Delta-17

After generation 3 they stopped sending them in with firearms. Based on field reports sent back through the communications slip-mesh, weapons seemed to complicate things more than help. Back in Zero, things are simple. Most problems are nails, most solutions hammers. But out in the Lattice that kind of thinking doesn't work. By not carrying weapons, it freed up the nihilnauts to bring other tools, enhanced mobility equipment, and a creative problem solving mindset.
In an press conference, commander of EDEF, Gen Harrison Q. Schaacta stated, "When our 'nauts are out in a distant vertex and something unfathomable appears it activates the flight or fight response. And the one problem with that is that they could stop and fight."
As UNACO prepares to send generation six nihilnauts out into the newly discovered Branch-8 located 100 meters below the Tycho crater, the largest expedition of 'nauts train in advanced facilities throughout the Mexican desert, getting ready for the physical demands.
Branch-8-1 has been mapped by drones for about 400 miles around the slip. It is an unprecedented region of the Lattice that differs in topology and composition from the other charted branches. Two gate suspects have been identified but before a stronger presence is established in B8-1, it is unlikely further expeditions will go through. The first MapSats have been transported to the moon and are being prepped for the slip. UNACO is looking into feasible ways to launch them from B8-1. Some suggest using a translunar shuttle. The main issue with B8-1 is that it requires getting to the moon in order to slip across. All the other gates have been terrestrial (even B5, B7 were held in orbit, making them much easier to reach). Pressing boldly on, generation six is going full steam and hoping the engineers fix the problems as they continue.

Some have noted how Gates are always locked to planet and not just floating in space. They assign some divine Providence that all the gates are linked to another planet and not just lost floating through the infinite void. Of course this phenomenon is a matter of science. Gates need equal gravitational potential on each side. otherwise a force is created. In a sense there is a coupled gravitational boyacy where the two throats seeks the same potential, extracting energy from the other's field to reach equilibrium. Since we have only found gates on or around terrestrial bodies with specific gravitational fields, we would naturally expect the other ends to be likewise oriented in a gravity well. if we were to find a free roaming gate, it would be attached to another free roaming gate.


C49: Slip Operation Command Charlie this is Charlie four niner. Standby for report
SOCC: socc copy Charlie four niner
C49: Operator Charlie-four-niner break
location Bravo-three-Delta-one-seven break
coordinates four-zero point three-zero November
two-three point six-four Whiskey break
howcopy socc? over.
SOCC: socc good copy Charlie four niner
C49: standby for incident
SOCC: standing by
C49: incident in a crystal field Charlie Four Seven discovered a black stone pyramid encased one zero meters below surface. Stepped sides with flat top. No visible damage. No entry point detected. No contacts visible. Gravitational anomalous region above pyramid. suspected slip gate. howcopy socc? over
SOCC: socc copies Charlie four niner
C49: Charlie four niner over and out


The door closed with a pneumatic hiss leaking out from the rubber lined edges. A muffled thump and click resulted from the internal locking mechanism shutting the group in the refrigerated conference room, an ambient sterile white glow emanating from the surface tiles, baking the tiled floor and concrete wall panels with a pale glow.
Dressed in tight fitting jumpsuits, five people sat around a dark wood table, their faces stern and eyes darting from strewn diagrams to each other's faces.
The last one turned from the door, hand sliding off of the latch, and began walking to the empty seat, footsteps clinking rhythmically.
Tightening the right strap of his vest, cinching the black vest to his orange jumpsuit, he slid down into the stiff leather embroidered chair, scraping it back from the table, as he reached beneath his respirator hose and flipped the neck latches, releasing the seal on his helmet. Resting the white helmet to his side, the pearlescent blackness of the visor pointed to the wall, it's hose uncoiled and stretched tightly from his backpack to the mouth piece, he looked up and the scarred face of the person sitting across from him.
"General Derrigt, the room is secure." he stated in a choppy over-enunciated manner, compensating subconsciously for the garbling of the helmet he no longer wore.
She nodded in response, moving her gloved hand to point at a relief map. it's contours didn't follow terrain, but instead were marked with deviations from expected gravitational potential.
"They found another one," she began, "but it is buried in the basalt steppe. Slip Comm is notified and is working on getting an excavation team out. Plowshare is priming an initial excavation using the TNPC we've been lugging around for atomic scuttling."
"Ma'am," interjected a wide shouldered Colonel, dressed in a dark gray jumpsuit, "EDEF protocol is to keep one charge on standby in the event of a necessary scuttling."
"I know the protocol, Bilthet," she responded, "but finding another gate is more important than EDEF's damn contingencies."
Two members nodded along, while the others continued to study the map.
"At 0340 Branch-3 time, they're gonna crack that steppe open and we're going to see what we find. EDEF will bring us another penetration charge in the resupply. We have forty-five minutes until that charge goes off. I want you--" she pointed to Lieutenant Colonel Farnham "--and you--" pointing to Lieutenant Colonel Azza "--to lead your teams into the crater and find the other gate. Remember, this far into the lattice, things get weird. So go in scanners first. I'll leave it to your discretion as to whether or not you slip across, but make sure you place a mesh relay so we can communicate. Colonel Bilthet, ready a drop ship to take them out after the detonation."

