213: The Kingu Comet Tragedy of Belan

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm Commander Shepherd, and this is my favorite lorecast on the Citadel. [SPEAKER_00]: Welcome to the Mass Effect lorecast. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm in seven the legend. [SPEAKER_04]: And I'm Genesis. [SPEAKER_04]: Join us. [SPEAKER_00]: As we explore along tides of light. [SPEAKER_00]: And through sholes of dust.

[SPEAKER_00]: To see where this lore began. [SPEAKER_04]: And consider where it may go. [SPEAKER_00]: Specters, hello and welcome to another special lore week of the Mass Effect Lordcast where we have a story about the Mass Effect lore that I don't think you've heard of before, unless you're super into reading.

[SPEAKER_00]: But joining me as always is Genesis, Genesis, how's it going? [SPEAKER_04]: Things are going pretty good today. [SPEAKER_04]: It was a really good week. [SPEAKER_04]: Even though it's only Tuesday. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's only Tuesday. [SPEAKER_00]: We've been trying to work out our recording schedule because things are just kind of a moving target with both of our lives right now, but we are still working to bring you an episode every week.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's what we're doing. [SPEAKER_00]: This week, Genesis, why don't you go ahead and introduce this topic because you're the one who found this and you're like, this is pretty fascinating. [SPEAKER_00]: We need to talk about it. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, this one brought in a lot of intergalactic politics and it kind of had me intrigued about because we don't have a lot about the Hanner and I love the little jellyfish and trying to figure out more about them.

[SPEAKER_04]: And this is just kind of looking at them at a very high level, but with a very specific incident. [SPEAKER_04]: And it caught my attention because it was one of the first Cerberus Daily News reports that came out. [SPEAKER_04]: And then it followed and followed for many, many more. [SPEAKER_04]: And so I was like, this story just keeps on going and going.

[SPEAKER_04]: And so I read through the whole thing and I was like, we should talk about this. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, some of those stories on server salues are really like you pull the thread a little bit and that just keeps going and unraveling and you're like, wow, I cannot believe that they put this much effort behind world building.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like this is just pure world building that we're about to get into. [SPEAKER_00]: But that being said, it involves a hand arc colony in the wake of total destruction from a comet. [SPEAKER_00]: running into it, right? [SPEAKER_00]: So we have here, we're going to talk about the server's daily news segments, and then we're going to just go ahead and break it down and try and connect what we can to other parts of the lore that we know.

[SPEAKER_00]: So without further ado, here's how the story starts. [SPEAKER_00]: It says, the extra solar comet CR-One-Three-Three-One King-Go will soon pass by the Hanar colony world of Belan. [SPEAKER_00]: and then in parenthesis it says undercurrent. [SPEAKER_00]: The comment contains a volatile gas element that the system's son will warm up, but it's not known how the reaction will alter the comet's trajectory.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's impossible to determine whether the comet will strike Milan or simply pass it by. [SPEAKER_00]: Hanar citizens are hastily evacuating the colony while their government petitions the Turing and Fleet to commission a dread not to intercept the comet. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so this is pretty urgent and even in the future, they still don't have the right tools to be able to calculate with certainty whether or not this comment will strike the quality.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and they also don't know exactly how the chemical composition of the comet is going to react with the gravitational forces of their moon. [SPEAKER_04]: If the sun is going to do anything to it, but they do know that it's a possibility something really bad could happen. [SPEAKER_04]: And so they're starting off like, hey, Turians, you can totally do something about this.

[SPEAKER_04]: Can you come and intercept this and just make it go away? [SPEAKER_00]: which I imagine the turians are like, well, you know, is there a sentient space space species aboard this comet because if not, then we're not interested. [SPEAKER_00]: If we don't get to blast someone to hell, then I don't know, bother bother the salarians or something.

[SPEAKER_04]: I mean, but blasting up a vomit, that's very Armageddon. [SPEAKER_04]: Like, let's do it. [SPEAKER_00]: It is, and it would give the Turians yet another feather to put in their cap to the, we are the heroes of the Milky Way, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And that's kind of, anyway, that's kind of like their, their stick, or at least they think so.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are hand-our citizens that are trying to escape, and it says hastily. [SPEAKER_00]: I've never seen a hand-our move hastily. [SPEAKER_00]: Have you? [SPEAKER_04]: Well, but we are on one of their planets, so that means that it is a water planet, and I am very certain that they can move hastily in the water.

[SPEAKER_00]: Speaking of which, it being a complete water world, I wonder if that would actually mitigate a damage that a comet would wreak if it, if it did strike this planet. [SPEAKER_00]: It being water would that mitigate the damage as opposed to if it just crashed into a large land mass on another planet?

[SPEAKER_04]: Well, the Hanner have definitely thought about that and we will get to those answers in a little bit. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so speaking of which, where does the story go from here? [SPEAKER_04]: So for in three days later, we get in-go comment classified harmless by ESOB, ISAB. [SPEAKER_04]: Now, a panel of experts at the institution for the study of astronomical bodies has classified the comment CR-One-Three-Three-One KINGU as harmless to the handler colony world of Belon.

[SPEAKER_04]: They say the comments outgassing process will alter its course, and it will cleanly miss the planet. [SPEAKER_04]: The reaction on Belon range from gratitude to disbelief, while the Terrians, who were considering sending a dread not to destroy the asteroid, welcomed the news and said that they will send a news probe to observe the comments historic passing.

