Alien archeology and other mysteries: Thread 10 - The Canonn

[Volimar]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/197798433568980992/324259782813024257/20170613_135213.png
all dead

I was there, he never even checked. Ed Lewis doesn't care about Fed people.

 

[Patau82]

I do think Palin was sabotaged because he is working on stuff that some human organisation does not want the general population to be aware of yet.

well feds are the ones blockading him

If you’re reading this, you found my message. And maybe you can help.

My name is Ishmael Palin. I’m a scientist and engineer researching the mysterious ships.

I have made a significant breakthrough, but I am in need of certain data to confirm my latest hypothesis. If what I suspect is true, it could be of importance to the entire galaxy.

Unfortunately I am unable to leave my research base due to a Federal blockade, so I am appealing to the galactic community to gather Unknown Ship Signatures and Unknown Wake Scans by scanning the unknown ships and their wakes. Thanks to the support of the Merope Expeditionary Fleet, I am able to offer financial rewards to those who deliver this data to Orcus Crag in the Pleiades Sector OI-T C3-7 system.

It won’t be long before the Federation realises what I’m up to, so I can only keep this operation running until 12 noon on 13th June 3303. As soon as my experiment is complete, I will share the results with the galactic community.

To help Professor Palin and earn rewards you must sign up as an active participant before delivering Unknown Ship Signatures and Unknown Wake Scans to Orcus Crag in the Pleiades Sector OI-T C3-7 system.

 

[Alec Turner]

Does anyone happen to have a nice hi res pic of the damaged capital ships? I wouldn't mind using that as my desktop background for a while.

Lovely set from Trinity Star over here ...

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...elfie-Thread?p=5606944&viewfull=1#post5606944

.. and here ..

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/145711-Gratuitous-Selfie-Thread?p=5607348&viewfull=1#post5607348

For example ..

 

[Volimar]

Yeah I was looking through the screenie thread. Beautiful shots. I wish Imgur didn't compress pics tho.

 

[Thatchinho]

So, with the acknowledgement of a potential massive cover-up by DBOBE in the trailer; it seems reasonable to revisit the early theories about the UA's (and likely UP's) origin and consider that they might well have been bang-on.

TL;DR: UAs and UPs are human made 'Thargoid detectors' and whoever made them is a previously unknown agency (altho could reasonably be referred to as INRA until we have another name) with a likely presence somewhere in Merope, probably on or near 5C

Specifically the anthropic elements which we all know so well:

- Using morse code to transmit information
- 2D line drawings with alphanumeric coordinates to transmit ship drawings
- Using a sonogram to transmit information
- That they were first found in human military convoys of both Fed and Imp (and possible Alliance, I can't remember if that was ever confirmed)

Despite their obviously alien-like nature, it seems to me the old idea that they are old alien tech repurposed for a human use is absolutely compelling.

The waters were muddied with the UA shell because it gave us a correlation between the barnacle sites in the Pleiades and the UAs, but the exact link was debatable. Because it seemed equally reasonable that they were somehow 'protecting' the site from incursion, and that it was the barnacle makers who put them there; as it did that humans had put them there.

Plus, the use of human communication methods by the UAs and UPs was easy to dismiss from our side of the fourth wall: they were puzzles made by humans, for humans, and therefore of course they'd use human readable messages.



But if you assume that UAs and UPs are human-made, that their manufacturers wish to remain hidden and that they have tried very hard to keep all knowledge of both them and any Thargoid history under wraps -then lots of things make sense.

Not least those anthropic elements above, but also things such as the sabotage of Palin's original lab, the murky way that the Halsey storyline unfolded - with her being replaced by a militaristic leader as well as being left in the black for months, and even potentially the fact that UAs damage ship modules and stations.

It allows us to make a few very plausible statements, or mental leaps in some cases, too:

- Both UAs and UPs exist to *detect* Thargoid activity
- They didn't magically arrive at the locations we now find them: they were taken there by convoys from both Fed and Imp space in a massive operation.
- Whoever did that is either incredibly rich; like, major-faction rich, or is above money
- The UA/UP placement reflects the fact that whoever made them knew a likely area to look (possibly based on pre-existing knowledge of barnacles before the players themselves discovered them)
- The UA's purpose is not to scan our ships - but to detect these flower ships and hopefully send 'scans' of them back to base
- Palin was sabotaged because any close scrutiny of the artefacts/probes would eventually lead to their human origins being discovered.
- The receiver of the information broadcasted by the probes/artefacts is on Merope 5C(!?) as we initially thought. But it's not alien: it's human.
- The absence of a UA shell, or presence of any probes, around the other nebulae where barnacles can be found suggests that 'they' might not even know about them.

