The Lane Hackers | Mission Archives

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Mission 79: Reconnoiter Omicron Nu

This will be a lengthy report. After taking notice of transports moving into Virginia and out with materials the crew of the Recluse and I decided to take on the task of observing and scanning the system. Following the CNS Report we took strict precautions. We've also detailed the method into the target system and possible hazards on the way. This was done over multiple days.

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Virginia

Virginia is one of the newer additions to Liberty's bloat, being added to the tradelane network via Texas only within recent years. Official methods into the system are via jumpgate in Texas, however an overlooked jumphole exists which places you somewhere within the Concord Asteroid Belt. The asteroids themselves are lacking in deposits of minerals or notable resources in our cursory scanning and the lack of mining operations leads us to believe it is without much use. Signatures registering to Xeno vessels, patchwork junker-designs, pop up occasionally. Suggesting to avoid exploring deeper into the field.

Our own destroyer, the Insidious, currently relays the system and was our point of contact for this mission. It moves near the binary stars using the radiation within the barycenter to mask itself. Beyond the stars lies an anomaly cloud of dark matter. Attempts to scan the cloud proved impossible. Moving into the cloud plays hazardous to scanners, which we were quick to exit after noticing this. While discovered later, there exists a jumphole into Omicron Nu situated somewhere on the system interior side of the cloud.


The Virginia system itself has infrastructure. The gate from Texas is met with tradelanes to a shipping platform operated by Universal. It appears that this is the end to the corporately open zone of the system however, as the Battleship Minneapolis guards and defends the two remaining trade lanes.

One of these lanes heads to the Super Gate which is large enough to be visible or at least detectable from most of the system. The other tradelane goes towards an unknown planet surrounded by a dense minefield. We picked up further installations within, however attempts to get close enough proved impossible at the moment. Battlecruisers and heavy patrols guard the entirety of the zone hailing from both Navy and LSF.


The Supergate itself is guarded by a rather massive border station named Morgantown. We were delayed into getting close to the gate due to the station yet used the time to hack into the gate itself. Surprisingly the Supergate uses similar codes from Ageira's Jump Gates yet with more protection and security layers. If wanting to enter via the gate we suggest having enough time to pierce through additional security layers as it seems they are cycled from time to time.

Omicron Nu

Entering through the gate is a mistake. Upon exiting one is greeted by heavy Navy patrols. Once at a safer distance we were able to gather that the area around the gate appears to be Liberty's staging grounds in the system. Storage containers and a surveyor liner remain situated in its orbit. After exiting, "behind" it lies what appears to be an outcrop of the Edge nebula found normally in the Omicrons. Scanning is muffled by pockets of explosive gas, however the nebula does take up a large portion of the system. On a normal navmap display the entirety of sector A, B, and portions of C is obscured by this nebula.

With the gate situated in sector D6, the first visible object is a large gas giant named Midway, found at the cross of sector 6E/F. Using the gate and the gas giant as orientation for the system one is able to tune their systems to better navigate the system.


From this point on, Omicron Nu begins to grow strange. The green glow of the main star surrounded by molten rocks casts an eerie glow over everything in the system, even the further edge nebula which seems to curve and make shapes and pillars in the distance. Circling the star gives sight of what registers as an alien structure. It is massive, far surpassing anything humanity has made. Brief cross research leaves us to believe it is nomadic in origin but what it is made of or what its purpose is remains unknown. It should also be noted that the "upper" part of the system after circling the star has the crystalline forms of nomads floating about from here on out. We advise heavy caution if moving past the star.

Beyond the alien structure is something which is even more bizarre, which is odd to say after detailing a nomadic structure. At first we mistook it as an asteroid field around a barren planet only to find it was a scrap field. Only after visual confirmation were we able to correct our scanners to register it as scrap and metal which in itself was awry. Being straight forward, the field, dubbed the Bikini Debris Field, is a scrapyard full of naval vessels. Those rocks found within the zone display trace amounts of sulfur which our records have only registered in the Texas system before this point. Even stranger is the vessels found within the scrap. Fighters and bombers spot the zone while battlecruisers and even a battleship appear if one looks close enough. Scanning the larger of the vessels we found their signature matched an older record of the Battleship Tennessee and it's fleet which has been off public record for over three hundred years.


This fact is true about every wrecked ship and floating equipment. All signatures and design records date three to four hundred years ago. The Tennessee was last recorded as to have been stationed in Texas around the time of the Texas Incident. It is possible it was moved here to scout the system and met an unknown fate. We have to perform more research as to why this place exists to know further.

The field was hardly touched over the centuries with the occasional junker or scrapper moving in to steal off some dated naval tech to be sold elsewhere. A brief search of the various scrap on the black market shows that there are interested parties in these unique objects taken from this field, selling at high prices. Mining operations here have to be swift and efficient as the planet, named Marshall, seems to be hiding a deeper secret.


Set in the middle of this cloud and having likely held it here for the centuries is Marshall, a dark barren world littered with fallen wreckage. However unknown signatures, possibly rivalling scrapper groups, burn towards discovered vessels attempting to salvage from the field and charge with full hostility. Their tactic seems to be to use the gravity and orbit of the planet to both hide their approach while also speeding up their vessel to surprise any would-be salvager from taking their spoils. We obtained only a small sampling from the field before moving on to avoid crossing these groups.


The secondary star of this binary system is a small white dwarf with a close cluster of asteroids in orbit. Also within orbit is what appears to be an aggressive zoner outpost, likely build to support the scrapping operations. Observing the patrols going to and leaving the station revealed a jumphole to the Omicron Minor system, the route the zoners likely use.

Further observations show that the system is quite active in terms of patrols. LSF patrols border the edge nebula, labeled the Marina Trench, near an interesting rock cropping within the cloud. Searching for their patrol paths lead us instead to a jumphole leading to the Virginia system which, after testing, exited into the Anomaly cloud.


As stated prior nomads loom in the upper edges of the system and it seems that the Order have followed suit. We only caught one patrol in the H4 sector however it leads us to believe that they have a vested interest in at least keeping watch over this system. Attempts to find them elsewhere proved a failure allowing us to mark sectors F, G, and H as likely locations to cross their patrol paths if attempting to find them during later operations.


Following our scan of the system we returned to Liberty proper. It was at this point that we found one use for the Nu system in that some departments of various organizations have already exploited. I linked up with another of the circle after the Spyglass Network picked up multiple vessels coming from Virginia. An APM vessel was reported coming from that location hauling iridium ore which after denying communications was blown up by our wingwoman. Following this incident we coordinated and cut off an Ageira transport. Questioning it revealed that it was contracted to haul iridium from the Omicron Delta system to Colorado, having worked with a Core miner to get the ore. The crew of the vessel confirmed that the Core have a mining operation in that system for the ore as well.


In conclusion, the system seems to be uncontrolled for the time being with marked interest by the Liberty Navy to secure at least a foothold into the system. While the jumphole into Minor is useful we have yet to find what their plans are for the system nor have the years of scanning data they have on any useful raw resources found in Omicron Nu. We suggest high caution when moving through this route and to expect heavy naval, nomadic, and scrapper resistance within.

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