Post by Sheng on Sept 14, 2023 15:40:27 GMT
"Blackout"
Vanguard | Potius Cras Research Facility | Restricted Province #G-12
13:22 AST
The Second Dawn was on fire. With "Eikon's Bane" laying waste to the Quosx and "Conqueror's Idol" rallying at Nightingale Station, Arkehold had been left entirely to the Home Guard and the System Defence Grid. But it wasn't enough to quell the unrest, as the sanctions by various former and current SAGA members as well as CONA, the ICA, MITA and CGSS were beginning to have a devastating effect on what scant remains there were of the SD's economy. The Collapse of SIGEC had even caused a few of the smaller national banks to crash and the damage to SD assets in the stock market was... unfathomable. It hadn't taken long for the citizens to take to the streets both in the Core, the Middle and the Frontier and it had turned uncountable amounts of population centres into warzones overnight. In the Frontier, it had gotten so bad that the EPA had just given up and started firing nuclear missiles into cities they lost control of, an act which initially seemed to work as violence dropped to an all-time low. But then they appeared, and the rampant unrest escalated into a full-blown civil conflict.
There were already reports of mass EPA defection towards the sides of "The Subsequent Twilight." Even though the brass and the feds were playing it off as CONA propaganda, many knew better. The conflict was quickly becoming known as a Second Restorationist War, with much of the Frontier having already surrendered themselves to the Twilight Forces. You may be wondering how this is relevant to a covert corporate laboratory secluded from the rest of the rapidly imploding country, so allow me to explain why it is: Almost 70% of the Second Dawn's manufacturing was being fueled by surplus material left over from the Ark Ships that were used in the SD's initial colonization, something that the Council had accounted for and given an 80-year lifespan for. Those 80 years ended seven months ago and the remaining scraps were nowhere near enough to continue supplying the Second Dawn's industries. So? The Nova Alteris Corporation petitioned the Council to allow for a colonization initiative, it was projected that within four months they could establish a resource intake that would be sufficient to prevent any critical shortages and they delivered on that promise.
Now the Frontier was in a state of rebellion and all those raw materials were now being held hostage by the Twilight Forces, the Frontier systems loyal to the Core were holding out and ensuring that at least a portion was still being shipped back to the Capital but it simply wasn't enough. That meant that certain industries could no longer produce, leaving millions of customers out of stock and hundreds of millions more with scalped prices over the surplus. One company known as Kelodyne Advanced Machining had gone to zero overnight and declared bankruptcy not 4 days later, their assets had become worthless and they couldn't fund their manufacturing efforts even if they had the material. Kelodyne was responsible for supplying Vanguard with all the scientific equipment necessary and now it had gone under. The Potius Cras Acquisitions Branch had scrambled to gather all the surplus they could to keep "Blackout" operational but they were now running on borrowed time, the Board of Directors had crunched the numbers and delivered a message to the facility that no one wanted to hear:
They had 11 days until the surplus ran dry.
When the surplus equipment ran dry they'd have no means of disposing of the contaminated material from the probe nor would they be able to continually damage specific systems such as weapons or engines to keep it from breaking free itself. Corporate Operation Supervisor "Cross", Field Operations Commander "Codex" and newly promoted Research Chief "Tempest" had discreetly assembled to re-assess the situation and see what could be done after 7 hours of shouting, panicking and even a little bit of crying, they had failed to come up with a solution to prevent the imminent containment breach. When Archon-1, the newly promoted "Grand Councilor" had been informed, he had an emotional breakdown and hurled his holo-tablet across the office which caused the device to shatter against the wall and abruptly end the conversation. Cross had simply shut down from the stress of the situation and had resigned himself to drinking Orillian Absinthe in his quarters, Codex had optimistically proclaimed everything would be alright only for his quarters to be found empty the next day along with one of the Corporate Shuttles missing, Tempest had been found slumped over in a chair in his office with a hole in the side of his head and a dropped onto the floor.
