With Dr. Strauss having completed her expedition on Nauru, we now have access to a manufacturing facility the ancient Naurians used to create Antimatter-based tools and equipment. I've begun "Project Ballista", an arms-development operation with the goal of creating a new line of antimatter weapons for use by the Core. The first prototypes of this weapon development will be equipped to the Ailuros to improve our combat viability while operating in hostile space alongside Core assets. Based on the performance of these weapons, utilizing the Ailuros as a testbed platform, the viability of mass-production will be assessed and further action will be determined by the leadership.
It's been almost a month since my last ship log was posted. The Ailuros has been moored at Invicta for most of that time, and has not been needed with my work onboard the station. The crew has been hard at work with the personnel onboard Invicta developing project Ballista; results from the Leonine's field tests of the generation-1 prototypes were received and acted upon in order to develop a generation-2 model, which has now been installed upon one of Jack Daniel's vessels, the WV-Victoria, for further testing. We're still awaiting the results of the generation-2 prototypes, and have begun preparations for the development of a generation-3 variant based on feedback from the Victoria.
Following the Leonine's test results, two improved gen-1 prototypes were developed and installed upon the vessel for continued service. My son, Marcus Mekal, has been an excellent captain for the vessel thus far. The Leonine was deployed to investigate a salvage equipment request from a local freelancer seeking to delve into nomad ruins hovering in orbit over planet Knossos, and a deal was made. Inbetween official operations, the Leonine has been assigned as an APM escort craft, keeping the shipping lanes in Omicron Rho, Delta, Sigma-15, and further abroad safe from hostiles of all types for our Logistics vessels to continue their work.
Katrina Summers, my tactical officer, has taken to frequent excursions in the Ailuros' runabout - the Artemis - and has been making adjustments to its systems to improve combat viability. While it was not necessarily designed for combat operations, it has performed better than expected. It's a slow ship, but has significant shielding and armor for a vessel of its size. A smaller variant of the Azurite power core used aboard the Ailuros was installed, providing ample power for the Artemis' systems and weapons. Additionally, two downsized antimatter cannons - based largely on the Naurian antimatter cannons for project Ballista - were installed for testing effectiveness on snubcraft. Summers has reported that the weapons are slow, making them difficult to aim against faster craft, but have been extraordinarily useful when engaging freighters, transports, and gunboats, and even cruiser-class vessels. She assisted with the destruction of a Rheinland Donau-Class heavy cruiser being operated by the Wild in Omicron Delta, as well as an Order Hathor-Class heavy gunboat operated by the Ethereal Order Guard during an attack on Yaren. I've decided, in light of these events, to give her free reign of the Artemis for any future calls to arms by the Core or APM, and the freedom to modify its weapon and defensive systems as necessary to maximize combat potential.
Lastly, following her most recent outing, Summers installed an APM-produced Mk. 1 cloaking device aboard the Artemis, allowing it to infiltrate further into hostile space, ambush enemy targets, and escape dangerous situations when necessary.
In the meantime, Project Ballista continues to occupy the vast majority of my time and attention. Hopefully once this project is done we can get the Ailuros back in space again and move on to other studies.
The Ailuros, having had so much downtime lately, is needed in the field again to aid the Core in surveying and documenting unusual gravitational and electromagnetic anomalies reported in Omicron Lost, and several other systems spread throughout the edge worlds. The scanning array has been udpated once more with additional sensor vanes geared towards detecting and documenting a variety of energy signatures, from magnetic to gravimetric, and will be ready for use later today.
As we prepare to set out for this investigatory assignment, I've left my technician, Marcus Greele, aboard Invicta to continue hammering out the final details for the Generation-3 Ballista prototypes. It will be good to get out into space again, I've spent too much time nursing headaches over this weapons project, a break may clear my mind.
We have spent two days now in Omicron lost, gathering stellar cartography data, analyzing orbital trajectories and solar winds, mapping asteroid field paths, and searching for any unusual activity. Some contacts with nomad patrols have been made, though nothing noteworthy; merely scout groups that were easily dispatched by the Ailuros' defenses. I will say that, once Project Ballista is completed and final production on the new weapons begins, the Ailuros would especially benefit from the addition of such advanced weaponry as a defensive measure. Until then, our priority will remain avoiding combative engagements whenever possible; as good as Carter and Summers are, they cant turn a science ship into a warship at the flip of a coin.
