AMENOUKIHASHI
Cortex News Archive = Amenoukihashi
The Amenoukihashi Ark was in the third wave of arks that departed from Earth-That-Was. It left Tanegishima Space Center in 2100 but failed to arrive in the E Tauri 34 system with the other Arks. It was assumed to be lost or destroyed. The Amenoukihashi was discovered by amateur astronomer Beglan Shea on 2524 in an eccentric orbit. It was learned that the vessel needed to make emergency maneuvers to avoid colliding with an massive object in the Ort cloud. The ship was visited by at least three vessels including the independent merchant ship, Shea sailed aboard, plus vessels from the Planetary Defense Force, and Blue Sun Corporation. It was discovered that the passengers of the Amenoukihashi were alive in suspended animation. Together they were able to be safely awakened and communicated with.
The rescue was serendipitous, as the passengers were untouched by the Genetic Pandemic, and therefore able to provide the raw genetic material to manufacture a cure for the disease. The passengers volunteered to help, and over the next few months the cure was developed and distributed across the Verse for free.
The Amenoukihashi was was repaired and refueled and flown to Tethys, the moon of Santo, where a large preserve owned by Masayoshi Son, was donated to the passengers hailed as the saviors of humanity. There the people have begun learning the history of the Verse and adjusting to changes in technology, culture and language. Some have successfully reintegrated and settled elsewhere.
Technical Data on the Amenoukihashi
Data on the Genetic Pandemic
Data on the PDF Decatur
Data on Blue Sun Pharmaceuticals
Cortex News Archive = Ameonukihashi[edit]
The Ameonukihashi Ark was in the third wave of arks that departed from Earth-That-Was. It left Tanegishima Space Center in 2100 but failed to arrive in the E Tauri 18 system with the other Arks. It was assumed to be lost or destroyed.
The Ameonukihashi was discovered by amateur astronomer Beglan Shea on 2524 in an eccentric orbit. It was learned that the vessel needed to make emergency maneuvers to avoid colliding with an massive object in the Ort cloud. The ship was visited by at least three vessels: the independent merchant ship Shea sailed aboard, vessels from the Planetary Defense Force, and Blue Sun Corporation. It was discovered that the passengers of the Ameonukihashi were alive in suspended animation. Together they were able to be safely awakened and communicated with.
The rescue was serendipitous as the passengers were untouched by the Genetic Pandemic and therefore able to provide the raw genetic material to manufacture a cure for the disease. The passengers volunteered to help and over the next few months the cure was developed and distributed across the Verse for free.
The Ameonukihashi was repaired and refueled and flown to Tethys, the moon of Santo, where a large preserve owned by Masayoshi Son was donated to the passengers, who were hailed as the saviors of humanity. There the people have begun learning the history of the Verse and adjusting to changes in technology, culture, and language. Some have successfully assimilated and settled elsewhere.
Technical Data on the Ameonukihashi[edit]
Data on the Genetic Pandemic
Data on the PDF Decatur
Data on Blue Sun Pharmaceuticals
Pulse Special Report[edit]
The Truth About The Saviors of the Verse
The Alliance/Corporate controlled media would have you believe that the Ameonukihashi was rescued by a interstellar peaceful cooperative effort but the reality is much darker. In fact, the rescue of the Ameonukihashi and the rescue of the human race was a battle for the control of everyone’s health and very lives. Blue Sun had only one interest in the Ameonukihashi: it was the means to control the cure for the most deadly disease ever to affect mankind. It was only by the efforts of a small crew of civilians unaffiliated with any government or corporation that everyone had access to the cure and that it would be freely delivered.
This is the story of that crew. The story I am about to tell I learned from interviews with the crew, verified with third parties in the know. The names have been changed to protect them from persecution and allow them to enjoy the same lives they have granted us.
