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+--- Thread: Deep space discoveries (/showthread.php?tid=46279)
Deep space discoveries - Corsair - 09-04-2010
A scarred, battered Rheinland Cruiser hulk plowed through space. The lights had been dark for a long time, the auxillary engines scraping the bottom of the reserves, supplemented by the barest of solar radiation caught meandering through empty space. Ai dozed in a dormant state, keeping only the core systems online with the desperate drive to survive she had adopted since her flight from Sirius.
When a sudden surge of power flooded her systems, the bewildered Ai scrabbled around to control frenzied systems. She set her scanners to pinpoint the surge of energy. It pointed at the fourth planet of a nearby star. It was a beacon, with such a high intensity that her radiation panels were able to regenerate her reserves completely. She set a course for the planet, once again falling into a dormant state, operating on fresh power.
Deep space discoveries - Corsair - 09-04-2010
Ai's proximity sensors brought her back online. The planet was located half an AU away. Remote scanners turned up a planet covered in a cloud of dust. Electrical storms raged across its surface. As she approached, her scanners penetrated the storms and found that below was a rocky surface, and spread amongst the planetscape were ruins of cities. 'They must have been enormous when they were intact', Thought Ai.
She let herself drift in the planets' orbit as she scanned the planet below. She was searching for any sign of a break in the storm she could use to touch down on the planet. She figured that if she was going to use her last fuel tank for anything, it would be to land on this archaeological goldmine. She spotted what seemed to be a hurricane, with the eye slowly moving across the planet. 'Strange, I don't see any liquid water. The aeroelectric energy must be off the scale to produce storms on the planet' Ai noted. Indeed, from the extreme electrical energy generated by the dust, planetary storms were driven endlessly.
She descended into the eye of the hurricane, experiencing a smooth flight down. She cruised to the largest city she surveyed, and touched down, tiny amongst the gigantic skyscrapers. But they were not intact. They all showed signs of weapon damage, as some had scorch marks, or signs of explosive damage. 'There was a war here.' She realized.
Deep space discoveries - Corsair - 09-04-2010
Releasing a heavily modified Banshee, Ai ordered it to fly amongst the ruins for anything of value. It sped off among the city streets. Meanwhile, she busied herself with locating the source of the beacon she had picked up.
The Banshee had undergone many radical changes from its initial design. Its wings were shortened, and the overall shape of the thing was elongated, giving it a distinct bird-like shape. It now zipped through decimated streets, until it paused, hovering over a hole in the ground. It descended, vertical rockets slowing it from dashing itself. It seemed to be a subway tunnel, and the Banshee found it could link itself into the computer network of the tram. It wasn't able to call the system, but the magnetic rails came online. The probe loaded itself onto the mag line and continued exploration.
The probe followed the magnetic line until it came across a collapsed bit of tunnel. Sitting inside of the wreckage was a tube. Scans showed it to be highly explosive. A torpedo. The probe backed out of the estimated explosion range and began to remotely access its computer. The encryption was tough, but old. Very old. The probe's protocols were able to bypass it. There wasn't much information on board, but it could read the torpedo's target information. This was indeed a subway. The probe downloaded a map of the area that was on board the torpedo, with key points marked.
Somewhere, the probe touched the wrong circuit. The torpedo underwent a security lockdown, and attempted to send out a warning signal. The probe jammed it and hastily activated the detonation sequence. It sent itself scurrying backwards as the missile detonated, sending a wave of hot, compressed air down the tunnel. The probe found a ventilation duct to escape to the surface by. It proceeded to the nearest place of interest marked on the map, the governmental building.
Deep space discoveries - Corsair - 09-04-2010
Ai located the source of the signal. It was an underground facility, and it didn't take long to crack into its aging security. There was a lot of data there. The sheer amount of data staggered her. This wasn't just a compendium of events for one species. This seemed to be the complete history of at least a dozen different alien species. From what she could tell, each one ended with 'Now extinct'.
In the weeks that she spent sifting through this information, many things became clear to her. This city, called "Neo-Hejarah" was not built by any of the species in the database. Each one had found the city, rebuilt it, and the city itself seemed to observe them, recording their actions, their culture, and their technology. Each species ended the same way. The skies darkening with alien ships, utterly crushing the inhabitants of the city. The fourth species entry was different. They figured out what was going on before the Destroyers, called the "Gallmar Legion" arrived. They evacuated the city, and attempted to destroy it from space. They only partially succeeded. They were able to cripple many key systems, but the Gallmar arrived before the job was finished.
It took approximately a year for her to fully process the information on the database. The Gallmar came when the species rebuilding cities around the planet reached a certain point of technological advancement. The Gallmar came and destroyed everything. But not the information. Computers, they left intact. They plundered the information of each species, taking and assimilating their technology. It dawned on Ai, This 'Gallmar Legion' is comprised entirely of machines!
