We Are Running Out of Time - 28.11.3308
28 Nov 2022Marsxenon
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\\\GENERAL LOG - 28.11.3308
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Once again, it has been some time since my last log. In that time, many observations have been made. Despite this, something big is on its way, and we are running out of time. I want to go through a quick recap on all that has happened in the few months following the failure of the Proteus Wave superweapon.
AFTERMATH TIMELINE |
△ - Refer to 'Theories' section.
[PROTEUS WAVE FAILURE] [9.8.3308] [~1230 UTC]
111 days ago on August 9th, the individual known as Salvation deployed the Proteus Wave superweapon. The weapon used Guardian technology integrated into one of the two Thargoid surface sites on HIP 22460 10 B. While the weapon initially stopped the entire Thargoid fleet in the system with a strong energy pulse, it didn't last long. After the surface site emitted a second, stronger pulse, the entire human fleet was immobilized, resulting in thousands of lives being lost, and the ultimate loss of the system to the Thargoids. The Federation, Empire, and Alliance lost all of their respective capital ships and megaships, including their amassed fleets of smaller AX combat vessels. Azimuth Biochemicals' megaships Bright Sentinel and Heart of Taurus were also lost. The wreckage of the Bright Sentinel was the first I witnessed, as I was on-board during the superweapon's failure, and had to find my ship among the debris to escape. Most shocking of all, it was revealed weeks later that the over 200 year old Salvation was dead. This revelation, at least to me, seems questionable.△ Nonetheless, the energy pulses that were emitted now result in Guardian ship components and weapons degrading in strength once you enter the system, up until they no longer function. This also revealed a possibly devastating consequence of the Proteus Wave's failure, that being that it taught the Thargoids how to interact or hinder Guardian technology to some extent. This is crucial, not only because their technology has been extensively integrated with out own, but also because Guardian-based weaponry is the most effective against them. More evidence was found of their new-found understandings of Guardian technology, mere hours after the Proteus Wave failed.
[UNCLASSIFIED RELICS] [9.8.3308] [ ~1415 UTC] [2 HOURS POST HIP 22460]
Not long after the defeat in HIP 22460, Thargoid surface sites in surrounding systems were observed reacting to Guardian technology a bit differently than previously seen, specifically when interacting with Guardian Relics. Normally, when Guardian technology was inserted into the "Device" in the center of surface sites, the machine would destroy the Guardian technology and violently being to send energy pulses that damage your vehicles, as well as cause Scavengers around the area to begin to attack you. In the newer observations, this still occurred to some extent. The only exceptions were Relics, who would undergo some sort of transformation, becoming a vivid green more akin to Thargoid technology as opposed to the typical Guardian blue. The transformed relics also contain some sort of lightning or electrical arc within them, produce a green gaseous mist, and emit a faint sound of droning, crackling, and clicking. Engineers Ram Tah and Ishmael Palin began accepting these "Unclassified Relics", or "Grelics" as they are more colloquially known, at very high pay-outs in hopes of researching them. They have been accepting the URs for some time now, even spurring an internal operation within Canonn in the belief that producing and contributing the relics is part of a secret Community Goal. Yet, no major updates or discoveries have been made. Something bigger was on its way. Far, far bigger.
> Import Graphics Interchange Format: Unclassified Relic
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[ANOMALIES] [30.8.3308] [22 DAYS POST HIP 22460]
90 days ago, several CMDRs noticed the presence of a dim, red-orange light emanating from deep space outside of the general region of human-inhabited space. Hours after the light was discovered, it's location was narrowed down to the NGC 2264 Sector, most likely originating from the RE-Y c14-0 system on August 28th. The physical appearance of the anomaly consisted of two eight-armed spirals, one a pale blue and the other a yellow-green, with an extremely bright center. Up close, the anomaly is comparable to a spiral galaxy like the Milky Way. Study of the anomaly was extensive, and quite a few correlations were learned. It also didn't take long for names to refer to the anomaly to surface. While the term "Stargoid" became more colloquially accepted, Canonn began to refer to it as the "Unidentified Interstellar Anomaly" or UIA. CMDRs began to question why there was always an extra signal to be found according to standard FSS scanners. It was soon realized that this extra signal was the UIA itself. The anomaly also made a very significant sound when the FSS was pointed in it's direction. Just as fast as the anomaly was found, it was noted to be moving through interstellar space in-between star systems, and quite fast at that. Initially, the UIA was found to be moving at approximately 0.666 Light-Years per Hour, however this velocity differed greatly depending on the anomaly's proximity to passing systems. Analysis of the anomaly continued until the biggest find since the anomaly's discovery was made on the 9th of September: another UIA. In fact, TWO new UIAs were discovered. Initially, two new signals were detected and reports of sounds like the first anomaly from different directions in space were being made. Soon after, UIAs 2 and 3 gained visual confirmation on the 9th and 12th respectively. UIA 2 tracking began in the Slegi sector, and UIA 3 tracking began in the Oochost sector.
