- - -
POV: Ma'chello.
Once again, I shoved the minerals into the scanner, and once again, the results were completely unchanged.
Two days prior, one of my students had brought me the chemical makeup of various minerals discovered on Kaelastrum. He spent nearly two weeks testing the tensile strength of various minerals .
While the entire system that Kaelastrum was in lacked significant quantities of naturally occurring transactinide elements, it had high quantities of metal-heavy minerals. That had been unusual, sure, but not something that we'd considered looking into.
Then, one of my students had spent two weeks stress testing the various metals of the world and began comparing their actual strength to their expected strength. What he found flabbergasted him for two weeks; the strength of minerals on Kaelastrum was much greater than the strength of similar alloys on other worlds.
And this wasn't by a few percentage points; this was orders of magnitude of difference. It had taken me a day to confirm his findings. I had taken time away from working on the crystal grower, but it was all worth it.
During my investigations, I had identified some very interesting results. The first was a collection of metallic alloys and polymers that seemed to emulate living proteins and systems to a tee. When properly controlled, these polymers would be set into a form which they would then always try to return to, but I knew of this material already; Living Metal.
According to Arthur, Living Metal was used heavily by the Cybrex during the construction of their ringworlds.
Now, the really interesting thing was the other material. From its weight, I believed it to be platinum or gold; it was only after several hours of work that I realized it was a novel element.
As a material, it was unlike anything I'd ever seen. Under certain conditions, all the atoms of this material would become stationary with respect to each other, even over significant distances. Of course, enough force would still cause the structure to shift, but the amount of energy required would be massive.
I immediately brought my findings to Arthur to get him to have a look at them. As he looked at my findings and then through a microscope, he didn't waste any time. "I need more samples."
- - -
POV: Michael Dresden. Camelot System, 18 light years from the Wotan System.
I stood behind the pilot of the lead Al'kesh as he began the countdown. "Exiting hyperspace in 3, 2, 1."
With a whoosh, we were out of hyperspace and at the approximate calculated location of Camelot Command. I turned to the copilot and waited for their report. "We're picking up the naval beacon."
I nodded. "Send the identification codes and wait for a response."
A few seconds passed. "Codes have been sent. Waiting for confirmation– confirmation received. We're clear for standard entry."
"We're to be escorted to base by a pair of Voidseeker drones," the pilot spoke, a hint of surprise filling his voice.
I raised an eyebrow. Dropship entry was pretty standard with an escort, but I hadn't heard of automated systems following that protocol of their own authority before. "Confirm it. Reduce acceleration to 1G."
The pilot did as instructed, and the flight of three Al'kesh continued on towards the asteroid that was Camelot Command. At this distance, when travelling at only 1G of acceleration, it would take a bit over two hours to reach the site. A little more than ten minutes later, a pair of small aerospace fighters arrived from a nearby asteroid. Within thirty minutes, they were flying in formation with the three Al'kesh from my expedition.
I had the sensors look over at the fighters and was unsurprised by what I found. They were the standard Mark 39 Voidseeker Drones. Based on the chassis of the Stingray Medium aerospace fighters, but where the cockpit would normally be had been smoothed out against the hull of the fighter.
The fighters stayed in formation all the way to the station. A standard arrival burn was unfortunately at 1G, and we didn't want to spook the station's AI, so we had to spend several hours burning towards the outpost.
As we entered within a hundred thousand kilometers, the subspace sensors finally began getting high-fidelity scans of the structure. It was a single rocky planetoid spinning alone in the depths of space. Its equator was covered in a massive ring of concrete and steel. The only sign of the station's capital-grade dry dock was the massive door, easily large enough for any Star League vessel ever designed to enter.
According to the subspace sensors, the tunnel led several kilometers into the planetoid before revealing a pressurized internal working area. Inside were 24 Capital Grade drydocks, alongside a further twelve smaller docks. This was alongside the extensive internal tunnels, and what looked to be habitation blocks.
We weren't heading for those; we were aiming for the several dozen dropship landing pads on the northern pole. Each of our three Al'kesh gently touched down. Both of the Voidseeker drones pulled back and disappeared into the nearby asteroid belt. We'd have to call them all back to base once the facility had been secured; Arthur would certainly be interested in examining them.
