Declassified Documents Concerning the Final Days of the Royal Imperial Mananauts, Part 2

Link to part 1: Read here

4 Frostfall, 2E 1

The compound was truly an engineering feat. I imagine that at its heyday, it could be truly described as one of the greatest building feats in Tamrielic history. It is a shame few will ever know, and a shame it is long past those days.

Our ship arrived in a cavernous docking chamber. Obviously the chamber was built with more, and larger ships in mind. As Josiah told me, there were once many more, large, ships in the fleet. Leaving the ship, walking through this chamber, with only our lone, small ship in view, felt strange. It felt like being in the center of a derelict building, and judging by what I was told, this would probably not be the last time I would feel this way.

Josiah explained to me that the program, when it had employed hundreds in the past, had once grown all of its own food in the central dome. There had been people whose sole job had been to farm here at the base. In time though, as more and more funds were cut, this became impractical and undoable. As we exited the docking chamber, we entered the central dome.

The entire facility was composed of a series of glass domes and spires, with the central dome being as large as a typical Dres plantation, being filled mostly with plant life. While originally cultivated farmland, when I stepped into the open field, it was by that point very much overgrown. What had previously been storage silos were long since cracked and shattered. Many large shrubs and vines covered the ground, and the irrigation ditches had long since dried up.

“The director wants to see you before you do anything else.”

Josiah motioned at me to follow him, through one of the overgrown fields, through a latched door and through a metallic tunnel into one of the other buildings. We traveled up a flight of stairs that resembled the kind of wizard's tower one might see in High Rock. At the top was a wooden door with a plaque nailed into it reading Luc Signiz, Director of Operations. It would seem that this was the man in charge.

“The director likes to talk, he'll answer any questions you have, and then continue to talk. I'll be waiting outside to show you around after.”

I approached the door and knocked. Almost immediately I was given a response.

“Come in please, Captain.”

I nudged the door open as I looked to Josiah giving me a nod. I scuttled in, closing the door as I approached.

“Good to meet you! I am Luc Signiz, Director of Operations.”

“Captain Julius Corretus of...”

“Yes, I know who you are. ”

“Well sir, I appreciate you asking me to come in. To be honest with you I am still quite unclear about...”

“Yes yes, you have many questions. I apologize for the lack of communication. There was only so much information the Potentate wished to risk being heard by the wrong ears, and we felt it best to wait until you were securely on Secunda before going into more detail about why you are here.”

“I understand why secrecy might be necessary, but to tell me nothing?”

“It wasn’t my decision, if it were I might have had more information disclosed to you. However, it is true that the very existence of the Empire is at risk.”

“How so? Is this not a scholarly expedition? Why would a security chief even be needed, and why would you need to recruit from outside? Surely Josiah could have been promoted? Especially considering, it has become clear to me, that the program is slowly being shut down.”

“Let me just start from the beginning and tell you everything, and then I’ll try to answer as many of your questions as I can. Having your cooperation and understanding is very important to us.

At its peak, the Mananauts employed hundreds. We had ten ships and a number of different operations occurring simultaneously. We used this base on Secunda as a staging ground, but our prime focus was beyond the moons. We sent people to and from Atherious, mapped a number of minor realms of Oblivion and even sent people to the god-planets. Unfortunately that was over eighty years ago. The Four-Score War was ultimately our downfall. As is the fate of scholars, our efforts were pushed aside in favor of the ever-marching war machine. The way that leaders value war over knowledge, it truly disheartens me, no offense to Captain.”

“None taken. War should be something always to avoid. I’ve seen the useless destruction firsthand, and that war itself was a particular example of the futility of the whole thing. It was mismanaged from the start, and in the end all of that death accomplished nothing. If I were born in another time, I would have perhaps been assigned to protect rural villagers from bandits, or to root out coastal piracy, maybe as a member of that new Fighter’s Guild organization.”

“Quite true. I am glad to see you feel this way. You had a reputation for being more…thoughtful than many of your peers. This is why I lobbied for you to be chosen for this position. The Potentate wanted a veteran of the war, I insisted you be chosen, as I wanted someone that could relate to our work here and keep a more open mind, also someone that would think before he acted.”

“I’m glad you think so highly of me, but what exactly am I being asked to do here?”

“After the cuts began, our operations began to recede. We haven’t been outside of Secunda for almost 15 years. The empire began to conclude that the Mananauts were unnecessary. In many cases, we are stepping on a path the Sunbirds already layed out, and the Emperors began to feel that what we were doing was a waste of time. Obviously, I disagree, but there was only so much pull that I and my predecessor had.”

“How long have you been the director?”

“Thirty-nine years, but I have been with the Mananauts for over fifty in various positions. I unfortunately foresaw most of the organization’s downward spiral. The Remans, although willing to gut the organization, seemed to have a reluctance to outright disassemble it. However, when the Potentate took power last year, I was immediately called to the Imperial City. The Potentate had every intention to end the program right then and there.”

“What convinced him to keep it operational?”

“The Potentate has every intention of shutting down the program, but not until certain tasks have been completed. Two months ago, two of our researchers were out on a routine collection run of our magica condensers…”

“I’m not privy to what those are.”

“We have, on Secunda, a number of different devices that collect ambient magica, which has a different nature to it as compared to…this is irrelevant. The point is, these two researchers stumbled upon something in their task.”

“Something what?”

“It seems that, and we have no idea for how long, we are not alone on Secunda.”

This statement shocked me. My heart skipped a beat and my mind raced. What did this mean? Was there some sort of supernatural presence here? Or was it more mundane?

“What do you mean by…?”

“Relax Captain, I can see that my statement made you a bit nervous. There is nothing metaphysical going on here, simply political. It seems our neighbors were Altmer, from Alinor.”

I calmed down a bit, however this was still bizarre news, and I was starting to piece together why I might have been needed here after all.

“Sunbirds?”

“It would seem.”

“But they ceased sending expeditions thosands of years ago. Furthermore, Alinor is now under the control of the empire. How could they send anyone here without The Empire knowing?”

“Imperial control of Alinor has been slowly waning for the last few years. Hiding something like this from the Empire, however difficult, would not have been impossible. Their motives and intentions are, however, unknown.”

“I would expect that this has to be some sort of plot against the empire, why else would they hide it?”

“We were tempted to inquire the council of Alinor directly, but we decided that the best course of action would be to hide our knowledge. Obviously they know we have a presence here, but it is unlikely that they know that we are aware of their presence here. That has given us the ability to observe them and gather intelligence that they assume we do not have.”

“So what does the Potentate want done?”

“Our final task is to gather intelligence on what exactly they are doing here, and to end it. I think it then becomes obvious why your presence here is needed.”

“I think this clears quite a bit up.”

“I’m glad. Are you on board then?”

“Just one last question. What happened to my predecessor?”

“He was killed in an unforeseen landslide while leading a team to try and locate the Sunbirds’ base of operations. To be honest with you, while death was not what I wanted, he was quite incompetent. I was planning on requesting his replacement before the accident. He was simply not prepared for this environment.”

“So it is dangerous here?”

“Very.”