Greetings Zoners, I am Benjamin Stone of the Order.
I am coordinating an investigation into the origins of a Jinkusu that is sadly no longer with us.
You see, 17 years ago an Order patrol discovered a crippled Jinkusu in Omicron Delta. As far as our agents could tell, the vessel had recently suffered nomad attack.
In hopes of learning more, the vessel was boarded by a search team. While nothing of use could be gathered from the ship's datacore, the search was not a complete failure. A boy had miraculously survived the attack and so was rescued by the search team.
The ship would have undergone a more thorough search and retrieval operation had it not plummeted into a sun shortly after the initial search was completed.
I have come to you in hopes of being able to identify the vessel. Perhaps you have old records of these colony ships stored away somewhere? If so, I would be very grateful for any information you could share with me.
An interesting endeavour you have here. Unfortunately the TAZ do not keep such records. However I would
suggest that you narrow your search to the Jinkusu's birthplace in Omicron-74. Permission to access any
records you may require would most likely need permission from the Omicroners first so I would see to it
that is done first.
And apologies for the lateness of the reply.
Regards,
Xavier Triton The Trident of Eris, Shasta Orbital Skyhook, Baffin
Comm-ID: Omicroners, (]o[)
Location: Sparta, Omicron 74
Recipient: Benjamin Stone, Order
Good day Agent Stone,
we have received your request for an inquiry of the Livadian Juggeraut Registry but we cannot tell you any specifics about missing ships at the moment since the Juggernauts are usually being deployed to Deep Space around the Omicrons, thus being away for quite a while. Some might even travel far beyond Sirian Borders and vanish for many years, so we see no chance to identify missing vessels of this class based on a simple count.
The next possible step would have been to search the registry for the unique identification code each of the newer Juggernauts carries as molecular encoding invisibly within certain core parts we do not wish to reveal - Livadian Shipwrights are adamant on this topic. But since you have already indicated that this certain Juggernaut is older than ten years this identification method would fails as well, since the molecular encoding was introduced later than the estimated period this ship had been built in.
However there is a good chance to succeed with the identification, if we can pick up the remainders of this Juggernaut and bring it back to Livadia. Our approach would be to compare every single remainder with our construction blueprints that are saved in our database cores on Corinth. Please understand that older Juggernaut models were not subject to a standardized construction process, but rather completely unique regarding their room layout, their interior decoration, or their computer systems, which is requiring a complete virtual reconstruction based on the ship remainders.
Nevertheless this specific process of identification can take up to six months, mostly due to the very complex scanning and abstraction routines of physical parts being mapped down to meta-models in order to provide a good set of data for the subsequent comparison routines that can provide a good result within hours.
We are sorry that we cannot provide any further information now, so please consider a schedule for a joint operation of the Order and the Omicroners to return this Juggernaut safely to Omicron 74 for further investigation. Also, we would like to express our gratitude for your discretion to inform us about this important matter, since the Faceless would not look kindly upon a lost Juggernaut.
Dear Omicroners, thank you for getting back to me so quickly.
I'm afraid an operation to bring the vessel to Omicron 74 would be impossible. This is due to the fact that the Juggernaut met its end by falling into a star. However, while it may be impossible to secure the Juggernaut, maybe we can find remnants of it, as the ship probably exploded into thousands of pieces upon contact with the extreme heat of the star.
Since the vessel was lost 17 years ago, it is unlikely we'll find parts of it drifting in space, as they would have had plenty of time to leave the charted areas of Omicron Delta. I suggest we search Planet Nauru for remnants, as it is likely that any debris that crashed on its surface are still there. That is assuming they didn't burn up in the planet's atomosphere.
Because this operation is not high on the Order's priority list, I have been given fairly limited resources to complete it. I will do my best to convince the Order Science Division to aid us, but if I can't, I'm going to have to rely on your people to provide the appropriate scanning equipment and manpower.
Comm-ID: Omicroners, (]o[)
Location: Sparta, Omicron 74
Recipient: Benjamin Stone, Order
Good day Agent Stone,
thank you for your immediate reply. We are interested to investigate this case. Let us start with the default scenario of Juggernaut colliding with a star. Of course, these are raw simplifications.
Usually about 61% of the Juggernaut is simply being melt down, either immediately or within a very short period of time. Another 35-38% of its parts break off away from the star with rather low velocity, so within only a few minutes and a an hour at best the gravity of the star drags them back into the Corona where they are melting down. The remaining 1-4% are usually being extremely accelerated by explosions, so these parts could actually persist a deadly collision of this sort.
There are two reasons why we are highly interested to gather more information about this collision:
1. Livadian Shipwrights are permanently reviewing the surivial ensurance systems. More information about the remainders might help these researches to push the chances for a survival in accordingly disastreous situations.
