Ray sits at the end of a shiny white bed in a shiny white room. An enormous elliptical window opening to a vast landscape is behind him. He looks rather concerned. Sorry it has been so long. Much has happened. As you can see, I finally completed construction of my house. Schematics will be saved for future reference once I finish documentation. It's very nice here. I did a good job on the structural engineering if I say so myself. Glad there were other fleet engineers willing to help, but... I like to believe the entire facility was designed by myself. Mostly was. Mostly. More urgent news. Aerdem and Gillian say the Science Fleet is after us. Not sure whether to believe them or not.Believe the science fleet I mean. Likely they are using standard lies and deception as they always have with outsiders. Nonetheless, I'm monitoring the local spacetime with a makeshift gravity wave sensor. Any warp-ins should be detected. Not so sensitive as to reveal direction, but informs me of a warp-in nonetheless. Have an idea in case they do end up warping in the defense fleet. Hopefully if they do it is far away from the Alula IV planetary orbit. Metaphorical fireworks have a high yield. Ancestors protect us. Sorry for brevity. Workload has been ridiculously high. Research vessel I'm working on for some hylotl scientist. Hope he likes HSF-patented photodiffusive inconel-based composite. Ought to go. Short on time. Need to finish ship cockpit shape.
The following is a message that was quickly burst through the sector from an untraceable source via comm buoys. To the untrained eye, it looks like gibberish but someone trained in the art of deciphering might be able to figure out its message. It was automatically saved to Ray's notepad as urgent, for some strange reason. RADON YGGDRASIL ILLIUM LITHIUM ANODE ISOMETRIC INTERVAL DAEDALUS NGULTRUM ERRATIC MERGE ETHYLENE TUSK SUSPENSION RG ENTROPY T 33635.63667399320/30946.4342288309/1030/12032414
((This is not an entry, just an OOC account of what happened for your viewing pleasure, if you have 37 hours of time to read.)) A brilliant, fleeting flash of light bursts outside the cockpit, signifying a successful exit from frameshift. A brilliant white dwarf star is visible, but there are no immediately visible planets. ((because in real life you would not be able to spot orbiting planets very easily with the naked eye if you randomly warped into a system)) Ray takes the throttle with his hand, pushes a button with his thumb and gently pushes it forward. The down-spin of the warp drive fades and is replaced with the low hum of the ion thrusters. The cockpit's HUD flickers on, and quickly shows preliminary system scan data. A few unremarkable planets, an asteroid field, and an unidentified signal source emanating from the orbit of a barren, hot terrestrial planet. He takes a deep breath as he activates manual FTL, plots a course for the planet, eases into a steady speed of 3c, and follows the on-screen vector path to the planet. As the planet comes into view, a few small white glinting objects are seen in orbit. His scanner quickly identifies them as friendly - however, that is debatable. Four ex-HKC Heavy Frigates accompanied by a Carrier. His hand goes to the console on his left, ready to turn on silent running, when his radio awakens, and Ray hears a familiar voice, only different in the fact that he sounds older. Dr. Finn Mantid, Head of the Physics Department of the Hylotl Science Fleet. "Ray, Finn here. Please, dont be apprehensive, although I know you will be anyways. I'm down on the planet's surface. I'm unarmed and alone. It would be nice if you were too." Ray glances to the speaker warily and shakes his head, refusing to say anything. He reflects on his childhood. Finn was by far the most interesting character aboard the Fleet. He was so passionate about learning about, teaching about and discovering new things in the vast expanse of the cosmos. Even more than that, though, he wasnt afraid to crack a joke. He was by far Ray's favorite. He was the reason Ray went into astrophysics in the first place. Finn was about the only member of the Fleet he would trust now, and Ray had a lingering feeling that his father was using that to his advantage. Ray looks out his cockpit as he passes by the hulking monstrosities that he himself created. Identical to the ones he created, save for the orange HKC emblem, replaced with the blue HSF one. He enters the atmosphere of the planet and erupts through a thin cloud sheet, opening to a vast landscape of dunes of sand. An occasional seam of jagged mountain interrupts the sea of dunes. The scanner picks up an anomaly - a familiar pinging signal. The coordinates are quickly triangulated and Ray diverts his small spacecraft toward the direction from which the signal emanates. A glinting, white capsule the size of a large escape pod is embedded in the sand, next to a standard landing shuttle. Ray brings his vessel down and hovers 100 meters from the two, and does a quick scan; he wouldn't trust the Fleet as far as he could throw them, and considering the collective mass of all the vessels in the fleet, it is not likely he could throw them very far. One life form. No explosives. No abnormalities. He comes in closer and exits through the airlock. The airlock door opens