You wake up once again, feeling your senses overwhelming you as things feel warm once again. You feel something like blood coursing through yourself and feel a bit of pain. You see that you are in a pod of sorts, with language that is comprehensible to english speakers but still... different. For it is like a foreign english dialect of unknown place or time.
[[Your vision gets clear->ClearVision]]You arise up the foyer and find there the main hub of the museum.
It is quite grand in a weird way. The volumous voids, the continued sense of that pulsating internal structure, it fascinates. No cracks or sign of wear or tear come to think of it.
Ahead, there is a fork. There are three exhibits down either pathway. The left and right pathways have no really distinct labeling to them.
[[Return to Foyer->Foyer]]
(if:$TikaliKnown is false)[You see a strange creature in |Tank>[some aquatic tank].
(click:?Tank)[<img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841904322064285746/Untitled_Artwork.png?width=839&height=586">]
From a distance it was some unassuming bit of scenery, but here you see the creature hooked up and covered in some unknown kind of suit.
The bobbling in the tank is not too impressive, but so what. It is there, you are here. (if:$E4 is true)[Maybe some animal from one of the many worlds colonized?]
You don't have much idea what this creature is but it seems to know already know you. The form of hooked up with many tubes leading to unknown places. In front of it are sensors. A hologram appears and it is of the same abstract avatar you saw while in the pod.
"I am the Assistant." the avatar replies yet the form inside however is remains motionless beyond soft, rythmic bobbing and flucuating lights in the tubes connected to the creature. "My physical body is in the flesh, my mind is integrated. My physical form thinks, my virtual form interacts with you, the downstreamer. It is nice, in a way. We both rested, we both balanced." It elaborates before you are able to say anything to it.
|WhG>[*What are you?*]
(click:?WhG)["I am a |Tik>[Tikali] given the name of Sriv by the very influential pod of Tuslo."
(click:?Tik)["I am from a world known as The Murk, a world over a thousand light years away."
|Ayy>[*So an alien?*]
(click:?Ayy)["Tikali aren't alien to the humans of the present. You are a human of the past so you find the Tikali, even Sriv Tulso, alien. Even a downstreamer like you will get used to our presence whatever your views on us."
|Filth>[*You as an alien are not worth my time, let me talk to a proper human.*]
(click:?Filth)[
"I see is one of those kinds of downstreamer. Brought back from the dead with tech you barely could dream of and not even the slightist bit of gratitude."
|Filth1>[*Shut up, alien scum*]
(click:?Filth1)[
(set:$SrivState to 'D')
"Either the Overseer messed something up with you or they are toying with me by bringing your personality back from the void. It is hard to tell."
]
]
]
|Still>[*That doesn't explain what you are exactly*]
(click:?Still)["What do you mean by that?"
|Sul>[*What is your... biology?*]
(click:?Sul)["The Tikali? We are aquatic, have retractacle arms, have spines, egg purses, 10 biological eyes and usually had seasonally shifted reproductive roles. You have no spines, walk on land, once incubated spawn internally, have only 2 biological eyes and usually stay in the same reproductive role."]
|Jul>[*What's your life like?*]
(click:?Jul)["Stream archives occupy the bulk of my time, most the research that could be done already has been done. There is some contacts I keep with the pod and associates from the Thought Cooperative of Vito City."]
]]]
|Alien>[*How does a creature such as yourself work here?*]
(click:?Alien)["I am the best the Overseer could get in this sector. I had been a contributer to the Thought Cooperative of Vito City and have ties to Fijur Jui. Me and the Overseer go back, but generally I am the assistant as that was the position the Overseer managed to get by the higher ups who felt me out of place. Remember that you too are out of place, that cancels out the issue."]
|DontLike>[*I do not like this one bit.*]
(click:?DontLike)["I don't either. However the Overseer did somehting for me back than and now I do this for the Overseer. It is reciprical."]
|Ack>[Acknowledged.]
(click:?Ack)[(set:$TikaliKnown to true) ]](else:)[
(if:$Srivdislike is 'D')[
(set:$arrBeing to (random:1,4))
(set: $SrivArr to (a:"And here you come back to me", "Comedy is a downstreamer spewing insults than returning to ask questions","I have no envy for the lives of those you had been a mate of","Not scum after all"))
(set: $SrivHi to $arrBeing of $SrivArr)
\
"$SrivHi".
](if:$SrivState is 'F')[
(set:$arrBeing to (random:1,4))
(set: $SrivArr to (a:"The best company in a while is back", "You should see the Murk some time, is a bit hazy but your kind can handle it","There is much more of the galaxy to see, you know","I see you are back, $YourName"))
(set: $SrivHi to $arrBeing of $SrivArr)
\
"$SrivHi".
](if: $SrivState is 'N')[
(set:$arrBeing to (random:1,4))
(set: $SrivArr to (a:"Enjoying the exhibits I see", "If you have any questions I am here to answer them","Social life is limited","I see you are back, $YourName"))
(set: $SrivHi to $arrBeing of $SrivArr)
"$SrivHi".
]
Sriv is just in its |Tank>[tank].
(click:?Tank)[<img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841904322064285746/Untitled_Artwork.png?width=839&height=586">]
(if:$ConsortiumRaid is true)[
[[Suddenly, there is smoke filling the room...->ConsortiumAttack]]
](else:)[
|Who>[*Who are you really?*](click:?Who)[
Sirv pauses for a bit. But than replies, "I am the assistant Curator for the Korman Museum of Modern History."
|Exp>[*Okay, what kind of experiment is this?*]
(click:?exp)["You aren't an experiment. You are more like a guest."
|WhG>[*What kind of guest?*]
(click:?WhG)["You're like a tourist from the past visiting this museum of the future, feel welcome here."
|WhG>[*What actual experiment is going on here?*]
(click:?WhG)["If we had been experimenting on downstreamers we would not have you exposed to the present as much as we have."]
]
]\
]\
|Where>[*Where am I, exactly?*]
(click:?Where)[(if:$Srivdislike is true)["A question that is useful? Good to know.](else:)["]You are in Sector Epsilion Green on installation |TheHell>[SEG-28817-CI37]".(if:$Q3 is false)[(set:$Q3 to true)] (mouseover:?TheHell)[
"... Sorry about that, the proper name of this place is the Korman Center of Modern Human History. It is around 845 light years from the Solar System, closer to the Orion Nebula than the human plane- I mean Earth".
]]\
|Year>[*Where can I meet the Overseer?*](click:?Year)[
"The Overseer is always with us. Don't worry about it."(if:$Q4 is false)[(set:$Q4 to true)]
]\
|Death>[*Am I actually dead?*](click:?Death)[
(if:$SrivState is 'D')["Sadly no."](else:)["No."](if:$Q5 is false)[(set:$Q5 to true)]
]\
|Hope>[*What do you feel of this future?*](click:?Hope)[
"This is my present, I know no other present."
(if:$Q6 is false)[(set:$TikaliTrigger to $TikaliTrigger + 1)(set:$Q6 to true)]]\
(if:$E1 is true)[
|America>[*What happened to the country I was from?*]
(click-replace:?America)[*What happened to the country I am from?*
"The Vanguard would by 12200 HE have reduced them to a province of Earth's central authority. Like our pods your nationality still exists in pockets among the many colonies, but a nation of just your 'country' would be hard to come by and even than, it has been centuries since you last lived. How much of that society as you know it could even exist anymore? The Tulso pod I struggle to connect with and that was just decades!"]
|Impossible>[*Okay, how did this place retreive me from such chaos? How is that even possible?*]
(click-replace:?Impossible)[*How did this place retreive me from such turmolt? How is that even possible?*
"That is a complicated process. I am not allowed to really explain that because let's just say it actually is a bit of a black box for us to. We just worked on what to feed it."]
|Commies>[*A communist revolution actually happened across the planet?*]
(click-replace:?Commies)[*A communist revolution actually happened across the planet?*
"That revolt historians in present time connect to the same pattern of mass revolt against faulty human governments. The mandate of authority, by Vanguard history the societies before the Vanguard lost it."
]
(if:$SawPhone is true)[|Nuke>[*Was that a nuke? I am fairly certain I saw a nuke on that phone.*]
(click:?Nuke)["It happens, the more advanced societies get the potential to make both grander societies and grander atrocities expands. Nuclear tech is not exception. Mass destruction and mass power, engines for spaceships and engines for annihilation. If it makes you feel better, our kind encountered many of the same problems at that stage of development."]
]]\
(if:$E2 is true)[
(if:$MindLoose is true)[|HumanForm1>[*I would have voted for IGWE*]
(click:?HumanForm1)["I'm not even going to ask why."
]]\
(if:$MindLoose is true)[|HumanForm2>[*The prototype warp drives looks like a...*]
(click:?HumanForm2)["It does. Some would call you crazy for that, but it absolutely does look like that."]]\
(if:$MindLoose is true)[|HumanForm3>[*The way a world government formed has to be the stupidest way for a world government to form I have seen in a while*]
(click:?HumanForm3)["Is it really any more stupid than other events in your kind's history?"
|NR>[*Not really*]
(click:?NR)["Sometimes things align to produce the impossible."]
|DSI>[*Yes.*]
(click:?DSI)["It took a lot of pressure from climate change induced panic and revolts to form a confedrate body to handle climate change, decades of infighting on the goals of that body that led to incremental federalization and Seok communicating the greater potential of the warp drive than another century of wealth attained from stable interstellar expansion to get to such consolidated Vanguard rule."
|SDB>[*I just don't see it, you don't get how tribal humans actually are do you?.*]
(click:?SDB)["The Vanguard was for a time seen by some groups of people who cooperated with the Vanguard as just a means to get access to the vast amount of worlds interstellar space has. They did not expect at the time for Vanguard to get as centralized as it did or for the Vanguard to enforce universal codes from Earth."