The thirteenth entry was titled "Procyii". This species did not end with "Extinct". In fact, it had no ending statement at all. The last few entries suggested a plague was spreading across the planet, and the Procyii had evacuated before the planetary observation systems could alert the Gallmar, who arrived too late to stop the exodus. Ai read on that the Procyii resisted the Gallmar, and was able to organize an attack fleet to attack this planet. It succeeded in wrecking many systems. Ai found the coordinates of a crashed Procyii battleship. She dispatched her probe to investigate the wreck.
Deep space discoveries - Corsair - 09-04-2010
While Ai was processing the data, the probe had plenty of adventures of its own. After the subway, it approached the government building wreck. It had been hit extensively with orbital explosives, and it took the probe a good while to find a way through the rubble, using its cutting lasers to clear a way to the underground. As the probe entered, the lights flickered on, dim and unstable. The bombing was obviously hasty.
That wasn't the only thing that powered on as the probe slipped in. The defense systems as well. Turrets, thousands of years old, creaked and twitched, dropping dust as they raised up, pointed at the drone. The drone's old, but still functioning Hornvipers destroyed the turret. It explored the building further, and the drone began to dectect anomalies under the thick coat of dust on the floor. It hovered over one of the anomalies, and activated its heat vent. Scalding hot air blasted a meter of dust off of a corpse, which the probe thoroughly scanned.
It had four apparent limbs, ending in a five-pronged claw, with a V-shaped skull. The torso fed into a long, slender tail with a hand-like appendage on the end. The angle that the spine bent suggested that the creature walked on all fours and used its tail to manipulate objects. The V-shaped head pointed down, with eyes likely on the end of each protrusion, so it would look forward as it walked. After cataloging the skeleton, it moved on. The hallway led to a large circular room with a large computer mainframe. The drone accessed the database easily. On board was a massive, multilingual dictionary. The entire computer was home to hundreds of languages, which the drone downloaded to Ai's mainframe.
Also on there was a star map, with the current planet X'd off. The map had a detailed evacuation plan, with a line leading from here to four other planets. From the 'left' of the map was a large, red wave titled 'Gallmar' with an arrow pointed to planet X.
It also found a planetary map, with yellow blotches all across the globe, each with the V-shaped skull at the center. The map was titled "Plague map". This, too, was downloaded.
Finding nothing else of interest, the drone exited the ruined government building and moved to the next point of interest, a seemingly flat area, but the map was directed to a facility underground, which indicated a factory. A factory for building AI drones.
Deep space discoveries - Corsair - 09-05-2010
As the drone approached the spot marked on the map, a large crater stood in its place. Ancient metal shards near the bottom suggested a torpedo explosion made it. The probe hovered around the crater, searching for a way in. It found a pipe, once used to transport liquid, now rusted and useless. It was a tight fit, but the probe was able to slide in. It wormed through the pipes until it was able to cut its way out, into the facility.
The factory seemed to be damaged the least out of all of the buildings the probe had surveyed. The most damage seemed to be dust and dirt that had fallen through cracks in the roof. As the probe wandered, it found that the assembly lines were only powered off, not destroyed. Sure enough, the generator was functional as well. its solar panels were completely wrecked, though. The probe rationalized the facility could be re-activated, if solar panels were replaced. It queried Ai, who sent the order to restore the computer power so it could find the blueprints of the drones the factory was set to build.
The probe further explored the facility, and located equipment storage, where it located the solar panels for the generator. Getting them to the surface would be an issue. It found a solution in the Surface maintenance hatch, which led to the surface. A plume of dust came out of the door when it was opened, but the probe was able to haul the panels up, and deploy them. It ran a power cable back down the hatch, to the generator. The ancient machine began to rattle, which became a rumble, to a roar. Lights flashed on, and the probe registered a signal that originated from the central facility computer. Decrypting the message gave the following information:
>>Species ready for harvest. Deploy fleet.
The probe could sense the fear from its host, Ai. Hurry up and get those schematics. I don't want to stay here for longer than we need to be. Hacking the computer and locating the blueprints, the probe viewed them. The probes were multi-purpose, designed by the Procyii. Mining, manufacturing, and point defense. It also downloaded the factory blueprints. It also found a cache of unused explosives. They were rigged to detonate, but the system was shut down before the signal was given. The probe gave that signal, and hastily flew for the escape hatch. It had scarcely traveled a kilometer before the crater shook, and collapsed further in on itself, a gasp of black smoke rising from the dead factory. The probe rushed back to its master, with a wealth of information on board.
And meanwhile, finally receiving the order, the Gallmar fleet departed for the barren planet.