Intergalactic Summit

Pilots;

We all know the pressing topic of the day. CONCORD heuristics have confirmed what we've suspected for weeks: these uncloaked structures are of Jovian origin, and are a form of listening post. We must theorize that these are ancient stations, given that their structure is paneled and utilitarian in a way modern Directorate structures are not. What's more, these structures have recently either been broken open, or broke open of their own accord, and the newly-appeared Vigilant Tyrannos and Circadian Seekers seem to be salvaging equipment from these towers in the form of Antikythera Elements.

The Circadian Seekers appear to be a class of previously-unknown Sleeper drone; the Vigilant Tyrannos appear to be an organization of Jovian or Jovian-related, wormhole-based capsuleers whose battleships are both immensely powerful, and don't correspond with known Directorate battleship designs. CONCORD identifies this organization as headquartered in 3-CE1R; however, CONCORD does not identify this group as associated with the Jovian Directorate.

Additionally, Caroline's Star appeared contemporaneously with the cloak failure of these Jovian observatories. The Caroline's Star detonation appeared to stabilize after approximately four weeks, and then began to dissipate after two months of stasis with the fracturing of Jovian observatories.

This constitutes the whole of what we can easily establish. What follows is conjecture and theory.

First, on the matter of Jovian observatories: what would ancient Jovian observatories be looking for? Perhaps they were looking for signs of technologically advanced species to make contact with; perhaps they were set up as a tripwire system for threats against the Jovian empire previously existent in Curse; perhaps they simply collected data on celestials for unexciting scientific pursuits. Without knowing more about the sensor equipment inside the structures, we simply can't know what they were observing for. Indeed, without accurate dating information on the ancient races existent in New Eden, the time before the rise of the four states is a black box from which we can draw only the scantest of information, and from which we can draw only uncertain conclusions.

Second, on the matter of salvage efforts: it seems clear that the Circadian Seekers and Vigilant Tyrannos are operating in conjunction with another. I can speak from personal experience that aggression against Circadian Seekers sometimes results in Tyrannos ships reinforcing the Seekers. What's more, they both warp in conjunction when operating in the same local area, and will both salvage materials from the observatory without interfering with one another. Given that the Circadian Seekers appeared before the Tyrannos, we can only assume that they were a vanguard, performing reconnaissance before the deployment of Jovian capsuleers, attempting to locate these structures or other items of interest.

Finally, we must attempt to understand the Antikythera Elements. Most importantly, the Antikythera Elements continue to receive or generate energy; they are presumably an important and distinctive part of the Jove Observatory infrastructure, though we do not truly know in what way; they are valuable to the Tyrannos, else the Tyrannos would not be salvaging this equipment. It could be an energy transceiver from a central source, using as-yet-unknown superluminal methods; this would make sense given the failure of the structures' cloaks contemporaneously with the destruction of Caroline's Star, their presumptive primary energy source. It could also be that these elements are part of comprehensive intelligence systems, and so resonate with whatever energies they monitor. Lastly, it could be that these systems are in fact a component of a superluminal transport or suppression system, given that the observatories remained intact until the stasis of the Caroline's Star explosion ended.

To elaborate on these theories: the questions of how and why the Caroline's Star detonation was a superluminal event remain unanswered. It now seems reasonable that the system's connection with the Jovian observatories served as a method of distorting spacetime between widely distributed structures within the New Eden cluster, facilitating faster-than-light transmission of energy between the greater cluster and Caroline's Star. The failure of these systems would, further, explain the drop-out of particles in transmission, creating the apparently superluminal transit of photons between W477-P and the remainder of the cluster. It may be that after a certain point, the energy remaining available to the transmission system was sufficient to ensure lossless transmission of photons between the W477-P system, until such a point as the system finally completely failed, resulting in the widespread destruction of the linked infrastructure and the now-apparent end of the explosion

Whatever the case, research is at an early state. We have theories, but insufficient data to refine or discount theories. As additional data is found, I will update. Pilots wishing to participate in this research are asked to contribute any and all available Antikythera mechanisms. I will log contributions, and upon completion of research either offer proportional reward, or return the mechanisms to the contributors, as preferred.

