Vessel Overview: Dies Illa

[Enkidu]

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The Dies Illa exists in a space unoccupied by the concerns of humans – its mechanical shell unyielding to the concerns of the individuals who have attempted to force the ship to yield. Whilst the specimens of humanity who have graced its pressure vessels have left tokens of their previous existences tucked within the crevices of the tomb, the vessel remains an ossuary, perpetually outliving the existence of its regiment, or even its own legend.
Even a legend cannot remain undiscovered forever. The emissives of the Illa pumped exultantly into the void, calling for those ears sensitive enough to listen. After a bizzare concentration of background interference presented a severe enough navigational threat for Unioners transiting in and out of the Volkhoven nebulae to reach the tattle of the Underworld, the legend of krakens at the edges of the map became all the more fortified. Before the exceptionally superstitious Unioners could put fact to hearsay, the interference vanished – swooped from the shadows of living mythos by the pragmatic eye of the MND’s police liaison division; a particularly ignominious sector of the federal agency devoted to interpreting the reams of unlawful trajectory data in and out of Koeln’s stellar north.

One agent in particular, a captain Finn Haast, approaching the end of his career without significant commendation, successfully triangulated the position of the interference source by analysing the trajectories of panicked Unioners who had entered the Hamburg radar net from the Koeln system. After handing the information to BDM proper, Haast, in violation of standard operating protocal, attempted to plot, discover, and board the unknown object himself, in an attempt to earn the commendation Haast had long considered himself worthy of, yet had perpetually eluded him. Haast, in violation of the odds, remained extremely successful - yet ghosts are a harsh mistress to men obsessed with the tenacity of their own legend.

Instead, the vessel fell into the proprietary control of the straight-laced and unimaginative Lutz Gilger, a contemporary of Haast's within the MND, and a long time rival - Haast being forcibly returned to his former posting without encouragement or advancement. Haast jealousies gently fermented at the prospect of lost professional fame, and began to use his position as the head of the Hamburg listening post co-ordination to undermine the project, hoping to discourage Gilger from persevering in the allegedly "haunted" command. Meanwhile, the Unioner search persists, as the legend still quietly haunts the background radiation of Rheinland's many kuiper belts.

The legend persists, as does the potential for nascent violence.

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THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's outlawed trade unions, determined to take the underworld for themselves.)

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