All three of our docking pads began to slowly lower into the ground. As the top of the Al'kesh passed into the ground, a blast door closed over us, and we finally got to see the barest extent of an SLDF base's infrastructure; each of the pads sat on a set of rails and could traverse to any location connected via these rails. This system significantly reduced the difficulty of transporting dropships and allowed for significantly more landing capacity.
The pads carried the Al'kesh through several tunnels until we arrived at a standard DropShip repair hangar. There were dozens of alcoves, each of which, when fully operational, could make autonomous repairs to a dropship. I could see several tracks that led even further into the extensive facility. We'd have to get a full map of the site later.
I turned to the copilot. "What's the status of the atmosphere?"
He shook his head. "It's a full vacuum. We're pretty close to the surface. I'd guess there was a strike somewhere, and it produced a breach."
I nodded and pulled out my radio. "Alright everyone. Full vacuum suit. We'll begin with securing the hangar."
I looked at the copilot once more. "Show me where the nearest air pocket is."
According to his scans, there was one just a couple hundred meters away. Ten minutes later, the teams from the other two Al'kesh were securing the hangar and checking for leaks, while my team and I began the short trek to the nearby pressurized area.
We had all the access codes we'd need, so getting into the facility wasn't an issue. Even better, the first site we discovered was the living quarters for engineers. Luckily, the air was still breathable, and the water was still flowing. There was even an indoor garden that had been left alone for several hundred years. Even more surprising, it was still receiving water, air, and light, which had led to the entire garden becoming overgrown.
That would be something to worry about later. After confirming that the area was secure and that there was enough room, we had the Stargate unloaded and carefully carted over, alongside the DHD.
After a few tests to ensure everything was secured, I grabbed the Asgard communication stone and sent the all clear message. Seconds later, the Stargate dialed. Within moments, dozens of soldiers were pouring out of the gate. Following behind the first group, James came through.
We both saluted, and I nodded. "We've secured the immediate area. This DropShip repair facility has been depressurized, so we'll need a repair team."
James nodded. "We'll need to secure the rest of the site before we get to that. Anything else?"
"Nothing. Initial scans show the facility to be completely abandoned. No one's been here since we left."
James turned back and gestured for one soldier to walk forward. "Secure the three levels below us. Check for any material at all. Unless someone forgot something as they were leaving, all the personal quarters should be empty."
- - -
Over the next two days, we continued securing the facility. Camelot Command was more than just a space station; it was a city, capable of comfortably housing a million individuals, though it didn't have nearly that much dedicated housing. Most of the internal space was dedicated to now-empty warehouses and factories. Many of the factories had been disassembled and removed, and most of the warehouses had been cleared out.
That said, there were still several manufacturing lines in decent order. Namely, a few of the auto-cannon ammunition and capital grade missile production lines, which certainly explained where the Mark 39 drones had been getting their ammunition.
What was more interesting was that all of the drone repair depots had been heavily damaged. In fact, there were nearly 120 of the drones just sitting in a hangar waiting for repairs. The only conclusion we could come to was that there was a secondary operating base that we would have to search for.
While we were taking Camelot Command, level by level, the team that was sent to New Dallas reached their destination.
- - -
POV: Kaela Arden. In orbit of New Dallas II.
With a whoosh, we exited hyperspace, and I finally relaxed. The New Dallas system was about 14.9 light-years from the Connaught system, where the nearest HPG was active. The agreed upon safe distance was 15 light years, though it was more accurate to call that the maximum range of the interference, the specific range depended on how long the facility had been running, the periodicity for which it is activated, and even the effects of gravity.
Not that there wasn't a chance of some catastrophically unlucky event occurring; subspace interference could theoretically spike and swallow a ship travelling through hyperspace at the edge of the interference zone.
We had been travelling through the edge of the zone, and I was very relieved to be done with it. Under normal circumstances, hyperspace was a calm deep blue; when we had entered the interference area, it had shifted from a gentle blue to purple, and then to a deep, bloody red. The experience was terrifying and completely unlike anything I had seen before.
I took a moment to calm my nerves and then turned to Re'vok sitting in the pilot's seat. "What do we see?"
He was silent for a moment. "Three major continents. Three sets of large underground structures. A few dozen abandoned settlements."