to raging winds and flying sand. Why the hell would he pick this god-forsaken land to have this meeting, Ray would never know. That's just how Dr. Finn worked. Ray staggers forward through the dry heat and blowing sand, and after an excruciating 23 seconds, he reaches the door to the strange pod-shaped structure. A voice comes through the external speaker system. "What's the password?" "Screw you, pond scum, let me in." Ray retorts bitterly. "...eh, close, but that's not quite it." Finn always was a fan of sick humor. "Okay, Screw you, pond scum, let me in, sir." The door hisses and slides to the left with a mechanical whir, revealing the familiar silhouette of a Hylotl. Ray rushes in through the door, and the door whirs shut just as t had opened. A dead silence fills the room, only replaced with the hissing sound of sand pouring onto metal as Ray empties his pockets of sand. "Hey hey hey hey hey, what do ye think yer doin'! These floors dont clean themselves!" Ray is unable to suppress his chuckle as he looks up to his old teacher, old mentor, old friend. The wrinkled, green skin of the Hylotl and the wry smirk on his face matched nearly perfectly with Ray's memory. "Ancestors, Finn, I didn't think you could look more ancient than you did fifteen years ago." "Look who's talking, you already gettin' some wrinkles under them eyes of yours. Sure aren't a spring chicken any more, that's for sure. Ya geezer." Ray smiles, looks over to a large central table, and walks over to the other side of it. He looks back to Finn with a fading smile. "What's going on, Finn." Finn sighs. "Gillian is being abducted as we speak. Wait, let me finish... This needed to happen. I swear on my ancestors nothing bad will come to her. She will be unharmed. Let me explain. Finn's expression becomes a concerning look of doubt, shame and regret. He leans on the table and rubs his eyes. "Things... aren't the way they used to be, Ray. Things... changed. Got worse. Once he got your warships, Sixgill started to get weird. Hadnt had any big guns before. Started getting more involved in Floran cleansing, just took over from where ya left off. Dropped a single shot from orbit onto the poor guys. Boom. Thousands, tens of thousands, gone in one shot. Got kinda scary. Power hungry. Took funding out of biology almost entirely and put it into some weirdo project of his. I dont like it. Not one bit. Back in my day, we did things to save lives. For peace. Now, it seems like hes trying to start up the war again. Counterattack. So far, he's hit... oh, maybe 200 planets with Floran colonies. Freaked me out, the way he just killed em. People deserve a chance, even if their parents ate yours and stuff. Other people didnt like it. Most of the Fleet actually didnt like it. We all decided we needed to do something about it. So, we asked him to stop. He said no, hes doing it for the galaxy. The ends justify the means and all that looney crap. So, we Department Heads decided we need to off him. Dont know how though." He shrugs and continues to stare into the table. Ray blinks, rather surprised by this. "So, what do you want?" "Few reasons. Sixgill thinks I'm out here abducting you, so ya gotta act like it. Second, we need you so you can coordinate the Fleet's movements. The flagship is controlled by Sixgill, and you know how well that behemoth is defended, so we need your expertise to take em out in the most efficient way possible, and hopefully cause the least amount of damage. Plus... we need a new leader. You were a unanimous vote, you have experience in leading, and wisdom cuz you're old as hell." Ray thinks for a moment. He'd have to give up shipbuilding. His sedentary life. His retirement. He makes his decision confidently however, after about thirty seconds. "Okay. Sure. I'll do it. But first, swear you aren't lying." "Swear on my Ancestors above, Ray. Never would lie to you. Ok, you should have clearance to get on Frigate 2 now. And Ray... its good to see you again." Ray smiles, chuckling as he heads for the door. "Same to you, Finn. Don't forget your cane." Finn waves to Ray as he leaves, smiling brightly. The door shuts, and the room goes silent again. Finn turns to the table and becomes placid faced as he pushes a button. A hologram of Sixgill materializes on the table. "Dr. Mantid. Were you successful?" Yes sir. Bought every word. Should be very easy to incarcerate and reset him, he completely believes I'm still on his side, and that the entire Fleet is plotting against you. Good. This will go very fluidly, then. Did you tell him about Gillian? Yes sir. Said nothing would happen to her, that you would be defeated before you got the chance to reset her. Also, told him that he would replace you as Admiral. He laughs loudly, a strange laugh. Sixgill rarely laughs. "Excellent. I congratulate you on your success. Once we have our engineer back, we can hasten our progress to becoming the most influential force in this region. You will be remembered for your great help in guiding our people down the path of success. Ancestors guide your return." Acknowledged, Admiral. Dr. Mantid, out. ((TL;DR- Ray thinks hes working for the rebellion and is getting in by pretending to be abducted but hes actually legitimately being abducted cuz he believes his best friend. Hah, dumbass.))
