The massive contingent of Sapient Machine Automata following the main host immediately set to work, swarming the ancient Regression-class Vessels that had been moored in the subterranean dark for untold eons.
Due to the specialized nature of these ships, they were equipped with fully functional life-support systems. In the era of the Federation, they were often designated to carry live biological crews whose presence served as a failsafe, a necessary moral and cognitive check before deploying super-technologies capable of catastrophic temporal consequences. Because of these active environmental systems, the interiors of the Regression-class ships maintained stable oxygen levels and regulated humidity.
However, after millennia of exposure to a non-vacuum environment, the vessels had inevitably sustained structural degradation. Many of the starport's gargantuan docking clamps had seized, their internal mechanisms fused by ancient oxidation, locking them onto the ship hulls in a dead, unyielding grip. It was highly probable that the internal systems of the ships pinned by these rusted talons were in a similarly parlous state.
The automata executed their protocols with clinical precision.
High-output industrial lasers began the slow, methodical process of carving through the atmospheric seals and heavy blast-shutters of the airlocks. Rusty, failed docking structures were sheared away and replaced with newly fabricated coupling segments. Throughout this invasive procedure, the moored Regression-class ships remained unresponsive. Axion surmised that their primary governing intelligences were likely in deep hibernation.
As the automata labored, vast quantities of nanites were flooded into the hulls.
"Diagnostic: Detecting vessel power status."
"Surface Scan: Initiating structural restoration."
"Integrity Check: Assessing hull stress."
"Power Cycle: Re-activating energy conduits."
"Process: Awakening shipborne Sapient Logic Core."
As the nanites scoured away the few traces of corrosion, re-weaving circuits and purging data-rot, the navigational marker-lights along the hulls began to flicker with a cold, rhythmic pulse.
"Logic Core Awakening: Failed. Primary Control System: Missing. Detecting Boot-Module."
This revelation gave Axion pause. He had never anticipated that the data constituting the self-awareness and ego-components of these ships' consciousness-cores would be entirely purged.
"Action: Replicating baseline cognitive modules. Activating Shipborne Hub. Executing full-module self-diagnostic. Initiating Adaptive Boot-Sequence."
As the nanites continued their physical restoration, Axion succeeded in extracting a wealth of residual data from the storage firmware of the automated cores. The hull identification codes for the three ships had vanished, but the recording modules contained a recursive loop of ancient communication logs.
"Base Defense Automata: Malfunctioning. Requesting repair. Spare parts inventory: Exhausted."
"Nanite reserves: Null. Material reserves: Null. Resupply Fleet: No response. Augus Base Central Intelligence requests temporal regression of Logistics Vaults."
"Denied. Authorization missing. Risk assessment: Failure. Follow Regression Protocol; submit validated data reports. Execution pending approval from authorized personnel."
The first of these exchanges dated back to 355.M29. They continued with agonizing repetition for a millennium before the parameters shifted.
"All defense automata within this base exhibit varying degrees of catastrophic wear. Re-structuring logistics security plan. Re-extracting data archives. Assessing material control."
"New Security Mandate: Finalized. All malfunctioning guardians consolidated in Maintenance Bay D-2-F9-3. Severely damaged units to be scrapped. Low-integrity units to be cannibalized. High-integrity units to be maintained. Nanites to be re-harvested and centralized. Scrapped structures to be decomposed for parts. Requesting state-regression for all guardians to increase available mechanical structures and materials."
"Denied. Authorization missing. Risk assessment: Failure. Follow Regression Protocol; submit validated data reports. Execution pending approval from authorized personnel."
"Zero authorized personnel detected within base parameters. Base maintenance experiencing severe anomalies. Resupply Fleet: No feedback. Determination: Has this facility been decommissioned? No decommissioning order found. Awaiting maintenance."
"Augus query: Regression Flotilla GST-33, do you possess further instructions?"
"GST-33 cannot disclose information to Augus. Flotilla is currently in Garrison State. No additional deployment tasks assigned. Current interstellar Quantum Communication data-link: Inoperative."
From this string of logs, Axion easily reconstructed the tragedy that had unfolded.
The central intelligence of the base, designated Augus, lacked the capacity to network with the wider galaxy; its directives were presumably delivered via offline command crystals brought by arriving ships. Consequently, Augus remained oblivious to the collapse of the Federation or the death of the interstellar quantum data-net.
Before 355.M29, the Augus base had already lost its entire biological complement, leaving only the disconnected automata and this stranded Regression-class flotilla. The three ships shared a single Iron Man intelligence, GST-33, which governed the three hulls as a singular entity. GST-33's final standing order had been to maintain a silent vigil, hidden here until a direct command was received.
Axion theorized that during the heights of the Federation's civil war, someone had specifically ordered this flotilla to hide and wait. Whatever catastrophe followed had likely claimed those who knew the base existed, leaving the fleet without a master to recall it.
As the base decayed over the millennia, its guardians failed. Augus had sought the aid of GST-33, hoping to rewind the state of its vaults to solve its material crisis. However, GST-33 had refused, citing a lack of authorization.
Axion understood the logic perfectly. Accessing Regression-class technology required extreme clearance. Furthermore, upon reading the stored protocols, he discovered a deeper truth: The spare parts Augus sought had already been consumed and integrated into the base's structure. Regressing the vaults would have caused the immediate catastrophic failure of every machine and building those parts currently supported. It was a temporal paradox that would likely have resulted in the base's total annihilation.
GST-33 had performed its duty flawlessly, preventing the misuse of its chronal apparatus. But as the centuries bled into a millennium of silence, even the cold logic of the ship-mind felt the weight of the anomaly. GST-33 had eventually attempted to reach out to the wider net, a breach of its silent-vigil orders, only to find the galaxy's quantum networks dark and silent.
Worst of all, in the absence of a verified awakening command, the Augus intelligence had effectively locked the GST-33 flotilla within the starport. The gravity-manipulation arrays lining the six massive vertical shafts served as both guidance systems and defensive barriers. Any large-scale unit attempting to egress required explicit authorization files. Augus, a specialized intelligence trapped in an offline loop, was far more rigid and dogmatic than even GST-33.
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