May 18th, 002 SDE, 1533 hours; Location Ancient Alien Station in low orbit of the Zah star:

The young man walked into the room, his rifle tightly grasped. All around him were alien pods. Dozens of them, each one a potential threat. The rest of his squad followed behind him. The data they had found had been downloaded as quickly as possible, and they rushed here to assist.

A young woman approached, “Creepy, isn’t it? All these bird people in pods.”

“Are they a threat?”

Someone else interjected, “The pod shielding isn’t too thick. I was able to take some scans. So far all of these aliens are technically alive, but I’m not sure that means much.”

“Why?”

“Well, someone has removed their brains. Some are missing other organs as well.”

He shuddered, “Their brains? Why would anyone remove a brain?”

“I can make a few guesses, but sadly there isn’t any way to know for sure. Of course whoever did this were real bastards.”

The man glanced over the alien bird people in pods, “Agreed, but I think we just found a reason to be far more cautious here.”

A third person interjected, “Which is why I am putting all teams on alert. Anyway I heard your team found something?”

“Yes, some alien research. High energy physics from the looks of it. We aren’t sure what they were doing, some of the data was corrupted, but it involved drawing power from the star.”

“Interesting. You aren’t the only team to find a lab. Several labs have been found, mostly useless, but a few look promising. Do you have the data?”

“We do!”

“Good. Deliver it to the shuttle and maybe grab a few extra sentry turrets while you are at it. I’d like to secure the area, just in case we find something more threatening than living corpses.”

That sounded like a plan. Sentry turrets were exactly as they sounded like. Deployable anti-infantry turrets intended for area denial. They also served to alert forces in the area to unexpected movements. They were fairly simple devices that were lightly armored, and equipped with a modest power pack and a sensor array. A small controller computer and comm array were in combination to the sensors used to identify friendly or hostile targets. The turrets could also be set up for an operator to remotely control them. Armament varied from manufacturer, but they typically carried a light rifle caliber particle weapon mount. The ones on the shuttle, were designed by STI and utilized a stripped-down version of the XR-471. They fired the exact same particle bolt, but lacked the extra features of the weapon. Most notably the secondary fire mode. It did not matter that it only had the primary fire mode though since the turrets were more a surprise weapon than anything else. The light armor was weaker than most infantry armor, but a few well-placed turrets could cut down entire regiments with ease. Especially when combined with a minefield and other battlefield traps.

His mind recalling that was already hard at work deciding where best to place them. There were a few corridors they had already placed turrets up in. Just to maintain a perimeter, but now that they knew for sure this place may house threats. It was best to be more cautious. At least until their ride home returned. Unfortunately, the Coto had to withdraw to recharge her radiation shields and it would be a few hours before she returned. In the meantime, they had nothing better to do, but continue their exploration. Only with a hair more caution than before.

1833 hours:

The man slipped into another lab, rifle at the ready as he scanned the empty shelves and long abandoned tables. He sighed, as he lowered the rifle. As usual there was nothing. The most exciting thing to happen since the Coto left was in the last lab, when someone tripped over an errant tool. An alien wrench or something similar. It was nothing more than a length of solid metal with a couple of odd prongs on one end. No circuitry, no fancy properties. It was just a simple length of alien alloys. One they knew, duratanium. A metal used by several alien races in starship construction and apparently tools. 

Speaking to the rest of the squad, he declared, “Clear!”

A moment later the others filed in, and the tech looked around, she sighed, “Kind of empty isn’t it?”

“Aren’t most of them?”

“Yeah I’ve noticed. Wish we could find more artifacts, but it seems the aliens left precious little behind.”

“Aside from living corpses in every other room...”

The man glanced at the door, “What is with these aliens and leaving their still living victims everywhere.”

Sadly no one knew. All they had found were the brainless bird people. Always kept alive by alien devices and preserved for who knows how long. It was hard to say how long this station had been left here abandoned, but the aliens who built it certainly left behind a fair number of artifacts. Most were useless but there were things that seemed promising. Of course he didn’t take anything he wasn’t absolutely sure was harmless. If there was any chance of danger they would leave it where it lay. Those would be left until someone could verify they were safe.

Turning back the room, the squad began the routine of examining what lay in the room. They found a few items left on the floor, a couple in old metal cabinets and even a still active computer. The computer was most interesting, but much of the data on it was just alien text. He sighed, translating that was going to take awhile. At least now they were getting more of a read on things. He watched as her device started work on translating the text. This time without an uplink to the Coto with which to speed up translation, but at least now it already had a framework.

Eventually the tech started reading it, once enough had been converted into her preferred Japanese. She was silent for a moment or two before she started sharing, “Looks to be a log.”

“A log? Anything interesting?”

Not really. Mostly just routine lab reports and experiment logs. From the look of it, this lab was working in the biosciences. Huh, this one looks interesting.

