Hangovers and
Resurrections
A personal tale from the 292nd Eridanii New Year’s Gala
by Excutive Editor Anders Santoni
The Invitation
When your fellow Executive Editor comes into the
boardroom with 5 tickets to the “292nd Eridanii New
Year’s Gala” you jump on the chance to go. At least that
was my thinking when I leapt up and politely asked for
one. It was Abigail P., Executive Editor of Entertainment,
how had gotten them from a PRISM-loving Noble.
The two jumps over to Imperial Prime took me back
to my days as special reporter at the Imperial Palace.
Officially I had left that job a few months earlier, but the
need for the job was gone following the assassination,
and died completely when the last swan lay dead on
the parade grounds.
Fitting really that my return to the planet took me to
the neighbour of the former Cygnus Embassy (Now a
parking lot for the surrounding Embassies including
Eridanus).
But the past is done, and this is about the much
more recent past. My traveling companions on the trip
included Abigail (of course), Host of Moonbeam and
late night at PRISM Singer, Freelancer Morton Frederick
(he was actually on the clock), the rest of the PRISM del-
egation, myself, and well, Randy..
If you have watched any movies released in the last
few years, you have seen the Cowboy Hat wearing,
name-forgetting, horse-loving face belonging to mega-
star Randy Talladega. Now Randy might be talent but
beyond acting, his talent quickly runs dry. Talladega’s
schedule is filled to the brim with little free reign, yet
someone had forgot to book him during the Gala.
This meant that this event was the first time in two
years Mr. Talladega was completely free from any line
producer or agent breathing down his neck.
The trip over was mostly uneventful though it did
confirm the two things I heard through the grapevine
about Randy: he loves his horse and he likes a stiff
drink. He wouldn’t stop drinking nor talking about Molly
(the horse).
But I was going to the first noble gala in years and this
time I wasn’t working, so I remembered something I
heard at a previous gala:
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“I t ’ s a Gala. Worries
were to be left at the
d o o r w h e n y o u a r r i v e d .”
The first night
The night started fine. Doors were opened, and I got
to flaunt my new Trilliant Suit on the Red Carpet.
Sadly the bar didn’t open until after the opening speech
but that luckily wasn’t too long. So Randy and I kick-
started the party before the bartender showed up. Well
it was mostly Randy that decided to become bartender
until something else became more interesting. Also it
distracted him from the very low number of nobles that
knew of the famous actor Randy Talladega.
I took some time to catch up with Octavian Krane of
the Trilliant Ring. Krane had given me the suit for this
gala and Randy, being the ever jealous child also made
Octavian give him one, though I must give Krane that
Talladega is much better known than me and therefore
worth more in advertisement. And I did get some use-
fulness out of the accompanying tracking device Krane
handed to me.
The party was slowly getting more interesting as the
adjoining lounge was filling with nobles playing differ-
ent games. Among these Nobles the only I recognised
was Uncle Monty. Monty, full name Hourset Lyra
Sethis Montgomery, was engaged in a game House of
Illix, a game I never quite grasped as it always feels
like the rules change each time I watch it. (Though I
won’t make the easy comparison to noble court life.)
This was sadly also the last time I got to see Monty
before he got kidnapped.
It is always strange meeting someone you have read
about and only know that way, and meeting A/SGM
Jack “The Wall” Hewlett from Deathless was no differ-
ent. Apparently the Deathless rarely get PRISM Content
while on mission and Sergeant Hewlett was part of the
security detail for the gala, not that would stop him from
having fun while away from the battlefield. Unluckily
for me who was on Randy-duty, “The Wall’s” idea of fun
involved a flask of DVodka mixed with combat stims.
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 THE PRISM NETWORK
THE FULL SPECTRUM
Randy Talladega, never saying no to new things, took a
large gulp of the cocktail of DVodka and combat stims,
and it is here my gala-experience started its downward
spiral. As the liquor hit Talladega like a flechette from
a Reticulum mag pistol, nothing could prepare me for
how actually drunk, megastar Randy Talladega would
act.