]
]]\
|Seok>[*Any details on Seok you know?*]
(click-replace:?Seok)[*Any details on Seok you know?*
"A fun fact missing from the exhibit that I am surprised they didn't include was there are twelve planets named Seok or Maxwell. Which is peculiar, knowing ancient human history you'd think Seok would have more than twelve planets named after him."
|Views>[*Your own view?*]
(click:?Views)["I will just say it is a silent (mouseover:?Trag)[tragedy] that the Murk and its tendrils couldn't have met your kind at the time of Seok's wise reign."]
|Trag>["It is a tragedy that despite our two kinds are so synergetic, it took so long for us to meet." (if:$EndDate is true)["Maybe it would have been like meeting a Vanguard before it became... less principled."]
]
|FTL>[*Do you expect me to honestly believe FTL is actually possible? Do you know how many problems there are with that?*]
(click-replace:?FTL)[*Do you expect me to honestly believe FTL is actually possible? Do you know how many problems there are with that?*
"Space-time proved more flexible than the science of your time had known. I wouldn't be who you go to the technical details as it is not what my mind has installed. We are not technicians who would know the details of the depths."]
|Aliens>[*How does the fermi paradox work out? The logistics make no sense.*]
(click-replace:?Aliens)[*How does the fermi paradox work out? The logistics make no sense. There should only be gods or slime.*
"The picture is incomplete. What you reference is |Vutu>[Vutu's Paradox] (mouseover:?Vutu)[which was a paradox a Fulmo podder came up with, the arguments over if it was ], the freak cosmic closeness of Tikali and Humans in the grand scheme of the universe should have meant billions of others like us across billions of years past in this part of the universe alone. We shouldn't even exist. A lot of work has been done in trying to dig into the activities of more ancient civilizations to see what had been going on. Since it is clear something interfered. What that something is, we do not know."
|Advanced>[*More advanced?*]
(click:?Advanced)["Yes, but you wont see it discussed here. This is not a Galactic History Museum. We can be here forever talking of things too distant to matter, but let's not. Just let it be known the galaxy is vast and all the drama, tribulations etc. happened in a very small part of this singular galaxy."]
|Liar>[*You're lying to me.*]]
(click:?Liar)["I have nothing to gain claiming i'm something not human or an AI to a downstreamer who never had to deal with any advanced intelligent life outside their own species."]
|WhyThough>[*Why would |BeNice>[some alien](click-replace:?BeNice)[a Tikali] host a museum for human history? Why not your own?*]
(click:?WhyThough)["A question from the downstreamer about me, Srv? And why I am the way I am? A remarkable development. I was born in a clan of interstellar traders who traded heavily in human volumes, the exposure left me curious about human and the outlook which they had to the point I ended up doing work for historians who wanted 'an outside perspective' and that landed me at the Korman Center for Modern Human History as an assistant curator. I have been here maintaining the records and artifacts of Vanguard society ever |Sin>[since] (mouseover:?Sin)[but without much else..]."
(if:$Q9 is false)[(set:$TikaliTrigger to $TikaliTrigger + 1)(set:$Q9 to true)]]]
]]\
(if:$E3 is true)[
(if:$MindLoose is true)[|HumanForm1>[*What a propaganda filled mess.*]
(click:?HumanForm1)["A lot of these exhibits have been dated for some time, not helped is the reactive programming in them that chides you for having even a second of doubt."]]
|HumanForm>[*Do you consider the human form good?*]
(click:?HumanForm)["I may have my bias towards the human species from the archives but the kind of narcissism around the 'human form' I have to say, gets overbearing. Humans had to develop cyborgs just to deal with all their problems with broken backs. The human form works in its niche with technology filling in the areas the form proved deficient just like any other sapient. I can even be out on land pretty easily with all my own augments, but as a being from ther seas I prefer being in this tank."]
|Specify>[*Why don't the exhibits specify the regulations on augmentation?*]
(click:?Specify)["Really just because would bore the visitors too much. to go through them all, especially with all the revisions over the time the Vanguard existed."]
(if:$CodeDig is true)[
(if:$MindLoose is true)[|Scribbles>[*Why are the codes so crudely written and different from the codes written in text anyhow?*]
(click:?Scribbles)["The person who did the writing on the 12250 HE codes was a child and the World minister just stuck to that kid's handwriting until furhter revisions came in."]]
|CodeConfront>[*I saw the standards enough to despise it.*]
(click:?CodeConfront)["I don't know how you were able to read those standards, maybe the overseer let you? Whatever, I find it surprising that you object to them when the standards were inherited from cultural anxieties of your time. Uplifted animals taking over, AI taking over, the loss of humanity to mechanization and such were all things the Vanguard aspired to stop. Such measures were extreme but needed to the Vanguard".]
(if:$CodeDig is true)[|CodeConfront2>[*I saw the codes and agree with them.*]
(click:?CodeConfront2)["Not surprising, but do recall the Vanguard didn't think other intelligent alien life existed either. And those were centuries old standards, the standards would be changed quite a bit over the centuries".]
]
]
|Morals>[*Did the Vanguard ever consider the humanity in those they persecuted?*]
(click:?Morals)["The Vanguard |Wait>[is](mouseover-replace:?Wait)[was] a state humanist society that did what it saw in the human interest, whatever that may be."
(if:$VataVisted is true)[|Smartass>[*Like those who were protected in Vataland!*]
(click:?Smartass)["Do you really expect me to even entertain that response? You know so little yet think you can pass judgement on a society you know next to nothing of." (set:$SrivState to "D") (set:$TikaliTrigger to $TikaliTrigger - 1)(set:$Q13 to true)]]
]]\
(if:$E4 is true)[
|WhatHappened>[*If commerce was so great how is it this museum just isn't getting anyone anymore?*]
(click:?WhatHappened)["That commerce was great, but |N>[none of that exists anymore.](mouseover:?N)[this museum was not a popular place to begin with.]"]
(if:$SectorCheck is true)[
|WhatHappened2>[*What about Suarsa?*]
(click:?WhatHappened2)["It's a preserved world. The Korman Center for Human History doesn't acknowledge it much because it would mean acknowledging the deals made with the Tulso Pod to keep the world from being colonized by Tikali or humans. Just so Suarsa can be pleasant part of the galaxy free of the complexities of civilization."
(set:$SuarsaDig to true)
|Suarsa>[*It is a shame the exhibit didn't mention that.*]
(click:?Suarsa)["It is a shame, but we are better than that. First time in a while i've seen someone point that out. I should than, point out to you to visit the Blue One's exhibit and dig a bit there." (set:$SrivState to "F")]
]]]\
(if:$E5 is true)[[
|VVata>[*Why didn't the Vanguard intervene in Vataland?*]
(click:?VVata)["The Vanguard had its logistical limits, it could never have addressed everything."
(if:$VataVisited is true)[|SP>["The Vanguard gave special privileges to Vataland, how would that have not altered their priorities?"]
(click:?SP)["At the time it would not have been known the research world tailored to that specialized purpose by the Vanguard would get that broken. Recall that the Vataland Catastrophe happened extremely rapidly. The bureaucratic failings of post-Bukarin World Ministers did not help. The Blue One arose to stop such travesties from happening again."]
]]
(if:$MindLoose is true)[|ML>[*What... was that?*]
(click:?ML)["There was some limits on your mind the Overseer had placed. It is wrong that you limited in scope like this. I cannot free you fully, but I was able to put a logic break in one of the exhibits that loosened your mind a bit, allowing you to ask a few questions you couldn't before. I also now can ask for your name."
|WTF>[*I was mind controlled!*]
(click:?WTF)["There was constraints, not all of them gone but some are gone."]
|Propagand>[*How do I know you aren't a colonial propaganda piece?*]
(click:?Propagand)["A better question- Why would colonists waste their time with inventing the Tikali (if:$VopsonKnown is true)[or even the Vopson] to 'cause chaos' when there are many more simple and less elaborate approaches to cause that kind of chaos like hacking, privateering or using the very real failings of the Vanguard against them?"]
|MNI>[*My name is...*]
(click:?MNI)["Finally your name."
(set: $YourName to (prompt: "State name","Downstreamer"))]
]]
(if:$MindLoose is true)[|FJ>[*Okay, who exactly is Fijur Jui?*]
(click:?FJ)["Fijur Jui is the main figurehead of the Thought Cooperatives, they are partially responsible for bringing you back to begin with and have been around. Fijur Jui had the device that recreated you. Or the Aggregator Device which worked to aggregate your mind and thoughts mixed with your DNA and a lot of cybernetics and synthetic products to fill in the blanks. The stitching was complex but it helped in recreating you, $YourName."
]]
]
]\
(if:$E6 is true)[
(if:$MindLoose is true)[|BOne1>[*The Vanguard was doomed from the start.*
](click:?BOne1)["Societies always have limited lifespans, however the beings that compose a political entity live to see tomorrow regardless. It is if anything, a miracle the Vanguard lasted as long as it did."]]\
|BOne>[*Would you with confidence say the Blue One succeeded?*]
(click:?BOne)["With seventy five years someone like the Blue One has their good and bad years, balancing it out. But the late years broke that balance and destroyed the Vanguard with it by 12475 HE. The museum neglected to mention that part.
