• Planet Malta, Omnicron Alpha System.

    Technician Blake Smith walks into a small room after a very long day, several in fact. But today is slightly different, instead of going off shift and leaving his 'apprentice' David in charge for the night, he is here in a small conference room of the regional headquarters of the Shadow Outcast Brigade.

    The room itself is mostly in shadows and he can barely discern several men or weomen seated around a long curving table. Blake stops in the middle of the well lit are next to a smaller table where certain equipments he asked for is set up and ready, only one item lacking, and Blake has held onto it since not only its dicovery, but after seeing some of what it contained.

    "So, you have something for us Technician Smith?", one of the individuals asks quietly off to Blakes left.

    "Yes Elder, I do. What I have here appears to be a actual Blackbox recovered from the crash site of the machine called Harvester 24." He holds up the scarred device, which in this case actualy is black, but for the most part, looks very much like a data recorder nearly every ship built in the galaxy carries.

    Blake turns and sets the device down on the table and quickly attaches certain leads and cables to the box, some in recogniseable data ports, a few in what almost looks like wiring of a sort, only these tend to glow if but faintly and green. One of the shadowed figures notices this and leans closer to one of its comrads and points it out whispering low enough not even the Tech could hear it

    "Does that not remind you of our Great Spirits? I think I have seen something almost simular in some remains we were able to recover from those who would harm our Keepers"

    The other nods slightly and motions slightly towards the Tech just as he finishes the last connection and moves slightly away with a remote in hand.

    "If you will please dim the light, I can show you what we have found, Elders." Blake asked calmly, even though that was not the case. Not only had some of what he seen disturbed him, some brought out anger and hurt at the same time. None the less, he knew what was found was more important than his own feelings about the Machine.

    The lights dim just enough that the Tech would still not be able to make out who exactly was in attendance, but yet enough that the holo projector could show in the clearest detail what the recorder had. Blake turned and thumbed the remote to power up the projector as well as displaying some of the data.

    ~Space shifting by quickly is seen, followed the sudden flash of weapons fire from the four corners of the projection, two trails of energy can be easily seen, though nothing of the other two light flashes. In the center of the projection is a Outcast Destoyer under attack, not just from the view point of the Harvester, but seen at certain angles, others as well. The ships name as a floating pale orange text shows it to be one of the ships listed as missing from Omnicron Eta.~
    ~The attack continues for little under two minutes, before a sudden bright flash of blaze red light from the bottom of the projection, quickly followed by a red trail as the Harvester was making an attack from directly under the destroyer. Seconds later the Ship's keel breaks as the Anti-matter impacted and exploded with hidious force, effectively shearing her in half.~
    ~The image does not stop though as the Harvester slows to a near crawl amoung the wreckage of the once proud Destroyer. Bodies of those killed in the explosive decompression can be seen, and not only that, they were being pulled in by the tractor beams of this and several other Harvester ships. Some even appear to be those who barely managed to make it into escape pods, but not for long as the Machines pulls those in one by one. What little is left afterwords is barely even recogniseable as a ship, just mere chunks of steel and debrie as the Machines turn for some unknown destination and accelerate quickly~

    A slight growl can be heard from one of the Elders, but Blake does not dare look to see which. He has more to show. Turning slightly after this fragment of data ends he keeps a blank expression on his face as Blake adressed the Elders again "I apologise for that. It appears the order of the data on this recorder was quite possibly disrupted by the damage we had caused this Machine before it fell into our hands. We do not know if the crash may or may not have done further damage, but there is more to show."

    Turning again towards the Projector, Blake thumbs the remote to bring up another piece of Data.