If there is any possibility of finding evidence of this hidden human actor, then I think we need to get on the case. It could be there somewhere, and perhaps the reason we haven't found it yet is not because it's not there, but because we've been looking for the wrong thing.

Either way - if I, and the many other people whose ideas have contributed to this post, are right - then we might be looking at a bigger enemy than the Thargoids here. Equally, we might not have a choice about things going south despite our best attempts.

Sorry for such a long post! o7

IIRC you'd been away from the forums (possibly the game?) for a while. Were you round when we got this from Michael Brookes about the UAs using morse?:

"The use of morse is deliberate."

In the context, I took that to mean that it was a plot device and not a puzzle device. Wasn't completely clear though and we couldn't get any further clarification.

See here for the posts: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...9-The-Canonn?p=4984771&viewfull=1#post4984771

For me the 2 plot versions are still both open:
1. They're human creations
2. They're the creation of aliens who've had contact with humans

Personally I do tend to veer towards them being human creations, probably with the use of discovered alien tech (the possibility that Col 70 Sector FY-N C21-3 may well have been inside the Guardian bubble contributes to this).

It could equally be a human-alien collaboration though.

Agreed that the UAs are a Thargoid detector. (I've always wondered what would happen if we could somehow fake an octagonal ship and get a UA to scan it! ). I think something major will happen when a UA eventually scans a traditional style Thargoid ship of the kind seen in the DB interview (IIRC) yesterday.

The UPs being around ammonia worlds would certainly indicate that they're on the look out for Thargoid activity, but there could be a different purpose - they might be us finding Ammonia worlds to direct the Thargoids to in a bid for peace / some form of reparation for the near genocide.

 

[CaptainKremmen]

Well it was all about Ed Lewis, really, he played the role of a CMDR given a tip off. Folks watching the stream followed along in game.

Stream 1
- Ed gets a tip off
- Ed goes to a beacon in a system
- Beacon instructs Ed to go to Orcus Crag out near the Pleiades (can't remember the system name)
- At Orcus Crag a CG mission on the board, Palin thinks he's onto something, wants Unknown ship scan data and wake data
- CG is 24 hours, reaches tier 8 and finishes

Stream 2
- Ed gets a tip off Feds have intercepted Palin's data, but there's been some issue, a distress signal, Ed is to investigate
- Essentially, from 2nd planet in HIP 17044 head to Asterope for 11KLY edit: 11Kls not ly!!
- Find encounter
- "Thargoid Return"

The 2nd planet in HIP 17044... which just happens to have ammonia-based life...

 

[Erid]

Stupid question but did someone threw UA/UA/UA+UP under flowership when it refuel from barnacle?
PS btw i think nothing will happen but who knows

 

[rizal72]

Does anyone happen to have a nice hi res pic of the damaged capital ships? I wouldn't mind using that as my desktop background for a while.


What happened to everyone on those ships? Are they all dead? Why aren't their loads of escape pods floating around? If the feds already rescued them, wouldn't they have a vested interest in destroying the transmitter as well?

Check this super hi res one here (not embedding it, it's too big):
http://i.imgur.com/74q1ZOS.jpg

 

[Metylan]

Why are all "Hi Res" Pictures so ... blurry Pixelated and looking like they are fake (i know there dont), while my normal screens shoots looks better (even with not ultra grafik).

EDIT: Oh well look at it the UI button is on it! IT WAS NOT INGAME ON IT! I waitet till ist disapered!

 

[LordZoltan]

IIRC you'd been away from the forums (possibly the game?) for a while. Were you round when we got this from Michael Brookes about the UAs using morse?:

"The use of morse is deliberate."

In the context, I took that to mean that it was a plot device and not a puzzle device. Wasn't completely clear though and we couldn't get any further clarification.

See here for the posts: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...9-The-Canonn?p=4984771&viewfull=1#post4984771

For me the 2 plot versions are still both open:
1. They're human creations
2. They're the creation of aliens who've had contact with humans

Personally I do tend to veer towards them being human creations, probably with the use of discovered alien tech (the possibility that Col 70 Sector FY-N C21-3 may well have been inside the Guardian bubble contributes to this).