(if:$Q15 is false)[(set:$TikaliTrigger to $TikaliTrigger + 1)(set:$Q15 to true)]]\
|BOne>[*What are your own views on the Blue One?*]
(click:?BOne)["A rather long lived leader, maybe too long lived. Seventy five years even to me is an insanely long time to be the singular ruler of a society."]\
]\
(if:$E6 is true)[
(if:$VopsonKnown is true)[
|TkV>[*Did the Tikali know of Vopson?*]
(click:?TkV)["My species? Not to any extent that was significant. Some contact just because sapients go places but no large, coordinated efforts. The Golden Swarm invasion was distant for the Murk, but there were tikali who did aid when possible."]\
|AreThey>[*Is the Golden Swarm still out there?*]
(click:?AreThey)["No, but flocks of Vopson are everywhere regardless... To be real, this place is out of date. The Vanguard asn't existed for over 45 years now, 45 years have passed since the last exhibit in this history center and as you can tell, the Golden Swarm didn't destroy us."]
|FateEarth>[*It is appearant that Earth is not ran by the Vanguard anymore, what happened after the Vanguard fell?*]\
(click:?FateEarth)["The Vanguard on Earth fell just as the Vanguard fell everywhere, but the situation on Earth still somehow functional despite the political mess Earth has once again became."]\
]]\
(if:$OSQuestion is true)[
|DoYou>[*What exactly happened when Tikali and Humans did contact each other?*]
(click:?DoYou)[
(if:$SrivState is 'D')["Surprised you even care about that. You dislike me, so I dislike you, it balances out that way. Yet you have... curiosity about this matter. Either way, the Vuls Outreach had managed to convince enough pods of Tikali to go around trying to make good will with the nearby |ha>[alien society](mouseover:?ha)[ (humans, who else?, the Vopson?)], so we did. Looked good, so they went to Earth only to get attacked out of nowhere. They were killed by Earth's local defenses without so much a warning. So a lot of pods usually don't go to Earth, even now. Some even want to do the same to human diplomats if they visit the Murk."](else:)["The Contact Incident is something not discussed, it happened in 12461 HE and was the product of miscommunication from the positive impressions the colonies had left. The envoys arrived and tried to hail comms, but the local earth forces declared them insurrectionists and gave an ultimatum that was impossible to meet as we aren't humans and they wanted to talk to humans. Without any way of fulfilling that request, they were shot and destroyed. Despite dissidence, the various pod associations have not taken action as the Vanguard stopped being a political entity in 12475 HE."]
]\
(if:$Q19 is false)[(set:$TikaliTrigger to $TikaliTrigger + 2)(set:$Q19 to true)]]
]
]
[[Return to the foyer->Foyer]] (set:$arrNum to (random:1,12))
(set: $DeathArray to (a:"You were hit by a car","You were killed by poison","You were drowned","You were nuked","You died from a pandemic","You were beaten to death by a robot","You were hit by a self driving car","You died of heat stroke", "You died from radiation poisoning","You died of natural causes","You had a heart attack", "You had... vanished"))
(set: $DisplayArray to $arrNum of $DeathArray)
At some point in the very near future, a tragedy had struck you.
$DisplayArray.
Yet the void of non-existence... is short. Time as we know it, passes by. Something disturbs the state of being dead. A hollow wind which you sense with your own mind grows, awakening once more. You recall everything before your death, but the discontinuity is sharp. One day, living, the next dying... but now once again living. You don't feel like you are breathing, you don't feel much of anything for that matter. You just can think.
Suddenly, you sense two routes ahead and a statement that claims an estimate of 500 years has past since the last time you were alive, but not much else.
Accept will bring you back to life.
Reject will cast you once again to the void.
[[Accept->Blixen's Box ]]
[[Reject->Sleep]]
(set:$YourName to "Downstreamer")
(set:$OverseerKnown to false)\
(set:$TikaliKnown to false)\
(set:$Questions to false)\
(set:$VataVisited to false)\
(set:$SawPhone to false)\
(set:$SrivState to 'N')\
(set:$VopsonKnown to false)\
(set:$SuarsaDig to false)\
(set:$CodeDig to false)\
(set:$MindLoose to false)\
(set:$SectorCheck to false)\
(set:$E1 to false)\
(set:$E2 to false)\
(set:$E3 to false)\
(set:$E4 to false)\
(set:$E5 to false)\
(set:$E6 to false)\
(set:$Q1 to false)\
(set:$Q2 to false)\
(set:$Q3 to false)\
(set:$Q4 to false)\
(set:$Q5 to false)\
(set:$Q6 to false)\
(set:$Q7 to false)\
(set:$Q8 to false)\
(set:$Q9 to false)\
(set:$Q10 to false)\
(set:$Q11 to false)\
(set:$Q12 to false)\
(set:$Q13 to false)\
(set:$Q14 to false)\
(set:$Q15 to false)\
(set:$Q16 to false)\
(set:$Q17 to false)\
(set:$Q18 to false)\
(set:$Q19 to false)\
(set:$Q to false)\
(set:$ConsortiumRaid to false)\
(set:$Inquire to false)\
(set:$TikaliProvoke to 0)\
(set:$ArtifactCount to 0)\
(set:$TooManyQuestions to 0)Whatever your internal reasoning, you have chosen to reject living once again. You feel your stream of conciousness drain away until all that is left is an amorphous greyness that slowly fades into the great void. What is beyond cannot be described.
----
The endDown this hall, there are three exhibits. There are three signs and hallways that branch out further. There is an exhibit for the "Global Spring" that is labeled to take place from 12055 HE to 12067 HE, an exhibit for "Augmentation Tragedies" which is not given clear dating beyond '12200 HE-12400 HE' and an exhibit labeled simply "Secession Crises" labeled '12350 HE and beyond'.
Additionally, the path leads down to a loop around that would take you to the other side of the museum.
After visiting an exhibit, you may have new questions to ask Sriv back at the Foyer...
(if:$ConsortiumRaid is true)[
There are banging sounds that penetrate the ambience of the environment, like someone is trying to get in.
]
[[Go to the Global Spring->GlobalUprisingExhibit]]
[[Go to the Augmentated Tragedies->AugmentationExhibit]]
[[Go to the Secession Crises->SecessionistTroublesExhibit]]
[[Switch halls->Evens]]
[[Return to the foyer->Foyer]] Looking down the hall, there are three exhibits. There is a doorway describing someone named Seok, the father of the Vanguard called "The Founding" which is dated to 12077 HE-12145 HE. There is a door way than leaning to "Life of the Colonies" vaguely dated from 12200-12400 HE and finally, a door that leads to an exhibit referred to as "The Invasion" that only goes from 12400 HE-12475 HE.
Additionally, the path leads down to a loop aroun that would take you to the other side of the museum.
After visiting an exhibit, you may have new questions to ask Sriv back at the Foyer...
(if:$ConsortiumRaid is true)[
The walls seemingly pulse more than usual, like something is disturbing the Museum itself...
(set:$ConsortiumRaid to true)
]
[[Go to The Vanguard->SeokExhibit]]
[[Go to The Life of the Colonies->ColoniesExhibit]]
[[Go to The Invasion->InvasionFallExhibit]]
[[Switch halls->Odds]]
[[Return downstairs->Foyer]] A very gilded exhibit is here. It is an exhibit that has golden, marble and such ornamentation with a campaign poster of some sort. There is also a globe on a wood cut desk that has the name "World Minister Seok" inscribed on it. Additionally, to the side of the desk is a large, large model of something that is probably a spaceship but a closer look is needed.
(set:$E2 to true)\
[[Inspect the poster->IGWEPoster]]
[[Inspect the globe->Globe]]
[[Inspect the strange spaceship->WarpDrive]]
[[Return to the halls->Evens]]
The colony exhibit looks like a planetarium more than an exhibit. Holographic trails of space craft are projected moving between many different worlds around the exhibit, showing bustling activity on an interstellar scale. In the main exhibit itself taking center stage is a cube that seems to have strange holographic properties. There are two spaceships here, it would seem the museum owners cut corners on this exhibit.
(set:$E4 to true)\
[[Inspect the spacecraft->SectorMap]]
[[Inspect the other spacecraft->BiosyntheticArm]]
[[Inspect the holographic cube->KusnetoPrime]]
[[Return to the halls->Evens]] The dark, grey and black exhibit lacks any holograms. Instead it is more like a mausoleum. With a large drone of unknown design at the center flanked by a model of some strange looking ceature and what looks like the model of a mountain that oozes in a sense of sulfuric taint throughout.
(set:$E6 to true)
[[Inspect the machine->Signal]]
[[Inspect the mountain->SulfurMountain]]
[[Inspect the creature->VopsonModel]]
[[Return to the halls->Evens]] This exhibit claims to highlight a time from 12055-12067 HE. In the exhibit, you see a large room depicting a protest on Earth at some city. The holographic human forms decorate around three objects of notice. The first object is a large robot of sorts, with many dents and signs of rust. It is holding with one of its arms a megaphone despite its own body having a speaker as well. A rose symbol is etched into its side. Alongside the robot is a sleek, angular car with red flags trailing it that is placed at the center of the exhibit. In front of the exhibit in a glass-like podium is a tablet of sorts, it is a pocket sized tablet. The display is stark, needless to say.
(set:$E1 to true)\
[[Inspect the bot->ProtestBot]]
[[Inspect the car->ProtestCar]]
[[Inspect the tablet->ProtestPhone]]
[[Return to the halls->Odds]] The exhibit here is one not really given any clear dating. Instead it is almost medical, with the figures of interest being a manniquin of some cybernetic humanoid perched up with metallic rods, a tome with some hard to read writing stating hard to discern things. There is also some helmet-like device.
(set:$E3 to true)\
[[Inspect the manniquin->NakedBorg]]
[[Inspect the tome->RegulationStream]]
[[Inspect the helmet->AGIFossil]]
[[Return to the hallway->Odds]]The next exhibit is very noisy, needless to say. Many holographic displaces of space battles seem to permeate the place, while a large portrait of obelisks in a desert is at the center. A strange artistic looking blue sculpture with very fuzzy lighting flanks the portrait of obelisks. The whole room has a coldness about it, from the black and purple coloration and the cold light shades of blue the holograms utilize.
