Post by Sheng on Apr 2, 2023 18:36:29 GMT
The Citadel
Second Dawn Core Territory, Arkehold System, New Archon, Restricted Province #A-9.
01:22 AST
Second Dawn Core Territory, Arkehold System, New Archon, Restricted Province #A-9.
01:22 AST
Archon-1 crossed his arms as he looked at the massive holo-table in front of him. This was... sub-optimal, Ancerium shipments were still down by three percent after the recent pirate attacks on the exterior border and now deuterium supplies were beginning to dwindle after the Colonial territories were reporting a worker's strike. How was he supposed to expand the Second Dawn's influence if he couldn't keep improving resource output to match? He let out a mechanical sigh before he switched the table's view. At least the researchers were making progress, they had lowered the firing time to seventeen seconds between individual beams and the issue with barrel magnification had been rectified. But it wasn't fast enough, he needed more firepower now. It didn't matter how "promising" the projections were, until he had the new laser systems mounted onto his ships it was as good as useless. He pushed a button and the display flickered before promptly turning off with a click. At the same time he heard the door behind him slide open and someone enter, the clacking of metal on metal irritating him already. He turned around and if he could glare, he'd be doing so. It was her...
She gave him an amused little wave before she walked over and stood next to him, a little bit too close for his own comfort. He shook his head with another sigh before saying "I will never understand why I keep letting you in just so you can continue to bug me with your incessant foolishness." She giggled a little bit before reaching down and turning the holo-table back on, much to his irritation before he quashed it and turned around. She clicked on a few more buttons before a few documents appeared on the display and she spread them out so that they could be read. She said herself "I trust you have read the latest reports about Alteris. An improvement, to be sure. But I know it's less than you wanted. Which, is why I am here now. I offer you a.. possible solution." He paused after he said that, what could she have possibly come up with that would make up for the gap? It was intriguing none-the-less. He nodded for her to continue and she swiped all the documents away, and instead brought up a map of the galaxy before zooming in on it's centre. He leaned in to get a better look before realizing what she had brought up, he looked towards her with growing irritation before she said "Now, I trust you know what this place is but allow me to go over it a little bit more. The natives call it 'the golden expanse.' A bit on the nose but anyway, it's this entire region of space in the centre of the galaxy that is fucking loaded with Ancerium. There are even literal stars made of the shit. So-"
He cut her off with an irritated tone "A region of space we know practically nothing about and what we do know tells us we don't stand a chance of going near it. We do not have the technology, resources, manpower or information to go anywhere near the region. Not only that but I can't even fund such a project, the Council wouldn't stand for it and we're already too busy with the laser development. This- This is grabbing at straws, this is less than useless. Tell me, genuinely, in what way would it be possible for us to try anything?" She sighed before zooming in on a specific system and pointed at it. "This, this system right here. They call it Tau Volaris, or- well- Aedleshaven is it's more common name. This system acts like a doorway to this specific corridor of space that most use as an entry point into the expanse. What if we send a few unmanned ships here, y'know just to scout it out and report back. See if we can get some more advanced data about it? I mean this is literally the frontier here, everyone's trying to explore this place and get their grubby little fingers into it. We're over here banging rocks together trying to put buildings on rocks when we could be investing that capital here, into Ancerium." He thought about it for a second, what she said had a point but they knew so little. They didn't know what kind of resources it'd even take to get there, they didn't know who was there or how things worked. They literally only knew it existed. And then there was...
He looked over at the other console and then back to her before tapping his metal fingers against the holo-table. Hm, there was no harm in investigating the possibility even if it was so slim it might as well be a joke. He looked back at her before saying "I will investigate the matter, but I highly doubt anything will come of it. We simply do not have the capability to go anywhere near the Golden Expanse, even if we did we have things that take precedence before that. But.. I am not so foolish as to scoff and toss it away completely. Now if that is all those pressing matters I speak of require intention." She nodded and then turned around, he listened as the door slid open and then closed a few moments later. He looked behind himself to make sure she was gone before he walked over to the other console and pressed the flashing button. The screen flickered to life and after a few moments a video feed appeared of another Reborn scientist standing in a laboratory with a large holo-map of some region of space on behind him. Archon nodded to him and the scientist spoke "Good day, Councilor. I thank you for such efficiency in your attention to this matter. With such skilled individuals I have made great progress and I am now prepared to deliver you my findings." Archon nodded for him to continue and he then walked back to the massive holo-map in the centre of the room. He reached down and pressed a button and an overlay appeared over with, with several coloured dots but the most intriguing was a big red dot in the centre which showed something that was disturbing the space around it.
