Intergalactic Summit

Good evening, pilots;

One of my associates recently investigated reports of unknown signatures in secure space, with the result that he located a site heuristics labeled as a 'limited Sleeper cache.'

In brief, the facility appears to be just that; about ten container facilities were identified within the site, though four had been destroyed and the remainder damaged. Some security systems were still operational, though the site was mostly hazardous due to the severe plasma leakage around several destroyed structures. What follows is a step-by-step of my associate's work, with some image captures.

In full, while on routine activities infiltrating Guristas network facilities in the area, my associate identified a site that was significantly more difficult to identify than most in the area. Successful scanning required a high degree of precision, though admittedly my associate's Astero-class frigate is not as reliable a scanning platform as a covert operations frigate or scanning-optimized cruiser. The most interesting finds were in fact on the initial warp-in, where a 'hyperfluct generator' was identified, alongside a 'damaged spatial concealment chamber.' Upon taking control of the generator, my associate was able to generate a spatial rift that allowed him to warp deeper into the facility.

At this point, few useable images are available for general release of the facility itself.

There were a variety of still-intact storage depots, which netted a variety of mid-quality modules, a science skillbook, a handful of Sleeper neural network analyzers, and a blueprint for a 'polarized,' modified tech 2 Heavy Pulse Laser. At various points, my associate disabled a pressure leakage from a large structure to make a depot accessible for a brief period; accidentally triggered a forcefield around another storage depot that was then later suppressed by hacking a defense grid relay; inadvertently caused the detonation of one of the few remaining plasma chambers in the facility; cleared all depots in the facility, and made his report to me.

That concludes the narrative report.

Any questions? Comments? Concerns?

Well, now, this is rather interesting, isn't it ?

Glad to provide.

And on the subject of providing, a second report follows from an encounter with another Sleeper cache in Kirras/Lonetrek at 1930 hrs 11.11.116.

The narrative is similar to before, though this time my pilot was a bit quicker and more careful and so sustained no damage at all during the raid. He did, however, take more image captures during the action. For instance, we now have a good shot of the damaged spatial concealment unit, and of the rift itself. Further, we have shots of the two Sleeper structures inside the facility, which the on-board computer identified as a records unit and a maintenance unit. Also included in this image dump were shots of a depot, plasma chambers intact and wrecked, and one of the defense beacons.

Please note that the recovered items during this raid were rather different from the first. In the first case, we recovered blueprints for a variety of efficiently-designed conventional equipment which is already available in the cluster-- 'Thurifer' large capacitor batteries, 'Heist' white noise generators, 'Desert Heat' thermic hardeners, and synthetic hull conversion overdrives. Also, a single Takhmahl diamond rod and a set of Sleeper cryo batteries were recovered from this facility.

Initial thoughts: this site serves as further confirmation that the Sleeper are or have been gathering equipment from across the cluster. These are known-- if rare --designs which must have been of interest to the Sleepers. Further, the majority of the structures within these sites are clearly conventional. The depots, plasma chambers, and the pressure station are all very familiar designs. This would indicate that the Sleepers have perhaps identified and appropriated old, abandoned deadspace complexes, using their technology to conceal them from us.

Additional reports will follow.

I think maybe I need to see if I can locate one of these facilities. I can better compare it to the sites I have encountered in unknown space if I can directly observe one and gather sensor data.

The main thing I would like to find out is how old these newly discovered sites are. Explorers have stumbled upon Sleeper sites since before the incident that opened wormholes all across New Eden, but they were obviously ancient and tended not to have that much there to recover. I wonder if these new sites are indeed new which would show the Sleepers have been using wormholes to invade Empire space just as we have used them to invade their space, or if these sites are similarly ancient in origin, but have been spare the rigors of time and until now been protected from looters.

I would also like to find out, if these sites were attacked yet have a device designed to cloak them, who found and attacked them, and how did they manage to detect it through the cloak?

I agree with your general premise: Sleepers, or at least their artificial attendants in space, are becoming more active. I disagree with your analysis of rationale. We have no evidence of motive beyond our clumsy interactions with the Sleeper Constructs that guard their Anoikis facilities to prove that there is a causal link between capsuleer activity and Sleeper emergence.

Though I am not so blinkered as to believe that we have nothing to do with this state of affairs, I do believe the relationship between K-space and Anoikis is a lot more complex than many assume. For example, the anomalous stellar activity that preceded the discovery of abundant 'natural' wormholes has not been traced to source. Did someone open the door from this side, or was it pushed from theirs? This is the initial condition; one we are ill equipped to answer, as no witnesses exist with the knowledge of how the stellar activity was caused (Isogen-5 detonation on a staggering scale being a popular theory but just a theory). More to the point, no one knows who pushed the button.