It could equally be a human-alien collaboration though.

Agreed that the UAs are a Thargoid detector. (I've always wondered what would happen if we could somehow fake an octagonal ship and get a UA to scan it! ). I think something major will happen when a UA eventually scans a traditional style Thargoid ship of the kind seen in the DB interview (IIRC) yesterday.

The UPs being around ammonia worlds would certainly indicate that they're on the look out for Thargoid activity, but there could be a different purpose - they might be us finding Ammonia worlds to direct the Thargoids to in a bid for peace / some form of reparation for the near genocide.

It's definitely fair to say I've been away for a while both here and in-game (played once in a year) - and only been keeping tabs at a very high level

Agreed that UPs might still be alien, with UAs perhaps a human-ised version of them, but my confidence in their alien origin is definitely dropping like a lead weight.



Still haven't even been to a guardian site yet as I'm catching up on Engineers progress to get my Conda up to a reasonable spec.

Definitely going to jump over to the dead capships, though. Too cool to skip

 

[Unbreakable]

This Palin guy has a real security problem...why should we bother giving Palin more info? Seems pretty tight-lipped yet always manages to get kidnapped or his data/meta-alloys stolen.

Come to think of it, what happened to Palin? Did they kidnap him? Has he been taken by the Unknown ships? What ever came of his experiments and the data? Also the guy who was on the run with the data, he was headed to Dunkers Rest right? Did anyone follow up on him?

The assumption is this: Humanity did encounter the Thargoids in the past, went to war with them (Elite 1), used the INRA Mycoid virus to infect and disable their biological processes which were tied to hyperdrive technology, lost touch with them (Elite 2), interacted with them again in (FFE) before losing track of them completely.

I am not going to go over the war, we know it happened. We also know of the INRA Mycoid virus and that the Alliance stepped out to reach out to the Thargoids and deliver an antidote which brought about peace with the aliens... or so we thought. I say that because following the peaceful establishment of relations and the beginning of scientific exchange, contact was once again lost seemingly overnight only to be replaced with vague history re-writing and coverups of the whole incident... until the events of ED started happening.

Putting all this together I think Lab 69 is probably going to get very busy and will probably need some major cash infusion to counter this.

You are assuming all this is Canon still, I have seen plenty of disputes on what the ACTUAL history of the Elite Universe is. Perhaps FDev or Drew can clear up the issue on which version of the historical events actually played out. Did the Thargoids get the antidote, or did we give them an even more potent virus? Last I heard the more potent virus was the current history, but it is all speculation without proof.

From the location it looks like they were caught on the way from Palin back to the bubble.
Hip 17044 is roughly between PRE Logistics Support Zeta and Epsilon.

Leaves the question, can capital ships with their different hyperjump mechanic be hyperdicted?

Apparently so, it matches what happens during hyperdictions. They were trying to jump towards Asterope and got pulled out 10-11kls from everything. Ambush?

Indeed a lot of flowership-related data was stolen by the Feds but "Thargoids are back" is the result?- I'm not 100% convinced. We have still not uncovered the Dynasty conspirators but it is clear that they include both Fed and Imps.

As you say, the flowerships have shown only peaceful intent so far, so it is still possible that they are not Thargoid but perhaps Oresrian who are looking for Thargoids; if our fsd witchspace signature is close to that of Thargs then that could explain the hyperdictions. In fact we did see an octagonal ship in the E3 trailer, so I am going out on a limb and hypothesising that the flowerships are Oresrian, friendly and with advanced technology that might be negotiated to equip humanity against the octagonal Thargoid enemy ships. That's my hypothesis and I'm sticking to it, until another comes along, possibly about dinosaurs....

Thargoids are friendly, they need our help to fight the Guardians who ride dinosaurs through space because they despise technology and have to do everything naturally.

Has anyone taken a close look at the damage to the ships in HIP 17044?

I have Footage of getting u close and personal with the attacked ships if Canonn is interested.

did you see the triangles all around

Still makes me think they are Guardian Ships.

Has anybody a transcript of the transmission of the beacon at the distress call site with the two (three?) capital ships?

Spoiler

Tango Hotel Alpha Romeo Golf Oscar India Delta ; Romeo Echo Tango Uniform Romeo November

So, with the acknowledgement of a potential massive cover-up by DBOBE in the trailer; it seems reasonable to revisit the early theories about the UA's (and likely UP's) origin and consider that they might well have been bang-on.