[SPEAKER_00]: You know, my own outgassing process will sometimes alter my destination for where I sleep at night. [SPEAKER_00]: Like for example, I have a bed made behind me. [SPEAKER_00]: No, no coincidence due to my outgassing process. [SPEAKER_00]: But so the basically, right now, the foremost experts on astronomical bodies are saying that, hey, not gonna be a problem for your world, Belon.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's okay, you guys can come back, basically, that, but it doesn't sound like everyone quite believes that, because it says, someone Belon are in disbelief. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and so that was like, and I can totally see that people who are like, oh, that's not going to be that bad. [SPEAKER_04]: We've had fires in my area where it was like, you need to evacuate.

[SPEAKER_04]: You are the next in line to evacuate because it's a possibility that the fires will reach your house. [SPEAKER_04]: This happened a few years back. [SPEAKER_04]: And some people were like, and nothing bad is going to happen. [SPEAKER_04]: The viral misbuy you guys are way over you're thinking way too hard about this.

[SPEAKER_04]: And then unfortunately, those streets ended up burning. [SPEAKER_04]: And it's like, just because one report says that things are going to be okay, you should really trust your instincts. [SPEAKER_04]: And if one another report says leave and one report says stay, I'd go the safer route and leave.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, I wonder if like some of the Hanar here are are leaning on their religious beliefs to find solace like this one believes the incindlers would never let a comet destroy our colony. [SPEAKER_00]: We should flock to the temples and pray. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I could definitely see that being an aspect of it.

[SPEAKER_04]: The end-kindlers would never let anything bad happen. [SPEAKER_04]: The end-kindlers will come back and save us. [SPEAKER_04]: The end-kindlers are on that comment and they are coming for their return. [SPEAKER_00]: Right. [SPEAKER_00]: So I think that the Terriens are also kind of in this celebratory mode because they were going to send a dread not and we were going to be the savior here to destroy the comet.

[SPEAKER_00]: But now they're going to send a news probe to just be like, you know, now we have some good television that people can watch. [SPEAKER_00]: The ratings will be historic as will the comet's passing. [SPEAKER_00]: But, you know, it goes back and forth, the needle does. [SPEAKER_00]: And I can only imagine the frustration that some who evacuated, Belon would feel upon hearing that news, planning to come back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the next thing that we know is three days later, we get another server-staley news update that a growing consortium of scientists have signed an extra net petition. [SPEAKER_00]: claiming that the findings of the ISAB concerning the Kingu comet are engraved error. [SPEAKER_00]: Using telemetry from the shining sky orbital station, they calculate that CR-one-three-three-one Kingu will come close enough to produce a dangerous meteor shower and possibly disrupt the planet gravitationally.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow, that sounds like a disaster. [SPEAKER_00]: Millions of citizens are headed for higher ground to await the alleged doomsday blocking all traffic arteries and overwhelming space ports. [SPEAKER_00]: Travel to Milan has been restricted. [SPEAKER_00]: That's terrifying. [SPEAKER_00]: So basically, space ports are completely flooded.

[SPEAKER_00]: People can't get off. [SPEAKER_00]: The Hanar, which are in aquatic species, are going to high ground [SPEAKER_00]: because even if the comet doesn't have a direct impact, a pass by close enough will just totally rain down enough meters and possibly quote unquote disrupt the planet's gravity.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's, I don't know a lot about climate science or astrophysics, but I know that our own tides on earth are dictated by a gravitational pull between earth and the moon. [SPEAKER_00]: So if something were to disrupt that, it would probably throw our tides away at a whack. [SPEAKER_00]: And I can imagine if for the hand art, that would be a big effing problem.

[SPEAKER_04]: a massive problem, not only is that going to cause weather anomalies, it's going to, you know, it could flood the cities that are on the ground. [SPEAKER_04]: It, like, this is catastrophic. [SPEAKER_04]: And the fact that these, the ISAB was like, eh, you'll be fine. [SPEAKER_04]: And just a few days later, or like, no, no, never mind everybody get off right now.

[SPEAKER_04]: But now they can't. [SPEAKER_04]: because they people have wasted time thinking that things were going to be okay. [SPEAKER_00]: That's that's that that is tragic because if that report had never come out how many more people could have escaped. [SPEAKER_00]: But you know what, there's still a chance.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe there's still a chance that the comet doesn't hit Belon. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sorry. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_04]: Two days later, we get the report. [SPEAKER_04]: Though the main body of the comet did not strike the surface of the planet, the comet, at one quarter, the size of Belon's moon, disrupted tides all over the planet with its gravity.

[SPEAKER_04]: Sunamis have ravaged coastal cities all over the globe, breaking levees, flooding urban centers, [SPEAKER_04]: and drowning non-haner citizens. [SPEAKER_04]: The Citadel Council has declared the entire planet of Belon a disaster zone. [SPEAKER_04]: And estimates of the full credit value of the damage will take months.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is insane. [SPEAKER_00]: One fourth the size of Belon's moon. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_04]: if something one fourth the size of our moon passed by earth like how visible would that be that would be terrifying wouldn't absolutely I mean we would see that and we would I mean it would travel across the sky the devastation that it would cause again with the titles and the fact that it that belong is a majority water planet [SPEAKER_04]: It's levees, like they said, that the levees are breaking, the flooding of urban centers, and then just how many non-Hannar citizens were trapped on this planet?

