View source for Drafted-Discovery

Drafted 6 - Discovery


== Discovery ==


Three weeks later, you get up from your bed just like the weeks before. The wormhole is still open, but you are nowhere near answers on how the AI ships of the Yan Jung were organised, how they communicated and how to enter the central structure. The Sergeant doesn't even accompany you on the frequent trips of the past weeks, because there is nothing new to see there. The only thing you do is to try to get a reaction from the structure, either the central or the outlying structures, with anything the scientists can come up with. Nothing happens. No reaction whatsoever. You tried to ram the structure out of frustration a couple of times, but Aura prevented any collision between your ship and the structure. Some days even pass without you getting into your ship because there is nothing new to try. You have learned all the skillbook of the Ancient Section could provide and you returned to your original skillplan, fat lot of good that did. Now you got useless information stuck in your head, which doesn't make any sense at all. And it sure as hell isn't helping you get into the structure. The artefacts that were taken from the other sites don't help too, it's just a garbled mess and it provides no answers. And today, it will be as much filled with frustration, just as the previous days. 

"Get your butt out here ensigns, we got training to do" you hear the Sergeant's voice thunder from the common room. 

"Coming sir" you reply as you hear Ferrier and Simmons do the same. Getting ready for the mornings' training has become a second nature. Half-awake you already put on your training gear and you head out. 

"Morning sunshine, ready for another day, another disappointment" the Sergeants says as a greeting. 

"Yes sir, as always sir." you reply without a hint of humour in your tone. 

"Ah, you feel like I do, don't you. Well today we are not going to study that stupid Yan Jung site, we are going hunting. A bit of fun if you will. "

"Hunting what sir?"

"There are a number of pirates sighted nearby, so we're going to catch them."

"Right sir, I think we will have better luck catching them, than we have unlocking the mysteries of the Yan Jung."

"Right, now let's do our training, have some breakfast and then head out."

"Yes sir." Ferrier, Simmons and you reply. 

After the workout and a good breakfast you head out to the hangar to pick up your ship. 

"Well, there are some changes I made yesterday to your loadouts, but they will be acceptable I think" the Sergeant says with a grin. You rush to the terminal computer to find out what specific changes there are.

"Hang on, what's this?" you ask. "This looks like all tech 2 modules, I can't afford those yet, not to mention the cost of the ammo. Are you kidding me?" you look at the Sergeant, whilst being pushed aside from the terminal by both Ferrier and Simmons who want to check out their new loadouts. 

"The price isn't the problem, we are going after bigger game today, so I thought you needed bigger guns. I can always make the computer reset the loadout to your previous setting if you prefer?"

"No no no, this is just fine, but I was wondering how we were going to pay for these."

"No worries about that grunt, Ancient Section has its own blueprints for the ammo, and they got enough of it in stock, so no extra charges. Anyways, wanna test your new guns?"

"Heck yeah" Simmons replies. "This is going to be so sweet."

"Alright then, get into your ship and wait outside for me."

You walk to the pod immersion station, strip down out of your uniform and lie down in the pod. Within seconds you are connected and enclosed. You can almost sense how you are being lifted and installed into your Atron, when the camera feed comes online. Mentally blinking you check out the new modules, not only did you get new guns, but a new repairer and damage control as well. As Simmons said, this is going to be sweet. The moment you exit the hangar you stop your ship to wait for the others. Within seconds, one after one Ferrier, Simmons and the Sergeant emerge. 

"What did you get for modules Ferrier?"

"I got some sweet tech 2 probing equipment here, this will help me find those wormholes even faster, not to mention any other vessel in the vicinity."

"Nice, and you Simmons?"

"Really nice guns, and a better armour repairer and damage control system, and you?"

"I think I got the same as you, this is cool."

"Now have you grunts finished admiring your new modules?" the Sergeant interrupts.

"Yes sir, thanks sir."

"No worries, fleet up and let's look for some pirates to shoot down."

You join the fleet the Sergeant has set up and form up behind him, just before he launches the fleet into warp. This is going to be a nice day, better than being stuffed in the station with incomprehensible Yan Jung stuff you think by yourself. 