> Import Image: UIA Measurements
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Image Credit: Canonn Article "Unidentified Interstellar Anomaly" / 7th Sep. 3308 / Author: LCU No Fool Like One (And Contributors)
From the very start, it was clear that the appearance of these anomalies is connected to the Thargoids somehow, hence the term "Stargoid". Funnily enough, this term was used by GalNet in a recent article, something I did not expect to see. While I don't use the term personally, I would have expected media sites to come up with their own classification. The anomalies exhibit a spiral shape, as was mentioned previously mentioned, similar to various Thargoid technology. While there are a total of 16 arms on each UIA, 16 still represents a factor of 8, a number synonymous with Thargoids and their technology. Eight of the arms are a very bright green, not unlike the green that tends to represent the Thargoids in general. The audio signals captured from the general direction of the anomalies through the FSS scanner sound very guttural and organic, and more importantly, very similar to the sounds we hear from Thargoid technology, both in the FSS and in-person. If this wasn't enough to tell us that these anomalies have some significance with the Thargoids, interdictions began to occur rapidly in areas surrounding the anomalies. Keep in mind, these areas have not experienced any sufficiently large presence of Thargoids, at least to my knowledge.
52 days ago on the 7th of October, UIAs 4 and 5 were found, originating from the Outorst and Outotch sectors respectively. At this same time, an expedition to find crashed Thargoid Sensors throughout the galaxy was put under operation by Canonn. The expedition reveled that these Thargoid Sensors could indeed be found in every single galactic region, even the more distant and spread out regions on the Milky Way's outer circumference. UIA 6 was discovered on the 17th of October, originating from the Oochoxt sector. UIA 7 was discovered on October 21st at around 2215 UTC, originating in the Prooe Drye sector. UIA 7 presented itself to be a bit of an oddity with its sector of origin. All of the anomalies create an arc around the human inhabited region of space, and while most of the anomalies have an average separation of around 17°, UIA 7 is displaced from UIA 2 by over 70°. In fact, the next biggest separation is between UIAs 1 and 3 at around 40°. Finally, UIA 8 was discovered on the 22nd of October at approximately 0130 UTC, just 3 hours and 15 minutes after UIA 7. After that, nothing. Since then, no new anomalies have been found, keeping us at that glorious number 8. Up until now, the anomalies have slowly made their way towards the bubble, with their current trajectories landing them extremely close to Sol. According to Canonn's tracking map and all the data they've been collecting, UIA 1 is the closest to Sol. One other hypothesized destination for the anomalies was HIP 22460, the system that started it all. This was proven false after UIA 3, the closest Anomaly to the system, cruised right past it. It seems clear that their destination is Sol, something that still perplexes me to some degree.△ It's also not clear what these anomalies are in reality, but there have been many theories.△ In the data below, you can see how much time after the defeat in HIP 22460 it took for each anomaly to be discovered, and the amount of time that elapsed between the discovery of each.
> Import Image: UIA Discovery Time Data Chart
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[FSS SCANNER UPGRADES] [30.9.3308] [52 DAYS POST HIP 22460]
One month after the first anomaly was detected, Universal Cartographics in collaboration with "engineers from Auger Vision, Jick Nackson Enterprises, Long Embedded Systems, LURP Ship Systems and other specialist companies" (GalNet Article / "FSS Upgrade to Track Anomalous Signals" / 30th Sep. 3308) released a software update to Full Spectrum System Scanners to aid in tracking the anomalies. This first update was not very substantial. As was noted earlier, audio was detected when pointing the FSS scanner towards the general direction of any of the anomalies' locations. This new upgrade reduced the amount of interference experienced when listening, and renamed the frequency range at which the anomalies are audible to "Concentrated Signal Sources". The sounds of the anomalies did change a small amount, and while I don't possess any audio recordings after the first upgrade, the sound can best described as additional clicking or chittering to the preexisting noise. One thing this first upgrade did not resolve was the need to point in the general direction of the anomaly, which itself required you to know where all of the anomalies were coming from, unless you wanted to spend your time searching through the sky looking for where the sound was loudest.
