Gap Stories #4

[And Now, The News]

Log Date: 5/14/12764

Data Sources: Public Media

The Galactic Daily 5/14/12764

MOKASHA INVADED

The galaxy awoke today to the news that Mokasha, one of the border systems belonging to the Confederacy of Original Systems, was invaded three days ago by the Collective. Information coming out of the system is sparse; it is suspected that the Collective are blockading or jamming interstellar communication relays that connect Mokasha to the wider galaxy. The first of many refugee ships have begun arriving in neighboring systems, carrying Mokashans that managed to make it offworld during the first hours of the invasion.

Details on the invasion are scant, with the only footage of the invasion being that which Mokashan refugees are carrying, and that which Mokashans managed to upload to the galaxynet before the communications relays for their system went offline. Handheld phone videos, included in the links at the end of this article, show hundreds of organic drop pods falling through the skies of Mokasha — a step in the Collective invasion process that usually commences once orbital control has been secured.

News of the Collective’s attack on Mokasha has sidelined all other major events in the galaxy, dominating news ever since the first reports were verified yesterday. Wall-to-wall coverage is being provided by most networks, while the Colloquium’s legislative schedule is being rearranged in light of the attack. The Vaunted have stated that they are sending vessels to the system to verify reports and assist with civilian evacuations and defense, while the Venusian Monarchy has placed its warfleets on high alert. The Confederacy of Original Systems has already deployed early response ships to the system, and there are reports that a warfleet is being mustered from available military resources. Combat action in Mokasha is expected in the next week or two as the COS is likely to launch a counterattack in the system, with the potential goal of trying to retake Mokasha or buy time for surviving civilians to either escape Mokasha or fight back.

Markets dived on the news of the invasion, with stocks taking a beating across the board, and the Myrrdicato Index experiencing its largest single-day loss since the fall of the Challenger program. While Mokasha’s contribution to the galactic market is negligible in the big picture, analysts expect many industries to adopt a cautious posture in response to the invasion event, with many expected to pump the brakes on potential projects in border systems and frontier worlds. The economic backlash was felt most keenly in the COS, with many agencies slashing the growth forecast to zero for the nation, due to the expected loss of the Mokasha System and its material resources and population.

Monarch Radio (Venusian)

Program: Evenings With Barty (5/15/12764)

Timeslot: 8pm-9pm SGT

Barty: We return now from our commercial break to pick up where we left off. For those that are just now joining us, tonight we have with us Achmor Tranes, a retired two-star general for the Venusian military. Also with us is Brendan Caesor, an analyst with the Jaeger Project, a Marshy military thinktank. Y’all can prolly hear ‘em arguin’ in the background; I’m gonna unmute their mics now.

Brendan Caesor: There is proof all across history of successful holdouts—

Achmor Tranes: Son, it’s not gonna happen.

BC: Shi Morlan, remember that? The impossible defense that kickstarted the Challenger program?

AT: One in a million. Exceptional people in exceptional times.

BC: Or the dozens of other worlds over the last few centuries that managed to hold out against Collective invasions—

AT: Son! It’s gone! It’s gone! Listen to me. Mokasha is gone. That’s Collective turf now.

BC: You just don’t want to save those people.

AT: Son, there ain’t nothin’ left to save. Listen to me. Mokasha’s a colony world—

BC: With a population of several hundred million.

Barty: Aight gents, let’s dial it back a notch. Brendan, let’s hear from you first. You’re advocating that immediate military action be taken in the Mokasha System — and this is because you think the invasion in Mokasha can be turned around?

BC: It can. It’s gonna be messy, and it’s not gonna be easy, but we can’t just let the Collective seize a border world like this. This isn’t like Vigilance 229. That was a small military outpost on the frontier, population of a few thousand at most. The Collective want it? Fine, they can have it. But Mokasha? Hundreds of millions of people. We cannot avert our eyes from this. We need to act.

Barty: And Achmor, you don’t think military action should be taken in Mokasha?

AT: I do think military action should be taken. I don’t think we should rush into it with this misguided idea that we are going to save the Mokashans.