Randy was all over the place, prompting Octavian
Krane to make a joke that if Randy died, Trilliant could
make me a clone. Which was starting to look like a good
idea in my stupor and general distaste of Mr. Talladega’s
antics.
I stayed at the bar for far too long considering I was
supposed to look after Mr. Cowboy Hat, but it wasn’t like
he go do stupid things, like run off looking for Abigail.
but it wasn’t like he go
do stupid things, like
run off looking for
A b ig a i l .
I don’t know what stupid things Talladega did when he
went to find Abigail, but I was actually enjoying myself
while he got detained by security. Thinking that Randy
had had his fun for the first night, I took Randy back
to the Hotel rooms provided by our generous hosts
and tugged him in, after what I think was his 3rd detox
that evening. Then I went for some much needed sleep,
knowing that the gala still had days to go with more
worrying about Mr. Talladega.
Mr. Talladega though was not one to stop
partying, and feeling the pull of liquor, went off to rejoin
the party.
Investigating the near death of Talladega
I caught up with Talladega in the hospital, find-
ing him quickly with the Trilliant tracking device
linked to Randy’s suit. Randy was still under care
and I couldn’t get the story straight from the
horse-owners mouth, but I managed to piece together
the following by asking around: Randy had returned to
the Eridanii Embassy to keep drinking and partying only
to at some point later fall or be thrown off the building,
got resurrected by a biopsionic, and finally transferred
to the hospital.
On my way back to the Embassy I got a message from
PRISM Legal, who “politely” ordered me to gather some
information of what happened to Randy so they can do
a threat assessment on the remaining talent, emphasis
on talent, as PRISM Legal doesn’t care about Executives
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like Abigail and myself. Might have something to do
with the stick up their asses, we have to remove every
few weeks.
Starting the search off by assessing the place where
Randy most likely stood upright last before having a
close encounter with the tiles below, i.e. at the Starlit
bar on the rooftop. Here I ran into Abigail and some
Deathless, among them was “The Wall” who at least
pushed me into this awful situation yesterday.
The wall didn’t enjoy me placing blame on him (and
the DVodka cocktail) when Randy had many detoxes
before his literal fall from grace. So the talk turned
into an heated argument with the Wall and “Wisp” over
who was responsible and how security are more wor-
ried about the kidnapped noble than an actual (failed)
murder. They did say that one of the Reticulum security
guys might have drone footage of the jump. They prom-
ised to help me look closer at the footage, but seeing as
I wasn’t paying the Deathless for being here, their word
carried little weight.
They were soon held back by some drama about “the
Wall” kissing a Noble from House Velan causing the
Velan to go through a psychic awakening. And their
Noble boyfriend (or something) got mad over it. Things
didn’t end with a duel sadly but without any resolution.
Which is lucky for “the Wall” as the Noble had full rights
to kill him even without going through a duel.
Not to be deterred by one incident with nobles, the
Deathless started to give DVodka with combat stims
to a poor young Reticulum Noble girl, that I would esti-
mate being around 17.
This continued until the new Imperial Flagship was
shown from the roof garden. A huge ship with an even
bigger gun, this thing looks like it was made in the golden
days to fight off Aliens for Humanity. Some Fornax
designer has been touching themselves for years to
this design. The videofeed from the ship just confirmed
the noble self-appreciation was at 110 percent.
I sadly lost my new and old Deathless friend during the
commotion and had no luck in finding the Reticulum
drone operator from the security team. Something
about being preoccupied by the kidnapping situation
and getting his drone back up to speed. This did allow
me time to me to return to Randy to see what the alco-
holic actor could remember.
Randy was rather postive
about the experience
Randy was rather positive about the experience and
thought he was now a Martyr which didn’t help his Ego.