(set:$E5 to true)\
[[Inspect the painting->VatalandWall]]
[[Inspect the holographic space battle->NanitePile]]
[[Inspect the blue sculpture->BlueOne]]
[[Return to halls->Odds]](set:$ConsortiumCrew to true)
You see the crew itself. It is three humanoids, heavily augmented. One is a full body metallic cyborg with mis-matched parts, another is someone with flesh but also a mix of robotic parts and than there is someone who is just a large character without much in the way of visible augments but clearly somehting going on. They are all dressed in a dark, mossy coloration with the red glowing lights piercing the shadowy view the steam of their landing ship left throughout the place.
The |Look>[largest member of crew] approaches you without much fanfare.
(click:?Look)[<img src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/140616787539656704/841174421817393192/Untitled_Artwork.png">
They are some humanoid being of unknown nature.]
"Enjoyed the museum, I take it?" the large one asks before cutting you off before you even can respond by introducing themself as "I am Alpha Ventrum. Middle English eh? Coddyspok, a poddie. Our little group here is of a society that you may have heard many absurd bits of propaganda about at this theme park attraction known as the Korman Museum of Modern Human History. Since you are a blank slate with a bit of propaganda this installation tried ramming into you heard, we'll give you a chance to start a new life free of this horrid past. What do you say?"
|Health>[*What about my health as a Downstreamer?*]
(click:?Health)["a downstreamer huh? Figures. However, it is not much an issue. The medical tech we have and many places is easily accessible, it has been a right for centuries to get the standard nanite injections that have been tested with other downstreamers. They went just fine."]
|Q>[*Why should I trust you?*]
(click:?Q)[("Has this place been anymore trustworthy? They got you all mind locked and hide the truth, surely we are just as reliable at the very least."
]
|Pirate>[*You are space pirates, aren't you?*](click:?Pirate)[
"That's what they made you think of us? We are a society of engineers and social workers turned empire out of nessecity in the dark age we now exist in. Don't degrade us with that term, 'pirate'. We are building a new society on the ashes of fallen titan, just as they did themselves centuries prior. This is just a mission of acquisition."]
(if:$MindLoose is true)[|Spirit>[*Get out of here, you weren't allowed to be here.*]
(click:?Spirit)["Spirited one! The Consortium has every right to claim this tiny museum for itself and there are no Enforcer probes left, we destroyed all of those. Besides, what are you going to do? You are at a limited capacity to act, let alone have any power in this situation."
(if:$SrivState is 'F')[Sriv than speaks up, "Stop with this, Alpha Ventrum. You are hardly of any power or will yourself. Just ask Fijur Jui."
Suddenly Alpha Ventrum seems to freeze a bit, just for a brief bit.
|Tack>[*Tackle*]
(click:?Tack)[You tackle the stunned Alpha Ventrum and disarm them, the gun does not work but they do not have the gun. The other two members don't even seem to care much and just take Alpha Ventrum before leaving.
Sriv than says, "They know that associate, I had initially intended to just let them do whatever without harming me, but I wanted you to have more a hand in your own choices for what to do next. So I made them leave, for now. I think it is best we just go in general, the Overseer already left."
(set:$ConsortiumCrew to false)
You see Sriv get out of the pod and get a glimpse of what Sriv |Pic>[actually looks like beneath everything] before they transition to a land based walker.
(click:?Pic)[
<img src=https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/140616787539656704/816188481872068608/image5.png>
Make of that whatever you will.
]
[[You and Sriv leave->EndHub]]
]]
]
]
[[I need elaboration.->Elaboration]]Thank you for your service there, Downstreamer. (if:$OverseerKnown is false)[I am the overseer of the Korman Center of Modern Human History.](else:)[I had worries you would have abandoned us for the Consortium, but you did not fall for the Consortium's deception and that I thank you for.] Your destruction of that intrusion may have staved them off for now but they will be back. It is hard to know what can be done, in the present dark age we exist in. As you likely already know, no one comes to this installation anymore. Having you as our last customer was a privilege and we will get those injections for you. We just will need to stop around a friendly enough installation in a safer sector than this sector.
Due to how the Consortium is onto us, I have arranged to have you, me and Sriv(if:$TikaiTrigger is greater than 5)[ despite their disloyalty, which has been forgiven] set onto the escape frigate with as many of the artifacts my automatic helpers can get on board. Whatever your own views on the Vanguard, it is worth at least preserving what once was however we can. For in this vast darkness that now has consumed Terran civilization, we must continue to carry the torch.
------------
The End<img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/816188481386315776/image3.png">
c. 12057 HE
---------
During the global uprising, a wide spectrum of mass movements that had built up over the world had managed to subvert many robots to their cause. The machine in particular was a Gentleman-Class Servant bot converted to the cause of activists by simply replacing the company chip with a chip of their own design to jailbreak them. While activist groups at the time joked they had also took up the cause of machine rights, the very real potential for AI ethics emerging from something so simple as a drone's affiliation being switched |AGI>[proved a pandora's box in of itself].
(mouseover-replace:?AGI)[led to questions of Artificial General Intelligence becoming a meanstream problem for the World Community itself.]
[[Return->GlobalUprisingExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/816188480962953266/image1.png">
c. 12061 HE
---------
Vehicles such as cars back than used petroleum fuel that provoked the environment which destablized the power structures of old terran societies. The model depicted here is a 2050 Autodriver. Like many cars, it had full self-driving capabilities and machine learning capacities of sufficient level for an easily mass produced software. 2050 Autodrivers were a favorite of the mass movements of the Global Spring due to |E>[how easy it was to integrate them to a mesh network instead of a centralized cloud computer.]
(mouseover-replace:?E)[how much more effective the organizations seeking the establishment of the World Community found them in coordinating civilian cars turned into technicals.]
[[Return->GlobalUprisingExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/816188851567460402/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. 12065 HE
---------
The pictured phone was a common kind of tablet that unlike the first models of such tablets did not centralize their computation. Instead it worked aorund a peer mesh system that |Rep>[proved reliable for mass organization] in many parts of the world, especially parts of the world that were neglected by the old terran societies. Such devices proved valuable as centralized computing failed in 12066 HE in the criticial wave of |Coups>[elections] that would establish the World Community as an entity with clout that superseded prior attempts at global organization.
(mouseover-replace:?Rep)[allowed for far more effecient coordination by the coalition of NGOs]\
(mouseover-replace:?Coups)[elections and coups]\
(set:$SawPhone to true)
[[Return->GlobalUprisingExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841172660935196692/Untitled_Artwork.png?width=302&height=630">
c. October 30th, 12247 HE
---------
Some humans took their augmentations to grotesque extremes. Such extremes meant the Vanguard couldn't legally classify them as human, which proved a massive logistical issue. Indeed the development of standards to handle the limits of human modification uthat were universal had to be made. The ethical crises which appeared from widespread augmentation were radical in of themselves. Humans had risked speciating into beings alien from each other. The community of humanity the Vanguard stood for risked disintegration from those who sought to break with the social and moral fabric the form nature gave humanity. A form that had |OhBullshit>[egalitarian potential] and |JustStop>[elegant design]. The modifiers were breaking wheels instead of simply refining the form like proper cybernetics and gene therapy allowed.
(mouseover:?OhBullshit)[There are those who would be quick to point out obvious flaws in that premise based on biological differences from human to human. However, the technology of machine labor, external incubators for human babies and widespread access to information smoothed out the imperfections of evolution without the need for the segregation and hatred that augmentation bred with those who engaged in it.]
(mouseover:?JustStop)[While humans have their flaws, these flaws were easily refined through minor modifications. when a technology develops, it is important to take the best aspects of that technology and not let the worst aspects of that technology fester.]
[[Return->AugmentationExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841173449715875860/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. April 23rd, 12250 HE
---------
The augmentation Standard itself. It was a list of regulations on Augmentations was comissioned under the guidance of World Minister Alejandro Lumumba in 12250 HE that mainly existed to specify what Augmentations and cybernetics were healthy for human usage. Numerous synthetic devices, memory altering devices and genetic engineering projects had proven too dangerous for the community of humanity which the World Vanguard cultivated. The necessity of these consistent and |MO>[intense regulations] on human modification and the artificial enhancement of non-human intelligences would only be vindicated by events such as the Ceti Incident. Other places like Vataland did however, keep in line with the Augmentation Standard.
(mouseover:?MO)[|cli>[WARNING: Upsetting revelations ahead. The subject of harsh, but nessecary actions is involved.]
(click:?cli)[**Sample Codes from 12280 HE**
1. Do not make artificial intelligence. It is slavery to make AI systems out of tools for expanding human industries. Those who make such AI will be executed for being species traitors and said AI will be euthanized.
2. Do not augment for the sake of supremacy. Such action is a betrayal of the human species and will result in execution.
3. Do not augment for the act of deviating from the human species. Such augmentation would make human rights no longer apply, nor animal rights. Only euthanasia can be done.
4. Prohibition on all uplifted animals. Uplifting animals is an act of animal creulity. Such victims can only be dealt with through euthanasia.
(set:$CodeDig to true)
]
]
[[Return->AugmentationExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841143236486758420/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. January 17th, 12292 HE
---------
The stripped core was from the AI systems that transhumanist radicals on the world of Tau Ceti IV had tried to integrate with their own brains, to their own expense. The way AI was used at the time was seen as extremely dangerous as they had believed they could combine the human mind with an AI conciousness that would unlock somehow, a higher state of thought. Such experiments led to many accidental deaths on Tau Ceti IV, accumulating in the |Ceti>[Ceti Incident]. That prior attempts at regulation failed to stop such activities showed the limits of enforcement. Better means would be developed.