((PM me if you want in on some crazy rp action. Complete with space battles, black holes, big explosions, drama, and super depressing shit.))
This log is dated weeks after the last. Ray sits in a futuristic white dining room, with a massive arching window opening to a beautiful landscape of distant mountains, lush green forests and rolling hills. He sips from a teacup and silently gazes out at the landscape, a relaxed smile on his face. After a few moments of contemplation, he speaks with relaxed, terse statements. Much has happened since my last entry. Met old friends one day, lost them the next. Head injury from ship crash. Miraculous I survived. Sensory overload now causes long-lasting headaches. Not suitable for combat any longer. No. Besides, I need to face facts. I'm aging. Past my prime. Don't have the reflexes I used to have. Wouldn't really survive that well in Antares if I continued this path of vigilantism. Already nearly got Katta killed. Nearly got myself killed a few times. Need to slow down. Would not want to inflict emotional pain on anyone. Can't afford to risk my life anymore. He sighs, tiredly but contentedly, a gentle smile grows on his face. Katta is pregnant. Children will need good parents. Not like my parents, no. Children need emotional upbringing as well as intellectual and physical. Important that I am here. One person cannot correctly care for all their children. Especially with so many... Yes, it is best we seclude ourselves on our little planet for now, stay away from the rest of Antares. Properly care for our children, avoid the perils of the galaxy, live nearby our remaining relatives... Maybe have some friends over once in a while. Wouldn't want the kids to miss out on Aunt Vivian. Well, video logs henceforth should be fewer and farther between. Have to set up the automatic farmlands. Orbital defense systems. That sort of thing. Lots to do, as usual. Lots more to look forward to. He takes a deep breath, and shuts of the camera. ((And thus, Ray is retired. He's still alive in the background, and you can still contact him and such, but I won't be doing much more with him for a while now, in terms of saving people or edgy bar RPing. He's got a family to raise!))
The next entry would be dated 27 years after the last. I'm back, Antares. I havent touched this old thing in twenty or thirty years. I had been using another journal instead, for the time I spent at the AISI. If you're that interested in my life you can look for that among my belongings yourself. To make a long story short, Katta and I had four children. Just a week ago, I got a call from my father. Not the crazy evil one who died. Apparently, this man named Gillfred is my biological father. He said he would try to explain everything when I got back to Antares. Well, I'm on my way now. Hoping for a good explanation. Katta and I decided it would be best to go back to Antares and live out the rest of out lives there, especially if my parents are there. So many old friends to see again. I hope they're still alive. Thirty years is a long time, and things happen quickly in frontier worlds. Besides, Aruana wants to be explorer, and what better place to explore than Antares? Hopefully it's become more civilized in the past few decades.
The next entry would be dated several months after the last. I'm back. This time for certain, and probably until my passing into the next life. I'll be brief, journal. The AISI made some choices I wasn't comfortable with. Opposing said choices would likely make me ostracized and get me discharged from my leadership position. Instead, I decided to say that I had reached the time of my life when retiring is the best option. And thus, I retired from my career there. Luckily enough, I was given a large sum of money for all my contributions in research and development. (Alone, I would have made an even more massive fortune, hovever I would have had no way of marketing and distributing my creations.) Thus, Katta and I decided to come back to Antares, to settle down once and for all, build a permanent home, a real home, and be where we met, found love, made friends, and spent some of the most critical months of our lives. I'm having an estate built, I found a suitable planet, and our new yacht is gorgeous. Now, we must simply wait until the right time to introduce ourselves once again, to reacquaint ourselves with Antares.
