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POV: Arthur Sinclair.
The air was tense. The fleet heading for the Inner Sphere had made its last stop before reaching what is expected to be a habitable world.
At first, it was planned to go straight to Terra. The plan was quickly changed upon discovering what HPGs do to subspace. Instead, the ship would head for the edge of Draconis Combine space, to the Epsilon Pegasus system.
Records of the system had been discovered on board the Claymore. It had been a Terran Hegemony research outpost, even before the creation of the Star League. During the Star League, the world had gotten an orbital JumpShip yard, and several DropShip repair bays.
It was only as I was going through my memories with the help of the Asgard that I realized I had heard of the world in my past life, and luckily, I had read the sarna.net page for the Epsilon Pegasus system.
If my memory was correct, then the system was abandoned until 3023, when it was rediscovered by Comstar. Considering that the Cobalt Eye's calculations showed it would still be some time in the 30th century — at least 20 years before the discovery of Epsilon Pegasus — the system would be the ideal position for a forward operating base for entering the Inner Sphere.
In more unpleasant news, as the fleet had entered the area within approximately two thousand light years of Terra, there had been a measurable decrease in the fleet's speed. It was barely a few fractions of a percent, but it was an unfortunate sign that our fears about the effects of the HPG network were likely true.
The good news was that this decrease in speed would give ample warning of when a vessel was getting too close to an active HPG.
So, the last few days slowly ticked by, with the fleet providing constant updates through the Goa'uld communication orbs. As the last few hours passed, there were still no signs of any form of HPG use near or within the system.
As the days turned into hours and the hours into minutes, the critical decision makers all made their way into the newly constructed situation room. At the center was a massive holotable, which had been connected up to the communication orb so that everyone could see what came through on the sensors.
Everyone watched on in silence as the fleet exited hyperspace in orbit of the fourth world in the Epsilon Pegasus system; the world of Columbus. All the vessels immediately cloaked and began scanning the world.
It was only after half an hour of searching that the facility was identified. It sat on the edge of a crater, on one of the world's two northern continents. The facility showed serious signs of overgrowth. From orbit, everything appeared intact, so a pair of Tel'tak entered the atmosphere to scout from close range.
On the ground, there were no signs of any habitation whatsoever. The facility was surrounded by plant life that had been left untouched for at least several hundred years. Signs of sweeping wildfires that had killed all the plant life on the plains the facility was in, though it clearly had resulted in no actual damage to the primary structures; the Department of Mega Engineering built things to last.
So, after doing an initial sweep of the site and finding nothing but empty buildings, the fleet came down. The landing strip was still completely intact, despite at least a couple centuries of disuse, so landing was no issue.
The various search teams got out and began a more thorough inspection. The facility was large. It would be easily capable of housing a few thousand personnel. In the meantime, one of the 30 Stargates that had been picked up during the trip from Mycena was brought out and installed on the ground. The DHD was placed alongside the gate, and the first wave of personnel started going through.
Over the next couple of hours, every single room, hallway and corridor was mapped extensively. It was only when the facility had been fully mapped a full day later, including the Outpost Castle, a smaller variant of Castle Brian — named for Brian Cameron, the 6th Director-General of the Terran Hegemony — that sat underneath the facility, that I was finally given the okay to head over. Going with me was Major Novak, whose security code was required to unlock the Memory Core.
So, as I stepped out of the Stargate and stepped, for the first time, onto a Star League world, I was surprised that I didn't feel all that different. The Stargate had been placed just near the entrance to the facility rather than inside to prevent the Stargate from damaging the structure.
With approval from President Arriston and Elder James and with a pair of guards in tow, I began examining the various large-scale constructs. I started at the pair of DropShip service depots.
The base clearly had not been a small one. There were two service depots, each of which could hold four DropShips for a total of eight, not to mention the hangar that could hold another dozen more.
First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: SLDF Dropship Service Depot (DSD)
DSD Gantry System, Dropship Relocation System,
Both the gantry and the series of moving platforms that constituted the relocation system were something else. The gantry could lift a DropShip that weighed up to 40,000 tons with little issue (assuming it was attached correctly). Meanwhile, the relocation system was a series of moving pads placed on rails. The pads would act as landing platforms for the DropShips, and could then hurry them into either the nearby DSD or one of the empty hangars.
With the first of the interesting facilities examined, next on the list was the BattleMech repair facility. While I had been rather surprised to find the structure here, that was more so because it wasn't mentioned on the Sarna page. It was, however, mentioned in the Claymore's records.
First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: SLDF BattleMech Repair Facility (BRF)
COMCore Computer
Now this… was interesting. The COMCore was an advanced scheduling and help computer, basically a very simple AI. It could, through basic scans, get a basic understanding of how badly damaged a BattleMech was, figure out how long it would take to make sufficient repairs, and then inform crews to speed up the repair times.
