Analysis of the Recently Found Generation Ship Phobos.
14 Aug 2018G_Bison
This is a summary of my investigation of the recent discovery of the Generational Ship, Phobos.Phobos was discovered just outside of the orbital bodies of the Coelachi system. From Coelachi 3, Phobos is located 1897 Ls on a vector toward the HIP 10229 system. HIP 10229 has 4 Terraformable worlds and is located approximately 48 Ly. HIP 10229 is located just outside of known habitable space, aka "the Bubble." Coelachi is just within the Bubble in Empire space.
However, the real mystery is which system did the crew deploy to, and a possible clue that said planet, maybe already colonized as of now. The colonists, unfortunately came in contact with an indigenous Apex Predators. That killed the entire colony and the survivors that made it back to the Phobos. Were themselves killed onboard by one that managed to stowaway on a shuttle.
The Phobos itself is the furthest Gen ship discovered at a distance of 272 Ly from Sol. Upon first visual inspection of the ship, it is smaller than other Gen ship discoveries. This maybe because of One of Two reasons.
First, since the ship has post deployed at a minimum of 12 settlements on the surface target. That would explain the smaller size of the ship as portions were broke down and used in the deployment of the settlements.
Second, this is possibly the first FTL Gen ship thus far discovered. If that is the case, this would explain that a larger, multi generational ship was not needed because it was substantially faster and arrived at their plan destination faster than previous Gen Ships. So crews/colonists were scaled back since it didn't take centuries but possibly a decade to reach their destination. Whatever the speeds were for the FTL Gen ships, are they comparable to current Super Cruise speeds remain unknown. But one advantage is they flew in deep space and weren't dependent to lock on stars. Meaning, as they near the system they could change course and head for a planetary body.
Now, after backtracking possible plot paths of the Phobos to Sol. I scanned uninhabitable systems taking into account that Phobos came from Sol and not elsewhere which unfortunately, could be the case since there was no mention in recoverable logs from the ship by remote access. All inhabitable systems are in Empire space and there is no mention of any having difficult deployments. Save one.
Irukama.
Irukama is home of the rare good, Giant Irukama Snails. Despite appearances, the species discovered on Irukama are not strictly snails. These indigenous creatures almost destroyed Irukama's native habitat over their sole predator was culled, due to the threat it posed to human settlers. Now actively managed, the surplus stock is sold on as a delicacy. The meat from a single snail can easily fill several standard-size cargo canisters.
I do believe that the doomed colonists of the Phobos, landed here several decades, if not a century or Two. And were completely overwhelmed!!! Phobos is only located 98 Ly from the Irukama system, by astro numerical standards. That's too much of a coincidence!!! They are Two worlds that are in the process of being Terraformed, both of them are Water Worlds. But Irukama 2 has more land mass than 1 and more than likely was the target mission site of deployment for the colonists.
Again, these are my observations and I could very well be wrong. Without more information, we may never find out completely. As far as the Phobos itself.
For right now, there is no danger to the Space lanes since it's well outside of the planetary orbital bodies of Coelachi. Should the ship be boarded!?!! In my opinion, no!!!
Even with several platoons of heavily armed marines, there is no way to tell where and how many of these creatures are on board since the crews Chief Medical Officer was killed while making the last recording. It could be dead, or could be in a period of hibernation like some creatures here on Earth. Also, could have spawn others on board.
Without endangering any more personnel, we should use Space Tugs, place external boosters on and send the ship into a nearby star, just to be sure!!!