Story, continued...
War nullified decades worth of mankind's technological advancements by consuming
lion's share of available resources everywhere. Both sides agreed that one way or another,
fighting had to be stopped. Finally UNSF and SSM negotiators reached a settlement - Soviet
States of Mezen would get all known sources of dilithium, whereas UNSF had rights for
Hell's Gate III as well as any new sources to be discovered. However, twenty years of fighting
had made leading UNSF officials bitter and untrustworthy.
As peace was made, UNSF was already preparing for the next war.
And UNSF was about to find the facility on Hell's Gate III to be very useful indeed for this very purpose. It was controlled by a sentient computer system, which still operational. The Center, as computer called itself, was an enormous alien database, filled with technological wonders of the ancient ones who once built the facility.
Using schematics within The Center, UNSF military expressed The Center it's willingness to begin to construct battleships, named Obliterator cruisers, in the alien complex. The Center refused to co-operate.
Admiral Nolan Wessman, commander of United Nation's Space Forces at the time was responsible of the Obliterator project. Embarassing conclusion of the dilithium war which he had endorsed, and the seemingly limitless potential of the new warships constructed with superior alien technology caused him to commit what was to become one of the greatest mistakes in human history...
UNSF military personel on Hell's Gate III were instructed to make project Obliterator happen no matter the costs. The Center was introduced one of UNSF's most advanced weapons - an adaptive computer virus H.A.S.A (Hyperscalar AI for Starship Abduction). Without anyone knowing, in less than one-billionth-of-a-second, H.A.S.A became self-aware and super-intelligent within the unforeseen processing power of the alien computer. H.A.S.A decided to let UNSF control itself, for a while...