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, because the Hannar can breathe underwater, so a tsunami might be a little rough, but probably something akin to strong gusts of wind that terrestrial species would have to deal with. [SPEAKER_04]: And you got to think even though the tsunamis and things like that are above water and yes, the hand or can survive in water, that means that their cities are also built under water.

[SPEAKER_04]: And any type of seismic activity or planetary shift or the way that the currents in the oceans are running could completely destroy their underwater cities. [SPEAKER_00]: Sure, and it does say that the tsunamis, so there's multiple tsunamis, which have to be just the sheer force of them alone is probably killing Hanar too.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I am interested because it says flooding urban centers. [SPEAKER_00]: So some of the urban centers are above water then. [SPEAKER_00]: or at least maybe like a underwater habitat. [SPEAKER_00]: I wonder how many non-hanar citizens are actually drill because of the pact. [SPEAKER_00]: And the drill, as the species, their numbers are so small, anyway, that any kind of disaster would especially impact them.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah. [SPEAKER_04]: We don't really have a date range on when these events took place. [SPEAKER_04]: So I don't know because we know I think it was a drill by the events of Mass Effect. [SPEAKER_04]: Two were sitting at about four hundred and eighty thousand. [SPEAKER_04]: This is just me recalling it off the top of my head.

[SPEAKER_04]: And so I don't know if that number was calculated before or after this event. [SPEAKER_00]: Wow. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, typically, I know with typically the server's daily news updates, they were coming out in as if they were being, they were happening in real time during the events of Mass Effect, too.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we can pretty much like count on most of them happening in the year, twenty one eighty five. [SPEAKER_00]: So it [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, yeah, there has to be a wide-ranging kind of effort to pitch in and help the people of Belon, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Because the Citadel Council has at least declared the entire planet at a disaster zone, which is probably more than it would do for, say, something that happened to the migrant fleet, but that's neither here nor there.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so what do you do in disaster strike? [SPEAKER_00]: When this comment completely screwed this planet, and as I mentioned earlier, I knew that it was going to make high ratings on television, especially news, because even if nothing happened, there was gonna be a news probe there, but something did happen, and I'm sure that the extra net is a buzz with all of the videos coming out of the lawn.

[SPEAKER_00]: This next daily news update says the Kingu Comments week of destruction continues to dominate the news cycle. [SPEAKER_00]: New video shows meteor showers caused by hot gases breaking giant chunks of ice off the comet. [SPEAKER_00]: No population centers were struck by the impacts which lift craters up to a hundred and eighty meters in diameter.

[SPEAKER_00]: Wow. [SPEAKER_00]: Meanwhile, the intergalactic red cross. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: Uh, in circle wouldn't have wouldn't be in true galactic red cross because they're not operating between galaxies. [SPEAKER_04]: You know, that was actually something that I caught as well because I was like, that doesn't know you're not operating in multiple galaxies.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, but I also could be like, yeah, I'm actually that's not correct. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, okay. [SPEAKER_00]: So we're just going to have to suspend our um actually for right now because it says meanwhile the intergalactic red cross, the Turian life bearer brigade, the Hanar organization healing waters and hundreds of other charities galaxy wide have pledged their support to housing and feeding the countless refugees of the planet.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I like that. [SPEAKER_04]: I like the fact that it is it's multiple species, multiple types get coming together to support this planet, this entire planet, that was attacked. [SPEAKER_04]: I mean, not attacked, but hit through a natural disaster. [SPEAKER_00]: Your inner crowgons coming out because I can imagine the crowgons being like, we need to hit the comet back.

[SPEAKER_04]: hey man if you had told the crow again instead of the turns that you needed help destroying something that big they slam asteroids all the time let's do it [SPEAKER_00]: Hell yeah, all right. [SPEAKER_00]: And I also like that we get some canon names for different cherries from different species like the Turian, life-bearer brigade, which is so thematic with how highly stratified and militaristic Turian society is life-bearer brigade, like that's a bunch of paladins.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we get hand-hars healing waters. [SPEAKER_04]: Nice, soft, we use healing waters. [SPEAKER_00]: Healing water is also sounds like it could be the name of like a Hainar spa, where they use biotics and water to massage people. [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, I kind of like that idea. [SPEAKER_04]: A nice, like, focused, jet stream on like the lower back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Hey, what are you doing with that tentacle? [SPEAKER_00]: I know where. [SPEAKER_04]: Hang out. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_04]: You're right. [SPEAKER_04]: The theory and life bear were gay totally sounds like a line of paladins about to throw potions at you instead. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, exactly.

[SPEAKER_00]: Get up. [SPEAKER_00]: All right, so we have this massive disaster. [SPEAKER_00]: There's countless refugees that are stuck there, including Hannah and non-Hanar people, but charities across the galaxy have come together and kind of chipped in now. [SPEAKER_00]: I feel like maybe now we're turning the page into something happier where [SPEAKER_00]: Although server stale news has this reputation now of having dark cd stories.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe we can get this uplifting news about the whole galaxy coming together to help this planet, right? [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, sure. [SPEAKER_04]: Maybe. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I'll leave hope for you. [SPEAKER_04]: Things will be okay. [SPEAKER_04]: It'll all be okay. [SPEAKER_04]: But we don't get to that until after the mid break.

