Mheilen is a strange, strange beast. He's really only a head in a box. Alive and humanish. I think he used to be a man... that's what he's saying and what a lot of people are believing. He looks like a man that starts at the top and ends right above the collar bone, all stuffed into a life support crate with transparent front and side windows - about the size of an obese briefcase. He caught something nasty a few systems away, apparently the milk-yellow flesh around the base of his neck is normal at this stage of infection.

I guess I'll start with a bit of context. Sentience as we know it is in grave danger of total cessation for the second time. We've actually just found this out a few days ago, and still, nobody seems to care all that much. Weird. The story is, this guy from earth hitched a merchant rig to outer New New Jersey a couple of years back and disappeared into a heathen zone. Different people think different things about whether he was a missionary or a smuggler. Apparently everyone in the Ministry figured he was smuggler, otherwise they probably wouldn't have sent an armed recovery battalion forty two strong after him. Even for a smuggler, that's a pretty ridiculous fleet. He must have been one hell of a guy.

Anyway, nobody ever found him, and the lack of New New Jerseyian MOCI (Ministry of Civil Improvements) Acolytes registering over the wormwork would tend to prove he wasn't doing much in the way of converting lost souls in the first place. So then Mheilen shows up in orbit a few weeks ago claiming he's the remnants of a human smuggler and making some awful strange demands. Well, one awful strange demand anyway. A plain looking girl. He says he's going to eat her.

The MOCI would have just irradiated his ass out of existence if he wasn't a huge NBC (Nuclear, Biological, Chemical) threat. The problem is that standard issue T-GAP (Trans-Galactic Anti-Parasitics) uses lumi tech, the same thing that all modern weapons systems are based off of and have been for decades. If Mheilen is still beaming brightly on a lumi scan, which he is, and he's still teeming with parasites, MOCI weapons probably aren't going to cut it. Bringing down his vessel with the PPA (Peoples Protection Apparatus) would be like shooting a balloon full of airborne synthrax with a kinetic rifle.

There's politics too. What we normally refer to as the MOCI or the Ministry is actually the AAMOCI, the Administrative Arm. In the absence of any huge spiritual crisis (may Sol regard us eternally) the AA have assumed majority control for almost 230 years. In fact, it's been so long since anyone has even seen the Conduit (may Sol regard Him eternally), he's become more of a legend than the worlds best friend he was to our great great grandparents. He's been frozen solid for the better part of 2 centuries now, and for the first time since the last great crisis (may Sol regard us eternally), the Watchers are demanding that he be thawed out and put to good use.

Of course the AA isn't quite sure this is a great idea. They have gotten pretty accustomed to the boundless resources and special privileges allotted to those in the sacred service of the Ministry (may Sol regard them eternally).

So anyway, the Watchers, as always, have gotten their way, and the Conduit (may Sol regard Him eternally) is to be woken. So that pretty much brings you up to speed. It's pretty exciting - even though it's scary and whatnot. I mean, none of us have ever seen the Conduit, (may Sol regard Him eternally), much less heard any direct revelations. In a few hours it'll be middle night, that's when they'll bring him back.

Meanwhile, Mheilen is effortlessly tracking a lazy ellipse around earth with no fear of a tactical maneuver on the MOCI end, just waiting to release a special kind of death on us. He is also preparing to eat a plain girl, the bastard.