Trails of the Past - Ancient Remnants [2]
16 Mar 2024Kasumi Goto
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Location: HIP 39768
March 8, 3310
A bright, blue-white star of spectral class B appeared directly in front of me as I entered the system, prompting me to give off an annoyed sound while turning the ship away from it, so it stopped trying to burn the retina of both my eyes out.
"Really hate these bright stars.", I muttered to myself.
B types just seemed to be the worst offenders, extremely bright and still frequent enough to be a nuisance, unlike their bigger O type cousin. But anything above K or G class felt like it made my eyes hurt badly, which made some sense, given the natural environment in which humans developed. But my eyes had always been... somewhat sensitive, beyond the average for humans, and the modifications to them only made that worse. I also hadn't really found the 'switch' which made them less sensitive to light, and I felt reasonably certain there was one, with me only being half-biological now.
I pushed the throttle up to full to get away from this star, and opened the system map. The site, according to Canonn's repository, was supposed to be on moon F of body 14... which was an L class dwarf, about seven thousand light seconds away. But I could deal with that, and was even fine with it - the brightness of that plasma ball in the sky would actually be somewhat tolerable, at such a distance.
Apparently, I'd already been here, scanned the planet and kept the system bookmarked for... some reason. Which prompted me to then check the other system where I'd started out - but the planet there wasn't mapped, yet I'd had the Guardian site marked on my nav panel, and access to the system map anyway. The latter of those was explainable by me going to that system early on in my 'career' as a pilot and, not used to long supercruise journeys, didn't bother with it. The former, however, was a little more odd... maybe sensors had been upgraded to locate those structures without the need to map a planet, which was not something I'd be complaining about.
This particular Guardian structure was in plain daylight, as I could see once close, and the main star mostly overpowered what the L class dwarf emitted, so light was mostly white with a little bit of reddish-purple mixed in. But this location was... actually a rather small site - wouldn't take a lot of time to cover it. A Sentinel showed itself when I approached the row of obelisks directly ahead - to promptly receive plasma and a missile to its 'face'. I did really like how effectively this vehicle could take these drones out, even if I found little enjoyment in the act of destruction itself. And maybe there was also a little 'excitement' added by the movement imparted on me when the missile launcher fired.
The first active obelisk required a 'casket' and 'urn', items which made me curious as to why they were named that way... hopefully, they didn't actually contain the ashes of a dead Guardian, and those were just names we gave to the objects due to their appearance. It gave me log 28, but I didn't listen to it immediately, wanting to find the other log first. The only things I found at the second group of obelisks were two Sentinels and a relic tower, the latter of which got ignored. The former became a bunch of scrap for scavengers or the ruins to reclaim.
The third obelisk group held another single active one - had to be what I was looking for. And, sure enough, it required an 'orb' and a relic. I picked them up from the ship, got the log, and went back onboard, wanting to listen to the logs there. Just as I got back to the cockpit, I received notification of the carrier arriving in orbit. Not the worst timing, but maybe I'd send it two locations ahead from now on - seemed more practical, and this ship had more than sufficient fuel reserves for that. For now, though, I had some Guardian information to take in.
28/28 Body Protectorate Log – Domestic Constructs
This log details the main applications of Guardian Constructs outside the military. It seems that before the second civil war, most menial work was performed by Constructs. But despite this, the Guardians did not become idle. On the contrary – they devoted themselves to artistic and athletic pursuits. Many Guardians participated in what we would call sporting events, although it seems these events incorporated some ritualistic elements.
One cannot help but wonder what would happen if humanity made more use of labour-saving technology. Would we become a more cultured people, as the Guardians did? A shame, the long-standing convention against the development of artificial intelligence means we will probably never find out.
'Since they were wiped out by their creations... maybe we were not wrong to.', I thought. 'And we would probably just use the added time to fight each other even more instead.'
Someone more optimistic or less mishandled by humanity would have had a different opinion to it, but after what I'd been through because of our idiocy, and seeing what our nature caused us to do to ourselves every day without even a single question, it felt rather doubtful that the development of AI to handle boring tasks and aspects of human life, required to keep the society working, would actually lead to too many positive improvements - unless it was used to fight those wars instead, and keep humans out of the firing line. Which then had the strong probability of leading to the same, or a similar situation which the Guardians had gone through. And they weren't around to tell about it any longer.
