THE FORMIDINE RIFT MYSTERY (Part 4)

[Jorki Rasalas]

I searched the forum for it this has been brought up and didn't find anything. Please link if this has already been discussed, pretty sure I may have read this somewhere. But while I was also reading the Epilogue for reformation, I noticed that there are four potential co-ordinates at the end of the message. I am calling these out because we are told the coordinates are at the end of the message (she didn't say how many) and each sentence is separated by two commas (just like coordinates).

Potential co-ordinates:
1: There are no stars for dozens of light years and the dark systems haven't been mapped, so take your time, watch your six
2.: What's there? Wish I could tell you, but they edited my memory pretty good, took me long enough to stitch this back together
3: Whatever it is, it's something that Galcop, The Imps and the Feds don't want us to see
4: Good luck, and ... right on, Commander

Try to convert that lot into coordinates & see if you can come up with anything in the right ballpark. There has been a lot of thought put into decoding TOW's messages but none have yet produced a definitive solution to the FRift mystery.

My own attempt was reportd here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/252932-So-you-want-to-know-about-the-Formidine-Rift-(Part-3)?p=4326057&viewfull=1#post4326057

 

[Darth_Angelus]

So a new galnet article has been posted about Col 70. I know its not strictly Rift, but any talk of old Cobras always makes me very suspicious.

https://community.elitedangerous.com/en/galnet/uid/58cfc32d15ac1cc4146504e9

Full text below as well:

Spoiler

Recent reports indicate that a garbled distress call from somewhere in the Col 70 sector has been received. The news has been met with surprise from some quarters, given that permit restrictions have made the sector relatively inaccessible.

"We're not sure what to make of it," said Perry Hussein, a member of the Federal intelligence community, "but it was definitely a distress call and the ship that sent it appears to have been destroyed. The telemetry indicates it was an older vessel, perhaps Cobra class."

Tinfoil theory.

We know Wreaken Construction is building something in the Col 70 sector thanks to this article. Col 70 is 1,500ly from the Bubble and permit locked. It seems the reason for that lock is to allow the construction project to be completed in secret.

We also know there was a sudden demand for Tantalum with the recent CG. They wouldn't say who the clients were.

So my thinking is secret shipyards, building a fleet perhaps?

Other things to consider, Drew once offered the clue that a nebula is a good place to hide things. Col 70 is around Barnard's Loop.

The Pleiades is about half way between Col 70 and the Bubble. We all know something strange is happening there.

So that doesn't solve the Rift, but I'm thinking it's connected.

 

[ScolioTheMost]

Funny. I remember him saying that Frontier didn't implement Dark Systems. Too many threads and so much to keep up with.

I remember someone saying something about the dark systems being brown dwarfs ... I just don't remeber it having been Drew.

It is on his website https://www.drewwagar.com/elite-dangerous-saga/faq-elite-reclamation/

Q. What happened to the ‘Dark Systems’ mentioned in Elite: Reclamation?
The intention was to have rogue planets and brown dwarf stars in interstellar space to allow additional hyperspace routes between major star systems. Given where the game is now I would consider systems with brown dwarfs as the primary stellar object to be ‘dark systems’.

- - - Updated - - -

Try to convert that lot into coordinates & see if you can come up with anything in the right ballpark. There has been a lot of thought put into decoding TOW's messages but none have yet produced a definitive solution to the FRift mystery.

My own attempt was reportd here https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/252932-So-you-want-to-know-about-the-Formidine-Rift-(Part-3)?p=4326057&viewfull=1#post4326057

Awesome! I'll look through what you did and I'll noodle on it a bit. I figured I had read it somewhere. If I figre it out I will certainly post it in the forum. I don't have enough time to lone-wolf this mystery.

 

[Jorki Rasalas]

Heading back out EAFOTS Sector to the nearest EAFOTS that I know system to the R-R line.

Flight log: https://www.edsm.net/en/user/flight-logs/id/12980/cmdr/Ishmair

Nuetron Lane: https://www.spansh.co.uk/?from=Col ...6E6-0DA4-11E7-99DF-8023448CEB17&efficiency=30

MY FSD broke down at Outopps MI-K d8-10. still head 79% health but refuse to work. Had to run the AFMU on it the repair.

Cdr Macklin Fox calculated the Eafots systems closest to the R-R line. It's somewhere in the thread, but his list was:

Eafots JO-Z d13-41
Eafots OG-V b57-3
Eafots EU-Y b55-0
Eafots EU-Y b55-3
Eafots UH-C b54-2
Eafots KB-B c27-11
Eafots UH-C b54-3
Eafots TH-C b54-1
Eafots TH-C b54-2
Eafots OB-E b53-2

 

[Solo Wing Ace]

I cant help but notice, and this may have been spotted before but the OP mentions "The old woman flew an “original” Cobra Mk III, but describes it as an 'Apocalypse Engineering' version" And FD release the unknown trailer showing a cobra 3, with apocalypse-type armor. Makes you think...

