Project Transcendence

[Akura]

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Foreword

I'm not sure this kind of thing should have a foreword, but I couldn't think of how to write it into the first entry. Anyway, my name is Georgia Brown, I am an agent for the Order, working in the Research and Development division.

I decided my old notebook got kinda tatty and was falling apart, literally, so I've opened this electronic journal so I can record everything I discover. This will help my backtrack and cross check things, as well as record my own thoughts on situations.

I finally thought of a cool name too, Project Transcendence! Seemed appropriate as I'm studying Nomads and their role in Sirius.


And for the record, SMT = Sirius Mean Time



Entry One - 03:02PM (SMT) - 19th Febuary 818A.S.

Yay, first entry!

So we have been studying the various samples we gathered in Rheinland and the Omegas, Magnus spend a good part of yesterday setting fire to one of them. I don't quite understand his methods but he gets things done, and gets them done well. I have faith in him.

I studied them on a molecular level, comparing them with common chemicals and substances we take for granted everyday, like Caffine and Nicotine.

Took a long while in the lab on the Athens, but once Magnus was done with the arc welder things sped up abit. At first I found nothing, just common structures and boring compositions. But then I found something curious, a certain part of one of the rocks we gathered from Omega-5 had something most perculiar about it.

Some cells were present on the rock, but on the level that normally I would have overlooked. It was the slight discolouration in one of the blocks that caught my attention...

As you can see, tiny, unnoticable parts of the sample are... different. They shouldn't be like that, nothing in or around Omega-5 could have that effect, at least, nothing I've seen.

I'm going to request another trip to the Omegas, hopefully Magnus will clear that up without too much fuss. Can't wait to hear what he thinks about this.

[Akura]

Entry Two - 11:31PM (SMT) - 24th Febuary 818A.S.

Finally got into the labs to test out different energy signatures on the samples I gathered in Omega-5. I tried all sorts, Photon, Laser, Tachyon. I tried every weapon I could on them, short of mining lasers, and the results were disappointing.

I found traces of what look like Pulse energy, and some Neutron energy. They are rather common energy signatures, especially from Corsairs, but what got me was when I tested the prototype Order Nomad Cannons.

As you can see, the energy excerted by the Nomad Cannons is almost identical to that of the ones found on the samples.

I would place a strong bet that these energy signatures match those of a purer Nomad Gun. Perhaps a Keeper or a Wild ship?

I could send a transmission to the Coalition, I know they assist us with the Wild problem in the Omegas, perhaps if I can study the effects of Nomad weapons on a ship's hull I can figure out what the effects of this bizarre type of energy are, and how best to combat them.


Though, truth be told, this isn't what I should be spending time on, Magnus gave me other work to do, and I should focus on that. I'm already a few days behind schedule.

[Akura]

Entry Three - 07:44PM (SMT) - 25th Febuary 818A.S.

Today I was departing from Freeport 1 in Omega-3, headed towards Bretonia, there was some hostilities between a Bowex convoy and some Corsair Sails, so I deviated from the lane a little.

I thought I had picked up a new Jumphole at first, my scanners were playing up a bit. Upon closer inspection, I picked up traces of a similar energy signature to that of a jumphole, but stronger.

I got within a safe range and sent a few probes to orbit the anomaly, it's about the same size as a Jumphole, but much more energy was passing into it, as well as bleeding out of it into the Ice Fields.

Usually I would have just recorded it and moved on, but it was the fact that this anomaly was so close to Planet Sprague. I know Nomad ruins and relics have been found there, and the anomaly is just a few sectors away in the Ice Clouds.

I noted down the similarities to that of Jumpholes and forwarded it to Magnus. I'm going to investigate the Cambridge Jumphole in the same cloud and see if there are any similarities between the two.

I think, what we may be looking at, is the forming of a jumphole. Not sure it's anything the Order should be concerned with, but we could use this to our advantage. Especially if we can form and collapse Jumpholes how and when we like...

[Akura]

Entry Four - 07:06PM (SMT) - 26th Febuary 818A.S.