TL;DR: UAs and UPs are human made 'Thargoid detectors' and whoever made them is a previously unknown agency (altho could reasonably be referred to as INRA until we have another name) with a likely presence somewhere in Merope, probably on or near 5C

Specifically the anthropic elements which we all know so well:

- Using morse code to transmit information
- 2D line drawings with alphanumeric coordinates to transmit ship drawings
- Using a sonogram to transmit information
- That they were first found in human military convoys of both Fed and Imp (and possible Alliance, I can't remember if that was ever confirmed)

Despite their obviously alien-like nature, it seems to me the old idea that they are old alien tech repurposed for a human use is absolutely compelling.

The waters were muddied with the UA shell because it gave us a correlation between the barnacle sites in the Pleiades and the UAs, but the exact link was debatable. Because it seemed equally reasonable that they were somehow 'protecting' the site from incursion, and that it was the barnacle makers who put them there; as it did that humans had put them there.

Plus, the use of human communication methods by the UAs and UPs was easy to dismiss from our side of the fourth wall: they were puzzles made by humans, for humans, and therefore of course they'd use human readable messages.



But if you assume that UAs and UPs are human-made, that their manufacturers wish to remain hidden and that they have tried very hard to keep all knowledge of both them and any Thargoid history under wraps -then lots of things make sense.

Not least those anthropic elements above, but also things such as the sabotage of Palin's original lab, the murky way that the Halsey storyline unfolded - with her being replaced by a militaristic leader as well as being left in the black for months, and even potentially the fact that UAs damage ship modules and stations.

It allows us to make a few very plausible statements, or mental leaps in some cases, too:

- Both UAs and UPs exist to *detect* Thargoid activity
- They didn't magically arrive at the locations we now find them: they were taken there by convoys from both Fed and Imp space in a massive operation.
- Whoever did that is either incredibly rich; like, major-faction rich, or is above money
- The UA/UP placement reflects the fact that whoever made them knew a likely area to look (possibly based on pre-existing knowledge of barnacles before the players themselves discovered them)
- The UA's purpose is not to scan our ships - but to detect these flower ships and hopefully send 'scans' of them back to base
- Palin was sabotaged because any close scrutiny of the artefacts/probes would eventually lead to their human origins being discovered.
- The receiver of the information broadcasted by the probes/artefacts is on Merope 5C(!?) as we initially thought. But it's not alien: it's human.
- The absence of a UA shell, or presence of any probes, around the other nebulae where barnacles can be found suggests that 'they' might not even know about them.

If there is any possibility of finding evidence of this hidden human actor, then I think we need to get on the case. It could be there somewhere, and perhaps the reason we haven't found it yet is not because it's not there, but because we've been looking for the wrong thing.

Either way - if I, and the many other people whose ideas have contributed to this post, are right - then we might be looking at a bigger enemy than the Thargoids here. Equally, we might not have a choice about things going south despite our best attempts.

Sorry for such a long post! o7

I love this theory, +1 for you my friend. That would explain the immediate action from the Feds against Palin, he has all his probes up in their probe and was close to finding the truth.

I've been thinking about the corrosion effect. Could be:

- Deliberate attempt to corrode/damage any alien ships they happen to come into contact with; with our tech being collateral damage
- Unintentional left over effects from any alien tech that might have been repurposed, as you say, assuming the whole thing isn't a little wizard of oz
- Or, deliberate effect to discourage civilians from moving or otherwise interacting with the Probes/UAs after they're deployed.

Perhaps UAs and UPs *do indeed* have the ability to bring down flower ships, possibly via the corrosion affect, given that they're found at crash sites. Perhaps that's how we'll be defending/attacking when the proverbial hits the fan.

Re meta alloys - well I guess since they were looking for alien activity, it stands to reason they'd harvest MAs after they were found and take them back?

And perhaps the flower ships *deliberately* started manufacturing MA because it offers a defence against UA corrosion!

Re the EMP blast - I think it's possibly a feature of the act of transmitting the sonogram over a vast distance. Assuming the probe does it regularly anyway as part of normal operation (without any ships triggering it), then it's not directly significant. It's just that our scanner accidentally forces the probe to send a transmission.

