Intergalactic Summit

No.

Oh goody, more giant megalithic Drifter doodads that appear to warp the very fabric of space.

Mr. Elendil;

Unfortunately, right now we lack data beyond, "it's huge! It appears to be Sleeper per the computer's designation, but it looks somewhat Drifter-y," and, "This massive spatial distortion seems associated with it and local to it."

Yes, they're present in each of the Hives, as we've since verified.

No, there were neither Drifters nor Sleepers in proximity with the device.

We have no idea where we'd find them in Thera or in other shattered systems, so I don't think there's been a plan to check.

An oft-asked and valuable question! How did I find them? Pure, dumb luck. As I and a number of other pilots do anytime CONCORD releases a neocom update or changes threat advisories, I decided to do a visual inspection of a Hive to ensure the Drifters hadn't made any changes to the facility, staged additional forces, stockpiled additional gear-- as said, routine scouting work. I usually don't assign it to one of my pilots because of how tedious it is.

My plan had originally been to do a full circuit of the site in an Astero, avoiding using acceleration gates so that a mishap wouldn't get the ship destroyed by a Drifter battleship. Unfortunately, on my first attempt to find the first Alpha zone after the split, I missed the mark by some number of degrees. At that point, I decided I'd just check the Hive and Antechamber first, re-entered the site, and used IKAME's existing Hive coordinate markers to bypass the facility to investigate the Hive.

Ten thousand kilometers later, in a zone where previously scouts had only seen two Sleeper Enclaves that appeared unassociated with the rest of the site, I found this.

As said, it was pure, dumb luck. Had my original plan worked, in fact, I'd never have found it.

As for joining us on Hive raids, please do join our Consortium Operations channel.

That rift has the same pattern as water when draining out of a sink from the bottom. A vortex like many other. It would imply a one-way trip.

We'll be conducting an operation 7th November, but not one 8th November, out of respect of those pilots who will be participating with the trials and so unable to join a Consortium operation.

That, and to be honest, I rather want to watch the trials! The rules are fascinating.

Not to our knowledge; the epicenter rifts have been operational for almost a year now, but we've only just identified the anomaly in the Drifter Hives, despite scouts having passed through the exact area within the last month.

The anomalies are a recent event.

An update, pilots;

The unidentified Sleeper device appears to have been destroyed, or else overloaded. Energetic discharges continue at a considerable rate within the debris. These images were gathered in Conflux Hive.

Camera drone shots from darkezero, verifying the loss of the Vidette Hive unidentified Sleeper device. Darkezero also verifies the presence of a newly-identified acceleration gate in the Drifter Hive itself, which may lead to the debris.

Jaret Victorian has provided drone footage for Redoubt Hive, and Haria Haritimado has verified the presence of similar debris at Sentinel Hive.

Lastly, Haria Haritimado has verified the presence of a similar acceleration gate in the Sentinel Hive's final zone, which leads to the debris field in Sentinel.



[last update 2050hrs]

I am unconvinced these structures are "destroyed" given the nature of what we believe was their initial state. These spires, from what i can tell were hardly connected in the first place, and strike me as a highly modular system. These power surges may be indicating the pieces are still communicating, and the entire field is in a state of re-organization.

The on board computers may say it is a debris field, but my computer has also told me an area is uninhabited shortly before waves of drones start trying to take apart my ship. Chaos can be in the eye of the beholder, especially when dealing with physics on this level of magnitude.