Technically speaking, it was a very advanced virtual intelligence. It held a lot of similarities to the Cobalt Eye's AI, and had clearly been a part of the inspiration behind the ship's creation.
I hadn't heard of the technology before; I would have to ask the major about it when I got the chance.
Other than the dilapidated nearby town that had sadly burned down more than a century prior, the last remaining structure on the surface of the world was a massive DoME research complex.
The building had four levels, and there were another four of them below the ground. Columbus was the primary Terran Hegemony and then SLDF research outpost for the spinward Deep Periphery. It was used as a stopping-off point for a lot of expeditions. When one expedition returned, it would bring biological samples from newly surveyed worlds.
This facility had state-of-the art biological laboratories, everything from virology to botany. The third and fourth basement labs were a collection of massive indoor greenhouses (though the living material had unfortunately perished already).
First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Columbus Research Lab.
Floor Plan
So, with the last of the surviving ground-level facilities visited, it was time to visit the last remaining structure on the planet. On the side of the nearby crater was a door. It had been among the first things opened up when the fleet had arrived, and the extensive tunnel network had been the primary time sink when ensuring that the world was safe.
The entrance to the world's Outpost Castle. The original Castles were absolutely massive underground fortresses that could easily safely house entire armies, from everything up to and including orbital bombardment.
While only a few hundred were truly confirmed to exist, there were actually hundreds more of them hidden just about anywhere you could imagine. The Terran Hegemony had gotten very good at building the structures in the territory of the other Star League member states, and most of them remained hidden even centuries after their construction.
The Outpost Castles were much smaller, but still very well hidden and just as well fortified as their larger counterparts.
Waiting for me at the entrance was a member of the Manassas' marine complement, standing alongside a small wheeled vehicle. He saluted once. "Sir. The major told me to escort you down to the Command and Control Bunker."
"Thank you. I appreciate your help." The marine nodded for me to enter the vehicle. My guards and I did so, and we began the drive down into the tunnels. The Outpost clearly had power, since the overhead lights were all on, so I could watch the absolutely massive tunnel fly past.
While the place definitely needed cleaning – dust and soot covered the floor and the walls – I couldn't find any damage whatsoever to the structure itself.
The driver took us through several tunnels, and past several very large but empty warehouses. It was a good thirty minutes of driving before we arrived at a pair of massive doors. Half a dozen vehicles were parked, with Marines standing at attention before the facility.
I got out of the vehicle, and the moment my foot touched the ground, a notification went off inside my head.
First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Outpost Castle.
Command and Control Bunker (Columbus)
I stopped for a second to look over the information in my head before thanking the Marine for the ride over. He nodded back, and I made my way to the main entrance. I passed the marines, who all seemed to stand even straighter as I passed.
The inside of the bunker was heavily fortified and rather confusing to navigate. It was only with the help of the floor plans that had been added to my brain that I could navigate through the tight corridors and to the command center. There, I found two dozen people, the Major among them, all of them staring into terminals.
The Major turned to me and nodded as I entered. "Arthur. What's the state of the aboveground facilities?"
I shrugged. "It looks like the Service Depot will just require some minor repairs, same with the BattleMech Repair Facility. What about on your end?"
The Major shrugged. "We have full access, but the facility has been cleared out. Looks like this was one of the sites that got looted during Operation EXODUS."
I shrugged. "Ahh well. We still have a fully operational Outpost Brian, and the Research Facility on the surface is about as advanced as you're going to get from the Star League. Now, is there any chance I can help with going through these records?"
The Major smiled and gestured to one of the open terminals. I took a seat and got to work.
The facility had modest star maps for the Spinward Deep Periphery. While searching through the records, we also found reference to a seed vault up at the planet's North Pole that was supposed to have samples of every single plant that had been brought to the world since it was founded. That would be something worth checking out.
While we were searching through the Outpost's records, we had also confirmed that there was a set of three Jumpship Drydocks, each large enough to hold even a Monolith Class Jumpship, and one of them capable of holding even WarShips; the Star League Exploration Command's SLS Pioneer — a modified Avatar-Class Heavy Cruiser — had apparently been stationed at Columbus for several years, and its arrival had necessitated the addition of the WarShip repair yard.
The dry dock had been hidden inside the core of Columbus' small moon, and the Tel'tak had failed to detect its existence until a more in-depth scan of the moon was completed. With access to the Outpost Brian on the world's surface, we commanded the hidden entrance to open up.
The inside of the facility was just as empty as the warehouses on the planet, but all the infrastructure was intact, and frankly, in even better condition than the structures on the planet.
All of this was great, but there was one piece of information that was available within the Outpost Castles computer systems. Today's date: the fifth of April, 2977.