Data-Points Header [https://i.imgur.com/hPP4ZmV.png]
'Foreword' as Transcribed From Dr. Firen Shika's Opening Presentation on the UnderCurrent;
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"The kindest of welcomes to you, Sir/Madame and my utmost thanks to you for deciding to partake in our fully immersive, state-of-the-art NTME or 'Neutral TransMissive Experience'.
As I'm sure you are already well aware, we here at the institute have made a truly ground-breaking discovery by being the very first humans in history to unequivocally prove the existence of sentient foreign lifeforms other than ourselves.
These beings are still under intense study as to whether they are aliens in a distant part of our own galaxy or from some form of alternate reality. The recordings you shall observe today are a selection of specially chosen moments from our catalogued footage of this other existence.
As you will no doubt have been informed, the project labelled 'UnderCurrent' was developed by my team, about whom you can read more by turning to page 38 of your complimentary booklet. Additional details are listed on the specifics of the system and our research in discovering it - However, I shall refrain from delaying your kind selves from the primary experience with too much technical jargon. In brief, it is my great honour and pleasure to state that UnderCurrent has allowed us to see into the lives of a small collection of humanoid individuals from a world entirely separate from our own.
This world differs so significantly that it had at one point been a land of what we of Earth would see as mythical creatures and wizards straight from folktales and legends. Furthermore, that era has long passed, to the point that this race of people has now far superseded even our level of technology. Now capable of traversing and even settling the space around the planet that which they call home. I need not tell you of the parliamentary debates going on right now as I record this as to whether UnderCurrent might be harnessed to acquire these such technologies for ourselves, but alas, I digress.
Before I let you loose on the full experience, it would be first prescient to include for you several smaller details, as strangely enough, those who inhabit this world are not in the habit of divulging its history at random, nor has the NTME device ever conveniently locked on to a helpful local historian (although we do believe such occupation indeed exist in their societies).
For the History of the world, how it came to go from the age of mirth to a thriving space-dwelling empire, before plunging once more into all-out interplanetary war straight out of a Hollywood movie - We have included something we here at the institute are most proud of: A complete transcript of the prologue to one of this other world's books!
This fragment of a completely separate culture starts on page 42 of the booklet and was achieved thanks to one of NTME's primary focal points, a man named 'Kolme Nilas', who read the book during our time observing him.
Thanks to this, we have been able to transcribe it into English. It provides the most accurate yet brief account of this alternate people's history to date, as backed up by the various statements of the people this experience and our research has centred on.
We believe the book was possibly written with a comical slant or to be philosophical, as it centres on explaining broad swaths of their history, often from what we believe to be the guise of the humble office worker's role in affairs.
{Editors Note: It has come into some dispute as to whether the exact word used is indeed 'Office Worker', which may actually refer more closely to 'Common Man' or 'Every person' - Pierre Havelock OBE}
Aside from this, it is essential to note the vantage point UnderCurrent affords is one centred around the crews of primarily two space-traveling warships. Most of all, it seems fixed on the good ship 'Am Fluchtig', with its somewhat motley crew of pilots.
These pilots do not partake in combat via the conventional weaponry you might be imagining but instead with massive mechanical exo-suits or 'mechs', which they use two unfamiliar terms to address;
Vijaiks, we believe to mean 'Warrior' - And the far more powerful but comparatively rare, Casnels or 'Officer'. We hypostatise these machines to be comparable to weapons of mass destruction by our standards, with powerful energy weaponry and shockingly advanced armour, along with the ability to manoeuvre freely in the depths of space.
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
These impressive creations originate from a material we consider to be wholly unique to the other world, supposedly having arrived when a meteor struck their formative home millions, if not billions, of years ago. Two metals seem to exist here, one a more numerous substance that is easier to work with and is the main resource used in creating the relatively high quantity of 'Vijaiks' and in constructing many warships and other weaponry. The other is far more uncommon and seems in fact, to be highly radioactive in some fashion, being attributed by that world’s own intellectuals as the cause of the mystical creatures of the ages gone by and the strange 'magic' like abilities of the 'Magi'.
This latter material is so impressive that it could be interpreted as what sparked the recent interplanetary conflicts of this galaxy in the first place!
A final point of note refers to the languages spoken in the footage you will soon see. It was at first and somewhat perplexingly believed that the people of the other world spoke our very own English and that when they referred to 'The Old Tounges', they referenced something very akin to Celtic and East Asian Dialects. However, it has since come to light that this is not the case. After realising one of the team members, a man from Brazil who spoke his native language first and English secondarily had heard the footage you will see in his native tongue. After this discovery, I allowed my husband, a man of Indian origin, to use the NTME, and he, too, heard it in his native language.
We are currently researching the cause of this and are very proud to have been allocated a specialist team of linguists who've been gathered to try and find discrepancies between what we hear and the actual languages of our world, to discern exactly what sort of language the UnderCurrent in truth speaks.
With that said, an event called 'The Great Homogenisation' also appears to have occurred, possibly in the living memory of the UnderCurrent's people: This event was spurned on by the political movements of their leaders to create one giant united nation, as such many old religions where declassified, cultures with old traditions as simple as naming their children with four or more words, were made conform to a standardised two name system similar to some of our own - Even the likes of military ranks were streamlined.
So while it does seem true that nearly all this world's inhabitants that we have encountered at least speak in what appears to be standard British English, it is, in fact, an entirely unknown form of speech that has been widely enforced within this world's cultures and is not in-actuality 'Our English'.
Now then, I am here required to remind you once more of your agreement to both the blackout clause and your acceptance of the disturbing nature of some of the following scenes.
Mentions of Violence, Mass Genocide, Drug Abuse and a variety of other topics have, as requested by the Foreign Sectary, been left in. This includes any deaths of individuals the UnderCurrent happened to be viewing at the time.
The images you will see have been heavily cut down. You've already been informed that the UnderCurrent appears to give us a concurrent sense of time with these people, and what it shows is largely out of our control. As such, the following multi-visual experience is a coalition of the lives we have been studying. It should give your most venerated selves the much-requested look into the world of the alien existence.
Once more, if any of this is to your disliking or you wish not to be burdened with the Secrets Act, then please remove the headset now.
If not, please press the Red Button to enter the full immersion sequence.
Thank you for your cooperation.
Yours Most Sincerely - Dr.Firen Shika
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