Chapter 1

A Bold New Journey

Gibson looked out at the stars through the makeshift view port. His face was visible clearly in the reflection of the glass. One could see from his face that this was an old and wrinkled man, whose features radiated wisdom. His eyes were sunken in and brown in color, matching the color of the somewhat long front hair that occasionally drooped down to cover it, only to be brushed aside and set back again.

What are we doing here? Gibson asked himself. Why did it seem that the mysteries of the Shivans had simply increased each time they made communications with them? He had watched everyday as the Shivans traversed system after system, nebula past nebula, all to some strange and totally unknown destination. According to his estimate, they had already traveled enough distance to put the GTVA on the other side of the Galaxy. Yet, it didn't seem like they were going to stop just there from what the Shivans had told them…

Speaking of which….Gibson turned from the window to look for Sargo. A somewhat short and stout person, Sargo's most distinguishing feature were his bright blue eyes and blonde hair. A bright and patient young man of Asian origin, Sargo always seemed to go about with a smile, no matter how bad the situation might be. At times of extreme stress, he never got flustered, which was one of the main reasons why Bosch had chosen him to come along with their expedition. While Gibson may have been Bosch's right hand man, Sargo was definitely next in line.

Gibson spotted Sargo a little distance away, towards the back of the room and near the exit that led to Bosch's quarters. He was looking out of the only other window in the cabin, hovering over the floor in the zero G of the transport. Waving his hands, Gibson tried to get Sargo's attention, but when that failed, he had to speak up, shattering the silence in the room with his rather loud and hi-pitched voice.

"Sargo!"

Sargo didn't look back immediately. Gibson spoke up again, this time a bit louder. "Sargo! Are you alright?"

Still no response. Frowning, he kicked himself off the wall and flew across the room towards Sargo's position. It was only at the last minute however, that Gibson realized he had actually used too much force and was flying too fast. But there was no way to stop in the Zero Gravity environment, unless he had something to push against. Unfortunately, to Sargo's unpleasant surprise, that something was him.

"SARGO! Get out of the way" Gibson shouted as he attempted to change his course. His shout must have had some effect, as Sargo shook his head and looked around in surprise. When he saw Gibson flying straight to him, he exclaimed "What the hell!" before ducking out of the way. It was just in time as Gibson hit the far wall, bouncing off of it and into the floor like a ping pong ball. He managed to get a hold on the floor however, and stopped himself before flying off to the ceiling.

Sargo was pretty much surprised and hovering to one side, rubbing his eyes and looking at Gibson. "What the hell are you trying to do Gibson, Kill me! You nearly gave me a heart attack!"

Gibson turned around to look at him for a second, and then merely laughed. "Looks like you needed one too, judging from the way you were asleep."

Sargo frowned. "I wasn't sleeping...err. I was simply resting my eyes." he replied. But when his mouth broke into a big yawn, it gave it all away, leaving his face in a somewhat embarrassed expression.

Gibson merely laughed again before replying. "Look, Sargo, you can go to sleep, just don't go to sleep here. Get back into the general quarters and ask John to replace you. He should be up by this time anyways."

Sargo simply shook his head, refusing the offer. "Look, I'm fine. I'm just a bit tired, that's all. I can keep go-:" his sentence was interrupted by another big yawn. He cursed to himself, muttering something about lack of food and no sleep.

Gibson shook his head sadly, and pointed to the entrance of the room. "Go. Now. Before I make Bosch come out here and send you to bed."

Sargo simply retorted. "I can say the same about you, considering the fact that you've been doing duty for the past two days as well! If I'm tired, then why aren't you?"

"Because I haven't started yawning or -" He froze mid-sentence as something came into view of the window.

"Yeah, or what?" Sargo asked. He obviously hadn't seen what had just come into view. But then he saw that Gibson wasn't paying attention and instead looking outside the window. Sargo turned around to have a look as well. When he saw what was outside also, he could only exclaim "Holy fricking shit. What the hell is that thing?"

Gibson was unable to tear his eyes away from the thing for a few more seconds. But eventually, he did manage it. "Sargo, wake the others." He spoke as he moved towards Bosch's door. Knocking on it, he received a somewhat muffled reply. "Who is it?"

Bosch said, his tone somewhat irritated.

"Sir, its Gibson. I really think you might want to come out and see this."

This is the audio log of Admiral Aken Bosch, ex-leader of the Neo Terran Front.

It's been three days since my last audio log and there has been a lot happening since. The continued use of the ETAK device has allowed us a multitude of refinements and tweaks, all of which has now allowed for near-instantaneous and continual communications with the Shivans. I am communication with them for several hours so far, and the information I have managed to acquire is enough to keep any group of scientists and researchers enough work for decades, if not centuries! Not one person in the GTVA could have imagined how old this race really is, of the events they have witnessed over millions - if not billions - of years in not only our universe, but in others as well.

But then, the mystery remains, why did the Shivans attack us? Why did they attack the Ancients all those Millennia ago? For a race as old as theirs, it seems doubtful they attacked us out of simple xenophobia. If it were as simple as that, then they would not have accepted our signal or even allowed us onboard their vessel for that matter. No, there are other more subtle reasons behind all this. Reasons I must find out soon or risk the survival of myself and my crew.