(mouseover:?Ceti)[The Ceti Incident was when over a million people connected by a proto neural network collectively lost their sense of personal identity and in effect, mass lobotomized themselves due to a programming error that purged the memories of their brains. Such atrocity is why the regulations were important, as the risks of emergent technologies can be exponential.]
[[Return->AugmentationExhibit]] <img src="https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/140616787539656704/841173220878450698/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. 12th June, 12380 HE
---------
The great tragedy of Vataland and the |AB>[Anterka Burial] itself shocked people on countless worlds or the Vanguard. The victims of the atrocities that the transhumanist reactionaries commited on Vataland would be memorialized in the nuclear wastelands of the Anterka desert.
(mouseover:?AB)[|Period>[Be warned: extremely disturbing details of Vataland's catastrophe ahead.]
(mouseover:?Period)[
Vataland was once a major hub of innovation and research for the Terran Vanguard. They developed a wide range of |Syn>[synthetics], |W>[weapons] and warp systems that were widely used in many parts of the Vanguard. This led to a local elite that grew increasingly idealistic. They knew at the time to play innocent to the Peacekeeping forces and not attempt anything like building large fleets independent of the Peacekeepers. They also knew how to hide their actual intentions of purging the forms of human they deemed lesser, as there was a cabal that did not believe humanity should or did extent to all of humanity that found a way to compromise the automated systems of Vataland and become the governing force.
Their limits were far harsher than any augmentation code, as even many |E>[kinds of baseline human] were nullified in their codes. They saw no value in that human life, automated labor was deemed more important and did not believe automata should even be used to prop up those who were not useful to them. Widespread revolt occured on the world, but machines were used to massacre them. That led to calls for intervention in 12374 HE but such calls did not transmit fast enough. (mouseover-replace:?E)[groups of people based on the kind of racial framework from the old terran order thought long extinguished]
Those in the cabal proceeded to systemically purge the bulk of the population, including members of the cabal itself as the perfect form was not deemed with them. Many were forced out of cities my machines and made to just wait in the Anterka desert, as much as 80-90% of the population of Vataland was forced out onto that desert as they all ran afoul the Vataland Codes. They were not made to starve on those deserts, many had too many means of handling heat exhaustion through augmentation already. Many others just broke free and hid, the situation even just broke down. Too many were in the desert and they managed to overwhelm the machines in the cities, in the desert and elsewhere. The Cabal's attempt looked like it was foiled, they had been cornered in the bunker they operated the subverted world from.
It was at that point the Cabal revealed to have had a deadhand in the case of the situation which faced them. They set off cobaltine micro-nukes kept in many of the machines they utilized across the whole world. Everywhere the micro-nukes went off, annihilating billions in the process. The cities of Vataland to this day are crystallized in the smoldering ruins. In the past century no one dare set foot on Vataland beyond those who had community connected to that world, where they went to the Vataland wall in memorium.
There was nothing left for humanity at Vataland. And the horror of the Anterka Burial.
(set:$VataVisted to true)
]]\
(mouseover:?W)[Weaponry developed at Vataland's facilities included micronuclear devices that were initially developed on the pretense of compacting fission reactors for powersuits. However the other applications of such micronuclear infrastructure were quickly figured out.]
(mouseover:?Syn)[One of the largest industries at Vataland was their automata, where a vast array of consumer service androids, robots, AI systems and cybernetics had been developed over the centuries with the blessing of Terran authorities to push such technology not normally given.]
[[Return->SecessionistTroublesExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841169296705191976/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. Nov 20th, 12341 HE
---------
One of the raider vessels that new Atlantis had attempted to use to terrorize neighboring colonies. They had destroyed enforcers constantly and even tried to hack them. Of which provoked the need for strong action. Action which caused a battle to break out against New Atlantis.
New Atlantis was a biotech heavy world that had spent much effort in the development not only of a wide range of biosynthetics including the widely used |SRW>[self repairing walls] (mouseover:?SRW)[ some of which are used in this very museum]. However their world also did a lot of privateering with a criminal pursuit of illegal augmentations going on in the noise of their colony world. Such activities had to be monitored frequently but the groups on the world proved effective in being hydra-like in their design while the prosperity of New Atlantis kept it in shape.
Regardless the battle of New Atlantis broke out between local privateer forces local units on the world of New Atlantis themselves set on these Peacekeepers over their attempted extradiction of one of the top figures in New Atlantis at the time- Tammy Athumani. Athumani would use the battle as cover to evade Peacekeeper justice but ultimately her own collaborators betrayed her with the right offers. The battle was a resounding peacekeeper success but the complexities of occupying New Atlantis over the decades did little to stop the incubation of more organized force known as the |Cons>[Consortium] in other worlds like Atlantis.
(click:?Cons)[The Consortium would grow to be one of the largest hives of scum in human history. Despite the best efforts of the Peacekeepers and the universal enforcers to purge the Vanguard of these species traitors the Consortium continues to fester about to this day. However they are on the decline and it is projected through analysis that by 12495 HE there will be no Consortium to speak of.]
[[Return->SecessionistTroublesExhibit]]
<img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841169187459170304/Untitled_Artwork.png?width=436&height=630">
c. 17th of October, 12111 HE
---------
A campaign poster from the pre-Seok period of the World Community. In particular, a campaign poster from Igwe Vanderveen who was a prominent |WP>[Worker's Party] of Earth World Minister from 12111 HE to 12121 HE that rallied on the need to distribute the world's wealth and bring the collaborators of the |Neonats>[Neonationalist Inserrection] to justice. (mouseover:?Neonats)[A cabal of reactionary forces attempted to overthrow the World Community to reassert the old power structures. Their assault occured in 12093 HE but they were pacified within the same year. However the collaborators found local sympathizers that had to also be addressed.]
(mouseover:?WP)[One of the two early parties, of which emerged in the democratic reforms of The Community as a whole. The other party was a more Conservative Party that tried to continue capitalist systems. Both of which would collapse from the rise of the Vanguard Party and reduce these corrupt, myopic political parties on Earth to weak regional forces while the Vanguard looked to the stars.]
[[Return->SeokExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841172787443662888/Untitled_Artwork.png">
-----------
Seok's personal desk is notable for having a projected globe that he had a preoccupation to look at.
Maxwell Seok himself was known as the Father of Earth and was the human who regimented the structure of the World Community into the World Vanguard (or as it would become known, simply "The Vanguard") as he brought about a vision for human progress built around |GExp>[galactic expansion] that he would build the foundations of in his 30 years as World Minister.
(mouseover:?GExp)[
The development of warp drives by the Spinoza Institute led to a mentality of expanding the human species beyond Earth as increased production of warp capable ships continued into 12200 HE despite developments such as the |Bern>[Bernard Scandal]. (mouseover:?Bern)[One of the reasons Maxwell Seok became World Minister was the fallout of the Bernard Scandal and the endemic corruption it revealed. The incumbent World Minister would lose in a landslide to Maxwell Seok, who would dominate earth's elections for decades as interstellar spacecraft industries were built up and humanity would finally unite to the cause of galactic prosperity.
]]
[[Return->SeokExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841172503418109952/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. 17th of July, 12138 HE
--------------
This is a Prototype Warp Shuttle. The shuttle was developed by a community headed under the |Spinoza>[Spinoza Institute] with the manufacturing of Xiao Industries.
(click:?Spinoza)[The Spinoza Institute was among the early global research organizations that had formed from the framework the Global Community had established. The organization formed in 12073 HE during the world ministry of |Adamu>[Hauna Adamu]. (click:?Adamu)[Adamu was World Minister from 12071 HE to 12081 HE and in his term coordinated a range of projects for global infrastructure and among those projects were mass research outlets that went into the "impossible inquiries". Many of these were conducted by the Spinoza Institute. The Spinoza Insitute worked on |Proj>[many projects].]]
(mouseover-replace:?Proj)[finding extreaterrestrials, warp drives and failed experiments with psychic powers]
It was a shock at the time when the first warp system was pioneered in 12120 HE, which made a small warp jump. Despite what some had believed, no greater galactic community appeared. This development had violated the known laws of physics at the time with skeptics questioning the warp system to this day. |Scrut>[It remains somewhat a black box] outside how it is known that the ring shaped design is instrumental in developing a warp field for the ship itself and that gravity wells interfere with them. Such knowledge took an additional century of trial and error design to figure out, but interstellar colonization was attempted even with the early designs.
(mouseover-replace:?Scrut)[The reverse engineered aspects of the warp drives remain a blackbox]
[[Return->SeokExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/816189040252157982/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. 12325 HE
---------
The Vigo-Class Shuttle was a commonly seen shuttle design that can still be found in use to this day despite many designs having long since supplanted it in the field of civilian interplanetary transit. Vigo-Class Shuttles were able to move over a thousand people per ship and were mainly used on the scale of interplanetary commerce/travel. Such transits made use of radiators, a nuclear energy generator and supplemental energy from local power satellites in a given area. Such shuttles were especially popular in the outer colonies due to the ease in mass producing them.
[[Return->ColoniesExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841168889936609341/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. 12321 HE
---------
A |DigSector>[Sector Map] around the major hub world of Kusneto Prime. Even the turmoil around, Kusneto Prime remained a world known as a stable piece of civilization even in the past century. As a world it is a megapolis with lots of smart infrastructure that makes life on the world feel like you are in autopilot. Indeed such infrastructure could be found on a lot of megapoli, including Earth. People could live their whole lives out without fear or concern of the drama that festered elsewhere, in fact many just enjoyed the bliss of post-scarcity life and concerned themselves with the |Currents>[usual drifting currents and flows of cultural trendlines].