----

"That's it, I think I cracked it" you shout out into the communication channel. 

"You cracked it? How do we get in then?" the Sergeant asks impatiently. 

"We need to get those outlying structures close to the central structure. I think then the door will open."

"Ok and how are we supposed to get those structures there?"

"We need to find the right signal, I think the central structure will pull the outlying ones towards the center or connect to them in some form. Now we need to figure out how to get the right signal."

"So you haven't figured it out just yet, now have you."

"That's true sir, but I think we're a lot closer to the solution then we ever were. Ferrier, can you use your ship to go through all frequencies, radio and light frequencies as well?"

"Sure, my systems can handle that, but where to start?"

"I think mine can figure out the most probable sequences and frequencies, based on the measurements we took."

"Indeed I can, I will command all the other ship AI's start at the list I have prepared" Aura replies. 

Only an hour or so later and suddenly a bright beam of light is emitted from the central structure to one of the smaller structures. The light fades, but the small structure is moving slowly towards the central structure.

"Yes we did it" you shout out. "Aura, did you know what sequence was successful?"

"Yes I do, I'm sending instructions to narrow down the variations and try a new set."

After a few seconds another flash is emitted from the central structure. Then another one and another, followed by the outlying structures moving towards the center. 

"Ok guys, just stop there for a moment. We don't know what will happen if all the structures are placed near the central structure. It may even provoke another attack of those AI ships of the Yan Jung. We need to have some back up in place. Besides I think that Chiraq will appreciate being here before the structure opens up, not to mention all those jealous scientists that didn't succeed in cracking the code." the Sergeant booms over the communication line. 

"Alright sir." you reply. "Aura, hold those final instructions."

Hours seem to pass as more and more ship reach the central structure. Circling around it, there are heavy hitters with capital ships, supported by a myriad of battleships and cruisers. Not to mention quite a few frigates, assault frigates as well as scan & probe frigates. That might be a good idea, as we don't know what will happen if the final outlying structure is close to the central structure, it could be possible that the entrance to this wormhole space will collapse and that we will be stranded. Food will be no problem, but getting out might be. Finally Chiraq arrives in a shiny new Vexor cruiser. He starts up a new fleet, with himself as commander. Quickly everybody is entering it and moved into appropriate wings and squadrons. You and your team, along with the Sergeant, are in a squadron of your own. 

"Well done Sergeant, by you and your team. I see you may have the solution in getting us into the structure without blowing it to smithereens" Chiraq says. 

"Yes sir, well I have to admit it was one of my grunts and his AI that solved the puzzle." The Sergeant replies. 

"Never mind that, you have done a good job, just as I expected you to do."

"Yes sir."

"Now, everyone ready, including the scanner squadron?" A number 'aye sir' follows. 

"Alright then, scanner squadron, I want you posted at the entrance to this wormhole, see if it is still there as the last structure is getting in place. Assault frigates, I want one of you stationed at designated places in this place."
Soon after that almost all the frigates are warping to their designated places, to make sure that we get a forewarning of any problems that arise if the structures line up.

"Ok Sergeant, you want to start of the last sequence and see what happens?"

"Yes sir. You heard it, make me proud" the Sergeant says to you.

"Yes sir, Aura, have you figured out the final sequence?"

"Yes I have"

"Ok, let's play it and see what happens."
A second later there is another flash of light emitting from the central structure. Then the last outlying structure begins to move towards the center. As it approaches the other structures seem to scoot over as to make room for the last one. One by one they are connected to the central structure, first only by a small light, then physically. 

"Look at that" one of the scientists says out loud. "There is no gap between the structures anymore, as if the metal has melted and fused together. This is fantastic!"

"That's fine, but keep your communication to a minimum, if anything bad happens we need to have a clear line of communication, so no more chatter" Chiraq replies. 

