Guardian Beacons
29 Aug 2018Thunktone
3304 August 29Yesterday Ram Tah, the engineer who worked on my Viper a few days ago, announced that he had detected some energy signatures. Cannon identified one of the sources and there was a bit of a painite-rush, which I was a part of.
I arrived at the guardian "beacon" to find several ships milling about. All anyone knew was that we had to shoot three "pylons" to activate it, but the ships present had no weapons. Fortunately I fitted a large beam laser to my research ship a little while ago, for science. So I activated the device several times, observing the effects.
My first instinct was to scan the orb in the center, which looks like the orbs at guardian surface sites. I thought I might get a blueprint segment, but it wasn't going to be that easy.
I think Ram Tah must have hacked one of the big corporations. Lakon? GalMap? Somehow he has planted some software in my Diamondback's computer which automatically sent data from the orb to him. In return though, he sent back an analysis showing the location of a guardian surface site.
At this point one of the other pilots broadcast something about "keys" being released from the device. I scooped one up before activating the device a few more times. Some other pilots with weapons were around now, but nothing as powerful as my large beam. I must finish reducing the weight of that thing, so I can take it on longer voyages. You never know when you're going to need to blast something.
The surface site was busy too and a few of us started working together to activate the beacons and defeat the sentinels. The site is much more symmetrical than any other guardian site I have visited. I wonder if there is any significance to this? The blueprint segments relate to spacecraft, is the "road" down the center of the site some sort of accelerator or runway? The arrangement of the beacons could help guide a vessel in for a landing.
Probably not actually. There are structures over the road that don't make sense for this, and the road raises up near the altar in a large step.
Well, I swapped my key for a blueprint segment. The tech brokers are offering some new SLF designs for these. I could carry some on my T9, but I was thinking of swapping the fighter bay for extra cargo space. Not sure the new designs would be as good against pirates as my Condors anyway. The new Crusader can carry a fighter bay, but I'm already struggling with the low speed of my Challenger. The Crusader would be even slower.
It is much more tempting as a ground assault ship with well placed weapons for pop-up attacks. But then most defense turrets use thermal weapons so it seems like taipans would be the best choice, not these guardian fighters with their weak hulls and strong shields.
So I won't really have a use for the vessel blueprints unless some new technology is released. Or I get around to building my T10 anti-xeno tank. I used to feel rich until I saw how much that was going to cost me.
What I'm really hoping is that they bring out a small, long range fighter based on guardian tech. Mind you, they've already brought out some smaller guardian weapons. Maybe I'll try to kit out a Viper or Eagle to tackle the scouts and Thargon swarms. I'm sure there are anti-xeno wings that would welcome support like that. While I'm in Synuefe perhaps I'll gather enough blueprint segments to unlock the rest of the guardian modules.