AGT Stardate 3733.14.05
Lore by Drizzleditch
Exploration Officer C. K. Drizzleditch
Galaxy: Euclid
Region: Tisopotazi Fringe
Base system: AGT Orlandiness 3
Coordinates: GALA:0746:007E:0EB9:0079
I sit here in my comfy chair, in my comfy office, pouring myself some cold NipNip Cola in my base, The AGT Red Rocket Fuel Stop. The third Exo and Starship garage I've set up this side of the Euclid Galaxy. If you're in this region, pop by, I can give you a 10% discount on any Exocraft fuel and... (chuckle), but I digress. Looking out over the forecourt and across the rolling hills of Orlandiness 3, I count my blessings and remember how far I had come in the last five years to be where I am today. A healthy and profitable business. A 28 slot Freighter and six, yes six, starships of various classes sitting there waiting to fly me anywhere in the Euclid.
But this wasn't how I thought my life would stack out. You see I'm an explorer and archivist at heart. I work for myself now and for the AGT, 'The Alliance of Galactic Travellers'. It's a great job, regular work and a dedicated group of friends I could ever wish for. And I get 200 units for every discovery I make, be it a small variety of Cartack Daisy or a rampaging Karl Beast. It was Angelo Ford who got me involved in the Alliance. We met in a Vy'keen Space Station. I was having an altercation as Angelo tells it, I like to think it of as a business negotiation meeting. It was with a Korvax Scientist which almost ended in my ass being fried and sent through a black hole. Something about dodgy consignment records for a dozen Dynamic Resonators of all things. Angelo had just landed in a sweet racing yellow S Class Hauler, overheard our argument, and he calmed the Scientist down right there, spoke in the Korvax tongue, in public! I'd never seen anything like it! I don't know what he said but the Korvax immediately left, his lights flickering out, and was replaced by another, who was more flexible about previous ownership. Made 5000 Nantes and we drank ourselves under the bar that night.
Anyways, Angelo took me under his wing. You see, I wasn't doing too well on the survival front, I was on the run from the Federation. I know that sounds crazy. How can you escape from the biggest corporation in the Universe. Well, I had been doing it for five years. Just. Living day by day, doing any job most people wouldn't touch. Vy'keen cesspit drainage anyone?
I had been part of the Federation, as an Agent. Oh, you wouldn't find any records or employee files for my kind of agent. We worked in Exogalactic Tech Appropriation, a division that sent agents to far off regions and galaxies to appropriate, or steal in any other language, new technologies and blueprints. I was part of a growing team of losers, misfits and ex cons, people who had nothing to lose, no immediate families or connections who if, heaven forbid, you would find yourself lost or dead, would not be missed by even one of the growing trillions of human beings populating the Multi-Galactic worlds.
When on assignment we were officially sent as explorers to negotiate the trade of rare and valuable resources. But unofficially we were there to spy on other races, mostly the Gek, Korvax and Vy'keen. Report back anything we could lay our hands on tech wise. Multitool, suit or ship blueprints mostly. Plus any lore we could find relating to the old wars. Also the federation was greatly interested in the alien races defensive capabilities. As the Division grew however, paranoia set in, security tightened and the Federation relied, not in our trust, but in the Modded Gek technology called Mindwipe. This tech was used to manipulate agents memories, deleting anything that could lead back to the Federation if the agent would be put under enterogation. On return from a successful mission, the process would be reversed. Usually most personal memories were left intact, only direct and some indirect memories linked to the Federation would be deleted. Of course the level of wipe would depend on the sensitivity of a mission.
A bad Mindwipe was what got me here. I had found myself on a planet in a system in the Euclid Galaxy. I later found out that Euclid was a galaxy that had only recently been discovered by the Kharkiv Empire and were in the middle of important trade and intel negotiations when I arrived on my first Euclid system. The Federation must have put us through the most thorough of Mindwipe. A Level 3 wipe. This is usually only used on near suicide missions. Missions that statistically are seen as a one way trip. I had been through wipes many times but this was more, thorough. And something had seriously gone wrong. The assignment I had been sent on was... corrupt. At least that's what I assumed it was. I had just one line of intel in my head, 'Atlas 1267b2'. No other intel, no backup or extraction coordinates. No direction. What was I to do?
