I Want To Believe

As requested by the Cabinet, here is the collected information that was left out of the previous intelligence report. It consists almost entirely of conspiracy theories, myths, and other forms of misinformation that were catalogued solely for the sake of completeness. I do not mean to impugn the work D. Echols and A. Ciel have put into collecting and organizing these accounts, but I should warn the Cabinet that they are purely conjectural and have no corroboborating evidence beyond what is listed. Even the plausible ones are completely unverifiable, and the less said about the implausible ones the better. They are presented solely for the purpose of illustrating notable strains of unfounded thought for the purpose of gauging the public consciousness.

Even if I do think I’ve seen one of those crocodiles.

—J. Pliatikos, Talon Intelligence Command, 7 Summer 1954

THE SHAME OF EXETER

While the “traditional” explanation of evil aliens using Stoneheads to broadcast mind-control waves has never fully fallen out of style among conspiracy theorists, since the 1920s their dominant explanation for the abnormal placidity of the people of Exeter has been that Pride of Exeter-brand ice cream is laced with mind-altering chemicals. The Pride of Exeter corporation seems to be unamused with these allegations and has ruthlessly pursued legal action against anyone who prints material covering the allegations against them. Their high-profile 1933 libel lawsuit against the Norlight Inquirer (Pride of Exeter LLC v. N180 Media, Inc.) temporarily banished the topic from the realm of traditional media, but a mere two cycles later the Republican annexation of the Humanist Alliance led to the discovery that the Department of Health and Morality had in fact been secretly adding antidepressants to citizens’ mandatory vitamin supplements. This not only proved that the conspiracy was feasible but added a new nationalist element: no longer a nebulous government malfeasance, the plot was now proof of a secret Humanist plan to subvert Northern culture, led by corporate fat cats and deep-cover agents planted in the education system. The Norlight First movement, which had already been obsessed with the idea of a Gropius cult at Clearwater College, quickly adopted the conspiracy into their worldview, and nowadays it is rare to see a supporter of Wilhelm Miehn who fails to rave about the nefarious ice cream plot to taint the North’s precious bodily fluids.

THE TEACHER

When the CNCS Vigilance invaded the AST in 1936, one of its first targets was a local training cadre. Vigilance gear forces tore into the cadets leaving few survivors. In the weeks after the “battle”, reports began to filter in of a lone gear hunting CNCS patrols in the area. In interviews, pilots claimed the assailant was a Razor Fang Black Mamba in the colors of a senior instructor from the slaughtered training cadre. Battle camera footage of “The Teacher” as it was later dubbed was never high quality. The Teacher’s existence could not be confirmed. The Teacher became a regional legend with ever more and grand actions attributed to them. The most recent encounter was in late 1954. A CEF “Prowler” light hovertank patrol was annihilated while operating in the area. A single, shell shocked GREL survived babbling about some monster in the night that came and killed the whole patrol.

FALSE INVASION

One of the more extreme conspiracy theories on Terra Nova is the “False Invasion”. This theory appeared on the Hermes network in 1951. It claimed that the CEF invasion was a hoax aimed at achieving global dominance. The “theory” asserts that the Black Talons and their agents in the governments of Terra Nova are faking an invasion to seize control. There seems to be one vocal champion of this theory, Upa Gunsall. His ramblings latch onto things like the collaboration of polar space forces in the Interpolar War, the fact that only the Talons have been out of the system and the existence of Port Arthur as “combat actors” as proof. Famously, Upa livestreamed a video of him fleeing his apartment complex as a CEF tank drove through it, leveling the building. His video, livestreamed to several dozen followers, is full of claims that it was a Port Arthur tank working for the Westphalia Cabinet. After posting the video, it has since been viewed by several hundred thousand users and message boards for the False Invasion have grown by nearly 10,000%.

TEMPLE HEIGHTS SYNDROME

In the wake of the battle of Temple Heights, several of PAK’s GREL personnel reported that during the battle they had experienced dizziness, headaches, and memory loss. Though medical specialists were quick to attribute this to the result of shockwaves from detonating artillery shells affecting the inner ear, skeptics were quick to point out that if this was the cause then normal human soldiers should have experienced the same symptoms. Extrapolating from the goals of the Templar Research Station, “free-thinkers” across Terra Nova quickly concluded that victory in the battle was achieved not by the heroic efforts of Terra Nova’s armed forces, but rather through the use of an ancient anti-GREL sonic weapon built by the Prime Knights that had been hidden in the ruins. While the weapon had been used against the CEF forces, thus winning the day, GRELs fighting for Terra Nova would have received some amount of exposure to it as well, explaining the symptoms they suffered. How and why the Prime Knights could have built a weapon exclusive to combat something that would not exist until thousands of years in the future remains a matter of debate in these circles.

