systemwide | STATE OF THE GAME: MARCH 2015

▶ RETURN TO HARBOUR

▼ IN SUMMARY

On the second day of the Neo's Truce festivities, a ship called the Erebus, back from a standard extraction mission just beyond Machine Controlled Territory, crashed outside the gates of Zion. It brought with it news of four ZDG ships on their radar, two distress signals, and one friendly fire EMP blast as they were swarmed by sentinels and were forced to turn back.

After political deadlock that seemed to last longer than it should have, the Council scrambled together a rescue team in the form of temporary crews onboard the Nidhoggr, the Durga, and the Vindemiatrix. Their objective was simple: to locate the ZDG ship radar blips, determine what transpired, and bring home survivors.

Instead, they brought home bodies, and bad tidings. Three of four ships were unable to be recovered (the Himalia was piloted home), and only one survivor was found.

On behalf of the Council, a statement was issued, honouring the fallen ships and their crews (Himalia, Medea, Horus, Memphis) and addressing the public after a lengthy silence. But more than just news, a warning, and a moment of silence came with this transmission: an audio recording was publically released as well, further and publically vilifying Councilor Brutus, while Councilor Aries commissioned the expertise of software specialists to pursue this leak. Whatever the truth, it’s clear that politics are uneasy in Zion.

▼ OBSERVANCE

But funeral plans do not wait for politics. There will be one day of observance in early April, which will go up in the form of a mingle log to highlight specific events throughout the day.

This can be used for general socialisation, developing and highlighting Zion culture, and light discussion/interaction with the metaplot.

▼ TWELVE VOICES IN UNITY

Many questions have been left unanswered, notably by the Council, but there are some conclusions available as public opinion forms around the actions their leaders have taken.

The recent audio links directly implicate the Council in having set the ships to their disastrous task. Although it is well known that some friction exists between those that believe in the Oracle and those that do not, it appears that this division has run deep enough that important and dangerous decisions are being made without the full authority of twelve voices.
Rumour starts to circulate that Himalia and the Horus were sent to investigate a known a piece of marked territory that the Oracle had warned against accessing for the last several months. It is rare that even with anti-Oracle sentiment in the Council, they would undermine her word so openly. And now, many people are dead.
As a reminder, you can view our NPC page where pro- and anti-Alliances stances are marked amongst the Council.

▼ THE SURVIVOR AND HIS CAPTAIN

The rumour mill churns even faster when it comes to the one ship that sported a remaining survivor. Not many people personally know the operator and operative, Fletcher "Proxy" Cruikshank, but his name is certainly being passed around as the one man who made it out of this ordeal alive. He's been receiving medical care in a Zion clinic, and has yet to be released due to needing some mental health checks before he can enter back into the public, let alone resume service in the ZDG.

He is described, politely, as "delirious and traumatised".

Meanwhile, it has also entered into public knowledge that something happened on board the Medea before it went down. Rumours of mutiny against the young Captain Naero are starting to simmer quicker than the Council can respond, with stories ranging from wild conjectures that his First Officer used the chaos to kill him herself, through to the crew decided he was incompetent and usurped his leadership, through to more dangerous implications that he followed secret Council orders that went wrong.

But the only ones who bear witness to real evidence of the destruction are Proxy, and the crew of the Durga that found them.

▶ HOUSEKEEPING

▼ MISSION CONTROL

Our latest major page addition can be found at Mission Control, which we invite you to check out. This page will be devoted to all plotting, big and small, that is ongoing. We encourage you to track elements of this page or check in frequently for updates, as we continue to add hooks to it. All major metaplot events will continue to be posted properly to the OOC community and announced on our modplurk, but smaller missions that may or may not have metaplot ties in them too will also feature here. As the game continues to pick up pace, we will also point to items in these monthly State of the Game posts.

This page also describes the sim stations, a plot device used for characters who wish to write cross-canon simulations that do not necessitate real Matrix entry or boarding a ship. These can be training exercises and skills uploads for upcoming missions or just in general, socialisation and experimentation, or simply finding a way to pass the time.

If you have any questions, let us know, but please, go nuts!

▼ CHECK IN AND FEEDBACK

There is one more day-ish left to check in (replacing the March Activity Check) and register your interest in continuing with Systemwide. This will ensure you are not swept from our playerbase as idle, and also gives you the opportunity to let us know any feedback you have for our game that we can take into account.

Already we have received some invaluable suggestions that will help us narrow our focus in where to put our effort. In the coming weeks, we will be specifically looking to provide more details about the Real world, including locations and cultural norms, as well as easy access to interaction with our NPCs.

In the meantime, we ask that you check out the existing setting information we have (and the recent addition of a gallery linked from the Reality page may help) and ask us questions about either thing if you're stuck. Otherwise, watch this space!

Activity Check will begin properly in the last week of April.

▶ KEY DATES

Check In: Ending 31 March.
Test Drive: Opening 4 April.
Reserves: Next round opens 1 April (4 PM, EST).
Applications: Next round opens 25 April (4 PM, EST).