This--

This seems likely, Tuulinen.

You might be on to something.

That stands to reason. After all, the Capsule technology we utilize was originally of Jovian origin, fully realized in effectiveness once cloning tech became sufficiently advanced enough to allow we capsuleers to transcend our former bonds of mortality. As I recall, the Jove did not accept any form of payment when they first gave the capsule tech to the Caldari.

Maybe they wanted to see what would be done with the tech. Maybe the purpose of the observatories themselves, like Pieter said, is to observe us. The rest of the star cluster may have been their laboratory, and we their unwitting lab rats.

What you linked there is, uh... Not a modern Directorate structure. They're very ancient ones, in fact, abandoned during the Jovian retreat from the Heaven constellation some half a millennium ago, and already presumably quite old by then[1][2].

What basis do you have for saying that these new structures must be older still? Half a millennium ago means that the abandonment of those stations was roughly contemporary with the invention of the Sotiyo-Urbaata warp engine[3]. Not even the Amarr were doing anything terribly exciting in space at that point that would have required monitoring on this kind of scale.

If your evaluation is based on A: an error and B: the baseless assumption[4] that a more utilitarian aesthetic equates to technological inferiority, then as a fellow scientist I must express my concerns that your hypothesis is not well-founded.

[1] Reference: CONCORD historical archives

[2] Rationale: Based on the projected service lifetimes of our own space stations and accounting for technological superiority in durability, maintenance, repair, and future-compatibility.

[3] Reference: "Interstellar Travelling" by Alain E. Topher.

[4] Rationale: Consider the sleek, diagonal aesthetic that's beginning to enter Caldari ship design, in the form of overhauls to the Scorpion, Manticore, Moa, Blackbird, and so on. The Tengu meanwhile is a demonstrably superior technology to all of those ships - unlike them, it's built using Sleeper technology the fundamentals of which are only slowly being unraveled - and yet it retains the older, paler, flatter and more cuboid characteristics inherited from the design philosophy of the previous decade. The forthcoming Caracal overhaul promises to look very sleek and modern, but its actual performance and abilities will remain effectively unchanged. There is no reason to assume that Jovian void engineering would not undergo similar aesthetic shifts over hundreds of years.

Hakatain-haan; the station is also visible as the style of the Material Institute School in M-FDTD, which implies that it was a style still under construction even after the migration to the site of the Jovian Directorate. What's more, the aesthetic style of the M-FDTD station remains visible in contemporary Jovian ships such as the Eidolon, Phantom, Wraith, Specter, etc. Admittedly, we haven't seen any of these ships in years, but then we haven't heard from agents of the Directorate in years, either. That Jovian design concepts would change so radically in less than a decade, and they would construct hundreds of observatories that rapidly in a new style seems unlikely.

On three; we don't necessarily know that these stations were abandoned until perhaps five years ago. It is entirely possible that these remnants of Jovian empire remained in service, which is why the Directorate had a reputation for seeing and knowing all: not because they are infinitely smarter than we are, but because their comprehensive intelligence network has been around us all this time. What's more, I suspect completed observatories are easier to conceal than those under construction: while the Jove remain renowned for stealth, the trail of industrials required to ferry materials to the site would surely have elicited notice by the empires within the past several centuries. It beggars the imagination that the Jove could construct hundreds of stations in our space without our having the slightest clue of it.

On four; I believe neither of us is qualified to comment on Jovian aesthetic preferences. I make no assumption that utilitarian designs are superior or inferior to more swept designs, only that one probably predates the other. If anything, I would contend that the desire of the Jove to avoid emotion means that their aesthetic preferences are likely to develop slowly: unlike baseliner populations who are caught with fads in style and design, a phlegmatic, centuries-old Jove seems likely to care neither way.

That said, we simply can't know what the Jove were looking for. Perhaps they were monitoring for wormhole activity. Perhaps their networks were established to seek out remnants of the Takmahl, Yan Jung, Sleepers, or Talocan. Perhaps they simply possessed a deep-seated need to know all that transpired in the cluster.