    ~Lines of glowing text can be seen scrolling rapidly across the projection almost too fast to even read, yet its apperent this looks like a start up sequence. Not long after the last of the code has passed, new images form, showing a Orbital Facility and contruction uints all around. Their work is quick and precise as welders move across the image a few times apperently working on the Harvester.~
    ~One smaller Machine pauses directly infront, easily seen as a small orb like object with Comm Attena's and Small manipulator arms. Cradled in the arms is a glowing cylinder of some sort, the color a bright green, almost a match in intensity for that of a Keeper. Turning this piece, the smaller machine pushes it forward towards the projection, as if it were being inserted into the viewer. Some details such as the light pulses along the sides of the core and even some very thin wiring can be seen before its vanished from sight~
    ~Once the insertion task is compleat, the small unit seems to manipulate something out of the viewers range for a full minute then pulls back and flitters away, leaving the image of a massive Ship Yard in view for a few moments. From what is seen, there are dozens of ships of all kinds and sizes under various stages of contruction~

    The Projection Fades to black and the Tech turns slightly "We believe what we just witnessed was the Harvesters actual activation and finishing construction. A preliminary report suggest this machine is not as new as we think it is. One of our historians who took a look at the Ship yard thinks that was the original Zoner Home World ship yard facility."

    Once more Blake accesses a Data fragment and the Holo Projector comes to life.

    ~Images of the Harvester in apperent combat as its turning and weaving madly through a storm of energy weapons fire coming from nearly all directions. More than once a Corsair fighter appears in front of the Harvester and the weapons flashes at the corners of t screen can be seen. From what it appears, the shields of the Fighter buckle in a matter of micro seconds, though the impacts on the hull do not seem as devestating as it might have though to be with the way the shields went down so quickly~

    Blake pauses the projection for a moment. "Elders, what we have here is live fire of the Corsair guns known as Colda Del Cids. Unlike the data we have recorded in combat where they have used them against us, this is the first time we have seen them not only from this angle," and he points at some slightly glowing indicators at the bottom of the projection, "we actualy have the combat data recorders information on their actual power consumtion and useage. Our Weapons Science Officers would dearly love this piece of Data, with your permission of course." He then unpauses the projection.

    ~The combat rages on from minutes, long enough that it becomes apperent that this fight is not only near a a planet, but in Onmicron Alpha itself as several times the image of a pair of Outcast Destroyers are firing furiously at targets all around the theater of combat. For the most part it appears the Destroyers are not targeting the Machine but those that persue and hound it relentlessly. Soft glowing text shifts around the edges of the projection marking locations of others ships nearby, many are glowing red, some flashing with range indicators under the names. A few appear orange, and some are Blue text. After the Machine slips under a destroyer, it arrows in towards a flight of ships bearing directly at it. When they pass the names are a little more clearly seen as Capt Unholy, Jolly Rodger and Sindroms, with that confirming the blue texting is friendly designations to the Harvester~
    ~The combat from the view point of the watcher is both ugly and wild, with the Harvester turning at angles that would be hard for even an experienced pilot to handle. The indicators at the bottom shows its power consumtion seems to be increasing to handle the demands of the shields until something large and fast appears in the corner of the screen~

    He paused the projection at that point and turned to adress the silent Elders. "This was two days ago, as I am sure is relised by now. That in the lower left corner we think is what sent the Harvester into Malta. The Weapons Science Officers best guess is that is a HARM Missle fired by a Corsair, though last we heard, those types of missles are supposed to be in the hands of the Liberty Navy and LSF only"

    ~The image moves again only to turn more wildly than before in an apperent uncontrolled spin for a few seconds. When it is stablised, the Harvester is aimed right at Malta and from the altimiter indication, there was only a few seconds before impact. Another indication flashes brightly with a Radilogical designation, followed almost immidiately by a bright and almost bliding white light before the machine rams the planet, and the projection ends abruptly~

    Taking a deep breath Blake speaks calmly, "Those we think were Nukes. It ditched the mines at the last moment we think to cause damage to its attackers or perhapes as a possible measure to preserve itself upon crash landing. Again, this is supposition, but Weapons suggest if it was carrying even one Nuke Mine on impact, we'd have nothing to recover and a lot of dead people on the surface."