Our first significant anomaly find occurred tonight, within the Lachesis Field. Unusual electromagnetic and gravimetric readings were detected while surveying the larger asteroids within the field for mining potential, and we moved to investigate. The anomaly has been classified as a Baxter-type gravity distortion, coalescing photonic energy from the nearby star against a powerful rotating magnetic field and creating an 'aurora borealis' style visible-spectrum emission. It is entirely likely that anomalies like these are the earliest form of development for jumpholes between parallel systems; though, being unstable as they are, they rarely form a lasting state of equilibrium.
Omicron Lost seems to be a hotspot for these types of anomalies. This is the first we've come across in person, but Core patrols have noted several others sporadically appearing in throughout the asteroid fields around the central star. I believe this system forms more of these anomalies than others for a number of reasons: Firstly, it is a crossroads system, situated between numerous other systems with a high propensity for anomalous activity. Secondly, high photon emissions from the nearby white dwarf provide more raw solar energy than one would see from other star types. Thirdly, all three asteroid fields in the system have high concentrations of dense minerals formed from planetary collisions: Iridium in the lachesis field, Uranium, Palladium, and other heavy elements in the Clotho and Atropos fields. These elements can have unusual electromagnetic and gravimetric effects when exposed to high energy. Finally, with Omicron Lost being located on the outermost band of the spiral arm that the Sirius sector is situated within, the system itself moves at a faster pace when compared with systems across the 'spiral gap' in the next arm, creating the equivalent of turbulence or waves of gravitational influence exerted by these systems on one another.
We will continue to study the anomalies in the area, and hopefully piece together more information about them. These vortexes of gravity, radiation, magnetism, and light may hold the clues to improving jump gate and jump drive technology across Sirius, and it is a business venture that must be capitalized on.
Overseer Damien Mekal, submitting the final report of the Core research vessel Ailuros and her escort, the Leonine. I doubt this will ever be read by anyone, but it must be said for posterity.
After over two weeks surveying minor Baxter anomalies in the Omicron Lost system, we finally encountered an anomaly larger and more unstable than any we'd seen to date. Prior studies have speculated that these anomalies are, in all likelihood, the beginnings of wormholes between systems, rarely every fully forming and instead sputtering out of existence before they are able to make a connection.
This anomaly was different, it formed a vortex that appeared to rip through space itself and it was emitting gravimetric and electromagnetic frequencies that completely drowned out our sensors. Distortion from the anomaly caused surges throughout the ship's power conduits, system failure, and disrupted the containment fields for the main thrusters, leaving the engines inoperable. We found ourselves being pulled into the gravity well of the anomaly with no way to fight against it.
Short range communications were quickly repaired, and we were able to call for aid from the Leonine, which was patroling nearby for operational security, as nomad presence has greatly increased in the system recently When the Leonine moved into range to lock tractor beams and pull us to safety, it suffered the same catastrophic overloads and system failures that we had.
Within minutes, both ships were pulled into the event horizon of the anomaly, which had indeed formed a jump tunnel - although a very distorted and unstable one. Shifting gravity fields throughout the ships caused, to the best of my knowledge, all personnel on both vessels to black out. Katrina Summers was one of the first to awaken, and noted that the ship's computer had logged nearly eleven hours since the event.
Most crew were uninjured, or suffered only minor scrapes and bruises. I was not so lucky, receiving a concussion and an unpleasant laceration to the back of my head; I was the last one aboard the Ailuros to regain consciousness, to a concerned looking Dr. Strauss fretting over me in the medical bay.
Against all odds, both the Leonine and the Ailuros made the journey together; if the Leonine's tractor beam had failed, we surely would have wound up lightyears or more apart. Both ships have suffered minor damage, and over the past day systems have been repaired to a working state. Stellar Cartography scans have been unsuccessful; no nearby star systems or constellation patterns are recognized by the Ailuros' computer. We've wound up in completely uncharted space, though to the best of my knowledge we are at least still in the same galaxy. It's most likely the jump traversed the galactic core and we're somewhere on the far side, where no stars have been mapped.
Unfortunately that places us, at minimum, twenty-five thousand lightyears from the Sirius sector, and in all likelihood much further than that. Supplies are already being strictly rationed, but I fear they wont last long, neither ship was prepared for a long term mission.
If there are any changes in our luck, I'll update the ship's log. If not, this will be our final resting place, far from home and surrounded by the unknown.