#far field

TIMESTAMP: (25.10.5065u 2037 CrST)

PURPOSE: Ship's Log [NTS(USBS-R_12944)]

DISTRIBUTION: TAGS "NTS_LOGS", "USB_CENT_REC", "NMWS_CENT_REC"

MESSAGE TO FOLLOW:::

>//[NEA(NHP-THL_K3120)]:: "The Union Science Bureau Ship Nearer The Sun Than Is Advisable completed its journey—three years subjective, thirty years realtime—from New Madrassa to the planet of Asamitra, its first stop on a complete survey of the Watchers.

"Waking up the organic members of the crew from cryosleep went smoothly, and in no time all personnel were assembled to make contact with the Sehkni Research Station on the planet’s surface and its New Madrassan crew. Lahn Duul, a small, slight individual with rabbit-like body augmentations, and Edoa Mor, a more standard human, picked up the hail, and, after some deliberation and sharing of information with the crew of Nearer the Sun, figured out their first Mission: survey the cave system on the southern shore of Lake Abazas.

"Crew members Malice, Keta, Tulip, and Captain Tana Zorale took a lander down to the surface to greet the research station crew, only to quickly grow suspicious that all was not well here at the research station.

"Duul and Edoa were the only two members of the station staff present, and were evasive in their answers as to where the rest of the staff went. Both were running fevers, and their movements struck Malice, a physician for humans by training (though he is Egregorian himself), as concerning and abnormal.

"After altercations with Duul and Mor turned physical, two of Tulip’s subalterns were damaged and Keta was rendered temporarily unconscious. Luckily, Tulip’s remaining subalterns, Malice, and Captain Zorale succeeded in subduing Duul and Mor by locking them in stasis with Harrison Armory Pause/Lock devices. An unconscious Keta was tracked down to the back of a truck, where she had been taken by Duul, and quickly returned to consciousness by Malice. From Keta's location, the crew inferred that Duul and Mor likely planned to take Keta to the caves on the southern shore of Lake Abazas.

"Physical investigations of Duul and Mor revealed parasites, likely native to Asamitra, within both individuals affecting major body systems in the head and torso.

"Keta, Malice, Tulip, and Zorale quickly drove the IPS-N Lancaster they had brought with them in their lander to the southern shore of the lake, where Tulip and Zorale then searched for which cave they ought to investigate first. Zorale found evidence of human presence (a boot) at the mouth of one cave, and scans from Tulip’s specialized survey subaltern showed signs of computer activity, one potentially very large lifeform, several human-sized lifeforms, and many small lifeforms not too far into the cave.

"Now, our four brave crew members prepare to enter the cave and discover exactly what lies within…"

(this one wishes to "clean" up "messes" ^u^)

everyone meet Tulip, @rotten-spaceymage's character in our upcoming Lancer: Far Field game!

a TLALOC-Class NHP who was recruited to be the security team for the Union Science Bureau Ship Nearer The Sun Than Is Advisable, three years subjective time with only the assorted freaks of a Far Field Team and the captain's anime collection to keep her company has... changed Tulip (as did running estrogen.exe on her casket). now she's the sweepingest maid around!

she serves tea on a regular, punctual schedule in the ship's Tea Room (that this one built herself uwu), and that broom she carries everywhere with her seems to have some sort of weird, paracausal powers? (it is able to sweep the dishes! owo)

my players are going to be exploring the galaxy in the Union Science Bureau Ship Nearer The Sun Than Is Advisable. they chose this art for the ship because it looks "pink and cunty":

our PCs

an Egregorian medic who is also an astronomer. his name is Malice and he's a very sweet guy.

a survival expert and anthropologist whose anthropological specialty is recreational space drugs

an NHP who controls a team of subalterns. she was originally the ship's security detail, but during these many years traveling through deep space she became obsessed with anime maids and now all her subalterns are dressed as maids and refer to any problem as "messes" to "clean up". she's even installed a tea room in the ship. her broom has magic blinkspace powers, including the ability to suck things up into a mysterious hammerspace and shoot them back out again

an Egregorian theologian and engineer researching how to spread Witness on other planets.

NPCs

i've also been having a ton of fun making NPCs to fill out the crew. thus far this cast of little freaks includes:

Captain/Linguist: Tana Zorale (she/her)

A well-traveled Cosmopolitan in her middle-age, the far-field expedition’s departure from the Dawnline Shore was itself a return to a home long left behind for Captain Zorale. A native Laureline, Zorale was born during the early days of the Baronies’ colonization of Upper Laurent. Escaping the brutality of Baronic subjugation, Zorale’s family took refuge in the stars. Outlaw, revolutionary, surveyor, purveyor of goods in markets black, white, and grey, and so much more, the Captain has played countless roles during the past 1,150 realtime years. However, it was only after Zorale had decided to settle down on Cradle that she was recruited by the Union Science Bureau to captain the USBS Nearer The Sun Than Is Advisable.

