|-Warning: New update available!

  |-Version name: UzimaCombatParsingV1

  |-Notes: These transcripts are hard to understand sometimes using the standard output module we use for Tarva or Onso, for example. I’ve decided to take the liberty to program an “Interface”, for a lack of a better word, for these jet-plane dogfights to make them more readable. It should activate on transcripts that have battles in them, if it doesn't, DM me so I can patch it.

  And before anyone comes pointing fingers, yes, this is in accordance with the 2161 act. No memory alterations, just another way of parsing data to make it readable to us. These transcripts already have a bad reputation to them as it is, and I dont want to add more fuel to the fire.

  |-Install update? (Y/N)

  Y

  |-Installation Complete! (040 ms)

  |-Loading Transcript

  Memory Transcription Subject: Farzam Heydari, Apex 3 Pilot

  Date [standardized human time]: December 18, 2136

  The Battle for Tellis was a close but decisive victory. Everything was stacked against us: The Paltans not knowing how to fight, my hand being stabbed, and those Federation aces showing up at the worst possible time. It was only thanks to Mariana’s miraculous save that we won that day. Our leader’s skills for someone who only went to Air School before the war are truly exceptional.

  Still, she refused to even speak with the Paltans after the battle. They offered all sorts of gifts to her, like statues, memorials, even renaming their capital city to sound like her name. Still, she let Jake tell them that while she was grateful for their offers, she was only doing her job as a UN pilot, and refused anything remotely linked to her.

  The Paltans also congratulated Vollek for his efforts, although they only offered honorary citizenship for him and his family, which he accepted. He said this was still pretty big, since they were waived of a foreign tax.

  Mariana is still haunted by the Battle of The Cradle and the Battle for Earth. When she is not on a mission, she spends all time in her room doing who knows what. Anyone, including me, who tries to get her out of her cave is met with her threats and hostility when Vollek is not around. She also forbade anyone from revealing anything about her to Vollek, threatening them in the same manner. She is strong, and she told me she is getting help, but I'm not seeing any improvements. I’m starting to believe that she is just lying to make us feel less worried.

  She constantly punishes herself for things outside her control, for no reason. I pray for her wellbeing and her recovery every day.

  As for Vollek, we’ve all been thinking about new hobbies to introduce to him, since we learned he had no life besides his job before joining Apex. Snook is good, and he is getting better and interacting with us more, but it has become kinda stale. Our next resupply run is getting close, so me and the crew have put together a fund to buy a big pack of family-friendly card and board games. This is the best we can get at this moment, since everything else either violates Order 56 or might frighten Vollek for being too predatory.

  But right now, we’ve got more important, present things to worry about.

  Days ago, a giant flotilla of forty thousand ships appeared over Mileau, the Dossur Homeplanet. They looked nothing like the ships the federation uses, being completely automated and using our anti-shield technology, given the UN report. The federation probes into our allied systems, like Tellis, was merely a way to determine our weakest link.

  They have already occupied the system and entrenched themselves, so the UN is scrambling to mount a response with any allies it can muster. As for Apex, we got assigned to a mission to destroy a potentially important asset to them, and if lucky, maybe find clues of what and where these ships came from.

  Subspace readings indicate that all of these ships came from an uninhabitable system at the edge of the UN-Federation border: A black hole. The briefing told by Jake said that UN intelligence traced the ship’s deployment to a station located near its accretion disk, and what the station exactly is is unknown. It could be an anchorage, a shipyard or simply a blacksite space gas station, to our knowledge.

  Vollek and Jake told us about an equation when accounting for the black hole’s gravitational pulling, which included our weight and the combined strength of our drive fields plus shields, which Vollek described overall as “Pretty good”, so we shouldn't get sucked unless we are really close. Still, this has him on edge.

  Given how dangerous such a place is, the UN gathering numbers to rescue the Dossur, its strategic significance for the unknown fleet, and to maintain a minimum sensor profile, the UN has decreed for Apex to destroy the station with no boarding party. We will be accompanied by a stealth shuttle that will try to intercept any data that comes from and out of the station, with the idea being that our attack will cause enough agitation that they will fuck up and reveal something important.

  We were already inside the system, on its border edges preparing for our assault. Finishing all my checks, I signal to the control. <>

  Apex 3 WSO | Edge: <>

  UNS Mistral | Comms Control Officer: <>

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <>

  UNS Mistral | Comms Control Officer: <>

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <>

  Apex 3 | Me: <>

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <>

  She also came after me after Vollek’s first flight, because I talked about the battle of the cradle out loud. We know each other well enough, so she came politely and told me to stop. Sellout, on the other hand…

  Apex 3 | Me: <>

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <>

  <>

  <>

  <>

  <>

  <>

  Apex 1 WSO | Rational: <>

  Apex 3 | Me: <<...Nothing.>> I won’t ruin the surprise over this little fit. <>

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <>

  Apex 1 WSO | Rational: <>

  Bridge Control chuckles. <>

  <>

  <>

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  Finally, our hangars open to a mesmerizing, yet menacing, scenery as we fly to the open outside the ship: The black celestial body, about the size of Earth from the distance, yet much more powerful, twists my vision of the background galaxy behind and its surroundings like a ring, emitting a flash of white with a smooth yellow hue, like midnight’s light. The disc, a hot red yellow mass, swims around the black hole, with a distinct plasma jet stream coming out from one of the poles. As we got closer, I could tell the distortion in my view got, bit by bit, bigger.

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <>

  I wish I could record this and send it to the neighborhood. It is a unique-kind of beautiful, if that makes any sense. Maybe after the war is over, we can turn this into a tourist attraction.