The scientist grabbed a long thin metal pointer and pointed at the large red dot in the centre and continued "As you can see we now have definitive maps of the anomaly and we have sent unmanned proves both around and into it to investigate it's properties. Coinciding with our previous reports some drones did send back their data and it matches our hypothesis; It does appear to be a wormhole." Archon's concern immediately grew at the statement and the scientist's tone. Could it be? His grip on the console increased and he leaned into the video feed and hastily motioned for him to continue. The scientist did just that "Now, as you know the Ancerious Galaxy is fraught with naturally occurring wormholes. We know this obviously because we used one to travel here initially. But what you won't like is that some of our probes have returned from the wormhole and... I am afraid I have bad news..." Archon was nearly panicking, how was it even possible? For a wormhole to open back up in that exact spot again?! He reached over and pulled a chair in and collapsed onto it, the scientist shook his head before he continued on "The probes have confirmed the worst possible outcome.. The wormhole..-"
"It leads to the Archon system..."
She gave him an amused little wave before she walked over and stood next to him, a little bit too close for his own comfort. He shook his head with another sigh before saying "I will never understand why I keep letting you in just so you can continue to bug me with your incessant foolishness." She giggled a little bit before reaching down and turning the holo-table back on, much to his irritation before he quashed it and turned around. She clicked on a few more buttons before a few documents appeared on the display and she spread them out so that they could be read. She said herself "I trust you have read the latest reports about Alteris. An improvement, to be sure. But I know it's less than you wanted. Which, is why I am here now. I offer you a.. possible solution." He paused after he said that, what could she have possibly come up with that would make up for the gap? It was intriguing none-the-less. He nodded for her to continue and she swiped all the documents away, and instead brought up a map of the galaxy before zooming in on it's centre. He leaned in to get a better look before realizing what she had brought up, he looked towards her with growing irritation before she said "Now, I trust you know what this place is but allow me to go over it a little bit more. The natives call it 'the golden expanse.' A bit on the nose but anyway, it's this entire region of space in the centre of the galaxy that is fucking loaded with Ancerium. There are even literal stars made of the shit. So-"
He cut her off with an irritated tone "A region of space we know practically nothing about and what we do know tells us we don't stand a chance of going near it. We do not have the technology, resources, manpower or information to go anywhere near the region. Not only that but I can't even fund such a project, the Council wouldn't stand for it and we're already too busy with the laser development. This- This is grabbing at straws, this is less than useless. Tell me, genuinely, in what way would it be possible for us to try anything?" She sighed before zooming in on a specific system and pointed at it. "This, this system right here. They call it Tau Volaris, or- well- Aedleshaven is it's more common name. This system acts like a doorway to this specific corridor of space that most use as an entry point into the expanse. What if we send a few unmanned ships here, y'know just to scout it out and report back. See if we can get some more advanced data about it? I mean this is literally the frontier here, everyone's trying to explore this place and get their grubby little fingers into it. We're over here banging rocks together trying to put buildings on rocks when we could be investing that capital here, into Ancerium." He thought about it for a second, what she said had a point but they knew so little. They didn't know what kind of resources it'd even take to get there, they didn't know who was there or how things worked. They literally only knew it existed. And then there was...
He looked over at the other console and then back to her before tapping his metal fingers against the holo-table. Hm, there was no harm in investigating the possibility even if it was so slim it might as well be a joke. He looked back at her before saying "I will investigate the matter, but I highly doubt anything will come of it. We simply do not have the capability to go anywhere near the Golden Expanse, even if we did we have things that take precedence before that. But.. I am not so foolish as to scoff and toss it away completely. Now if that is all those pressing matters I speak of require intention." She nodded and then turned around, he listened as the door slid open and then closed a few moments later. He looked behind himself to make sure she was gone before he walked over to the other console and pressed the flashing button. The screen flickered to life and after a few moments a video feed appeared of another Reborn scientist standing in a laboratory with a large holo-map of some region of space on behind him. Archon nodded to him and the scientist spoke "Good day, Councilor. I thank you for such efficiency in your attention to this matter. With such skilled individuals I have made great progress and I am now prepared to deliver you my findings." Archon nodded for him to continue and he then walked back to the massive holo-map in the centre of the room. He reached down and pressed a button and an overlay appeared over with, with several coloured dots but the most intriguing was a big red dot in the centre which showed something that was disturbing the space around it.
The scientist grabbed a long thin metal pointer and pointed at the large red dot in the centre and continued "As you can see we now have definitive maps of the anomaly and we have sent unmanned proves both around and into it to investigate it's properties. Coinciding with our previous reports some drones did send back their data and it matches our hypothesis; It does appear to be a wormhole." Archon's concern immediately grew at the statement and the scientist's tone. Could it be? His grip on the console increased and he leaned into the video feed and hastily motioned for him to continue. The scientist did just that "Now, as you know the Ancerious Galaxy is fraught with naturally occurring wormholes. We know this obviously because we used one to travel here initially. But what you won't like is that some of our probes have returned from the wormhole and... I am afraid I have bad news..." Archon was nearly panicking, how was it even possible? For a wormhole to open back up in that exact spot again?! He reached over and pulled a chair in and collapsed onto it, the scientist shook his head before he continued on "The probes have confirmed the worst possible outcome.. The wormhole..-"
"It leads to the Archon system..."