Crescent Expedition
Background
MIDD and the Alteran Plague
MIDD, Malgravean Immunodeficiency Disorder, has long been the bane of the Malgravean people, a genetic disorder that is endemic to the population of that country, it is the leading cause of death for the population, and the most important goal of the Malgravean scientific community.
Some speculate that the disease is related to attempts to retro-engineer the genetic imprints of the Alteran civilization, a long dead spacefaring culture whom many Malgraveans believe they are spiritual or literal inheritors of, into the population. In order to investigate this possibility the Ancestral Study Group, a major organization within Malgravean society, sent a number of talented archeologists to travel the Great Civilization of the C’tan to seek leads to assist them in developing new treatments.
In the Great Civilization Year 398 Second Era, one of the most successful of these, Amelia Lowwe, returned to Malgrave and made a presentation at the major New Horizons in MIDD Research and Treatment, to request support and funding for the development of what she believed to be a major lead on understanding MIDD.
During her journey to the Free City of Naár in the Gas Giant Baruthis, Amelia was able to commune with a memory-keeping Elder, one of the native Baruthi species, whose alien anatomy and long-dwelling life-cycles have made them able to inherit memories from millions of years in the past. By communing with this being, she was able to learn that the Baruthi recalled a time when the Alterans were affected by a plague with a similar progression of symptoms.
This information came with more than academic value though; for they also knew of the location of a world where the Alterans had used their advanced technology to fight their own, potentially related, malady.
Given that other Alteran relics have been found to be functional, even after millions of years in storage, the consensus was broadly that this was worth investigating. An expedition, funded by the Ancestral Study Group, and the Save the Malgraveans Foundation, to determine the possible viability of the site was set up as an Ancestral Study Working Group; international assets would be required, ranging from starships to experienced personnel, and the Ancestral Study Group asked the overall management and organization of the expedition to be run through one of Amelia’s long term companions, Rylux Crescent, Dystan Sage of Expeditions, whose high profile would inspire competence in the management of the expedition, with Amelia as Scientific Director.
Archaeology in a War Zone
Complicating matters greatly was the fact that the facility had a location only known to the star system, and the information on the location of the star itself was three million years out of date and second-hand; but as the astronomical information about the potential destination was analysed it became increasingly clear that stellar drift would have taken the site in question into the reach of the Unitarian Stellar Empire, a hostile power whose incursions in the Milky Way Galaxy were limited.
The main supporters of the Crescent Expedition in stellar terms, the Great Civilization of the C’tan was already involved in a prolonged low-intensity conflict with the Empire, aimed at preventing an ongoing genocide of the Elphegort people within the Empire; while sympathetic to the goals of the Crescent Expedition, the Great Civilization’s strategic operations group, under the command of Nemesor Kephrekh ita Novokh, were not willing to alter their plans or disclose their current operational priorities, as much of their work was secret and would force them to greatly accelerate their war on the Empire, with potentially millions of civilian lives lost; they also believed the risk of a conflict directly at the Alteran site entirely destroying archaeological value there made assigning a large scale mission counterproductive.
Instead they mandated that the system only be approached by ships under the two hundred fifty meter keel length, believing that this would be ignored by the Empire as a possible smuggler site, which the fringes of their empire had long suffered, and would refrain from directly assigning more than a liason from their own forces to ensure that, if possible, their ongoing war against the Empire remained entirely separate in the minds of their spatiopolitical rivals in the Empire. They were however willing to provide local intelligence and transport resources.
Gathering Support
Already Rylux and party could call on a number of allies, from other adventures, consisting of an initial party some dozen strong, as well as the Brotherhood of Heroes, a private military contracting firm from Crystal Spires, consisting of discharged military personnel, numbering in total fourteen hundred personnel: these could not all be released for the expedition at once however, and there were many skills required that weren’t available within that group.
It became a necessity instead to approach other nations for support.
