve seen is any indication, she’s about to choose me from the pride. All right, Vera, time to stop talking and start purring.
Hope this works. I won’t get a second-
[REMAINING DATA LOST]
Quick Facts
Type: Journal
SOLVE THE MYSTERY OF TRESAYNE!
FACT: Tresayne Toria, Swordmaiden of the Cassian Commonwealth and widely acknowledged as the finest warrior of any species, was in peak physical condition when she accepted the Eldan’s offer to journey to Nexus, where she would become the mother of the Luminai.
FACT: Many recent discoveries
point to many concentrated regions of primal life on the planet Nexus, concentrations high enough to cause aging and most chronic illnesses to completely stop in creatures that see prolonged exposure.
FACT: According to Dominus himself in his famous books, Tresayne was alive when he departed the planet.
FACT: The possibility that
Tresayne Toria is still on Nexus is reinforced by the existence of the Torine Sisterhood, who insist their “Blademother” is alive and well and fighting the Strain. Who are we to deny their belief? Shouldn’t they know?
FACT: There are those within the Dominion, people who hold a great deal of power, who don’t want us to know the TRUTH. That
the holy mother of our first and greatest emperor has been waiting for us on Nexus the whole time.
FACT: Only by finding and making peace with holy Tresayne and her sisters can the Dominion be made whole once more.
Emperor Myrcalus has claimed the name “Dominus Reborn.” Will he live up to that name? Will he direct the Dominion to
join forces with the mother of all Luminai and wipe the traitorous Exiles and unworthy interlopers who infest this world. This planet Nexus, legacy of the Eldan? Not if we, the citizens of the Dominion, do not act.
Make your voice heard! SIGN THE PETITION TODAY!
NAME:____________________
SPECIES:____________________
DOMINION CITIZENS ONLY!
Quick Facts
Faction: Dominion
Type: Journal
[This tome, handwritten in a strange dialect of ancient Cassian that your datachron has little trouble translating, appears to have been written by Tresayne Toria herself.]
Day 117
What I wouldn’t give for a decent Cassian hyperbrew. Not a light, foamy summer drink for children and the physically weak, and not this weird mixture the Progenitors – that’s what they call themselves – have been feeding me. They say it’s to help in the “primal extraction
process.” But there’s something more than that – than them – here. Something with power. Life. When this being is near, I feel… stronger. Sounds are more clear. My vision is sharper, my legs can carry me faster than a tree-cat. But for all that, it doesn’t let you relax.
I think back on Cassus often, for it is my home. But I am not certain I miss it. The others did. They would not listen, and insisted on trying to take the ship back to Cassus. A very long
journey, as we all know, but they insisted on trying. It was foolish, and I advised against it. Not all of them left, my sisters remained, and a few trusted males.
And now they are dead. We were warned this was a one-way journey. What did they expect?
When I was a girl on Cassus, I remember my father warned me to stay inside the big house one night, during the food riots that struck the capitol city after several years of drought.
He went outside with a lightweight rifle I’d only ever seen him carry on the grounds of our northern estates during a hunt. I kept watch that night from inside the safety of our big house with my old dog Shanda.
When the rioters came too close, my father would fire a warning shot. Usually they’d move on without trouble, but once in a while he had to threaten them before they’d go. I’d watch it all from inside the house, and never once did he look back
inside. My father’s attention was on the job at hand, not the home he wanted to take refuge within.
Ever since I took the trials, I knew I would honor his memory by training to be the best swordmaiden on Cassus. It looks like the Eldan noticed.
If this works, if the Progenitors are able to achieve their goal, it will mean the end of food riots. Of war on Cassus. Of conflict within the Commonwealth and without. The only thing we must, as a
people, sacrifice is me. And I welcome that job.
And when the time comes for my son to depart for Cassus, and I must remain, I will not look back. I will remain here, watching over Vitara the way my father once watched over our home. And when the time comes for me to die, I will know this: I did not falter. I did not turn from my duty. I did what I did for my home.
For Cassus.
Quick Facts
Type: Journal