Previous close-up observations of the anomalies saw ship scanners labelling them as "Rogue Signal Sources", however this was for only a short period of time before these occurrences stopped happening. What I believe happened is that certain UIAs were close enough to passing systems for ships to read the signals, but since they have been observed moving in-between system through interstellar space, these instances were not common. The term "Rogue Signal Sources" was used by the media for the first time in the GalNet article announcing the second FSS Scanner update on November 11th. At this point we have quite a few names for these anomalies; UIAs, Rogue Signal Sources, "Stargoids". Anyway, this further update seemed to be far more significant. The second upgrade allowed the anomalies to be targeted, meaning you no longer had to search around in the sky for them. Now if you tune the FSS scanner to the proper frequency range, signal markers will appear for you to focus on. When focusing on the RSSs, the scanner interface begins to glitch out and experience some significant disruption, which is, as far as I know, the first instance where this has occurred. As the GalNet article mentioned, the signal interference was reduced once again. This time it was a substantial reduction.
[THARGOID ROAR] [23.8.3308] [14 DAYS POST HIP 22460]
Shortly after the dust settled in HIP 22460, reports came in of a 'roar' that was heard throughout the system. Oddly enough, I recalled just one sound, but I wouldn't have described it as a roar. I heard it after the Proteus Wave has failed and the system was overtaken by Thargoid forces, but I would have called it more of a scream. At the time, I thought nothing of it, perhaps some people just heard it differently. A separate sound was isolated and leaked through several mainstream media newsfeeds. While there is a lot of audio analysis to be done with the Thargoids and I do possess audio of these two sounds, I will research them in another log. As far as I could understand, the 'roar' came first, and the 'scream' after. Analyzing the points in time at which they were emitted and the noises themselves, I started to speculate a few things.△
[XENO-PEACE MOVEMENT] [11.8.3308] [2 DAYS POST HIP 22460]
After the events leading up to and after the failure of the Proteus Wave, politics and political affiliates experienced a major divisional shift. As is typical with humanity, the first instinct was to shift blame, even within governments. While allegations against Azimuth Biotech have been going on for many years, they seemed to be ignored from major governments until all went wrong. Governments instantly received backlash, both from the public and from other powers. The tragedy in HIP 22460 separated some powers, and pushed others together. Less than a week later, the Alliance-Sirius Pact was accelerated, pushing for a unified Xeno-Defence strategy between leaders Edmund Mahon and Li Yong-Rui. On the other hand, a large push from some forces and the general public to promote peace between humanity and the Thargoids began to take root.
The Far God Cult also started to get involved, namely by immediately praising the Thargoid Victory in HIP 22460. A new individual in the hierarchy of the religious group labelled as the 'First Apostle of the True Chapters' declared their approval for the events that took place, saying, "We rejoice in the Far God’s triumph! Those who tried to desecrate the dark angels have paid the price. The Far God is calling to us from the higher dimensions, and Its manifestation is closer than ever before. It is coming." (GalNet Article / "Far God Cult Praises Alien Victory" / 16th Aug. 3308)△ Despite their views, it's evident they have some legitimate connection with the Thargoids because wouldn't you know it, just two weeks later, the first of the anomalies was detected.
Engineers including Ram Tah and Professor Palin began to conduct as much research as they could. In the time since their research began and now, not much headway has been made, at least from what we know of. Federation President Zachary Hudson declared August 9th a day of remembrance for those lost in HIP 22460. The Alliance Defence Force began to build up resources to strengthen its Xeno-Defence forces. Salvation was declared dead by Azimuth Biotech, who used freelance specialists to investigate the wreckage, on the 25th. A retrial was declared for Admiral Aden Tanner just the next day. Tanner led a rogue assault on the Hind Mine starport to provide evidence that Salvation's technology was intentionally attracting the Thargoids. The attack was unsuccessful, and Tanner along with many of his operatives were court-martialed and dishonorably discharged. Most of this was due to independent pilots' support of Salvation. Since it was revealed that Salvation's superweapon did indeed attract Thargoids, in addition to the failure of the Proteus Wave in HIP 22460, retrial was requested for Admiral Tanner, since he was correct after all. Nonetheless, his unlawful actions resulted in the retrial being denied.
Fear of Thargoid Expansion began to rise. The Empire began to separate and form their own Anti-Xeno defence strategies, trying to stray away from blame for the tragedy in HIP 22460 as much as they could, even though all three major superpowers had just as much to do with their trust in Salvation as each other. This didn't go without criticism however. The Empire's own Princess Aisling Duval has been one of the biggest critics against her aunt's policy changes. The Xeno-Peace Movement began to take shape, first revealing itself with the appearance of graffiti in many major starports in the Pleiades Sector. Too, some graffiti promoted Anti-Xeno efforts, the call for governments to take responsibility for who they trusted, or even a push for Aegis to be reinstated.
