An address to the Congressional Committee on Extraterrestrial Affairs:
As we are all aware, events in the Pleiades are progressing rapidly, and each day the threat they seem to pose to our species grows. While consensus has not yet been reached on what to call the city-sized, fungoid lifeform located on HIP 19026 B1C, a rush of independent pilots have separately analyzed the variety of anomalous biochemical compounds present at the site; a wide variety of proprietary scanner firmware appear to be drawing similar, if not identical, readings, suggesting a relatively high degree of confidence in their data. To that end, I am attempting to synthesize these findings into some meaningful conclusions about the highly-advanced extraterrestrial life we can now be certain exists in close proximity to human space. The readouts for each sample have been sourced from a Lakon-manufactured ship-mounted scanner, but they are corroborated by scans from Faulcon DeLacy and Core Dynamics equipment.
My immediate comments on the samples themselves were written at the time of collection and as such are fairly informal.
SAMPLE 1
> Degraded lubricant analysed.
> Foreign particles located - possible RNA like structure identified.
This one is clearest to me. Within the degraded lubricant, there are (free-floating?) complex polymers similar to RNA in structure, which suggests some kind of volatile genetic data is being stored or transferred - RNA is the plaintext to DNA's archive file; DNA is much more stable but RNA is ribosomes know how to read. Will need to consult scanner documentation on what exactly "RNA-like" implies.
SAMPLES 2, 3
> Unidentified liquid detected.
> Carbon molecular chains analysed.
> Ammonia bonded molecular chains recorded.
> Dense genetic information postulated.
Okay, this is real interesting. There's carbon *and* ammonia biochemistry going on, and the ammonia biochemistry apparently has its own, remarkably dense storage mechanism. I have literally no idea how you'd store genetic data while being made of ammonia, but clearly somebody's figured it out.
SAMPLE 4
> Unusual sample extracted.
> Spore like inert growth analysed.
Not good. Spores mean reproduction. Some aspect of the giant moldy alien butthole is still alive enough to produce gametes, or was recently enough that the results are still viable, although apparently inert. Assuming the worst, any ships that enter the planet's drop zone are likely contaminated with at least a few viable spores. I would suggest instating a quarantine, but the Federal Navy could never deploy to the system in time. Hopefully, these spores are not well-suited to survival in a typical hyperspace corridor.
SAMPLE 5
> Paramagnetic polymer compounds search.
> Complex bonding with degraded organic material.
Okay, so this would seem to confirm that there are two primary biological actors at work at the site: degrading organic (carbon-based) material, and something else which is intiating complex bonding with it, possibly instigated by some big paramagnetic biomolecules.
SAMPLE 6
> Electroactive conjugated block polymers analysed.
> No matching records found.
So, electroactive polymers are synthetic molecules whose shape can be altered by electrical stimulation (or the reverse, accumulating electrical charge in response to physical stimulation). I don't think they occur naturally in any Earth-based life, but that doesn't mean they *can't* evolve on their own. This is almost certainly related to the paramagnetic polymers in sample 5.
SAMPLE 7
> Infra-red sensitive oligomer chains isolated.
> Multi-function use capable.
My first instinct was that this represents some kind of "smart" molecule, which can be programmed via infrared signals, but that's not necessarily the case. It may simply be a naturally multifunctional molecule which absorbs energy over the infrared spectrum, maybe roughly equivalent to chlorophyll for life that evolved in the light of a differernt class of star. If that's the case, it suggests at least one form of life involved here has a fairly mundane source of energy, and one that we could potentially restrict their access to on a strategic level- good news for mankind.
SAMPLE 8
> Flaked material investigated.
> Unknown sample contains unidentified ceramics.
Uh. Hm. Ceramics are generally not something you associate with natural biochemistry, or advanced bioengineering- if anything, they're a characteristic feature of early human civilizations. Was this place once a Guardian cultural site? We know their morphology and society exhibited many similarties - even covergent evolution - with ours. I have no solid answers, though.
SAMPLE 9
> Bonding medium scanned.
> Organic nature established. Matches other samples to 70% certainty.
An organic adhesive, maybe? Or is it referring to chemical bonding? If so, it may mean that the ammonia-based life can partially manipulate organic biochemistry in order to break down carbon-based biomass.
SAMPLE 10
> Detected cracked oligomer crystal.
> Incoherent structure for possible pathways through crystal.
