WC4: Citadel One
I'm a xenobiologist aboard Citadel One. My name is Mary Stone. You'll likely never hear my name. Not in a newspaper. Not in a scientific paper. Not on any personnel list. Nowhere except this classified dossier collection of letters which will be buried in the military archives forever.
We've been tasked in writing a letter. Or really anything that can put a personal tone on describing the life and purpose of Citadel One. I'm sure the security letters must be a real kicker. Half of them full of intense action, the other half full of gambling, drinking and sex.
We orbit a hostile planet. You could say THE hostile planet. Its been centuries since we first encountered the alien species designated Omega 5. They were the fifth lifeforms the exploration vessel Omega encountered. The reason we never gave these 'higher' lifeforms a formal name was because the entire Omega crew were massacred. Omega 5 were a hostile race, that or the crew of Omega did something that led to war. Above my access level either way so a mystery it remains.
The war had a slow start. We weren't equipped for warfare, the Council of Earth had vetoed the Astral Alliance from equipping any scientific or exploratory vessels with weapons. They also limited the Alliance's fleet size. In addition the top brass wanted to continue innovating even during peace time which led to a high turnover of ships. It took a century of this before the ships being produced were faster and more effective than any other ship out there. One Admiral (a distant ancestor!) decided to preserve 'old' ships and opened the Retired Military Sanctuary. He posed the scheme as a way for veterans (of which quite a few existed now) could enjoy their retirement on board the most comforting environment for them, a military warship.
That scheme thankfully allowed us to amass 3 whole fleets from the time it was conceived to the encounter with Omega 5. The oldest ships were the first to be recommissioned and sent to retrieve Omega. In the rescue they faced only one small scout ship. However, that one ship took out 3 out of the 5 ships sent and was a wake up call for the whole Alliance.
There's a section of the Intelligence Order tasked with the protection of the Alliance. One of their unique powers is to instate marshal law. That allows any military command or initiative to become fully funded and approved no matter what. Its designed to cut through bureaucracy in times of war or emergency. There are some countermeasures in the form of the Military Judicial Committee, a group of experts who prepare for considered but expeditated analysis of any military actions under marshal law and thus have the power to veto actions deemed unnecessary or extreme.
Production of offensive and defensive vessels was greatly increased. Recruitment of new personnel and the retraining and transfer of industry personnel also began in earnest. As it had been long before anyone's time since the last recruitment push by a military organisation, the response was massive.
When Omega 5 was finally seen approaching Earth we were well prepared. New shielding technology, armour adapted specifically for their weapons and each ship equipped with a biological weapon as a last resort meant they stood no chance.
Um... well enough of the history lesson I guess. That brings us to today kind of. The war after that didn't last long. There was some adaptation by them as we made our way to their home world, but the information we learnt from their colonies and what I call human spirit meant we evolved faster, adapted quicker, and won in the end.
Sierra One is the name of the planet. It has rather an extreme biosphere. My area of study is what's called the magma plains. Its a region where flowing magma rivers litter the surface and meet a sea of molten rock. The reason I study it is the fact we've detected and sampled various lifeforms from the area. Usually long worm like creatures, we are studying both their biological makeup to be adapted for materials and other technological applications as well as their more scientific characteristics.
I'm fascinated by the fact they move through what is high density fluid with ease and are able to sequester nutrients (or what they seem to consume as nutrients) as easily as... a fish might eat the floating particles in water.
Yes, S1-5YG - the species I'm studying - is most similar to the historical pacific salmon. They lay eggs (more like rocks), feed in the magma flows when young, migrate to the larger magma seas when older before traveling back to the flows to give birth.
Its very difficult to track them due to the extreme environment. The engineers aboard Citadel One have occasionally had interns help out, trying various new materials and tech. However, we have yet to create one that lasts the full lifecycle of S1-5YG. I personally suspect they do find their way back to their birth regions much like the salmon.
In order to understand S1-5YG better I bio-rebirthed some salmon and created a replication of their native ecosystem. Playing around, I tried changing various factors in an attempt to evolve them towards S1-5YG.
The increased density and larger particulates required many modifications to muscle, metabolism, development timings. I got as close to molten rock using water based solutions as I could. The lifecycle was almost 10x longer than that of S1-5YG. Its progress, but as has been concluded many times: bioengineering can never beat evolution. At least the existence of S1-5YG is plausible.
I'm running out of words. So I'll leave it there. Space has offered so many opportunities to me and the scientific community. That it is done at the behest and funding of the military is an unfortunate consequence of discovering the Universe to be a more hostile than hospitable world. I'd work for the military any day. They provide security, protection, certainty in such an unpredictable world. May the stars forever shine upon the Astral Alliance.