To put it bluntly, The Archives were wiped alongside the schematics, and fabricators. Had that Super Dreadnought not already been queued, they simply wouldn’t have one.

The only Archives that he could recover were archives of schematics of what the classified variants were ‘based’ on. While in the medical archives fared slightly better as revival, cloning, synthetic humans, and overall better medical knowledge weren’t deemed classified.

New Harvest did also still have funding, however there were only five hundred billion ‘emergency’ funds available, however considering they already had the resources and ability to be self-sufficient they’d only have to worry about the lack of exotic resources and amenities.

However, they could live without it as each of the clones still had their own bank accounts and the entirety of their commissions and pensions to splurge with so they could pay for it unless it was deemed of utmost necessity.

The Secondary Fleet and Defenses New Harvest can do, it's been around for centuries so he doubted there was a facility or tools they didn’t already have.

New Harvest at this point still had things going for it, however he had only done as much so as to honor Ernest if or when his ‘Echoe’ returns while the hidden Curators weren’t counted among the dead for obvious reasons, so he wasn’t sure when they'll be back.

At most, New Harvest can become his second home, at worst he’d have a second job?

Zeta was The New Beta and there wasn't anything currently on his list to worry about as Calisto had.. taken the small pod with her, so all he now needed to worry about is what Cheyenne was up to Anora’s Echoe with The Federation Fabricator Dreadnought now on its way here, and Calisto.

However, when all was said and finished, Ferris deserved a proper reprieve. He’ll likely come to know about the others with due time.. leaving only Helen & Anora to deal with as he finishes up the ‘paperwork’ & ignores The Curator sleeping on the polar orbit of the sun.. still..

Whatever her arrangements were with Ernest, he wouldn’t interfere..

…

After fifteen minutes of grueling paperwork and preparations, he returned to Helen who as if lost her sense of time waited for him to find them a ship, as she was still unaware of the changes thus far.

And after arriving to the nearest hanger Helen squinted her eyes at the dusty maintenance shuttle before boarding it without question and finding herself a seat as Ferris took the controls and seamlessly disembarked the hangar and headed to The R&D Ship Storage Yards.

Those being where ships could be reverse engineered, put back together, and documented into the database. Said database and yard still exist so at least they could be of some use in the future..

The Storage Yards contained approximately one hundred and twenty-five ships, whether it be Dreadnoughts, Carriers, or Cruisers relating to exploration, military, or that of the corporate sector.

New Harvest preferred larger ships as they compared frigates to private vessels, minor escorts, or scouts even if the heavy variant could match that of a standard human cruiser? Frigates were simply smaller and didn’t require such yards to be stored.

And after hovering above the yard, Ferris displayed a holographic list and visuals of each ship currently available.. she sat back down, squinted at him for an added measure and scrolled through the list.

Before finally ending in The Alliance Category or more specifically, The Alliance's Admiralty’s Attempts to find a loophole in their Dreadnought Restriction placed by their treaties with The Freestar Confederacy..

Evidently, a ‘Research’ Vessel based on an Alliance Dreadnought and designed to include several hangar bays for ‘moderately’ armed ‘Research’ Corvettes, who too were also based on Heavy Corvettes twice the size of a Dropship and four times the size of a fighter were ‘valid’ exceptions?

So having twelve of them, and a ever so slightly modified hull of a Dreadnought with the armaments of a Dreadnought but due to a mere technicality were considered to belong to a heavy weapons platform were ‘also’ valid exceptions.

However, they were ever so unfairly ‘forced’ to add the necessary science equipment, labs, and modifications to said ‘research’ corvettes in addition to detailing the hull with the necessary markings, and additions to match the standard for any alliance research vessel.

Of course, after finishing the ‘first’ of its kind and going over budget by five hundred million credits meant that it was ‘deemed’ too costly by The Alliance Council and sold to the private sector before its sudden disappearance a ‘century’ and a half ago..

Naturally it was documented and found itself in the history books, but Helen always believed it was a myth until she saw it.. just sitting next to a Freestar Dreadnought..

Corvettes were also nearly extinct for whatever reason? Present naval doctrine believed fighters with the same effectiveness and the ability to build four at the price of a single corvette made it an obvious choice.

So outside of museums and their use as training craft for larger ships they weren’t actively used in most theaters with the exception of mining as it was more of a civilian craft now.

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

And considering it was a legendary vessel of its time and filled with experimental state of the art labs and equipment that were considered far ahead of its time, the choice was obvious.. as Helen after choosing it chose to celebrate by downing another aged bottle of far too sour wine..

…

Minutes after boarding, and returning the maintenance shuttle to New Harvest, Ferris connected Anora to the ship’s empty A.I Matrix, which evidently was designed to ‘never’ be used, as an effort to adhere to laws relating to advanced A.I and their duties on ‘research’ vessels.

Of course, that only applied to warships, however despite getting through enough loopholes, the designers were bound to get stuck somewhere, which was frankly bizarre considering the many loops they managed to get through simply to create such a monstrosity?

However, after getting to the bridge Ferris prepared to sit on the captain’s chair before noticing an outdated unmarked alliance captain’s uniform and suit that coincidently came with the ship.. what was even more bizarre was the fact that they were exactly in his size..