23/28 : Technology Log – Starship Technology
This log is unusual – it appears to refer to another group of Guardian sites, far from the ones we’ve already discovered. I realise that might sound disappointing, but in fact this find is extremely important. The log suggests these undiscovered sites might contain blueprints not only for Guardian engines, but for Guardian starships!
Just think – someday soon, we might uncover a Guardian ruin that will allow us to manufacture ships and fighters Incorporating Guardian technology. It makes my skin prickle just to think of it. And who knows – maybe you’ll be the one to find it.
More evidence of pre-recorded messages. This told me these had to have been created at the time where these ruins were just barely beginning to be explored and understood - as I knew the ones mentioned here were definitely already uncovered, but the only thing which had come from them, to my knowledge, was some fighters with limited utility. And they didn't even appear to be very good at the thing they were designed for, which was taking on Thargoids. Short-lived bait at best. But that was not something I wanted to think of.
I did have to wonder whether these engine blueprints had ever been discovered or developed by Ram Tah. The only thing remotely related to travel technology appeared to be the FSD booster module, which I had on my ship right now, but that could hardly be qualified as an 'engine', since FSDs only warped space or opened wormholes, with the thrusters still doing the work in those instances. And either there were complications with full Guardian-hybrid ships, or... those blueprints just didn't exist any longer, if they'd even been found. Maybe those 'Constructs' deliberately removed those blueprints from these sites while leaving the less harmful ones - and weapon technology, clearly - to be found, but I couldn't imagine too well why they would have done that.
It was also a possibility those sites with the full ship blueprints had just been... destroyed. There was certainly a good amount of evidence to suggest some of the structures were much more damaged than others, and not just from a lack of maintenance for a million years - this one in particular, despite being marked as a 'Guardian Structure', amounted to little more than three groups of obelisks, with most of those inactive or dead, a relic tower, and the four defense robots which I'd shot down. No data terminal was present, either, and the site looked damaged by artificial means, more than just naturally degraded.
I returned to the carrier in orbit, not having anything left to do at this structure, and set an order to get the tank filled back up, also giving the carrier its next destination - Col 173 Sector ZL-L b24-2, while I'd move to Col 173 ME-P d6-92 first. By the time I'd be done there, the carrier would've arrived at its new location already, in time for me to catch up. Having it as my mobile base of operations around here was definitely useful - no need to waste an internal slot on a fuel scoop and lose hull protection as a result. While I had all the reasons to want to be careful about the possibility of an attack. So far, though, I hadn't encountered any other pilots, and I preferred to keep it that way.
As soon as the refuel process completed, and I got the clear from the hangar team, I took off again. I hadn't been to any of the Guardian sites further than this one, but it wouldn't be an issue - I had everything necessary to do whichever mapping I required, but even without, it seemed like I would've been fine.
Choosing to scan the system in FSS upon arrival nonetheless, I located the Guardian ruin on planet B5, and headed over there... to be unsettled a little when I saw the layout of this Guardian site. It was a strange, circular depression with a few adjacent, or at least connected 'higher' pieces, with strange "pillars" or half-arches pointing inward in pairs of two. It almost reminded me of more like an arena, and I didn't like that - not helped by the Thargoid technology within me not reacting well to being entirely surrounded by all this Guardian stuff.
I was still able to keep it suppressed, and limited to just feeling... more than a little uneasy, convincing myself it'd be fine to drive around here. There was nothing alive left, not even fully-developed AI. One active obelisk was right near the ship, and it - after the mandatory Sentinel disposal - asked for a relic and an urn. It gave me log 16 when I scanned it, and I decided to just listen to it there and then.
16/28 : Technology Log – Material Panels
This log details the construction of the panels found at certain Guardian sites. As I suspected, the panels are made from a unique alloy, manufactured from a metal I have yet to identify. Even more remarkably, the panels appear to incorporate nanobot technology, which activates when in proximity to a foreign body. This explains the faint glow given off by many Guardian materials and structures.