RAFAEL BHRAVO’S FATE

When Emir Rafael Bravo took the somehow still functional Eastern Sun into space, nobody who stayed behind knew where he went. Since then, the disappearance of the young Emir and the Eastern Sun itself has spawned dozens of theories. Examples include:

·         Fleeing to start a new utopia away from either Nigel Shirow, the AST, the Sandriders, or the Go-ki.

·         Leaving to contact either aliens or the Argo colonies for help against earth.

·         He didn’t leave and the ship is how hidden way somewhere in the system.

·         Bhravo ascended to godhood.

MACROSUCHUS HONDAE

That massive crocodiles once lived in the MacAllen tunnel network is a well-regarded scientific fact. Several skeletons have been found by xenopaleontologists with a particularly complete specimen of Marcosuchus hondae on display at the Port Oasis Museum of Natural History. The scientific consensus, though, is that these creatures have been extinct for millions of years, if not tens of millions. This has not convinced Terra Novan cryptozoologists, who point to numerous accounts of the beasts crawling out of tunnels in the dead of night to attack Badlands settlements, devouring screaming citizens and even being able to rip apart Gears with their massive jaws. That no reliable photographic, physical, or trideo evidence exists of what are supposedly creatures the size of trucks is typically blamed by believers on some sort of nebulous government program to hide their existence. 

SHADOW GOVERNMENTS

There are many theories about shadow governments on Terra Nova. Some suggest the Order of the Falcon is the real power in the AST, while others think the Westphalia cabinet is actually calling the shots. The most popular theory is that Paxton Arms, Northco and the Mekong Development Corporation are really in control. The sheer market value, money and possibility to buy politicians of these corporations are undeniable. Northco essentially owns the UMF government in the eyes of many and the MDC is literally the government of the Mekong Dominion. Combine this with the largest manufacturing company in the form of Paxton and the economic power of this triad is nearly total. Supporters of this theory suggest that if all three corporations wanted something to happen, it would. In fact, even now they are actively collaborating for power and profit.

LOST HUMANIST CACHES

The Twin Falcon contagion and invasion of the Humanist Alliance by the Southern Republic not only sparked the Interpolar War but shattered the league. Military and civilian groups scattered to NuCoal and the Free Emirates with some degree of cohesion. Those who stayed or were left behind were devastated. Records were lost or destroyed by both sides, and much was lost. The Alliance has a history of high technology and scientific achievement. There are those who believe that there are caches of Humanist superweapons, supplies or other wonder technologies scattered across the Alliance. These caches having been hidden away during the Republic invasion. Supporters suggest the reason these caches are hidden are to keep them out of Republic hands. A small group of prospectors and treasure hunters have tried to locate them (which is highly illegal). Those who are never seen again are likely dead but some think those who vanish found what they were looking for and retired wealthy into obscurity.

The following entries concern information gathered on the colonies. Even though they are no less implausible on average, I would urge closer consideration of them than the Terra Nova entries, if only for the additional information they provide on the mindset of the cultures they originated in. —J Pliatikos.

THE GREEN LINE 

While the other nations of Utopia prepared for the threat of nuclear war by building vast underground bunker complexes, the Landau Concordat instead chose to trust in its advanced Strategic Defense System, a vast network of anti-missile systems intended to intercept and destroy any incoming atomic strike. The Landauers were so confident that they would survive the coming war that they even built a new supercomputer specifically designed to manage the re-terraforming of the rest of the planet once they had emerged as the victors. Named the Systematic Autonomous Nuclear Incident Adaptation Coordinator (SANIAC), it was housed in a large subterranean facility beneath the Landau capital of Aumarot. Like the rest of Landau’s cities, Amaurot was consumed in nuclear fire during the Great War when the Strategic Defense System proved to be less effective than advertised, and SANIAC became nothing more than an interesting historical footnote.

Recently, Kogland patrols investigating anomalous botanical growth near the ruins of Amaurot discovered a phenomenon they called the “Green Line” — beyond a certain foliage density, radio communications would become jammed. Drones sent to investigate this phenomenon, upon emerging, would report simple electromagnetic interference from radiation. Human scouts claimed to encounter cobbled-together, hostile automatons that attacked them with forestry equipment, but no documented evidence of this was ever presented to military command and their reports were ignored. This did not stop the publication of a highly speculative intelligence briefing claiming that SANIAC was still operating, responsible for the jamming, automaton activity. and plant growth around Amaurot and had been overwriting the NAIs of recon drones to report false data and act as spies. The report recommended complete memory wipes of any recon units sent beyond the Green Line, as well as aerial saturation bombardment of Amaurot. It was quickly retracted from circulation by military intelligence authorities, and everyone involved with its production was dismissed from service, but several Kogland government officials have had nervous breakdowns as they begin to see any behavior out of the ordinary as a sign of SANIAC’s infiltration of their society.

