The Eventide

[Dusk]

Tennstedt Base, Thuringia System
28.12.835 AS

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"Begin recording. Designation: "Ashlander." Product name: "Eventide". Type: weapon development."

A man, his face hidden by a helmet, leaned over a design workstation. Though his expression remained concealed, his posture betrayed weariness. His voice, slightly distorted by the speaker, carried the seasoned stubbornness of a man unaccustomed to sitting idle. Ashlander was his new name, acquired upon joining the Platform; he had left his old one, much like his old life in the Coalition, behind.

"I have been instructed to speak freely. And I will certainly take advantage of this luxury."

Ashlander straightened up, taking a deep breath. A breath of freedom does a lot for people. It can be a goal or motivation in itself. Ashlander had received it completely unexpectedly and still couldn't fully adjust. The habit of obeying orders from above remained ingrained in his subconscious.

"Crimson girl whose team pulled us out of the grave we fell into on the cruiser "Seliger" in Deep Omegas, gave me a job. I'm both grateful to her for it and confused by her appetites. She's got her hands on some very interesting things... Prototypes, actually. I suppose nothing is impossible when you have access to the black market. That's probably one of the perks of being in Bundschuh. However, something tells me that given these opportunities, obtaining samples of the "Gekokujou" and "Lamia" technologies was... An extraordinary task. The second is Outcasts technology, which they probably didn't part with as willingly as with Cardamine. The origins of the first are lost somewhere in its' affiliation with the Blood Dragons... Very distant friends. I can only marvel at how far one can stretch one's hands, if the will is there."

By pressing a couple of buttons on the interactive monitor, the man brought up a projection of the Gekokujou and Lamia. Their designs were practically in the palm of his hand: reverse engineering had been successful, though manufacturing such weapons remains difficult. But that wasn't the goal.

"... For now, I've been told to wait for her return from the expedition... With new data for the project she wants to implement with the help of me and other sufficiently skilled Bundschuh... I think the girl is crazy if she's flying into that hell for some speculation of a benefit... But all I can do is trust her intuition and the old saying that there's no smoke without fire. End of recording."

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