THE FORMIDINE RIFT MYSTERY (Part 4)

[rootsrat]

Although I always find it funny that discussion about taking your imaginary ship to an imaginary part of the galaxy to solve a fictional mystery isn't RP

Yeah, we all really role play Elite, whether we want it or like it or not

 

[-Denali-]

It takes a long time to build a fleet of 1,000 Death Stars. Probably took them a year just to gather enough loo rolls.

So many hours spent playing craps with Broo. You think they have a record of how much time we've spent combined just rolling for engineers? I bet it's huge!

Apparently reports of heat signatures and strange lights - also reference to the Formadine Rift being called 'terror' in an old Earth language (as already deduced). Apparently this guy thinks there's something 'evil' out here that was watching them. I'm now convinced there must be something else to find in the Rift!

I had forgotten that they mentioned the heat signatures and lights. The commander's logs that Cannon has been running down the last few days say something about having logs of strange heat signatures collected from a secret group that's been studying them.

So... just jump and explore then? And fly low across planets keeping your eyes open? Do bases or a.n.other show up as blue circle POI, or is purely the old mkI eyeball?

I'm going via Heart and Soul first. Should get there today, with any luck.

I would search the system for beacons from supercruise first. No point in long searching the planets surface if there aren't any. Bases do not show up as POI's. Just have to visual search for them. Good luck out there.

 

[Toffmeister]

The Hutton Truckers were last on the scene on the whole Salome thing (we were held up at the bar until quite late and were too tispy to fly straight). HOWEVER, CMDR Javert found a black box in the wreckage and returned the contents to Hutton for decoding.

It isn't whatever secret message Salome had, but something entirely more personal. We will be broadcasting it this evening immediately following Hutton Orbital News (2030ish BST) on www.huttonorbital.com/radio.aspx and before the rest of the show. We will also be uploading it to the Hutton Orbital Radio soundcloud following the live broadcast

N.B. As approved by Drew Wagar who has confirmed its authenticity and yes, it is a piece of "fiction" tied to the Salome saga and no, it wasn't actually IN game in case anyone goes listening for it and yes, it MAY be her in her own words....

I'll be listening in. It had better be more than a rabble rouse by salome again.

I'm pleased in a way that it wasn't in game. I was beginning to suspect Fdev had written off the whole arc, left the mystery unsolvable (to work on other stuff) and if anyone questioned the lack of info they could legitimately say "We killed the clues when we killed Salome."

 

[Vingtetun]

I'll be listening in. It had better be more than a rabble rouse by salome again.

I'm pleased in a way that it wasn't in game. I was beginning to suspect Fdev had written off the whole arc, left the mystery unsolvable (to work on other stuff) and if anyone questioned the lack of info they could legitimately say "We killed the clues when we killed Salome."

There are no clues in the message.... or at least none that I heard.

 

[Trickylion]

Buzhang Ku "this region was said to contain a lost ship. Supposedly drifting through space. Rumours of treasure have attracted hunters even now"

How to find? Its mine

 

[G4RY]

Buzhang Ku "this region was said to contain a lost ship. Supposedly drifting through space. Rumours of treasure have attracted hunters even now"

How to find? Its mine

Gen ship by the sounds of it, fairly close to SOL too.

If you find it, there is a dedicated thread for Generation ships here .. https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...longer)-Missing-Rediscovered-Generation-Ships

Good luck Cmdr.

(Assuming it is a Gen ship that is)

Also where did you get that information?

 

[Trickylion]

Tourist spot on Ku 3, but no other clues, could be anywhere

 

[Thatchinho]

Think you want the Canonn thread, for science!

Are you sure? Didn't he say he wanted somewhere that dealt with facts?

 

[Tanksy]

So, I'm finally at:

System: EAFOTS GL-Y E2
Beacon around: A1
Rally Point (settlement) on: 6
DELTA SETTLEMENT FOUND: by CMDR AvvieXB1 26th Jan 3303
21.2838, 19.0682 - Discovery & Location Maps
Message Logs

I've listened to the logs, and it seems so bird was left stranded (she was there working on a mission connected to EXODUS) in a Sidewinder after strange power-outages, and a support ship vanishing. Apparently, she had heard reports that this part of space was strange (I'd love to have some strange happenings while I'm out here, but I doubt it).

So, what's the cause of this (the 'official' theory/conspiracy) - aliens, or something else?

All the logs pretty much end in the ships being scuttled to hide their existence, except for one, which ends with a mention of a large unknown heat signature following them.

Ah, penny finally dropped... (I am a slow learner).

Im in the wrong thread.

The reason is because alot of people are role playing through ED, using rumours, hearsay and a book or 2 written by like minded people. Example above..and sometimes FDev must oblige by putting a beacon here or there with some text message playing along..example the Salome event.. My mistake for the misunderstanding, but im in the wrong thread.

