Dotrilia. Vector (3, 14). A proprietary wilderness on the murky fringe of the Commonwealth’s jurisdiction. Explored by Captain Micon, claimed by the Rhodians for its zinc deposits and hurriedly abandoned by executive decree of the Council of Ministers. A short and miserable history, a smeared and tattered costume reflecting the character of its wearer. Early morning at the peak of summer on Mandula, the western twin of duplicate plateaus flanking the Thalice river valley. Darker than the simulation predicted. An ash storm is clogging the sun and coating the surface in a thick sheet of toxic fluff. Delicate flakes of pulverised material are floating copiously on a gentle northerly wind, disintegrating as they hit my visor. Dispensing additional cleaning beads. Minor hazing to my vision, but less intrusive than a veneer of pumice. Silence is disconcerting. Exited the pod into a forest glade encircled by the looming carcasses of monstrous conifers; mountain fir and grand spruce, both magnificent species so tall that their tops are imperceptible against the swirling monochrome sky. The demise of these ancients is a grievous scene. Death by a world reversing itself, spewing out its entrails, ejecta and gas, suffocating the continents and poisoning the seas. Priority is to pair with an avionic glob and establish a local quantum relay to the orbnet. Should bring the auxiliary modules online and synchronise traffic flow.
Console: Get {orb_qtm}
Running ping sweep ... done
Echo reply: Wedger774
Verifying hash ... done
Generating key ... done
Authenticating channel ... done
Encapsulating tunnel ... done
Running traceroute diagnostic ... done
Elapsed: 4.38 ms
Digital connection to WEDGER is adequate at four hundred metres above terrain, link to the orbnet instantaneous by entanglement algorithm. Vault memory is updating with a burst transmission. News aggregator lists sixty-nine classified SABRE-2 bulletins relating to growing unrest in the Ornian matrix, chiefly orchestrated by Juventian and Aprollan separatists. Latest cyclopaedic records are decompressing. Pulling environmental summary for Dotrilia. Catastrophic volumes of sulphur dioxide in the stratosphere. Sudden and dramatic global cooling. Tidal surges and wildfires. Wholesale devastation of ecosystems and extinction of the fauna, minus the carnivorous apex predator, an inherently unfussy eater, now inevitably starving. Orbnet survey seems to suggest the coastal shelves of the western landmass are sinking violently into the mantle, a dish of minced subduction baked by nature and then tossed mercilessly into the hungry jaws of doom. Measuring light emittance. 792Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡuwsZc4kVvz
Console: Illuminance {lx_mtr}
Running photometric ... done
Result: [3.2 lx]
Elapsed 0.72 ms
Equivalent to a Cordelian dusk. Video gamma correction is offering basic visibility of ninety metres at triple zoom. Pixilation due to the hazing occurs at greater magnification. Switching to holographic mode with fractal infrared scanning. Intensification on a subatomic scale, resolution infinite. Suit contact temperature is fifteen centigrade, a six centigrade slump from the seasonal average. Ash is undisturbed, no tracks. Mandula was a bird sanctuary, never the ideal buffet lunch for a biped hunter, but desperation will surely have driven the surviving beasts from their lairs, compelling them to roam aimlessly on the quest for food. Delineating a heartbeat monitoring zone with diameter of one hundred metres. Tuning frequencies to negate attenuation and trigger dielectric heating. Antenna strips printed on my helmet and boots are active, issuing focussed microwaves that will alert me to of any creature of magnitude wandering into my proximity. Thermal radiation from intermingled denial rays burns at eighty metres, searing muscles and fat molecules, a non-lethal cordon steamy enough to scare off the hardiest of intruders. Overlaying SABRE-2 topographic map on the neural display. Beginning orientation.
Console: Get {coord_pos}
Running geodetic ... done
Result: [Quad: 1] [East: 53.0381 deg] [South: 17.5783 deg] [Elevation: 310 m]
Elapsed 0.12 ms
Forest thins out at 145 metres, followed by the escarpment falling sharply away to the prairie below. Expressway Alba slices horizontally across the plain, parallel to the meandering river, at a distance of 4.7 kilometres from the base of the plateau. Simulation of task partition advises to launch from a shallow gully concealed at the edge of the tree line, thirty metres shy of the precipice. Walking east on a heading of sixty-eight degrees. Topographic map depicts the Rhodian citadel straddling the road, with the quadrangular castle at the centre, abutted by four multi-storey casemates that doubled as the garrison barracks. Aerodrome and industrial sector for zinc refining are at the far side. Closest to the river is the agricultural district, adjacent to the town, a planned community once home to seven thousand settlers. Concentric curtain walls and eighteen polygonal bastions the shape of spear tips guard the inner ward, and a dry moat twenty-five metres in width and depth, and filled with protruding iron spikes, surrounds the entire complex and defends the approach. Expressway Blanca arrows east from the refinery to the mine, approximately ten kilometres from the citadel. Into the cyclopaedia. Schematics show a subterranean collection well, drawing groundwater from beneath the river and sending it to a treatment plant under the castle. Plumbing, cisterns, pipes for sewage and drainage and irrigation hoses and sprinklers for the farms. The Rhodians marched into Dotrilia sweating vainglory, digging for the ore and sucking from soil, etching the foundations of a conquering people. Then they fled, the garrison leading the exodus, scrambling for the transporters in their pyjamas, humping just their toiletries and spare clothes in duffle bags. Slipping into the gully.
ns 15.158.61.20da2
