Talk:AIF/@comment-11135771-20140808025320

Important announcement to all members of the AIF:

During final tests of our newest and by far most powerful aerospace warship thus far, there was an... accident. The prototype ship, designated XAW-1799, was equipped with an experimental model of warp drive designed to have much lower energy requirements than other FTL engines. Initial tests showed the drive to work flawlessly, save for a quiet but unexplainable static-like noise heard by all near the warp core.

However, on our fifth test run, there was a catastrophic accident. The ship entered the warp portal, and instead of existing immediately at the target destination, it appeared, mangled horrifically, in the sky approximately sixty four kilometres from the target location. The ship appeared to have had several components dislocated, most notably the front half being moved to a location beside the rear section, with  tendrils of metal running between the two. Other parts appeared to have vanished entirely or been relocated from their original positions. Despite this apparent damage, the ship still flew as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

The XAW-1799 did not respond when we hailed the crew, but upon requesting that it return to the testing site, the vessel immediately complied, still without a response from its crew. It quickly became apparent that despite the lack of a reply from anyone on board, the ship did anything requested over radio communication by any AIF officer at or above the rank of rear admiral. The reason for this distinction between ranks, and the means by which the vessel is able to distinguish between different people giving it commands, remains unknown. Three teams were sent to board the ship and investigate it; none have returned, and radio contact with each was lost upon entry into the vessel.

The ship appears to be non-hostile and compliant to orders given to it by any rear admiral or higher, but we have had no success in discerning how it is capable of functioning, or who or what is controlling it. Consideration was given to destroying the vessel on account of the danger it might represent, but ultimately decided against due to its submissiveness to commands and combat value making it a valuable asset, even though a poorly understood one. Several AIF officers were overheard referring to it as the "AIF Lovecraft" on account of the vessel's horrific appearence, and this has since become the unofficial designation of the post-accident XAW-1799 prototype.

End report.