Blackout had completely shut down, with maintenance personnel working frantically to extract as much material from the Probe as they could and rip it apart for data. A few had even begun to disregard the containment procedures and unknowingly been contaminated, if they somehow survived the collapse of the laboratory in time they'd be assimilated by the replicating nanites now in their coolant tubes. They had learned more in the next 3 days then they had the entirety of the facility's operation and they sent it all back to the Citadel. Then they went back to work, doing everything they could to learn all that was possible. They'd work until the very end, under the false illusion that they could somehow learn some deep secret that would allow them to prevent the probe from assimilating all the nearby material. It was a hopeless quest as they no longer had the equipment to do so, all they could do was study what they had or take the easy way out.
They were all on borrowed time, there was no escaping what was to come, they just didn't know it yet.
Blackout was going to fall.
There were already reports of mass EPA defection towards the sides of "The Subsequent Twilight." Even though the brass and the feds were playing it off as CONA propaganda, many knew better. The conflict was quickly becoming known as a Second Restorationist War, with much of the Frontier having already surrendered themselves to the Twilight Forces. You may be wondering how this is relevant to a covert corporate laboratory secluded from the rest of the rapidly imploding country, so allow me to explain why it is: Almost 70% of the Second Dawn's manufacturing was being fueled by surplus material left over from the Ark Ships that were used in the SD's initial colonization, something that the Council had accounted for and given an 80-year lifespan for. Those 80 years ended seven months ago and the remaining scraps were nowhere near enough to continue supplying the Second Dawn's industries. So? The Nova Alteris Corporation petitioned the Council to allow for a colonization initiative, it was projected that within four months they could establish a resource intake that would be sufficient to prevent any critical shortages and they delivered on that promise.
Now the Frontier was in a state of rebellion and all those raw materials were now being held hostage by the Twilight Forces, the Frontier systems loyal to the Core were holding out and ensuring that at least a portion was still being shipped back to the Capital but it simply wasn't enough. That meant that certain industries could no longer produce, leaving millions of customers out of stock and hundreds of millions more with scalped prices over the surplus. One company known as Kelodyne Advanced Machining had gone to zero overnight and declared bankruptcy not 4 days later, their assets had become worthless and they couldn't fund their manufacturing efforts even if they had the material. Kelodyne was responsible for supplying Vanguard with all the scientific equipment necessary and now it had gone under. The Potius Cras Acquisitions Branch had scrambled to gather all the surplus they could to keep "Blackout" operational but they were now running on borrowed time, the Board of Directors had crunched the numbers and delivered a message to the facility that no one wanted to hear:
They had 11 days until the surplus ran dry.
When the surplus equipment ran dry they'd have no means of disposing of the contaminated material from the probe nor would they be able to continually damage specific systems such as weapons or engines to keep it from breaking free itself. Corporate Operation Supervisor "Cross", Field Operations Commander "Codex" and newly promoted Research Chief "Tempest" had discreetly assembled to re-assess the situation and see what could be done after 7 hours of shouting, panicking and even a little bit of crying, they had failed to come up with a solution to prevent the imminent containment breach. When Archon-1, the newly promoted "Grand Councilor" had been informed, he had an emotional breakdown and hurled his holo-tablet across the office which caused the device to shatter against the wall and abruptly end the conversation. Cross had simply shut down from the stress of the situation and had resigned himself to drinking Orillian Absinthe in his quarters, Codex had optimistically proclaimed everything would be alright only for his quarters to be found empty the next day along with one of the Corporate Shuttles missing, Tempest had been found slumped over in a chair in his office with a hole in the side of his head and a dropped onto the floor.
Blackout had completely shut down, with maintenance personnel working frantically to extract as much material from the Probe as they could and rip it apart for data. A few had even begun to disregard the containment procedures and unknowingly been contaminated, if they somehow survived the collapse of the laboratory in time they'd be assimilated by the replicating nanites now in their coolant tubes. They had learned more in the next 3 days then they had the entirety of the facility's operation and they sent it all back to the Citadel. Then they went back to work, doing everything they could to learn all that was possible. They'd work until the very end, under the false illusion that they could somehow learn some deep secret that would allow them to prevent the probe from assimilating all the nearby material. It was a hopeless quest as they no longer had the equipment to do so, all they could do was study what they had or take the easy way out.
They were all on borrowed time, there was no escaping what was to come, they just didn't know it yet.
Blackout was going to fall.