Chioma Esi

Chioma Esi
Biographical information
Species:	Human
Gender:	Female
Political and military information
Affiliation:	Ishtar Collective; Neomuna

Doctor Chioma Esi was a scientist and researcher who worked with her wife Dr. Maya Sundaresh at the Ishtar Collective on Venus during the Golden Age. During the Collapse Chioma and Maya were aboard Exodus Indigo and found safety on Neptune, discovering The Veil hidden there and founding the city of Neomuna.

Biography[edit]

Early life[edit]

Esi met Maya Sundaresh when they were both undergraduates. While Esi was deadlifting in their school's gym, Maya complained about how loud she was, leading to an argument about if deadlifting was even practical.^[1] Despite this contentious first meeting, the two eventually fell in love and got married, and were rarely apart for very long periods of time.^[2]

Working at the Ishtar Collective[edit]

Several decades later, Esi and Maya joined the Ishtar Collective on Venus to study the Vex ruins and constructs that had appeared on the planet after it was transformed by the Traveler. While working on a Vex code, it made the leap from simulation to reality, taking control of a utility Frame. Esi activated an alarm while Maya attempted to use a gravity grapple to pin the frame, but was unable to lift it. Esi took the grapple and was able to use it to pin the frame to the wall, saving their lives while also settling their debate about if deadlifting was practical.^[1]

Esi and her team eventually began working on an active Vex platform they dubbed specimen twelve. She was able to create a interface that allowed her to see what the Vex was thinking, and was alarmed one day to discover that it was perfectly simulating two-hundred twenty-seven copies of her team. Esi informed Maya, who shared her alarm and noted that for all philosophical intents and purposes, those copies were them. Esi agreed, and when Maya suggested calling a team meeting to inform the others, Esi let her know that Maya's copies had done the same thing.^[3]

They met with their fellow teammembers, Dr. Shim and Duane-McNiadh, and explained the situation to them. Duane-McNiadh was confused by what the issue was, and Esi explained that the Vex could torture their simulated counterparts, and that logically, they had to treat their pain as their own, with Maya noting it could torment them for eternity. Duane-Mcniadh objected that they had no obligation to their simulated copies and that they were not truly linked, angering Esi, but Shim interrupted and pointed out that given that there was only one true reality, they were likely just another simulation themselves. Esi, Maya, and Duane-McNiadh were stunned by this, and realized they were in more trouble than they originally believed.^[4]

Maya stated that she had a plan to free themselves from the Vex, but Esi worriedly pointed out that if she had one, then the Vex knew about it as well. Maya proposed that the had to act as if they were real and not simulated, and Esi noted that the simulated Maya's were saying the same thing. Her wife asked her to stop that, as it was not helping the situation, and suggested that they needed to make contact with something outside of the Vex's ability to simulate, like a Warmind. Duane-Mcniadh feared the Vex would torture or erase them if they tried, but Esi agreed with Maya given their lack of alternatives. After Shim pointed out that the Vex would react once they did so and that these could be their last moments of peace, Esi and Maya began kissing in case it was their last moments together.^[5]

With the Warmind's aid, Esi and her team were able to rescue all two-hundred twenty-seven of their simulated copies. The copies were saved into an interface, where they all agreed to be released into the Vex information network to explore it and attempt to aid the research team in understanding the Vex. With the Warmind's assistance, Esi and the others linked their minds to biomechanical proxies protected by firewalls so that they could safely take their simulated selves to the Vex Citadel and release them without endangering themselves. As their proxies walked through the Vex ruins, Duane-McNiadh wondered where the Vex and their ruins had come from, and Esi suggested that they may have always been there, waiting for a period of geological quiescence that would allow them to grow. Shim disagreed, believing they came from another timeline, as the ruins were far too old to have just emerged. Maya wondered what they could do with the power of the Vex Citadel once they understood it, and Esi noted that they may soon find out. The two then pondered if all their simulated copies would remain together as they explored the Vex network, or if some would drift apart and end their relationship, or perhaps die and leave the other alone. The group then reached the aperture they would use to send their copies into the network and began setting up their equipment, and as they did, Duane-McNiadh wondered if they could use the power of the Vex to change the past. Esi doubted it, suggesting that any effort to change the past would just create a loop that would cause those events to happen exactly as before. They then released their copies into the network and bid them farewell on their journey.^[6]