Barty: You don’t believe that the Mokashan population can be saved from assimilation?

AT: Mokasha does not have the infrastructure to stave off a Collective invasion. It’s an open secret that its government has been mismanaged for years. They have not invested in system defense, and the fact that the system relays have been jammed means that the Collective have already seized control of the system. And if the videos coming off refugee phones are authentic and there are drop pods hitting the ground in Mokasha, that means that the Mokashans have lost the orbital layer. The battle is now boots on the ground, which is the last step before planetary assimilation.

BC: But full planetary assimilation takes years—

AT: It takes years to assimilate the planet’s ecosystem. It only takes weeks or months to assimilate the population on it, depending on how smart the Collective are about it, and whether the planet had a good defense plan in place. In the case of Mokasha, even if they did have a defense plan, I doubt it was effectively carried out, if at all.

Barty: Brendan, I understand you’re approaching this from a place of idealism. You feel it is morally bankrupt to write off the Mokashans this early into the invasion.

BC: I do. I agree with you, Achmor; Mokasha’s government was mismanaged, and they wasted time, political capital, and actual capital on petty culture politics while ignoring issues of consequence. But the people of Mokasha — its population, not its politicians — should not have to suffer for the hubris of their leaders.

AT: I agree with you. Leaders are supposed to act to the benefit of those they lead, not at their expense. I don’t think it’s fair that the average Mokashan will have to pay the price for the hubris of their leaders. But I also accept that it’s a grim reality that they will — and that there’s little we can do to prevent it.

BC: And that’s where you and I diverge.

Barty: And you’re approaching this from the place of pessimism, Achmor?

AT: Some people call it that. I call it realism. In the Venusian military, we work by objective facts. The first fact is that Mokasha was unprepared for the invasion. The second fact is that four days in, the Collective has already reached the surface of Mokasha. The third fact is that it will take time to muster any fleet of a size that could conceivably compete with an invasion fleet. And the fourth fact is that by the time we do, and by the time it engages the invasion fleet, the Collective will have established a strong foothold on Mokasha, with millions of Mokashans assimilated by that point. Millions of potential soldiers that we do not have the manpower to fight through in order to reclaim Mokasha.

Barty: Hence your prognosis that Mokasha is already lost.

AT: Mokasha was lost long before the invasion began. It was lost years ago, when they squandered time and capital that should’ve been spent on preparing for an attack like this.

BC: It might be lost, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to save some of its people. Every person we save is one less Symbiote for the Collective, which is already trillions strong.

Barty: We’re gonna have to pause there because we have to go to commercial now. When we come back, we’ll be discussing refugees — whose responsibility are they, really?

Myrrdicato News Network (Galactic)

Program: Good Morning Myrrdicato (5/16/12764)

Timeslot: 8am-9am SGT

“Good morning Myrrdicato! My name is Clarence Kyd, lead anchor for Myrrdicato News Network. We begin this morning with continuing coverage of the invasion of the Mokasha, which is now in its fifth day. A steady exodus of ships have been arriving in systems neighboring Mokasha, with rumors that the Collective has been allowing ships to depart from Mokashan cities that have fallen or surrendered to Collective ground forces. Yet despite the many thousands that have managed to escape, there are millions more still on Mokasha, and one of the Vaunted’s High Elders warned that even a partial evacuation of Mokasha’s full population would be logistically impossible. She went on to add that all refugees arriving to neighboring systems would need to be held in quarantine and screened for Collective contaminants. States of emergency have been declared for each system receiving Mokashan refugees, allowing leaders of those systems to mobilize military resources and state funds to set up quarantine zones to handle the influx of refugees. Vaunted chapters in these systems have also gone to a state of emergency, mobilizing local garrisons to help with screening and security for refugees.

“In the Colloquium, several senators representing most of the Colloquium’s member nations have demanded that the Collective immediately withdraw their forces from Mokasha. Formal complaints have been lodged with the office of the Collective senator, with the senator from the Venusian Monarchy raising the prospect of a joint task force to liberate the Mokasha System. When reached for comment, the office of the Collective senator released a prepared statement accusing the government of Mokasha for failing to address increasing inequities within Mokashan society, and justifying the invasion as a corrective intervention that would reorganize Mokasha’s society to alleviate the suffering of the working class.

