The highly talented but extremely green Zionite operative Neurophyte was sent on a routine mission to investigate some strange energy fluctuations in a Machine-controlled area in the Real. The mission soon become much more than routine, however, as she happened upon some extremely sensitive information relating to the Red-Eyed Agents. Neurophyte, unable to contact her crew from her location, jacked recklessly into the Matrix from a rudimentary port she discovered in the area in an attempt to transmit her findings quickly.

Unfortunately the port Neurophyte utilized was extremely old and unstable, and had not been upgraded with the new emergency jack-out protocols. Somehow in the transition the information she had recovered intermingled itself with her RSI, causing a malformation of her integral code - and what was more, she could not jack out again. In pain and gradually feeling herself deteriorate, Neurophyte desperately attempted contact with other operatives, hoping that someone would understand her garbled communications and find her.

Faced with a need to move fast and talk its way out of most of its problems, Zion most needed a person able to handle the pressures of being the first hovercraft captain after the Truce. This new captain needed to be able to talk when talk was needed, but fight hard when the going got tough. With the resurrection of the Novalis, now named by her captain Novalis II, came the promotion of a promising young redpill, Sawayaka

Sawayaka found herself in a unique situation. Both the Machines and Exiles placed unusual emphasis on her appointment. Considered the forerunner of a new era, Sawayaka and her crew became more than the first new hovercraft… they became a symbol of the new Zion emerging from war.

Combining the roles of diplomats, soldiers, and even entertainers, the crew of the Novalis II has emerged from these critical first months ready to help Zion and humanity find their way.

Mission completion-preventing bugs

Every major patch so far has had fixes for mission-blocking bugs and the next one is no exception. Sometimes we have a single issue that causes problems in many missions, which means one fix makes a big difference. Sometimes each issue is very specific--especially on storyline missions--which means the fixes aren't as noticeable. There is a fairly long list of mission fixes in the next large patch as well, and we'll keep making them as they come up.

:: Items that increase maximum buffer space now work correctly.
:: Ignore Pain has a new sound effect.

:: Morpheus will no longer welcome new redpills to the Matrix.
:: Bug causing some mission objects to not work properly has been fixed.

:: The first of three new Disciplines is now available for testing by external players. Zen Master, an addition to the Operative tree, will be joined in the future by the Citadel Coder and Trojan Horse.
:: Punishing Blows can now be activated both in or out of Interlock combat.
:: All Disguise Tools now list their required minimum levels.
:: Stealth Countermeasures now only disrupts the stealth Abilities of hostile characters.
:: Equations for opening locks and hacking computers have been adjusted to make raising those Abilities worthwhile.
:: Backup NPCs now respond to alarms and security cameras.
:: Players can now use /afk to mark themselves as away from their keyboards.
:: Players now get a text message when their PvP flags are turned on or off.
:: Ranged Combat Tactics no longer give a bonus to dodge rolls.
:: PvP flags no longer turn off while the character is involved in combat.
:: Antibiotics now work like a 90-second Negative Condition Sweep. Each has a percent chance to remove negative effects (including Stun and Pacify) that is checked every 5 seconds while active.
:: Weapon loaded on the Close Combat shortcut button now always appears when the button is used to engage in combat.
:: Characters successfully withdrawing from Interlock are now immune to being drawn back in for 5 seconds after withdrawing.
:: Multi-on-one Interlock now works correctly with more than 3 players involved.
:: Contacts now show whether they have available missions or not on the Contacts panel.