TRANSMISSION SOURCE - Omega-41, Freeport 5, Mooring Bay 4B
ENCRYPTION - EXTREME [%AX-501051-6267:002]
SENDER - Dr. Weiss Hausenberg
SUBJECT - Results
Guten tag,
It has only been a day or two since my last transmission and I am humbled to say that the work I am doing have been the most up-lifting in terms of widening the spectrum to more then just the lecture halls and patterned floors of the university. As I said previously when I first contacted you, the ship I am currently on has access to a series of probes. They are capable of withstanding most atmospheric and space anomalies such as radiation, heat, or worlds with high-gravity. Though I won't get into the specifics of our equipment too much, know that my team and I have spent every effort to compile a detailed and concise report for you.
First, the formation of the strange alien crystalline asteroids and the Artifacts that seemingly propogate within Napo's gaseous interior. As we made our approach to the cloud we, because of the inherent risks radiation has on both ship and life, decided to first send in a series of probes before entering to gather some preliminary scans and scout out potential safe zones for our survey teams to set up a small extra-vehicular work space and start gathering samples for analysis. Also due to the neighboring proximity Napo has to Amarus, we decided to rest the ship between the two clouds and sent out the last remaining probes into the adjoining nebula.
As the data started streaming in through the visual and data feeds, we noted nothing of particular importance until Probes 3 and 10 started pinging back some interesting pictures in the two sibling clouds. The Captain, at my suggestion, proceeded to deploy half the survey team with their equipment and a fire-team of marine guards onto the larger piece of asteroid where Probe 3 sat; whilst the other half of the team were dropped off near Probe 10 to set up on the exterior of the rock it sent back. We spent some time sitting between the two clouds, wary of the Corsair threat and the threat they might see a heavily-armed gunboat was, sitting so close to the jump-hole leading into their system, but the work was deemed important enough that the risks were worth it.
Another hour passed with anticipation, receiving constant updates from both of my head researchers, but finally I received a transmission from the team at what I will refer to now as Site 'A' in the Napo Cloud.
My proteges and their team in the Napo Cloud have this to say about their findings, which came after they discovered what appeared to be a hollowed-out cavern within what are now referring to as Site 'A'. Noting the jagged and chaotic way it appeared it was clearly not man-made nor artificial, but naturally occurring. Sending back the data they gathered suggests that it was naturally carved out over the course of hundreds, thousands, perhaps even millions of years ago when the system's sun was still young and in it's development stage. Whilst carefully chipping off rock samples of the inside, one of the survey members reported something magnificent; Artifacts! Intact and well-preserved. The similarities to common-place artifact trading and luxury items ending with the fact that these two artifacts were still active, glowing whilst in close proximity to the other. Taking great care, we managed to gently pry them from their resting place, of which I note their crude pedestals they were taken from appeared to be placed there as a seemingly symbolic form of either reverence or prayer.
Noting this significant find, they transferred the contents; both rock samples and the artifacts back with Probe 3 for me and my remaining team on-board whilst they continued their work. To say I was excited is, as the Libertonians say, "throwing the ball short". When the samples and artifacts returned, I immediately separated the team into two and began preliminary examinations of the two active Artifacts, imagining what secrets we might divulge from it. Despite countless attempts, to no avail, I could not crack whatever code or pre-requisite needed to obtain it, despite bombarding the artifacts with a concentrated amount of laser, infra-red, and EM scans in order to activate it's mechanisms. I will note, however, that when separated the two immediately cease their glowing and any energy emissions we have managed to glean drop to zero so perhaps it has nothing to do with a "password" or "phrase" but something else that's missing from the equation entirely. Unfortunately, despite my asking of the Site A survey team, they have found nothing that remotely hints to whatever that "missing equation" could be. So for the moment, I have placed the two artifacts into a small-scale containment sheathe to mask their emission and energy readings in-case any unscrupulous attention be brought upon us.
On the other hand, we have managed, through the efforts of the specialized crew members on board and the survey team at Site A to decipher the make of the rock where the artifacts were found and the Napo nebula cloud itself. Some findings which I myself am disturbed by.
Quote:Napo Nebula; Site A Composition
The samplings we have shaved off of Site A has little to no resemblance to the common asteroids we normally associate with resource-rich fields back home. There is no trace of either hydrogen, oxygen, carbon or nitrogen; meaning that what we at first assumed to be common asteroids with unique non-linear growths are in fact "dead" parts of what must have once been a planet to this system. There is no form of precious metals known to man that exists within these supposed mineral samples. This boasts the fact that whatever prompted the creation and their pre-dominance in solely the nebula's that surround the Orinoco, Amarus, and Napo clouds are quite possibly the remnants of what could have been a sister planet to Vespus. Although the sun in Omicron-Theta is still young and in it's early Stage 3 phase, we have determined that it is possible that outside interference, or perhaps even the laws of physics and nature itself conspired together to deny it's initial potential and scattered it's remnants across the system. More frighteningly however is the possibility that chills me, that a catastrophic event occurred several hundred million years ago which could have destroyed the planet entirely in a cataclysmic event. Although these are only theories that are, as yet, unsupported by raw fact.