2. The Omicroners are trying to maintain a registry of all Juggernauts deployed to far systems. There is a part of those we have not heard of for a very long time. Our own principles and our way of live are complicating this effort, but we are convinced that any information explaining the last minutes aboard might help other Zoners to avoid similar mistakes, since we believe that a Juggernaut would not fail its service to a good command and crew.
We are suggesting a joint mission together with the OSD, in order to scan the planetoids and edges of Omicron Delta. We might need Order support for this project by means of security around Nomad infested areas, and in return we can provice more specific identification patters to be fed to the scanners.
"Apologies for the delay, Stone, our communications equipment on Mora is still being updated. We would be glad to devote some of our resources to the search for this vessel's remains, I'll oversee the project myself... however, there are a few flaws with your proposed search area, primarily that any star, even a dwarf star, will have a much higher gravitational pull than even the largest planets. Due to that fact, it is unlikely that any ship, however large, which was pulled into a star would leave any pieces at a high enough altitude to be pulled towards a distant planetoid, or for that matter to leave a star system's boundaries entirely."
"Unfortunately, no starship known to man can survive the extreme heat of a solar corona, which means that the likelihood of any material remains in the star's orbit are negligible at best, any remains of the vessel would have merely provided fuel for the star's ongoing fusion process. We'll see what we can come up with, but at this point it is unlikely that we will be able to find any material remnants of the ship you seek."
"If you could direct us at which particular star in Omicron Delta the vessel was seen being pulled into, it would hasten the search greatly. It's hard enough finding a needle in a haystack when you've got three haystacks to look through."
"We dispatched the Ailuros, one of our available research craft, to Omicron Delta yesterday to begin scans on all three stars, uploading operational report now..."
Ailuros Mission Report 87A: Solar scans of Delta Tertiary System
Commanding Officer: Captain Michael Corin, Order Science Division
Mission Duration: 39 Hours, 14 Minutes
Tertiary solar system consists of three stars, all of average (medium) mass and density. Thermal and Spectral scans of each star follow.
Subject: Solar entity Delta-1
Classification: Medium Yellow
Luminosity: 100~
Surface Temperature: 5,900~ degrees Kelvin
Anomalies: None Found
Subject: Solar entity Delta-2
Classification: Medium White
Luminosity: 30~
Surface Temperature: 7,000~ degrees Kelvin
Anomalies:
Destabilizing internal reaction and extreme solar flare activity detected, indicating a phase shifting period, likely the result of Iridium deposits from the nearby asteroid field adding to the star's mass. If the star's fusion reaction re-stabilizes, it is likely to shift to the blue spectrum and expand. Could potentially put Freeport 11 at risk of increased radiation emissions, heightened gravitation pull, and extended solar flare activity that may potentially reach the Freeport's orbit.
Command Note: Recommend informing Zoner leadership of potential shift in Delta-2's mass and spectrocity, Freeport 11 may need to be moved into a higher orbit to avoid damage due to increased solar radiation.
Subject: Solar entity Delta-3
Classification: Medium Blue
Luminosity: 10~
Surface Temperature: 25,000~ degrees Kelvin
Anomalies:
Delta-3 is undergoing a receding phase, causing the star to contract inwards, increasing core temperature while reducing overall size. It is likely that within the next several thousand years, Delta-3 will become a superhot blue dwarf which, along with the phase changes occuring within Delta-2, may cause widespread radiation increases throughout the Omicron Delta solar system.
Spectral and thermal scans revealed a small, material anomoly in extreme low orbit of Delta-3's stellar corona. The anomaly is consistent in mass to a Jinkusu-class Zoner Juggernaut, though size is rapidly degrading. We believe this may be the missing starship being saught out by Agent Benjamin Stone, though the extreme heat and gravity exhibited by Delta-3 have reduced the vessel into little more than a molten, compressed ball of metal. Due to the position of the object within Delta-3's solar corona, it is beyond the point of retrieval, and it is unlikely that any information or evidence has survived the vessel's breakdown.
Thank you for your help Commander. If what you say is true, then our chances of identifying the Juggernaut just got a whole lot slimmer.
From here it looks like the only pieces of this vessel that could have survived are the escape pods. Now, the only suitable places to run to would be Planet Nauru or Freeport 11.
Unless the Administrator has records of every vessel that has ever landed on Freeport 11, we probably won't be able to find anything of use there.
Planet Nauru seems like the best place to start looking. I suggest we scan the planet from orbit for any evidence of the pods. We also have research teams planetside investigating ruins of somesort, so I will make contact with them and see if they haven't already picked up the pods we're looking for.
Please let me know when the Omicroners are ready to proceed.