The scientific community has always known that transit to Jaladri was definitively not Faster Than Light Travel. A segment of humanity may possess the expertise to understand certain systems, but that does not mean humanity as a whole comprehends them or has any interest in doing so. Over the past sixty to seventy years, the general public has largely lost its fascination with space travel and the idea of humanity living on another planet. People have gone to Jaladri, some have returned, and it has been that way for a long time. Familiarity has replaced wonder.

There is plenty of information available, if you care to find it. A paper was published in the late 60’s pertaining to Jaladri transit and logistics. It was titled “The Second Door Problem”, written by a New Cascade-based professor, Dr. Élodie Marceau. Despite the “transparency” of information On-World, there are no complete copies of this paper. The bulk of the information is missing, so what was left is a collection of scattered observations.

Example:

I. Initial Assumptions

[REDACTED]

We proceeded under the assumption that the discovered artifact represented either a singular anomaly or one endpoint of a finite pair. Both assumptions were rooted in optimism rather than evidence.

It did not occur to us that infrastructure implies network.

–

IV. The Pairing Constraint

[REDACTED]

Transit requires a second anchor.

This is not a technological inconvenience but a structural necessity.

One cannot arrive where nothing exists to receive.

–

Over 20 years later, when the paper was “re-discovered” by the public, an additional note had been added by the author. She must have edited it herself in secret, as it was completely un-redacted. 

Colleagues,

The transit system’s operational reliability does not resolve its structural paradox. The mechanism requires a preexisting receiving anchor. It cannot generate destinations.

This constraint limits expansion. We are not exploring; we are accessing fixed coordinates within an inherited network.

The confirmed presence of multiple surface anchors in the remote system indicates deliberate infrastructure, not anomaly. The terrestrial-linked anchor introduces interpretive risk regarding human origin assumptions.

Recommendation: maintain strict compartmentalization. Functional use does not require ontological clarification.

E.M.

An excerpt from The Port Worden Register, a local news paper:

We are less than 3 weeks away from the final arrival of the JS Corruja before it is retired and housed at New Cascade’s First Landing Museum.

Its final mission was escorting Baisho-Caplan’s shiny new city ship into local skies. We have just found out through independent sources that BC has in fact dispatched three city ships. Leadership in New Cascade discovered this shocking information just days ago.

Now, if you’re not an old-timer, you may not remember that the city ships can't take off once they land. They are far too large. They also do not have the fuel and resources for a return trip. They are unable to remain in orbit and are essentially a one way trip. It seems Baisho-Caplan is walking the path of “ask for forgiveness later”.

We don’t know the specific final location for this corporate armada, but we do know that it will be somewhere on the eastern end of Hoshimi Island. 

This news comes just days after PWR learned of the massive infrastructure project that has been on-going for apparently over a year. Port Worden and Baisho-Caplan have been building a significant road and rail passage from east Hoshimi to the east end of the city. Officials were able to keep this project under wraps because construction started at the opposite end and is just now within a mile of city borders. JLA/JTC has been slammed in the past weeks, being called everything from inept, to corrupt. Our independent sources have confirmed that this unprecedented sequence of events is just as surprising to Jaladri Leadership as it was to the general public. 

The unrestricted nature of this project calls into question the strict environmental protections and altruistic ethos on which the entire civilization of humanity On-World is built upon.

After emergency aerial surveillance and geoscanning, the path of the road and rail corridor does seem to show at least a minimal consideration for environmental impact, but still cuts through large areas of protected wilderness. Due to the nature of the terrain, the logistic footprint required for this type of project is astronomical.

It wasn’t JLA/JTC that made the decision, but the academic and scientific community based in New Cascade’s Research District that made the final call: open the site.

Most people know of Jurassic Beach, north of Cape Alsea, but in fact, the entire northern portion of Reitoru is full of geological and biological curiosities. After calamities that formed current day Jaladri as we know it, much of the planet was “turned inside out” for lack of a better term. There are areas on some of our islands that used to be seafloor, some even high up in the mountains. 

A few years ago, a local hiking group based out of Columbia Reach contacted the Institute for Oceanic and Planetary Studies with photos and samples of a metamorphic, banded stone. They claimed they were on a multi day hike, heading east from the small town, up into the mountains. This area is not particularly vast, but the elevation, flora, and terrain mean that movement is deliberate, slow-paced, and grueling.

They estimated their position as roughly 9km away from the road when they found a “ribbon” of beautiful stone down inside of a gulch. They had never seen anything like it, so they took a small sample, and documented their findings. 

A small research team was dispatched 6 months later by the institute. 5 people and their aging nimble-modified treadwalker (donated to the institute 25 years ago from a construction company) spent a week travelling to, and studying the ribbon. They found it to be a massive deposit of something similar to Earth’s “Tiger Iron”.

