Intergalactic Summit

Like many other people here, I too have been intrigued by the new Sleeper scan drones, and have embarked on my own study of them. Some people only seem to like to blow them away, which is a good thing really, because Sleepers being in Empire is a really bad thing.

I have taken a different approach BEFORE doing so however. They seem to be just as curious of our world as we are of them, so I have fitted a warp disruptor and collected my camera drones, to see if I could discern what they are exactly.

The first thing I noticed are the four blue orb-like structures on the back of the craft. These, I believe are two MASSIVE fusion batteries powering a equally gigantic power core, seen on the underside of the craft, and protected by two "drone-arms". If this drone is only built for scanning, then the scanning device it uses must have some pretty hefty computer core requirements, if these structures are what I believe them to be. It seems to have at least two of these scanning devices equipped, which would double power requirements, so perhaps these things are indeed what power the drone.

I have looked for anything that could remotely be called a "Window", and there are four such things where the neck intersects with the main body. Either these are identifying lights to other Seeker drones, or the light eminating from them is too bright to see inside. I have strained my eyes to make something out, but couldn't see a thing. Furthermore, those blue lines seen all over the surface seem to be power conduits for the fusion battery and power core.

I have tried hailing it on every frequency I know. Amarr, Minmatar, Gallente, Caldari, even Sansha, Serpentis, Blood Raider, even some random ones. No drone response on any of them. I did however rouse a Serpentis pilot who challenged me to a duel, one he is regretting I'm sure.

I recommend anyone that tries to isolate a subsystem or two to be extremely careful. I have a suspicion that it activates a self-destruct device milliseconds before it would be destroyed, and this is why we cannot salvage anything useful from it. I recommend a professional ship-building team be onboard your ships so they can properly dismantle this thing.

I hope we can figure out what these things are doing here soon, they are making me more nervous with each passing day.

Mr. Xindi Kraid seems to be leading the charge on this, I would love to work with you.

Does Mjolnir Rage count?

If so I can confirm that it will disable them, but there's not much left to retrieve.

My sister and I had our first encounter with these things today in fact, after hearing pilots talking about them for a little while. They scsnned us but otherwise seemed harmless. A little annoying though. Friends who were flying with us at the time said there's usually nothing of real monetary value at least to be salvaged from their wreckage.

I visited New Eden shortly after the disclosure of Thera and the appearance of these Seekers ((Read: AFTER Rhea launched)). Unidentified Structures have been noted in not only New Eden itself, but also Access and Central Point, both of which are in the pipeline heading towards New Eden. Notably, I did not see one in Dead End, so perhaps the Monolith there is not of interest to them. Beyond the Unidentified Structure and its complement of Seekers, however, I did not see anything else of note there.

Try different ECM modules on them.
And not just to jam to see if they try to scan, but sing them a simple melody by switching ECM frequency.

I have also taken an independent interest in the recent influx of these Circadian Seeker units into known space. After noticing new, but temporary Unidentified Structures in both Amarr Empire space and in Providence null-security space, I encountered three of these units on a stargate. Being unsure of their nature, I did not remain to engage, but fellow pilots informed me afterwards that the units gave no fight, and also seemed to yield no materials of mention upon being destroyed. With this information, I found myself even more curious about their behavior, and set myself to give them attention upon my next encounter.

During an exploration through uncharted wormhole space, and through a subsequent wormhole emerging in the Derelik region, I indeed encountered five of the Circadian Seeker units. I followed them around the system. I took note that they seemed to be scanning everything they could find: customs ships, stargates, asteroids, and even my own ship. After each pass, the units returned to the Unidentified Structure, and seemed to be uploading their scans to the beacon. I engaged one of the units and managed to destroy it, but as was reported by other pilots, it yielded nothing useful, and showed no aggression in return. After this encounter, I decided that I would treat them as they treated me, so I refitted my ship as such.

I was prepared in a simple frigate fitted with basic scanning equipment. With a warp disruptor to hold the subjects in place, I managed to get a reading on four out of five of the units. Each unit appeared to be drone-like in nature, performing repetetive tasks, with external tools similar to Rogue Drones that I have encountered in the past. The units appeared to be of Cruiser-class size. Ship scanning and cargo scanning yielded zero results on all units. I reset several cycles with the same results each time. I performed the same tasks on the Unidentified Structure with the same results as well. The only resulting information of note: The Unidentified Structure gave a capacitor reading, but of a 0.00/0.00 GJ charge. The Circadian Seeker units each consistently gave a capacitor reading of 725.00/725.00 GJ. I hope this information will be useful to the collective investigate efforts. I will continue to gather information as more of the units appear.