Gargh! Spent all day trying to find something that someone else hasn't already found about this anomaly, nothing, just going round and round in circles.

I ended up reading the journals of dead explorers or out-dated reports. Closest thing I found was a report on Baxter Research Station in the Order Archives. Read all about it's involvement with the Nomad War of 800...

Most of the records say the station was there to monitor the anomaly, though it was abandoned around 700 aparently. Run on automated systems until some Rheinland forces blew it up in 800, supposedly infected agents of the Wild.

So I couldn't find anything substantial or 'refreshing' on the matter, Magnus told me to drop it. I guess I should get back to work on drawing up blueprints for a new Neutron Cannon we might be developing.

Also, I'd like to investigate rumours of Nomad Structures and Artifact Convoys in Newcastle. Supposedly the Mollys have seen suspitious things in the upper sectors of the system, as well as a desolate system to the south.

I dunno, I still have some of Grandad's old contacts, I could do a few sweeps in a less conspicuous ship...

[Akura]

Entry Five - 07:31PM (SMT) - 27th Febuary 818A.S.

Nothing back from the Mollys yet, still early days though. Got a problem to keep me occupied until then, seems one of my probes went missing. I used three remote data-probes to study the energy of the gravitational anomaly in Omega-3.

I recovered two of them, but the last one lost contact with my storage server around 22:04 yesterday. Not destroyed, the other probes didn't pick up any energy pulses that would have damaged it, and it would show up on remotes if it had floated off.
It literally disappeared and I can't seem to figure out why...

I did manage to get in contact with a physics expert on Cambridge Research Insitute though, pulled some strings and obtained a data-disk full of old records from Baxter Research Station. Luckily enough for me they were willing enough to deliver it to Freeport-1 and meet me in person.

It's all raw, pointless data at the moment, but as soon as I figure out a pattern and the dates of these entries, I can see if they had any similar issues with thier equipment.

Though alot of this data is over 50 years old, I'll hopefully come up with something...

[Akura]

Entry Six - 01:46AM (SMT) - 28th Febuary 818A.S.

So I did my best on decoding that raw data and having it form logical, useable information. I got lists of dates, a few names. The most noticable thing though, was on certain dates, they recorded odd happenings, like the anomaly changed temporarily.

I've contacted the Researchers on Cambridge via secure channel with my findings, I think they were glad that someone had tried to work out that useless old data. Gaining their trust, however mundane it may be.

They sent me a bunch of personal logs, some of the old recordings of previous inhabitants of the station. Though they are probably long dead by now, they can still help me work this out.

I'll be crashing on Freeport 1 till I get something, or get called back by Magnus, not like there is anything else at the moment to occupy my time...

[Akura]

Entry Seven - 01:48AM (SMT) - 1st March 818A.S.

Would be my Father's birthday today, if he were still alive that is...

Moving on, I'm still hanging about Freeport 1, moving into Bretonia next, though I have to wait for a while. Reason being, I sent a transmission to the Cambridge Research Institute requesting clearance and assistance for a mission on the surface of Planet Gaia.

I heard tales of the beauty of Gaia when I was younger, stories of the wonders that inhabit it. I'd really like to get down there and study the wildlife, perhaps take some samples of the flora.

I found this picture in the Neural-Net, Gaia is so pretty! Can't wait, really hope they give me clearance too.

If all goes well, I'll be able to get down there as one of the Cambridge teams, so I can conduct my work without raising suspition. Hopefully I'll find something that'll be of use to the Order, something to help us fight this war, perhaps even protect us better from the Slomon K'Hara.

I still have alot of data to organise and some paperwork to finish, that should keep me occupied until I get a reply.


Note to self: Start going to bed earlier

[Akura]

Entry Eight - 05:40PM (SMT) - 2nd March 818A.S.

No reply from Cambridge Research Insititute yet, probably thinking hard on the Gaia request.

Got up early today for once, gave me enough time to finish off the plans I started for the Neutron Defence Cannon.
The idea is, to stop all breaches into Order Space, specifically Omicron Minor, by advancing our current, slightly out-dated defence platforms.