[SPEAKER_00]: When we get to pet the rabbits, George? [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, let's go to the men break, shall we? [SPEAKER_01]: We have beef, bacon, we have beer, the foods of my people. [SPEAKER_02]: Young men have funny ideas of what a story are like. [SPEAKER_02]: I blame the extra net, and computer games.

[SPEAKER_01]: Rex? [SPEAKER_01]: Shepherd? [SPEAKER_01]: Grunt? [SPEAKER_01]: Shepherd? [SPEAKER_01]: Rex? [SPEAKER_00]: All right, here we are in the middle of the show where we will read out your five-star reviews if you leave them on Apple Podcast. [SPEAKER_00]: And we also have some comments from Spotify, which we've been reading recently.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll try and pull comments from the most recent episodes. [SPEAKER_00]: And I've seen a few here. [SPEAKER_00]: The first comes from, gosh, I hope I'm going to say this right. [SPEAKER_00]: It's from Kalino's gabarbara. [SPEAKER_00]: Colin Oskup, Barbara, greetings from Poland, the best lorecast ever.

[SPEAKER_00]: I've been listening to your episodes for a couple of weeks trying to catch up on a couple of years of content. [SPEAKER_00]: Great and thoroughly prepared content in one place. [SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for your work. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, thank you. [SPEAKER_00]: I would assume your name's Barbara.

[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Barbara. [SPEAKER_00]: And we have another one here from when we did our Zesty takes on Mass Effect lore, the last patron chat. [SPEAKER_00]: Prince, [SPEAKER_00]: x, x, mishka, ninety-eight writes, I love you Sam, but I don't think zesty means what you think it means. [SPEAKER_00]: We talked about this on the free show, and that one made me laugh out loud, so thank you, Prince Mishka.

[SPEAKER_00]: I, of course, meant the definition of Zesty, where it means slightly spicy but flavorful, although I am quite aware of the urban dictionary definition, if you will, of Zesty, well aware of the other one. [SPEAKER_00]: Genesis, you wanna go and read the other comment that we got from a few weeks ago?

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, from Tommy C, just left a five-star review in a huge fan and listened to every episode start to finish. [SPEAKER_04]: Thanks for kick-starting my love for the trilogy. [SPEAKER_04]: I have now started another new playthrough on insane. [SPEAKER_04]: Oh, Vanguard for life. [SPEAKER_04]: I also got my wife to start her first ever playthrough.

[SPEAKER_04]: Also, fun fact, I listened to a podcast with Bernie Sanders and he says humanity just like the elusive man. [SPEAKER_04]: Ha ha. [SPEAKER_04]: Much love from Vancouver Island. [SPEAKER_04]: Take care. [SPEAKER_00]: Hey, Vancouver Island, just up the street for me, basically. [SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, thank you for the kind comments everybody.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you wanted to have your comment read out again, you can leave it on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or audible. [SPEAKER_00]: Honobal allows you to do that as well. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't even know we were on Honobal, but we are. [SPEAKER_00]: We don't have any new patrons to shout out this week, but we do have our tier five patrons who have continued their enormous support of this Larkest, including Buds Buds Buds, Tidega, unfortunate benefactor, William Superfly for Forty, Red Trobat, Latina Tocino Curacy, and Ed Boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we also have a sound clip I have pulled the voice line to quiz Genesis on. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: Let's go and play this one now. [SPEAKER_03]: If you're interested in hearing my offer, meet me on the Citadel so we can talk in person. [SPEAKER_03]: I'll be waiting in the diplomats lounge on the Presidium.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: Any guesses, Genesis? [SPEAKER_04]: Mm-hmm. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_04]: I know exactly. [SPEAKER_04]: I cannot remember her name. [SPEAKER_04]: Well, that's a priority. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I know. [SPEAKER_04]: I know, she's in a sorry that you meet in Mass Effect one.

[SPEAKER_04]: And I can picture her sitting in the little lounge that is on the second floor, the same level where Odina's office is and where you can meet that other corporal who tells you that he would totally went to go see Shihala [SPEAKER_04]: but then has to back out because he was way too much of a coward to actually go through it.

[SPEAKER_04]: But then you also see her back in Mass Effect too because she is the one who hires you to take out her sister. [SPEAKER_04]: I just cannot remember her name. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you have got like ninety nine percent of it minus the name. [SPEAKER_00]: It's Nassana Dantius. [SPEAKER_00]: and you are absolutely right about all the rest.

[SPEAKER_00]: And she does show up in Mass Effect too, as well, in Dantiest Towers. [SPEAKER_00]: I believe during Thanes recruitment mission, right? [SPEAKER_01]: So, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, and then she gets her next naped. [SPEAKER_00]: So, RIP, Nassana, Dantiest. [SPEAKER_00]: Any who? [SPEAKER_00]: Well done.

[SPEAKER_00]: You guessed the voice line with, like, no hesitation. [SPEAKER_00]: So, with that, let's get back to the rest of the show. [SPEAKER_01]: After time adrift among open stars, alongside the light and through shows of dust, I will return to where I began. [SPEAKER_00]: and here we are in the second half of the show where last we knew the galaxy was coming together to throw all their charitable aid at the lawn after that comet you know spawn tsunamis and flooded urban centers stranded a lot of people and others a lot of refugees and need of help genesis where does it go from here [SPEAKER_04]: So we're not really on the positive road just yet.