  Apex 3 | Me: <>

  UNS Mistral | Captain Lacuna: <>

  Apex 1 WSO | Rational: <>

  Apex 3 | Me: <>

  Apex 1 WSO | Rational: <>

  <> I hold out a giggle at the thought. I’ve always found it funny that Federation species think our curiosity is dangerous and careless. When first contact came about, I wondered what aliens would do to pass time, thinking they would do something insane thanks to their technology.

  Now, if I showed Vollek right now some extreme sport, I would confirm that belief in us.

  UNS Mistral | Captain Lacuna: <>

  Apex 1 WSO | Rational: <>

  Stealth Ship Chameleon AAA | Officer Indigo: <>

  Apex 3 | Me: <>

  Stealth Ship Chameleon AAA | Officer Indigo: <>

  Apex 1 WSO | Rational: <>

  Stealth Ship Chameleon AAA | Officer Indigo: <>

  <>

  <>

  <>

  <> Before talking anything else, their breath is cut short. <>

  <> I replied.

  The station looked like something taken out straight off of a sci-fi novel: A big, disc-like structure at the center, almost like a filled donut without a hole. Around its edges, there are platforms and smaller discs, just like the main one, connected through supports and tubes to the center station. On its upper most point, a radio tower, from what I could deduce, and on its lowest edge, some kind of contraption.

  A missile launcher popouts from its hiding spot below the station’s armor, and fires at me. I decide to just use one of my flares, to not have to go to the disk to dodge it.

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <>

  Apex 3 | Me: <>

  I started my assault by dealing with the railgun that is closest to us, near one of the platforms, so I could stop worrying about it. Firing a load of 35 MM HE ammo alongside my rockets, I dispatched it with ease. I then focus on the guns that appeared onto the other support structures. Supernova does the same, while Sellout begins attacking the main structure.

  Unknown Station | Kolshian Station Commander: <>

  <> Have I heard that name before? <>

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <> I pretended to not have heard that, as I took out another PD weapon.

  UNS Mistral | Captain Lacuna: <>

  Me and Mariana take out the last of the outer defenses, blowing them up to get sucked to the black hole. I could see beds, computers, flying out of it. We then move to the closeby core of the station. Sellout was still trying to take out their weapons, which was strange, since how easily I dealt with the past ones.<

  > I said over the radio, as I fired true to one of the targets, hitting them with missiles and explosives, and yet, it didn’t scratch it.

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <>

  Unknown Station | Kolshian Station Commander: <>

  Talsk Command | Elder Military Admiral Lopqum: <>

  We began attacking, all three of us, again and again, to just bring down one of the station’s defenses, just for another to reveal itself and take the previous one place. I’m already at half of my ammo pool and this thing still looks as good as new. Mostly.

  We need another way to take this out. Brute force is not going to do it.

  I began flying around the station, and avoiding the fire fight. The top of the station looks like a control room, with the antenna sticking out, but it is just as fortified as the rest of it. That left the bottom part, which I began to go over.

  The bottom was also fortified, with railguns beginning to take shots at me, but what was curious was the contraption I saw before the fight began. It was fairly thin in length, sticking out to the accretion disk below and then connecting to the station above. Maybe this is the prototype they were talking about? It looks important, especially with all the visible wires coming out of it.

  I told my WSO to get a lock on it, and began cutting it down. With only one missile and a couple of rounds, it detached itself and it was quickly consumed by the disk.

  Suddenly, the entire station began to change. Sparks came out of the detached contraption, and the weapons above began powering on and off, along with its lights beginning to flicker. Did I jus-

  Unknown Station | Kolshian Station Commander: <>

  Apex 3 WSO | Edge: <>

  It began to tilt in angle, moving towards the dark star. As it began to dip into the accretion disk, the forces of gravity and hot gases began tossing the station around like a soccer ball. Still, its armor prevails.

  I don’t think the UN thought that we would launch a whole station into a black hole. I’m both impressed with myself and stupefied by how the kolshians didn’t armor it like the rest of the station.

  Unknown Station | Kolshian Station Commander: <>

  Aafa Command: <>

  Research Station Orqus | Kolshian Station Commander: <>

  Aafa Command | Auctoritos: <>

  Stealth Ship Chameleon AAA | Officer Indigo: <>

  UNS Mistral | Captain Lacuna: <>

  Research Station Orqus | Kolshian Station Commander: <>

  Aafa Command | Auctoritos: <>

  Stealth Ship Chameleon AAA | Officer Indigo: <>

  UNS Mistral | Captain Lacuna: <<30% also. It’s a shame we can’t decrepit the data right now.>>

  Apex 2 | Sellout: <>

  UNS Mistral | Captain Lacuna: <>

  <> I said as I looked over the reddish figure of the station over the black hole.

  Apex 1 | Supernova: <>

  Trusting the judgement of a professional, I take one last look at the station before finally turning back. I think this system will indeed be a good tourist attraction after the war, with a live example of what falling into a black hole looks like from the outside. I can at least say I was the one who did this with a smirk on my face when I finally get my family over to see it.

  Flying back, I go over what we learned over the course of this mission. We finally have proof that the Kolshians are the ones behind the automated drones over on Mileau, and this was indeed a research station for them. But what is this “shadow caste” they were talking about right at the end? They are certainly based on Aafa, but what about the Farsul? Why were they called alongside Aafa?

  This info, alongside the research data we intercepted, is surely going to help the war effort, and hopefully, I will get my answers with the next UN report, without redacted text. Hopefully.