The Eventide

[Dusk]

Tennstedt Base, Thuringia System
28.12.835 AS

---

---

"Begin recording. Designation: "Ashlander." Product name: "Eventide". Type: weapon development."

A man, his face hidden by a helmet, leaned over a design workstation. Though his expression remained concealed, his posture betrayed weariness. His voice, slightly distorted by the speaker, carried the seasoned stubbornness of a man unaccustomed to sitting idle. Ashlander was his new name, acquired upon joining the Platform; he had left his old one, much like his old life in the Coalition, behind.

"I have been instructed to speak freely. And I will certainly take advantage of this luxury."

Ashlander straightened up, taking a deep breath. A breath of freedom does a lot for people. It can be a goal or motivation in itself. Ashlander had received it completely unexpectedly and still couldn't fully adjust. The habit of obeying orders from above remained ingrained in his subconscious.

"Crimson girl whose team pulled us out of the grave we fell into on the cruiser "Seliger" in Deep Omegas, gave me a job. I'm both grateful to her for it and confused by her appetites. She's got her hands on some very interesting things... Prototypes, actually. I suppose nothing is impossible when you have access to the black market. That's probably one of the perks of being in Bundschuh. However, something tells me that given these opportunities, obtaining samples of the "Gekokujou" and "Lamia" technologies was... An extraordinary task. The second is Outcasts technology, which they probably didn't part with as willingly as with Cardamine. The origins of the first are lost somewhere in its' affiliation with the Blood Dragons... Very distant friends. I can only marvel at how far one can stretch one's hands, if the will is there."

By pressing a couple of buttons on the interactive monitor, the man brought up a projection of the Gekokujou and Lamia. Their designs were practically in the palm of his hand: reverse engineering had been successful, though manufacturing such weapons remains difficult. But that wasn't the goal.

"... For now, I've been told to wait for her return from the expedition... With new data for the project she wants to implement with the help of me and other sufficiently skilled Bundschuh... I think the girl is crazy if she's flying into that hell for some speculation of a benefit... But all I can do is trust her intuition and the old saying that there's no smoke without fire. End of recording."

---

[Dusk]

Tennstedt Base, Thuringia System
06.01.836 AS

---

---

"Project "Eventide", entry two. Laying the foundation."

The man's voice, still firm and determined, began to take on the first hint of unease. Ashlander, having spent his entire life on the frontier, had seen a lot. From machines with a mind of their own to aliens glowing with an unsettling light, bent on the destruction of humanity. When such things become practically routine, you start to think nothing can ever make you raise your eyebrow. Yet humanity never fails to surprise.

"The girl returned from her expedition a few days back. Looked even more pale than usual. She brought back a bunch of data for the smart guys and a curious little thing for me. She said not to touch it for now."



"She also... gave me a task, which I completed in a fairly tight timeframe. Perhaps it was intentionally tight. She wanted to somewhat... modify her fighter. She personally supervised and participated in the process."

Sigh.

"It's not that the task was difficult... But I didn't understand why, at first. Uproot the stable and properly functioning mechanisms from this bird? The wiring? Make... Room? And then... Put practically identical, at first glance, things back."

The man coughed, paused, then inhaled deeply.

"I understood... Partly... When I saw the replacement. I understood the why, but not exactly what she was trying to achieve. Nominally, and in practice, these parts performed the same task as their predecessors. But the difference in them was still obvious. I'd never seen metal so... Slimy before. At first, I thought she'd smeared it in something, but no. This thing was whole... Something between good ol' metal and a piece of torn flesh."

Pause. He cleared his throat. A hexagonal, honeycomb-like texture was visible on the screen.

"There's little actual difference so far. This Anubis operates the same as before. Only the Hessian engine starts to look different, and ship leaves a slight red trail from its wings that slowly becomes more noticable. But the girl says this will supposedly make it easier for us to implement the future weapon prototype on her vessel."

The screen goes dark and footsteps are heard moving away.

"To hell with her. I'm too old to argue and interrogate people. It's better to spend the evening with a bottle of good Rheinland beer."

---

[Dusk]

Tennstedt Base, Thuringia System
09.01.836 AS

---

---

"Project "Eventide", entry three. Dynamic energy compression."

Unlike the previous recording, there was no worry in the man's voice, although there was clearly a small amount of grumbling.

"I wish these Rheinlanders spoke a more human language. It's always been difficult to work with theoreticians. They draw schematics as if they weren't meant for work, but for hanging on the walls."

"I guess I've figured it out anyway. Having an actual piece from Omega-58 available for inspection and reverse engineering is incredibly helpful. Thanks to the girl, I don't have to work solely with theory."



"This weapon of unknown origin has the ability to concentrate and release enormous amounts of energy... This in itself increases the load on the fighter's reactor, so this operating principle is unsuitable for us if we want to create a weapon capable of extracting maximum destruction."

"But there is one extremely useful thingy about this weapon's operating principle. Or, rather, a feature that can be gleaned from it. That being concentration of big amounts of energy in one spot."