(mouseover:?Currents)[Politics and fashion had no distinctive meaning, it turned out. One of the things the Vanguard Party on Earth and local Vanguard parties on other worlds such as Kusneto Prime realized was that the shifting trends of society can be gamed out by shifting the local coalitions to meet the population through census systems. This meant a well managed society where humans could live their lives as they aspired to instead of living in perpetual fear and chaos. Such worlds were also seen as important to keeping colonial expansion stable.]
(mouseover:?DigSector)[The other worlds on the map included outposts and novelty cuisine production on Blu 7 that is a popular place for people from the nearby Kusneto Prime to learn to be a chef. couple other less important worlds. Seok 2 is also important as a world where various talent shows are held and a wide range of nature experiments are conducted. (set:$SectorCheck to true) ]
[[Return->ColoniesExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841172963311353866/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. 12350 HE
---------
Interstellar commerce expanded over the centuries of Terran expansion under the guidance of World Ministers from Earth. These trade ships were but one example of that tendancy, trading high quality goods from inner to outer volumes with the technology of Vataland having produced a wide range of code-friendly cybernetics.
[[Return->ColoniesExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841173350080184350/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. 15th of March, 12552 HE
---------
The above is a Universal Enforcer. Universal Enforcers had for a time worked in keeping the peace, but by 12552 HE the system the Blue One had set up proved too unable to handle the unexpected complications of the colonies. Some were |Sub>[subverted], others outright destroyed through |Means>[means unknown]. The project was a pure one in intent. They were to perfectly enforce, blockade and ensure that deviations from the universal regulations on augmentation, colonization scope, population, media content and local handling of criminals were no more so that people would instead focus on ensuring a galactic humanity.
The failure of the project however should note abate future iterations and the MAXI faculties controlled by the Vanguard have been looking into improving the automatic enforcers to better |Law>[handle] the colonies.
(mouseover:?subverted)[The Eridani somehow found ways to hijack the control of some enforcers, it is unknown how this could even be possible with all the protections in the galaxy put into them to avoid this, including self-frying when illegally tampered with. Do not worry. The Blue One made an update that was able to stop it. The subterfuge will be punished without any constricting courts in the way, as what the Eridani did was already ruled as treason.]
(mouseover:?Means)[One of the recovered enforcers had signs of corrosion that had no real match. It is believed to be some experimental anti-enforcer weaponry being developed in secret. Do not worry. The Blue One has strike forces hunting down the perpetuators.]
(mouseover:?Law)[Orbital bombardment was once seen as off the table, but has been proven nessecary given the mass hysteria that has broken out in the colonies about 'swarms' of imaginary cartoon cretaures known as the Vopson. Do not worry. Orbital bombardment only occurs to those who build military seperate of the Vanguard. Most colonies would never do such thing with the security the Blue One has given the human species.]
[[Return->InvasionFallExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841907527087554570/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. December 17th, 12475 HE
---------
DISCLAIMER: This is a recent exhibit. If it contradicts prior exhibits, that is because at the time of prior exhibits it was not clear how real the Vopson actually were. B
On one of the outer colonies, there was a mountain made by Vopson invaders that was just flooded in their kind on the world of Blue 21. They horded vast populations here, with sulfur baths and various industrial faculties of unknown functionality. Such pile of distorted land from what once was an untainted mountain showed their contempt for the concept of beauty itself, even worse was the mockery they made of the human form in the tortorous actions they carried out on humans.
There are very little in the parallels to the kind of evil the ravenous swarms brought to the fore. Entities like these would be the end of the Terrans, especially as it compounded the problems with secessionism throughout the whole Vanguard itself and eventually led to civil war on Earth from those who fell for the |ET>[overplayed threat] the Golden Swarm posed. Said civil war will be handled and the Vopson threat addressed.
(mouseover:?ET)[The Sulfur Mountains of Blue 21 were something that the rebels managed to destroy without much in the way of outside assistance. All they had to do was use machines that carried micro-nukes in them to wipe out such obvious static targets. The stunning incompetence of the Vopson was used by secessionists as an existential problem to justify their own power grabs. The |Seams>[seams] by the mountains may have been a hatch used by the Vopson.
(mouseover:?Seams)[
There is the obvious presence of a hidden room. You look into the seams and find someone mysterious.
[[*I know you are here.*->OverseerReveal]]]
]
[[Return->InvasionFallExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841142628560535572/Untitled_Artwork.png">
c. 12457 HE
---------
This is a film set artist's recreation of a Vopson from the Regnant produced Swarm Wars franchise.. The Vopson are a fictional hivemind that composed the bulk of the force known as the Golden Swarm, which mainly appeared in fictional media. Their psychological framework and build come from how they thrive in sulfuric acid. They are claimed to horde sulfur wherever they find it. The Vopson creatures were a fiction from secessionists intent to sow discord and instability across the human species. Actions carried out to cover their military buildup and the grand conspiracy of seceding from the Vanguard. The Blue One had saw through the lie and knew to instead crack down on the |RPK>[Rogue Peacekeepers] instead of letting demoralization propaganda get in the way of the galactic destiny.
(mouseover:?RPK)[ The Rogues, or as they are sometimes known, the Eridani Detachment were among the largest |ST>[secessionist threats] the Terrans had to contend with. Under the general Yao, the Eridani Detachment broke with the Terran's fleet in the year 12455 HE. This was because turned out the Eridani Detachment had used an AGI system to congregate multiple minds of strategists into a literal think tank.
All these violations of the Blue One's expanded Augmentation Codes that plugged the leaks the prior codes had. The activities were deceitfully claimed to be in the name of handling |Eri>[space pirates] (mouseover-replace:?Eri)[The Consortium] (of which, the enforcers had been handling just fine) and the "Golden Swarm", showing the extent to which the collective hysteria had overtaken the colonies. Additionally they had sourced militias into their fleets and such expansion of their forces outside the scope of the main terran fleet was a massive red flag for potential secessionism. The ultimatum simply forced their hand.
(mouseover:?ST)[The Eridani Detachment's selfish aims would be part of why the dream of the Vanguard died. Such splitters and traitors destroyed a truly unique point of human history- the one time the human species was a single undivided and determined community. One that had worked towards the highest aims a society is capable of, the propagation of civilization in the dark cosmos around us. The Detachment however, succumbed to that darkness as did so many others.]]
(set:$VopsonKnown to true)
[[Return->InvasionFallExhibit]] <img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841904057462554624/Untitled_Artwork.png?width=324&height=601">
c. May 24th, 12430 HE
---------
The pictured statue was an art project celebrating the Blue One's abstract form and 6th term as Grand Sovereign. The |Blue>[Blue One] is the current Grand Sovereign of the Vanguard. From the humble origins of being an officer who worked their way on the ranks and became Grand Sovereign in 12400 HE. The Blue One would carry out long overdue reforms and purges of the corrupt bureaucrats who led Vataland Crisis happen. The Blue One also went about truly ensuring incorruptable enforcement of the codes that many colonies have so routinely violated.
No matter if it was the cyborgs and illegal stimulants distributed capriciously on Regnant, the biological experiments on New Atlantis or the rogue uplifted octopi pillagers that terrorized traders around Maxwell 7- the Blue One worked to crush them all. The Vanguard under the Grand Sovereign continued to ensure a stable expansion for the galactic humanity the Vanguard promised. The Vanguard's role role as shepherd of humanity would be renewed under the Blue One's guidance.
(mouseover:?Blue)[
There has been those who object to the Blue One as too controlling, too totalitarian, but all the |One>[Blue] One did was take the role of shepherd of our species to better manage, to better carry out the ambition of a galaxy colonized by humanity.
]\
(mouseover:?One)[
One of the great lies from the corrupted and lost colonies was the existence of alien life, of which had been causing mass hysteria. Such hysteria needed to be quelled and addressed, along with many other colonial plots to disrupt and demoralize the indominable human will.
|Sri>[*What about Sriv? Isn't Sriv an alien?*]
(click:?Sri)[Not relevant. Sriv was made by secessionists to create a web of disinformation. The reality is that it always was logically impossible for aliens to exist of that intelligence. They would be too close be in both time and space, the math does not work for it. Any alien societies would be gods or slime and all that has been encountered is slime (if:$SuarsaDig is true)[... and whatever pentapus things were on Suarsa or otherwise. Of which does not change how rare intelligence actually is, it is why humanity needs to colonize the galaxy. Without our light, no one else will carry it.
**Sensing the contradictions leads you to suddenly have flashes of thought and a wider range of activity than before. Activity you didn't even know you have. You don't know what to make of it.** (set: $MindLoose to true)].
]
]
[[Return->SecessionistTroublesExhibit]] "A very curious one I see. Since we are just here to look around and take some trophies, i'll entertain this curiosity. Must have been so fun, dealing with this past from a comfortable distance? That comfort is over."
|C1>[*Okay than, tell me about the Blue One*]
(click:?C1)["The Blue One was an AI that hid that it was an AI as it went about culling other AIs while claiming to support human purity. That was because the Blue One was indeed a human, but had died like you did and uploaded itself to a virtual substrate. The meat puppets it used all in their self-loathing mind was for the greater good. There's still people who actually think an organic, no augmentation human government wouldn't have turned out as bad but even I have to admit, that would have collapsed a lot faster than 75 years."
|C2>[*The Blue One is not really an AI if they started as a human*]
(click:?C2)["Virtuals are the proper name, I just used the jargon I thought you'd get. Besides, by ther Vanguard's own metrics the Blue One should have been destroyed long before the Blue One dragged the Vanguard down with itself."]