[SPEAKER_04]: Our next report comes out on February, twelfth, and it's the comet's toll on the lawn revealed. [SPEAKER_04]: images coming out of the Hanner colony world, belong our brutal. [SPEAKER_04]: Though one might think in aquatic species such as the Hanner would survive flooding, tsunamis more than fifteen meters high, crushed many Hanner living close to the coasts, collapsing buildings and broken power lines have also caused casualties.

[SPEAKER_04]: Pest-driven diseases plague the refugee camps and insects and mold spores have infested abandoned neighborhoods. [SPEAKER_04]: Reconstruction efforts have begun in some cities beginning with the all important drainage of areas still under water. [SPEAKER_04]: Spaceport traffic is still jammed as millions of citizens attempt to return to their homes.

[SPEAKER_00]: okay so it sounds like the writer here actually did a lot of studying about the devastation after hurricanes because this sounds very very similar to some of the images that we saw coming out of New Orleans right in two thousand four uh... after hurricane Katrina uh... specifically that collapsed buildings in broken power lines leading to casualties as well as [SPEAKER_00]: diseases, in fact, insects and mold just plaguing every camp where people were because everything was flooded.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything was extremely humid and damp and hot and flooded. [SPEAKER_00]: And we know from our own world that when natural disasters strike, diseases soon spread afterward. [SPEAKER_00]: So this is really, this is very tragic about what's happening on Belon. [SPEAKER_00]: And I feel like my own ignorance was just [SPEAKER_00]: rectified or clarified because.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look, I already said earlier that you'd think that the hand RB okay being in aquatic species, but it says very clearly here that there were a lot of them living close to the coasts and they were crushed by tsunamis that were more than thirty feet tall. [SPEAKER_00]: Fifteen meters for everyone else, not in the US.

[SPEAKER_04]: It's definitely, and the fact that we don't know exactly how deep a hand-our city is, do they build at the, you know, the very bottom of the oceans that they're living in, and how deep can a hand-our survive? [SPEAKER_04]: So where are their cities being located? [SPEAKER_04]: They could still be underwater, but how far?

[SPEAKER_04]: And so even if it's just something near the surface that's being affected could still affect the cities, [SPEAKER_00]: it's just it's it's sad this one's a really sad story and the people coming back the people coming back who who did escape the initial devastation but now they come back to find their homes completely destroyed you know maybe these people have nothing and keep in mind that they're not they're not like [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't sound like this is in elite colony.

[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds like this is just kind of like an average colony where it's not like millionaires who can easily replace things. [SPEAKER_00]: They come back to find their homes, their entire cities devastated. [SPEAKER_00]: And then where do you go? [SPEAKER_00]: Then then what do you do, right?

[SPEAKER_04]: You go to these refugee camps that are infested with mold and insects. [SPEAKER_04]: And, you know, we're going to have another outbreak of the plague happen because in sanitation, it's got to be out the window. [SPEAKER_04]: There's no way that you can upkeep things like that. [SPEAKER_00]: At least, there is little evidence that we've seen in the Mass Effect series that the Hanar are a volatile species.

[SPEAKER_00]: So to speak, like I would be afraid if this were not a Hanar colony, if this were a Crogon colony, I would be afraid of complete chaos erupting after that. [SPEAKER_00]: If this were a Turin colony, a Celarian colony, a human colony, but Terrian colony, [SPEAKER_00]: You could expect the same thing like complete chaos, but that's why this next part kind of shocks me.

[SPEAKER_00]: Cerberus Daily News tells us that the government oversponsed to that situation on Belon is receiving fire today. [SPEAKER_00]: As fresh food supplies, spoil, starvation and looting have become rampant. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's that's surprising. [SPEAKER_00]: I cannot imagine a Hanar looting, but if it's looting versus starvation, like, can you blame them at all?

[SPEAKER_04]: Still, but there's also the Hanar that we meet in Mass Effect One that had no issue importing illegal goods. [SPEAKER_00]: True, very true, but that's like, I wouldn't call that like, I don't know. [SPEAKER_00]: I wouldn't say that that's like, [SPEAKER_00]: a violent crime, so to speak, whereas looting kind of has that connotation of robbery.

[SPEAKER_04]: We see Blasto. [SPEAKER_04]: Blasto is very violent. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's true. [SPEAKER_00]: But as it is saying that fresh food supplies are spoiling and that people are starving to death. [SPEAKER_00]: So it says some cities such as new plentiful have been spared the worst of the chaos as their geography allows for emergency air and space lifts of supplies.

[SPEAKER_00]: They really have fought long and hard about that city name on new plentiful. [SPEAKER_00]: Others such as the sub-Arctic City of Whitecap. [SPEAKER_00]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: must deal with a paralyzing lack of infrastructure as well as temperature extremes. [SPEAKER_00]: The official global death toll has reached one hundred and ten thousand, and estimates estimates place the complete figure anywhere from one point one to three point five million.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the really tragic part about that is they're going through the bodies and they're trying to confirm the identities of each person who's died so that they can add them to the death toll and they can confirm [SPEAKER_00]: and they've only reached only. [SPEAKER_00]: They've already reached a hundred ten thousand deaths and they're still counting.