“The Confederacy of Original Systems has stated that it has mobilized astromilitary resources and will begin massing response fleets in the systems neighboring Mokasha as it prepares for a counterattack to the invasion. The COS senator has already filed a declaration of intent with the Colloquium, and has appealed to the other nations of the Colloquium to help with retaking the system. A timetable has not been provided on the counterattack, but experts estimate that it will take at least a week for the COS to assemble a fleet that could contend with the invasion group the Collective has deployed in Mokasha. Early response ships deployed to the system met stiff resistance from the invasion group, which by some reports is thirty to forty ships strong. Yet despite the size of the invasion group, it represents only a fraction of the Collective’s vast armada, with the all-too-real possibility that the Collective may deploy more ships to the system to reinforce the invasion fleet…”

Diaspora Daily (Rantecevangian)

Program: Breaking News Alert (5/17/12764)

Timeslot: N/A

Naril: Hey y’all, we hate to interrupt this re-run of Flip It Or Skip It, but we’ve got some breaking news for y’all! Right, Spinsy?

Spinsy: Right on, Naril. And it’s good news too, which we could really use at a time like this.

N: So without further ado, we take you to Shinobe Kibe, where our field reporter, Telekter Croddell, is onsite at the Shinobe Kibe starport. Telekter, you’re live!

Telekter Croddell: Thank you, Naril. As you can see behind me, there’s currently quite the hubbub at the starport, where departures and arrivals have been temporarily paused due to the arrival of a Maskling military cruiser carrying a little over a hundred Mokashan refugees. The refugees are currently being screened for Collective contaminants, but from what we’ve gathered so far, these refugees were rescued from Mokasha’s surface during a daring stealth operation in the opening days of the Collective’s invasion.

S: Incredible! They managed to rescue over a hundred people? Why not more?

TC: Details are a little sparse at the moment, but the glimpses we’ve caught of the cruiser show that it’s really quite small, so a hundred refugees was probably actually pushing her carry capacity.

N: Well, a hundred people saved from assimilation is still good. You said it was a group of Masklings that carried out this rescue?

TC: The ship, known as the Nyroc, is believed to belong to the Maskling Republic. However, the refugees we’ve been able to speak to say that the operation itself was spearheaded by a group known as the Valiant, composed of former Challengers and volunteers from various nations that possess special ops experience. We have not verified it yet, but there are rumors that Songbird was involved in this mission, and may have even been leading it.

S: No way! The Songbird?

N: We’re talking about the same guy that killed Nova?

TC: So the story goes. We’ll be remaining on site to follow up on it; at the moment security’s a little tight, what with the refugee screening and the fact that Songbird has been implicated in the attack on the starport that happened less than a year ago.

N: Oh yeah, that’s right. Shinobe Kibe is where he first resurfaced, isn’t it.

S: Awwwwwwkward.

N: Do we know if they’re heading back to rescue more Mokashans?

TC: That’s unclear. I haven’t gotten to speak with the Valiant themselves, and the few refugees I have spoken with say that the first rescue was pretty risky. By now, the Collective probably have Mokasha’s orbital layer locked down, so getting onto or off of the planet would be pretty difficult, even with stealth technology.

N: Well, at the very least, they were able to pull this rescue off. Fingers crossed that maybe there will be more to follow!

TC: Agreed, Naril. We’ll report back once we have more to report.

S: Sounds good! Keep it cheeky, Telekter! Alright, that’s all for the breaking new alert. We’ll now return you to your regularly scheduled programming!

Myrrdicato Public Radio (Galactic)

Program: The Point (5/18/12764)

Timeslot: 11:30am-12pm SGT

“Now for our last half-hour before lunch, we go to The Point with Nidfri Grunnsholde, where we cut through the noise and get to the point on a number of topics. Today I believe we’ll be starting with the Collective invasion of Mokasha, is that right, Nidfri?”

