Ratland is rumoured to be the Veer-myn home world
About
The Corporations insist that there is no such thing as a Veer-myn home world. Even the existence of infested frontier planets, orbital stations, freighters and other large constructs, is little more than rumour. Officials will uniformly laugh at the mere suggestion that the Veer-myn have a ‘civilisation’, let alone a capital. Yet there are rumours amongst interstellar travellers, however, of a place variously called Veermynville, Pestworld, and Ratland; and whispers that, if a man was in a mind to seek out the truth of such a place, Corporation intelligence would see to it that he disappeared without a trace.
There is an area of space known as the Tangle; a mess of star nurseries and other stellar phenomena that limit the capabilities of ship drives and prohibit faster-than-light travel. There are settlements here, for the region is rich in exotic elements cast onto the solar winds by young stars, but travel within it is difficult and time-consuming. It is deep within the Tangle that Ratland is supposed to exist, a world of uncertain location situated in the centre of a cosmic whirpool, girt by rings of derelict spacecraft pulled and marooned there by the gravitic forces of seven proximate stars. Legend has it that a ship bearing many Veer-myn crashed there few centuries ago. Amid the detritus of ages, the Veer-myn made themselves a pestilential kingdom in the wreckage of a thousand starfaring species. It is said that a scrofulous king rules the race of Veer-myn from Ratland, plotting the demise of all others.
Only the explorer, Justin Van Doorn, has visited Ratland and returned, his sanity shattered by what he saw. Many put his ravings down to long exposure to the darkness of space, for he was found alone and raving in a lifeboat surrounded by the bodies of his crew.
Many, but not all…
MCAELIA PSYCHOBIOLOGY FACILITY, KEPLER 186
PATIENT RECORD 73634/35/3
PATIENT NAME: JUSTIN VAN DOORN
SUPERVISING PHYSICIAN: DR MATILDA BRIGGS, MCAELIA CORP
A FORMER MCAELIA EXPLORER AND PROSPECTOR, OPERATING IN THE FRONTIER FOR SEVERAL YEARS, CAPTAIN VAN DOORN HAS NOW BEEN CONTAINED AT KEPLER 186 FOR THIRTEEN STANDARD MONTHS, HAVING BEEN TRANSFERRED FROM A LESS SECURE FACILITY ON VANQUO RSGC1.
DESPITE EXTENSIVE PSYCHO-SURGICAL CONDITIONING AND COGNITIVE THERAPY, VAN DOORN IS STILL CONVINCED THAT HIS NIGHTMARISH FANTASY IS REAL, AND LIES SOMEWHERE OUT THERE IN THE COSMOS. MORE WORRYINGLY, HIS PSYCHOSIS HAS MANIFESTED PHYSICAL SYMPTOMS THAT ARE ALMOST UNHEARD OF, PROMPTING HIM TO BE PLACED IN QUARANTINE UNTIL WE CAN GLEAN A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF HIS CONDITION. HIS SKIN FREQUENTLY BREAKS OUT IN STRANGE BUBOES AND SCROFULOUS RASHES, WHICH DEFY CLASSIFICATION. HOWEVER, LEFT ALONE IN THE QUARANTINE CELL, HIS DELUSIONS APPEAR TO BE TAKING AN EVEN FIRMER HOLD – HIS WARDENS NOW REPORT STRANGE MARKS SCRATCHED ONTO THE WALLS OF HIS CELL, APPARENTLY WITH HIS OWN FINGERNAILS, WHILE HIS BEDDING AND PROTECTIVE PADDING IS ROUTINELY GNAWED AT, AND THE STUFFING ARRANGED IN THE CELL LIKE SOME KIND OF NEST.
I FEAR VAN DOORN IS BEYOND HELP, AND MAY NEVER LEAVE THIS FACILITY.
 This wiki is not an official Mantic Games publication. |