Despite their close call with the Vex mind, Esi and her team continued to study the Vex. One day she discovered that Maya had integrated radiolarian fluid into a ship she was working on as a coolant. Esi was concerned, but Maya noted that it would go to waste otherwise, and that they needed to understand everything about the Vex if they hoped to survive the creatures if they ever physically manifested. Despite her concerns, Esi gave her approval, noting that Maya's ideas were the ones that had saved them from the Vex simulation, and the two then celebrated Maya's work.^[7]

Working on Hyperion[edit]

Forty years after their work at the Ishtar Collective, Esi took a job on Hyperion, one the moons of Saturn, while Maya worked in a isolated lab in the city of Lhasa on Earth. Despite her schedule keeping her busy and Hyperion's distance from Earth, Esi wrote to Maya every week, although her wife could not respond due to the Lhasa lab's strict security measures.^[2]

The Collapse and the Veil[edit]

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During the Collapse, Chioma and the other researchers from Hyperion were evacuated and brought aboard the Exodus Indigo as the colony ship made its way out-system, in the process becoming reunited with Maya, who was already aboard. Shortly after, the ship was attacked by an unknown entity, which left a spear-like weapon embedded in the hull before being blasted away by the ship's point defense cannons. On Maya's recommendation, the ship then landed on Neptune's surface in pursuit of a Vex distress signal, in the hope that whatever was threatening the Vex would similarly deter the mysterious attackers that were pursuing the Indigo.

After arriving on Neptune, Chioma and the other Ishtar Collective researchers discovered the Veil, a paracausal entity, on the planet's surface. Their first contact with it resulted in the brain death of some of the members, including the Exos. Hoping to study the entity and make use of it, she and Maya worked on creating a prototype to interface with the Veil, with the system designed like an orchestra with a "conductor" directing a "symphony" of minds. Chioma had her concerns, given the potential deaths it could cause. Despite that, Maya insisted on going through with the experiment for the sake of survival.

Chioma's fears proved correct as the volunteers were rendered brain-dead during the experiments. While Chioma despaired at the losses, Maya only saw potential data points, causing a rift between the two. At some point, she'd discovered Maya reversed the design of the interface and hooked up the dead Exos to create a partial or full copy of her consciousness to one Exo in particular: Lakshmi-2.

Eventually, Maya would succeed in connecting the Veil to the Ishtar Collective researchers. Despite the success, Chioma could only feel disgusted at the lack of ethics and morality in the process of studying the entity, proclaiming that her wife was long dead when they landed on Neptune. And not only that, she felt worried for the generations of children who might learn about the truth happening there. At some point, she and the other researchers would find Maya dead in the "conductor's" chair, conducting an experiment for unknown reasons. She had Lakshmi-2, who was developmentally incomplete at the time, quarantined until they can figure out what to do with her.

Neomuna's founding and letting go[edit]

Many decades later, after Neomuna's founding and around the time of the Cloud Striders' foundation, Chioma found out that Rasputin was re-activated and that he had discovered the existence of the colony, classifying it as "Nefele Stronghold". Not wanting the Veil and Neomuna to be investigated by the Warmind and believing that the Veil was too much power for anyone, she sent Stargazer to wipe out any information related to Neomuna on Rasputin's network. Stargazer took Lakshmi-2 on their expedition, which satisfied Chioma as she wanted "it" out of her sight.

Fearing the potential catastrophe if the Veil was wielded by humanity, she had the facility built around the Veil closed. She also encrypted her logs as a desire for Neomuna's future generations to start with a clean slate, unhindered by the sins of the past.

During her final moments, Chioma reminisced about the time when she and Maya were trapped in a simulation by the Vex on Venus, remarking how even hell can feel like heaven. Wanting to reunite with the woman she loved, she made contact with the Vex and became assimilated into them, saying her goodbyes.

Legacy[edit]

Many decades later, Chioma Esi would be commemorated among the Neomuni populace as one of the city's founders, even having a district named after her surname; Esi Terminal. In addition, she and Maya are celebrated on Colony Day, a day of remembrance for the founders of Neomuna.

The encrypted logs that Chioma Esi left in the Veil Containment facility would later be discovered by Osiris and Nimbus. These logs revealed darker roots behind Neomuna's founding, the unethical experiments that were done to study the Veil, and the tragedy that befell Chioma and Maya in their experiences with the entity.

Chioma was so traumatized from this experience that she willingly allowed herself to be consumed by the Vex if it meant reuniting with a Vex-simulated copy of her wife, even stating in her final log that the hell she and Maya went through on Venus when a lone Vex unit simulated them felt like paradise.

Personality and traits[edit]