The following report from Site B, where my other protege and his survey team were busy gathering samples of the Alien Organisms sent me seem to support this theory.
Quote:Amarus Nebula; Site B Report
Assistant Researcher Tomasi, reporting in from Site B. Doctor I hope you have received the samples we gathered for you for I am attaching a report to go along with it. The Alien Organisms here are fascinating, their life-giving qualities impacting the surrounding radiation profoundly, though seemingly not enough to fully negate their effects. The Amarus nebula consists of mostly low-level gamma rays and inactive neutrons, a side-effect most likely from the surrounding organisms that have likely propagated in this field since as far back as when the planet nearby first formed. What we do find odd though is that the rock and asteroid formations they cling to, despite having deposits of what we would constitute as the life-giving essentials of a garden world, seem to be decaying at an exponential rate; only to be gradually restored by the alien organisms present. This back and forth would throw out some new theories as to what exactly happened to the Dom'Kavash and why they left the Sirius system behind. Although it's quite possible that this system was over-looked by their civilization as being too under-developed and dangerous for their people. It is of note that the Dom'Kavash were around five hundred million years ago and had ruins on the planetoid Pygar, so perhaps Omicron-Theta was once a bright and vibrant system with two planets and Pygar as it's moon.
After retrieving both equipment, personnel and probes, we departed the Omicron-Theta system and headed towards Omega-41, my current location. Upon exiting the jump-hole, having had a day during our travels to rest, recuperate and gather our thoughts after Omicron-Theta, the Captain as per my request deployed two probes into the system. One towards the Neutron Star sitting in the middle of O-41 and the other to run a pattern of scans around the planetary field surrounding it. Unfortunately, due to the extreme amount of radiation, and the high intensity of it's gravitic and magnetic fields continuously pulsing outwards from the star, the probe sent in suffered a systems malfunction and subsequently self-detonated, therefore the ship's Captain approached within ten-kilometers of the neutron star and began assaulting it with a series of active scans, supplementing the passive scans the specialized equipment on-board was already picking up. Although the ship had to maintain a constant reverse thrust of to avoid being pulled in, I am happy to say that the second probe sent out fared better and isolated a series of fragments that appear to once have been a probable continent-sized land mass.
It is common knowledge that, in the discovery of Omega-41 and the revelation the star had long suffered a Stage 4 of which the sun's inert core and insufficient capacity caused a super-nova event to annihilate what planets were present in this system. It has since evolved into a Stage 5 Neutron Star, the after-effects of it still apparent as remnants of what it once may have nurtured with warmth and life linger about it's long dead corpse. The planetary fragments as shown by seem to have drifted apart from their original positions but if you look carefully some parts are clearly compatible with the others, like puzzle pieces. From what I can tell of the scans gathered remotely by the probe, the thickness and density of the fragments consists of what once might have been the crust and upper mantle of a planet near half the size of New Berlin, though the constant bombardment of radiation has rendered whatever clues that could have made the differentiation clearer has long since eroded away.
The risk of significant loss of life prevented me from suggesting we land a survey team to take proper readings from the rocks themselves. The standing theory that all of my team members agree upon is that the Omega-41 system's sun had been a Stage 3 star that over the course of millions of years gradually grew into the characteristics standard of a main sequence Stage 4 star. With the reports garnered from my expedition into the Omicron-Theta system, I can support their theories that the Omega-41's star eventually neared it's life-span and subsequently over the course of another handful of years detonated into a super-nova; leaving behind a shell of what once must have been a red dwarf. Although a neutron star does exhibit waves of radiation, it's more recent evolution into what my team is calling a 'Stage 6'. They theorize that this may have something to do with the readings we took leading towards the Omega-47 system, where the Captain and his crew picked up a wing of 'Unknown' contacts. The fighters exhibited the hybridization technology common to human and Nomad infection.
Though their fighters ejected pods, the occupants, unfortunately were found dead inside, bleeding from the ears and eyes as we opened their pods. Although I would have preferred a live specimen to a dead one, we will preserve them in the cryogenic tubes used for long-term expeditions and prepare for a venture into the Omega-47 jump-hole. Perhaps examining the strange readings coming from the other side will allow me to better explain the reasons for the collapse of the sun. From there we shall head into the Omega-58 system, information well worth the two-hundred and fifty-thousand credit payment.