A single warp scrambler is insufficient to hold one.

I've personally never seen more than 1 at a time. But reports indicate that they can be found in larger groups. What is the highest number of Circadian Sleepers found in one group to date? And do the numbers seem to be changing?

Oddly, I have an instance of 3 Circadian Seekers acting unusually at Andrub. When I undocked, they were circling the undock point, and weren't scanning anything. I orbited one for several minutes, and it just kept circling, with the missile launcher trained on the launch path of any ship leaving the station. Something has changed. What? Were they waiting on someone?

Notably, the Unidentified Structure vanished on the 16th. I do believe this is the first I have heard of them showing up without one currently present.

What? I've never seen them beaming information into deadspace. What were you carrying/mining? An isogen-rich ore?

*Looks.* Ah, you were. So it DOES cause a reaction. Hmmm.

We need to see if others have seen this happening. If they only scan into empty space around asteroids and nothing else...we got something.

Mormoen < Osnins < Everyshore
0.7

Here is some raw data after following them around for a couple hours. They didn't scan into deadspace, assuming that's what they're doing.



19:12 Seekers at structure, scanned beacon and warped to Caldari business tribunal in orbit around planet II. 3,599 km from planet.

19:21 They are traveling space NE above station

19:22 After scanning nothing at the station they return back to the structure

19:24 Scan beacon at structure

19:27 they both "scan" structure

19:28 they warp and i lost contact
-checked both belts, station, and three moons in the direction they warped, only thing left was Arnatele gate and the rest of the moons.


19:42 checked all belts in Arnatele, no juice. there are no stations in system, going back to structure in Mormoen.

19:44 they are back at the structure, they must have went to one of the moons in Mormoen, or went to Arnatele and came back unnoticed.

19:45 they scan beacon, not structure

19:46 they warp back in the direction of planet V and the arnatele gate, lost contact

19:53 checked planet V and all orbiting bodies and structures. including all 14 moons. no juice, they must have went to Arnatele or warped away from a moon before i arrived, i started with moon 1. going back to structure.

19:55 nothing at structure, will wait it out. i believe they are going back and forth from arnatele or another system in line.

19:59 seekers return to structure and immediately both scan the beacon repeatedly. not the structure itself

20:02 1 scanned the beacon 3 times, the other 5 times, both are converging on the structure.

20:04 they both warp in the direction of planet III, i find them at the customs office, 1 is scanning. it is likely they previously went to the customs office at planet V. after a few seconds the 2nd seeker starts scanning the office.

20:10 they warp off in the direction of planet VI.

20:14 found them at the structure. it is 274424 km from planet VI. 1 is scanning beacon repeatedly, other going to structure

20:16 they warp in direction of planet II. i find them scanning the customs office.

20:20 there seems to be objects coming from the planet to the office continually. they may be exports from capsuleer structures planet-side. they do not show up in overview.

20:22 they warp in the direction of planet VI. they are not at the structure.

20:26 checked structure, customs office, belts and station around planet VI. i have lost contact.

20:30 they are back at the structure. i don't know where they went after leaving the office at planet II.

20:32 they are both scanning the beacon again, repeatedly.

20:34 they warp in the direction of planet I. found them at the gate to Halle, both are converging on the gate.

20:37 1 is scanning customs officer, very briefly.

20:39 i've noticed some modules on their ships, 4 total, two on bottom two on side, alternate extending, this happens whether they are scanning or not.

20:40 they warp in the direction of planet II. i find them at the caldari business tribunal, in orbit around planet II.

20:45 one scanned a caldary sentry gun II at the station.

20:46 they warp in the direction of planet III. i find them scanning the customs office.

20:52 they warp in the direction of planet VI. they are not at the structure.

20:55 found them at belt 1 of planet VI. Serpentis rats seem to ignore them and vice versa. Serpentis rats leave the belt. 1 scans massive scordite.

20:58 they warp to material acquisition mining outpost in orbit around planet VI. they are orbiting the outpost at 31km. 1 scans gallente sentry gun.

21:04 they warp in the direction of planet II. i find them scanning the customs office repeatedly.

21:10 they warp back to the structure. they both briefly scan the structure.

21:16 they both scan the beacon at the structure.

21:21 1 scans the structure. the other does just after the first.

21:22 the both warp in the direction of planet I.