Standing against the metal railing of the observation platform, Farnham looked through his visor out at the bustling flight line. Support staff in their dark gray jumpsuits swarmed down concrete paths set into the soft pink dust that stretched out from the valley to the rust colored ridge line twenty clicks away. Jet black triangular crafts thundered through the orange tinged sky in tight formations scanning the area for the invisible threats EDEF always told them to be prepared for but never encountered.
The base was the main hub for Branch 3. It was situated only two slips away from earth, in the delta-17 vertex.
Delta-8, the vertex between Zero and delta-17, was one of the best studied vertexes in the lattice (apart from Zero, of course). Branch-3 received the most attention from UNADCO as a result of it being discovered under Hudson Bay relatively close to the capital.
Branch-1 was discovered in 1984 by the US Air Force. Unknown cosmic radio pulses were coming from the southern sky above the Ross ice shelf, but further investigation found it to be coming from within the ice. Project Echo Field was created as an sub command of Air Force research labs to study the source. The Ross Installation was created to monitor and probe the source, later discovered to be a dormant slip gate categorized as Branch-1. An incident occurred involving three Airmen unintentionally activating and slipping across to vertex Bravo-2. The installation was destroyed in the incident but Colonel Abbot of the CIA's XK-Argenta program led a clean up investigation (Dawn Maid, 1985) and reestablish control of the gate, probing the other side and the temple (CASTLE SALASAD). XK-Salasad was created under Col Abbot. This was the precursor to the Nihilnauts. Branch-1 was scuttled in 1999 when something external came to Bravo-2. Lieutenant General Abbot initiated an atomic scuttle of Castle Salasad using civil engineering thermonuclear charges. Scant reports made it through before he scuttled Branch-1 and nothing is known about what happened afterwards. It is highly likely that Castle Salasad along with all personnel were terminated in the scuttle, but this is unknown. The gate was detetheted. It is believed that the atomic blast was enough to collapse the Slip throat connecting Branch-1 to Bravo-2. Several megatonnes of explosive power made it through the gate before it closed, melting the Ross ice sheet in a 60 kilometer radius. Lieutenant General Abbot's actions very well may have saved the entire world. It is unknown what the threat was. Reports only indicate that it came from beyond the folds. The meaning of this is unclear. But since then, all vertexes are equipped with a thermonuclear penetration charge to be activated if something like that occurs again.

Branch-2 was discovered by the USSR in northern Siberia during atomic testing in December 1987. After the discovery of the slip gates, the Soviets pulled their troops back from Afghanistan effectively overnight, leaving the country to the mujaheddin and confused CIA advisors. They switched from global aggression to a focus on extra dimensional research and militant protectionism. The great Bering sea wall and the Mongolia wall were constructed within three years and the rest of the walls were built within the decade.
Historic NRO satellite images from that time show the USSR constructed a colossal geodesic dome around the slip gate and constructed a tiered military city around it. High speed rail lines were constructed from industrial centers to Branch-2. The Moscow-Zhilinda rail line was made the most advanced nuclear powered subterranean transport conceivable. By the turn of the century, the Soviet Union had fully committed to extra dimensional research, effectively withdrawing from the cold war. It is unknown to UNADCO the extent of exploration the USSR did in Branch-2 but reports indicate their expeditionary force was millions strong. Branch-6 was later discovered in Kazakhstan.

Branch-3 was discovered under the Hudson Bay in northern UNADCO. It activated several months after the destruction of Branch-1 in late 2000. The new millennia brought with it a renewed sense of competition and exploration. The Nihilnauts program was begun under the command of the EDEF. After Lt Gen Abbot's death, XK-Salasad was reorganized into the Extra Dimensional Expeditionary Force, a combatant command separate from the air force tasked with exploration and defense of the lattice. Branch-3 was quickly explored. Branch-1 had only been mapped out to a depth of two and only five vertexes were visited. By 2003, Branch-3 had been explored to a depth of 6 and twenty three vertexes had been visited. Generation 1 of Nihilnauts were armed like the combat marines fighting against the Mujaheddin in Iran. They ran missions as such and interacted with fauna in kind.
Lessons learned in the early years were hard taught by claw and acid. Evolution wholly alien to ours had produced fierce creatures perfectly adapted to the unfathomable landscapes humans saw for the first time.