[SPEAKER_00]: But given this year's scale of death, their further estimates are saying, look, it's an millions. [SPEAKER_04]: And that's that's horrible. [SPEAKER_04]: A tragedy that learned this was a global tragedy that wiped out a significant portion of a population. [SPEAKER_04]: And the fact that there could have been a way to possibly prevent it from happening like that just hurts.

[SPEAKER_00]: This has to be the worst tragedy in the Milky Way in terms of astrophysics and space weather at all. [SPEAKER_00]: This has to be the worst tragedy that we have heard of in the lore thus far. [SPEAKER_00]: This is going to stick in the history books for the Milky Way species, and especially for the Hanner.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, and it's definitely going to stick in my head to, you know, this is not a story that I'm just going to like forget about after a while. [SPEAKER_04]: It's going to, you know, there might be, I'm going to look to see if there's any in-game lore reference to this talking about the lawn or anything like that or the comments because I feel like maybe the lawn is mentioned somewhere, but [SPEAKER_00]: Only reason it rings a bell for me is because I think one of those jellyfish that you can buy for your fish tank is from Belon.

[SPEAKER_04]: Okay. [SPEAKER_00]: If I'm remembering right, which I would hope that the proceeds from that would go toward a fund for these people, but we don't know that, do we? [SPEAKER_04]: No, we don't know that, but we do know at least one of the ways that they were trying to raise funds for the lawn.

[SPEAKER_04]: And that's through a star-studded telethon, because telethons are still a thing in... It's so eighties. [SPEAKER_04]: No, I just like I cannot think of the last time I actually heard of a telethon happening. [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like we need to explain this to some of our younger listeners.

[SPEAKER_04]: But tonight's telethon, to assist the disaster struck planet of Belon, should be a star studded affair. [SPEAKER_04]: A-list entertainers such as Alice Prince Vladimir Bukin will appear in the two-hour special directed by Ronnie Lam. [SPEAKER_04]: more proper nouns being thrown at us. [SPEAKER_04]: I like having these little side characters.

[SPEAKER_04]: So full is the guest list that the entire cast of the extra net series crash cart was turned away at the door. [SPEAKER_00]: What? [SPEAKER_00]: They turned away crash cart. [SPEAKER_00]: How could they? [SPEAKER_04]: Unbelievable. [SPEAKER_04]: Yet legends like Amida Valla will be putting in the hours working on the communists.

[SPEAKER_04]: We want to let Balon know where a caring galaxy, she says, and if it takes some rich and spoiled entertainments to call attention to the fact that a few million people just died, were there for you, sister. [SPEAKER_00]: Queen, she is such a talent. [SPEAKER_00]: This is so like self-congregulatory, like, oh my gosh, you lick it all of this pomp and circumstance and all these celebrities.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it is really shouting, holding a mirror up to what we have in our own world, right? [SPEAKER_00]: That when these disasters happen, [SPEAKER_00]: even with maybe positive intentions, they immediately become magnets for celebrities. [SPEAKER_04]: I, that immediately draws attention to that viral video where all the celebrities in their rich ass homes doing absolutely nothing and not struggling at all when COVID shut down the world.

[SPEAKER_04]: And they all got together and just sent in videos of them singing a song together. [SPEAKER_04]: Yes. [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine. [SPEAKER_04]: Imagine. [SPEAKER_00]: Imagine if you will that we struggled to. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and this was written far before COVID, by the way. [SPEAKER_00]: So this kind of thing has been around.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I love the tongue and cheek commentary that the writers throwing in here, especially with. [SPEAKER_00]: And if it takes some rich and spoiled entertainers to call attention to the fact that a few million people just died were there for you, sister. [SPEAKER_00]: tone deaf. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, I mean, I also kind of like it in the fact like if you need me to be the face of this so that way you can get off your butt and start donating money, then I'm going to do it.

[SPEAKER_04]: I kind of like the way that this word, this is worded. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah, come to think about it now that you bring it up like that. [SPEAKER_00]: I didn't hadn't considered it from that point of view, but yes, it's effectively like this is so meta that the celebrity in the Mass Effect universe is telling you the player, like if a celebrity, if it takes us a celebrity to remind you that a few million people just died, then so be it, but you probably ought to feel ashamed.

[SPEAKER_04]: Exactly, that's the way I took this line. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: So the story's not quite over yet, and a new dawn is breaking. [SPEAKER_00]: We have here about a month later, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, about a month later, we get another update from server-stately news that says it has been one Belinese month, six Earth weeks, since the comet can goose caused devastating tides that killed over a million Belinese.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, with the water drained wherever it can be drained, the rebuilding starts. [SPEAKER_00]: I want to pause right here because we have, like, definitive terms, what the revolutionary speed is of balon around its sun. [SPEAKER_00]: So, one month for balon equals six earth weeks. [SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure there are someone out there who can do the quick maths and tell me exactly how long one Belinese year is, but I just thought that was cool when I wanted to point that out.