Four more structures to go as one by one, all of them are connected to the big central structure, which is getting even bigger by the minute. Finally the last one is in place, you can almost feel the anticipation on what is going to happen within the fleet. Every member is hoping that this will be the key. That, and that there will be no more enemy attacks. A few ice crystals fly into space as part of the hull of the central structure, or better spacestation, is sliding away. There it is, an opening, without blowing up the structure itself. One of the scientist is moving in closer, examining the pinkish red hue coming of some kind of forcefield. He launches a drone and sends it to where he doesn't dare to go just yet. Everyone is keeping his eyes on the structure, no defensive guns have emerged, no apparent threat. The drone keeps flying up closer and closer, then it goes through the field and into the structure itself. 
Chiraq talks to the scientist "so what is that thing at the entrance, a forcefield of some sort?"

"Yes it is sir, not harmful in any way. The only difference with our hangar forcefield is the colour of the field. The drone scanned it and found that the Yan Jung use different emitters then we do, which explains the colour."

"So there is no danger for us and our ships if we enter it?"

"I don't think so, but you never know until you try, isn't it sir?"

"True, so go ahead, find out what your probe has found behind the shield"
With a few swallowing sounds, coming through on the communication line, you see the scientist going in slowly. First the front bit of his ship, with the sensor arrays, then the midsection, containing the pod which contains his clone and then the rest. A garbled message is coming through on the communication line. 

"SKskjssst......entered...kssshhht.....ok....ssshrfjt"

"What's that? Repeat your message, adjust for the force field" Chiraq says. 

"Kssksht.... I have entered the hangar, everything is ok, the air here is breathable, but I think I have been scanned on entering the hangar."

"Ok, we will send a platoon of marines and another few scientists in to assist you."

"Yes sir."

Chiraq issues his orders. Quite a few ships enter the hangar warily but determined to find out what it is like on the inside. In the meanwhile he gets his reports from the assault frigates and scanner squadron. Nothing has happened, no new ship and the entrance to the wormhole is still there. 

"Report" he says to the lead scientist. "What is it like?"

"Sir, we have left our pods and are exploring the hangar. Everything seems to be in working order."

"You left your pods? How did you do that?"

"Sir, to be honest I have no idea. One minute we were flying, the next minute a pod extraction crane grabbed our pods and got us out. It seems to be similar to our own technology, though it adapted itself a bit, creating the right tools at the moment it found out our pods were different. The systems even changed the gravity within the structure to support our needs, which I guess it did by scanning us and setting the gravity at 0.8 normal, sir"

"Mmm and the marines, have they debarked yet?"

"Yes sir, and they are making their way to the central chamber we dubbed Hangar Control. And there is more sir, a lot of machinery and parts unfamiliar to us, probably for the ships of the Yan Jung themselves. It seems to be fully automated and responding to us in particular. There is a lot of writing here that we cannot comprehend. Not even with the translations we made based on the artifacts."

"We already knew that there would be a lot of stuff to figure out, but that will have to be at a later stage. The first priority is to secure the facilities and make sure it is safe for us" Chiraq replies. "Marines, what is your status?"

The squad leader of the marines replies almost immediately. "We are at what we think is hangar control. We encountered no resistance, nor did we find any drones that attack us, but we haven't gotten control of the systems just yet. It seems our hacking equipment isn't effective. Does anyone know the lingo of these Yan Jung, or at least read it?"

"No such luck squad leader, you have to figure it out yourself. Give me a sign when it is safe to enter the hangar."

"Will do sir."

"You guys can go to our own station know, if there is anything interesting I will let you know. Besides, you need to be debriefed on how you guys figured out how to enter this structure." Chiraq says to the Sergeant. Without hesitation your squad follows the Sergeant into warp towards the nearest gate and head back home. You take a final look, promising yourself that you would enter the structure and find out its secrets. After a couple of jumps you see the familiar shape of your own home station and the four of you approach the hangar of the Ancient Section. Quickly you go through the procedures of docking, getting out of your pod and taking the shower to wash the pod-goo of your body. After that you are hurried into the debriefing chamber. With the information from your Aura, along with whatever the four of you can add the debriefing is quickly taken over by the scientists that aren't aboard the central Yan Jung  structure. They keep asking question after question, trying to figure out how you cracked the key to enter the structure in just a matter of months while they couldn't figure out the key even after all those years. You think that they are a bit jealous and above all envious, but you don't understand quite why. No-one will know what you have done, this is a top secret mission and no-one outside the Ancient Section can know about this. You let your mind drift off while the others answer the questions, mostly the same questions or variations on them they have been asking for a couple of hours now. Then again, if they find out in a hundred years, you might still be alive as a capsuleer. Oh well, you muse, that's only if I survive that long. 

