Operation Mollusc: The Heikegani Incident (pt II)

17th January 3303: Station council, Bartlett Gateway

"It's gotten worse since you were last here, Commander". The station Chief of Operations passed over a report, highlighting the incident summary page.

Charybdis nodded imperceptibly while reviewing the figures. As soon as the issues with communications had become apparent, the number of redundant comms arrays and channels had been increased. Ships that were docking and leaving were governed by three physically separated command teams, each with more than two independent networks.

Systems still failed however, at unexpected times, and manifested a wide system corruption that vanished quickly. The problems weren't just limited to the comms array either, and there was an understandable nervousness around the risk of failure in the power grid safety systems.

"Our engineers have traced through the stations internal and external infrastructure, and located several sources of infestation in the form of unidentified alien artefacts. While we try and clear them, we've found that we're not particularly successful on that front."

Charybdis raised his eyebrows at this. "These are new?"

"Yes. " A grim tiredness from a high level of alert, and the long shifts of dangerous work, had taken their toll. The Chief of Operations carried a slumped posture and a tone of resignation in her voice. "Areas we've already searched are then contaminated at a later date. We haven't found out who is doing this, and can't find out how they're being brought onto the station covertly. What little meta-alloy we've been able to obtain has hardly had any effect."

Recent scientific investigation by Sirius Corp had found ways to make the removal of the influence of alien artefacts more successful, but it was a specialist job to manufacture the hardened and resistant components. Sirius Corp Tech crews were very much in demand these days it seemed.

"I'll take this back to the Federation of Pilots. I have contacts with NULL: a like minded group that watches over this part of space. They can help. We'll also need some of those Sirius techs: to make our dealing with this situation more effective."

With unknown agent provocateurs damaging the station more quickly than meta-alloy could be obtained, Bartlett Gateway was losing the battle.