Syne and Son of Jissara Core

[Yvenne]

Warning: Phaedra II spoilers ahead!!!

I just fought the mega varmint and was about to finish the mini dungeon, and the option to give the core to her comes up, but I'm still not sure, like at all.

Let's chart Jissara's course, from logs, starting with the eve of the 14th Great Planet Rush, when the Son of Jissara has been commissioned by the Akkadi Research and Development Group to survey a group of seven select planets as potential points of interest to their science department.

1. Their first planet was DeLuca VII, where Vhess experienced 'an ordeal', before moving to the second planet on their list, Nyphea, and this is also when we find out Phaedra is the third planet on their list.
2. They land on Nyphea, forest biome with tauric sapient natives and primitive bow-and-arrow technology, the away team gets brainwashed with pheromonal mind control agents, and the captain gets kidnapped and inducted into a local priestess's harem. During the rescue operation, they find an underground compartment below the temple he was housed in, with a spaceship dated at least 1000 years prior, and because it is in the frontier of UGC space, this naturally raises questions about who or what is out there in fringe space, that likely are technologically superior now if not then. Vhess made an A.I. to scrape the ship's data for analysis later. I'm sort of getting Reapers from Mass Effect type vibes from the whole thing.
3. They land on the third planet on their list, Phaedra, after noting the glass war some 100 or so years ago, and satellites implying the civilizations on the ground did manage to achieve space age, however briefly or not, before they nuked their save file on the tech tree, so to speak, and had no autosaves, for shame. They land near a settlement of hyraxi and begin trades, after initially making contact with local tribes from emergency backup radios, which I assume uses the Q-COMM network which is mentioned later by Vhess, and that "Someone, or something, is running a dark Q-COMM network separated from the public net. There’s no way to breach it without a hardwire connection to a port, but the reverse isn’t necessarily true. We’ve got so many Q-COMM devices running in the science department alone, it’s like hanging out a ‘please hack me’ sign to anybody who knows their way around EWS. There’s already evidence that our flight systems have been probed by an outside source. I need to tell the captain before it’s too late!"
   
   That was the last ship log, at least we can hope most of the crew wasn't on board when whatever happened, happened. There's evidence of a missile impacting the captain's quarters, and of course the mauled half of a body that resembles Syne.

Then let's look at who we know to be on the Son of Jissara:

• Captain Leoric
  Kaithrit or possibly leonine origin.
  
• Commander Kiara Dorna
  From her family's warp field institute. We know the Ausari developed warp gates so we can surmise her species, and the Steele Tech probe arrived here with the warp gate, before the glass war, chronologically.
  
• M'Tera Vhess
  A.I. Specialist formerly working for KihaCorp, and "the only non-ausar" on the crew other than the captain himelf, by his own admission. Of course, for the sake of Syne's argument, the crew might not consider synthetics as part of the crew. Notably, she has a "personal mark of excellence from Kiha herself" and is subbing in for the residential computers expert who was out on maternity leave, and only joined them for this one tour.
  
• All Ausar female crew (excl. above)
  "The native race, the dhrisa, have proven... remarkably accommodating to my fully female crew, but staunchly refused to so much as speak to myself, Commander Dorna, or crewman Vhess" and this was to do with them being "‘breeders’ - that is, those of us with breeding poles between our legs". So based on this, we know that, other than the commander, all others are biologically fully female and not hermaphroditic, as is the case with Kiara or Vhess, who are the only crewmates to have phalluses at this point in time in the tour, in their crew, other than the captain himself.
  
• Doctor Gyse

Now let's look at some more notable snippets of text, whether it be how the ship is described, or things Syne says.

• "A captain’s chair that looks like a pharaoh’s throne with all the gilding adorning it"
  Okay, I can sort of see how synthetic sapient sexbots could go unacknowledged or at least, not referred to by name and just collectively referred to as part of the all female crew harem, if you're also the type to gild your captain's seat into a throne. I'm not against it, it might not be totally garish like in my head, but to have your seat of authority in gold demarcating you from the rest of the crew, kind of a red flag. Syne gets that one.
  
  
• "This room contains the ship’s secured equipment lockers, its computer servers, and a particularly large dog crate. You’ve already taken the computer core from the server rack."
  Well, I guess we know where the varmint came from? One would think though, that it would do more damage to the server room when it's housed in here with all this silicone and circuitry, when freed, before going out to start chewing on the ship's innards.
  