He also kept talking about “The Wallace” as one of the
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 THE PRISM NETWORK
THE FULL SPECTRUM

people that were around when he fell along with a Crux
guy named Markgrass Crux Wake Pellican Ant. Though
“The Wallace” was likely The Wall, this Markgrass was
unknown to me. The Wall even helped Randy after
according to his own testimony, so I was sure that the
Wall wasn’t the pushee or that his contract was over
once Randy “died”.
Vaults and Vagrants
While I was out the embassy went into lockdown.
Something to do with the kidnapping of Monty, the older
Lyran noble I had watched playing House of Illix before
this whole thing went to shit. And it yet again kept me
from going over the tapes with my new information.
When the lockdown finally lifted I was feeling
much better and needed a really good meal, like
“only for Noble”-good, so my first stop was the
Purple seas, the in-embassy kitchen/restaurant.
I was planning to work a bit on this very article but was
interrupted when I noticed a Crux and the Eridanii host
frantically typing away on the same datapad. Listening
in, I gathered that the Crux was Oberster Inquisitor
Crux Linhard Amadeus, the head of security, and they
were negotiating the release of the kidnapped Horurset
Lyra Sethis Montgomery, aka Uncle Monty.
Apparently it was a success, just like my meal lived up
to its hype as well, and Old Man Monty would soon be
free agian.
Yet my search would have to wait until the security
team wasn’t preoccupied so I had plenty of time to enjoy
my meal and some casual conversation with Abigail.
Which was cut short when the pirates went for the
vault. My old reporter instincts got the best of me as I
pulled Abigail with me towards the sound of flechettes
impacting marble.
A Flashbang, some hand to hand combat, a few mono-
blades and Electric nets, and plenty of guns later, a
Crux with a stick up his butt dragged me away from the
scene. Just like 3198. And this time the Crux still haven’t
learn the laws on press freedom. Law people just don’t
like it when you quote the rules at them when they are
wrong.
The Hangover
The last day went by fairly quiet, besides the minor
provocations suchs as a fake fireworks show from
“A.C.R.E.” congratulating the election of a Fornax
Emperox. Which was silly in every way. A.C.R.E. doesn’t
really use fireworks to celebrate anything as it is a waste
of money, that is besides the point of the election not
even having been started yet.
I decided that the last thing I wanted to do was to
mess with the group of angsty Nobles and hotheaded
Deathless that are the security detachment. Besides
Legal had by this point accepted that Randy was likely
a target of a Vagrant hit. I didn’t want to say anything
to contest this as my patience was gone since I col-
lected Mr. Talladega from the security on the first night.
Compounding this, was the response from the security
when a protest happened on the parking lot that covers
the foundation of the old Cygnus Embassy. Let’s just say
the protesters found a good reason to leave, quickly.
If it was Sergeant Hewlett aka “the Wall”, that pushed
Randy Talladega, then justice was now close to
untouchable. He was, last I heard, engaged to the young
Reticulum gal he was drinking with the other day.
As I am writing this I am sitting in Purple Seas enjoying
the last noble cuisine not paid for out of my pocket.
PRISM Legal knew from the start that any Noble assail-
ant would be legally untouchable, even more so if it wa
a Crux.
Here at the end I want to remind you, my dear
reader, what I heard at my first gala: “It’s a Gala.
Worries were to be left at the door when you arrived”
and I am leaving my wor-
ries from this gala at the
door when I leave.

Luckily I made a friend of a Deathless named “WISP”

who let me and Abigail get some great footage of the
crime scene while all the bears were out looking for the
stolen honey pot.
Meanwhile, the last Vagrant escaped on the roof and
I decided to drown out old demons and unwind in the
most PRISM way, with alcohol. Shortly after I am joined
by another shaken party-goer from house Serpens
along with Abigail. After a bit of small talk, I go to upload
the footage for transfer to the local branch of PRISM so
they can edit a newsreel together.

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