Long before the events surrounding the Ameonukihashi, the crew had a long history of fighting the good fight, enough to fill a dozen books or full length tri-vids. Traveling the Verse in a medium-sized merchanter (which I’ll call the Devon), they tried to make a living during the perilous times of the Second U-War. One of the crew, Lang, was a former graduate student in astronomy and hobbiest astronomer. During long flights he’d scan the skies looking for unnamed comets. On one such flight, he spied an unusual light in the sky. Further examination confirmed it made navigational changes, proving it was not a comet but an artificial object.
Also aboard Devon were two doctors, Negra and Altum, an unusual circumstance on a ship their size but fortuitous for the Verse. They had already been looking into the Genetic Pandemic after seeing the ravaging effects it had on people throughout the Verse. Earlier in their journeys they had discovered that Blue Sun had not abandoned its efforts to modify humans after the disaster at Miranda. Indeed, Blue Sun had refined their efforts and had been partially successful. Instead of killing or transforming the populace into the berserker murdering cannibals (commonly known as the Reavers), these new modifications made those infected more compliant and suggestible, making them the perfect consumers for Blue Suns products. Whether Blue Sun cared about the dramatic side effects, enlarged organs, mutations, and worse is not known, but they were working to manage the symptoms and to create an entire generation totally dependent on Blue Sun for their very lives.
Drs. Negra and Altum hypothesized that a treatment could be synthesized from genetically pure DNA, DNA that hadn’t been modified by Blue Sun’s food supplements. They were looking in the farthest reaches of the Verse for people who might not have been infected. The difficulty was finding such people in sufficient numbers for the cure, an impossible event due to the breadth of the pandemic.
When Lang found what he believed to be a lost Ark, that impossibility became a possibility. The rest of Devon’s crew, her captain Victoria, chief mechanic Mira, and communications officer, Jesus, agreed that traveling to the ship was worth the risk. The risks were not small. The Devon did not have sufficient fuel to travel outside the elliptic and return. It would need to refuel from Ameonukihashi or take control of the Ark itself. It was a harrowing risk, but one that paid off dramatically.
When Devon left for the Ark, they were being tracked and word got to Blue Sun where they were going. Thus the race began.
When they reached the Ameonukihashi, they encountered resistance from the automated crew both within and without the ship. Somehow they were able to stay alive, and gain control of certain areas of the ship before a Blue Sun ship, manned not only with scientists but with genetically modified mercenary soldiers, arrived to take possession of the Ark. With their overwhelming forces, the Blue Sun operatives were able to gain control of the bridge. They explained there and then that their plan was for a slow release of treatments rather than a cure for the genetic disease. They imaged generations of people dependent on their treatments. When the captive Devon crew explained that they believed they had a cure, they were laughed at.
Dr. Altum was the primary developer of the cure and of his own destruction. The cure, as we now know, was not perfect. It could cure the majority of people infected, but for a minority of people with highly modified genes, the cure would be death. Two of the crew, Dr. Altum and Jesus, were two such highly modified people. They did not share this information with the rest of the crew but chose to aerosolize the cure to incapacitate the genetically modified mercenaries and themselves. Jesus, knowing the cure would kill him, sacrificed his life before he died to save other hostages in an attempt to gain control of Ameonukihashi. The attempt was successful and the existence of cure was broadcast to the Verse. The rest of the crew probably would still have been killed were it not for the timely arrival of the warship, PDF Decatur.
Thus Devon lost two of its crew, who nobly sacrificed themselves.
Blue Sun was forced to acknowledge the existence of the cure. The PDF ensured the cure would be fairly distributed throughout the Verse.
In interviews with the surviving crew, we learned that Blue Sun and other companies had been developing genetically modified telepaths (readers), assassins, and warriors. The cure not only saved humanity but slowed these unnatural developments. These details, though not widely known, made it to Parliament and the boards of various corporations, including the reformed Blue Sun board. Quiet agreements were forged to end these activities.
Of course we have only their word on this.
Go back to U War 2 (May 2523 August 2524)
Go back to MUTINEERS