So naturally after getting dressed only to dawn his new suit, Helen would finally make her way to the bridge and squinting at him once more, at least until Anora appeared through the projectors?

“I.. I’m ok with this? With a ship this large, packed with a handful of facilities.. it's just like home! Just don’t expect me to fly it like a shuttle? And don’t worry, that ‘frigate’ incident! I took a moment to study its systems so it should be fine? Now it needs a name.. I’ll deal with the transponder-”

Anora surprisingly remarked with some positively, at least until Helen chose the name..

“Chardonnay.. well its a name.”

Anora’s previous positivity was all but diminished in all but a moment as she ordered a construction drone to.. imprint The New Harvest Research Ship, The Chardonnay. Or in actuality The N.H.R Chardonnay and making use of New Harvest’s unique transponder codes.

Subsequently, New Harvest Transponder Codes were rarely ever seen outside of the rim. Ernest had ensured their transponders, or overall registrations were deemed ‘exempt’ and given a similar status to that of The Arcadians and Curators.

It took far too many back door deals and treaties to arrange it, however, if someone desired to detain them, search their ship, impound it, or even seize it they’d be met with enough red tape and treaties to avoid it entirely.

So much so that any or all fees, fines, and tolls were all waived and their crew having a similar status to diplomats. Naturally, this wouldn’t work for Arcadia, and to ‘some’ extent minimally when it came to The Curators.

Ernest’s reputation was simply too great, as was his pockets.. as after several moments Anora after doing its preflight checks and reading the majority of its control ‘manuals’, it was only natural that after lifting off and getting into orbit that she nearly forgot a proper crew..

Even if she was immune from red tape relating to A.I, Anora didn’t want to be watched, asked, or seen in that regard. And with Ferris’s approval, she spent the next hour cloning a proper crew, pilots, a large security detachment, and whatever else was suited for such a large ship.

As for their uniforms and equipment.. she simply scanned all the weapons, uniforms, ranks, and suits specially ‘made’ for this ship and fabricated them, seeing as it was her first time doing so.

However, it took an additional two hours and further preflight checks for The Crew to come onboard.. Anora might not necessarily know what she’s doing however.. she wanted to do something ‘right’ for a change..

And the fact alone that she cloned nearly a nine hundred crew and equipped them, threw together their memories for their maiden voyage, and made it so that they were leaving the grand academy of new harvest was something she was rather proud of.

It wasn’t perfect but nothing really is as Ferris allowed Helen to choose their destination considering her.. circumstances? And as they finally slipspaced, Ferris closed his eyes..

…

As if reappearing in the same dream, he was soon greeted once more by the now all too familiar Precursor..

“You have misunderstood. You have already embraced death. Your mate saw only a corpse. The other saw only hope. The third saw nothing. There is no Harvest, only death. You are Perpetual. Everlasting. Ascendant. Ignorant. But you do not know. Do not seek. Do not misunderstand. Awaken-”

And after what felt like a lifetime, Helen elbowed his helmet, waking him from his dream, as if in sync.

“You weren’t much for company, three days of slip space and you haven’t moved an inch. I’m no fool, don’t think I haven’t noticed your implant flicking away.. no matter. Welcome to The Free World of Sol, we should land before anyone questions why this monstrosity is merely idling”

With Helen’s abrupt confirmation, it appeared she had also cleaned herself up and changed into a medical variant of a suit onboard, before seemingly dragging him to a research shuttle and forcing him to take a seat.

“Never a dull moment, and.. thank you, Director-”

But before he could finish his sentence, she inexplicably fired a slug at the pilot’s controls shortly after entering orbit..

“It’s Ellen, oh you should brace for impact. But not before you get changed, I may have insinuated that my side arm had accidently ‘dropped’ out of my holster and went off prematurely. As for our current predicament, at best we will crash ‘close’ to the nearest landing pad, at worst.. our burial would be a simple matter”

He couldn’t argue with her logic or methods even if he surely could have, he liked to hope that this wasn’t what that.. ‘kind’ Precursor had meant?

With that, she shot the slip drive and tossed the gun into a hazard disposal vent that vented it shortly after, as it now slowly drifted away into the void of space..

Was it necessary? No, did he now understand why hit squads were after her? Perhaps. No matter the case, the autopilot tried its very best to minimize the damage as ships began to hail them.

“This is Captain Wilks of The Crimson Marauders; we don’t ordinarily do this as per our.. profession. But do you require assistance or are you bastar-knuckleheads trying to get yourselves killed? Hell, what am I even saying, who the hell ‘accidentally’ shoots their piloting controls?!”

The First hail was indeed a peculiar one.. The thought of pirates wishing to provide aid was especially comedic. However, their hail was soon cut off following another..

“Research Shuttle, this is Rear Admiral Haze of The Alliance. We detect heavy damage to your slipspace drive, can you read us? We’re going to attempt to slow you down before you hit Sol’s Atmosphere-”

Unfortunately for both however, the communications were also damaged as two Alliance Fighters raced to grapple them before hitting the atmosphere. They provided a series of hand gestures explaining what they were going to do.

Which ultimately translated to them using the ballistic grapples shot from their fighter craft to level out the shuttle unto the lower atmosphere, giving both better chances of survival.

Until finally they released their grapples and watched as the autopilot crashed into a plateau some distance from the many landing pads as alarms blared and the red light filled the interior..