This is an extraordinary discovery. Humanity has dabbled with nanotechnology, but evidently the Guardians’ achievements far surpassed our own.
That was... curious. Thinking back, I'd noticed this myself, both with the Guardian items I'd picked up to be able to 'unlock' these data entries, the ground underneath them, and some of the other structures around, like 'towers' with thin panels on them. That had to be what was being referred to, here. I left these panels alone - it was not in my interest to interfere with the structures, nor did I want to. It seemed wrong, somehow.
It was also curious that despite me having Thargoid biotechnology in my body, nothing other than the Sentinels - which seemed as though they'd attack anything based on their simple programming - displayed any kind of hostile response. Maybe the human DNA within me confused these structures...
I did wonder whether these nanobots were the same ones as in the relics. But if there was anywhere for that to be found - it would be one of these sites. And, as my luck would have it - after passing an obelisk containing log 15, which I'd already uncovered - log 17 held the answer which I looked for. It was right at this site here, too, despite no mention in the Canonn records. Maybe I'd have to let them know.
17/28 : Technology Log – Relics
This data relates to the objects we have termed “Guardian relics. These blue crystals are part power source, part computer, part key and apparently played a central role in Guardian technology.
Remarkably, it seems the crystals were grown rather than mined. The log is light on details, but from what I’ve been able to piece together, each crystal was designed to fulfil a specific purpose within the Guardian’s technological network. And, like the panels found at many Guardian sites, the relics incorporate nanobot technology.
That had to be how he'd found out about the nanites which were currently used against the Titans... Aegis' announcements had made it sound like it was an entirely new discovery, but maybe it was only that property of them which had been found recently.
That realization alone was enough to make me shudder again, bringing back those memories. I forcibly suppressed and pushed them back down. That was really not something I wanted to think of right now.
Once I'd, mostly, shaken it off, I thought on the rest of that log. It was... certainly interesting information. I wondered what their relation was to the data orb which emerged after 'giving' one of these relics back to the machine. Was it just the key to activating it, or did it hold the data as well? Powering it seemed... unlikely, as that was already achieved through the use of the pylons by throwing plasma or some other energy-based weapon at them. Maybe I could find out right here... after I had the logs. And there was one left, judging by the record.
I found the obelisk hidden away at an elevated section of the site, away from the center, more at its edge. And it needed Thargoid items. Jackpot. Medusa tissue, and... I mistook the sensor glyph for a probe. Of course. So I drove back to the ship, kind of tried to 'convince' those corrosive items to not eat through the cargo hold, and did the few hundred meter trip again, immediately returning the module melters to the ship's corrosion-resistant hold. Then I listened to the log.
5/28 : Thargoid Log – Victory
This log describes the end of the conflict between the Guardians and Thargoids. It appears the Thargoids entered Guardian space unprepared for a protracted military campaign, and after facing a relentless onslaught from the Guardians’ war machines they were forced to retreat. The log also mentions that the development of the Guardians’ war machines created a schism in their society, which may have seeded the civil war that occurred later in their history.
So that was... that. Not the most informative log, but it seemed like the Thargoids had maybe come more prepared to fight against humans now. Not that it seemed to do much good, thanks to the - effectively - magic Guardian weaponry. And I still hated to think of it, so I stopped.
Three of those Thargoid logs were still missing, however, to get a full picture of those events. But as I was already learning a lot more than I'd expected to, even being given these summaries recorded by that engineer, I assumed I'd find them soon enough. For now - I turned my attention to activating the site. Finding the data terminal was trivial, following the various 'lanes' which spread out from a central point where a pylon was located.
Finding all of them, however, turned out to be a little trickier. Two were by the data terminal itself, plus the third in the center of the site, but the other three were scattered. I drove around the outside, finding one during that perimeter search, then another behind the data terminal, where I decided to start the activation sequence... also remembering the central pylon at that point. And, as luck would have it, I'd uncovered the sixth one behind that as well, without even realizing I'd driven past it at a close enough distance.
It was on those pylons that I noticed they did have a crystal within them, too, if maybe a little flatter than the ones on the towers which raised from the ground. But their appearance was identical, for the most part. So maybe they were serving as a power source here, or at least as conduits for it.
