diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 1c09b7c56953f87522a2b2a22099bf7c4b72d145..9d858b8bc1d220602542387622ae4d46cdae6475 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -50,6 +50,18 @@ include_guards:
   script:
     - CI/check_include_guards.py . --fail-global --exclude "*thirdparty/*"
 
+version_number:
+  stage: check
+  image: alpine:3.6
+  before_script: []
+  except:
+    variables:
+      - $CI_COMMIT_REF_NAME == "^release/.*$"
+
+  script:
+    - cat version_number
+    - grep "9.9.9" version_number # make sure the version number anywhere but on release branches is 9.9.9
+
 # job templates w/ default settings
 #
 # the build directory is always `build`. To select a specific build version
@@ -178,38 +190,6 @@ integration_tests_cc7_lcg96:
   before_script:
     - set +e && source CI/setup_lcg96.sh; set -e
 
-# CC7, LCG96, LLVM9 + libstdc++
-
-build_cc7_lcg96_llvm9:
-  <<: *template_build
-  image: gitlab-registry.cern.ch/acts/machines/cc7:latest
-  before_script:
-    - set +e && source CI/setup_lcg96.sh; set -e
-    - export LLVM_ACTS_VERSION=9.0.0
-    - set +e && source CI/setup_llvm.sh; set -e
-
-unit_tests_cc7_lcg96_llvm9:
-  <<: *template_unit_tests
-  dependencies:
-    - build_cc7_lcg96_llvm9
-  needs: ["build_cc7_lcg96_llvm9"]
-  image: gitlab-registry.cern.ch/acts/machines/cc7:latest
-  before_script:
-    - set +e && source CI/setup_lcg96.sh; set -e
-    - export LLVM_ACTS_VERSION=9.0.0
-    - set +e && source CI/setup_llvm.sh; set -e
-
-integration_tests_cc7_lcg96_llvm9:
-  <<: *template_integration_tests
-  dependencies:
-    - build_cc7_lcg96_llvm9
-  needs: ["build_cc7_lcg96_llvm9"]
-  image: gitlab-registry.cern.ch/acts/machines/cc7:latest
-  before_script:
-    - set +e && source CI/setup_lcg96.sh; set -e
-    - export LLVM_ACTS_VERSION=9.0.0
-    - set +e && source CI/setup_llvm.sh; set -e
-
 # SLC6, LCG96, build w/ legacy disabled
 
 build_cc7_lcg96_no_legacy:
diff --git a/version_number b/version_number
index 0548fb4e9b2f22de01ed7f8dbe07fc0829ca5abc..c5c9fb1f4a473d86fb961cb7d56517e0d61e28cb 100644
--- a/version_number
+++ b/version_number
@@ -1 +1 @@
-0.14.0
\ No newline at end of file
+9.9.9