This Cannon fires on a generous 4.00 refire without too much strain on the current energy plants of the platforms we have. The range is reduced slightly in the shot, but the scanners assign sub-targetting to specific parts of the target. This means, the moment the hostile gets within range, the cannon already knows what to shoot for the best effect.

Here is the final proposal for Magnus to overlook, should be as simple as replacing the old defence platform cannons with this new design. Advantage is, the new design requires less integration, simple as syncing the servers and wiring up the powercore.

Theoretically, we should be able to alter these plans and engineer smaller ship turrets, or with enough work, Capital Ship weaponary.


On another note, I've had word from the Mollys about Newcastle, I'm going to move in with a Civilian ship and scout the edges of the system. Though I'm going to avoid the top area, as Magnus ordered.

[Akura]

Entry Nine - 03:43AM (SMT) - 3rd March 818A.S.

My contact got me onto New London with no problems, was weird being home in Bretonia, on the planet I lived on before I chose space as my new home.

Nostalgia I guess. I couldn't hang around long, I'm sure I'm presumed dead in Bretonia by now.

I secured a Light Fighter though, Civilian, nothing special, nothing I'd take into combat anyway. I named him Kenneth. Seemed appropriate.

Undocking was easy too, no one suspects Kenneth. Moving through the core of Bretonia was easy too, no one stopped or questioned me. I made it all the way to Newcastle with no problems.

I stopped at Belfast Production Facility, to meet with my Molly contact. Docking was hard, they almost shot me down, thought I was a Bretonian Scout. I persuaded them eventually though.

He gave me reports of the patrols, and that of his men who had scouted the area in the first place, I have those recorded on my Neural-net account for future reference.

So I undocked and headed through the waypoints they had given me. I moved into the shred of Barrier Nebula in 6F, first three waypoints got nothing, but the fouth got close to a Jumphole, this one lead to a system called 'Chester'.

I scanned and recorded the hole, then jumped in. In Chester I checked the long range scanners, I was alone. My scanner had picked up an unknown planet, a star and a cloud.

I moved closer to the Planet, and did a scan. It matched records for 'Planet Shirley' a Gas Giant, discovered a while ago. I noted my findings and headed towards the cloud.

As I cruised towards the cloud, I ran a scan on the Neural-net and found it to be the Rhyl Nebula. The records say:

"A nebula located in the desolate region of the Chester System. Was never explored; strong emission within the field suggest that entering it may be dangerous for unshielded vessels."

I entered the nebula and set my scanners to full.

As I got about 2k in, my cruise was disrupted. Kenneth isn't designed for this kind of thing, and the Nebula was strong. My shields dropped and I was forced to flee, thrusting then cruising away.

I can't be too sure, but whoever attacked me, attacked the Mollys in Newcastle like they reported. Nothing solid, but I suspect if they are Nomads, they are most likely only Morphs, the younger Nomads we have encountered.

Though, the Nebula was strong, and the imaging was not clear, so it could have been a petty gang of criminals hiding their hideout. I dunno, I pulled Kenneth around and headed back to Belfast.

I have signed this off as nothing, we have much more pressing issues, and if it is something substantial, we'd already know about it.

I'll arrange for transportation back to Omega-3 later on.

[Akura]

Entry Ten - 09:31AM (SMT) - 3rd March 818A.S.

So I got up early today, which makes a change. Passed Kenneth on to a newbie freelancer, no reason letting him go to waste, and I managed to hitch a ride back to Freeport 1 on a Rheinland convoy.

Finally got a reply on the documents regarding Planet Gaia! They asked me to fill out a form, so I did.

Perhaps adding my career as a Phantom on there was a bad idea...

The waiting is killing me though, suppose my papers are being processed or something, which is taking forever... I've almost run out of paperwork to fill out, can't get the calibration right on this propulsion system I had in mind.

It could work in theory, but the maths don't add up. I keep substituting things, but eventually the theory falls apart and the whole thing becomes pointless.

I don't like waiting...