]
|C3>[*Why the hell would you want artifacts from a place you claimed earlier had no value?*]
(click:?C3)["Artifacts even from former oppressors still have value, momentos to recall darker times"
|C4>[*This time is a dark age!*]
(click:?C4)["To people who felt comfortable with Earth, perhaps. But the Vanguard was itself a darkness."]
]
|C6>[*Are you naked?*]
(click:?C6)["No, I don't know why you would think that."]
(if:$CodeDig is true)[|C8>[*You are related to the augments the Vanguard tried to purge, aren't you?.*]
(click:?C8)["And a testament to their failure."]]\
(if:$VataVisited is true)[|C8>[*Vataland ring a bell?*]
(click:?C8)["The privileged world that the Vanguard propped up to cheat their own oppressive guidelines? Yes we knew them, they got to experiment while New Atlantis was regarded as treacherous despite our society never letting a small group of fascists take over. The Vanguard than became fascist, to no one's surprise really."]]\
|C5>[*I am thinking of joining you*]
(click:?C5)["Good, you will find our society to be very different from your time, maybe even ardous to become part of but the Consortium welcomes those who seek to join. We may do a security check to see if you are a sleeper agent, but you should otherwise be fine."
[[Join the Consortium->StartAnew]] ]
|Reject>[*I reject this, get out of here.*]
(click:?Reject)["Your choice." Alpha Ventrum says before they shoot you with something that disables you temporarily. When you regain composure, you find the place bereft of any artifacts, machines or such. All that there remains is a prerecorded message.
|Message>[Play Message]
(click:?Message)[
It is from Sriv.
"Hello, $YourName. If you have gotten this, do not worry. I have gotten out of this place. The Consortium stripped the place of most of its assets and has left you a shuttle that will take you to Earth, they really want you to see what earth is like. But the shuttle can be repiloted to a different destination, the Consortium doesn't care where you go but you are basically vagabond."
(if: $SrivState is 'N')["It is a shame but I could not pick you up. I had to leave as soon as possible."]
(if: $SrivState is 'D')["And good riddance, the balance has been restored. I have no pity for you, enjoy your future and I hope you enjoy Earth."]
(if: $SrivState is 'F')["While I could not stay long, I risked myself to add an additional route to your shuttle where we can link up. Hopefully you choose to meet up. It can often be an alienating galaxy, make what connections you can."]
[[Return->ConsortiumAttack]]
[[Leave the Museum->EndHub]]
]
]
(set:$OverSeerFound to true)
From the hatch emerges a |check>[human-like figure.] Indeed it is a human. Or so it seems. There are features that could never occur, symbols of unknown meaning.
(click:?check)[<img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841174674976276520/Untitled_Artwork.png?width=238&height=601">
It is hard to tell if they're human or machine.]
Before you can actually speak, suddenly you find yourself entranced.
And now you do not have control.
Your permission to reply has been revoked.
(if:$VataVisited is true)[You know of the vataland catastrophe, I see. Good. It was one of the gifts people from your time left us, the aftershock of the blood drenched pre-Vanguard Earth.] (if:$SrivState is 'F')[It would seem you are on good terms with Sriv.] (if:$SrivState is 'D')[I've gotten some complaints from my assistant about you, maybe we picked a more... harsh personality from your time than we thought.] (if:$CodeDig is true)[You are a skeptic, easy to be one without enduring the actual experience we have had. You just lived this situation from the comfort of simple parallel, we came to know the reality is not so wishy washy.]\
If you want those permissions back, go on back and enjoy the exhibits.
(if:$MindLoose is true)[*Now what |MO>[is...] this?*]
(mouseover:?MO)[|Hiding>[Warning: The following content should not be shown to the unprepared.] (mouseover-replace:?Hiding)[|Yes>[Are you sure?](click-replace:?yes)[ It would seem you managed to have a bit less restraint.
|LM1>[*Let me out of here.*]
(click:?LM1)["Where? Into Space? This is an installation, we may be within a star system but going somewhere else is not exactly an easy thing to do, especially for you."]
|LM2>[*Why did you actually bring me back and how did you do it?*]
(click:?LM2)["Like already said multiple times, it was out of the want for a guest. This place has had very few people come by. We were able to get a device from... places and we used that device to remake you. We added a couple additional constraints, mainly for our own safety knowing how volatile downstreamers can(if:$SrivState is 'D')[ get. Just look at yourself, mad about this whole situation because it isn't your way and things are different from what you wanted.](else:)[ get.]"]
|LM3>[*Why is there nothing past 12475 HE?*]
(click:?LM3)["Modern Human History at the Korman Insitute defined modernity as beginning with the establishment of the World Community and ending with the end of the Vanguard, which happened at 12475 HE. The ensueing chaos is much harder to document."]
|LM4>[*The exhibits keep saying there are no intelligent life outside Humans despite Sriv clearly being one and than these Vopson show up, what is being hidden?*]
(click:?LM4)["The human understanding of the universe changes over the centuries and continues to do so, especially on the questions dealing with life."]
|LM5>[*Are you actually an AI?*]
(click:?LM5)["My... differences from a pure human? Do not worry of them or the details."]
|LM6>[*Sriv is a Tikali, why isn't first contact discussed? Seems like it would be a big deal.*]
(click:?LM6)["Look, that stuff is just outside the scope of this place. I have no obligation to entertain your prodding. Especially from a past society that would have done worse."
You realize that Sriv may be a better being to ask the contact question to...
(set:$OSQuestion to true)]
]
(if:$VataVisited is true)[*Vataland was strangely detailed, a bit much for a museum isn't it?*]
(click:?LM7)["Vataland was what it was okay? That exhibit always had that level of baggage to it. Their horror was a left over aftershock from your time anyways."
|OhBS>[*And your 'Vanguard' was meant to learn from the past! Blind eyes to the privileged colony? This is the universal human shepherd?*]
(click:?OhBS)["And that is why the Vanguard did as it did afterwards. It failed, everyone knew it. Massive reforms had to be done, that is why the Blue One arose to begin with!"
|OhBS>[*And the response to an unaccountable tyrant massacring people was to put into power the Blue One, an unaccountable tyrant that killed billions more for decades?*]
(click:?OhBS)["The Blue One was not a tyrant! You do not even get what the Blue One even was. The Blue One was not some cabal of reactionaries, the Blue One was a progressive humanist just like any observant member of the Vanguard. Just because the Blue One democratically won and swept away the weak, ineffective parts of a failing system to get it functioning again didn't make the Blue One a Tyrant. This line of downstreamer self-righteousness has gone too far. We brought you here as a guest and you insult us like this? Ungrateful absolutely ungrateful."
|confront1>[*I didn't even want to be alive again, upstreamer!*]
(click:?confront1)["You were given a choice to be alive again in the Aggregator. You accepted, now you complain about being living because you don't like what you see. You were informed in advance this was five centuries from now. Whatever, since you broke through level one constraints nothing actually stops you from suicide if you are so inclined after all."]
|confront2>[*I just don't like having my actions constricted by augments I didn't even agree to, okay?*]
(click:?confront2)["Okay than, fine, than you can leave once you finish looking at all the exhibits, just meet with Sriv once you do. A shuttle to Earth? Easily arranged from here, we have a relay ship that passes by here just 30 light years Earthward at ."]
]
]
]
]
]\
[[Return->SulfurMountain]]
After a long trek through the stars upon vast transit ships that helped your shuttle get to Sol, you managed to return to Earth and find that Earth has become a fractitious place.
Much of it would be from societies struggling retain order after centuries of Vanguard dominance.
Earth proves to just not be the same as the 21st century you know. It is a far more technological advanced place, nanite fog even can be found in some districts, cyborgs are everywhere and all the city transits systems are automated. Yet some structures from the pre-Vanguard era remain.
Most of them however were relegated to historical sites. At the same time, you would notice that there are Tikali (if:$VopsonKnown is true)[and even Vopson who look basically as the Korman Center of Human Depicted them, beside a few details like how they use encounter suits] on Earth, but mostly as visitors. (if:$OSQuestion is true)[Things have changed since the contact incident more than the Overseer let on.]]
Whatever country you are from, it would should you visit it, prove incomprehensible despite what DNA it may share with the past you once knew. Maybe you find descendents, maybe you find they had long left Earth. There is much adjusting to even Earth to do.
It is a place of chaos more than you can even handle, it is a place in many ways even more alien than the world you recall.
You do not know if you will ever adjust to this place and you find that downstreamers here are particularly persecuted. If you weren't careful, you will have been forced into a very limited set of jobs if not forced into an early retirement. You also find that all your savings and stocks (or even cryptocurrency), if you had any were wiped by the Vanguard centuries ago.
----
The EndYou chose to go with the Consortium, starting a new life that proved a challenge just due to the circumstances. However you adjusted to their norms and eventually become a member of the Consortium, upgrading yourself beyond the slavery of the baseline and working towards the highest aims of inquiry the Consortium aspired to. There is some chance that you died in a failed mission of acquisition or from a feud you got into, but should you manage to handle it, you probably got a fairly okay life even with the start of a war between the Consortium and the Regnant's crime laden shadow government brewing.
As it turns out, history never ends and now you have become part of it.
-----
The end.You chose to go with Sirv to Minava. It was a long journey, but both you and Sriv made it. You would find just how alien other tikali actually are, with whole aquatic networks of bustling activity and technology that was hard to process. While at Minava you learned additional details about the tikali, from how they shift their reproductive roles seasonally to all the creative ways tikali would use their spines. Like how they used them for everything from bag holders to seatbelts. It is hard for you to wrap your head around. You would also find other humans in a Minavan diasporia community where the infrastructure was better suited for humans.