SHELLBREAKERS

While access to the Gomorrah Network’s is easily accessible to the average citizen through the wireless connection between their datarig implant and the city’s infonodes, this form of access is strictly regulated and limited by the corporations. Enterprising hackers can gain much broader access through a direct wired connection between the user’s neural interface and the infonode. This method is a favorite of criminals, and to discourage this almost every important node in Gomorrah has ICE (Intrusion Countermeasure Enhancement) programs installed, the most powerful of which can even shut down the brain of an unauthorized direct interface user. This type of ICE has developed its own odd cult following among Gomorrah’s hackers. Anyone who has spent enough time running the Gomorrah Network will have eventually run into “ghost signals”—active network processes that do not correspond with any actual input or program. While normally attributed to the results of electromagnetic interference, a surprising number of hackers believe these are in fact literal ghosts: the souls of those killed by ICE, now haunting the network where they died. The most fervent believers have even begun to try and get themselves killed in the same way, seeing it as a route to eternal digital life. These “shellbreakers” actively seek out encounters with high-level ICE in order to liberate themselves from their imperfect bodies. While the corporations have never found any evidence to verify the shellbreakers’ claims, a handful do maintain small teams tasked with investigating the ghost phenomenon—after all, if these entities did exist, they would be billable for network use.

GRAND UNIFIED CONSORTIUM THEORY

Given that post-apocalyptic Eden has mysterious caches of lost ancient technology, bizarre gravitational phenomena, and strange beasts of every shape and size, it is surprising that the identity of the mysterious band of seafarers known as the 12th Consortium has been subject to more speculation than any of these other things combined. The most popular theories present the Twelfth Consortium as a mysterious group of ancient superhumans. Whether the immortal results of the Kabal’s Nephilim project, a special covert force used by the Fasaim Knights to further their secret goal of rebuilding Kir Arya on Eden, or the real descendants of the Prime Knights waging a secret war against the Fasaim impostors who stole their legacy. More grounded explanations have purported the Consortium to be disguised mercenaries hired by House Setha to destabilize the Seiath Empire, a rogue group of Rakhim Freebooters exiled from their native lands, or the remnants of the initial CEF infiltration teams sent to pave the way for the invasion. Others go in the opposite direction and claim the Consortium is entirely inhuman, either made up by the vengeful ghosts of those who died in the Apocalypse or are animals mutated into humanoid form by rogue RNAVs.

Ser Culery Senning, vice-leader of the Murat Corsair’s investigation into the Twelfth Consortium, has developed their own theory based on the assumption that every claim made about the Consortium is in some sense true. As Senning tells it, the story begins with the Kabal, who were themselves Prime Knights, and created the Nephilim as a further stage of enhanced evolution, intending them to be to Primes as Primes were to baseline humans. This resulted in a schism between the Kabal and the group that would become the Fasaim, with the resulting secret war ending with the triggering of the Apocalypse and the Nephilim fleeing south of the Aukyan Expanse, where they would use their mastery of genetic technology to turn the local wildlife into humanoid servants they would use to conquer the local Rakhim. For the next few centuries, the Nephilim would use their beasts and Rakhim slaves to launch a shadow campaign against the Fasaim, as well as supporting the lords of House Setha due to them possessing the reincarnated spirits of the original Kabal members. This was all in the service of preparing the planet for takeover by the CEF, who the Nephilim have been controlling for centuries using their immense psychic powers. Ser Senning considers this to be the definitive and obvious answer to the question of the Twelfth Consortium and tells it to anyone they meet, though so far, they have been unable to acquire proof of anything beyond the existence of strange people who have boats.

TRIPLE SIX

Black Talon observers on New Jerusalem have taken note of a supposed “cursed” angel amongst the Shepherds. They discovered the myth of “Triple Six” after talking with pilots and technicians. Triple Six is an Apostle angel, serial number BA-01-13666. It is over 200 years old based on the serial number. The numbers 13 and 666 have some ancient superstitions around them amongst some Jerusalemites. Those superstitions are alive amongst the Shepherd’s pilot corps. The myth of Triple Six claims that its first kill was a pilot cadet who after a night of partying and too much alcohol. The victim leaned over the machine’s arm to release the contents of her stomach only to have the elbow snap closed, killing her instantly. No confirmation of this rumor has been found. What is confirmed is that Triple Six has had more pilots killed in it than any other machine in active service. Several dozen pilots have died at its controls and each time salvage crews have been able to recover and restore the machine in time for its next "victim". Maintenance tickets for the machine report unintended motions, malfunctioning electronics, phantom voices on the comms, misfiring jump jets and sluggish responses. No tech crew has been able to recreate any reported issues much less fix them. Some pilots believe the machine is evil. It traps the souls of its victims in it despite extreme measures like prayer, cleansings and even an exorcism. The myth claims the exorcism turned a battalion chaplain insane. Detractors of this myth point out that Triple Six is incredibly old. Of course this would mean it has long history. Somehow it is always selected for upgrades to keep it out of the reserve. Logically it would have a high body count of dead pilots, and all the other stuff is just reports from jumpy or superstitious pilots. Triple Six and its current pilot are earmarked to join the expedition to Terra Nova.