Valhalla Rising

[MB52]

Chapter 4 - The Rise

*Juneau Shipyards*

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Admiral Garner sits quietly at his desk, looking over mission reports when the comm unit activates

"Sir, we are picking up strange readings on the scanners"

"I'll be right there" replied the Admiral before he got up and stepped out of his ready room and onto the busy command deck.

"What have we got ensign?"

"We didn't pick anything up till it was right on top of us, but there seems to be a distortion in space, just in front of dry dock three" the ensign replied as she busily tapped commands into her console.

"On screen" the Admiral ordered.

The view screen popped on, showing a distortion in space, almost a blur, and then suddenly the space started to change, as if folding in on itself, revealing the presence of a ship. The LNX Thunderbay had just proven its new cloaking device worked as planned..

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"Sir the ship is hailing us"

"Open a channel"

"Admiral, this is Captain Decker of the Thunderbay, requesting permission to moor with Juneau"

"Captain, you sure know how to make an entrance, and you’re early"

"Yes sir, we are ready to take on the scientists and research equipment as ordered"

The Thunderbay then proceeded to dock, taking on a large contingent of scientists, along with their equipment, all for preparations of the next phase of testing.


*On board the LNX Thunderbay’s briefing room*

"Intel suggests that the information we are looking for is still locked inside the old computers on Ithaca station, the problem being, the station was abandoned a long time ago, Chief, do you think you can get the information out?" The Commander queried Jessica Porter, as she flipped through a few slides, showing the abandoned station.

"I don't doubt it, the computers back then weren't as complicated as now days, it will be a cake walk, the problem is the station has been exposed to space for over 24 years, so we'll have to do our work in EVA suits" the Chief replied, his nose buried in a tech manual of some sort, as usual.

"Just what kind of information are we looking for?" Lieutenant Bertrand asked.

"As you know, in the early days of colonization, Liberty expended much of its resources, and had sort of a fuel crisis. In order to try and solve that problem, the Liberty government built two research stations in the badlands named Ithaca and Bedford. They were each built around strange spatial anomalies, which generated massive amounts of energy. The energy came in the form of particles, coming from deep subspace, and they were called Particle fountains."

She flipped to a slide, with a diagram showing the fountain.

"Now these stations tried to harvest the fountains, but the technology wasn't there to control it and a massive explosion was caused. Most of Ithaca was destroyed and the station needed to be abandoned due to heavy radiation in the area. After this the entire research project was abandoned... New Bedford station however, wasn't completely abandoned and a lone scientist remained to study the remaining anomaly. Unfortunately the station was later destroyed during the Nomad wars."

"Why would the Navy abandon such a project then and why bring it back now?" John queried.

"At the time it was unfeasible, the technology wasn't there, heck even now we don't have the technology to properly harness the energy, that and the GMG had started up and Liberty's fuel crisis ended." She took a sip of her water "As for why it’s suddenly being looked into again, the scientists finally decoded another one of Valhalla's artifacts, and it mentions the badlands. Specifically it seems to describe the Particle fountains. The badlands seem to be relatively unique in Sirius, and now it seems there’s a reason for it. They believe the Badlands will eventually transform into a huge particle fountain, unleashing vast amounts of energy, though why we can't say..."

She turned off the projector.

"Ok our mission is to retrieve whatever research data we can from Ithaca station, and to find the particle fountain for analysis."


The officers then left the briefing room, knowing what needed to be done.

"Helm, set a course for West Point, when we arrive there, take us through the trade lane to Ithaca" Captain Decker ordered.

A low hum could be heard as the ship's massive cruise engines charged and the ship leapt towards West Point. Within a half hour the ship had reached its destination and was cruising through the trade lane. When the ship exited the trade lane, she was completely shrouded in darkness. Between lightning flashes, Ithaca could be seen, a mangled lifeless hulk, begging to be seen.


As the Thunderbay approached Ithaca, several fighter wings were launched in order to secure the area from the numerous Rogues lurking in the shadows. Everyone knew they were being watched, studied, even preyed upon, so all security precautions were made.

"Geez, how can the Rogues call this place home" John mumbled under his breath as he strained to scan the area for ships. "Sir, Rogue fighters on scanners, shall we move to intercept?"



"Negative, let the fighters deal with those" The Captain said as he stood up "Prepare the shuttle with the EVA squad and have them launch when ready"

"Shuttle is away" Commander Porter responded.

The shuttle left the Hanger bay, and slowly made its way towards the battered station. With the Chief directing the pilot, the shuttle slowly headed for what was left of a docking port, though it was doubtful it could ever maintain a seal anymore. The shuttle then made its docking approach, clamping down on the station.

The hatch slide open surprisingly well, for something that was closed and exposed for so long, it just took a little muscle power. When they entered the station, the Chief was saddened by the state it was in, not a part was left undamaged. Led by a security team, the engineers made their way to what should have been the secondary control room, but what they found was a mess of bulkheads, smashed computers and debris.

"Alright, the information we are looking for should be kept in the backup module, which should be behind that wall panel, give me a hand to move some of this junk"

The engineering crew began its work, working carefully to ensure they don't knock down the ceiling or damage the information they needed.

Back on the Thunderbay, John was coordinating the fighter squadrons, keeping the Rogue ships at bay. Seems the Rogues were curious what the Navy was doing at this old station that was sitting on their doorstep, for years, had they missed something important when they looted the station?

"Sir, the Chief and his team are returning, and they confirm they have the data" the enthusiastic ensign reported.

"Helm, set a course for the last known location of the second station and set scanners to search for the Particle Fountain" Commander Porter ordered.

The Thunderbay crept forward at a low speed, it was impossible to use cruise engines in this mess, the search would take awhile.



Several long hours pass, the ship had been searching for awhile and found nothing. The Captain had retired to his ready room, leaving Jessica to lead the search; she and the rest of the bridge crew were tired however, after searching for hours.

"Helm, take us to quadrant 59, and halt for scans"

John suddenly jumped up "Jess, we have something, about 2k from this position, it looks like our target!"

She walked over to his console and looked at the data and smiled "Great work John, Captain to the bridge!"

A few minutes later, the Captain walked in, apparently annoyed at being disturbed while reading his favourite book.

"Captain, looks like we found it, we are moving towards it now"

"Ah good work Commander, take us within 1k distance of the Anomaly and begin scans, we don't want to get too close"

With that the LNX Thunderbay approached the Particle Fountain, easing into the best position for taking scans and samples. It would be a long night, but the scientists were happy, and quite busy. At least for now the bridge crew could take a break, their job was done, for now.