“That’s right. The invasion in Mokasha has had a lot of people asking whether the same could happen in their home system. Pundits on many opinion shows have warned that if the Collective gets away with assimilating Mokasha, they’ll be emboldened to start assimilating other border worlds and fringe systems. And many Colloquium governments have issued warnings to the Collective against attempting further system seizures, while assuring their citizens that their militaries are equipped to repel such invasions. Chatter on the galaxynet has also spiked; online searches asking how far certain systems are from Collective space have shot up on the search engine Swipe. With everything that’s going on, it’s understandable that some people, especially those on border systems, are concerned that their planet might be next. So let’s cut through the noise and get to the point.

“The point: the Collective is unlikely to launch another attack or invasion of a different system while the invasion of Mokasha is underway. The chances of your system suddenly being attacked and assimilated in the near term are very low, and here are the reasons why.

“The first and foremost reason is that the Collective doesn’t want to start a larger war. For better or worse, the Colloquium will not go to war over the loss of a single border world. Keep in mind that in this context, we’re defining a war as assembling a warfleet and using it to launch an attack or attacks on targets within Collective space. The Colloquium is not going to go that far over a single border world with less than a billion inhabitants. If the Collective started attacking another system in addition to Mokasha, that would change very quickly — the Colloquium would likely see it as the beginning of a larger campaign, and would probably muster multiple warfleets from member nations very quickly. The Collective does not want that outcome.

“The second reason is the Collective doctrine of slow expansion. While the doctrine has several key points, what it all boils down to is that slow territorial expansion, measured on the scale of decades and centuries, is best for the Collective. Slow expansion allows the Collective to better absorb captured systems into their empire, and gives them time between invasions to shore up any losses their fleet has sustained. It’s been theorized that though the Collective is capable of rapid expansion and invasions on multiple fronts, it often results in more losses than the Collective are willing to sustain. Additionally, some anthropologists have theorized that absorbing several populations into the Collective in a short time frame results in ‘culture shock’, where the Collective struggles reconcile an influx of new cultures with the overall culture of the Collective. The Collective typically doesn’t assimilate more than two or three systems per century, at least measuring by the data of the last few centuries.

“Third, and finally, Mokasha was uniquely vulnerable. We’re still in the early days of the invasion, but if reports are to be believed, there were no military vessels stationed in Mokasha even after an infested scout frigate was repelled, and the planet had no orbital defense platforms. Most border planets have at least a few orbital defense platforms; many border systems have an Early Detection and Defense network, or what’s known as an EDaD in security parlance. While EDaDs are not enough to repel a Collective invasion on their own, they are capable of forcing an invading fleet to slow down and take countermeasures, buying time for reinforcements to arrive in the system, and for the populated planets to begin civilian evacuations and orbital fortification before the invading fleet arrives.

“And so that’s the point on that: no, your planet is probably not next up on the Collective’s menu.

“Now, our next topic that we’re getting right to the point on: banana flavoring. Now that ancient cultivars of bananas have gone extinct, do the bananas in your kitchen actually taste like the real thing — or are they just pale imitations of the real deal?…”

The Confederate Broadcast (Original)

Program: Patriot Hour (5/19/12764)

Timeslot: 4:30pm-5pm SGT

“Welcome back, patriots! This is the second half of Patriot Hour, and we’re broadcasting live from Shinobe Kibe in the Shinobe System, where the Confederacy is massing ships for a counterattack on the Collective invaders in Mokasha. Today the Confederacy’s astromilitary is holding a recruitment drive at the Shinobe Kibe convention center, so we’re here to cover that and some of the speakers that’ll be attending today.”

“That’s right! Recruitment for the military has shot way up after the attack on Mokasha. Are you a young and able-bodied citizen of the Confederacy? If you are, the COS military needs people like you!”

“There’s room for all sorts in the astromilitary. We don’t just need people to carry guns and plant boots on the ground — we need engineers, technicians, mechanics, medics, doctors, pilots, and leaders. You don’t have to carry a gun to serve your nation — the astromilitary needs more than just soldiers.”

