Survey Report 991-10X
"This report should not exist, or rather, it was never intended to reach us. I can only guess as to why, as the message has been rendered incomplete, but I suspect there is a reason. When I put my mind to determining the reason the report became available, I am ill at ease..."After the turn of the millennium, with the Third Succession Wars grinding to a slow halt across the Inner Sphere, the Successor States were growing quiet. Over two centuries of near-constant warfare, the Lyran Commonwealth was still quite capable of turning natural resources into war materiel - but it never hurt to be sure. Survey Team 991 was hired through several layers of removal from any official channels, and instructed to do a thorough survey of a section of the Commonwealth's territory near the border of the Draconis Combine. They were instructed to look for any exploitable mineral deposits, or other useful features. Given a K-1 Dropshuttle to handle the task, the small survey team undertook several successful surveys of systems in their target area.
There were nine survey reports filed with ComStar for transmission to the client, but a partial copy of a tenth report was found inside the Hyperpulse Generator Relay Station's transmission buffer on New Wessex. The survey report was meant to concern the system which held White Reach. The exact reason this survey report was present in the transmission buffer of another system's HPG Relay Station was never determined, and neither was the origin point of the transmission determined. ComStar acolytes which uncovered the report have been at a loss to explain the missing original file, which should have been kept until the intended recipient of the transmission was verified to have received it.
This survey report takes the form of an audio file with no transcription attached, and is garbled due to some sort of signal corruption. It concerns the planet of White Reach, and unusual readings which warranted further investigation. The distortion and loss of audio content is rather heavy through these parts makes it hard to make out more than fragmentary phrases.
"-signs of Star League-"The conclusion reached by many treasure hunters who could get their hands on a copy of the message or an unofficial transcript was compelling: there were remnants of Star League technology on a planet within the region. And it hadn't been looted yet by anyone else. The next two decades would be full of people selling the transcripts to would-be treasure hunters, while keeping the connection to White Reach secret. When news of subtle motions on White Reach began to filter out through the Lyran Commonwealth in the 3020s, many treasure hunters hired mercenaries to look into the matter with a noted lack of subtlety. The interpretation of the corrupted audio report is the inciting incident which began the so-called "White Reach Incident", covering nearly eight years of unrest and chaos on the planet.
"-believe the contents... intact after over a hundred years-"
"-conclusion it remains largely undisturbed-"
"-known quantity or qual-"
Comments