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Earth Date: 24th July 2241
Log: Agent Amanda Forrester
Location: Planet Verius VI
Verius VI is a most infuriating place. Soon after my last dispatch, I discovered that EOR has not broken up. However even
before I managed to get myself to one of the meetings, the council announced a ban on the group.
I’m not too surprised at the ban but the council then put 3 leaders of the group on trial for rebellion charges. Broadcast
on inter-vision, the council put up evidence that the 3 were planning to raid the weapons storage and stage an armed
rebellion.
Despite all the troubles from the riot, no firearms of any sort were ever used by either side. Several women were presented
in court testifying that they were present when the plans were discussed. Some of these women were given lighter sentences
for testifying while others were agents of the council.
It seems that the council had managed to get their people inside EOR and the testimonies of these agents were very damaging.
The plans went deeper than attacks against the ruling council. There were plans to ask for assistance from the Federation
(talk about irony), and even plans to attack the Mind-Runners if they tried to help the council.
The last part about plans to attack the Mind-Runners got the public especially riled up. The main ideology of Earth Return
is in working with nature and being in harmony with their new world. The people in Earth Return have always believed that
the Mind-Runners are the natives of the planet and that humans are guests. To work with the Mind-Runners is of paramount
importance to the group as the Mind-Runners are part of the natural world. To formulate a plan against the Mind-Runners
went against all Earth Return is about and public opinion swung heavily against EOR during the trial.
The 3 women were sentenced to an average of 8 years hard labor and there was nary a whimper from anyone. With EOR so
compromised, it was no surprise when it died a natural death.
The female agents of the council also created a fashion trend in the city. To protect identifies of the female agents, they
were veiled when they took the stand. Wearing a bonnet that came with a peak (which led me to wonder if they were members of
the Veritas group), there was a white veil which hung down from the top of the bonnet. The veil totally covered the face of
the agents with only a grill opening for them to see through.
Once the trial was over, the council used the chance to pass several new laws. One of which is that it’s now mandatory for
women to wear long sleeves dresses that covered their arms and they also outlawed the wearing of pants for women. Only
skirts that reach their ankles are now allowed. Since a slight majority of the women were already doing this, there wasn’t
any complains about it.
However with public opinion so against EOR, most of the women in the city start to wear the peak bonnet as a mark of
allegiance to the council. Those women who do not wear the peak bonnet were quietly advised to do so. Women of the Veritas
group went a step further and covered their face with a veil like the agents that testified against the leaders of EOR. The
veil is attached to the rim of the bonnet and it is hung down and locked in place by a collar around the neck. Yes, the
women of the Veritas group are now opening and willingly wearing collars in public!
The Veritas explained this as the women’s way to honor the women who bravely testified against EOR. That’s in public but I
have another theory. One of the new findings of the “findings group?is how poor the eyesight of the Mind-Runner truly is.
According to them, the Mind-Runners?eyesight is so bad that they cannot see the features of each other. Among the males,
they recognize each other through the shape and volume of their manes but they ignore each other’s faces as they cannot see
features of the face clearly anyway.
Their culture has a complex series of mental greeting through their telepathy and among the males; this mental greeting is
a very important part of their culture. For females who do not have telepathy, they missed out on this important part of
their culture. The males would enter the females?minds and recognize them through that way. The males ignored the female’s
face as they cannot see the features of the female’s face and according to the “findings group? in the Mind-Runner’s
culture, the Mind-Runners literally consider each other to be faceless. I believed this is the main reason why the women of
the Veritas veiled their face; another way for them to mimic an aspect of the Mind-Runner culture.
When I walk around Restart nowadays, I feel like I am in some sort of Jane Austen novel with the women all in long sleeve
dresses and peak bonnets. Only worse is that some of the women are veiled as well.
Since the trial, there has been a noticeable change in the air. Women are now viewed with suspicion in the city, even by
other women. I have no luck in finding out whether anyone in Restart has gained telepathic abilities.
The one lead I have is the Veritas group but it seems that women can’t join Veritas directly; instead women have to be
sponsored by a male member of the group. I have put in motion plans to overcome this obstacle by getting Glenn Lively to
join the group. I have professed an interest in the group to both Glenn and his wife and both of them had also expressed
their interest in the group as well.
Hopefully I have more progress to report in my next dispatch.
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