Can anyone help and send me a link (if one exists) to a thread thats more about ED facts with no fiction? Eg finding flowerships, or the derilict ships or just other things to do, like getting unusal missions - stuff like that.

Not having a go about RP but its not for me.

Good luck with it all though.

Thanks

I think you misunderstand -- A lot of the thread is factual, based on real things found in-game and evidence. There's a fair amount of conspiracy, but it's not too far fetched. At the moment, we're really just looking into who "They" are. The Salomé stuff is mostly related to Drew's book, and that part of the Rift mystery is over and all we got out of that was "That conspiracy we saw a mile off because it's painfully obvious turned out to be true".

The Rift thread is for more individual thinkers. The Canonn thread is for people filling in a spreadsheet and following a directive.

 

[Toffmeister]

There are no clues in the message.... or at least none that I heard.

mad:

I'll not say what I'm thinking.

I'll listen in anyway..actually there's a good chance I'm going to be experimenting with the ballistic properties of a laptop.

 

[Vingtetun]

For reference. It is a piece of in character audio work, approved of by Drew that is purely for enjoyment.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Update: What people are doing

The Rift thread has always been governed by Wagar's Uncertainty Principle:

You can know where you're looking, but not what you're looking for
OR
You can know what you're looking for, but not whether it exists in game


These are, to the best of my knowledge, the activities currently underway:

Search of EAFOTS for ELWs with beacons or some other indication that they're special - my apologies to the CMDR who has been keeping a log of scanned systems: I can't remember your name so I can't link you here
Search of systems in the vicinity of the Zurara for 'special' ELWs
Search of systems around 46 Eridani for reasons for Salome to have started her 'run' there
Search of systems around Col 70 Sector for 'something weird'
Search of the Bubble for local Galnet/Listening Post clues

I'm not going to go all Canonn and try to organize people into teams - we're independents and that isn't our bag - but feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

If there's anything else that you guys are up to, let me know and I'll add it to the list.


So, what now?

Greetings CMDRs.
I'm about to (try to) be serious, so pay attention because it doesn't happen very often...

The first part of the Formidine Rift saga has come to an end, but there are clearly a whole lot of questions that remain unanswered. In addition, if I'm reading Drew's hints correctly (first time for everything, right?) then we, the Rifters, have the potential to create content by the act of investigation - if you look for it, they will build it, so to speak.
Right now, we're all kind of flapping around, speculating about anything and everything with no real direction and quite honestly, after following the Rift mystery for 18 months, this lack of direction really sucks.

So, I have a proposal for you all:

Let's quit the theorycrafting, tinfoiling and speculation for the moment and sit down and figure out what we actually know, and the questions we want answered. Once we have some kind of consensus ('herding cats' springs to mind) we can use that to create a new 'first page' of this thread. I say 'this thread' because I'd suggest we stick with it until the mods come along and unsticky it
Additionally, lets keep the Thargoids and Guardian ruins out of this thread - leave all that stuff in the Canonn thread so we're not duplicating things.

Right then.

Stuff we know:
All the stuff from the Teorge logs and Zurara - which I'm not going to copy at this point.
Something in the Rift appeared to drive the Dynasty mission guys crazy
Salome is dead - confirmed by Drew 'Machiavelli' Wagar, so we can assume she's still alive
Somebody rescued Salome from the prison convoy

Stuff we don't know:
Formidine Rift
What the Rift 'threat' is?
Is the "Rift threat" the same as the threat the Dynasty conspiracy tried to counter with the Dynasty expedition?
Is the Teorge information correct?
Who is behind the Dynasty expedition?

Salome Bio
Who is behind Salome's rescue?
Why was Salome special (1)? - Octavia and the body swap
Why was Salome special (2)? - What made her running around in the Rift a threat, where we Rifters can do it with impunity

Sirius/Wreaken/MetaDrive
What happened to Commander Falchion, and what link (if any) do they have to Metadrive? - I have no idea who this is
Where did all those Sirius Corp automated exploration probes go?
Why was Salome near 46 Eridani? What was she looking for in that area?

Materials
What happened to the meta alloys and tantalum?

Other stuff
We could, if we wanted, run around the Rift (and Hawking/Conflux) looking for ELWs and beacons, but I think that whilst finding them might be fun (assuming there's anything there) they're 'old news' and not going to tell us anything we don't already know.


If anyone has any other facts or questions the feel free to add them - but at this point I'm going to ignore any theories or speculation

Shameless self-bumpage.

 

[Harley Quinn]

Shameless self-bumpage.

As it was shameless, you can have some rep. But do it shamefully and I'll be finding how to remove it.

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

As it was shameless, you can have some rep. But do it shamefully and I'll be finding how to remove it.

Never be ashamed of self-bumpage. It doesn't make you go blind, no matter what they say.