But I'm ahead of myself. I finish my Cola, wave goodbye for the day to Devorak, my Vy'keen mechanic, and lean back in my leather reclining chair stress leaving my body with slow creak the supporting frame. Five years was a long time ago but I could remember every single detail from that first day. Maybe because I have absolutely no memories from before.
Day 01 – 3728-02-22
That first sense, wakefulness, dull pain. I was face down in what felt like a chalky substance. The left side of my face pressed against the ground, my skin dry and sore. I opened the eye facing upwards and the sensitive surface of my eye stung from dark billowing and acrid smoke. Blinking rapidly, I lifted my head gently and immediately regretted it. Nausia hit me like a sledgehammer. Everything was turning around and around. I dropped to the ground again, my forehead hitting the ground sending a sharp pain across my skull. Breathing slowly through gritted teeth I gently touched the left side of my face, still caked and sore but no serious damage. My mouth was dry and I was so thirsty. I slowly rolled over onto my back and lifted my upper body again, slowly, my arms supporting me from behind and rested on my elbows. My head started to clear and I scanned what I could see through some wreckage and smoke, swiveling my head slowly from left to right, then tilted my upwards, I was below a tall red rough barked tree. For how long had I been here? Had I been thrown from the crash to rest unconscious.? I check the rest of my body quickly. Nothing broken, no abrasions. The one piece suit I was wearing was also undamaged. The tree above me was an impressive 30 feet in height, it's canopy covering a sizeable area, sheltering me from what looked like a large sun. I was in a copse with similar trees of various height and colour. Their golden fronds hung loosely and swayed gently in the warm pollen filled breeze. No information of this type of tree came to my mind. Unknown. Interesting. The sky was maroon with wisps of golden cloud on the horizon. The moist air rose above a huge body of water about 50 metres below the hill where I stood. I really needed that drink. But contamination? The first rule an explorer follows is check the air and don't drink the water! Short but consist. Im sure it's saved a few lives. It was the I realised I had no helmet it visor. I had been breathing what was potentially a let heal cocktail and I could be dead at any moment. Without realising, my breathing had quickened, I started to panic. What if this was it. What the hell could I do. I whirled around staggering through the wreckage, the smoke clearing, looking for an Exosuit pack to helmet or any useable tech for that matter. Nothing but twisted metal and melted aluminiplas. I tried to calm myself, breathing slowly. I tried to taste the air, sense the composition. It tasted like, well air. Slightly cool with a bouquet of lemons or snadapples. Nothing caustic. No burning sensation in the olifactory canal. It seemed I was lucky on the breathing front. I would need food and something to drink. I scanned further to see if I could see a landmark or any buildings. A path wended its way gently down and through purple and orange grassy knolls to a flat yellow-sanded beach. There was a coastline that stretched from horizon to horizon. It is only when my gaze moved across this alien landscape that I noticed two spheres, moons, low in the sky. One large, blue and covered in a greenish pattern denoting a type of geology, which may signify life. The other, a smaller white/grey, moon which didn’t seem to have any noticeable texture to its grey countenance.
I needed to get my bearings, find out where I was and get in contact with the division. If I was deep undercover that would be difficult, if not impossible. I wiped the back of my hand across my dry lips. Should I chance drinking the water?
So, to summarise, The pros: I am alive, I have no pain or swelling to indicate infection or cellular damage. My senses seem to be intact. I can breathe in whatever this air is made up of with no immediate affects. And I am mobile.
Well, it could be worse. I looked around to see what other clues I could find of this place. I glance closely at a clump of tall blue moss…
MOSS: Flowerless plants that typically grow in dense green clumps or mats, often in damp or shady locations.