HELION DISPATCHES 03

REPORT: CINZA//H1

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[SIGNAL LOCK]

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[BROADCAST WIDE CHANNEL]

[ORIGIN: PILGRIM SEED]

[VECTOR: STARWARD]

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[TRANSCRIPTION ACTIVE]

What’s happening Helion?

[NOISE]

I’m trying something out Kimbal.

[NOISE]

Yeah, well, I’ll keep trying.

[NOISE]

This is Cyrene Sabir here, broadcasting from deep within the Pilgrim Seed, a refugee ship out of the Eye, on its way to the Starward Belt.

It’s cold and damp in this big old drum, but it's our home… and like everyone in Helion, we will defend it if needed.

And that need is coming, be sure of that, because just a few cycles ago we received a series of encrypted reports out of Cinza, one of those lesser moons they call the Three Sisters, in orbit around Ember. 

When we decrypted them, and tried to repair the heavily corrupted data, we found one name that comes up again and again, one that is about to become an unavoidable one in this system. 

SenetStat. 

It’s a name we’ve been asking about all around this motley ship of ours, from talking to those from XPR platforms that still had a comm link with the Core Systems when they left, to those with long memories and corporate data sets. Here’s what we know:

Originating as a company undertaking large-scale, data-driven, fundamental market analysis--their words not mine dear listener--Senetstat shifted towards exoplanet extraction and investments at some point in its history, something I’ve heard mentioned in relation to the development of their heuristic-based Surrogate Systems model… 

[NOISE]

No Kimbal. I sure as hell don’t know what that means. 

[NOISE]

Look, in short they made a big success of predicting which of the Surrogate Systems would shift in value and when. They claimed systems that seemed worthless and then time and again a shift would come, and somehow SenetStat would be the beneficiary.

So when they come calling to our little system, the forgotten product of a corporate collapse, you know our stocks are on the rise…

[NOISE]

No Kimbal, that is not “a good thing”. Not. At. All.

Listener, the key context you need to know is SenetStat is huge, and make their money by predicting the future. How they do that? I can’t tell you. But I can tell you how they go about “securing assets”, or at least these reports out of Cinza can.

I won’t keep it from you any longer, but be warned, this isn’t easy listening. The people of Cinza are in a fight for their lives and we all will be soon if we don’t come together. Be sure of that.

So listen well, and stay safe out there. This is Cyrene Sabir signing off.

To a free Helion. Now and forever.

[DISCONNECTED]

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[SIGNAL SWITCHING…]

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[LOADING REPORT CINZA//H1]

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[BROADCASTING…]

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[TRANSCRIPTION BEGINS]

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[EMERGENCY BROADCAST 01: LEYTE SHIPYARD]

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This is Mariel Covo, Leyte Chief Shipfitter, daughter of […] Denzel […] Covo […] Cinza councillor […] presumed dead […] daughter of Mariana Covo […] also presumed dead […] I […] They […] It’s all gone to shit. […]

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[EMERGENCY BROADCAST 02: LEYTE SHIPYARD]

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[…] Maybe we should have paid more attention. […] There’s always been a certain influx of residents on Cinza and the other Sisters […] runaways from XPR platforms, visitors from Ember’s larger moons, the spacers that run the trade routes. […] It’s part of what keeps us going on these grey and empty rocks, building and rebuilding, fashioning something new from the detritus of The Collapse. […] Whether they slipped in among the arrivals, their intent already clear, or SenetStat found and recruited them here I don’t know. […] Since the Flux there were so many arrivals every cycle, and I was swamped with requests for new habitation modules, expanded public areas, repairs and refits. […] So I missed what led to this. I took my eyes off this place for a moment and… that was it […]

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[EMERGENCY BROADCAST 03: LEYTE SHIPYARD]

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First it was the support groups that sprung up, welcoming new arrivals, hushed meetings in closed bays. […]  Talk of change in the Helion system, framed as an opportunity […] and questions being asked of the council, of the way Cinza was run. Of the influence of the other Sisters […] as if there weren’t ALREADY channels, there weren't ALREADY dialogues. […] This was shrugged off in Cinza; you don’t survive The Collapse, or life on the Three Sisters for that matter, if you are prone to mutiny. The endless repairs, the reclamation and rebuilding, either you understand that serves everyone, or you leave soon enough […] betrayal would not take root here. […] So then the sabotage. Then the undercutting of our systems. Then the accidents. […]

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[EMERGENCY BROADCAST 04: LEYTE SHIPYARD]

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The council, my father, […] they were slow to recognise. […] I can admit that. We admit our faults here. A bad weld. A loose seal. We know that keeping a mistake secret only compounds it. Like laying a trap for those that trust you. […] By the time they started to track the groups that had been turned to SenetStat a takeover had already begun. […] Ships in orbit giving commands to those that served them, with the promise of a great reward. […] Perhaps change had been coming anyway, but this was a closing of possibilities, not their expansion. […] SenetStat. […] A siege of sound. Offers and threats mixed into the broadcasts. […] Behind that, the scrambled news that part of […] just went dark. A whole section venting its occupants into the void. Three Sisters, now two. […] Then I knew where this was going. […] We braced ourselves. But it came all the same. […]

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[EMERGENCY BROADCAST 05: LEYTE SHIPYARD]

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Cinza doesn’t collapse so easily. We don’t fall apart. First we admit our mistakes, then come the repairs. […] We’re tunneled in now, welded in. […] sleeping in dark bays or wall cavities. Scavenging. Hit and run. […] We are the ghosts of Cinza now, and they can’t have this place without us. SenetStat’s occupation will be impossible. Expensive. […] I know they want the Shipyards. They want to build ships with our people, our tools. […] They want a fleet. […] But they cannot hold a place that they do not know. We built Leyte Shipyard, and we built the rest of Cinza in its bays. […] If you are hearing this, then expect the same. […] SenetStat are a parasite. They wish to eat this place out from under you. But we will not let them.

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[EMERGENCY BROADCAST 06: LEYTE SHIPYARD]

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This is Mariel Covo, Leyte Chief Shipfitter, daughter of […] Denzel Covo, daughter of Mariana Covo […] leader of the Cinza resistance. […] Know that I am here beneath your feet. In the walls. […] SenetStat cannot offer your home to you. It is not theirs to give. […] It is mine, and if you find me, I will share it with you freely. […] because Cinza cannot die while we breathe within it. […]

[TRANSCRIPTION ENDS]

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[SIGNAL LOST]

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[CHANNEL CLOSED]

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