I pursed my lips. "There should be some sort of orbital station, either here or at the zenith or nadir points."
Re'vok simply continued to work through the scans. "Give me a few moments." It was five minutes later before he continued. "I don't know for sure, but I'm detecting a few potential objects."
He showed me the display of the system. "I have one object here in orbit of New Dallas." He zoomed in on New Dallas and highlighted an object in a polar orbit around the world.
"Next, we have several artificial objects in the same orbit." These were all much smaller objects, each of them about the size of a fighter.
Finally, he pulled out of the system, almost a full light year out, in fact, and highlighted a point. "That…" he paused for effect, "is a partially charged KF drive core."
I narrowed my eyes. "We'll have to check it out later –"
Re'vok shook his head. "That's not an option; it's too close to Connaught."
I winced. "Alright. Mark it down. Someone will come back to check it out eventually."
I grabbed my radio. "This is team lead. We'll be going to examine the orbital structure. You two split up that debris. I have a feeling that it will just be large pieces of scrap, but it's worth checking out either way."
I nodded to Re'vok as he brought us in towards the orbital structure. Just a few moments later, there it was floating before us. I raised an eyebrow. "That certainly looks like our spy sat; is it?"
Re'vok nodded. "I would say that is a safe assumption. Want me to start up the cannon?"
I smiled widely. "Plan A is a go." Re'vok smiled and turned his attention out the viewport. He focused for several long seconds before suddenly a single round left the underside of the ship; an auto-cannon that had been mounted on the Al'kesh. It had an advantage over Goa'uld staff cannons, namely that it could shoot through the cloak without setting it off.
A second later, the round went straight through the center of the satellite. We waited for something to happen; a second later, Re'vok let out a sigh of relief. "We're good. That shot took out the HPG and the primary reactor. I'll have it tagged, and we'll pick it up when we're on our way out."
I smiled and nodded. "Alright. Take us down and show me scans of the Boneyard."
The scans of the site were truly dreadful; the surface had already been overgrown by weeds and basic plant life, but there were signs of multiple air-burst nuclear detonations above the site. Anything that had been stored on the surface was vaporized centuries prior.
There were several intact structures at the edges of the site, and one of them included an elevator shaft that travelled straight down nearly half a kilometer and connected to an Outpost Castle. While the castle itself was still intact, and apparently there was still power to this one particular maintenance shaft, the barracks structure on the surface did not have any power.
Of the entrances to this outpost castle, there were only two others that remained even potentially open, and both of them were air-ducts. I nodded to Re'vok. "Alright. Set us down right there. I'll get the team ready."
Ten minutes later, we were walking down the Al'kesh ramp and straight into the facility's front entrance. From there, it was down four flights of stairs into the bottommost basement level and into a janitorial closet.
My team's engineer pulled out the diagnostic tool and got to scanning. It was just a few seconds later that he nodded. "Alright, give me the badge."
I carefully took it out of my pocket and read it once: Alistair Sinclair; HCID. There was no rank on the badge, but the dude had been a vice admiral and was the highest ranking member of the HCID to join the Exodus Fleet, so it would hopefully be enough to enter the facility; otherwise we'd have to work around it.
A few seconds passed, and a pair of sliding doors closed over the entrance, as the entire janitorial closet began moving downwards. A speaker came to life on the ceiling. "Welcome, Director Sinclair."
I raised an eyebrow. I suppose that confirmed that; every higher-ranking member of the HCID must have been confirmed K.I.A.
A few seconds passed before we came to a stop on the lowest level. We quickly rushed through the nearby rooms; the place had been abandoned in a hurry; furniture was strewn everywhere. It was after just a few minutes of searching that we found the main control room. Just one room over was the datacore. It was a metallic object, about the same size and shape as a small beer keg.
Within a second, my engineer was scanning it. I nodded to him. "Get a copy of the data. We're going to continue searching."
The rest of the facility was much the same; everything had been totally cleared out. Two hours later, our engineer had finally got a full copy; we had the original ejected from the server rack and left.
Re'vok flew us back into orbit and retrieved the spy sat as he did so. When we rendezvoused with the other two Al'kesh, it turned out that they had discovered several damaged aerospace fighters. I had no doubt that Arthur would be very interested in getting a look at them.