Confident, knowledgeable, and ambitious, dedicated to her work and adoring of her crew, the Captain is eager to explore, finding herself feeling more at home now that she’s once again among the stars than she had ever felt during the past few years on Cradle.

Installed through her neural port is an experimental version of the Adaptive Translator COMP/CON that interfaces directly with her brain. With this interface, she has near-fluent use of virtually every language documented by Union.

Kind of a MILF.

First Officer/Ontologistician: Hrijn Udrún (they/them)

First Officer Hrijn Udrún is an experienced ontolgistician hailing from Harrison’s World. During the recent war in the Dawnline Shore, they defected to New Madrassa after exposing Purview plans to build a blink-powered bomb capable of heretofore unseen destruction. Refusing to work for the New Madrassan military or the Union Navy, they were instead quickly recruited by the New Madrassa World Science Organization. Now, they are eager to explore the Watchers, known as they are for their high concentration of blinkfield anomalies.

Udrún is also an experienced and passionate chef, and could not be stopped from taking care of food operations on this expedition.

Pilot/Narrator/The Ship Herself: NEA (Navigation and Exploration Assistant) (she/her)

An NHP with over 400 years of exploration under her belt, NEA’s early career involves war stories from the Third Committee’s Revolution, but how many are tall tales is unclear.

She walks around the ship with a variety of subalterns and holograms, though her favorite representation is a hologram of an orange tabby cat.

Surveyor: Mulri Krevul (he/him):

Mulri Krevul has been at this for a long time. The sole survivor of a lost First Committee Far-Field Team, unfrozen from thousands of years in cryosleep by another FFT which rediscovered him 98 realtime years ago, Krevul wasted no time getting back to work. Given a second chance at life, Krevul is now doubly dedicated to a life of science. He was recruited for this expedition due to his prior experience surveying worlds with failed colonies.

Krevul spends much of his free time on the omninet, correcting historical misconceptions about what life was like way back in the 16th century of Union.

He is also an avid gamer, and is seldom ever seen not wearing his GMS-issued hoodie over his uniform.

TIMESTAMP: (07.11.5065u 2102 CrST)

PURPOSE: Personal Log (Hrijn Udrún) [NTS(USBS-R_12944)]

DISTRIBUTION: TAGS "NTS_LOGS", "USB_CENT_REC", "NMWS_CENT_REC"

MESSAGE TO FOLLOW:::

>//[Hrijn Udrún]:: "It was a blissfully mundane couple weeks on Asamitra. All members of the Sehkni Research Station crew successfully recovered from the parasites implanted in them by a colonial-era Asamitran bioweapon. Nearer the Sun's personnel assisted in the process of getting the station once again up and running, while also preparing to investigate the two newly-manifested blinkfield signatures detected on the planet's southern hemisphere. I was asked by Keta, Malice, and Tulip to accompany them on these expeditions.

"Bright and early on the 5th, we set out for the first site: the ruins of what was likely once the colonial-era city of Talyona. Upon arrival, our initial survey confirmed the presence of a localized blinkfield anomaly, and also revealed the presence of large, predatory native fauna (a species which the Sehkni researchers apparently refer to as a 'bearodactyl' for its strange set of resemblances to both of these Cradle-native animal clades).

"Narrowing down the perimeter of the blinkfield anomaly was simple. However, navigating the spatial and temporal distortions within proved to be a much more complicated task. It took us some time to map out the metafold space that these ruins had become. Eventually, though, we found our way to the heart of the anomaly, localized around the remnants of a collapsed building in which a family of bearodactyls had made its den. The cubs took an active interest in us, while the parent slept cradling what appeared to be an ancient, rusted subaltern.

"An attempt by Tulip to interact with the creatures accidentally triggered what was likely a rapid series of paracausally-linked events that ultimately resulted in Tulip's disappearance from realspace. Malice, Keta, and I quickly worked together to track down where Tulip went. Luckily, she soon reappeared in realspace, and we were able to track down her subaltern to a location beneath the collapsed building. Not wanting to disturb the bearodactyl den further, we used the Lancaster's digging tools to bore through the rubble and find our way into the intact lower levels of the building.