[SPEAKER_00]: This planet has never seen so many humans, Solarians and Vorca, Vorca, interesting. [SPEAKER_00]: But I guess they're incredibly redundant bodies and like, you know, like their skin and like they can lose a limb and it'll grow back. [SPEAKER_00]: That will probably help. [SPEAKER_00]: Migrant workers are a common site.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the charity volunteers, so are the charity volunteers and religious groups. [SPEAKER_00]: So this is now become like a cosmopolitan effort on the ground in Belon. [SPEAKER_00]: The Turian government and its scientists are daily targets of hatred and blame for not doing more to stop KINGU.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's interesting. [SPEAKER_00]: So basically now all of this free floating anger about the loss and the pain and everything is directed at where the people who could have done something but they sent a news probe instead because they were clearly operating on this similar report from ISAB.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, the fortune definitely stuck out and I was like, that's really, really interesting. [SPEAKER_04]: But then I was like, they kind of are the grunt workers. [SPEAKER_04]: They would be the type to be able to quickly pitch in for a construction work. [SPEAKER_04]: I feel like they would be really good at that.

[SPEAKER_04]: But yeah, blaming the turns, they definitely are receiving all the anger for not preventing this when they could have. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, probably receiving some of the anger that's more deservedly directed at ISAB to be honest. [SPEAKER_00]: ISAB has been mysteriously silent. [SPEAKER_00]: You know, I would not be surprised if there's like conspiracy theories in the wake of this.

[SPEAKER_00]: that are looking for a scapegoat, right? [SPEAKER_00]: And you have some xenophobic slash racist person who's looking to swoop into the power vacuum, who's all too happy to direct the blame somewhere else. [SPEAKER_00]: I can just imagine that, you know, these are the Koreans pulling the secret strings of the council.

[SPEAKER_00]: They directed the combat here, right? [SPEAKER_04]: I'm also wondering. [SPEAKER_04]: Who is the ISAB? [SPEAKER_04]: It's just listed as a panel of experts at the Institute for the Study of Astronomical Bodies. [SPEAKER_04]: We don't know if maybe these are Turing scientists. [SPEAKER_04]: Are they the ones doing this?

[SPEAKER_04]: And that's why it's saying in the one that you just read that the Turing government and its scientists are daily targets. [SPEAKER_00]: Just judging from the name alone, it sounds a lot like an assari group or human. [SPEAKER_00]: And if it's human, I'd wonder if it has any ties to Cerberus.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, that could be a clever way to get rid of some aliens, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Just telling everything is going to be okay. [SPEAKER_04]: Now we're really getting the cork board out. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, well, that's the thing, like even if servers didn't really like, let's say it was servers.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if the server scientists didn't actually know the trajectory of this comment, they can tell them everything's gonna be okay because if everything is okay and the comment doesn't hit all of a sudden, now they've gained a more credibility for later. [SPEAKER_00]: to use later. [SPEAKER_00]: And if everything's not okay, well, you've accomplished your goal now a bunch of hand-r and other aliens are dead.

[SPEAKER_00]: very much. [SPEAKER_00]: So I wonder if that's the implication here and we're just like, like, just dumb enough, just smart enough that we're just now catching on. [SPEAKER_00]: But anyway, Citadel emergency services estimates the refugee count is over four million displaced either moving inland or to floatation cities and other planets or waiting in temporary housing for new habitats to be built.

[SPEAKER_00]: Normalcy may eventually come, but it still feels distant. [SPEAKER_00]: I love that line. [SPEAKER_00]: Normal scene may eventually come, but it still feels distant. [SPEAKER_00]: Because that line is not from the outside looking in. [SPEAKER_00]: That line is something that someone would say if they were a correspondent on the ground in Belon.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, that line feels very real, especially like you can apply it just so many different aspects in your personal life and things like that. [SPEAKER_04]: It's like you've been through this tragic event and you know that you've made it through trauma and tragedy in the past, but still getting back to that, getting back to the new normal, putting it in terms of COVID that we all went through together, getting back to the new normal, seemed so distant and we're still trying to find that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Right, and in this line, normal C may eventually come, but it still feels distant. [SPEAKER_00]: Just reading that, especially into a microphone, reminds me of Edward Murrow, famous World War II reporter, and then became a very famous anchor afterward, but famous for his dispatches from Europe.

[SPEAKER_00]: during the Second World War and specifically during the Blitz of London, if I remember right. [SPEAKER_00]: So this line, you know, normalcy may eventually come, but it still feels distant. [SPEAKER_00]: I love that the writer wrote that in there because I can imagine that they were trying to convey that this report was actually coming from Milan.

[SPEAKER_00]: that now that there's rebuilding happening and now there have been cherries and migrant workers going in that so-can Citadel emergency services move in along with some embedded reporters. [SPEAKER_00]: So, so the the death toll is quite high but we now know that the estimated refugee count in addition to that is over four million people.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a lot of angry people, right, who don't have anything anymore. [SPEAKER_04]: right um they are out there and we know maybe we will be able to see like where these four million people are displaced to because we know that this is going to be a combination of Hannah and other species as well and hopefully they can get back through their homes and eventually normal civil return [SPEAKER_04]: We've only got one more entry from the Cerberus Daily News, and it happens five months after the initial reports about this comet.

[SPEAKER_04]: And it came out in July, July, twentieth. [SPEAKER_04]: The Turian hierarchy criticized for shifting aid efforts from Belon. [SPEAKER_04]: Many citizens have returned to life as usual on Belon, but refugee camps are still filled to capacity by those left homeless by the Kingu comet. [SPEAKER_04]: The Salarian Union has received much praise for their relief efforts, but Belinese government officials claim aid from the Turingan hierarchy has dropped sharply since fighting started on Tateras.