"Can we go now? I want to get some sleep and it seems to me you are asking the same questions over and over again."

"I have to agree with the grunt there, there is nothing more we can tell you, and besides, we will still be here in the morning" the Sergeant adds. 

"Alright" one of the scientists replies, you think his name is Generaux, but you're not sure. "We will find you if we have new questions to ask you, you have done us all a big favor, even if we don't act like it" he adds with a smile. 

"Thanks" the Sergeant replies as he turns to the three of you "let's go grunts, first something to eat, then some well-earned sleep."

"Yes sir" you reply. 

The next day, after the training exercises the Sergeant thought up and a good breakfast, a number of scientists already asked for your presence in a meeting with Chiraq and some of the scientist on the Yan Jung station via a video feed. You agree to it, hoping to see some of the inside of the structure. You take a seat and start to look at the video link, what you see is not so alien as you had thought, or hoped at least. There is just a wall behind the scientist and the only bit of interesting that it shows it that the markings on it in the top left corner are in Yan Jung writing . Which means it is completely gibberish to you, probably the manufacturer you think, as you look at the wall panel behind you, seeing the logo of a Gallente corporation in the top middle part of it. You turn your attention to the meeting and the agenda. There are a few more questions on how you figured out how to get in, and the answers haven't changed from what you replied yesterday. To you it was quite logical to assume the key had something to do with what the Yan Jung  are renowned for. Simple as that. The scientists however disagree, this shouldn't have been possible, and how did you know that the outlying structures would move. You reply you didn't know that, there could have been a tube running from it to the central structure and vice versa in order to connect the structures. The other possibility was that there would be a beam of energy running towards it, you had no idea. This baffles the scientists somewhat, you look at Chiraq for a little support and you see him smile approvingly. After that the scientists debate the finds they made in the structure and what they would mean. You try to look uninterested, but looking at a 3-d model of one of the machines in the hangar, you can't help yourself asking questions.

"So you say that this piece of equipment is meant to create spacecraft on demand, without the use of an assembly array as we do?" you ask one of the scientists who put this theory on the table. "Did it strip your ship for parts?" you add.

"Why no, our ships are still as they are when we flew in" he replies. "Do you think I am wrong?"

"Well, it could be what you said it does, or it could be something else entirely, like a repair module or an assembly module for ship modules, or a storage device to store the ship, just like the one we have downstairs."

You look around the table and see Chiraq smile and nodding. 

"Did it do anything at all?" you continue. 

"No, after the scan it remained motionless, but it has power so it is operational."

"Could we send in a drone ship, a damaged one?" You look at Chiraq. 

"That is a good idea, we could try that and see what happens." Chiraq replies. 

After thirty minutes you are in your ship, controlling a drone ship you have damaged with a few well placed shots. It is in low  as you guide it towards the entrance to the Yan Jung hangar. The scientists are already waiting inside, as is Chiraq who is waiting right next to you. As soon as the drone ship enters the hangar it is scanned, you find out on the feed of the camera of one of the scientists. Nothing happens after that. The drone ships remains at his position, not moving a single centimeter without your guidance. The scientists are stumped. They can't explain why nothing is happening, not even the pod retraction which happened to them. 

"Where were you when you were taken out of your ship?" you ask the lead scientist.

"I was moving toward the back of the hangar."

"Ok, let me try something" you reply as you nudge the droneship forward. As soon as it passes an invisible line a number of machines come to life. The descend on the droneship and start to repair it. You can see welding, new  plates added. The pod is extracted and put where the other ones have been stored. The pod extraction machine hesitates a moment as there is no movement inside, but then returns to its starting position. In the meanwhile the drone ship is fully repaired. Its damaged  has been replaced with new shiny  and the broken guns have been fixed as well.

