PS2 Historical Archive - A Revelation: February 2nd, 2845

A Revelation. February 2nd, 2845.

As Henry Briggs walked through the main entrance of the Vanu Advanced Materials Laboratory, the receptionist smiled and gave his customary greeting.

“Good morning, Dr. Jessop.”

Henry smiled in return as he walked across the room and into the lift. “That remains to be seen, Edward. But here’s to hoping.”

As far as the employees from the Advanced Materials Lab knew, Henry, now well over 200 years old, was Dr. Anthony Jessop – a scientist with an uncanny knack for understanding the alien Vanu technology that the Lab had become so famous for working with. He’d been with them for the last decade, and was a well regarded and influential member of the AMat Lab.

Henry made his way to his office quickly and quietly, settling in to start parsing through the progress and status reports that had accumulated overnight. For years, Henry had been forced to seek out relics of Vanu’s lost culture himself, posing as various archeologists and geologists. This latest career allowed him access to the Vanu artifacts discovered by numerous dedicated teams from all over Auraxis.

The AMat Lab was the leading authority on Vanu tech, and their scientists and researchers accounted for finding nearly 68% of newly discovered Vanu sites across the planet, funding their research with the manufacture and sale of Vanu inspired technology to the warring Terran Republic and New Conglomerate. Each faction generally cut AMat a wide berth to make sure they didn’t get shut out of their technology sales.

Under his latest assumed identity, Henry had been elevated to a position that allowed him to pick and chose what sites and research he wanted to get involved with. This level of access allowed him to more effectively seek out his quarry - more of the Vanu devices he had encountered in the Moon Belt and again on Auraxis during his “death” and subsequent re-birth. If reports came in that sounded promising, he could shut down the site until he could arrive to investigate personally.

As he sifted through messages, reports, and updates, Henry saw it. He’d toiled for generations, but after years of patience, research, and dedication, the report he’d been waiting for had finally arrived. It appeared that it was indeed a very good morning.

2.1.2845: CAPRICORN DIG SITE, HOSSIN: VERY PROMISING DISCOVERY, RECOVERY NEEDED

The site at Capricorn has finally paid out. Today we uncovered several new samples of Vanu cultural artifacts, as well as what appear to be objects of technological research value. Most of the objects are standard fare, but we have one very interesting device that we’re going to want to get eyes on immediately.

Whatever this is, it appears active and powered up, but it just sits here emitting a rhythmic pulse. Having never seen anything like it before, the techs don’t want to mess with it until we can get a recovery team down here. We request assistance as soon as possible, as this device is sitting right in the middle of the dig - we’re dead in the water until we can move this out of here and back to AMat for study.

Dr. Julie Grafenaur

He had to read it several times before he really believed it, but looking through Grafenaur’s recordings of the device left no doubt. This was what he’d been searching for across all those long years, and it was finally within his grasp.

In a testament to the influence that Dr. Anthony Jessop had at AMat, Henry and his recovery team were on a Galaxy bound for Hossin within thirty minutes.

***

In the lone office at the swampy Capricorn dig site, Julie Grafenaur sat hunched over a table, a look of disbelief painted across her face while she rubbed her forehead. Standing across the table with his arms folded behind his back, Henry, in the guise of Anthony Jessop, waited for the fallout.

“You can’t be serious.”

Henry lied in his calm, paternal tones, “My only goal is the safety of you and your team. I have data at my disposal leads me to believe this device you’ve located may be very dangerous. Clearing the site during my initial investigation seems quite prudent.”

“I asked for a recovery team.  I expected to lose a day, maybe two, while you guys got this thing back to the lab. Three weeks ago we had a full blown battle break out between the damn TR and NC less than five klicks from where we’re sitting and we didn’t evacuate. You can’t ask me to send all these people home while you get your act together.”

Henry was a patient man, but from here, he could literally feel the device pulling at him. “I’m sorry, but this is simply not up for debate. Leave me and my team to do our work. The sooner we are finished, the sooner you can get back.”

Grafenaur stood up, and pointed out a window into the swamp. “Do you realize how quickly this place will reclaim any progress we’ve made? Working in this muck is a constant uphill battle. This is going to set us back weeks!”

“I’ll make sure you are allotted additional funding to compensate for the setback. “

“Lovely,” she replied, sarcasm dripping, “I’m so glad you took a personal interest in the find.”

Briggs turned and began to walk out of the office. In the doorway, he looked back at his angry colleague. “Four hours, Jules. You and your team need to be in the air. I’m sorry.” Then he walked out into the camp.

It took all of his willpower not to simply take the chance and approach the device, onlookers or no. His last interaction with an artifact like this had been volatile, bringing down an entire tunnel complex after being triggered, only sparing Briggs himself through what he felt was Vanu’s direct intervention. The draw was powerful, but he did not want to risk the lives of these men and women needlessly.

The hours passed agonizingly for Henry. Each time the device pulsed, he could feel it. He could almost hear the Vanu entity whispering to him – and the alien was impatient. As the last archeologists loaded up their transports to depart, Henry was wracked by a particularly powerful pulse, and felt blood trickle from his nose. As he clamped down on his nose to stop the bleeding, he waved over a member of his research team.

“You ok, Dr. Jessop?”

 “Fine, fine, just a nose-bleed. Listen, I’m going to want to get started as soon as possible. I’d like you and the others to begin setting up in the office. Just steer clear of the device for the time being.”

“Anything we should know about? You were in an awful hurry to get out here, and sending off the archeological team like this is sending up some red flags.”