 

[Jaiotu]

No because “Don’t tell no one, but I got as far as the Formidine Rift, not many folks can say that! No one has gone past it and lived to tell the tale"; which implies she got as far as the edge of the Rift, perhaps journeyed some way into it (“Once you reach the rift you’re going to have to plot a way across. There are no stars for dozens of light years and the dark systems haven’t been mapped, so take your time, watch your six.”), but has not crossed it to reach the far side. Since nobody has crossed & lived to tell the tale then it is not on the far side & her knowledge is not secondhand. We've gone over all this many times in this thread.

So whatever the FRift mystery is, it must be accessible from Eafots. I've already hypothesised some pages back that it may actually be the Dynasty expedition and the plot to evacuate the elite of Federation & Empire (& possibly Alliance) leaving the mass of humanity to resist (& succumb to) an alien invasion. I think this hypothesis fits all the clues so far, but if so I'm surprised Drew hasn't commented. Given Salome's comments that events in the FRift, Gap, Conflux & Pleiades are all related then perhaps we need to uncover more of the background story to complete the quest. There is clearly also more mileage to go with the alien story.

Afterthought: if this is the solution then it might also explain the CG before Xmas -required to prod us to find the rally point beacons, which I think would have been in-game from the outset, but we didn't find them as was intended. The expedition bases would have been added for 2.0 (Drew said something like the mystery had been updated with Horizons but 2.0 wasn't necessary to find "it"). The CG, and Salome's speech, were necessary to get us to hurry up & find things so the alien plotline could proceed.

Though the standard disclaimer applies- I could be wrong!

Yes, we've trod this ground many times on these threads but I don't think we've ever reached a consensus. The problem is that much of what the old woman says is filled with so much apparently contradictory information.

She says nobody has been past the Rift and lived to tell the tale. One reading of this is that they died before they could get any information out of the Rift. Another reading could be that they might have survived long enough to get some information out of the Rift but did not survive a return journey. There is room for ambiguity.

Some of her statements make it sound like she had been across the Rift herself while others seem to exclude that possibility. Her navigation panel in Altera indicates a journey to the edge of the galactic arm ... but nothing about having gone past it. And yet Altera also seems to indicate that she found nothing out there, though I'm not sure how trustworthy that memory is because by that time she had already erased her own memory.

Too many ways to read this to, in my opinion, discount one possibility over another.

 

[Zeeman]

Awesome! , would rep you if i knew how on my phone!

Easy - log into the forums on a web browser, not the crappy mobile forum viewers...

Z...

 

[HazardousMatt]

Didn't something say "looking back at the Galaxy just hanging there" and isn't that brown dwarf sector below EAFOTS sector? As in below the galactic plane. Making the Galaxy be technically above you.... hanging?

 

[Zeeman]

...

She says nobody has been past the Rift and lived to tell the tale. One reading of this is that they died before they could get any information out of the Rift. Another reading could be that they might have survived long enough to get some information out of the Rift but did not survive a return journey. There is room for ambiguity.
...

Or... They liked what they found, and decided to stay.

Z...

 

[ScolioTheMost]

Didn't something say "looking back at the Galaxy just hanging there" and isn't that brown dwarf sector below EAFOTS sector? As in below the galactic plane. Making the Galaxy be technically above you.... hanging?

Ishmar mentioned the Scheau Phoe sector below the EAFOTS sector is mostly brown dwarf stars.

Scheau Phoe Sector below EAFOTS sector. is a plane of brown dwarf stars kinda fallow this part. 1: There are no stars for dozens of light years and the dark systems haven't been mapped, so take your time, watch your six

 

[BluWolve]

So a cobra class vessel sent out a distress call from Col 70 sector, and apparently has been destroyed. Could be Luciano with the meta alloys? Where is this distress call and why were the Feds the first to know about it? Do meta alloys have some special quality that will allow access to Col 70 sector? It has been locked with an unknown permit for quite some time now, so how did a cobra get in?

Link to galnet article -

https://community.elitedangerous.com/en/galnet/uid/58cfc32d15ac1cc4146504e9

 

[ScolioTheMost]

So a cobra class vessel sent out a distress call from Col 70 sector, and apparently has been destroyed. Could be Luciano with the meta alloys? Where is this distress call and why were the Feds the first to know about it? Do meta alloys have some special quality that will allow access to Col 70 sector? It has been locked with an unknown permit for quite some time now, so how did a cobra get in?