Telescope and Probe Missions
Few resources could directly pinpoint a planet from a millions of years out of date geospatial coordinate, and instead of attempting to calculate this mathematically the group needed to use a device called a Terascope, a long range imaging device that could use inertialess drive to position itself millions of light years away and observe the parent star from beyond the galaxy, before using its drive systems to move forward and scan the progress of the star in its orbit around galactic central point.
This required the cooperation of the Abolethic scientist Aur'ulus'thal'mar, a citizen of the Sovereignty of Ullgo'thalun, one of the constituent states of the Great Civilization. As this required rededicating the machine to the task Aur'ulus'thal'mar first had to be convinced of the scientific value of the endevour, and then made his support in imaging the destination contingent on accompanying the expedition. Aur'ulus'thal'mar was also able to derive the Alteran syllabic name for the world, Aclateo Valaruth.
When this was done, long range images of the world were produced, and the group requested an intrusion flight from the Great Civilization's Stellar Engagement forces, and were able to convince their assigned military liason to authorise this. The system was probed by an ineritaless drive equipped Sickle-class intrusion ship Dead Air, a long range light cruiser which shifts most of its emissions into alternate dimensions and is chiefly used for monitoring hostile territory, which was temporarily diverted from its assignment to Chronosian Remnant observations.
The Dead Air was able to verify that no USE forces were present in the Aclateo Valaruth system at the time of its intrusion flight, and departed shortly afterward having produced a surface scan of the planet. However, it did confirm the presence of a long duration probe with ansible capability stationed around one of the outer planets of the system, belonging to the USE. Before any substantial incursion could take place, the probe would need to be disabled.
At the same time, Alastrine, one of the Heralds, sought aid from Princess Luna, former ruler of Equestria, this was a meeting fraught with difficulties, but the Equestrian princess did confirm through divination that that on Aclateo Valaruth there existed an ancient Alteran facility used to research a cure for an a plague. This plague was a biological weapon used against the Alterans as a prelude to an ancient war. It was attacked by the creators of this biological weapon, which caused the planet's star to dim, though the star was not destroyed, causing a major shift in the planet's environmental conditions.
Expedition Makeup
Starships
The Heralds of History had long used the Curious Otter, a Talarion-class Science Ship, as their primary transport, but for a mission of such scope the vessel was inadequate to meet the full needs of the expedition. Aur'ulus'thal'mar possessed his own ship. a construct of his home but its life support systems were broadly incompatible with much of the expedition personnel. With the formalization of relations between Crystal Spires and the Great Civilization, the industrial ship Sublimation of Virtue produced a new ship for the use of the Brotherhood of Heroes, an intermediate corvette by the name of Star Sailor. This vessel had greater military abilities than the Curious Otter and was the expedition's main 'flagship' for military purposes, able to carry an entire platoon of troops.
The Ancestral Study Group were able to provide another vessel for the cause, a Dornalian-built explorer vessel called the Collaborative Capybara, while the Dornalian CDC provided a fifth ship, the CRRS Endeavour.
The rest of the expedition's flotilla consisted of another four light freighters provided by the Sublimation of Virtue, which were required to transport equipment for establishing forward operating bases on the surface of Aclateo Valaruth for the expedition personnel, as well as to transport equipment to and from the Sublimation of Virtue which remained in a star system outside the exclusion zone. These were manned and controlled by the Brotherhood of Heroes.
| Ship | Home Nation | Type |
|---|---|---|
| Star Sailor | Crystal Spires | Strike Corvette |
| Curious Otter | Malgrave | Science Ship |
| Collaborative Capybara | Malgrave | Science Ship |
| Endeavour | New Dornalia | Medical Vessel |
| Personal Vessel 930 | Great Civilization (Ulithuun'shalathun) | Unknown |
| Expedition-1 | Crystal Spires | Light Transport |
| Expedition-2 | Crystal Spires | Light Transport |
| Expedition-3 | Crystal Spires | Light Transport |
| Expedition-4 | Crystal Spires | Light Transport |
| The Noble Eightfold Gunboat | Disciples of Qi | Gunboat |
Ground Personnel
The Expedition had a substantial ground contingent, consisting primarily of military and paramilitary forces provided by Crown Alliance personnel, including a company of commando light infantry from Kouralia, with an attached speical forces troop, along with a contingent of Imeriatan High Guard, for security and cold environment preparation, as well as several hundred personnel from the Ancestral Study Group, and a contingent of specialists working for the Malgravean state enterprise MalPha
Specialists
Along with the large number of primary personnel, the expedition included a number of renowned or otherwise exceptional specialists. This included a detachment from the Dornalian Center for Disease Control with a specialised vessel under Doctor Alejandra Amendariz, as well as support from the government of Dyste arranged through Sarisa Crescent, Rylux Crescent's aunt. One of the more unusual of the specialist groups that accompanied the expedition were the Disciples of Qi, whose vessel was comprised entirely of supernal force.