“Nothing to concern yourself with. Just stay cautious and heed my instructions and there’ll be nothing to worry about.”

“You’re the boss. I’ll start getting everything set up.”

“Thank you, Lawrence.”

As his researcher went to gather the rest of his team in the office, Henry watched the transport full of the archeological dig team depart. He smiled, the blood still flowing from his nose, staining his lips, as he approached the device. While his team busied itself he could do what needed to be done - with any luck, they’d never even notice.

With every step as he approached, the pulsing grew more and more rapid, and he could feel his whole body buzz and vibrate with each beat. He reached out to touch it; he could feel it pulling him closer. Time seemed to slow the closer his hand got to the device. Finally, as his fingertips brushed against its surface, reality as he knew it froze for a heartbeat - and then the universe unfolded in front of him.

In that instant, he felt Vanu, immense in its power and wisdom, reach out and touch his mind. What once had been incomprehensible whispers, tickling the edges of his consciousness, took shape and meaning. The scales fell from his eyes, and he knew all that Vanu imparted to him.

Vanu has chosen me to lead humanity’s resistance against a terrible Enemy. This Enemy looms on a distant horizon, but it will not always be so. To contest this threat is beyond the current ability of human kind.

Somewhere across the universe, far from his conscious mind, Briggs felt heat radiating against his hands and face.

At the dawn of man, the Enemy resolved to hobble the development and advancement of humanity in order to ensure its own dominion over the universe. The Enemy constructed an emitter that pelted the Earth with destructive psychic energies, and plunged the world Earth and all of mankind into unending strife, creating a history comprised of violence, war, and bloodshed.

The sensation of heat continued to grow more and more severe. He could feel the moisture evaporate from his face – sweat, tears, blood – gone.

While humanity remained unknowning, there were those who fought against the Enemy. Of those, Vanu was the most powerful. Still, the power of the Enemy was greater and even Vanu and its followers were defeated and subjugated. In punishment, they were banished from their home to the world of Auraxis and cut off from the rest of the universe. Vanu and its followers languished there, but never stopped plotting against the Enemy.

Something tickled against his flesh. The heat was so intense now – was it flame?  It didn’t hurt like he’d expected. From so far away the sensation felt dull, ethereal. Like a dream.

When the moment was right, Vanu and its followers mobilized against the Enemy, and used the wormhole to travel from Auraxis’ star system to that of Earth’s. Vanu’s forces destroyed the emitter that dwelled there, only to be confronted by the Enemy. Vanu its followers were outmatched, and fled into dark space. The Enemy gave chase, and humanity was left unburdened to seek their destiny.

Was he floating? His feet no longer felt the muddy ground beneath him.

When humanity traversed the wormhole it caught the Enemy unaware, but not helpless. The wormhole collapsed, severing any link between Earth and Auraxis. On the other side of the wormhole, so far from home, mankind began a steady decline into the violent tendencies they thought they had left behind. Now, they still struggled and toiled against each other. It was futile.

Then there was a blast – a massive force that seemed to pass through him like his body wasn’t even there, and then the heat was gone.

Vanu and its followers had held the attention of the Enemy, but it was only a matter of time until a return to Auraxis to purge it of this unwanted seed of humanity. The only hope for resistance, for survival, was to learn to understand the nature of Vanu and the technology he and his followers left behind. Humanity would need to evolve, ascend beyond what they knew, and embrace the legacy that had been left for them on Auraxis. Vanu could reveal the path.

The heat was replaced by acrid smoke, stinging raw eyes and lungs, and he could feel the ground beneath his feet again.

Only an Auraxis that accepts the truth, an Auraxis that stands with a singular and unflinching purpose, could hope to resist the Enemy. I will need to show them to the way - or remove them from the equation. An enlightened humanity was the only hope that remained.

A tide of emotions - concern, pity, desperation - washed over him, and then Vanu’s presence was gone. The visions collapsed into nothingness, and Briggs was alone in the stinking mires of Hossin.

When he opened his eyes, the device he was touching was a smoldering mass. His clothing had been burned to tatters. He and the ruined device sat at the center of a blackened circle of cracked, charred, land 20 meters in diameter. Small flames still burned at the edges of the ring, though the humid air and wet ground quickly dissipated them. He collapsed to his knees, still reeling from the experience. Within moments, Lawrence and the other two members of his AMat team came running down from the office, but seeing the destruction, kept their distance.

 “Jessop! Tony! What the hell happened, are you ok!?”

Dazed, Briggs stammered, “I…I’m fine, Lawrence…I’m fine…I think.” Slowly, he steadied himself and rose to his feet.

“It exploded!? What hell happened?! What did you do!?”

“You don’t need to call me Jessop anymore. The time for secrecy has passed. My name is Henry Briggs, and now I know my purpose.”

 Lawrence reached for his comm unit. “I need to call in some medical support Dr. Jessop, you’ve been in an acciden….”

Briggs cut him off, reaching his hand forward from several feet away. With a twitch of his fingers, he pulled the comm unit from the grip of the researcher, through the air, and into his waiting grasp. As if on cue, a fresh trickle of blood flowed out of his nose.

Briggs wiped it away, a surprised smile on his face as he examined the blood smear across the back of his hand. “I assure you my friend, I’m quite alright. “

His team stood speechless, dumbfounded at what they had just seen.

“Please, I know this is strange, but time is of the essence. I’ve already wasted so much time just getting here. I will explain everything on the way home. The world of Auraxis is in great peril, but Vanu has shown me the path to our enlightenment – the path to our salvation.”