> Import Image: Pleiades Sector Graffiti
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The newly established Thargoid Advocacy Project started gaining traction, making public claims representing how humanity were the real invaders, not the Thargoids. The Federation began to monitor Xeno-Peace activity very closely. The Far God Cult was under the highest scrutiny for causing civil backlash. It didn't take long for Hudson to begin cracking down in their operations, declaring them an enemy of the state. Members of the True Chapters sect of the Far God Cult were swiftly targeted and began to be apprehended by Federal officials. Conflict arose in the Popontia system, but the True Chapters were ultimately defeated on the 6th of October. The Thargoids invaded three distinct Federation systems on the 12th of September, and rapidly retreated on the 29th, without attacking any starports. Subject 'D-2', a test subject that was interfaced with a Thargoid vessel during INRA's and Azimuth Biochemical's 'Project Seraph' experiments. She was one of the few individuals that succeeded in her experiments, but escaped with the help of a courier known as CMDR Hyford. Seo Jin-ae, as it was revealed is her name, appeared at an Aegis event asking for help from Professor Alba Tesreau, a member of Achenar Research Council (ARC) and the former head of research for Aegis. Tesreau has long been investigating the operations of Salvation, Taurus Mining Ventures (now Azimuth Biotech), and Azimuth Biochemicals. Jin-ae revealed that she knew what the 'Thargoid Roar' meant. and that "It's too late to stop what's coming" (GalNet Article / "Gatecrash Drama at Aegis Event" / 4th Oct. 3308). Thargoids invaded the Alliance-pledged Andecavi system on October 6th, retreated just a week later. Azimuth Biotech offered to help D-2, but she firmly rejected their offers. This isn't surprising considering what they did to her. In the meantime, the Empire has been celebrating their strength, claiming to have made many advances in their Xeno-Defence capabilities. We are yet to see those advances tested. Dalton Chase, Federal governor of Andavandul 1, started to advocate for the Xeno-Peace Movement and the Thargoid Advocacy Project (TAP), including rallying for materials to be constructed for a Xeno-Peace envoy vessel. The materials were indeed gathered, and the vessel began to be constructed. More invasions occurred, this time covering colonies in the California Nebula on the 27th of October and an increase in activity in the Coalsack Nebula on the 15th of November. Thargoids were observed residing in these systems containing large amounts of Thargoid Barnacles, but seemingly waiting for something. I will outline this in a separate log, but I believe this behaviour may be a sign of the return of the Orthrus Interceptor.△
[FAILURE OF THE KINGFISHER XENO-PEACE MISSION] [24.11.3308] [107 DAYS POST HIP 22460]
Dalton Chase was elected to Federal Congress, and the newly constructed 'Kingfisher' Xeno-Peace envoy megaship was finished. Materials were once again requested, this time to supply it and prepare it for its mission to attempt to with the first of the Unidentified Interstellar Anomalies, or Rogue Signal Sources, or "Stargoids". If those three classifications or the codenames that Canonn came up with for the anomalies weren't enough, TAP revealed that they have named the first anomaly "Taranis". Unfortunately, at the time at least, Chase was unable to be on-board the Kingfisher for its mission. Many were excited, this may have been our first time communicating with the Thargoids. It was also our last chance to try before the anomalies arrived. The megaship travelled to Hyades Sector YO-Q b5-1 where it was anticipating the anomaly's passing. Just as the anomaly entered the system, communication was lost. Assistance from independent pilots for locating the megaship was requested, and it didn't take long for us to find it.
> Import Image: Kingfisher Wreckage
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That was it. Our last shot. Some logs left on the wreckage revealed that everything was running smoothly, all up until 'Taranis' arrived in the system. As soon as it did, an odd sound was heard, and Thargoid Interceptors instantly warped in and began attacking the megaship. Apparently, the Interceptors were observed taking occupied escape pods, similar to reports in HIP 22460 when the Proteus Wave failed. Also similarly to HIP 22460, Thargoids have taken over the entire system, so no matter where you stop, they will soon arrive right behind you, and they won't bother taking the time to scan you. The only difference between the two now it that the Hyades Sector YO-Q b5-1 doesn't have a permanent energy field disabling Guardian modules, but perhaps that may change.
[△ THEORIES] [28.11.3308] [111 DAYS POST HIP 22460]
So, what are some of the theories or speculations I made over this time? Let's go through them all.
