Gloria Verdantes Incident

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Gloria Verdantes Incident

At 0851 hours, in the Epsilon Eridani System, the Nanotrasen Military Vessel Gloria Verdantes emitted a distress call. The reason for the distress call was a significant detonation of unknown origin in the engineering department, rendering the experimental Singularity Drive unstable. The detonation left the vessel with a side spin at the angle of fifteen arc seconds, at three revolutions a minute.


Captain Alexander Stolton was terminated in the detonation; his presence in the engineering department was unknown. The distress call was issued by a Chief Engineer McNaughton.
As of 0905 hours, the distress call was received by a long-range scanner, belonging to the Sovereign Government of Stormswrath.


As of 0912 hours, the vessel, SDF Devastator set off with all possible speed to the source of the distress signal. Upon arrival at it’s destination at 0927 hours, the SDF Devastator recorded this image.

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A pristine image is imbedded just below the text; the image shows a long, sleek, silvered ship, with the words “NMV GLORIA VERDANTES” painted on the side. The rear quarter of the ship appears blackened and warped, with a ghostly purple glow emanating from inside the superstructure. Long lines of text are linked to various point of the image as you run your eyes over it, detailing the extensive stress and damage to the aft of the vessel.

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As of 0914 hours, the SDF Devastator established communications with the bridge of the NMV Gloria Verdantes, further correspondence revealed that the engine in use was an, at that point, experimental Singularity Drive. Chief Engineer McNaughton relayed the information that, to the best of his knowledge, he was the only surviving engineer remaining on the vessel, due to the detonation. The nature of the detonation was also revealed. A power surge in the containment system had caused significant power fluctuations in the sustainment of the Singularity, causing it to rapidly expand. This expansion caused a wave of intense radiation to pass through the aft section of the vessel, igniting organic tissue within, these ignitions disrupted volatile chemicals inside the engineering department, causing the detonation.


Chief Engineer McNaughton also confirmed that all EVA suits on the Gloria Verdantes had been destroyed in the detonation, due to an out of protocol decision by Captain Alexander Stolton to move the emergency engineering suits to the Engineering area.

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As of 1137 hours, the SDF Devastator had launched three attempted stabilisation attempts to the crippled NMV Gloria Verdantes. All three attempts failed when the hardsuit systems of the rescuers failed in the intense Electromagnetic emissions of the Singularity Engine.


As of 1154 hours, the SDF Devastator launched a forth attempt, utilizing shielded armour suits. The suits were successful in attaching couplings to the NMV Gloria Verdantes, stabilising its side spin. The shielded suits were also unable to approach the engine.


A communiqué from Chief Engineer McNaughton revealed the nature of the issue. The Singularity Engine of the vessel was draining power from the main grid, vastly increasing the intensity of its radiation. Chief Engineer McNaughton volunteered to attempt to disable the main power grid of the vessel, however, doing so would disable the gravity, medical equipment, and life support functions of the vessel.


As of 1229 hours, Chief Engineer McNaughton was successful in disabling the power grid of the NMV Gloria Verdantes, however, contact was lost with Chief Engineer McNaughton shortly afterwards.


The lessening of the Electromagnetic intensity allowed operations previously impossible on the vessel. Armour suited operatives boarded the vessel, to assist in the evacuation of the crew to the SDF Devastator. A significant amount of the crew was not recovered.


As of 1411 hours, the Singularity Engine rapidly reduced in intensity and strength, an investigation of the now inert area revealed that Chief Engineer McNaughton, wearing several recovered pieces of EVA equipment had exited into the engine containment field and manually disabled further sources of matter and energy input into the engine. Doing so had rendered him unconscious, with severe radiation burns. However, if the engine had been allowed to access the energy and matter stores that had been removed, it is likely that most of the unshielded crewmembers would have been killed by the extreme radiation levels during evacuation.


As of 1423 hours, Chief Engineer McNaughton was placed in intensive medical care by Chief Medical Officer Delindivar Truesight.

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Of the compliment of five hundred crewmembers, one hundred and fifty were declared deceased, or missing, presumed dead.
Captain Alexander Stolton has been declared to be in gross breach of protocol, neglect of duty, and an enemy of the Corporation, his genetic template has been erased from our records.
Ensign McNaughton received a commendation of bravery from Central Command, as well as the George Cross from the Sovereign Government of Stormswrath, the first non-national to receive the award.
Total Cost: One point five billion credits of damage to the NMV Gloria Verdantes.
One hundred and fifty life insurance claims, totalling at seven and a half million credits.

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As of 09/02/2441 the NMV Gloria Verdantes has been salvaged by the Cervos Company, a subsidiary of Nanotrasen. It was noted that several classified systems were noted to be accessed during the evacuation.

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