Arrival
Upon the arrival of the expedition in the Aclateo Valaruth system they quickly determined that there was a potentially hostile presence in the form of a monitoring satellite in the system left by the USE. This satellite had to be disabled by the Curious Otter, which was able to approach it in the interval between its automated databursts and jam it long enough to interface with it, and replace its live sensor reports with a simulation that would not show the other ships present.
Exploration
Locating the facility proved easier than hoped as substantial portions of it were visible above the ice of Aclateo Valaruth, and it was exactly as hoped for, many miles wide and with substantial remains of the precursor civilization hoped for. The facility was able to be accessed initially only by magic, allowing the party to enter it, though not without triggering an automated warning broadcast via subspace. This was soon disabled, though not before it had sent several warning databursts, the facility clearly had power and initial expeditions were mounted into its depths to determine the source of this. The time within the structure was limited, as flash-depositions of dry ice in the depths of the facility proved a substantial danger and at many times the group were reduced to using thermal cutters to access the facility through mixed water-ice and dry-ice deposits. Reaching the depths of the facility the initial landing group were able to determine that the facility used a dual-power solution, both a mantle-deep magma-tap, and a Lantean power module, which was disconnected, left behind by the facility's original owners in case it needed to be brought back to operation quickly.
With this boon, the group activated the main power source but were challenged by a sub-sapient artificial intelligence in the structure, and when they were unable to demonstrate that met the narrow criteria it had been given, this guardian intelligence began to attempt to destroy the facility by causing a volcanic eruption through the magma-tap. Acting quickly the group were able to disable the facility intelligence, but due to this they were not able to directly clear the ice within the facility to accelerate their own progress.
Unexpected Guests
The planet was soon approached by a travelling independent explorer, Aparu, whose specialty was Alteran technology, and who had received and translated the transmission from the facility. Convincing this traveller of their urgent need, he agreed to join their expedition.
Less friendly, they were also joined by Captain Morthar of the Imperial Response Frigate *KG-3928*, a USE response frigate tasked with investigating the signal, though the USE had not translated it. All three of the expedition's gunships put to space to deter this investigator, and acted to convince him that they were a pirate group, attempting to bribe him to ignore their operation. This initially failed, and Morthar's ship engaged with the trio of armed gunships in a brief and indecisive battle, before the group were able to convince Morthar to depart, and report that he had destroyed a group of pirates, than to be destroyed; though they had no means to ensure he would adhere to that agreement.
Murder at Camp Bronze
As painstaking progress was made in the facility, a number of camps were set up as a perimeter, using the expedition's ground vehicles and pre-fabricated facilities to house scientific and security personnel for expeditions; this allowed a slow but steady rate of exploration of the city-sized facility under the direction of numerous teams to proceed with caution, finding and bringing ancient shields that could protect the facility online. This progress was interrupted by the murder of Alana ByraþAare, one of the expedition's scientists, during a snowstorm. A highly competent investigation by Sebastyan Aldham revealed that the killer had been Izabela Janowski, the scientific liason for the Malgravean Pharmacutical company MalPha. More startlingly, it revealed that she was blended with a goa'uld, from the Domain of Lord Atum. She had been discovered broadcasting coded signals by Alana, and murdered her.
