Section 8 - Logs

[Toaster]

Section 8

Login ID: Hawkins
Entry Date: 06 Jun. 834
Location: Unto Nightfall, Ontario

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Priority Report: Planet Sudbury, Ontario

On June 1, contact to one of our long-range probes in the Ontario system broke off. While this was initially dismissed as a simple malfunction, the rapid failure of the remaining four probes deployed across the system alerted our analytics team aboard the Atum. Analysis of the received data immediately prior to loss of contact revealed energy readings similar to those detected four years ago during the Pulse event originating from a point within the Ontario system. The Unto Nightfall was deployed to investigate.

Immediately following our departure for the Ontario system, the Atum received and forwarded an emergency broadcast originating from Fort Ramsey. The message indicated a hostile presence in the system, disconcertingly including Nomad warforms, as well as confirming suspicions of a hyperspace pulse being the cause of the probes' malfunctions.

Arriving in-system, the Unto Nightfall rendezvoused with Xeno Alliance Commander Cobra, who insisted on showing us rather than briefing us on the apparent cause of the system-wide blackout. We were joined by the warship FRS Roanoke and made best speed towards Planet Sudbury - a barren world with no atmosphere, located in the stellar northwest of the system. Our sensors picked up considerable traffic on the far side, and Cobra informed us that there was heavy fighting between local Xeno units and elements deployed by the Liberty Security Force, Technocracy, Bounty Hunters Guild, Lane Hackers, as well as Nomad warforms. We were further informed that the LSF battlecruiser LeHigh and a heavy DSE construction ship had arrived in-system via the partially repaired and hastily reactivated California jump gate.

Approaching Planet Sudbury, our scanner array began detecting unusual energy readings originating from its surface. The source of these readings appears to be an enormously powerful energy field, several hundred kilometers in diameter and visible to the naked eye, forming a hemispherical dome over a vast stretch of the planet's surface.

SysOps immediately commenced a detailed scan of the energy field and its source of emission, however, after several days of continuous scanning, observation, and analysis, even the Unto Nightfall's newly fitted Mark I Wiretap array could neither penetrate the energy field, determine its exact source, not discern what lies underneath. Scans were, however, able to discern that the dome formed by the energy field reaches under the planet's surface. The field's immense energy output caused significant wear and tear on our scanner and sensor suite, resulting in several malfunctions. While field repairs have thus far patched the damage our hardware has taken, spare parts, which the local Xenos are unable to provide, are already running low.

Further, Commander Cobra relayed anecdotal evidence of the field responding to certain audio frequencies. It is known that some artifacts of the Daam K'Vosh progenitor race respond to harmonic waveforms, i.e. musical notes, suggesting that the energy field and its source, too, are of Daam K'Vosh origin. The immense energy output - beyond what our own sensors could read - rules out any human-made construct, nor does it seem likely that it is Nomad in nature. Our own testing with modulated scanner frequencies emulating musical tones, however, resulted in no discernible alteration to the energy field's behavior.

Further discussion with Commander Cobra revealed that the local Xeno forces are under considerable pressure from the numerous newly present hostiles and that reinforcements from the Order were required. I informed him that the majority of Section 8's assets are currently occupied with ongoing operations and that the Order's resources were stretched similarly thin to his own. However, he insisted that the Order provide some form of support if it intended to secure the site of the planetary anomaly and prevent it from falling into the hands of the Liberty Security Force or Technocracy.

My personal recommendation is as follows: While the hunt for the infected battlecruiser Wyoming is of top priority, these new developments surrounding Planet Sudbury are of too great a significance to ignore. Whatever lies beneath the energy field is almost certainly of alien, likely Daam K'Vosh, origin, and must therefore not fall into the wrong hands, i.e. those of any party other than the Order. Commander Cobra has already expressed his desire to claim whatever is covered by the field for the Xenos' war efforts, believing it may be a technological cache. It stands to reason that the other present parties, particularly the Liberty Security Force and the Technocracy, share this assumption. While the energy field has thus far proven impenetrable by scanners and impervious even to heavy weapons fire, should the Order not act, it is only a matter of time before another party succeeds in gaining access to what lies beneath. Further, the sudden appearance of Nomads in the Ontario system - and thus in the immediate vicinity of major population centers in the California and Colorado systems - is a grave development almost certainly brought on by the activation of the energy field. Section 8 must secure the site and the alien threat must be thwarted before it can grow out of control and threaten Liberty's population.

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