Chapter One

Alpha 1

Tom Logan sat in his bland cream white decor office, the standard colour of most corporate faculties. In front of him, Logan was surrounded by 4 brightly coloured monitors rapidly spurted facts and figures of varied information, flashing in colourful crescendos painting itself on Logan’s face. After a while his eye’s suddenly felt irritated, so he sat back away from the screens started rubbing them. Longer exposure to the monitor screens would incur a headache, but he had work to do. He thought about calling a technician, ask them if they could fit a filter to the screens or at least make them dimmer. Or maybe he was just getting old and his eyes where trying to tell him something, ‘see an optician now!’ he mused to himself. Logan was turning 40 soon in May; he’d had already signs of grey hair moving in on him. But for a director who spends most of his time in the office, he was still very fit for a 39 year old. It didn’t bother him becoming older, only just the possibility becoming useless and thrown on the scrap heap like most of his fellow older colleagues. 30 more years to retirement it said on his profile in the personnel database, he’ll show his worth to the company and finish this little project of theirs with a success, a job well done. Hopefully by then he’ll be next in line for a promotion, and find a securer position in the company far away from here. Nothing would get in way of his career, not the TSA, soon not even the Kharaa, he grinned.

Logan had decided to go see the optician at last, after noticing some of the letters on the screen seemed to look blurred to him. Hopefully it would be nothing, and Dr Gates would put his mind at ease with a quick inspection, and then he can get back to work. Logan looked down the steel grated street to see the neon flashing sign post that directed him to the building; the Optician’s office was only a few kilometres from his office and apartment, so he didn’t bother taking the kat which was parked just outside his office. Like most of the facilities in the base they where only a 5 minute walk away. Baring the fact the whole research base including the planet was specially designed in mind of security, hence to stop employees from wandering off base and having a chat with a certain spy. Although if an employee did leave the base, the only thing he or she would find is billions of acres worth of bare rock, desert and an expensive sensor network. Nothing lived here except us, that’s how the company would like to keep it, not surprising though, especially as we’re so deep inside the Ariadne Arm and an attack from the Kharaa seemed eminent everyday. The possibility of that happening didn’t bother Logan the slightest, he’d rather face the Kharaa then his bosses back in corps Space, failure wasn’t an option. His life depended upon his career, for the rest of the people on this planet are here for the money, or like the scientists they just want to make a difference and stop the Kharaa which Logan found to be very noble. Of course if there was an attack they would simply just escape in the transport ships, again only a 5 min walk to the hangar. Logan had always secretly contemplated the possibility of him not being on one of them transports if there was ever an attack, perhaps.
Originally Alpha 1 was used as an outpost for mining exploration in this sector in the time of the expansion, when lots of planets where up for grabs. The team stationed here hadn’t much luck for severally months. Until somebody left a sensor drone running back at the outpost while most of the team where out on a deep search mission. When they arrived back, the little drone had found a large cash of minerals. 2 weeks late they managed to dig several caverns to the source of the deposit, and requested heavy mining equipment, including a mining facility. But sadly the Kharaa made themselves know in the sector, and the company could not risk any ships. So the outpost was abandoned. Until 3 years later Dr Largo whom is are resident expert on the Kharaa, somehow managed to encourage the corporation on funding for a research outpost on alpha 1. His findings where promising, so more funding was wired and more expects where sent. Once the outpost expanded to a research base, it was decided to be kept as a secret to avoid the charter. This wasn’t too hard, since nobody would expect the company to be foolish enough to deploy a base in the Ariadne Arm. To make certain no ships happen to stray near to Alpha one, a fully armed team of mercenaries are stationed here with several siege vessels, including a patrolling assault cruiser orbiting the dark side of the planet, hiding its energy signature. A great number of credits have been spent on this project; the company expects major progress in a few months time including a profitable out comes. Logan being a business man himself agreed with the project’s objective, but developing new technologies was a very uncertain process as he’d had learnt from past experiences. All they could do for the moment is show computer simulated sequences of Dr Largo’s team’s work to the company. Hopefully testing will begin soon, putting them corporate fat cats at ease.
Just as the doors slid open on the optician building, Logan’s Vismobile beeped a dull tone.
“Yes?” Logan said to the device, as it produced a half 3d fractural image of a man dressed in corporate militia uniform.
“Sir, we have located an infected ship drifting though j sector. We have managed to jam its distress beacon and secured the area.”
“Excellent work Captain.” Logan smiled, it was the best news he’d heard all day “Will be launching the research ship Lancer towards your sector as soon as possible. For the mean time Captain, deploy chargers to the hull of the ship, and keep your distance. We don’t want an outbreak like last time, good luck.”
Logan then quickly pressed one of the preset channels on his Vismobile, “Dr Largo I have great news, our Captain Grating has discovered an infected ship in the j sector. Prepare your team and prototype; meet me at the launch pad in 2…..”
“My team has been ready since February, and the prototype can’t be anymore operational then it is” Largo interrupted. Largo was clearly in one of his moods again, he’d been like this ever since the prototype had finished its basic testing phase. Although a man of science he was not one of patients, but it was not his fault the deadline of the prototypes going into full production was looming very soon. But without advance testing they could not know if it was ready or not. And Largo would lose funding for more projects if it didn’t work; with more and advance testing, if it came up with a problem they would have a reason to stall so Largo could develop a solution.
“That is all Largo.” Logan said as he switched the Vismobile off.
“Yes, testing will being soon.” Logan thought out loud as he made his way back to the office.

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