Messgage reads:
Greetings my brothers and sisters. Today has been... eventful, to say the least.
As you all know, as of late, many with us have been busy with our other exploits in Sirius, and as such, shoddy record keeping and lax standards have become commonplace aboard our facilities...
As a result, Livada Palace expirenced some sort of disaster aboard, that crippled the station, and due to the lack of raw materials aboard the station, the crew were unable to fix it. To prevent any further deaths aboard, the crew abandoned the station, and left for the safety of Corinth, to allow the station's AI systems to repair the damage using whatever it could aboard.
However, a lone nomad, sensing this opportunity seems to have called upon a rogue AI vessel to destroy the station.
It was a few hours after this began that I heard of what was happening.
During this time, the (\^/)Acherus was in for a re-fit, with most of its internal components being removed, and much of the armor stripped out. When the emergency broadcast reached Livada Shipyard, I ordered an emergency launch, and was able to get the (\^/)Acherus running with a skeleton crew, and was able to get in contact with the (\^/)Atlas, and my own nephew, Major Charles McCloud aboard the (\^/)Tohkai to assist.
Once we appeared on site, the attack had ceased, due to the assistance of a pair of Sentinel AI vessels, so with the attack quelled, I brough the (\^/)Tohkai in to begin basic repairs and re-supplies, as well as to bring the crew back to the station. However, the AI systems aboard the stations seem to have been infected by some virus, possibly from the AI cruiser that was prior attacking it, and closed off all airlocks with some of the crew aboard, and did not allow any further crew or supplies aboard.
This same virus was beamed to the (\^/)Acherus, and to prevent any possible damage to either station, should the Acherus be taken over, I ordered a withdrawl to a safe distance, leaving Lt Avery McCloud, and Lt Lily McCloud on guard around the station.
After several hours of fighting with the virus, both aboard the Acherus and trying to fix the station, we received a transmission from the Junker's Congress, offering assistance to our plight, and after a time, a Congress Barge jumped on-scene, and docked with the the Palace, while a Junker Marauder arrived and stood guard, along with out own fighter and bomber.
Soon after, the auto repair mechanisms kicked in, and the station began to repair itself, and both it, and the Acherus were restored to working order, and while repairs finished, the unknown AI vessel re-appeared, presumibly by de-cloaking, and began to run... a flight that was cut short by our Marauder friend, who single-handedly managed to reduce the ship to a debris cloud.
We thanked both factions who came to our aid, and returned to the Shipyard to resume the refits.
The lesson here folks, is to never let things get so lax that our own systems start to fail. I'm aware not everyone has military backgrounds, but failure to maintain a station with nearly 800 souls aboard is unacceptable.
A video log of the entire situation was recorded, but when the virus infiltrated our systems, it caused havoc with all of our on-board computers. The footage exists, and we believe the virus has been purged from all our drives, but the footage is in an... unstable form. Only those who absolutely need to see what happened (or what of the footage survived anyway) should request to see it.
My thanks go out greatly to the Junkers. both the Marauders, and the Congress, who both stood and defended a station that was not theirs, and managed to resurrect a station many were beginning to believe was a lost cause. May the Lords look forever favourably upon your ventures.
Brothers and sisters, it has been a while since I've done a wide-broadcast like this. But It has become necessary that I share a un-settling discovery.
Earlier today, I received the following message from one of my pilots:
Quote:[ audible static ]
" ..--nd some freelancers offered to show me a station they discovered in Omicron Lost. About an hour's flight later, we arrived at sector G-2/3 of the Omicron Lost system, just to the solar north of the planet----
Amongst the derelicts was what appeared to be a small station, upon approach, a series of defense cannons sprung to life and fired in my direction.--''n an attempt to find out more, I ran full scans and engaged cruise to get closer. On my pass over the object, I didn't see any obvious signs of origin or any logos on the hull. None of my scans yielded anything either, and I couldn't detect anything or anyone aboard, although that may just be due to shielding. I'm not sure, Onuris class fighters don't have the best sensor package... which by the way, I'm putting in a requisitiio-----
--dunno' who made this thing but maybe you guys can make some sense of it. I'm headed back to the Freeport, I have an apartment to pac---"
A couple of hours after we got this, the Pleiades launched to do a survey of the situation. We arrived, did a basic sensor sweep and checked around for anything else we could find that would be of use... Not much was discovered, but upon approach, the guns didn't fire on the Pleiades, and soon after, the stations shields were raised. Either the inhabitants didnt wish to fire on a Corvo-class vessel, or they believed an Onuris could have been easy prey to basic guns.