“If you saw the images and heard the stories coming out of Mokasha, and you felt the urge to do something, to protect your fellow citizens, then go to the COS military’s site to find your nearest recruitment center! There’s one on every world in the Confederacy, and there will be more recruitment sites coming in the weeks to follow. Now is the time to rise up and meet the challenge, stand against the Collective — and avenge our fallen brothers and sisters on Mokasha!”

“And with that said, we go now to the next speaker at this recruitment drive, none other than Thomas Aberdini, the Prophet of Anaya!”

…

“Shinobe Kibe! We gather here today for one reason: the heresy of the Collective! Over the last many days, we have all borne witness to the stream of tragedy that has flowed from Mokasha. You have seen the broken families, the weeping women and children, the refugee camps full of the once-proud sons and daughters of MOKASHA! Are your hearts not moved with rage and indignation for your brothers and sisters?”

[crowd noises, indistinct angry shouting]

“And yet this is not all, Shinobe! You witness the misery of your Mokashan brothers and sisters, and yet these are the ones that SURVIVED! Imagine the misery of those who could not escape, the despair of those who remain on Mokasha, who even now breathe the poison of the Collective and face the most terrible choice a soul could have: to embrace death, or else let their free will and their souls be consumed by a hivemind whose hunger can never be sated! Imagine it, Shinobe! What choice is that? A choice between death or becoming a monster? IT IS NO CHOICE AT ALL!”

[ramping shouting, yelling and chanting]

“This is what the Collective have done to our people! They eat our brothers and sisters alive and rip the free will from their bodies by force! This is the EVIL to which we must rise and stand firm against, the TYRANNY that would see the entire galaxy enslaved if the Collective had their way! We must not falter, we must not flee, and we must not stop fighting until Mokasha, and every world across the galaxy, is free from the scourge of the Collective! So rise up, sons and daughters of the Confederacy, RISE UP, take up your arms, and go to WAR! Go to the defense of Mokasha, go to the liberation of your brothers and sisters, and fight for FREEDOM, fight for FREE WILL, and FIGHT for the end of the Collective, FOREVER AND FOREVER!!!”

[cacophonous roaring and chanting]

…

“Amazing. Incredible.”

“Agreed. Powerful words, very powerful words.”

“I tell you what, that’s a man that loves his nation, that right there. Powerful convictions. Strong beliefs. That’s what we need to lead us in times like this.”

“Agreed. I don’t know how the next speaker is going to top that.”

“It’s impossible. You can’t top that. Prophet said what we were all thinking, what we were afraid to say out loud. But he said it loud and proud, and he said it without fear or shame.”

“We really need more leaders like that.”

“We really do. We’re going to go to commercial right quick, but we’ll be back in ninety seconds. Stay with us, patriots, and we’ll see you on the flip side…”

The Talingrad Post (5/20/12764)

BREACHED THE VAULT? NOT MY FAULT

Talingrad Prelatory claims that a neuranium heist could not have been anticipated, despite the breathtaking black market value of high-grade neuranium

HOW MUCH WAS STOLEN?

Follow this link to find out — it’s probably more than you think it was!

WHAT IS NEURANIUM, ANYWAY?

Our brave reporters consult with someone that spent 27 minutes in a basic organic chemistry class and looks good in a labcoat

WHAT CAN YOU DO WITH IT?

Click here to test your knowledge of neuranium! Were you paying attention to the other articles from today? Those that get at least 7 out of the 10 questions correct will get a discount code for the latest Junko Orb release, featuring limited edition Tic Toc Timestop (Schoolgirl Outfit)!

MADE IT OUT OF MOKASHA — JUST BARELY!

We get the inside scoop on how galactic influencer Velassi Prosarya narrowly escaped being assimilated by the Collective. “The moving crew were barely able to dismantle my mansion and fit it on the freight hauler,” distraught influencer claims. “They told me I had to leave the heated pool behind. So that was a pretty big loss.”

Resistance Radio (Original)

Program: ??? (5/21/12764)

Timeslot: 24/7

“Hey, this goes out to all of you that are still listening.