Some of these reasons however, might be deduced by our current circumstances. After nearly a week of traveling, it appears we have reached our destination. And what a destination it is! We are currently in a small system, in the centre of it is a small white dwarf, barely outputting enough energy to counter the forces of gravity crushing at it's core. Maybe in the distant future, long after our own sun has gone out, this star may collapse to become a black hole or it's less hostile cousin, a neutron star. If in that case, it would most likely suck in its only partner in the system: a lonely gas giant that is in orbit of the star. Its speed and orbit means that it takes several years to complete a single revolution of the star. It's size is not that much larger than Saturn or maybe Neptune. Yet, from what we can see, its atmosphere and environment are far, far more turbulent than anything the Sol system could ever possess. Storms are present all over the atmosphere, with winds moving at super-sonic speeds. 17 Major storms dominate the planet, some of them the size of Earth or the Moon! Upon closer examination, each storm is divided into its own sub-storms and vortices. How such an intricate system can exist is magic in itself. All the laws of turbulence and physics say this is impossible, yet I can see it clearly with my own eyes!

Yet, as fascinating as this may be, it is nothing compared to the object in it's orbit.

The object in question appears to be an unknown device, probably of immeasurable age. I will describe its physical features and appearance first, for the record, before I go onto its other...'properties' so to speak.

The device itself consists of several components. The most obvious one appears to actually be self-dependent and unrelated to the main structure itself. The outer component is a large ring of sorts, around 15 Kilometers in diameter, and is nearly 3 kilometers wide. The portion of the ring facing the outside is made of some unknown metal, and is full of unknown systems and structures. It appears to be heavily armored, capable of taking great bombardment. The interior of the ring however, is the most fascinating feature. The interior of the ring appears to have been crafted similar to a planet of sorts. Gravitational generators keep it intact and running smoothly, but the ring's natural rotation appears to be the main source of gravity here, allowing an atmosphere to remain attracted to the surface. From what we can translate of the Shivan instruments, the gravity appears to be around Earth normal, as well as the atmosphere for that matter. It is amazing because once we looked at it from extreme magnification; we could see trees, birds and even animals! An entire eco-system exists there, consisting of desert regions, snow-filled canyons and even tropical paradises. It seems like the perfect vacation spot, or for us - the best spot to acquire some food and water.

However, as good as it may seem, the ring appears...incomplete somehow. As if it was more of the first prototype of a grand design, meant only to test certain features and then be done with. It lacks any advanced equipment or any area where a large population could exist. Apart from the basic design and the wild creatures, the ring appears abandoned.

Which might just be a good thing considering the structure that it is housed around.

The internal structure itself appears to be separate from the ring. It is in a starfish shape, except with only four massive arms stretching out to almost touch the ring as it rotates around. From tip to tip, the arms are nearly 10 Kilometers long, making it a somewhat tight fit. The arms themselves are almost 4 kilometers wide at the tip, and 2 kilometers thick. It expands into the main body, with a curvature on each side between itself and the arms next to it. The main body itself is thick and cylindrical, with a massive hole in the centre. This hole is more of a cylinder of sorts, nearly 6 Kilometers long and with a diameter of 4 Kilometers; it could easily allow a Colossus-sized vessel to pass through it...or a Sathanas for that matter. The installation appears somewhat dead, a remnant of a bygone era we never knew of. Its origins appear to be completely different from that of the ring, and are much, much older than it could ever be.

As of the moment, the external examination reveals no clue as to the creators of the installation, but whoever it was must have been far more advanced than any race in existence. Sensor readings show the installation producing an energy output in excess of one thousand Trillion Megatons, far more than enough to power several stars at once. Where the energy comes from, or how it is just generated is totally unknown, but one must consider that the installation is most likely in standby mode, indicating a much larger power potential. What all this energy can be used for, I have nothing but a suspicion. Unfortunately, it is but a horrible, terrible suspicion that I hope never comes true. That will only be explained once we step onboard the installation, which might happen soon if the Shivans have their way.

What might be easier to explain however, is the origins of the outer ring. The materials that make up the ring are unknown, but yet bare similarity to those used in the Knossos device, leading me to believe that this may just be a creation of the Ancients.

Perhaps, millennia ago, they too stumbled onto this device and then decided to create this ring around it. Although why they actually built it is a mystery to me, one could possibly imagine how such an advanced civilization was capable of creating such a device. Perhaps it was in response to whatever was inside the installation, something with which to contain the horrors that lay within? Either way, we'll know once we conduct our landing on the surface of the ring.

I've already ordered Gibson and Sargo to get everybody into the environmental suits and turn on the artificial gravity. Living in a zero G environment for the past several days will have affected all our bodies, so making sure being ready is priority now.

The transport won't directly land onto the ring itself, but rather conduct a brief subspace jump into the atmosphere, and then attempt to do a safe crash-landing nearby a location which we have identified as a control centre. It's a bit risky, but it's also our only option here. None of the ships gathered around the installation is capable of planet fall, and this transport is our only option now.

That is the other interesting thing to note about this system. The Shivans have gathered here en-masse, as if preparing for some massive exodus. From what we limited view we have, thousands of Shivan vessels are filling the space between the installation and the planet. They range from the smallest fighters to Lucifer class super-destroyers and the massive Sathanas Juggernaughts. No fleet the GTVA could muster can match what the Shivans wield here, and I doubt any real fleet could really match it. We've counted over a hundred Juggernaughts so far, along with over double that number of Lucifer destroyers. There are also a number of Shivan vessels of a totally unknown class. They are much larger than the Lucifer, yet smaller than the Sathanas. However, from their mere appearance, they appear to be capable of wielding just as much firepower as the Sathanas.

All these ships…why are they gathered here? What is this installation? And most importantly, why are we here? So many questions, so few answers and every time more information comes in, it only brings with it even more questions. I guess the answers will come only after we've been to the surface, at the least.

This is Admiral Bosch, signing off.