A spherical figure appears on the monitor, shining from within, as if assembled from slightly moving, somewhat translucent plates.

"Energy containment isn't a new problem. It existed long before our ancestors set foot on the first planets of Sirius. But thanks to these new variables in the materials this girl supplies... We have new options for solving it."

"Simply put, these microscopic barriers compress extremely powerful energy particles, releasing them precisely when they hit their target. This allows us to pre-charge some of the energy normally required for a shot. It also prevents possible overheating of the weapon itself."

"Frankly, while this solution is interesting, I would never approve of it for mass production. It's expensive and potentially dangerous. But we're working on a prototype here specifically for her needs, so..."

"We'll see where this goes."

---

[Dusk]

Tennstedt Base, Thuringia System
20.01.836 AS

---

---

"Project "Eventide", entry four. First results."

"The prototypes we're using for this project are quite fascinating specimens. They're a testament to scientific and engineering mastery, expressed through destruction."




"Looking at this exceptional craftsmanship, as someone who spent most of my life repairing war vessels... It's a shame that some of them will simply be used as fuel for this new fire. Those bearing the name "Gekokujou," at least. While with the "Lamia," it was enough for us to study its design and figure out how to add similar properties to other weapons... The girl will have to say goodbye to the "Gekos". We don't build these guns from scratch, after all; we refine existing ones. And that means the original creation will be consigned to oblivion."

"On the other hand, I can't help but be intrigued by what we can create from them. The birth of the new requires the death of the old, doesn't it? It's funny to think about this as the years begin to fly by so fast, no matter how eventful life is..."

"In any case, while I'd be happy to let the eggheads thoroughly study our precious anomaly that the girl brought back from Deep Omegas, we're forced to pick up the pace. Observing the progressive degradation of the anomaly's containment shell, the girl ordered a thorough analysis and the implementation of the findings if they prove useful. While there was a risk involved, I completely agree with her... I saw the thing that attacked the people near Saverne on the recording. Any advantage we can gain against this so-called "Harbinger" will be useful. As they say here, nothing ventured, nothing gained... Pfft. We had a better phrase for that back home."

A shot from an energy weapon is shown on the monitor, becoming brighter and more powerful as it moves further away.

"Dynamic energy containment technology works. But, looking at the results of the anomaly study... Good scientists here have proposed a new theory for implementation. In short, this anomaly has an interesting feature: it seems to actively try to absorb everything around it, especially energy. And they propose trying to incorporate this property into this new weapon. It would seem that this would only harm the results, since it would then consume the energy of the shot itself, right?"

"Wrong. Or rather, it would be right, if not for our remarkable dynamic containment capability. Using it, we can create a double barrier: one holds the blast's energy, just like we planned originally. The second, smaller one inside, contains a miniature replica of this anomaly. Or... Well, at the very least the closest we can get to it. When the collision happens, it releases all its energy, embodying it in destruction. The second "bubble" then also bursts, revealing a short-lived anomaly that, for a few moments, absorbs everything around it. Especially, if it can reach it, the energy of an enemy ship."

"So... We'll supplement the original "Gekokujou" with what it lacked: the ability to sabotage enemy vessels' energy supply."

"Heh. Playing with things like that in my old age... I should get the girl to bring me more drink."

---

[Dusk]

Tennstedt Base, Thuringia System
24.01.836 AS

---

---

"Project "Eventide", entry... Actually, no number this one time. Just some thoughts of an old man."

The man slowly sipped the foamy beer from his glass.

"They sure know how to make beer here, I have to hand it to them. People do enjoy it. It's nice that the girl shows her concern for us with more than just the usual supplies. Honestly, she brought us more alcohol than we could drink in a couple of months..."

"Although after the Bundschuh pulled me out of that mess on the Seliger cruiser, I can barely taste it. It's like it almost evaporates before it even reaches my tongue, leaving me with only a distant ghost of what I should have tasted. Every miraculous rescue has a price, I suppose. Though I still don't know exactly what they did to me to drag me out from the clutches of death. From that... Thing. I won't ever be the same. None could be."

"Part of the reason the old name no longer matters. Although the past sometimes comes back to haunt me."

"The other day I was doing some transport business and met a couple of Coalition patrolmen. It warms my heart to hear names that sound familiar. Lieutenant Gromov, callsign Stepnoy. And his comrade, callsign Ermak. They're good lads, loyal. With a spark."

"I barely resisted the urge to speak Russian again. They shouldn't know who I was, that I was born at Volgograd. It'll be better for everyone. All that's in the past. My place is here."

"I just hope I won't have to take up arms against my fellow comrades one day. Not something I'd want to do. So far, there don't seem to be any grounds for that. And we have plenty of common enemies. But Sirius is a nasty place. You never know."

He sighs, raising his glass.

"Well, to your health, lads. May the fruits of my labor never be pointed at you. Because sometimes... They scare me."

---