“We’ve lost contact with the other cities on Mokasha. We don’t know if it’s because the resistance groups there have fallen, or if the Collective are jamming our comms here. If anyone offworld can hear this, then you’ll know that we’re not being jammed, and the other cities in Mokasha have probably folded.

“We’re running low on… pretty much everything. We’ve had to abandon our surface positions under pressure from the Collective, leaving behind supplies in the process. They used a lot of weird shit to force us back; they keep on sending in these freak-ass mutated squirrels and bug dogs and venomous rats to get in through all the nooks and crannies that a person couldn’t fit into. We’ve lost a lot of people to being infected by the little buggers, had to leave them behind. They ain’t even trying to kill you; all they want to do is get you dosed with spores so that you’ll be assimilated and stop fighting. I would’ve given my left kidney to get my guys some flamethrowers earlier.

“We’re in a skyscraper now, where we can keep broadcasting, but they cut the power so we can’t use the elevators, and I’m burnin’ one of my rifle’s power cells just to make this broadcast. So if anyone’s hearing this, or anyone’s in orbit and would like to send an extraction transport to the roof of the Cabberson Building, that’d be peachy.

“Right now we’re holding at the top two floors, and the Collective is massing their beasties a few floors down. They’re taking their sweet time; I don’t know if they’re waiting to starve us out, but they haven’t come up yet. I talked it over with the boys and we debated blowing the stairwells to keep them from coming up, but we figured that’d only slow them down. Some of the boys say they’ve seen some giant gecko-ass-looking lizards climbing over the windows outside, so we think they might be trying to get to the roof so they can pincer us. One of the guys suggested planting the last of our explosives around key structure points and blowing it all, saying maybe we could generate a stacking floor collapse and bring down the whole skyscraper. It’d kill us, of course, but we’d be able to take the Collective bastards in the building with us. I’ll be honest, I ain’t entirely opposed to the idea. I wouldn’t mind going out with a bang, but some of the other guys didn’t seem as keen on it, so if we start moving in that direction, I’ll give ‘em a choice between surrendering or going out with what’s left of the platoon.

“It’s almost midnight over there, and I’ve been keeping watch out the window while the boys watch the choke points in shifts. I just saw a bunch of sparkly lights go shootin’ up out of the suburbs on the outskirts of Amnia, and way up into the sky. That’s the Starstruck on this world; they been doin’ their best to help us out, god bless ‘em. They been the only air support and backup we’ve had since the city got cut off and Henderson Fort went under. But they’re wearin’ out just like us; I’ve seen ‘em taking hits while they’ve been out fighting squads of Collective soldiers. Doesn’t help that there’s only five of them; there’s only so much they can do when the place is crawling with parasites.

“I think they’re leaving for good this time; I don’t see those sparkly comets coming back down, and it’s been a couple minutes. I’m almost angry, but honestly, I can’t blame ‘em. I’ve seen the kind of fights they fight with the Knightmare monsters, and it’s nothing like this. The Knightmare shit is monster-of-the-month, localized-crisis sort of stuff. This, the Collective is… this is full-scale planetary invasion, constant round-the-clock fighting. This is war. They ain’t cut out for that; they’re just teenagers. Just kids. Honestly, I’m surprised we trust ‘em enough to handle the occasional Knightmare problem, but they stuck it out a lot longer than I thought they would. For all the sparkle dust, they’re made of tougher stuff than I expected… I ain’t gonna grudge ‘em for bailing now. They’re young; they deserve a second chance on some other world. A chance to grow up and become adults. It’s better than staying here, fighting to the last man, and getting assimilated by the Collective.

“…

“Anyhow, I think it’s about time I call it a night. I don’t reckon we’ve got more than a few days left in us. If anyone listening could send us a last minute rescue, that’d be much appreciated. But if you don’t have one of those in your back pocket, we’ll take a bottle of Venusian whiskey; it’s almost as good.

“I’ll see if I can broadcast again tomorrow night. But if you don’t hear from us, well. You can fill in the blanks. Stay frosty, Myrrdicato. Keep up the good fight.

“This is Resistance Radio for Mokasha, signing off.”