SAKROSANKT

Chapter 3

Based on the horror game "SIGNALIS" by rose-engine


SAKROSANKT

written by Matthew Leonard Oliver Adam N.




AKT-EINS: VINETA

DRITTE BEWEGUNG: WAFFE

"What are you doing, Matteus? Take the tinfoil hat off. You always do this."

A woman spoke, a Gestalt, dressed in a dark grey vest, which partially covered the scarlet tunic underneath, a tie 'round her neck, flying the colors of the Nation. The signet of Vineta emblazoned upon the steely shoulderplate resting on her left shoulder. Black, tight fitting legging upon her legs, armored boots covering the rest of her legs, stylized with anatomically correct features, similar to the art style that one of the ancient races had. If he remembered correctly, she referred to them as "the Romans", and kept saying how they lived aeons before the time of the Empress.

Opposite to her, stood a young man, short, well-kept beard upon his face, sporting thick, brunette eyebrows, his long hair stylized in a ridiculous haircut to which he referred to as a "wolf-tail", with the top long enough to be combed back and tied into a segmented tail, with the sides of the head shaven in a clean fashion. Upon his form, a grey uniform, not unsimilar to the female Gestalt, save for the lack of so called "roman" boots, instead sporting a fitting, stark white protective vest, with the sigil of the Nation upon the vest's left breast. Interestingly, if he were to be asked, he would actively refuse to fly the colors of the Nation, something that would put him at constant odds when faced with commanding STCR and KLBR Units. In fact, the Gestalt before him joked quite often that he resembled an ADLR Unit that was accidentally dropped in industrial bleach.

"No, don't give me this tinfoil hat nonsense, Nathalia! Pay close attention this time! The Penrose Program is a complete fárce, and I'm going to explain to you why!"

The male Gestalt, Matteus, scoffed at Nathalia, his turn to the blackboard nearly knocking a nearby cabinet over as he furiously ripped a chalk from it.

"So, here is the deal. . .-"

"You shoot a ship into space and expect it to hit something *remotely* useful? Well, I've got a bridge to sell you. We all hopefully know that space is very, very, VERY empty. You're going to be sending a lot of vessels out before one hits a liveable planet. Like, A LOT."

Matteus' eyes fixated in almost a manic fashion as the chalk betwixt his fingers dashed and crashed along the blackboard, scribbling numbers, lines and coordinates.

"But, that is only the barest of minimums. I got my hands on some documents regarding Penrose. I reread all the notes when I noticed something odd. Penrose Briefing: Phase II. A message Ariane gets 1,500 cycles after leaving on the mission. On page 2, the document says "As you approach the Oort Cloud, you search for new worlds *will* begin."

"Now, in case you don't know, somehow, the Oort Cloud is a region of space just outside of the Sonne system. It is approximately 1,000 AE, or AstroEinheiten, defined as the distance from the Sonne to Vineta, from the Sonne. Because it is quite far from any star it is also very cold. It, if it exists, is likely filled with planetesimals, which are objects bigger than 1 km, but not big enough to be protoplanets. Basically, think big asteroids. Life as we know it is almost certainly impossible in this region."

Nathalia shook her head, observing how the chalk dances across the blackboard, ensnared by Matteus fingers. He always did this. And now, he looked two steps shy of whipping himself up into a frenzy.

"You may be wondering why I'm focusing on the details of the Oort Cloud. That is because, on top of being cold and almost certainly lifeless, the Oort Cloud is massive. It is approximately 100,000 AE's from the inner edge to the outer edge. And here lies the real kicker. Based on the fact that, at 1,500 cycles, or 4.1 revolutions, Ariane and her LSTR Unit are reaching the *inner edge* of the Oort cloud, we can estimate their vessel's speed to be just under 250 AE's per revolution at the report."