“For that matter, how did they infiltrate Caelus so thoroughly in the first place?” Rian said, eyeing the Twi’lek in the other chair across from him.

Vodo shrugged. “I don’t have any sources inside the Collective, and neither did the SRI field operatives I got when you and Erinyes reorganised everything. Either way, the important part right now is figuring out what the Collective’s up to. We took the messages Justinios decrypted and asked Quejo and Arvalis to interrogate the prisoners about them. They’re still working, but we found out that the Collective’s been getting their hooks into top political and military leaders—including the Caelus Council.”

Rian frowned. “And Ceyra’s– er, Chancellor Ky’Lian’s head of security. It sounds like the Collective is trying to stage a coup.”

Welcome to the Taldryan Proconsul report for November 2019.

Clan Membership News

• Congrats to Justinios on his promotion to EQ3!
• Congrats to Dev'err Malren on his promotion to JM2!
• Congrats to Justinios again on his appointment to Fist of the Brotherhood! We'll miss you, JD.
• Shout-out to Bale, Cymbre, Dev'err, JD, Nihlus, and Raistline for their Crescents from various competitions, both Clan and DB-wide, since my last report.
• Keep your eyes peeled for an upcoming announcement about a leadership opening in Taldryan. The posting will be open to the entire DB.

Competition Results

The Unsteady Ground: Prelude fiction competition is now closed, and I'd like to start by saying a big thank-you to everyone who participated. Out of twenty-five people who subscribed, we had a total of thirteen participants from five different Clans, which was a pretty fantastic turnout—and since we broke the ten-entry mark, the winners get upgraded Clusters!

Congratulations to Zentru'la Palpatine, Bale Andros, and Nihlus Vexrii on taking the top three places, and well done to everyone who participated.

New Competition: Unsteady Ground, Phase 1

Those of you who read Taldryan's entry in the recent Clan Updates will know two things: all is not well in the Caelus System, and I'm absolutely shameless about title-dropping competitions. The fiction blurb at the beginning of this report, and the story update it came from, give more insight into exactly what the dastardly Collective is doing to bring the fight to Taldryan in their own backyard. Ladies and gentlemen, I present: Unsteady Ground.

Edit: This competition is open to the entire DB.

The first phase of Unsteady Ground will run from November 18 to December 16, and will feature four events: fiction (including space-friendly prompts!), gaming, graphics, and Flash gaming. The second phase will run early in the new year, after we've all had a chance to fangasm over Rise of Skywalker and deal with the holiday season. In addition to the various Crescents and Clusters for individual events, I will be tracking participation across the entire Unsteady Ground series, and will be handing out extra shinies to the top-three overall participants at the end.

A note on upcoming events: I'm considering including multiplayer fiction (either co-op or run-on) in the second phase of the comp. If you are interested in doing a co-op fiction event with no team restrictions based on Clan membership during Phase 2, leave a comment here saying so. Please do that even if you e-mail or PM me about it, so I don't lose your name by accident.

That's all for this month's report. Expect to see a fiction update drop when Unsteady Ground opens, and don't forget to watch for the leadership opening Soon™. See you next time!