I dealt with the Sentinels which emerged now that the site was fully powered, and returned to the data terminal with a relic, wondering which kind of blueprint I'd get here. But I took a closer look at the orb first - and sure enough, the relic crystal was in there, brightly lit up instead of faintly shimmering with energy. The blueprint which I received from it was... for a weapon. And it vaguely stuck around in my mind that the one I'd received for the prior site was for a module. Not that I needed either, by this point.
I shot down the newly reactivated Sentinels, a loop which I'd be repeating a few more times from here, and set a course to Col 173 ZL-Z b24-2. The carrier was already there, as expected - I docked up with it for the same refuel routine, then sent it ahead again, to Col 173 Sector YF-N b23-6, while I scanned the system and proceeded to the Guardian ruin, on body B1, though this time around 440 light second away instead of five thousand. It was that same 'bowl' layout, so I didn't bother to activate it and gathered the various logs instead, listening to them in the discovered order... also finding another one not marked for this site in that process. Those being 20, 11, 18 and 8.
20/28 : Technology Log – Glyphs
This log elaborates on the nature of Guardian glyphs. As you know, accessing a Guardian codex requires the use of two corresponding Guardian artefacts, with the glyphs on the codex denoting which objects are required. But this log indicates that the Guardians’ written language often incorporated pairs of characters, suggesting that this dual system was present in other aspects of their culture.
I hadn't been too interested or invested in learning much about the Guardian society itself, beyond its fate, but now that I was here... this was, actually, quite interesting to learn about. As was the interaction they had with the Thargoids, even if limited to war... unfortunately.
11/28 : Technology Log – Weapons Development
This log describes the Guardians’ weapon technology. It seems they developed electro-magnetic projectile weapons early in their modern period, utilising the same technology they used to launch their first spacecraft. These weapons ionized the path their target before firing focused bolts of energy along the ionized track. They were crude and unpredictable at first, sometimes resulting in the death of the wielder, but once the Guardians learned to regulate the ionisation process they became more stable.
Nothing too relevant to the ongoing war, or whatever threat Nemesis posed, but still an interesting insight into weapons development. And I remained wishing that I could review this data myself, rather than getting an overview of it from someone else, even if it was the leading Guardian researcher within the Bubble.
Log 18, likewise, was about Guardian weaponry.
18/28 : Technology Log – Energy Weapons
These records describe ancient Guardian weaponry. It seems the Guardians employed three different designs: an energy-based weapon similar to a rail gun, a projectile weapon that fired concentrated plasma, and a weapon that fired charged crystal shards at extreme velocities.
These weapons were apparently powered by the crystals we have termed “Guardian relics”, and the log describes how the relic generates and distributes energy within the weapon. This is a significant discovery, as it means it might be possible to recreate these weapons, or at least to design our own versions of them. It’s extremely exciting.
That was, effectively, what we were using now to primarily defend the Bubble against the Thargoids. For one reason or another, which was probably a stupid one not at all tied to the technology used itself, they weren't as good against human ships as would've been expected. I also wished Aegis had adapted those to be used against the Titans instead of the unnecessarily destructive and harmful torpedoes that sentenced them to a death of being cooked alive.
8/28 : Civil War Log – Two Tribes
This log reveals more about the sides that fought in the second civil war. In its early stages, the war was fought primarily by soldiers, but within a decade – and after significant loss of life – most of the fighting was conducted remotely.
The progressives fought with automated combat machines. These engines of war took various forms, from autonomous drones to vast, lumbering dreadnoughts imbued with limited artificial intelligence. On the other side, the traditionalists relied mostly on biological weapons. They used germ warfare alongside long-range missiles loaded with corrosive enzymes, which could target the enemy’s war machines from a great distance.
I struggled to understand exactly what 'germ warfare' meant. Biological, maybe, if it was meant to target population centers of these 'progressive' Guardians. And the mention of corrosive enzyme missiles was just as curious - it made me wonder whether there was any connection to or inspiration from the Thargoids' own weaponry, or if these had been self-developed by the 'traditionalist' Guardians. That yet again ran into the issue of them all being dead, and maybe Ram Tah being picky about which aspects of the data he presented. In a 'brief overview' style, at that.