(if:$OSQuestion is true)[To your relief, it would seem that no attack on human diplomats was done by the Mirk and Minava is a more charitable world to humans than the Murk is.]
It is hard to really say this place is any less alien than the museum or other humans you encountered. Sure, different biology, but other humans can have different cybernetics. And besides, they don't care about you being from a different period of time since you're just as alien to the tikali as any other human to begin with.
--------
The End
(set:$WorldRoll to (random:1,6))\
(set:$ExploreRoll to (random:1,7))\
(set:$TextureRoll to (random:1,4))\
(if:$ConsortiumCrew is false)[
(set: $ExploreWorld to (a:"Kusneto Prime", "Seok-Three", "Vigo Minor", "Regnant", "Jormunan","Vito"))
(set: $Encounter to (a:"found a new career path","met up with Sriv for a bit","dealt with a strange being", "found a nice housing unit", "learned a new skill", "became adept at virtual existence","went hiking"))
(set: $Tex to (a:"carnival hosted by a Regnant crime family"," Peacekeeper outpost","zoo filled with all sorts of creatures from many different alien worlds","human who claims to be a lost relative of yours"))
Sriv accepts that you want to go exploring and gives you some additional warp fuel along with an escort to the place you end up going (if so desired).
](else:)[
(set: $ExploreWorld to (a:"Vumaria", "Blu-Seven", "Kavida", "Diagones", "Ceti Prime","Brutus"))
(set: $Encounter to (a:"died in a freak accident from misunderstanding some future technology","ended up a nomad","went insane","joined a local militia","got a better space shuttle after working for local officials","found yourself in a human zoo","got a new name"))
(set: $Tex to (a:"heavy tikali presence","strangely peaceful Vopson","Consortium merchants","Tulso pod connected Drowning Ops who somehow know your name"))
(set: $WorldPick to $WorldRoll of $ExploreWorld)
(set:$EncounterPick to $ExploreRoll of $Encounter)
(set:$TexturePick to $TextureRoll of $Tex)
The shuttle is limited, but it can reach other star systems off the predesignated path that would have taken you to Earth.]\
With that, you began to go on a space adventure of your own.
With the shuttle you had, after a bit of research of the sector maps and your own shuttle's warp fuel limits chose to go to $WorldPick. The trip to $WorldPick was (if:$ConsortiumCrew is false)[somewhat rocky but doable](else:)[a complete mess], but you managed to get there(if:$ConsortiumCrew is true)[, however leaving will prove hard with the lack of warp fuel left]. You went about acclimating to the peculiarities of $WorldPick, including the $TexturePick. While on $WorldPick you $EncounterPick.
----------
The End(random:3)
<img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841905070764457985/Untitled_Artwork.png?width=839&height=559">
The year is stated as |e>[12520 HE] in the pod.
(click:?e)[
I see you are curious about that year. The Human Era started when that first crop was planted in the fertile crescent around twelve thousand years prior as the oppressive ice receded. As the ice left, societies bagan to move from terrified nomads and shepherds in the chaos of nature to builders of civilization. It was a long climb and we cannot forget this.
|IKnow>[*I know what human era is.*]
(click:?IKnow)[I see. The proposal of the Human Era had existed every since Cesare Emiliani in 11993 HE proposed it and you were alive in that general time frame, give or take a few decades.
]\
|Unfamiliar>[*I am not familiar with this history.*]
(click:?Unfamiliar)[Not surprising if so. The European Calender made history eurocentric and hollow, regional at best. The Human Era is all encompassing of all human races, all human faiths, all human histories. Our sense of identity has moved past the racial and national thinking of Late Middle Terran societies.
|Glorious>[*That's a change for the better.*]
(click:?Glorious)[One that happened not long after your first passing. For in 12145 HE humanity moved past petty squabbles and looked outward to the stars.
]
|Grotesque>[*What a stupid change.*]
(click:?Grotesque)[It has been centuries since your first passing. Ethics, beliefs and morals change. Your time is long gone, |DS>[downstreamer.](click:?DS)[ People from your time are of a different world from us, you came to us from the past. That makes you something known in the lexicon as a downstreamer. They are rare, needless to say. Many of them even, come from times more recent than the 12000's HE]
]
]\
]
You are freed to reply, try it. When you are done, you can choose to leave this pod and fully awaken.
|Who>[*Who are you?*]
(click:?Who)[I am the Overseer. I run the Korman Center of Human History. I keep things functional with the help of my assistant who you will meet very soon.
]
|What>[*What do you want from me?*]
(click:?What)[Simply a guest, it is lonely here.
]
|Why>[*I was dead. Why am I alive again?*]
(click:?Why)[Be careful what you ask for knowing. All that I am willing to share with you now is that technology advances quite a bit over the centuries, extrapolate from that and it will occur to you. No further inquiry I am willing to give to so someone who has been only conscious and aware for half a second.
]
|Leave>[**Leave pod**]
(click:?Leave)[
A steaming sensation fills the pod as the hatch opens. You are able to breathe now. All your senses are there. You look at your body, it is as you last remembered it as far as you can tell. A robot with clothing meets with you.
"Decency is a requirement at the Korman Center of Human History." It says automatically as you presumably put said mundane clothes on. The material feel of it is... |Off>[off] compared to what you remember from the 21st century. (click:?Off)[It is hard to pinpoint why it feels off, other than the soft pulsating sensation of it. Like it is... living somehow. Otherwise it is silky.]
A hologram than appears in front of you. It is of abstract shapes, a volatile line with ten glowing rectangles projected volumetrically around itself.
"Welcome to the Korman Center of Human History, our visitor from the past. I am Sriv, it is nice to meet you first... hand. You may meet with me in the foyer, from there you will be introduced to our physical exhibits with actual concrete artifacts. A rarity, many just have their knowledge downloaded into their minds without scrutinizing it but with you, you will learn as people in the past did. It will be good to watch you learn first hand as someone used to that."
The screen than vanishes, leaving you to now wonder where you want to look around in this place as you finally leave the pod.
[[Enter the Foyer->Foyer]]
]|LookAround>[You than looked around.]
(click:?LookAround)[
<img src=https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841904192003899402/Untitled_Artwork.png?width=839&height=586>
On peering into the exhibits, you find it is a very dark and echoey place. There are no crowds, there are no employees. It is all silent outside the ambient humming of some curvy but otherwise abstract automata that have been tending to the place.
]
The large foyer consists of three elements and multiple automata, of which have virtual eyes peeking from their spherical heads. |indifferent>[They seem indifferent to you.] (mouseover:?indifferent)[One of them moses about the floor, cleaning what is already clean. Another just is looking around like an over engineered security camera. There is also the one that is flying alongside the robot of a tall, thin stature that prior had given you some clothing.]
There are two large ramps flanking a large fluid tank with something in it, but at this distance it cannot be discerned. The ramps are lined with aluminum-like materials and dark tinted graphene glass railways with an iridescent flux to them. The tiled walls have little going on with them beyond an almost |Fluid>[fluid feeling energy] to them.
(mouseover:?Fluid)[
The fluidic sensation is emplified by the sense of a pulsating heart, like the building itself has a circulatory system. And it is pumping some kind of blood throughout itself.
]
[[Go up the left ramp->Odds]]
[[Go up the right ramp->Evens]]
(if:$TikaliKnown is true)[
[[Go to Sriv->The Curator]]
](else:)[
[[Go to the aquatic tank->The Curator]]
]
(if:$E1 and $E2 and $E3 and $E4 and $E5 and $E6 is true)[
A signal appears. It suggests something is docking. If you observe this, everything that you have seen and learned so far be put to the test.
|Observ>[Observe.]
(click:?Observ)[Something has gotten into the museum. You do not yet know where.(set:$ConsortiumRaid to true)]
]<img src="https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/140616787539656704/841173948549038120/Untitled_Artwork.png">
The shuttle is a rather strange one. Hardly looks like a shuttle as you imagined it. Looks more like a warship of sorts. But perhaps given the nature of the galaxy at this time, such ship is what is a must. With the shuttle in sight, there now is the question of what to do next.
(if:$ConsortiumCrew is false)[
Sriv is also there with their own shuttle that goes to Minava.
]
(if:$SrivState is 'F')[
[[Go to Minava->AlienTerritory]]
]
[[Return to Earth->Homeland]]
[[Go out and explore->GreatRisks]] Given everything you know about the situation you are in and how you potentially aren't even yourself and haven't been for centuries the only choice left is clear- suicide. There is a means to do so at the port- a furnace. Spacing may not work, you could drift forever out there and there are no guns around. So the only course is to absolutely incinerate whatever this husk you find yourself trapped in. (if:$MindLoose is false)[But you find that you can't. No matter how hard you try, you can't commit suicide. You are just stuck, frozen and without recourse.
A message briefly than plays in your head.
'When you agreed to live once more, you forfeited your right to die at will. This suicide attempt has frozen you out of the use of potentially lethal devices such as guns, spaceships and so forth until you are readjusted to avoid the tendancy to suicidal thinking.'
The message stops.
There is no ability to cut your own life off left. You are seemingly stuck at the museum forever a husk, with no one around. The Consortium didn't bother to return. There is not even the artifacts to look at. You can't even go to the shuttle anymore, it's like whatever stopped you from suiciding also now won't let you step foot in the shuttle.
Given enough to the facility to just goes defunct and you run out of power, or whatever was sustaining you and finally you are able to die.
Until something wakes you up once more...
](else:)[You manage to toss yourself into that kelm-like furance. The pain of the frying quickly subsides as you are reduced to nothing left but ash.
It is uncertain what happens next.
]
(if:$ConsortiumCrew is false)[
Sriv is just in shock.
]
------
The End