Guardian Structure Research For Federation
25 May 2020Dane9640
So I've been promoted to Lieutenant by the Federal Navy. And...well... they must have heard about my vacation a couple weeks back where I took The Wanderer 2K LY out of the Bubble. My CO Anders came into the bar I frequent back home in Anderson Orbital, "The Spacers Flask" it's called. "Lieutenant! I thought I would find you here. I have an assignment for you. One that is sure to scratch that itch you have for leaving the bubble." I sighed, he knew I hated being put into assignments, I was usually the closest thing to a freelancer the Federation had usually helping out where I could but mostly these days I was just a simple miner. Hell it's why I moved to Irula in the first place. "Don't sigh just yet CMDR. You'll love this one. What do you think about aliens?" "'Goids?" I asked. "I want nothing to do with them, I met one once and barely got out! They're lightyears ahead of us in tech" Anders seemed to smirk as soon as I said that "Not 'Goids, Guardians" I laughed "They're a myth and if they did exist, they certainly wouldn't call themselves that." "well this is where you come in CMDR, there's been talk of ruins being discovered some 800Ly away from the bubble, someone came back with a Tablet and it certainly wasn't Thargoid in origin. Your task is to go check it out see what you can find and report back. Take that old Asp of yours, I've seen you working on it lately." He smiled and, seeing I had resigned my arguing, patted my shoulder and threw some credits on the table "Have one on me, won't be much drink where you're going".20ish jumps later and I was in the system "Let's see planet B 3, gonna have to travel the second star. At least it's closer than most Binary Systems..." I turned my ship to the appropriate vector and let the supercruise assist handle the dull work of this wild goose chase. As I approached however, I saw in the navigation panel the ruins I expected to see. There was something else though a structure. My heart jolted at seeing this. A structure, not a ruin, this one was off the charts with energy readings...it was active! "That's weird, it's on the dark side of a tidally locked planet! How can it still have any power with no solar power?" I said to my ships AI, who of course, wasn't listening. As I approached, all I saw was the extreme black of the planet (something that to this day un-nerves me, I hate landing on the night side...) I heard the whir of the night-vision kick on and my jaw dropped. This thing was unlike anything I had seen before.
Getting into my SRV I began to explore the structure. "Strange... Those energy readings can be localized to roughly 6 hotspots on and around the structure. Well might as well start with the strongest" Of course that was the trickiest one to get to being at the top of the stair like structure. As I came up the signal, I began to feel the ground shake. I immediately activated my turret and saw what looked like a pylon had risen from the ground. "That must be the signal source" I said and began scanning the individual plyon. "Strange, the energy is massive but it doesn't seem fully activated, it needs more..." Thinking about how I could get it more power, an idea struck me. I wonder... I thought while pulling the trigger for my turret. (Hey there's a reason I had the nickname Dr. Destructo back in the academy, I bet Anders wouldn't have picked me for this job if he knew that) Just a quick test shot. "Yeah, that's definitely brighter..the energy from the shots must be charging it." I smirked and laid on the trigger and opened fire until a bright blue beam shot out of the thing. That's when they attacked, some sort of unmanned drone multiple of them. The Pylon must have activated them fortunately they were predictable and relatively easy to destroy. "Guess I should try the other hotspots. I gotta be quick though, the pylon is still losing that energy." The drones didn't attack again until the last pylon after I took them down I looked at my scanners the energy had all been diverted to one location again at the top of the structure. In front of the machine a hole had appeared "It looks like a keyhole, but do I have the key?" looking into my cargo hatch which I had filled with various artifacts while searching for the pylon I saw one that looked like the perfect shape. I drove over the hole and jettisoned it into the slot. Suddenly the machine came to life and a giant orb appeared. Without even thinking I started scanning, when I was done I was again attacked and the orb retreated into the machine again. After dispatching the drones I eagerly looked at the data. "The bastard was right! These are blueprints! Anders is going to HAVE to see this." After gathering as much as I could I charted a course for Jameson Memorial the Rendezvous station. ( Not sure why the Pilot's Federation is involved but they do have the most knowledge of tech around)
<<<Location Jameson Memorial>>>
"This is incredible CMDR!" Italy Cook, the Tech person for the Pilot's Federation said. "If what you say is true, you have to go back! These blueprints were left there for a reason. There must be more. Looking at these blueprints I can't say for certain but it looks designed to resist Thargoid tactics. This could be the key to winning the war against them!" "Oh, he's going back" Anders, who was leaning against a wall in the back roughly said. "And this time he's not going alone, Rear Admiral Leaguey will be accompanying you. You're going to be showing him how to operate the machine. We need all our most trusted to know this." I had worked with Leaguey before doing bounty hunting and the like. He is also one of my mining buddies have moved to Irula with me at the start of the diamond rush in Borann. He has quickly rose through the ranks of the Federation achieving Rear Admiral and the right to fly a Federal Corvette. I just hope he doesn't take that behemoth I thought It'll be a bitch to land near the structure. "I also have some good news for you commander, with the materials you brought back and this blueprint I can make a module that significantly increase your jump range. The more you bring back who knows what else we can make" More Jump range? That's good, I have a feeling I'll be going there a lot...
After meeting up with Leaguey at The Spacers Flask we caught up on where our careers had taken us. It was impressive what all he had done since I last talked to him, he had gotten in good with several of the Engineers I had heard about and quite a few I hadn't, sadly he didn't feel comfortable introducing us as they are all relatively secretive and usually seek you out first. I didn't blame him, I wouldn't risk valuable contacts like that either. i told him how I had engineered The Hulk my patrol Anaconda to have some pretty massive shields. "Nice, maybe The Pallida should have a go at you." he said, chuckling to himself. I smiled, "Come now, we both know how that would turn out. I've seen that death beam of yours....By the way, you're....not taking that are you?" "Lord no! I have a Diamondback Explorer I use for long jumps. Breathing a sigh of relief I gave Leaguey the coordinates to the system and by dinnertime we were off.
<<<Location Guardian Structure>>>
We landed and I showed him how to activate the machine, it seemed these "Guardians" made the machine this way. To constantly be at a certain energy levels and start to leak energy when "overcharged" essentially putting you on a clock to activate it. The real beauty in the machine is that because of this, it can continuously be used. Over and over, we could get as many of these blueprints as we wanted! Shortly after Leaguey understood how the machine worked he decieded to head to bead ( Time in space is tricky, everyone is basically on a different sleep cycle. I mean we're on a planet where one side is always night.) Feeling like he could hold his own I decided to check out some of the Ancient Ruins that also showed up on the sensors. They were neat to look at but didn't really provide nearly the amount of tech this structure was providing. Maybe it was because they were essentially buried. My theory is that they weren't made to last as long as this structure. I think the Sentinels (the name I gave the drones) come up sometimes to "maintain" the structure making sure at least the essential controls are always exposed. The reason the attack is a sort of test to make sure the tech isn't falling into the wrong hands. I want to know more about these "Guardians" what is there story? One thing is for sure I think I'll be studying them for a while. To quote Anders "The Federation has noticed this CMDR I think you'll be asked for more guardian work in the future."
o7 CMDRS
CMDR Dane9640