I felt concerned about those war machines, still. I wasn't yet aware of exactly why they'd chosen to destroy, or rather kill off, all their creators, but I felt like it was... somewhat related to this civil war. And if they were out there, and found us... it likely wouldn't give them any positive impressions to see all of the infighting in human society. Especially with technology that advanced, controlled by highly-developed artificial intelligences, it was difficult to imagine how we could possibly survive fighting such an enemy on our own.
Since that was the last log, I returned to my ship and took off, heading to Col 173 Sector PZ-O d6-116. The site itself orbited a gas giant on moon 6 D, and was just barely coming under daylight coverage. Located in a flat plain, long shadows cast over it by a distant, jagged hill, it was... just a few small groups of obelisks surrounding an odd central structure, and the site generally looked like it was in a really poor state.
My choice of landing spot was also quite poor, because as soon as I came into the site perimeter where the Scorpion turret activated, four Sentinels surfaced around and basically right next to me, which was a rather unwelcome surprise. And ambush, even if not a planned one. My brain snapped to reflexive mode and diverted power to shields, the remainder to weapons, remaining stationary, targeting the closest one. I slapped it with a missile after a few seconds of surge repeater fire, then targeted the Sentinel roughly in line, bringing it down before they launched any missiles.
Those, of course, came out a few seconds later, but the Scorpion's shield was tough enough to take that as well. Some ten seconds later, things were quiet again, and I breathed out, as though moving on from that brief rush of adrenaline. If that substance even still existed in its natural form within my body, rather than altered to suit its rather... specific, needs.
There was only one log - 3 - here, which I could recover, but I scanned all the obelisks with the relevant combinations anyway. And there was just one inbox message when I was done.
3/28 : Thargoid Log – Unsuccessful Truce
This data supports my theory that the Guardians were gifted linguists. At some point after the war with the Thargoids began, the Guardians were forced to make a partial retreat. It seems they were still trying to communicate with the Thargoids, and were reluctant to take up arms against them. Eventually they managed to develop sufficient understanding of the Thargoids’ language to communicate, but it did the Guardians little good. The Thargoids were determined to continue hostilities, and the Guardians were forced to employ more aggressive methods to address the Thargoid threat.
So the Guardians had managed to communicate with the Thargoids. But... the log made absolutely no mention of exactly what was discussed during these negotiations, so it had rather limited value, to me at least. And some part of me suddenly recalled that, despite the lack of specific details, this log was very often used as a justification of "Why it is pointless to try talking to Thargoids". Even though it was really, really not.
It, of course, also didn't come with whatever language data the Guardians had on the Thargoids. Or if it did, Ram Tah was specifically leaving that out or not mentioning it. As if I needed more reasons to be wary about the things being retold in these messages.
I tried to look around this wrecked site, also lacking a data terminal and looking very different in its layout than any of the others I'd seen so far, but there was nothing of interest to be found. A relic tower, but the central structure was... not exactly explorable. It was partly collapsed, like the semi-arches on the exterior edge of this odd circle. The F type star was beginning to crest the hill, too, and on an airless world, that was just a little too bright even at over a thousand light seconds of distance. So I quickly got back to the ship and away, jumping to Col 173 Sector YF-N b23-6. I was greeted with the much more pleasant, dim light of a proto-star that looked ready to become an M-class dwarf once it joined the main sequence. Accordingly, the first few planets were quite close, less than a hundred light seconds, and I already saw the Guardian ruin in the nav panel while looking for the carrier in it, momentarily contemplating to just go there now.
But I was getting quite sleepy, already, as I'd started out 'late' in the day, going by Earth clock. Not much of a better way to function in deep space, or just space generally, without natural day/night cycles to get used to. So I met up with the carrier instead and docked, calling it a day.
This Guardian mystery had been here for a million years - it'd still be there tomorrow, too. Or today, technically, as the clock very definitely was well past midnight. And I was very far from any rush to get done with this search, other than the one which my curiosity imposed.
I did like the quiet of space. Both the natural one and the one it created within my head, away from the Thargoids.