Black Flight

Black Flight
Overlook
Members	Captain Stenson
Headquarters	Overlook, HIP 22460
Location	Relay Station PSJ-17, Celaeno Communication Hub Zeta 12, Electra Nommai Convoy Beacon, Nommai Recon 6, HIP 17746
Type	Black ops unit
Purpose	Suppress Thargoid-related information Support Project Seraph

Black Flight was (and maybe still is) a covert military unit that seemingly operated under Azimuth Biochemicals. Its chief duties involved monitoring for Thargoid activity, preventing the public from discovering any Thargoid-related sites and technology by any means necessary, and supporting Project Seraph. Pilots serving with Black Flight are identified only by ID codes consisting of digits and letters prefixed by "SVI" with a hyphen, while their ships, most commonly Diamondback Explorers or Scouts, use analogical designations prefixed by "SV". Black Flight's activities first came to light in June 3303, shortly before the onset of the Second Thargoid War, but many questions remained unanswered until August 3307.

Black Flight used the megaship Overlook in HIP 22460, which had been permit-locked by Azimuth to conceal Project Seraph's experiments and analysis of local Thargoid Surface Sites, as an important staging point until sometime in 3303, when Project Seraph staff decided the system's usefulness had run its course and relocated. Black Flight's last known orders were for its pilots to aid in the evacuation of HIP 22460 and then return to their designated ports for reassignment; it is unclear how many Black Flight members, if any, survived the Thargoid attack on the Overlook which came during the evacuation.

Black Flight is considered a conspiracy theory or an urban legend by many if they know it, and not everyone takes it seriously. This is nourished by appearing in unserious media.

History

Incidents in Maia

A typical Black Flight ship

The earliest known incident with possible ties to Black Flight occurred on January 31, 3302, when an unidentified Diamondback Explorer with the unusual designation "S6: 7" conducted a high-speed flyby and scan of Obsidian Orbital in Maia. The ship ignored all hails and departed once it completed its scan. Witnesses of the incident speculated that the ship was looking for something.

Another incident that possibly involved Black Flight was the kidnapping of Professor Ishmael Palin in February 3302. Palin had been traveling from Obsidian Orbital to Maia B 1 b a to begin the construction of a new research outpost when his ship came under attack and was enveloped by a larger vessel. Palin recalled being interrogated at an unknown location about his research into Thargoid Sensors for several days. Although most of his findings were already public knowledge, his captors were convinced he was withholding something. Eventually, they seemingly gave up, sedated him, and placed him in an escape pod that was likely sold to the Blue Hand Gang criminal syndicate. Independent pilots recovered Palin's pod on March 3 during a campaign to subjugate the Blue Hand Gang in Orulas, and Palin made a full recovery at Wilkes Orbital in Nespeleve before sharing his experience with the media on March 14. Unfortunately for the professor, his ordeal was not yet over, for it was discovered on March 17 that his captors had infected him with a strain of Cerberus Plague, possibly intending for Palin and his assistants to spread it among the public. Authorities at Wilkes Orbital quickly quarantined Palin and organised deliveries of Ceremonial Heike Tea, and by March 24 the disease had been neutralised, preventing an outbreak. The kidnapping left a lingering impression on Professor Palin, resulting in his decision to resign from the Palin Institute on April 15 and retire to private life, where he could continue his work on Thargoid Sensors outside of the eyes of the public and the "dark forces" he believed were arrayed against him.

Exposure

Black Flight's existence and activities were first unearthed in June and July of 3303, as independent pilots stumbled across Unregistered Comms Beacons containing partial transmissions between Black Flight operatives and their commanders, and read news reports of alleged smuggling rings being apprehended. These clues led pilots to various sites: Survey Vessel Pandora orbiting HIP 21478 A 1 f, Survey Vessel Victoria's Song orbiting HIP 17125 A 3, Communication Hub Zeta 12 orbiting Electra 4, and Relay Station PSJ-17 orbiting Celaeno 1.

