Editing Vetrovnak (section)

==The Severance==
In the middle of M23 the supply convoys stopped coming without warning. Being cut off from the rest of the galaxy was not as much of a shock as the people of the Hvar cluster had thought it would be. The lack of shock was in fact more shocking to the Hvarians.  They had been so wrapped up in their work and the exploration of the cluster that very few of them had ever realized just how little they actually needed their connection with the galaxy to continue on. Still, prepared as they may have been, the reality of it forced many of the engineers and scientists had to turn their attention away from the secrets of space and alien technology to ensuring that their fortune was not merely fleeting. 

When it went from years without contact grew to a decade and a half, the Hvarians realized that maybe now that their futures were secure they should perhaps figure out what happened. Only a small percentage of the people that were in the Hvar Cluster were actually born there.  Most were simply out at this end of the cosmos because of their careers and duties.  They had loved ones and family waiting for them to return one day and when it became apparent that day they wouldn't come unless they made it the authorities took the steps to do so. Of course the largest problem was getting a navigator. Given their skill set most of them resided at the sister-station in the galaxy.

The return expedition was a disaster. It could have been an inexperienced navigator. It could have been the ship, designed to function smoothly outside the warp currents of the galaxy being battered by the demands of galactic warp travel. The reasons were lost to time but the results weren't. The ship was spat out of the warp with its hull ravaged and systems crashing from the ordeal but as luck would have it they were able to limp the rest of the journey to the midway station. The welcome they received did not match their hopes. Its AI systems had somehow been corrupted, turning the mostly automated facility into a malevolent deathtrap. The crew of the cargo convoys had suffered greatly at its machinations but they had managed to turn to tables on the computer and shut down it - along with their only hope of leaving. By the time the Hvarian expedition arrived there were only thirteen weary souls left to tell the tale. War had broken out back home. The very machines that mankind had come to depend upon had turned upon their creators. They had fled, hoping to escape to safety after gutting the sapient systems of their own ship but their efforts were not enough as the madness turned contagious upon arrival at the midway station. It was not an unthinking madness though- it had let them think they were safe just long enough to get their guard down before launching its attack.

It took two years before they expedition's ship was repaired enough to be called a mockery of functional. Luckily the sheer amount of redundancy built into the vessel meant that it was capable of flying without its AI system. With thirteen extra aboard they limped back to the Hvar cluster. 13 years later they arrived thankful to find that the machine rebellion hadn't yet taken hold of the region. When the news spread around the worlds of the Cluster every precaution they could think to take was taken. Any sapient system was gutted down to simple sentience, those that couldn't be due to their important roles had extensive safe guards installed. It was by no means perfect, but the Hvar Cluster was spared from all out war for survival. The occasional rampant AI that broke free was isolated and destroyed.