Here is an idea for your theory on the UA and corrosion effect, maybe those little canisters in the back contain an aerosol shot of Mycoid and when it detects it has been picked up by a flower ship it squirts a little into the air. *tinfoil*

 

[Unbreakable]

Stupid question but did someone threw UA/UA/UA+UP under flowership when it refuel from barnacle?
PS btw i think nothing will happen but who knows

Yes it has been done, no effects on anything.

 

[evaldo10]

So, with the acknowledgement of a potential massive cover-up by DBOBE in the trailer; it seems reasonable to revisit the early theories about the UA's (and likely UP's) origin and consider that they might well have been bang-on.

TL;DR: UAs and UPs are human made 'Thargoid detectors' and whoever made them is a previously unknown agency (altho could reasonably be referred to as INRA until we have another name) with a likely presence somewhere in Merope, probably on or near 5C

Specifically the anthropic elements which we all know so well:

- Using morse code to transmit information
- 2D line drawings with alphanumeric coordinates to transmit ship drawings
- Using a sonogram to transmit information
- That they were first found in human military convoys of both Fed and Imp (and possible Alliance, I can't remember if that was ever confirmed)

Despite their obviously alien-like nature, it seems to me the old idea that they are old alien tech repurposed for a human use is absolutely compelling.

The waters were muddied with the UA shell because it gave us a correlation between the barnacle sites in the Pleiades and the UAs, but the exact link was debatable. Because it seemed equally reasonable that they were somehow 'protecting' the site from incursion, and that it was the barnacle makers who put them there; as it did that humans had put them there.

Plus, the use of human communication methods by the UAs and UPs was easy to dismiss from our side of the fourth wall: they were puzzles made by humans, for humans, and therefore of course they'd use human readable messages.



But if you assume that UAs and UPs are human-made, that their manufacturers wish to remain hidden and that they have tried very hard to keep all knowledge of both them and any Thargoid history under wraps -then lots of things make sense.

Not least those anthropic elements above, but also things such as the sabotage of Palin's original lab, the murky way that the Halsey storyline unfolded - with her being replaced by a militaristic leader as well as being left in the black for months, and even potentially the fact that UAs damage ship modules and stations.

It allows us to make a few very plausible statements, or mental leaps in some cases, too:

- Both UAs and UPs exist to *detect* Thargoid activity
- They didn't magically arrive at the locations we now find them: they were taken there by convoys from both Fed and Imp space in a massive operation.
- Whoever did that is either incredibly rich; like, major-faction rich, or is above money
- The UA/UP placement reflects the fact that whoever made them knew a likely area to look (possibly based on pre-existing knowledge of barnacles before the players themselves discovered them)
- The UA's purpose is not to scan our ships - but to detect these flower ships and hopefully send 'scans' of them back to base
- Palin was sabotaged because any close scrutiny of the artefacts/probes would eventually lead to their human origins being discovered.
- The receiver of the information broadcasted by the probes/artefacts is on Merope 5C(!?) as we initially thought. But it's not alien: it's human.
- The absence of a UA shell, or presence of any probes, around the other nebulae where barnacles can be found suggests that 'they' might not even know about them.

If there is any possibility of finding evidence of this hidden human actor, then I think we need to get on the case. It could be there somewhere, and perhaps the reason we haven't found it yet is not because it's not there, but because we've been looking for the wrong thing.

Either way - if I, and the many other people whose ideas have contributed to this post, are right - then we might be looking at a bigger enemy than the Thargoids here. Equally, we might not have a choice about things going south despite our best attempts.

Sorry for such a long post! o7

This is a decent synopsis, I like it.
Is it possible that the UP's have correlation to the guardians ?? Are we manipulating old Guardian AI tech ??
In the original game there was Thargons that came from the Thargoids, if you captured them they would show as Alien Artefacts, Uknown Artefacts may be something similar and they are also found at crash sites in numbers. Have we learnt how to re programme them over the years. They were always the most valuable commodity in previous games.

Are the people responsible for the Dynasty expedition luring Thargoids into bubble space to create panic so they have the option to start afresh and eliminate Fed and Imp supremacy.

What are Alliance doing at Cooper research ?? Is this another form of virus creation ? Was the original virus used or even part of lore ?? If so do Alliance still have an Alien ship ?
What brought down the Aliens to crash ?? Experimental weapons belonging to those behind Dynasty ?
Does someone have access to Raxxla and are using it to manipulate the situation for ultimate power ?

Their attack strategy seems to be to power down ships reducing shields and then using what seems to be a caustic green weapon which burns through hull, They probably target the power plants and essential components.