Rich in multiple compressed layers of Claret Kurocite, Hoshimi Ruby composite, Dusk Clay, Magnetite, Hematite, and Red Jasper. Initial observations likened it to seeing a “flipped iceberg” of red, amber, and graphite colored stone jutting out of the mountainside. 

During this expedition, they discovered there was a water source coming from somewhere inside the rocks. Tracing the water as far as they could into the formation (about 20m) they found a small geyser system within the stone.

Near this geyser they noticed a cluster of shallow, evenly spaced hexagonal pits in an exposed layer of magnetite. Their engineer on site immediately likened it to a bore pattern. The holes were all evenly spaced, and their shape peculiar.

The science team theorized that it could be gas escape structures, or crystal growth voids as well. No firm decision was made, and their time and resources were running out. On the morning they were scheduled to leave, one of the scientists had been up since the early hours, and eventually woke the team up.

Further along the wall from the “bore pattern” anomaly was a trapezoidal portion of exposed rock that looked vitrified or polished. This was one of the most perplexing findings from the expedition. Due to the difficulty of transit to the site, the environmental protections currently in place would not allow a larger team to get their equipment there intact and remain on site without significant human intrusion. 

The proximity of the site to the Hydrophane Ravine was also mentioned in their report. As that entire area is JLA/JTC property, additional findings there would require different permissions. 

After the events of the last 2 years, and the current news coming out about the 3 city ships, the Institute decided to greenlight their team. They informed JLA/JTC immediately of their plans, and have received a cautiously permissive radio silence in response.

Port Worden loves night life. All over the city you can find Indoor Plazas. Multi level shopping centers with engineered biomes. Arcades, pachinko parlors, food courts and illegal contraband import shops fill these facilities.

Operating in the lovely grey areas that seem to permeate the city, they are massive for the economy. Money doesn’t officially exist on-world. People from New Cascade trade energy credits, resource allotments, and other hard goods for different forms of “currency” usable in Port Worden. If you live here, there are services that automatically convert your monthly allotments to your choice of currency. The exchange rate is abysmal, but people will always love the forbidden. 

New Cascade isn’t without their own forms of contraband and illegal trade, but it’s more of an underground movement on the north side. Restraint compared to indulgence. 

Everybody On-World comes to Port Worden. Maybe it's gambling and banned food you’re into, rare clothes, jewelry…or maybe something else?

Long sunsets and long nights mean that every evening downtown feels electric.

The New Cascade Scientific Coalition (NCSC) recently announced a research “blockade” being sent to East Hoshimi with plans to arrive before the City Ships land.

A three-pronged plan consisting of a visible show of presence and force, formal protest of Baisho-Caplan operations, and legitimate on-site scientific research. Shortly after this announcement, JLA/JTC launched a sister operation in solidarity. Their initial move was executed last week: the first On-World tactical operation conducted in full public view. The Requisition of the BC Darling River.

There are no formal police On-World. Civilian Security consists of volunteer residents who preserve order and assist their communities. City Security operates only when required, handling theft and vandalism in a manner closer to investigative services than patrol policing.

Since the early years following the arrival of the first city ships, local security personnel have carried collapsible batons rather than firearms. That standard remains in place; no routine security officer carries a firearm. The baton is legally classified as a lethal instrument, requiring clear justification for its use and subject to post-incident review.

Serious crime has never been a persistent issue On-World. There are no jails, offenders are assigned time to work on secure farms that grow food for printer carts. They are compensated at one-third the daily rate of a regular worker, and live and sleep there for their entire confinement. This has mostly worked as a system for a very long time. 

In more recent times, violent crimes have been a slightly more common occurrence, with a steady but subtle trend upward, specifically in Port Worden. City Security handles investigations but there is a small specialized department that manages active violent crimes and suspect acquisition, the High-Risk Response Unit (HRU). Until Baisho-Caplan corporate security, these were the only people On-World authorized to carry a firearm in public. There are no manufacturers of firearms on Jaladri, or even on Earth. Just from Terra Proxy. 

There are 3 “tools” manufactured in-house by HRU. The Breach Shotgun platform (SG+), The High-Output Conducted Electrical Device (CED-H) (stun rifle), and the Compact Personal Defense Weapon (PDW-C). These tools come in bright fluorescent colors with “MORTAL DANGER” stamped all over them. Members of the unit require 3 years of training before they are permitted to use them. 

The BC Darling River operation was carried out early in the morning, the HRU were able to get a 12 man team on board before an alarm was even sounded.

