Project Shadow
11 Jan 2023Crisneb2000
This is a declassified file whose publication has been authorized by the federation.Date: Redacted.
Location: Redacted.
Report.
I arrived at Redacted a very remote area more than 1500Ly from the nearest inhabited system, I was collecting navigation data when the FSS detected an unknown signal at 14000Ls which was only static, even though it was interesting at the moment I didn't give it much of a thought until something in it sounded familiar, at the time I couldn't understand why it gave me such a strange feeling of déjà vu which made me investigate.
The trip took about 10 minutes to reach the place, when I was about to get out of the supercruise I tried to guess what it would be, but I would never be ready for what I would find, as soon as I got out I was stunned, right in front of me was a Farragut Battle Cruiser. In the middle of nowhere more than 1700Ly from the nearest federation shipyard was a farragut,"what the hell is this doing here" I said to myself, so I tried to get in contact but I was only getting the automated signal ordering me to stay within 5km away from the ship, after many failed attempts at direct communication I entered my rear admiral code and was given authorization to approach, the Battle Cruiser was in isolation and it was impossible to anchor so I decided to magnetically land my Krait Phantom inside of the armor behind the main communication antenna, for 5 years I served aboard the FNS Vanguard as an apprentice mechanic in the propulsion system and during that time I learned some limitations of the Farragut class and a few of those will allow me to board even during isolation.
After having passed through Redacted through Redacted I arrived at the maintenance center on the stern of the sublight thrusters feeding system, something strange I expected to have been found by a maintenance team or even a squadron of marines but it was even worse, pure silence was my host, nothing absolutely nothing just silence and darkness the room had an atmosphere i could feel the sound of machinery through the suit still i turned on the lights on my helmet and removed the safety from my carbine and made my way through the immaculate corridors, not even a scratch, stains or splashes of oil, it looked like it had just left the factory, after arriving at the engineering center that's when I completely gave up trying to guess what was going on 80% of the terminals monitors and access points were not even installed, I found a console that had power I decided to restore secondary power for the lighting system the little that existed, more of the same new and unfinished, I created a Redacted code from a process that would allow me access to the entire ship, I decided to look for answers in the command information center, along the way I was no longer surprised to see the stations that were supposed to have the crew quarters empty.
When I arrived at the reinforced door of the cic I entered the code that I had created which gave me access to the Interior and finally I saw the first holographic table and chairs that had been built with slight signs of use but right in the center something out of the ordinary, it seemed to be an advanced quantum processing unit. That's when the curtin fell and an artificial voice came out of the speakers said asking for rank name and identification number it seemed to be some kind of (COVAS) I provided what had been asked of me and the voice identify it self as an autonomous control and execution system (aces) it had control of the entire battlecruiser without any human crew assistance, an AI in command of one of the most efficient and deadly combat platforms that humanity has ever created something technologically incredible but at the same time terrifying, so much power in the hands of a computer. Why was it created in the first place I asked aces but he couldn't answer, his entire database was fragmented and the information destroyed upon arrival in the system, only one directive remaining which gave me goosebumps: in case of his discovery he should plan a jump to the nearest star surface which was aborted after I had entered my rear admiral code when I tried to get in contact.
I didn't know what to do I tried to ask the aces for information but he didn't have any more directives or procedures.
I tried to contact the Federal Navy Admiralty but the communications system was automatically disabled when the battlecruiser arrived in the system and could only be manually reactivated at the primary communication node, someone didn't want you to be found or reactivated remotely i said to aces to which he replied that my line of reasoning was likely.
I decided to go back down the path to Restore the communication systems. After having entered the node with the help of aces I reactivated the system managing to block a weak signal from a federal beacom, from that moment the battle cruiser got in contact with admiralty it began to prepare the Frame Shift Drive, a code appeared on all the screens that they had been installed “ KO 653689642” I didn't recognize the numerals but the letters made me run back to my Krait that was anchored just a few tens of meters from the comunication node, “ko” meant kill order or self-destruction of the operational asset, the rest of the numerals should be the protocol associated with the order but didn't stay to find out, aces also stopped to respond to my commands after the signal was received.
After having entered my ship and having moved away from the farragut the jump started and ended in 15 seconds, after completion my fss detected an object colliding with the star of the system and 3 federal ships entering it.