Lab Log 44117-12;

The Ikir will be arriving soon, is much disappointed with our lack of recent progress. Hopefully he will be better pleased with today’s experiment. A new subject arrived earlier today and we hope she proves more receptive to the treatment. If not I fear for the future of the Regthi. As it is, there is already much talk of abandoning these stars to the [error section corrupted]

In regards to the subject I have had her prepared for today's experiment. A series of injections of serum 877g, if she responds properly we should see the expected set of mutations as outlined in report 223-b. Hopefully, without the errant mutation errors we saw with previous subjects. As I believe I have identified the genetic aberrations that caused these errors. If so we could set a higher production rate or [Error section corrupted]

He frowned, “That sounds interesting, but rather...”

“Uninformative I know. I saw a few others. Sadly some sections are corrupted. Its enough to guess at what they were doing and their motivations.”

He let out a breath, “Yes like some twisted version of ourselves or something.”

“Hard to say what, but I can see what you mean.” she glanced at the text, her expression unreadable behind her armored helmet, “We never did, but if we had lost our humanity in the war who knows what we might have done trying to save ourselves.”

“Nothing good, but sadly a few groups did do clandestine and immoral experiments.”

“Sadly true.”

The woman shifted as she watched the screen. Her last three days had been rather... busy. Sleep was hard to come by and keeping the ship from falling apart was a full-time job. Those particle bolts had done a real number on her ship. The hull was barely holding together, systems were barely functioning and worse the ship’s structural integrity grid was constantly on the verge of collapse. It didn’t help that the ship was barely able to handle the stress her own engines were generating.

At least they were moving, but with the damage they sustained? They were lucky to maintain 12c, barely faster than warp three. It was frustratingly slow and they were looking at a journey of months just to reach port. Assuming help didn’t arrive that is, but thankfully their comm array did survive the battle. Even if they were a limping wreck running mainly on backup systems or whatever they cobbled together, at least they still had some important things like long range communications and life support.

Ahead of her, she watched the shadowy shape of a fellow cruiser lining up with her own. As her crew worked to match speed and align their hull with the other ship. Even if the other ship would have to do most of the work, they were coordinating to make it easier. A moment later her screen blinked and the other captain appeared on the comm.

The other captain chuckled with a wry smile on her face, “I’ve helped ships from failed probing attacks before, but they really did a number on you.”

She sighed, “Yes, the Refuge are more threatening to us than we thought. We were lucky to get away, but worse than that. The Refuge has revealed a weakness in our cloaking technology.”

“Yes, I’ve reviewed your initial report and so has the admiralty.”

She shifted on her feet, “I see, what did they say?”

“In light of your report, they sent me here in haste to retrieve you, your crew and your ship's logs. They want to work on improving our cloaking devices as soon as possible.”

“I see, and what of the Refuge?”

“Ignore them for now. They did read your recommendations on bigger guns and they have a new mission for you.”

“Wait!? What!? I practically lost my ship, what mission could they have for me.”

The other captain giggled, “Considering you were in a complete mismatch? They don’t see it that way. I’m sending the details.”

The channel closed a moment later and she was presented with a briefing on a new mission.

Slave Captain Turell, our condolences on the state of your ship, but in light of recent events. Fleet plans are now being changed. Your recommendation of up gunning the fleet in the event we face the Refuge is certainly merited. Especially given what it says about possible conflicts with the Krall. To that end, we have a new mission for you.

A new cruiser is being prepared at the port of Neoda. We want you to take command of that ship for a mission of vital importance. Encoded in this briefing are details on a new Valorian Dreadnought project, the Yinta II. In short the Yinta II is meant to replace the aging dreadnoughts protecting their core worlds and is being pushed by a more warlike faction within the Valorian council. They didn’t have much traction until the recent events at Cantra, but now they are gaining increasing power. Intelligence assets indicate the dreadnought is being built with Cathamari-inspired technology. That technology is of interest to us. Your task will be to insert a special operations team and retrieve samples of the new Valorian weapons tech. As for the project if possible we would also like you to sabotage it, but prioritize retrieving samples over any secondary objectives. Further details will be given to you, upon arrival at Neoda.

She sighed, that was a fairly important mission. Turell wasn’t sure why they would select her, but she would do her best. With that in mind, she took a moment to review what they sent her on the Yinta. She blinked, the ship was massive. Far larger than any other combat vessel in the Valorian fleet. It was drafted as being 6100 meters in length with over two hundred decks. Protected with Class IV shields and a Class three warp drive capable of warp five. Her intended armament was going to be a massive number of focused plasma torpedoes and something called a Concussion Pulse Cannon. In addition, her large hull was to contain four spacious hangers housing some five thousand fighters and bombers.

A weight filled her belly, this thing would be a beast if it was finished. With the power of a small fleet. Thankfully as usual the Valorians didn’t bother with significant armor. Instead preferring to rely on their deflectors and shields for protection. Regardless she didn’t want to let it be completed. As it would make the Valorians into a real threat if it was. The mentioned shift in their politics was not welcome either. With their wealth, the Valorians were perhaps the most powerful of the races in this part of the galaxy. Well outside of the Krall that is.