It is possible that the Sleepers, with their advanced cryogenics and obvious long-term view on things, set a timer or event triggered mechanism to retrace their steps to New Eden. It is equally possible that mechanism was set off prematurely, or against the intentions of the Sleepers, through malice or misadventure. Simply put, we do not know the initial conditions and so supposition of aggression, malice or intent of any flavour is not productive.

Your analysis of CONCORD and Pirate behaviour is simplistic but accurate to stereotypes, though I am sure that CONCORD wants the technology as much as other factions do. Similarly, I am sure that some piratical elements have their own worries about sleeper incursions and take pains to clear their space of facilities where possible, out of pragmatic self-preservation, if not community spirit.

I admire your inquisitiveness, but we must remember to keep our collective heads and not immediately assume malice. After all, a defensive stance can be seen as aggression when cultural boundaries come into play. An unsheathed sword, held at guard, can still come across as a mortal threat to the untrained or foreign eye.

I applaud I-RED for publishing at least a narrative view of events and urge others to do likewise so that we may understand how far these facilities reach. Further items of interest would be facility age (through materials dating and radio-spectrum analysis) if possible, though the self-repair properties of many sleeper structures prevent such detailed analysis in any meaningful way. If we could tell if these are ancient facilities reawakening, ancient but previously active facilities, or newly constructed beach heads, we might be on our way to determining the place these sites have in the on going activities of the Sleeper race (or their machines, should they be carrying out some complex, long-term program).

I commend I-RED for these reports and the investigations.

To be frank, I have little-to-no experience with Sleepers or their history or technology, but I am a skilled researcher of information and a moderately skilled pilot. If I can be of any assistance in further investigation, research or similar activities please do not hesitate to let me know.

Thank you for posting initially, I wouldn't call your reasoning flawed, so much as overly conservative for such an early stage. Glad to hear you're heading out onto the front lines with us and I look forwards to hearing about what you find.

I can now confirm that a hidden facility has been discovered in Nuzair solar system, Tash-Murkon. It stand that it might be hidden facilities spread out cluster wide, which support the theory that sleepers has been active researching in known space for a long time, and recently been activated or discovered and destroyed by an unknown entity.

No offensive weaponry was discovered but evidence of new high defensive technology was found, initially it is a more advance version of Radar counter measures. Sleeper date files was also discovered of unknown content.

Yes. Ever since we started raiding Anoikis, I feared that one day, the Sleepers would do the same here.

First, a brief report of findings during a fourth cache raid;

My associate was on deep reconnaissance in Stain region when he encountered a limited Sleeper cache facility in L6B-0N. As had happened in the third case, the hyperfluct generator's defenses had already been defeated by an unknown hacker; similarly, there was no sign of tampering with the facility itself. I can only assume that there is something that is deterring less-experienced personnel from entering. Unfortunately, my associate has not undertaken any effort to experiment with the rift to see if there are mass limitations, or if extended stays near the generator are hazardous in some way.

The facility itself was as we've encountered before. He was successful in disabling various defenses, and acquiring some materials. However, due to hostile presence in-system in the form of local capsuleer forces, my associate spent up to an hour cloaked inside the facility itself, monitoring long-range scans, as there were indications that the local capsuleers may have been planning an ambush. Interestingly, the facility self-destructed after an hour-- indicating that even with defensive systems disabled, a final failsafe will activate given sufficient time. He didn't sustain any damage due to this self-destruct.

Also notable; my associate recovered a set of Kaalakiota research databases from one of the depots, and, as you can imagine, there are no Kaalakiota facilities in the Stain region. This implies that Sleeper scouts must be wandering far indeed.

Mr. Biko; we does not lack for threats. So far as I can see, the Sleepers are still less of a threat than any other existing force in New Eden.

Ms. Valate; no drones were present, though there may have been drones previously. Some of the data analyzers and other Sleeper materials found in these sites would indicate drone wreckage within the depots themselves.

The age of the facility is impossible to determine. Many of the structures look to be of conventional, contemporary manufacture, so I can only assume that they may be appropriating existing facilities-- which implies that the caches are at least relatively recent in creation, even if the Sleeper structures are being brought to known space from Sleeper facilities in wormhole systems.

We can safely rule out option one; both options two and three are both certainly possible. Given the seeming panic on the part of CONCORD and other sources about a 'change in Sleeper behavior,' and the appearance of these caches, I would favor the theory that the Sleepers' gathering of material is relatively recent.