Survey Vessel Pandora and Survey Vessel Victoria's Song were both independent ships commissioned to survey uncharted systems outside the Core Systems; recovered logs from the Victoria's Song indicate it was working for the Federation at the time. Both ships encountered anomalies which would later be identified as Thargoid Surface Sites, and reported their findings to their employers. Shortly afterward, Black Flight ships arrived on the scene and attacked them. The crews of both survey ships were either arrested or executed by Black Flight to suppress their discoveries, and local news outlets provided cover stories. In the Victoria's Song's case, The Pleione Herald reported that the ship was involved in smuggling and had been declared off-limits by the authorities.

Communication Hub Zeta 12 was a civilian communication installation that happened to be run by the same comms network corporation utilised by Black Flight. After Zeta 12's staff reported receiving an alien signal, Black Flight intercepted the report and sent operatives to shut down the facility and seize all records related to the signal. The operatives initially posed as technicians assigned to fully-automate Zeta 12, but the staff grew suspicious after noticing they were armed and confiscating the signal data. One staff member concealed location data taken from the signal in a data module along with logs of what had happened as the Black Flight operatives gathered the staff for "evacuation". The location data leads to a Thargoid Surface Site. Black Flight ships remain on-site at Zeta 12 to eliminate trespassers.

Relay Station PSJ-17 serves as Black Flight's main communications center in the Pleiades Nebula, and is heavily guarded. Logs retrieved from the installation provide more details about Black Flight's operations, and confirm their connections to the Pandora, Victoria's Song, and Zeta 12 incidents. They also provide the location of a crashed Black Flight ship named Recon 6 in HIP 17746, and several Thargoid Surface Sites. One log explicitly links Black Flight to Overlook, mentioning it as where captives are taken for interrogation.

Hyford's Cache

Another incident later confirmed to have involved Black Flight occurred in early 3303. Independent pilot Commander Hyford was contracted by an anonymous mercenary to transport unmarked cargo to a private military complex in the Pleiades Nebula. When Hyford examined the cargo, he discovered that he was transporting humans in escape pods who were being used in experiments. He also learned that the group that hired him was involved in monitoring for alien encounters and technology, was not part of the Federation or Empire, and had extremely powerful backers. With the mercenaries in pursuit with orders to kill him, Hyford fled to Colonia, and then scuttled and abandoned his Type-9 Heavy on Colonia 5 e a. The shipwreck site, which became known as Hyford's Cache, was discovered by other independent pilots on May 26, 3303; it had been located using details found in messages intercepted by Listening Posts in Neche, Wasat, and Colonia. Repeated attempts to access the ship's data core containing Hyford's records failed, however, and the site was little more than a curiosity for several years. On July 29, 3307, the data core finally became responsive and indicated that it would unlock on August 26.

Evidence of the connection between Black Flight and Hyford's Cache was given a boost on August 20, 3307, when independent journalist Flint Lafosse highlighted an episode of "End Times", a conspiracy theory show run by the Engineer Kit Fowler. The show mentioned that Black Flight had been known to operate in Neche, Wasat, and Colonia, the same systems containing the Listening Posts that led to Hyford's Cache.

Project Seraph revelations

Hyford's Cache Countdown Timer Expires

After Hyford's Cache unlocked on August 26, 3307 and revealed the location of a defunct site where Black Flight operated, Oaken Point in HIP 26176, independent pilots found a chain of Listening Posts that also pointed to HIP 22460 and provided that system's permit. Based on logs recovered from Oaken Point, and from Fort Asch and the derelict megaship Overlook in HIP 22460, Black Flight appeared to be the military wing of Azimuth Biochemicals, a corporation that was previously thought to have been dissolved. Azimuth had been using Black Flight to suppress public knowledge of the Thargoids and support Project Seraph, a research program pursuing the means for humans to pilot Thargoid starships.