"Well, this is what I would call a full service hangar" Chiraq says.

"Yes indeed it seems like that. But there is something  bothering me. If this is how you get out of the ships, how do you get back in there?"

"Good question, shall we find out?"

"How, do we enter the station and get out again?"

"Or we can let one of the scientists try to get back into his ship"

"I think I like that idea more. I hate to get stuck on this station, how wonderful it may be."

"Any idea on how to proceed?"

"When the camera of that one scientist focused on the pod extraction, there was a spot that was kept meticulously clean and without any machines or parts. I think that maybe if he stands there he will be put into his pod and into ship, but it could be voice controlled or with the help of someone in hangar control." you reply.

"Well, one way to find out I guess. Sahar, do what he just said, walk towards that spot and see what happens."

"Yes sir" Sahar replies to the order of Chiraq. The camera drone is moving with him, as he walks apprehensively towards the machine that removed him from the pod. He is startled as one of the machine is moving suddenly, scanning him again and seemingly waiting until he takes another step. He gets gently picked up and deposited in the lower part of the pod, after the connections with his brainstem have been made, the top part is bolted on and the pod is filled with the familiar pod goo. Seconds later his ship emerges from somewhere behind a forcefield and the pod is placed with precision into it. Then it is pushed towards the exit and the scientist emerges from the hangar. 

"How is it going Sahar?" Chiraq asks.

"Wow, that was invigorating, and it was fast, a lot faster than I am used to on our own station. Did you see it, I was out within 30 seconds, that has to be a record."

"Aura, can you check all the connections with Sahar in the pod? Is everything ok?"

"Yes sir, all is in good working order. The pod goo has been cleaned and the ship has the same configuration numbers as Sahar arrived in, it is his ship."

"His ship. You mean that this is the ship he came in with?"

"Indeed sir."

"Well, i wonder how that system would react if I have more than one  ship in that station."

"Perhaps it was unusual to have more than one ship at this station sir, the Yan Jung  could have made it a restriction for entering the hangar." You reply. 

"That could be true, you want to enter the station?" Chiraq asks.

"Sure, as long as I know I can get out again, I'm game." You reply with a smile. 

"Well here we go then."
You enter the hangar, you and your ship are scanned and you proceed towards the pod extraction point. 

"Aura, do you have any idea what it has been scanning for?"

"No, I have no idea." Aura replies.

"Perhaps you can try to find out while you are being stored, monitor all that is happening to you and your system and try to connect with the Yan Jung systems."

"Will do."

A minute later you are enter the hangar. After removing the pod goo with your hands you  walk away from the others, towards what looks like a cubicle to change without all the prying eyes. You took your precautions and brought your spare clothes with you in your pod, along with a few tools and scanners. You enter the cubicle and put down your satchel and start wiping of the goo. You lean against the wall and suddenly a shower turns on, not one with water but a sonic one. A small space opens in the wall and you tentatively put your hand in there, nothing much happens until you feel something brushing against your hand. You quickly withdraw your hand fearing it will be a mess of torn skin, but close inspection reveals that it is only cleaner than the other hand. Comforted you put in both your hands and they are quickly cleaned. Squeaky clean to be precise, and soon after that the sonic shower stops, figuring you should be clean about now, which you are. You grab your satchel and start changing into an overall, with a belt to hold your tools and scanners. When you get out the scientists are a bit puzzled. 

"What just happened there? A light came on, on the outside and we could hear a hum  of something" one of the scientists asks. 

"It's a shower, a sonic one, with an additional feature for getting your hands clean" you reply with a smile. "Works quite good I have to say" looking at your hands. 

"A shower, we should have figured that there would be facilities like this right near the pod extraction unit. We just wiped off the most of the goo and put our clothes on."

"I know, I could smell you as I got out of the shower" you reply with a big smile. 

"Ok, enough of that, let's start exploring this place" Chiraq adds. 

The both of you start walking away from the scientists who are now examining the shower facilities.