    ~Again from the view point of the Harvester, only this time it appears far away from Outcast controled space. The nebula nearby is a deep golden hue and to the left is a field of junk and wreckage. A small depot can be seen, with the golden text labeling it as Bornholm, under that is another line stating Junker. The view shifts as the Harvester turns away and moves into more open space. Moments later it comes upon not one but five other ships. Three others simply have numbers in bright Green, 06, 10, and 25. All three are identified as Talacra Light Cruisers. Near them is a ship identified as [522nd]Forward Until Dawn with the subtext of its classification as Liberty Gunboat. Next to that is another [522nd] although for some reason the projection fragments that section of text. The ship though is easily seen as a Liberty Cruiser.~
    ~In the Distance is seen a much larger pair of ships keeping their distance, both are marked in red, the same color from the earlier combat projection. Both ships are identified as DW Shai`tan and DW BS1. Under each name are the designations of Bounty Hunter Battleship.~
    ~The projection faded and breaks up for a couple of minutes, only to return apperently advanced in time as the burning shattered wreckage of DW BS1 is seen flashing past, and the combined firepower of the Harvesters and their allies chase after the fleeing DW Shai`tan. The chase lasts for several minutes until the DW Shai`tan was able to make an escape through a Jump Hole near another station in that system, labled as Rostock Station. At that point a flash of texts appears near the bottom of the image Ordering Units to form on Harvester 06 and return to normal mission operations in the area.~

    Blake remains quiet, nothing to add really as he thumbs for the next fragment of data recovered on the Recorder.

    ~The image forms to show another location entirely,the vantage point from higher up than usual. Seen below are at least two stations in orbit around a blue hued planet. From the many smaller flecks of light that move, it appears to be a highly populated area with a lot of space traffic, and judging by the way some of that traffic moves, it was a junction for at least three Trade Lanes. A flash of text and the view shifts slightly to the side where a Harvester designated as 01 floats motionlessly. More message traffic and the lower central view of the projection over lays with a scan of the other Harvester, detailing it to be a Bounty Hunter Gunboat. Again the view changes as the scanner shifts though different scans of the Harvester, showing weapons load outs, equipment carried, and even a clear scan of the cargo bay, which at that time held a few Xeno and Bounty Hunter Pilots.~
    ~Once more the Text order flashes and the Harvester moves slightly, turning towards another Harvester, this one labled as Harvester 08, and moments later the scanner runs again. Again, this Harvester is a Bounty Hunter Gunboat, although when the scans shift, its weapons loadout is different from 01. The other scans show the rest to be about the same in terms of equipment and cargo. Once the scans are finished, the data it seems is captured and uploaded to yet a third Harvester, only this one is not seen on any scans of the area. Brighter text flashing and a name appears for a moment longer than the others~
    ~I am First Thought Giver Of Will.~

    ~The projection aligns the Harvester with the others to look down upon the planet once more, observing the flow of traffic, from time to time, ships are scanned and data recorded of the various types, though those now seem to happen almost faster than the eye can follow and the data uploaded each time a new ship type is seen.~

    He turns and looks towards where the Elders sit watching. "This is the first time we have seen direct contact communications between the Harvestrs and what we believe is their creator. I apologise Elders as I do not have high enough classification to present something more meaningful as to what this might mean or not mean."

    ~Once more the projection starts, this time it is the Harvester undocking. All around are ships passing back and forth between a pair of trade lanes, and off to one side, after quick scan, is a flight of Bounty Hunter Fighters, though at this point it does not appear theyare being hostile or marked with the Red or Orange text as seen in other data fragments. A side shift and the Harvest alings with another of its kind designated as Harvester 11. That machine appears to be also a Bounty Hunter Gunboat, though the weapons scann show it is nearly unarmed compaired to others seen previously. A short message burst between the two and they turn towards a Trade Lane and accelerate into it.~
    ~Time passes as the pair proceed from Tradelane to Tradelane, occasionaly the Lane is broken by Rogues and other Pirates, most of whom turn and flee at the sight of the Harvesters especialy after the first such enouter which ended violently for one unfortuneate Liberty Rogue who caught a SNAC full on on the first pass alone. Eventualy the pair end up near an unnamed Shipyard, the data showing here seems corrupted and noting in the area, even the other Harvester show a designation or ship type like has been done in other data fragments.The Machine observes Harvester 11 approach the station and dock with it, then turns towards a docking bay itself and heads in~