  
• "The lower half of a KihaCorp gynoid’s body is draped over the edge, her legs skewed at an impossible angle and bent backwards over the lip." and the PC dialogue "And I saw another gynoid that looked just like you inside, torn up by that creature.” (referring to Syne)
  Fun fact: Syne is a Gryvain gynoid and has the hermaphroditic parts to show for it. AKA, she has a 'breeding pole'. Her 'twin' found on the crash site, looking similar and thus also a Gryvain model, must as well. We know it's not a latter modification because of the clone. I don't believe the Dhrisa would know the difference between an organic and a gynoid, or that there even would be a functionally meaningful difference to a bow-and-arrow culture. Conclusion: Syne and that unknown gynoid can't possibly have been in the ship when they landed on Nyphea, without being mentioned as an exception, like the three that stayed on the ship.
  
  
• (Syne, when asked about the data in the core) “Ah, the ancient starship. Fascinating, isn’t it, knowing there are more advanced species somewhere out there than even your own? Or is it frightening?” She laughs, tapping her chin. “Who’s to say. Either way, that information is very important, as you can imagine. Those in power within the Confederacy should know what might be lurking out beyond their borders, no?”
  Well, she does, for some reason, know what's on the core. I'd imagine she should, that's the only thing she's shown concern for so far. She hasn't talked about anybody in the crew, hasn't shown any concern for other possible survivors or their whereabouts (although if how she implies she was treated by her captain is true, some bitterness is understandable), and it is interesting to say 'their' borders when referencing to Confederacy space if you're a Confederate citizen, because you'd implicitly consider if 'our borders', but again, an unhappy gynoid not feeling in place with the confederation is not on its own entirely suspicious. Or of course, it could be interpreted as her specifically talking about those in power in the confederacy controlling it and by extension its borders, is technically 'theirs' and it would be more of an interest to them than the average layperson if there's a super advanced civilization out in the fringes of space.
  
  
• “Until then, take care out here. It’s an awfully dangerous wasteland these days.”
  Oh yeah? I wonder when it started being dangerous? Was it when the nuclear war started? Was it when everything got glassed and the surface became irradiated? Was it when an AI decided to make a religion and start hoarding up old era tech and practicing trickle-down scienconomics? "these days" is weird to add if you haven't been here long enough to see anything but a dangerous wasteland...
  
  
• "“I saw some of the captain’s log,” you tell her. “He never mentioned you."" and "Mmm? Does that surprise you, Captain - do you speak of your own sentient masturbatory aids when you’re setting down your official records; is it unusual to own multiple gynoids if you can afford them? Hm, I’m well acquainted with a wealthy executrix who has a whole harem of companion A.I.s modelled after every race in the Confederacy, just for variety. Her leithan catamite was custom-made by Kiha herself, with an ass that could shape diamonds and legs like a show-pony. Don’t read too much into a wealthy man or woman’s taste in sex-bots, Captain. We’re more like lingerie than a lifestyle: something private, just for yourself and your partners to enjoy. At least, that’s the way most people treat us."
  I feel it's very manipulative and evoking pity, how self deprecating she's being, referring to herself as a sentient 'masturbatory aid' when I don't think most pleasure bots are sapient, even the new V-KO maid lines don't have this level of eloquence and self awareness. Let's not even get into the literal sex slaves of Carver and the like, yeah it's real sad for you but it's par on course for literally everything in the whole galaxy, boo hoo. Let's assume that is how most people treat them, and not just the wealthy exectrices that are her friends, apparently, who are collecting entire production lines of robots like LaBuBus. How on EarthPhaedra II, is a KihaCorp gynoid stranded on an irradiated frontier planet, and also talks about being well acquainted, presently, with a wealthy executrix with a harem of companion A.I.s? "We’re more like lingerie than a lifestyle" - again, it comes back to, who owns multiple pairs of the same set of lingerie? Syne on one hand talks about multiple bots for variety, when talked to about an identical looking half body in the ship. Twin thing, maybe that's just what the captain was into, but it doesn't add up. Why is a gynoid pleasure bot even acquainted with a wealthy executrix?
  
  (Also, this is the second mention of Kiha during this event, founder of KihaCorp, just a bit strange, feels like foreshadowing. Vhess is an AI specialist with a mark of excellence from Kiha herself according to the logs, and now Syne is talking about Kiha custom made gynoids. But still, it's centred around A.I.)
  

Of course, all this begs the question, is she a gynoid bot at all, is she even part of the crew, at any point?