Regardless, attached below are a series of all recorded files of the situation. What is done now is up to you all.
I'll put a late record, though late is better than never. Got my recordings about incidents which have been happen in Omicron Delta, with one of our giants - the Cetus.
We've met with robots known as Sentinels, and they've shown in first contact hostility to the Phoenix. The Cetus was damaged badly, integrity of ship have been broken. All crew left the ship due to possibility of Cetus destruction, but autopilot managed to keep vessel in one piece and it's reached Freeport 11. Scanners showed integrity of Cetus on 5%.
Keep your eyes my brothers and sisters, avoid contacts Sentinels vessels at all cost. In critical cases call our escorts or ask Order friends for the help.
"Hey guys, just sending a request out asking about coming back. I know I said I was done with the whole flying around all by my lonesome. But I got to say. Here lately I've been captaining cruise ships (just like my father did before I started with you guys I know), and ended up losing it and most of my credits in a universal scam. I remember now why I thought a bunch of people in large groups suck. I need to leave the house and get back out there and be where I truly belong.... Among friends."
Requesting permission to visit various freeports across Sirius. I am also requesting the use of a CTE-F-1050-A “Kestrel” Civilian Freighter as some of the bases might need some supplies or send packages to other freeports.
==New Message==
==Comm ID:.... unrecognized... searching archives... WARNING POTENTIAL TAMPERING: ID matches missing pilot James Hawking==
==Ship ID:.... not on active list... searching archives WARNING POSSIBLE FALSE ID: Ship IFF matches missing colony ship Ikaruga==
A rather grizzled looking man appears on screen, lights flicker in the background
We... made it back. Let it never be said science doesn't have a wicked edge.
Brooke and I had been tampering with the hyperdrive, seeing if we couldn't get more efficient use of fuel out of it. We decided to test it by jumping Ikaruga into the next system. Unforeseen consequences arose, the gravity field had a much larger range than normal. As such, Ikaruga and the surrounding 6 ships were jumped into dark space somewhere in the Omicron cluster with heavy engine damage.
The surrounding ships were cannibalized to keep Ikaruga flying. We looked at the star charts to try and ascertain where we were and set off for what we expected to be Omicron 74 under traditional power while efforts were underway to restore the hyperdrive.
We got engines 1 and 3 back online for full speed under traditional thrust, but it still took us months to return. Ikaruga will be moored at moor 2 on Livadia while we undergo extensive repairs. The entire hyperdrive array will likely need to be removed and retrofitted due to our trying to mend it with limited supplies.
Turns out the only thing to fear in the darkness is the silence. We were worried about possible Nomad encounters being so far out but found nothing. This was a relief both now and then as this means not all ships were sacrificed to keep Ikaruga flying. That however, didn't stop a few crew members from losing their grip on reality. We sustained a few losses due to mental stresses. Remains to be seen if the ones who did not commit suicide can be rehabilitated.
I need a stiff drink. You'll know where to find me for a further debrief.
Besides our return, the good news is the following ships survived the return journey:
Ikaruga, colony class. Extensive drive core damage, mended with available materials. Likely requiring drive core refit.
Fortitude. Fearless class. Ship avoided cannibalization due to unknown defense requirements in dark space. Ended up unutilized and thus fit for duty.
Dreamweaver, Aquilon class. Coordinate scanning ship to complement Ikarugas jumping. Avoided cannibalization due to possible scanning requirements as well as formidable defenses in the dark space. Defenses were unneeded and is thus fit for duty.