Ultimately, CONCORD believes these are observatories. Their age is in fact immaterial, as their use and technology are what is important at this point.

dAstres; given the wrecks of Sansha supercarriers in shattered systems, I'd tend to agree that there is a war on, one happening outside the border of known space.

Understood and agreed. In this case, I suppose it's less a binary, a situation of, "this is the definitively the correct answer," and more one in which one answer is more likely than the other.

Is it possible that these towers are all of very recent construction? Certainly! But it seems less likely than that they predate us, considering how vigorous the Directorate seemed during the rise of the four states-- which is to say how little vigor it demonstrated.

I always imagined that their defeat was at the hands of vastly superior Jovian technology. Observation may have played a part though. Amarrian military doctrine was very traditional at the time. You see one battle with the Amarr, you've seen them all. Analyzing and avoiding Amarrian strengths while exploiting Amarrian weaknesses would of been very easy for the Jove. Reports of the battle indicate that the fleet formation, designed to maximize the effectiveness of Tachyon fire, was completely ineffective.

Wait...
3-CE1R?
Prosper vault?

Isn't that the system Kuvakei holed up in when mouse got us that picture during Nation's initial resurgence?

oh shi*

-Tertianus Rethelior

I was under the impression the Jove were also using capsuleer ships at the time of the battle in addition to fielding one of their motherships. That alone could be a huge advantage, as we have seen capsuleer ships routinely defeat multiple conventional components of similar technology level in a single battle.

So, yes, the Jove did have superior technology, but I would posit capsules were one of said technologies (one they have since shared with us), and that technology alone may not have been the only reason for their victory.

====
It is certainly possible that Jove aesthetics have changed over the years, and the structure represents an older or newer one to the one seen with the station and ship designs we are aware of. Aesthetic differences may also be a result of utilitarian concerns as well being necessary to accommodate the equipment being used, and it's even possible the shape is in some way linked to operation of the cloaking device. Perhaps it allows the cloak to function more efficiently over longer periods of time. We have already seen structural alterations to allow for better cloaking use on the capsuleer Sisters of EvE ships, where the warp drive utilizing an outboard ring allows for a covert ops cloak to function, and thus allow the ship to retain maneuverability and warp drive capabilities while cloaked.

One thing of note, though, is the aesthetics of the Drifter battleships and Jove Observatories seem to be the same, which would suggest they may be contemporaries.


I would like to put forward the suggestion that these might not even belong to the Directorate.
We know that before the current Jovian empire, they lived elsewhere in New Eden, but their empire at the time fell. I also hear it suggested that the current Jove empire isn't as technologically advanced as the previous ones, so, perhaps these structures and the designs of the Drifter battleships are of a design that predates the current Jove Empire.

If they date to a time when the other ancient races still inhabited New Eden, they would certainly have had a reason to keep an eye on things.



A final question to ask: are these REALLY Jove and are they REALLY observatories, or has CONCORD misidentified them?
What exactly does CONCORD know about them?

Most depiction of the battle of Vak'Atioth clearly show a fleet of heavy Amarrian warships with their few escorts being engaged by extremely fast, nimble, and tough ships the size of frigates (probably capsuleers, although that has to be proven as Jove capsules may also widely differ from the prototype they offered to the Caldari, which may or may not have been a basic version stripped of everything).

Those frigates held the imperial fleet in place and in disarray, for that it was not designed to face such threats. The Caldari also experienced that when fighting against the Federation drone fleets and quickly had to field fighter pilots to counter act. They also did the same mistake very recently in the composition of most of the Caldari Navy, that held a ridiculous ratio of battleships for almost no support ships.

With those frigates piercing through Amarrian line of battle, their mothership beam weapons proved to be far superior in terms of range, which allowed it to remain out of range for most of the Amarrian Tachyons, that held anyway too little power at such extremes to be really effective. With the chaos caused by Jove fast frigates, the imperial ships were picked one by one by the mothership.

It is also a less known fact that the Jove vanguard of Vak'Atioth lost a lot of those frigates.