They took the bridge without casualties in less than 30 minutes. Civilian ships and pelican craft were on site 10 hours later to exfil all Baisho Caplan personnel back to Port Worden. 

This event was met with widespread approval following the announcement of the three city ships.

During the 1970s and 1980s, several animated children’s programs were produced the traditional way, drawn and painted by hand. One of the most popular and unusual was Monty Glint. The series followed an orange cat of the same name who worked in a botany laboratory by day and operated as a detective by night. He was also a vampire, sustained exclusively on fish blood. Set in a perpetually rain-soaked “Rain City,” he fought crime under the alias The Velour.

Only sixteen twenty-minute episodes were ever made, but the smoky jazz soundtrack, heavy shadows, and rainy city background made it a nostalgic cultural icon. The original masters were supposedly lost, and now it survives only in fuzzy bootlegs passed around for years. The creator and production team are said to have informally released it to the community years ago. Artwork and printed merchandise inspired by the series can still be found in night markets.

The effect of a drop of water on a still pond.

After the announcements about the “blockade” being sent to East Hoshimi in response to the news of a triple city ship arrival, the feeling of righteous indignation began to spread all over the planet. From Columbia Reach to Port Worden, a movement began to materialize. Community Corporate. 

The popular rhetoric on the networks centered around anger and confusion that seemed to stem from laws and morals being ignored because the money and resources outweigh any opposition or consequences.

The question was asked, “why can’t we do the same thing?”. 

There is now a network of over fifty thousand civilians pooling resources, energy credits, currency, and equipment. Effectively operating like a “public corporation” with no direct ownership or individual profit. Now known officially as The Civic Standard Group (CSG), their primary functions are repairing and upgrading aging machinery and infrastructure. Work is often completed in technical violation of dozens of regulations, largely because the original charter failed to account for practical realities, including the rate and density of On-World flora growth.

Entire sections of forest can overtake infrastructure that requires only minimal annual maintenance yet remains essential to daily operations. Power grids and other vulnerable systems are routinely impacted by vegetation and weather conditions that exceed early planning assumptions. 

There are plans to expand operations and obtain larger vehicles and equipment so more significant projects can be accomplished in the near future.

We have not explored the oceans.

We have studied the water and documented the marine life within our coastal regions. We have photographs and recordings of encounters with countless species in the open sea.

Yet we know almost nothing about the vast majority of the planet’s oceans. On the southwest side of Reitoru, one of the most battered and eroded areas on the planet, the entire coastline is encrusted with deep marine deposits of fragmented Ancient Water Strata; a lithified geological layer from deep underneath the sea bed.

One of the larger faultlines in the area cuts along this region for more than 100km before racing back out into the ocean southwest. This region is known as the Primary Offset Corridor.

Scientists currently theorize that a massive earthquake broke up the seabed in the region, with seismic turbidity sending sediment for hundreds of kilometers. What they have learned from studying this ancient water strata is that our current ocean is not the first ocean. It is geological evidence that the planet had a stable hydrosphere long before the cataclysm reshaped it.

The city ships landed 3 months ago. The blockade has set up permanent operations at the old research site near the mooring of the BC Darling River. CSG is setting up a head office in Columbia Reach, with a satellite location at the abandoned rail station in Surakineau. 

In another 6 months you will be able to take ITS trains from New Cascade to the new protected “city” of Foundry Cross. When they arrived, the ships were able to land in a near perfect italic ellipse facing northeast and southwest.

Construction on skybridges and additional structures in between them has already begun. There was a very intense public ad campaign sponsored by Baisho-Caplan talking about their environmental concerns and protections, promising to be self-sufficient for at least a decade before needing planetary resources.

The public are excited to visit.

The second team to visit the Ribbon consisted of nearly 40 people. Pelican Craft flew in continuous logistic runs for over 3 days.

A network of semi-permanent bridges, staircases, and pathways were installed to ease personnel transit to and from the site, cutting the hike down to less than 10 hours and removing the need for rock climbing and rappelling gear. There is a small temporary base set up near the site. Intensive geoscanning has revealed a massive chamber behind the rock formation, deep underground. 

As this is now a public project, there are multiple daily updates for anybody interested. The following is an excerpt from this morning: 

After drilling a six-meter core toward the suspected chamber, we deployed a SQUID-based magnetometer into the bore. Within minutes, the instrument began registering a narrowband magnetic fluctuation.

After repeated calibration checks and cross-verification, we confirmed the source: the monitoring beacon at River-Cave Sector (RCS-3), more than 1,500 kilometers away on a separate island. It’s also 18km underground. 

We understand the significance of that statement and are proceeding cautiously, but the signal match is consistent across all tested parameters. - Ribbon Team