[b]Ortels System[/b]
Having recieved no response, the LCF fleet jumped out of the system, believing the distress call to be the remnant of some ancient civilization going through its death throes. On the way back to Lakfakalle, the crews mourned those who had died fifty thousand years ago, having no idea who they had been or who they were fighting. 

[b]Negative Mass Production[/b]
A new negative mass factory has been completed on Lakfakalle, along with part of the moon that is being converted into one huge factory. This will allow the LCF to support twenty new standard size space vessels.

[b]Lakfakalle, Exploratory Command[/b]
"Welcome to Lakfakalle." Said an Abh woman, wearing blue and purple military uniform much different than that worn by the crew of the [i]Terminator[/i] "I am Admiral Spoor of the Abh Imperial Space Force. That might sound official, but we don't have any vessels dedicated to it, since we're a military organization. I was assigned here as director of military operations. I hear that you are here to discuss the Sylve threat, and also that you believe you have found their HQ."

[b]Kalle System, Hyphelia[/b]
A Delphan clad in foreboding dark black uniform looked out into the turbulent orange expanse below him, the atmosphere of Hyphelia. The planet was a gas giant, but even in its turbulent and inhospitable atmosphere life survived. Its atmosphere was made up of heavy elements, allowing oxygen and carbon dioxide to float above the thicker part of the atmosphere. In that oxygen lived alien creatures, huge biological blimps floating in the heavy gravity of Hyphelia. Algae covered the thick clouds below that tiny pocket of atmosphere suitable for life as we know it, floating on top of nothing but thick gases. All life was somewhat photosynthetic, as creatures could spend weeks without meeting any other being due to the sheer size of the planet. However, most of the time small groups of about a dozen creatures floated through the air in search of brighter areas and other creatures to eat. There were rumors of beings with hands, using the hollow bones of dead creatures as weapons for hunting and tools for building. However, any construction would require a flotation device or else it would pierce the cloud/algae layer and sink to the bottom of the planet, where it would be compressed to become part of its super dense core suspected to be made of diamond. And such a flotation device would require gas from a living being, and one close by... the implications were not something anybody wished to discuss.

The facility floating through the alien atmosphere, ancient symbols confirming it to be a construction of the Aif Empire. It was one of thousands of Aif building found on the planet, kept afloat by negative mass. The creation somehow manipulated the gravity within its walls, allowing species from lower gravity planets to survive. It was a little known fact that Hyphelia was the center of all fuel collection. Massive scoops protruded from the bottom and top of the floating stations, descending and ascending into the other levels of atmosphere to collect gases such as xenon, hydrogen, and even oxygen. There was simply so much there that taking it away for rocket fuel had no effect on the local life. However, along with all of this fuel was a much more exotic substance collected at certain points in the planet's magnetic field; antimatter. Hyphelia had extreme amounts of the substance trapped in its magnetic field, perhaps caused by the arrivals of ancient Aif Empire starships slowing from FTL velocities using antimatter engines with slight leaks just like all other antimatter propulsion devices. Whatever the case, due to the dynamics of Hyphelia's gravity field the antimatter settled above the poles in a geostationary orbit, allowing easily collection using specialized vessels. 

However, this facility had been built with something other than fuel collection in mind. Instead of huge collection spires, it had a massive drydock attacked to it. Inside was an interstellar vessel, rusted over the thousands of years it had laid inside the drydock. Markings identified it as Aif, but the design was completely different. It was completely grey, and had a long spire protruding from the stern. The vessel also had a central rod running the length of the ship, connected to it were four modular constructions that continued up until the engines and the spire. It had ten antiproton streamers, and dozens of missile launch ports. In the place of a warp drive it had two cores similar to the device used to keep the gravity inside the facility at reasonable levels. After many years of study, it had been determined that the device was capable of generating a space-time bubble, a mini-universe that encased the structure it was installed on. One of the cores was most definitely for use as a gravity generator, but the other generated a much more intense field. Since it had no apparent FTL propulsion system, the scientists assigned to study it came to the conclusion that the vessel used another universe with compressed distances and a higher speed of light for interstellar travel. The universe must have been inhospitable for life from our own universe, and thus the vessel required its own universe within a universe. 

The only question was, how did the vessel enter this alien universe? It had no device that could be used for such a measure. The only theory that the scientists could come up with was that there was once some sort of gate system, allowing passage between the two universes for the purpose of interstellar travel. They seem to believe that this form of FTL would be much faster than warp drive, but just like the defense platforms, nobody has been able to cut into either of the cores to figure out how they operate. Unless the Equestrians figure out a way to break the protective material, the secrets of the ancient Aif Empire interstellar transport system will never be revealed.