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OPERATION SUMMARY

Operation Designation ASTRA VICTORIAM

Tasking Division MTF Omega-1

Overseeing Officer Captain Justice

Field Command Officers

• Second Lieutenant Blackwood

• Second Lieutenant Preliminary

Field Operatives

• Operative Gavel • Operative Psalm • Operative Curtesy

Primary Location Aerospace Logistics Branch — Site (REDACTED)

Mission Type Post-mission ethics review, cognitohazard suppression, legacy authentication

Clearance Level Omega-1

1. Background & Objective

Years after the Foundation launched EXO-VICTOR ONE under Initiative Helios—dispatching Dr. Hiram Levsky alone beyond lunar orbit to avert an existential anomaly—an anonymous ethics complaint alleged the mission had been deceptive and immoral. A returning telemetry capsule containing corrupted logs, shipboard footage, and a visual cognitohazard prompted Omega-1 deployment to:

Authenticate the capsule and Levsky’s final data.

Determine whether Levsky’s sacrifice was informed, voluntary, and effective.

Assess any lingering hazard to Earth or personnel.

2. Site Investigation

Omega-1 entered the long-idle launch complex under audit cover. The facility was sparse, archival stacks half-boxed, residual staff minimal.

Gavel and Psalm began forensic decryption of the return capsule.

Blackwood and Preliminary interviewed former launch administrators.

Curtesy coordinated personal-effects recovery in Levsky’s preserved quarters.

Former Launch Director Mallory admitted Levsky had been fully briefed on the lethal nature of the mission but was not shown probabilistic failure models “to spare morale.” Internal files confirmed the anomaly threat was genuine and that no coercion was applied.

3. Cognitohazard Event

During reconstruction of shipboard footage, a frame-locked star-field pattern triggered acute dread and autobiographical displacement in Psalm and Blackwood. Psalm recovered quickly; Blackwood exhibited tremors, derealization, and flash imagery reminiscent of prior exposures at NEW FRONT and DEATH’S DOOR.

Preliminary guided Blackwood through grounding protocols. Blackwood insisted on continuing, stating,

“If Levsky could look at it until his last breath, I can keep my eyes open a little longer.”

Medical checks cleared him for duty; long-term monitoring recommended.

4. Recovered Final Transmission

Decrypted by Curtesy, authenticated by Gavel, and archived in full:

Recovered Transmission — Dr. Hiram Levsky

“If you’re hearing this, then the capsule made it home. I hope someone finds it. I hope you find me. Not for me, but for her.

The stars are different out here. Colder, sharper. They don’t twinkle; they stare. Sometimes I think they’re watching me. Sometimes I think they don’t care at all.

There’s a silence in space they never talk about. It’s not the absence of sound— it’s the absence of witness. I speak aloud just to remember I’m real.

The anomaly is active again. Sensors are red. I saw a ring of light where there should be nothing. I think this is it.

I’ve reread the burn sequence twelve times. Everything checks. If I trigger the containment field, the wave collapses before it reaches Earth. That’s what they told me. That’s what I’m trusting.

I keep seeing Mira in my dreams. She’s walking in a park I’ve never been to, holding a paper star. I think it’s her birthday.

To the Foundation: if this works, remember—this wasn’t forced. You gave me the facts; I made the choice.

If the threat was never real… I forgive you.

To my wife—my anchor—you held me on Earth long enough to send me here with love instead of bitterness.

And to Mira… I promised you the stars. I give you tomorrow instead.

Initiating containment burn. Closing comms. Tell them I went quiet, but not afraid.”

Telemetry confirmed Levsky’s burn obliterated the anomaly and the craft. Planetary sensors recorded the threat signature disappearing moments later.

5. Ethical Determination

Levsky gave fully informed consent and retained mission recall rights until final burn window.

Threat elimination data substantiates the necessity of his sacrifice.

No evidence supports allegations of deception or coercion.

Omega-1 unanimously concluded the mission was ethically sound and remains one of the most selfless acts in Foundation history.

6. Commendations

Medal of Valor — Posthumous

Awarded to Dr. Hiram Levsky for singular courage in neutralizing an existential anomaly at the cost of his life.

A folded replica of Levsky’s flight patch now hangs in the Omega-1 memorial wing beneath the inscription:

“He left Earth with truth and duty; he returned as tomorrow.”

7. Team Reflections

Curtesy

“He spoke to the future and believed it would listen. We’re the proof it did.”

Psalm

“He faced the dark alone so we wouldn’t have to.”

Gavel

“Some debts can’t be repaid. They can only be honored.”

Preliminary

“There’s no greater testament than dying for people who may never learn your name.”

Blackwood

“The hazard showed me fear; Levsky showed me resolve. If courage has a sound, it’s the quiet in his voice.”

8. Family Liaison

Levsky’s daughter, now an adult, will receive a sealed dossier explaining her father’s sacrifice and Medal of Valor—delivered under Ethics Committee directive.

Addendum

Inside the return capsule's final storage container, nestled between telemetry backups, Gavel discovered a folded scrap of notebook paper, sealed in a vacuum bag. The handwriting was faded but legible. It read:

“I gave them the stars. Let that be enough.”

Omega 1 preserved it as evidence. ASTRA VICTORIUM is resolved. New field rotation assignments to follow.

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