The Artifact

The Artifact was a large, rectangular monolith that was worshipped by the Green Drone Armada. Found by the GDA Commander on an unidentified planet, the Artifact was both highly protected and coveted by the Green Drones. The maniacal leader of the GDA, the Controller, attempted to charge the Artifact in order to bring back the ancient civilization which created it, so they could help the Green Drones in their quest for galactic domination. However, this attempt was thwarted by Captain Jack Roberts of Red Wood Industries during the Battle of the Black Hole. The Artifact malfunctioned and began pulling the Controller’s Super-Dreadnought into the nearby black hole, ending the GDA’s reign of terror.

(NOTE: this article primarily refers to the specific Artifact fought over during the Green Drone War. Other info about other Artifact(s) discovered by the JETF will be covered in separate articles in the future.)

Hidden Origins
The Artifact was created at an unknown time and by an unknown culture. It was rumored to have originated on the second planet of the Chrome system, where an ancient civilization built a large city to house it; this possibility was explored a year after the Green Drone War by the Joint Expedition Task Force. It’s unclear how old the Artifact truly is, however both RWI and GDA scientists confirmed that it was extremely old.

The original device was hidden on an unidentified planet when its creators disappeared from history. Centuries or possibly millennia later, the Green Drone Armada invaded the galaxy and scoured all the planets they could until they found the Artifact during the earlier stages of the war.

The Green Drone War
As the Green Drones’ war machine spread across the galaxy, leaving only a handful of organizations including RWI and CNL (Crazy North Logistics), the military Commander of the GDA located the Artifact at a dig site on an unnamed planet. The Artifact underwent basic research procedures at the main base on the planet before it was moved to the lava world Ravcor to avoid being stolen by the Colonist Survivors led by ex-RWI Captain Jack Roberts.

A few weeks later, while the Captain’s team set up a base of operations in an abandoned CNL outpost, the Commander ordered Dr. Zimmrich to update him on the Artifact’s research by nightfall. Zimmrich informed him that his work had revealed the Artifact was over five thousand years old, but not much else, as he didn’t want to accidentally damage the Artifact with more intense procedures. The Commander said the Controller was growing impatient and ordered the Doctor to proceed anyway.

Before Zimmrich could proceed, attacking forces led by Captain Jack Roberts and Captain Jonathan Hunter of the RWI Valiant invaded the base on Ravcor and stole the Artifact. The obelisk was placed on the Eclipse-class Corvette RWI Eclipse, which left the planet and joined the Valiant in space after the GDA counterattacked and struck Jack’s team’s base with many fighters and soldiers. The Commander’s Dreadnought soon showed up and heavily damaged the Valiant using its four Atlas Superlasers. With its support fleet gone, the Valiant and Eclipse escaped.

The two ships were eventually located by a GDA listening post in an asteroid belt above the icy planet Demus in the Amre system. Despite the GDA destroyers in the system destroying the two reinforcing CNL Frigates in the ensuing battle, the Artifact escaped into RWI’s secure space thanks to the assistance of the RWI Discovery, a Venture-class Science Cruiser. Jack took control of the Valiant to cover the Discovery’s escape with the Valiant’s crew and the Artifact back to RWI’s capital world, Icarus. Even though the destruction of the Valiant was a partial mission success, the Commander was furious at his second-in-command for failing to recover the Artifact and had him executed.

Back at Icarus, the Discovery’s captain, Sarah Hawk, offloaded the Artifact at the Black Vault Research and Development Facility and met with Grand Admiral Adam Williams, head of RWI, and Doctor Colt, chief scientist of the Artifact. Colt soon came to the same conclusions as Dr. Zimmrich - the Artifact was incredibly old and not man- or drone-made. Colt continued his tests while the two officers went to continue the war effort. Meanwhile, the Controller reprimanded the Commander for his failures and ordered him to retrieve the Artifact, at all costs.

The Artifact remained in the Black Vault until the GDA attacked Icarus with a massive fleet, led by the Command Dreadnought. The Commander himself led the strike on the Black Vault, sending in dozens of drone units and foot soldiers and positioning the Dreadnought above the base’s entrance to repel any counterattacks by RWI. A team of RWI marines led by Commander Sam Reed, and later Captain Jack’s crew as well, were sent to stop the drones, but they were unable to stop the Artifact from being stolen. Jack was able to rescue the wounded Dr. Colt, who revealed that the Artifact could somehow be used by the Drones as a beacon and could be charged to output immense power. The Commander brought the Artifact aboard his Dreadnought, blasted through the RWI Fleet in orbit, and jumped to the GDA stronghold on the planet P3-X2.

Once there, the Controller and Commander heavily researched the Artifact based on information taken from Dr. Colt’s computers. Several days went by and the Controller authorized Phase Four testing on the device. Though the Commander was concerned that RWI and its Allies would try to take it back, the Controller had already laid out his plans.

The Commander’s worries were confirmed when the RWI Discovery arrived and picked up the Artifact’s signal on the planet. However, the GDA blockade intercepted the vessel and forced it to crash-land on the surface of P3-X2. About three days later, the RWI and CNL combined fleets invaded the planet and raided the HQ. However, once again, the Artifact was moved from its chambers as the strike team led by Jack arrived. Soon after, the Controller and the Commander fled the base on the Super-Dreadnought and left the planet, marshaling the Dreadnought and a few other destroyers next to a black hole.

In a last-ditch effort, RWI, CNL, and a small portion of RCSP’s remaining fleet arrived to end the threat once and for all in the final battle of the war. The Allied Fleet wrecked the supporting fleet and Dreadnought and Captain Jack’s team boarded the Super-Dreadnought. Though many Allied ships, including the Eclipse, were destroyed, the infiltration team was successful. The Commander and Controller were both killed and the massive Super-Dreadnought’s stabilizers were disabled, causing the ship to drift into the black hole with the Artifact still on board. The war ended as the Artifact disappeared into the abyss forever.

Ancient Discovery
However, one year after the Green Drone War ended, a Joint Expedition Task Force consisting of RWI, CNL, and RCSP launched and discovered a massive city built by the same race which created the Artifact on the planet Chrome II. In the underground laboratories of the city, they made a startling discovery: another Artifact, identical in structure to the one fought over in the war, laid untouched in the lab. Seeing this, Jack Roberts, now an admiral, ordered the lab to be temporarily quarantined until proper research could be done in secret to avoid the chance of the newly-discovered Artifact bringing any further troubles to the galaxy. It is unknown whether this second Artifact is the only other Artifact to exist, or if there are more scattered throughout the galaxy like the one found by the GDA.

Properties
Without immense power buildup, the Artifact was powerless. However, with a large amount of power, the Artifact could, according to the Controller, bring back the civilization which created it. The Controller hoped they would help lead the GDA through their conquest by eliminating all life in the galaxy for the Green Drones to take control and rebuild the galaxy in their own vision. Exactly how it would bring this civilization back is unknown and will likely never be known, as the Artifact was destroyed in the Battle of the Black Hole.

The Artifact was also extremely durable, able to survive hundreds of years of wear and tear from the natural elements and struggles fought over it. Only the gravitational forces of a black hole were enough to destroy it. Even if it was not totally destroyed in the abyss, it is not retrievable by any means, meaning it is lost forever.