After weeks of speculation and searching for more ruins on the abandoned planet, the Buro & MND had finally come across something that seemed worthwhile for investigation. A derelict building of some sort, the difference being that it was still functioning. The building was shielded however, putting any sort of expedition at a halt.
"Scan and download as much as you can, it looks like we'll have to bring it down to enter." Viper said to the research team after taking a look herself. The crowd dispersed and began sending more probes to scan the shield and pylons that powered it.
A couple of the lead scientists in the Komissarat followed Viper as if they were her shadow. "You think what we're looking for is in there?" One of them said.
"The ruins we've found here nearly mirror the descriptions from Pygar. Whatever Dom'Kavash artifact they found there was inside. I'm willing to bet we'll find something similar." Viper replied.
"That artifact was uncontrollable though, when Edison Trent and the Order brought it close to the Dyson sphere ruins, it acted on its own." One of the other scientists intervened.
"Then its a good thing we won't be bringing it near any other ruins. I've no intention of tampering and reactivating these ruins at all. But I do need that artifact." Viper replied.
After a few hours, the MND managed to bring down the shield through sheer force. Severing a few of the supply pylons surrounding the structure allowed for easy entry.
The Ruins were certainly more lively than all the others the MND had seen up until this point. Several intact devices were lurking throughout the facility, as well as literature that the MND could only guess belonged to the Dom'Kavash. Despite all of this, the Direktor maintained a fixed eye on finding the power source she was looking for.
The facility quickly went from a plethora of historical insight to a labyrinth with one objective lying at the end. It would take days, maybe a week to unearth everything inside, never mind figuring out its use.
Hours had passed, and the Direktor had begun taking a look at some of the smaller live ruins around. One in particular that caught her eye seemed to be some sort of map or travel guide. The connection points it highlighted were vast, and to her surprise - some were familiar. One or two were located deep in the Omicrons where sightings had been previously recorded by humans. However, there was another blip on the map, one that appeared in the Omega cluster near a system that had been thought abandoned. "Can we transfer this data to our own?" Viper said to one of the other scientists analyzing the ruins nearby. "It'll take time to figure it out, but at the bare minimum we should be able to interpret what we've seen on this chart." He replied. "I've already interpreted it, if these are all gates or active ruins..." She paused for a second before pointing to the location that caught her eye previously. "That has to be near Omega-58, unless I'm not remembering this correctly." She finished. "It could be, I guess we'll have more problems if we're not careful-" The sound of another MND scientist running into the room caught their attention. "Direktor! We found it!" He intervened. "Take me there." She replied.
-Minutes later-
"Well, not quite what I imagined, but if the energy readings are there... we'll make it work." Viper said aloud to the survey team nearby. "Is it safe to move?" She asked.
"We should be able to move it, but it may very well affect the power supply to the rest of the ruins. If we extract it now we might not be able to retrieve the data we've uncovered." He replied.
"Prioritize the data, download as much as you can this week. We'll begin extraction in 4 days, you know the site it needs to be moved to yes?" She asked. "Yes, Direktor." The crowd got a little quieter after hearing her tone soften toward the end of the sentence. "I'll keep the military off our backs once we begin transporting this... relic. But we must keep this here and nowhere else." Viper said as she turned toward the relic one last time.
Kat grunted after finding that her message to Erich Klugmann was still silent. Did Civil Servant get to him first? Was he dead? Overthrown? No matter at this point, the longer the topic at hand waited - the worse it would likely get.
"Enfield of all people being twisted... Just when I thought I was as much an enigma as those fucking Lane Hackers."
Kat leaned back in her chair, tabbing back over to an old MND report on Outcast Fusion reactors seen during the war with Liberty. The read was lengthy, easy to be confused with hieroglyphics to the average person - but not to a scientist in dire need.
"I already have a Valor coming into drydock why can't I manage to snatch a Ranseur... hmm."
The GNI being so ready and willing for the MND to host one of their most prized possessions in secret - they must really need something aboard the ship, or they have something important to hide.
The Gallic Navy discontinued the production of their ship's design for the cruel and unusual power of the Warwolf, maybe that was it? No, so many of the current models possessed the same weapon, right?
Either way, the front row seat to view it was coming in a matter of days, and Kat still hadn't told anyone about it.
0800 ST, 8JUN834, Schatten Research Facility Flight Lounge
DIREKTOR ARRIVING - FLIGHT LOUNGE
"Never thought I'd get to see one of these in person, but I guess there's a first for everything." Viper said to one of the several senior BDM personnel surrounding her. An entire group of analysts & some extra security was more than enough to satisfy everyone's desire for security and still give the Direktor a chance to witness one of the most destructive weapons in Sirius' history up close.
"He knows we're here, right?" She asked the same person, a younger Kommissar acting as an admin assistant for the Direktor. "As far as we know Ma'am, he just returned to base an hour and fifteen minutes ago." He replied.