(I did actually add some content whilst bumping).

 

[Harley Quinn]

Never be ashamed of self-bumpage. It doesn't make you go blind, no matter what they say.

(I did actually add some content whilst bumping).

True, I like Liked Wagar's Uncertainty Principle. That was worth the rep by itself.

My alt is still out in conflux gradually mapping around the sites when I get fed up of grinding as HQ, and I'm not the only one doing that with the odd people in the Gap. Not really forum posters though so just quietly getting on with it, but it's happening to a lot lesser degree than the rift.

 

[Thatchinho]

Shameless self-bumpage.

Great summary and totally worth the self-bumpage!

A few to add:

Sirius/Wreaken/MetaDrive
What happened to the MetaDrive files stolen by Raan Corsen and what do the files contain?
What happened to the tech that MetaDrive were working on prior to their takeover by Sirius?
How do Wreaken have access to a permit locked sector, who has given them access and what are they doing in there?
What was the purpose of Salome's journey along the HIP systems? Did this indicate something?

On the last of these, it seemed to me to roughly point out the the new Witchhead Science Centre which is in a HIP system. Only had a couple of points to go off though so I could be very wrong.

On the Sirius/Metadrive point:

"MetaDrive Inc., a company based in the Chi Orionis system specialising in hyperdrive research."
"We've been interested in collaboration for a while, and were in talks over licensing MetaDrive's exciting new technology" - Sirius - 27 AUG 3302
"With the company set to deliver on some very exciting technology in the coming year...." - MetaDrive - 23 SEP 3302
Sale of MetaDrive to Sirius announced - 22 OCT 3302
"we can certainly allay any fears that the Sirius Corporation is conducting experimental hyperdrive research" - Sirius - 17 FEB 3303

 

[eadghe]

Then go to each subsequent discovery site, land, and listen to the various logs. After that, head to the area where 'the planets thin out' and start looking for an 'Earth-like world' (mentioned by two individuals in the logs who may have been referring to the same system).

Did they add audio to those logs?

 

[xXCrobaRXx]

Ok, here is my massive tinfoil on the cloning theory:

Spoiler

Kahina is a clone of R or a clone from the same host R is a clone off. This host had some supernatural talent for piloting and has therefore being used for cloning from whatever organisation (be it the Dark Wheel or otherwise). In reclamation they talk a couple of times how easy it is for K to learn to pilot a ship. R knows that K is her clone (or from the same host, i.e. basically herself). Luko works together with R and brings K to the right place (hospital) so that R can meet her and give her an impulse to continue her work. How did Luko find her (and we all think it unlikely that he was really marooned on this planet for 20 years)? When they cloned K they could implemented a secret transponder or such in order to find her no matter where she goes. Ks parents could be either hexedited to belief that she is their daughter or otherwise convinced that its in their best interest to accept her as their daughter. This would also explain that they don't really love her as if she was their real child.
I don't know how Dalk fits into this because he, very conveniently, trains her but he seems to have his own agenda. Maybe he was hexedited as well.

Wait...what am I missing here? was it somehow revealed that Salomé was a clone of Rebecca? Or is that part of your theory? If the former is a fact, then I missed a lot in the short time I've been away from this thread.

Thanks in advance,
CMDR_Crobar

 

[Taranis Dekker]

[up]

I'd recommend you start here:

System: EAFOTS EU-R C4-1
Beacon around: A
Rally Point (settlement) on: C2
ALPHA SETTLEMENT FOUND by CMDR Eadghe on 19th Jan 3303
-34.2057, -77.6673 - Discovery & Location Maps
Message Logs

Then go to each subsequent discovery site, land, and listen to the various logs. After that, head to the area where 'the planets thin out' and start looking for a system containing an 'Earth-like world' (mentioned by two individuals in the logs who may have been referring to the same system). Perhaps there's something in the system these individuals were when whatever happened, happened.

Thanks

I'm on my way... I don't get a lot of time with work but I'm expecting to get there this weekend. Especially now I'm being more picky about what i scan enroute. I'll be at heart and soul before midday tomorrow, then hotfooting the rest of the way. [up]

 

[Masheikh Scytale]

Two sites I visited had a Data Point. Upon scanning both - including the one over the cliff, which caused me some problems - I just got various bits of data, firmware and whatnot. By the sounds of what you have said, I should have expected more - is that right (what would the intel packages be worth)? I was only there for the logs, and was planning on heading to an asteroid base in either Heart or Soul. But upon reading the logs, I decided to head back into the Rift for a bit searching, probably in vain, for a system with an Earth-like planet (in the area where the planets 'thin out').

Good luck.
I for myself have lost all hopes of finding anything 'exotic' or at least really 'exciting' in the Rift.
There is simply just no such content IMHO. Never was.
But don't mind me and keep your fresh enthusiasm ! Enjoy your playing ! [yesnod]