I don't think so, based on the above evidence gathered, so the question remains, who is she? It's one of the below five I feel (well, four, with the last being a catch-all):

• She is who she claims to be and I'm wrong
  Could be. It could be that all the oddities I found could be explained away, that the cat femboy captain of the Son of Jissara was just very organo-supremacist and actively avoided all mentions of synthetic gynoids on board, even when it leaves the logs partially incomplete and contradicting, such as about 3 being left on the ship during the Nyphea fertility ritual event, or describing the rest of the crew other than himself and the beta Dzaan Vhess, as all being female Ausari, and this interpretation relies on Leoric not even considering the gynoids as sapient individuals, and just 'masturbatory aids' as Syne claims. It doesn't make sense. If not by name, you would think, he would say something like "the 3 of us, and 2 gynoids with breeding pole analogues" or something even if nonspecific. You would have to actively go out of your way not to mention them in such a specific scenario, and I don't think this captain if anything, was shy about sex or would be embarrassed about the idea of keeping sexbots if they are universally accepted as masturbatory aid relief like Syne wants you to believe. You would think he'd just casually mention it, in passing or something.
  
  
• She is Evermind
  Also possible. This would explain how she knew ahead of time what would be on the computer bead because pretty sure she ran the dark Q-COMM and breached their firewalls, but it doesn't explain why she would send me, and not herself or one of her whole veritable army of fanatical zealots that won't ask questions and are armed with glass era tech from the vault and such.
  
  
• She is the A.I. Vhess made to scrape the ancient ship's data back on Nyphea, and somehow got a hold of a gynoid body.
  Well, Vhess was quite gifted with AI. Maybe it got out of control. It would explain better than Evermind though, she wouldn't have as many resources at her disposal.
  
  
• She is Kiha
  KihaCorp is named after the CoC draconic salamander girl Kiha. KihaCorp specializes in A.I. manufacturing - and I personally believe Kiha is also an A.I. or digitized uploaded organic lifeform that straddles the line between the two. Syne happens to be a Gryvain gynoid. Gryvains are dragons. We still can't explain what the first gryvain body was doing in the ship. My theory? She's a hivemind of gryvain gynoids, and it's a case of multiple bodies one mind, or connected separate instances. The first body was her first attempt to recover the core, after the ship crash, and the now-mega varmint got to her silicone body so she needed to find someone else.
  
  
• She is something else, definitely A.I., likely Phaedran origin.
  "You flesh and blood things are all the same in the end, consumed by greed and fear!" ... "Such a sudden change... “Who are you, really?” The gynoid gives you a dangerous glare. “Someone better not trifled with. Go then. Take the core, for whatever good it will do you. But leave Phaedra in peace; this planet does not need more of your kind to exploit it, as you have done to me.”

Honestly, this whole thing started because I really didn't like Syne's attitude. Like, she's actively manipulating me here, feeding me breadcrumbs of information, sending me into danger, and her story doesn't add up. I also don't like how I can't like, copy the contents of the core as a Tech Specialist or something, or just beam it to Steele Tech AND hand her the core. Also, a 100k credit reward for finding a new alien spacefaring civilization that predates all of UGC? Um, okay, just seems a bit unbalanced. Like, missing a zero maybe??

"I knew it was a mistake to trust you, but I thought... thought you somehow might be different. I won’t make the same mistake twice.” - This really triggered me lol. Wow, thanks for your valuable opinion, random woman who sent me into life threatening danger with no actual reward and complaining when I choose to keep my spoils. I'm totally not feeling vindictive or anything~

Okay, just a bit. I don't know, I'm kind of conflicted on her honestly, and what to do here, whether to give the core or not. I'm normally a Nice Steele! I don't even want a reward most of the time to do something good, but here I feel like I'm getting tricked, or passing up on something really significant, and the way she gets so mad if I decide to keep it, could read either way as righteous indignation (for doing literally nothing, she just pointed me here, I did all the work, how is that "exploitation"? I didn't take payment in advance, she can keep that. There was no transaction or contractual obligation for me to follow through and hand it to her), or it could read as being mad she failed to hoodwink me and is showing a falsity of righteous indignation as well as embarrassment and anger for having been caught in the duplicity, maybe. But then she does say stuff like she's been betrayed by organics before, but also stuff that shows she really wasn't who she claimed to be earlier.

If she is who she claims to be, I have absolutely no issue with handing over the computer core, but I think a tech specialist should be able to duplicate the contents. If she isn't, I don't like being tricked, and it's too valuable a thing when normally I might let a trick slide. Sure, the 'breeding rod' is tempting and I guess her hermaphroditic nature is meant to appeal to a broad player base, but there's no shortage of lewdery in the galaxy or even the planet, she really should have had better bargaining chips than like, something I could find probably in a couple steps in literally any direction. Now, if 'she' was instead a suave dom of a man, and he straightforwardly just asked me to do it, I'd hand it over, I'm glad I could help Daddy! I mean what. You heard nothing.

What do y'all think? I'd love to hear your thoughts!