The GMG_ Breakthrough
Without the support of its allies in Sirius, the Coalition will fall by year's end. Senior Alliance officials are concerned for their own security, too. Civilian causalities are mounting higher by the day. Enemy operations branch aggressively from the Omicrons, their squadrons blasting away at stations in both adjacent Houses. While the Dom' Kavash have not yet fielded their most powerful ship designs, it is only a matter of time before they are sighted in Sirius. To do its part in the war effort, GMG sends fighters to the front. In addition, it has increased H-fuel production and sunk tens of billions of credits into their R&D division to facilitate the advancement of human knowledge. Undisclosed locales were selected for the construction of several research facilities. Pilots contracted by the guild to find those sites also charted previously unexplored systems in the process. Other crews were hired for salvage operations in patches of space hazardous enough to warrant triple pay. The GMG went to great lengths to obtain their most desired, "fresh" specimens. Examination of Nomad hardware led directly to technical improvements and a couple of entirely novel innovations.
One of the guild's laboratories got involved with inquiries of a more archeological nature. From the ground of a virgin planet months before remains were uncovered during exploratory drilling. What turned up would prove to be much more valuable to than hydrocarbons. Researchers arrived and started to learn more about the bodies. Riddles were solved. Others were posed. It was not long before the teams, working in conjunction with prestigious universities, did a bit of digging and stumbled upon an entire lost civilization. Reports from the site found these bodies skeletal traits to be remarkably humanoid. Though the teams definitively ruled out any kinship with humanity, early references to the beings as "ancients" stuck. With time more would be learned about these Ancients. It was revealed through artifacts that they had been caught in the web weaved by Nomads eons ago. The Ancients had gotten wiped out of existence. Fragments of their tools remained. These were recovered from the dig sites and pieced together again with mixed success. Based on initial findings, the beings seemed to possess technology slightly more advanced than that in use by the Alliance.
The guild's curiosity was piqued. They dug deeper. Week after week something exciting was exposed. The finds even had tangible applications. One thing resulted in another. Flash-forward nearly to the present. By then the breakthrough had been made. With human knowledge supplemented with that of the Ancients, the GMG hurriedly pulled together a lineup of other corporations and contracted them. An exceptionally special project was in the workings. An imposing, sprawling space station had already been assembled on site and security was more than adequate. Construction started at once with a sense of urgency. What would be conceived there in due course was a masterpiece - if not a milestone - of human achievement. Fate would have it, you see, that the Gas Miners Guild would emerge late in the war equipped with a functional, prototype hypergate. Given adequate power supply, it could safely deliver a spacecraft to the galaxy's Inner Core. With no way to send the necessary labor and physical capital to construct a return gate on the far side, it is understood that whoever went through may become stranded.
Crossfire short stories:
- Part I: Prologue
- Part II: A matter of History
- Part III: The Nomad Campaign in Sol
- Part IV: Disappearance of the Dom' Kavash
- Part V: Boon of the Colonies
- Part VI: The Aftermath
- Part VII: ASF vs. CSF: A People Divided
- Part VIII: Home Again at Last
- Part IX: Jack Blinch's Revelation
- Part X: Reunion
- Part XI: The Patriotic Duty
- Part XII: The GMG Breakthrough
- Part XIII: Friend or Foe?
- Part XIV: Ancient Days
- Part XV: Journey with no return
- Part XVI: Inner Core Logs
- Part XVII: New discoveries in the Sol system?
- Credits and Comments