A man with long dark hair and a closely cropped beard enters through one of the side corridors, brushing off a bit of dust from his white uniform. Noticing the throng of people surrounding the woman that he assumes is the Buro’s Direktor, he walks up to them. “Direktor, it is a pleasure to finally meet you in person.” He glances back at the other officer that had followed him in, a red-headed woman with a smattering of medals on her chest. “This is the Normandie’s gunnery officer, Major Renard. We’re ready to get this started whenever you are.”
0314 ST, 14AUG834, Schatten Research Facility, Observation Deck Temporary Office of Director Siegfried.
An old man in his late sixties sat with a practiced stillness at his old-oaken desk. To his back, a window opened to the view of the jumphole stabilizer and a stream of ships entering and leaving like an orderly queue of ants. Without breaking his gaze, Siegfried nodded to aknowledge the Gallic delegation - the aide to his right deftly preparing a cart of refreshments to the side.
"Please make yourselves comfortable. May I offer you some refreshments?" Director Siegfried gestured towards the chairs in front of his desk, "I am Kai Siegfried. I have assumed the position of Director in the wake of Director V's sudden disappearance."
“Pierre MacMahon, it's nice to meet you Director, and I'm sorry to hear about the previous Director.” He takes a look at the refreshments set out to the side, then walks up and pours himself a glass of scotch from the bottle on the table and takes a slow sip, before glancing at Major Renard again. “Help yourself, Major, this is as much a social event as it is a military one.” Returning his attention to the other Director in the room, he gestures for them to join him at the window. "How up to speed are you on the objective here, Director? I'm familiar with how compartmentalized things are in the intelligence circles, and wouldn't be surprised if you were out of the loop."
Siegfried took a sip of his tea, the aroma of real mint and bergamot permeating the room.
"Director V was kind enough to keep the chief deckmaster appraised of our arrangement - though, in the interest of caution, I would like to hear your expectations of us and what you intend to deliver."
“The arrangement we agreed to was fairly simple. Gallic National Intelligence is seeking to repair and refit an older Normandie-class Battleship, and we agreed with Director V that we would be able to perform these actions here at Schatten. In exchange for this we agreed to allow your research teams to have access to the Warwolf that is on the ship.” He takes another sip of his scotch. “The arrangement we had is that we would be allowed to ship the crew and goods to repair the Normandie here through a shell corporation.” He turns his view away from the battered Gallic battleship in the drydock outside of the viewport, looking back at Director Siegfried, trying to appraise the older man's mood. "So, do you think this agreement would still be acceptable?"
Ma'am please state your name and rank for the record.
This was the latest in a abhorrent string of interviews following the miraculous recovery of the long-lost "former" Direktor Viper of the Buro. The details surrounding such a high ranking intelligence officer's disappearance warranted one of the largest investigations in the Buro's history.
It was almost redundant at this point, sure, there was a need to piece together evidence. But asking the same few questions before each interview as if the the details weren't already recording just made for a rude and somewhat embarrassing rhetoric.
Viper eyed the second interviewer sitting further back, one of the Direktor's assistants. Dropping her name out in the open was a security risk both herself and the Buro, considering the worth of her role in Rheinland's weapons development program. The second interviewer glanced back and nodded - it was safe to say. The only attendants were likely the Inspektoroberrat and the Direktor himself, but she couldn't tell exactly who was outside.
Kathrina Lily Laurenz, Kommissaroberrat. Kat's expression was a neutral one, the anxiety of returning balanced out with the drive to continue where she'd left off before.
Thank you. Alright, flight details and star charts pulled from you last flight on 13APR834 line up more or less with what you've said. We can't find a point at which you requested reinforcements or alerted HQ to a hostile encounter. You were traveling alone, no debris found at the last known location. You can't remember exact details on where the fight took place?
Not exactly, no. I've told you all I can remember.
We've no reason to think otherwise, your biometrics don't tell us otherwise, everything lines up with records. No signs of infection and in surprisingly better health than when you left... Could we now dive into what happened when you woke up?
I woke up on Gran Canaria, I didn't quite realize where I was at the time. Some locals told me they recovered my escape pod from the Dartmoor nebula, but I only have their word to go off of. They took me out of stasis and sedated me until they felt it was safe to wake me up.
Can you recall what day exactly they decided to take you out of stasis?
August 24th, 835 is the day they sedated me in the hospital. I uh... Kat's face went blank trying to remember more details. The blank expression led to a lengthy moment of silence.
Ma'am, are you alright? The interviewers voice broke the silence, and Kat's concentration on trying to unscramble the beginning of events on Gran Canaria.
Excuse me, it's difficult to recount. Waking up after that long felt like my first memories as a child, I can't point to details past a certain point.
That's alright, let's take a moment, there's coffee out in the lounge if you'd like.
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