UNCLAIMED SPACE- EN ROUTE TO UNK322

John woke up and almost crawled into the shower, between his shift on the bridge and exploring UNK521-4 he was tired. They were on the way too UNK322, he would check both the system report from UNK521 and the ETA for arrival for UNK322 when he got on the bridge. The ship was thrumming with energy as they traveled at faster than light speeds toward their next destination. He hoped today would be slower than yesterday.

Forty-five minutes later John walked onto the bridge of the Riptide. He still had a mug of coffee with him that he was sipping, everyone was busy working at their stations and transitioning from third shift to first shift. While the transition was still going on he pulled up the system report from UNK521.

UNK521: Sun Type yellow, still young with millions of years of life left

UNK521-1: This world is heavily irradiated from the nearness of the sun and will never be able to be settled, the slow rotation could allow roving mining operations on the dark side

UNK521-2: This world is heavily irradiated from the nearness of the sun and will never be able to be settled, 2 moons

UNK521-3: This world is within the "Green Zone" and can support settlement. The thinner atmosphere can cause radiation sickness within colonists, recommend partial terraforming, 3 large landmasses and hundreds of smaller islands, most of the islands have active volcanoes, this can naturally increase the density of the atmosphere but it will take an unknown amount of time. 3 Moons

UNK521-4: This world is within the "Green Zone" and can support settlement, 2 major continents and 4 smaller ones. Several large bodies of water both salt and freshwater. Several hundred species of animals, none sentient.

*NOTE 1 former Imperial Listening/Watch post that has been abandoned for 600 years. The structure is intact but it would take require a major overhaul to bring back online. 4 Moons

UNK521-5: Gas Giant able to support Helium 3 mining exportation, 6 moons

UNK521-6: Gas Giant unable to support Helium 3 mining exportation, 8 moons

UNK521-7: This world can support domed and underground colonies, can support mining operations for Iron, Nickel, Cadmium, and Titanium. Due to low gravity medical treatments would be required to increase bone and muscle density. 1 Moon

UNK521-8: This world can support domed and underground colonies, can support mining operations for Iron, Nickel, Cadmium, and Titanium. Due to low gravity medical treatments would be required to increase bone and muscle density. 3 Moons

UNK521 System Notes: Asteroid field is located between planets 6 and 7 and can support mining operations. Planets 3 and 4 are within the "Green Zone" and have an atmosphere. Two pre-Fall facilities are located within the system, one is an Observation/Listening post capable of observing 100 Light Years of space located on planet 4. The facility is largely intact although extensive refabrication of systems would be needed to bring the facility online. 12 Asteroids and 24 meteor storms have been mapped, due to the age of the sun solar storms are likely to happen.

Nice, one system down and a lot more to go. Finding the Pre-Fall facility was a nice bonus, time would tell if it would be developed or not. The ETA for reaching UNK322 was a little over 24 hours and was the furthest system they were going to explore from Remnant space. 'Captain Chief Letts just sent you a message' Kate told him...

'Sir we have been working constantly and we have decoded some of the data and logs from the facility you explored. I will upload it to your A.I. so you can go through them when you have time.'

Well, that was nice, 'Jeeves can you start going through the data we got and upload any important logs to my station so I can review them. Foreward the logs to the XO as well.' Time to start reading...

Date: 03-March 4252 A.E.

Report: I have watched this facility and its people for the last 3 years and I am worried. The Thrax have cut off more than 300 systems due to capturing the Andorius and Boringer system's Jump Gates. With those Jump Gates, the rebels have control of a third of the galaxy. Two fleet groups, or what remains of them, are cut off from Imperial space. Although the war front is years away, they local sympathy and those that want power are starting to move in the local region. Due to the ongoing war, most of the fleet strength has been pulled and repositioned to more critical areas. It will be only a matter of time until we have a rebellion here.

Date: 27-May 4252 A.E.

Report: Due to my concerns and the concerns of the governor of this region of Imperial Space, Imperial command has decided to build a base at {Redacted} to ensure the security and loyalty of the region. It will be both a fleet anchorage and production facility, it will be one of 8 {Redacted} facilities that are being commissioned and finished within 5 years. It will be able to increase ship production of capital ships by {Redacted}. If Fleet Command can get this done, we might be able to turn this war around.

Date: 18-September 4252 A.E.

Report: The construction of {Redacted} at {Redacted} has jump-started the economy for the whole region of space. 50000 people are working directly on the project and over a million other jobs in support of {Redacted}. Based on the facility specs I have seen this facility will be massive, dwarfing anything we have ever constructed. Even with all these people, I do not know how we can finish {Redacted} in five years.

Date: 05-February 5243 A.E.

Report: Fleet Command has deployed 500 marines and expanded our facility here on {Redacted}. This is due to the increased rebel sympathy within the region and intercepted Comm traffic between Thrax leadership and local sympathizers. I am sure it is only a matter of time before the rebels will attack us here at {Redacted} or at the new facility at {Redacted}. Fleet command has said they will dispatch two squadrons of destroyers too this region and one task force will be a move too {Redacted} to increase the security in {Redacted}.

Date: 20-June 5243 A.E.

Report: We were right, three freighters were bombed by rebels in the last 3 weeks. Over a dozen men and women have died, most were not even human. They say they are fighting for none humans yet they have no problem killing those that do not support their cause. Due to this FleetComm is despatching Vice Admiral Woods and elements of the 5th Fleet to increase security at {Redacted} and they are going to start organizing convoys instead of individual ships bringing in resources and tech too {Redacted}.

Date: 18-December 5243 A.E.

Report: Admiral Woods has increased the fleet presence here at {Redacted} due to increased communications between rebel elements. They have assaulted the Garrisons at Androlokis and Ionion systems, over 300 Marines and Fleet personnel have been killed. Woods thinks these are just distractions for something bigger coming this way and that we need to be ready for when it hits us.

Date: 12-January 5244 A.E.

Report: For the last two weeks every Imperial facility in the Ajax Region. {Redacted} was under siege for two weeks, Admiral Woods was able to finally able to break the siege at {Redacted} a week ago with the help of the 5th and 3rd Fleet. Due to the assaults throughout the Ajax region, Command has increased the support of {Redacted}. They have increased the workforce at {Redacted}, and want construction to be completed within 2 years. The 5th Fleet is now stationed here at the Ajax region.

Date: 10-October 5244 A.E.

Report: The workforce for {Redacted} has tripled, and the basic functions of the facility are online and running. It will be another year at least before everything in {Redacted} is complete, rebels continue to assault various Imperial facilities throughout the Ajax region. These assaults can slow down the construction of {Redacted} but with the 5th being here, hopefully, the delays will not be too much.

Date: 05-March 5245 A.E.

Report: For the last three weeks we have been under siege. The Rebels have landed over 3 thousand troops on {Redacted} and from what we can tell its a constant battle in orbit that the 5th Fleet is losing. The primary mission for the 5th is to protect {Redacted} system and to ensure the completion of {Redacted}. I am glad Admiral Woods beefed up the garrison, but it is only a matter of time until we are overrun.

Date: 01-April 5245 A.E.

Report: The rebels landed several thousand more troops and we have lost the surface facilities. We have managed to bottleneck them from taking the underground structures but it will be only a matter of time until they dig us out or just bomb the facility.

After that, the reports just get darker and darker. John already knew the end of the story, the facility fell to rebels and everyone was slaughtered. 'Jeeves why were some of the logs still redacted?' John wondered 'Well sir, the whole reports are under one encryption and the name of certain systems and facilities are under another encryption that we do not have a file on.' Interesting, the old Imperialists went a long way to hide secrets but this was something else.