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Earth Date: 16th Dec 2237
From: Senator Wayne Bannister
To: Commander Philip Goldberg
These were the last dispatches we received from our agents on Verius VI. Agent Valerie Lim, Agent Robert Booth and Agent
Shane van Hook were originally sent to Verius VI on a fact-finding mission on the natives of the planet.
When the colonist group Earth Return stated that the natives of the planet, called the Mind-Runners, have telepathic powers,
few in the Federation believe their findings. The 3 agents were sent to gather intelligence on the planet and independently
verify the situation.
As you well know commander, colonists group were required to sign the Space Colony Act before they were allowed to set-up
colonies on distant planets. The agreement state that the colonists must accept and enforce the 15 acts within the Space
Colony Act and in return the Federation will provide free transport for the colony group and their re-supply shipments.
Re-supply ships are scheduled once every ten years and the Federation will respect the self-rule of the colonists with a
pledge not to interfere in the running of the colony unless requested by the group.
The reason for this act is simple. For eons humans has been divided into different race, nationalities, tribes, and clans.
Wars have been fought over these differences. Only recently, in historical terms, has humankind been able to put aside
these differences and unite as one people under the Federation.
However as various groups spread across space, there is a real fear that this may change. If humanity on different planets
one day considers themselves as different people, the hard won peace and unity of the Federation will disappear and we will
go back to the time when humans kill other humans. To prevent this and make sure that the people across space always
consider themselves as one united people, Article 16 was put in place.
Also called the hidden act, Article 16 states that the Federation must always have a heavy influence in the colonies as
this will constantly remind the colonists that they originally came from Earth. This heavy influence must be used to
prevent the various colonies from changing their culture to something that would not be acceptable to the general public of
the Federation. As you can expect, the general public do not know of Article 16 and only those with the necessary security
clearance know about it.
The Federation has found from experience that trade is the easiest way to maintain a heavy influence in the colonies. If
the Federation is the biggest trading partner of the colony, it is a simple matter to have an influence on the group. For
planets that are unsuitable to be an industrial or agricultural base, the Federation has found that the best way to have an
influence on the planet is to provide a service to the planet that the group cannot provide on their own.
Security service is the best service the Federation can provide as troops and police can protect the groups from native
threats and the criminal elements within the groups themselves. For planets without a security threat like Verius VI, the
Federation would have to manufacture a threat.
Agents would be sent to the planet to stir unrest among the population, usually against the native alien species of the
planet and before long, the Federation will fly in as the white knight to provide peace and security.
Once the telepathic powers of the Mind-Runners on Verius VI were confirmed, the 3 agents were ordered to enforce Article 16
of the Space Colony Act. They were ordered to create unrest among the colonists against the Mind-Runners. Agent Valerie
Lim, Agent Robert Booth and Agent Shane van Hook are 3 of the Federation’s top agents and they are completely loyal to our
cause. The fact that there has been no contact from them for so long indicate that something has went wrong with their
mission.
On your supply run to Verius VI, it is vital that you discover what had happened to the agents. Our agents within the Earth
Return group in Federation space were unable to get any info as transmission between the group in Federation space and
Verius VI are currently minimal.
I also like to stress that if you find the group on Verius VI to be in upheaval, you are to request for a major military
force to the planet immediately. The Federation’s interest in Verius VI is not a purely ideological one. The telepathic
abilities of the natives on Verius VI are unique and this calls for a major scientific study. However due to political
concerns, the Federation cannot have a presence on the planet unless it is requested from Earth Return. You can even say
that this is the main reason the 3 agents were requested to enforce Article 16 on Verius VI.
We have little knowledge on what is happening on the planet at the moment but you must be careful. The fact that
communications from the agents were cut off so suddenly does not bode well. Below I have attached a copy of the history of
Verius VI and the colony group of Earth Return.
*Background information below*
*Beta security clearance needed*
Usually space colonists are part of a fringe group of society who are seeking a new planet for them to settle and live in
the lifestyle of their choice. History has shown that fringe groups like these make the best colonists and Earth Return is
no different.
However unlike most colony groups, Earth Return is not a religious organization but a social organization. The group
believes in living and working with nature and is committed to be ‘in harmony?with the world. They wish to live without
harming the natural world; to have no pollution, and be “one with nature? Most people in the Federation consider this a
crazy idea as humans are hardly native or natural to an alien planet like Verius VI but this is the belief of Earth Return.
The colonists were dropped on Verius VI on 9th June 2208 under the leadership of Mahmoud Pompano. Mahmoud Pompano proved to
be an excellent leader who had carefully selected the initial group of colonists on the planet. They had a wide variety of
specialists in their ranks with solid backgrounds in engineering, agriculture and construction. The colony was a success.
Earth Return built the city of Restart slowly and with care. When the first re-supply shipment went to Verius VI (10 years
after the colony drop), construction for the city had just started. However when the second re-supply went to Verius VI 10
years after that, the city was breath-taking and Earth Return were planning to concentrate on tourism as a way of making
money to sustain the colony in the long run.
This was a plan the commander at the time found to be an excellent idea as Verius VI had been found to be unsuitable to be
an industrial or agricultural planet. There were also no evidence of any large amount of metals or oil on the planet and
the fauna of the plant showed that most plant-life on the planet has a composition that is more like bamboo than wood.
However it was the dominant species of the planet that most interest the Federation. The Mind-Runner is a four-legged
creature that looks somewhat like a cross between a goat and a lion. They have a hairy lower body and 4 legs with hoofs
like those of a goat. They have a short upper body with 2 short hands and a face that is dominated with a wild mane. Their
face looked surprising similar to that of an Earth baboon but they have 2 long antennas coming out from their forehead and
they have distinct long earlobes that can be clearly seen even though their manes.
The natives are brown in color in the upper body but they come in a variety of colors in the lower body from white to purple.
Only males have manes while females have a smooth scalp. The Mind-Runners lived in nomadic herds that roam the planet from
place to place never settling in any one area for too long.
The creatures are found in almost every part of the planet and they are primitives with only simple weapons like arrows and
spears. However Earth Return reported that the Mind-Runners had nature telepathic abilities.
Frankly, they were not believed and we sent our agents in to independently verify the reports. Amazingly it was true and
humankind has met its first alien race with telepathy.
When one of our agents made his first contact with the Mind-Runners, he received a picture in his head along with a serene
sense of welcome. He had no question that the feelings and picture came from the native. We currently do not know if this
is the extent of their powers. We do not know if the Mind-Runners sent pictures because they do not speak the English
language. We do not know if images are the only form of telepathy they have. All these questions require careful studies of
the Mind-Runners.
The simple task is to go down to the planet, captured a few Mind-Runners for experiments and then tries to find a way to
duplicate their abilities. However due to the background of Earth Return and their stated goal of ‘harmony? no one in the
Federation believed that Earth Return would agree to the Federation going down to Verius VI to scoop up the Mind-Runners.
As such, Article 16 was enforced and despite their good work both Mahmoud Pompano, and his second-in-command, Dr. Marcs
Boecker, were targeted for assassination. Both assassinations were successful and were carefully arranged to look like
accidents.
However soon after that, communications from the agents were cut off.
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