Futher Sightings

Some people, who also believed it existed at all, thought that Black Flight was destroyed alongside the Overlook or maybe that it lost its purpose as the Thargoid existence has become publicly known and the Second Thargoid War has started. Nevertheless, they were possibly sighted in the Uncenii system on 25 November 3308, supported by a taken footage. It looks like a group of Diamondback Scouts bearing "SVI" ID codes were handing over canisters filled with Meta-Alloys and confidental matter. There are other reported places of their contemporary activities in Nommai and 42 n Persei. Thargoid advocates (namely YKE Technologies) accused Black Flight and Azimuth Biotech of warmongery, deception, monopolising Thargoid technology, sabotaging peaceful communication attempts, threatening them and Aegis, and even genocide. The most watched examples are the infamous ends of two megaships, the Alexandria operated by Aegis and the Kingfisher in the Thargoid Advocacy Project, and the failed Proteus Wave which was not allegedly meant to stop the Thargoid invasion but to lure and procure a Thargoid mothership.

Fleet

• Command
  • Overlook

• Operations
  • Black Flight 12
  • Black Flight 22

• Reconnaissance
  • Recon 2
  • Recon 6

Timeline

31 AUG 3307

• *Pilots Federation ALERT*
  A data bank left by a crashed vessel on the moon Colonia 5 e a has reactivated, revealing clues as to its origin. The crash site was first discovered over four years ago via listening posts in the Colonia, Neche and Wasat systems. These posts held transmissions from the ship's owner, Commander Hyford, discussing his attempts to avoid members of a private military outfit he had previously worked for. This latest development was discussed by Erik Gunnarson of the Wallglass Investigations Agency: "Commander Hyford spoke of making deliveries to a nameless organisation in the Pleiades, and left a data cache in the Colonia system that provided further details. Hyford's Cache, as some investigators referred to it, had remained locked until a manually-set timer system finally expired last week. The information within has apparently directed pilots to investigate the HIP 26176 system. It's possible that Kit Fowler's recent theories regarding Black Flight – another old mystery – might prove relevant after all. But there are bigger questions that need answering. Who was Hyford working for? Were they responsible for causing his ship to crash? And if so, what secrets were they trying to keep?"

20 AUG 3307

• Independent journalist Flint 'Firemaker' Lafosse has announced that the Rewired network will broadcast Kit Fowler's conspiracy-laden show End Times. Lafosse, notorious for his own sensationalist claims, announced: "Finally, someone else who sees things as they really are! Kit Fowler's perceptive views match his technical genius. By retransmitting his End Times broadcasts, I'll be helping people resist the narrative conditioning being pumped into our minds by the faceless elite." Kit Fowler provides specialised engineering services from his workshop in the Capoya system. He has used his show to make many outlandish claims over the years. These include labelling the shadowy figure 'Salvation' an AI construct, accusing Utopia of secretly creating a new species of human, and arguing that the universe's true shape is being concealed by superpower-sponsored holograms. Lafosse advertised Fowler's content with an excerpt from the most recent End Times episode: "Years ago, a sinister group called Black Flight committed multiple crimes, including murder, to suppress evidence of Thargoid activity after the First War. The mainstream newsfeeds buried the story, of course. But the fearless truth-seekers among us have repeatedly named the Colonia, Neche and Wasat systems as locations where the Black Flight operated. There's a real buzz in that region right now… something's going on that they don't want you to know about. Never give up our search for the right facts, people!"

26 JUN 3303

• Investigation into fake survey mission breaks smuggling ring.
  Authorities have made a series of arrests linked to a smuggling ring operating in the Pleiades region. The smugglers were using a registered survey vessel The Victoria's Song to move large quantities of illegal items through the sector. The ship has been disabled and any attempt to board or remove the ship from its current location will be considered to be a criminal act.
  The Pleione Herald

Notes

• Black Flight is a quite recognisable allusion to men in black.