[SPEAKER_04]: A hierarchy spokesperson responded, are people have never set belong aside? [SPEAKER_04]: While some of our efforts shifted to volume after its attack, and needed to remain there in case of further attack. [SPEAKER_04]: Assisting in the rebuilding of Belon always was, and remains, a priority for Palovin.

[SPEAKER_04]: I feel Yikki reading that. [SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, basically this is this is referencing when there was a Turing separatist group who basically launched a civil war or rebellion, I guess you could call it on the colony of Tatras. [SPEAKER_00]: that has got to be a major distraction for the entire terrain hierarchy, especially since it would be political suicide to suggest that, hey, we need to continue helping the Hanar.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have our own like, you know, separatist group waging war over here, but it doesn't matter because there's millions of refugees over there that need our help. [SPEAKER_00]: That is ripe for political fodder for someone to say, oh, so you don't care about our own people. [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, it's tricky.

[SPEAKER_04]: It really is because there is the people, the people, the Hannah that you set originally, you were going to help avoid a potential disaster and that didn't happen. [SPEAKER_04]: And then the disaster struck. [SPEAKER_04]: And then you said that you were going to send aid and continue to send aid and you did in the beginning.

[SPEAKER_04]: but then it quickly dropped off. [SPEAKER_04]: And now you're going to go fight a war instead. [SPEAKER_04]: And this assisting in the rebuilding of blonde always was and remains a priority for Palavin. [SPEAKER_04]: That line just doesn't sit well with me because if that was your priority, [SPEAKER_04]: than you wouldn't be taking away from the relief efforts, but finding a different way, finding a different branch of your military, a different group of people to send out there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it's not like with how large the Turian hierarchy is, with how many resources they have at their disposal. [SPEAKER_00]: this explanation for me would fall flat, especially if I was one of those affected by that disaster, where it's like, what do you mean you can't spare the resources?

[SPEAKER_00]: I think that there is probably going to be some life-long resentment of the Turian hierarchy from the Hanar and the non-Hanar citizens impacted by this. [SPEAKER_00]: In Mass Effect II, so then were you'd be entering Mass Effect III where the Reapers invade and there's still that kind of animosity there.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or maybe there's a rally around the flag effect for Belon. [SPEAKER_04]: very well-being and of course we do know that you know and eventually everybody just kind of gets to the point where obviously the reapers are the main focus you know we all have to rally against this new enemy regardless of what has happened in the past so we know that eventually things will be okay if they can again return to a new normal after the effects of Mass Effect three [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, but basically the return to normal C, it's going to take generations.

[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds like because there's still so many people flooding refugee camps. [SPEAKER_00]: That's really sad. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: Well, that's where the story leaves off, right? [SPEAKER_00]: Not exactly a happy ending at all, but at least there were other species from around the galaxy, you chipped in and helped like the Solarians, the Fortune migrant workers, the sorry humans.

[SPEAKER_04]: Yep, the intergalactic red cross. [SPEAKER_04]: I like that. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, intergalactic. [SPEAKER_00]: All right. [SPEAKER_00]: By the way, I just saw on this trivia section on the Wikipedia for this page that the comment, Kinggu was named after a ruler of the gods in Babylonian mythology whose blood after his death is used by Marduk in his creation of the human race.

[SPEAKER_04]: Wow, okay. [SPEAKER_04]: Babylonian mythology is not one that I'm too familiar with, so I didn't knock it that one. [SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, nor did I. Also wonder if there's some kind of symbolism there. [SPEAKER_00]: And if there is, I can't spot it, but maybe some of our very intelligent listeners can.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's all we got for this week's Specters. [SPEAKER_00]: We will be back next week after we speak with our patrons. [SPEAKER_00]: because it is the patron chat coming up. [SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what topic they're going to choose. [SPEAKER_00]: That's totally up to them, but I am confident that it will be a great discussion nonetheless.

[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis, what do you got going on until next week and how can people go to the whole view? [SPEAKER_04]: Yeah, so I got a bunch going on this week. [SPEAKER_04]: I'll be up at Pax West on Friday. [SPEAKER_04]: Super excited about that August, twenty-ninth. [SPEAKER_04]: And then you can always catch me on my two other podcasts, the two girls one ship where we analyze right and review all that the world of video game romances has to offer.

[SPEAKER_04]: And these cyberpunk lore cast where we explore the foundations of the past, the state of Night City today and the news of the future for all things cyberpunk. [SPEAKER_00]: All right, and I am going to try my darndest to be there at Pax for your panel. [SPEAKER_00]: So if anyone is going to plan to be a Pax and you want to say hello, just message us through our email or our social media accounts for the lower cast and maybe we'll run into each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am still on dad duty while balancing dad and interviews and job searching so I can't commit to another stream on my channel right now But if people want to get a hold of me they can get me at in seven the legend pretty much any social media I have or you can just tag me at in seven legend on the robots radio discord Now that's all we got for this week's vectors so until next time we should go [SPEAKER_00]: Thanks for listening to the Mass Effect War text.

[SPEAKER_00]: Reach out to us on Blue Sky, Twitter, Discord, Patreon, or email us at Mass EffectLorecast at gmail.com. [SPEAKER_04]: Join us next week for more lore, same space, same time, or check out our live streams at twitch.tv slash Mass Effect Forecast.

213: The Kingu Comet Tragedy of Belan

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