[1] First of all, I find Salvation's 'death' questionable because of who he was. It is evident he made a massive mistake in the working of his technology, but he made large advances as well. Too, he was over 200 years old, and has seen two Thargoid wars carry out. How would he act so confident in his technology yet suddenly be wiped out? I feel as though he would have taken some precautions. This is exactly what leads me into another speculation. On the 9th of August, footage we saw of him looked as though he was on a Fleet Carrier named Nemesis, NOT the Bright Sentinel megaship. If he was indeed on a separate Fleet Carrier, there was no wreckage of it, so it must have left before being destroyed. Too, the amount of time it took Azimuth Biotech to declare his death seemed suspicious to me. Additionally, they didn't look for themselves, but instead sent out a group of freelance specialists. Azimuth would be the only ones to know what Salvation or "Caleb Wycherly" (Another thing I still speculate) really looked like. Could they have planted someone else to portray as him? We also knew that Salvation had extensive modifications and research into prolonging his life. Could he have a clone or could he be revived due to his pre-existence reliance on cybernetic components. Even I can see though, this is one of my most outlandish theories. There is not much sense to it.
[2] What I wonder is how did the Thargoids figure out that Sol is important to us? It's no longer the most populated star system, so it wouldn't even make sense for them to be going for more humans. Also, while it is clear that they may be just headed for the core systems, their trajectories lead extremely close to Sol, hence my assumption that they are headed there. Perhaps they recognized the symbol of the Federation from times past or from the wreckage in HIP 22460 and discovered that this is where the Federation centers around? Could it be related to the 'Non-Human Relic' we found on Mars?
[3] Many have theorized that the anomalies are Thargoid Motherships or Hive-ships on their way to destroy us. I think this theory may be quite valid. Many theories in the past have stated that the Thargoid Surface sites are crashed Hive-ships from the First Thargoid War. This also makes sense to me. After all, the Thargoids don't have very extensive ground-based technology. The only exception are Barnacles, but they only extract resources for Meta-Alloys. The Unclassified Relics are only obtainable from Thargoid Surface Sites, so could have these anomalies be functioning Hive-ships that instructed the surface sites on how to interact and transform Guardian technology. Additionally, the sounds we hear from the FSS scanners sound as if to be extremely large Thargoid vessels. Finally, in the logs recovered from the Kingfisher, the head of the project details how the anomaly dwarves any man-made starport. This would make some sense relative to the size of the Thargoid Surface Sites. After all, if the Surface Sites are crashed Motherships, much more must be underground, making them much larger than our widest Coriolis starports.
[4] The 'Thargoid Roar' came first, and the 'Thargoid Scream' as I've called it, came second. The woman on the ICE podcast in which I first head the roar described it as a cry or sounding like its in pain. This is precisely what made me think of the differences between the sounds. Could the roar be a cry for help from the surface site in which the Proteus Wave superweapon was installed, and the scream that I heard be a response like a mother coming to aid its offspring?
[5] At first, theories began to circulate that the First Apostle could be subject D-2, since we knew they were both female individuals, and that they had some connection with the Thargoids. First Apostle may have indicated it was her because she may have been the first human to establish a connection with them. This would also help her gain revenge against Azimuth after what they did to her right? Nonetheless, it seems like they are two different people. She came out into the public wanted to help, saying that she may have known what the roar meant. The First Apostle would not do that, after all, they say that extinction of humanity is coming.
[6] As I said, I will outline my theories in another log, but I want to relay a few details. I have heard rumors of an unknown Thargoid Interceptor variant being seen, and that it behaves differently. Could it be the Orthrus returning after disappearing suddenly long ago? Could the Thargoids in surrounding nebulae be waiting for them for some strategical purpose?
Well, here we are waiting for the anomalies to reach us. UIA 3 was the first to cross into the human inhabited systems, and now they are visible from every direction, even in my home system. They destroyed the Kingfisher, so it's evident they are not here for peace. Who can blame them? We tried to destroy them, TWICE. I suggest you CMDRs get everything in order. If you want to stay and see what happens, I'm here with you. If you want to try and leave before something bad may happen, I suggest you do it now. The anomalies should reach us in the coming days, so if you want to go you should go now. I know many CMDRs have made their way to Colonia, which not be such a bad idea. I'll be staying here for now, just to see what we're going to be dealing with. I wish things could have gone a different way. We are too far gone to try and live peaceably with them, and they may just have the technology and understanding to wipe us all out. Either way, we're running out of time. I hope that I'll still get to see you all out there CMDRs, o7.
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> Log Saved, Goodbye Commander
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