Looking at the attack markings they seem to form a Hexagon like shape, I presume that these weapons utilise this shape for maximum damage and coverage as hexagons slot together to form a lattice leaving no gaps. Circles would obviously leave gaps.

It seems like they utilise things very well similar to Bees.

I still think they are like Biomechanical Bees, If provoked they will attack. Our weapons don't seem to do damage upon them so this is less of a provocation, What did the Cap Ships do to provoke them ??

 

[Factabulous]

Alright guys, here's the answer to the Barnacle encounter. I have confirmed it several dozen times and helped out some open world players as well.

Steps:
1) Dismiss ship near Barnacle
2) Locate settlement zone boundary by looking at lower menu recall button.
3) move into settlement zone into Barnacle spires

To retry just move out and back into the settlement zone

There is a 30 second window and from my 16 confirmations an approximate 10% spawn rate for each entry into the settlement zone. I have yet to determine if being in the Barnacle boundary spires is a secondary trigger but, haven't confirmed in solo.

Works on both broken and fresh Barnacles, Open, Private, and Solo.

Please do not disturb the Thargoids

-Public Static Void

Didn't work for me in solo / PG

What do you mean by "30 second window" - do I have to wait 30 seconds before trying again? How do I know it's worked - is it immediate on reaching the spires?

"To retry just move out and back into the settlement zone" - implies I can just shimmy over the settlement zone without going to the spires (I tried that as well, also no joy).

Shame I can't repeat - the exclusion zone is wide enough that it would account for people not accidentally triggering it a lot.

 

[evaldo10]

The 2nd planet in HIP 17044... which just happens to have ammonia-based life...

Also look at the first discovery log !!!!! Its all X'd out. This is why I set off from there yesterday as it looked funny.

 

[Lori Jameson]

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/197798433568980992/324259782813024257/20170613_135213.png
all dead

The question is, do the Thargoids have cargo? If so, Yarr.

Joking aside I belive I have found out why the ships at the barnicles won't attack.
Check the ends of the petals on the ones in the B. sites. They are dying or 'wilting'. Compare this to the petals seen at the crash sites and in the trailer. Somehow they are regenerating!

 

[Unbreakable]

One quick piece of tinfoilery, It was said our interactions could be peaceful, or warlike, it is up to us to decide. Hopefully they take the side of the majority which seems to be peaceful overall, instead of the trigger happy few trying to incite an all out war. Probably will be a CG to decide then eh? Also it was said we will be in open conflict with the Thargoids which to me says they have already decided the outcome. But if you look at the wording a little more, it almost seems like there is something else coming, and we can be at war against another unknown alien species alongside the Thargoids (open conflict with the Thargoids as allys), and not at war against the Thargoids.

Source

 

[=TK=]

Was anyone else able to scan the Private Data Beacon at the back of one of the Capital ships? By scan i mean with the data link scanner same as we do with the Comm arrays at thew generation ships

I managed to maneuver my ASP into the open bay at the back and get within 100m of it, but it wouldn't scan.

I did get a pop up on screen saying i'd picked up some scan data as soon as i targeted it though

 

[Jintosh]

One quick piece of tinfoilery, It was said our interactions could be peaceful, or warlike, it is up to us to decide. Hopefully they take the side of the majority which seems to be peaceful overall, instead of the trigger happy few trying to incite an all out war. Probably will be a CG to decide then eh? Also it was said we will be in open conflict with the Thargoids which to me says they have already decided the outcome. But if you look at the wording a little more, it almost seems like there is something else coming, and we can be at war against another unknown alien species alongside the Thargoids (open conflict with the Thargoids as allys), and not at war against the Thargoids.

Source

I seem to recall someone ?Mr Braben? talking about how there was someone else out there more scary than the Thargoids, so it could well be that we could end up as the Human Thargoid Alliance . . . or maybe even the "enemy of my enemy is my friend" friends with whoever that 'more scary' thing is

 

[Jintosh]

Was anyone else able to scan the Private Data Beacon at the back of one of the Capital ships? By scan i mean with the data link scanner same as we do with the Comm arrays at thew generation ships

I managed to maneuver my ASP into the open bay at the back and get within 100m of it, but it wouldn't scan.

I did get a pop up on screen saying i'd picked up some scan data as soon as i targeted it though

I got the same result as you. Scan data notice when finding the data point, but not able to scan it manually.