Link to galnet article -

https://community.elitedangerous.com/en/galnet/uid/58cfc32d15ac1cc4146504e9

Maybe they were jumping across and were interdicted by one of the unknown ships. i.e. crossing col 70 and were pulled out of witch space into col 70.

 

[Assimilator1]

Easy - log into the forums on a web browser, not the crappy mobile forum viewers...

Z...

I am on a web browser, I'm using Chrome on my phone.... Although I'm not using 'full site' view.

 

[crushdepth]

Hopefully this means the Col 70 permit lock will go away soon.

 

[crushdepth]

BTW I watched Braben's interview from PAX last night, and in it he raises the possibility that the flower ships are not authentic (12.30). So, the pilot's seat that can be seen in the close up images of flower ships is unlikely to be a "mistake" as some of the alien mindslaves in this forum would have us believe.l

 

[CMDR Poet Starwind]

he raises the possibility that the flower ships are not authentic (12.30). So, the pilot's seat that can be seen in the close up images of flower ships is unlikely to be a "mistake" as some of the alien mindslaves in this forum would have us believe.

Aww man, and I was looking forward to giant space hippies!

 

[BluWolve]

BTW I watched Braben's interview from PAX last night, and in it he raises the possibility that the flower ships are not authentic (12.30). So, the pilot's seat that can be seen in the close up images of flower ships is unlikely to be a "mistake" as some of the alien mindslaves in this forum would have us believe.l

[TINFOILRAMBLE]

I have been thinking about this for some time now, these "Unknown ships" in my opinion could very easily be reverse engineered by humans from alien tech. They are pulling ships out of hyperspace to test the new "wake suppression" tech. The humans responsible for this are quite happy to let us believe these ships are aliens, because the truth is much more disturbing. Dont they realize that the organisms they have genetically manipulated are sentient beings? I believe we will see aliens eventually, and when we do there will be hell to pay.

[/TINFOILRAMBLE]

 

[Zeeman]

I am on web browser, I'm using Chrome on my phone.... Although I'm not using 'full site' view.

Full site view is the way to go for full features [up]
Z...

 

[crushdepth]

[TINFOILRAMBLE]

I have been thinking about this for some time now, these "Unknown ships" in my opinion could very easily be reverse engineered by humans from alien tech. They are pulling ships out of hyperspace to test the new "wake suppression" tech. The humans responsible for this are quite happy to let us believe these ships are aliens, because the truth is much more disturbing. Dont they realize that the organisms they have genetically manipulated are sentient beings? I believe we will see aliens eventually, and when we do there will be hell to pay.

[/TINFOILRAMBLE]

On the other hand, the aliens might have installed a seat so they will have something to strap humans down on while probing them.

 

[Zeeman]

BTW I watched Braben's interview from PAX last night, and in it he raises the possibility that the flower ships are not authentic (12.30). So, the pilot's seat that can be seen in the close up images of flower ships is unlikely to be a "mistake" as some of the alien mindslaves in this forum would have us believe.l

Quite a few people have mentioned that they were not convinced these were Thargoids. Some have stated going into game files, and seeing "Thargoid scout", I try to avoid such things, but did find my way tot hat folder whilst looking for other things, and decided to have a look anyway seeing as it had already been "spoiled". The file simply says "scout" - no mention of anything else. So, as you can imagine, my lack of confidence on where they came from was strengthened.

I'd also agree that having a human looking seat is not likely to be a mistake - say what you will about FD's screw ups, but the department that designs ships is not far behind the audio department in terms of quality for this game, and they seem to think things through fairly well in their ship designs. A human seat in an alien ship is the sort of rookie mistake I expect to see only in the department that deals with writing text for story lines, and turning on content...

Also, I recently bought and started reading "Out of the Darkness", and seeing that it is alleged to be canon, (spoiler if you have not yet read it)

Spoiler

and there does appear to be human/alien collision...

, well, it kinda leads me to see this detail as very important.

[TINFOILRAMBLE]

I have been thinking about this for some time now, these "Unknown ships" in my opinion could very easily be reverse engineered by humans from alien tech. They are pulling ships out of hyperspace to test the new "wake suppression" tech. The humans responsible for this are quite happy to let us believe these ships are aliens, because the truth is much more disturbing. Dont they realize that the organisms they have genetically manipulated are sentient beings? I believe we will see aliens eventually, and when we do there will be hell to pay.

[/TINFOILRAMBLE]

Also, it seems to me that so far, all the video teasers (to date) of destroyed ships seem to be Fed ships, I don't see any Imperials.
*wraps an extra layer of tinfoil...

Z...