Detailed info
- While your tutor invited me before you having a different topic for the lecture in mind, I am aware that many of you only came here to hear one particular story and won't let me leave without it. Let me address the most frequent queries then. As you know, I spent 13 weeks on Elderbone in the Line World sector, which I then got the privilege of naming as such myself. Yes, it was grueling. Yes, I almost died, twice, and the cause of death would've been "Breathing Oxygen". Yes, I survived by makeshift means, the likes of which you learn about from Chorials over 1000 years old, knowledge that predates the Chorials themselves by a wide margin. I'm talking about breathing into bags of processed wood mass known as "papier", or the regular intake of chemicals like zinc, selenium and ascorbic acid, once a popular compound on Terra, called "Compound Vitamin C". That, my Artturisir training and a lot of lying down... Yes, the lower tracked suspension system augment, which All-Father has blessed me with in place of my legs, was a direct, necessary result of my time with Elderbone's 3G. And yes, relieving yourself in a gravity 3 times standard was an experience within itself and, pardon the tasteless pun, quite a Burden.
For other queries please refer to the Chorial recently published in the university database. Now, onto the actual lecture...
Professor (honoris causa) Valden Cantaris, OT-3912, Guest Tutelage, Artturisir Academy
The peculiar name of Elderbone was coined when the first deliberate, one-spacecraft Cortex expedition in this sector crashed on its surface, only to confirm that neither were they the first nor the last that would share such a fate. Numerous other human-made vessels were found on the surface, decrepit and betraying varied signs of origin and age, their crews long dead, not fit for the punishing gravity, their engines too weak to escape Elderbone's grasp.
This celestial body's wicked nature is tangible evidence for the perils of overabundance. The surface gravity is daunting enough to force frequent necessary horizontal rest, lest the bones crush under the weight of the body. A planet of this size and gravity produces dense atmosphere, with copious amounts of oxygen. While its volume, colliding with UV rays, causes the planet to have an all encompassing green tint when observed from space, one would think this much oxygen to be an upside. However, without Armada's level of genome manipulation human body cannot take in the amounts forced into the lungs by the pressure, leading to rapid oxidative damage and making the existence on Elderbone's surface akin to swimming upright, albeit in a very heavy swimming suit.
The expedition in question did manage to send a distress signal and eventually leave the planet, supplying Cortex Memory Gardens with priceless knowledge vital for future endeavors. However, the toll the voyage took on their bodies, especially skeletons, was substantial. For Cortex, keen on augmenting their bodies in search of mechanical perfection, Elderbone exposed the weakness of the flesh with double the impact.
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Imagery
Locations
Eight Horses
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Salmiakki
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Pawn Retreat
