CE 323
Twenty-three years and three cycles after the Belenos’ arrival in Llyr, during a routine supply acquisition requests communication, the L.L.C.A. of Belenos station experienced a malfunction. The device, whose performance had been proven to be robust, spat out errors indicating its target was no longer available. Initially thought to be a technical fault, subsequent repairs and standard realignment procedures indicated that the relay station and all 36 backups had gone missing. Without the ability to communicate home, it was expected that the supply convoy scheduled for the cycle would enter the sector with the means to repair the fault. The hauler never arrived.
After another three cycles, remaining resources began to dwindle on both stations. Per SGS protocol, all staff were informed of the situation with a directive to redirect supplies from the terraforming project to ensure a self-sustaining environment. The plantation aboard Belenos station was activated, but the protocol to kill all pets aboard was not enacted, as command deemed them valuable in preventing panic. The prisoners were kept in the dark, refused the right to use their credits to communicate with loved ones and given the original excuse of a communications malfunction. Prisoners who resisted these preventative measures were isolated with extreme prejudice in order to quell any riots.
When the BSMC Zaranitsa suddenly registered on the station’s passive LiDAR scans, it seemed that their efforts to reach someone had not been in vain. Their hopes for rescue were diminished when the ship’s transponder code showed them who it belonged to. The Black Star Confederacy had a reputation of being ruthless warmongers and conquerors; a scourge of the frontiers, especially in the Terran corporate world. Moments later, the corvette jumped into the system and ejected its warp core in an effort to disable the unidentified Xenos vessel behind them.
The violent implosion outside sent out a gravitational wave which not only rocked all the vessels in orbit above the planet, but disabled all electronic systems aboard them. The tension reached a breaking point aboard Llyr Galactic Penitentiary as the cell doors were unlocked by an emergency evacuation protocol. The inmates rebelled, overpowering the guards in a pitched battle. When system function was restored, the damage was assessed. The Zaranitsa was disabled, but so was the already unstable warpgate into the sector, sealing their fate. The blackout was the opportunity the prisoners had been waiting for. The realisation that no help was coming, and that they would be the first to be sacrificed, only strengthened their drive to act. By the time power came back on, they had disabled the guardforce aboard the penitentiary ship, locked the rest of them out of their own systems, and taken control of the vessel.
With no access to larger weapon systems and battleships, the newly liberated prisoners and their former captors became locked in a stalemate. Efforts were made to establish contact between the three groups, with little to show for them so far. An agreement was eventually reached to meet aboard the BSCM Zaranitsa to discuss their collective fate.
