"Understood," Miyoko replied to Kotori's order. The scientist had to take a few moments to gather her thoughts and mentally arrange the files they'd found into chronological order before continuing. Thank goodness for digital memory, at least.
"The gate project was proposed in YE 29 by Ashigari Amaya, Eve's apprentice. Her personnel file was in the datacore, and paints her both brilliant and loyal to Eve. She's also the commander of the SS Dominion, which I'll go into further detail on later."
Miyoko's speech was a bit more deliberate this time around, since she was still fact-checking as she spoke. "The first stage of the gate project that we've found was Project Scorpion, a campaign to threaten the Great Southern Nebula until Lor was evacuated. Meanwhile, NovaCorp was coerced so that when the evacuation was staged, their gateway system was used for it and left behind afterward. After the system was empty, the Daughters of Eve stole both the gateways and Lor's automated shipyards. These are being used to construct the gate into the pocket and to retrofit ships for the operation."
"Eve's funding seems to mostly go through Nepleslian space and be transferred through shell companies. Additional materials were gotten from pirates and the black market, mostly shipped from within Nepleslian space and using Halna as a collection point. The colony in the system was to be destroyed after an established amount of material was gathered there, presumably as cover for when they began moving it out en masse. It is unspecified how or if this was affected by the Yamataian military actions there."
Miyoko paused. "Miharu, please display a map of known space." When the hologram popped into appearance behind her, she used it to demonstrate locations as she continued talking. "Several zesuaium and antimatter production plants were moved to the East end of the Blue Rift Expanse. This area and Bowhordia are the two locations that appear to be end points for materials related to the gate. Bowhordia was to be the construction site for a command center for the new fleet that Eve plans to attain, and the Blue Rift is an unstable region of space, where it may be easier to pierce through to the pocket that the Draconian fleet is trapped in. It therefore seems likely that the Blue Rift site is where the gate itself will be located." The Yamataian pegged her finger through the east edge of the Rift for demonstration before turning back to the group.
"It is so far unclear how much of a force is present at the gate, but two vessels are explicitly mentioned. The SS Dominion, Ashigari's ship, was the first to be equipped with psionic amplifiers, and it has also been retrofitted to have a crew of only twelve organics, with two hundred nekomachina. It is carrying three Black Mindies and a Kylie, which is reserved for Amaya. It has very little in the way of weaponry for them, so they're likely intended to only be used for self-defense in emergencies. It's also carrying enough food to keep its crew alive for a very long time and has complete override control if its squadron."
"The Takumi is the second vessel. It has been massively refitted, with most weaponry and unnecessary systems stripped to make room for non-aether power systems, psionic amplifiers, and CFS reinforcements."
"It would appear that the Takumi is intended to be the vessel to breach the bubble and brainwash the fleet, and that the Dominion will be responsible for leading them afterward, but this is conjecture on my part. The Takumi itself is a sitting duck outside of the pocket, so it could be a prime target for a strike. There are strong indications that Eve herself will be responsible for brainwashing the fleet."
Miyoko stopped, realizing that she'd been monologueing for a good five minutes. "That's the majority of the information related to the gate that we've uncovered so far. As I said earlier, what we've found estimated YE 32 as the completion date for the gate, but it was unclear when that estimate was made. At least one ship, the Obakemono, that was intended for the project was destroyed. Bowhordia obviously had some issues of its own, and Yamataian actions in Halna may or may not have had an impact. This all sheds a little uncertainty on it."