"Tulip was not alone by the time we reunited with her, having two new individuals in her company. The first was the source of the blinkfield anomaly; an damaged NHP casket from the colonial era, serial number SRV_K91-325. Tulip reported having experienced something in between a vision and severe temporal displacement during her disappearance, witnessing the aerial bombing which had originally reduced this building to rubble from the perspective of this NHP, who apparently simply called herself 325. This was confirmed by the second individual now present, a human who had apparently also been stuck within this temporal distortion.

"This man was unable to recall his own name or details about the rest of his life, but he did profess to know 325 due to apparently having been stuck for quite a while in a week-long temporal loop that always ended with this bombing. Curiously, he was dressed in clothes displaying the New Madrassan Union World Science Organization logo, and he carried a keycard identical to the ones used by the researchers at Sehkni.

"We did not have adequate supplies to repair 325's casket on hand, so decided to call some researchers at Sehkni and request that they bring the proper tools for the job. Tulip left one of her miniature subalterns on 325's casket as a gesture to demonstrate that they would return, and we and this mysterious stranger set up camp elsewhere in the city to await the arrival of the supplies.

"Now, as I write this log, I'm relaxing in one of the Lancaster's (very comfortable) hammocks and sipping on some of the tea prepared by Tulip for the whole team. Though I know I should be concerned or even perhaps worried about the origin of our new guest and the state of 325, I will admit, most of all it excites me that this expedition has thus far yielded even more questions than answers."

TIMESTAMP: (29.10.5065u 1312 CrST)

PURPOSE: Captain's Log [NTS(USBS-R_12944)]

DISTRIBUTION: TAGS "NTS_LOGS", "USB_CENT_REC", "NMWS_CENT_REC"

MESSAGE TO FOLLOW:::

>//[Capt. Tana Zorale]:: "Crew members Tulip, Malice, and Keta have performed admirably under considerable pressure over these past couple days.

"As the three of them and I all stood at the mouth of the cave on the southern shore of Lake Abazas with the knowledge that there was some large unknown life sign within, Tulip jumped into action. She sent a surveyor drone down into the depths of the cavern, and discovered walls lined with interconnected machinery and some kind of flesh. Deeper into the cave, she found a chamber containing the bodies of the three missing researchers, and along one wall was a mass of cables and tentacles, metal and meat, with red, bioluminescent nodes dotted throughout and one large, staring eye.

"The survey drone was sadly lost--attacked by a tentacle from this strange creature--but soon Tulip found a way to interface with this creature via a port along the wall leading to the primary chamber. Tulip managed to convince the creature that she was some manner of administrator, and to make the creature see us as friendly (or at least not as potential food or hosts for more parasites). Soon after, Malice was able to use his Witness abilities to convince the creature to release the researchers from its tentacles.

"Stepping into the main chamber, Malice conducted cursory medical examinations of the researchers, concluding that one had already had a parasite implanted in them. This researcher, Sekhni Research Station Director Centihua Matun, was put in stasis in a Pause/Lock device, while Malice carried the other two on his back.

"It became evident that the creature's feelings towards us were beginning to sour, so we exited the cave, piled into our Lancaster, and headed back to the station.

"Malice, together with Nearer the Sun's head nurse Saffron Carlivan, unlocked Matun as well as infected researchers Lahn Duul and Edoa Mor from stasis and performed surgical extractions of the parasites. All extractions were successful, though it did take a couple days and some extra research regarding Asamitran colonial-era bioweapons to wake up Matun after surgery.

"And yes, that is exactly what these parasites were: bioweapons. Data extracted by Tulip showed that the creature in the cave and the parasites it implants in humans were a bioweapon intentionally engineered by the military of a heretofore unknown nation that was apparently around in the 36th century u. (just before the recorded collapse of Asamitra's human population), a state known as the Grand Bicamerality. This weapon in particular was apparently planted to sabotage the operations of internal militant dissidents who were hiding in the hills around Lake Abazas.

"Also mentioned in these records was a city--Talyona--which Tulip deduced is possibly the location of what is today an archaeological dig site near the southern end of this continent.

"Ever since the three infected researchers awoke after surgery, Keta has been keeping them all company. They seem to be appreciating it.

"Curiously, as the crew has been resting and recovering from all this parasite chaos, planetary scanners picked up the emergence of a blinkfield anomaly at the Talyona dig site, as well as another new blinkfield anomaly beneath a glacier near the planet's southern pole.

"It seems some further investigation may be in order..."

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The class slides presented a derivation of the reciprocity theorem, a theorem that contained the integral of

\begin{equation}\label{eqn:reciprocityTheorem:360} \int \lr{ \BE^{(a)} \cross \BH^{(b)} – \BE^{(b)} \cross \BH^{(a)} } \cdot d\BS = \cdots \end{equation}

over a surface, where the RHS was a volume integral involving the fields and…