As this was discovered, Izabela had fled the expedition's base camps, into the city, under hot pursuit. She had used brainwashing techniques to subvert a number of Imerian High Guard who fought to keep the party from pursuing her, but were able to be subdued without loss of life. Using a surprising knowledge of Lantean defensive systems, the murderer was able to hold the group pursuing her up for some time, though she was eventually captured. In this capture it was revealed that the delay was too little, too late, for an Atumite ship was about to arrive.
Worse, the earlier conflict with Captain Morthar had been all the grounds the Atumite had needed to act to cut the party off from aid, and she had broadcast the location of the support ship Sublimation of Virtue to the USE fleet base, causing the ship to be attacked. As the expedition scrambled to respond to this news, Rylux ordered all personnel to take shelter, using ships and ground vehicles, within the shield umbrella of the ancient facility, hoping to wait out any Atumite attack.
A Doomed Alliance
As the Atumite vessel arrived, the group were hailed by the High Lady Pasht, of the Atumite Court, who demanded they turn over the power module powering the facility, and allow her to bombard it from orbit to prevent any biological weapons samples being released from the ancient facility. The group were able to play on Pasht's ego, as she had previously mentioned the superior understanding all Atumites possessed of the biological sciences and the Alteran precursors, inviting her to aid them in safely using the facility to cure MIDD; however she did not do so without precondition, requiring that her troops would be needed in the room with the power module while she worked with them.
There were several incidents almost immediately. The Atumite commander expected to take direct command of the expedition. She was unable to imagine that the people of the Tau'ri as the goa'uld define beings from Earth, could be asking her to participate without wanting her to directly control the operation. The Imerian contingent, upon discovering that Pasht was partly responsible for the Great Humiliation that devastated their homeland, at first mounted a mutiny but were talked down, instead withdrawing from the expedition and in accordance with their honour codes, heading into exile, shamed by being unable to fulfil their obligations without associating with their enemies. Most seriously of all, the Dragon Priest Alastrine chose to deliberately provoke the jaffa warriors of Pasht, inciting them with deliberate blasphemy in the hope that the alliance would fail and she would be able to seize control of the Power Module. This plan backfired and instead they chose to attack her directly, killing her outright.
With Pasht's aid research was rapidly accelerated as she possessed a full map of the Aclateo Valaruth facility and was able to direct expedition teams to the main research facilities within the complex.
The Theft of the Biosample and the Alliance Betrayed
During the final phases of exploration of the facility, the Aboleth Aur'ulus'thal'mar was discovered to be mounting a parallel exploration off the books to retrieve the original bioweapon samples held in the facility from the Alteran Great Plague. Seeing this betrayal, the Expedition leader informed the Atumite commander on the ground of what was happening, as the Atumites had previously intimated they planned to destroy the whole facility when they left with the power module. After a difficult altercation Aur'ulus'thal'mar was killed, however, the Expedition were surprised when the Atumites did not turn demonstrate secure disposal of the bio-sample, instead likely retaining it themselves.
As a result of this and fearing what the Atumites would do with the Great Plague in their possession, they contrived a plan to provide additional power via the Qi channeling of the monks with their party. Detailing this to their allies, the expedition stated they intended to use the power module to generate the data required for a MIDD cure, but instead fired on and destroyed Pasht's ship, killing her and resulting in the live samples of the Great Plague seemingly being destroyed. The expedition were forced to kill the remaining Jaffa warriors in the complex in a brief but intense fire-fight in the power room of the Alteran facility.
The Cure
With Pasht's forces destroyed the group were able to spend the next several weeks preparing to actually create a cure to MIDD, which involved taking a live brain biopsy and using the facility's ancient technology to analyse it, and then using a rare and precious Alteran data-module, which functioned by creating an isolated pocket-universe to perform complex calculations that could take millions of years within a measurable time, the science of such a thing was quite beyond the group but the ancient technology was able to provide both a full analysis of MIDD and the genetic sequence for a gene-therapy to not only prevent the disease, but directly stop it in its tracks, a single course of treatments taken over several weeks that would result in an essential reboot of the host's immune system.
The Expedition leaders were lionized by the Malgravean media and widely praised through the Mystrian region.