> Unable to identify agent.
Some kind of small crystalline biomolecule. I don't really know what it means by "possible pathways" - is that an optics thing? Consult with crystallography expert.
-------------
So, conclusions:
* There are definitely two forms of life active at this site.
* One is carbon-based and apparently degrading, which is consistent with the rotting apperance of much of the structure.
* Another is ammonia-based, highly complex, and capable of manipulating the carbon-based life despite ammonia's instability above extremely cold temperatures. This is most likely related to the "chilling" effect that Unknown Ships have been shown to exhibit on human vessels. It also appears to take advantage of sophisticated electrochemical phenomena, which in turn could be responsible for the disabling effects of Thargoid biomass on human technology.
* The presence of ceramics suggests - without certainty - that a vaguely humanoid intelligence once occupied this site.
* In the absence of any other contenders, we must assume the Guardians were that intelligence, perhaps in the very early stages of their development (I don't think it's time yet to claim we've found the Guardian homeworld, but HIP 19026 B1C should be considered a contender for it).
* The behavior of the ammonia-based life is consistent with decomposer organisms in our own ecosystem, albeit on a much, much larger scale.
Here is my final speculation, then: the site we have located was once a large-scale Guardian settlement, comparable in size to a 34th century Planetary Port. It is currently being broken down and, one assumes, digested, by a form of life that seems highly related to both Organic Structure nodules ("Barnacles") and Unknown Ships. The Guardian Ruins we've found may be what was left of this site before the decomposers arrived, or it may in fact be what they leave behind (meaning, troublingly, that every Guardian site previously discovered was once host to a megaorganism like this one).
The relation between these two forms of life remains extremely murky, and I advise against jumping to conclusions, but I find myself constantly returning to only one real possibility: Thargoids, or the larger biosphere they hail from, have evolved to break down and consume technological civilizations much like fungi and insect larvae break down individual corpses. They are not malicious so much as filling the ecological niche created by our species' apparently-imminent demise.
This is cause for concern, but not panic.
missing_EOF_exception: data stream contains bad suffix [195359 bytes | expected 1]
> switchmode --interpretive -f
+ENDCODEC[PLAINTEXT]
+EXEC[FORCE_FAILOVER;cryptlib.fdn.secure.33010601]
+AUTHPROMPT_INTERACTIVE[]
> $(&pilotsfed_generic_credentials)
..............................................................................................VALID!
credential set authorizes partial decryption only. output plaintext? [y/N] Y
metadata: {origin: "AlcazarsHopeDownlinkSECURE_FDN", author: "s_morrenwell", dest: "loopback", recipient: "\$OVERRIDEDEST[OFS:A_TANNER]"}
body: {
that moldy ammonia sphincter is going to kill us all. it's gangrene. gangrene that afflicts an entire civilization all at once, and eats it once it's dead. that's where Ram Tah's stupid goddamn aliens went.
right after ||||||||||||| smeaton, halsey's people updated the old contingency plans from the trander administration. find them, we were good enough at our jobs that a few copies must have survived your purge of the |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||. skip the first four cases. continuity of government, much less sol's security, is not our primary concern here; we need to ensure a genetically viable population - ideally several - makes it out of the core worlds, unless you want the future human race to all inherit hudson's turkey neck and an obligation to inbreed. colonia can serve as a backup but it's far too well-known; california nebula is not only non-viable but should be actively avoided. i don't know what the hell went down in clearwater, and you might not either, but i think we've both tumbled to |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| and who Halsey really spoke with. she's got mahon's ear now, presumably because of |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| you fantastically gigantic idiots. the alliance defense forces should now be considered less trustworthy than harold duval after you got him hooked on wolf fesh.
we might get lucky. most likely, they won't form a coherent invasion force in the traditional sense; chemically, they're basically a giant pack of cigarettes with an EMP and hyperdrive attached. restricting access to infrared radiation - and abandoning systems where this is infeasible - will slow them further; if you can get access to ||||||||||||||||||||||| then there'll never be a better time to use it; a few more jackson's lighthouses is a small price to pay. but they're batting a thousand here, and every piece of data tells me they've been around a lot longer than us. this will never be anything better than a tactical retreat, and if you crap the bed hard enough it'll be a lot worse than that. long term, the orion spur is not salvageable.
research will continue into the nature of their collective c&c; this is going to necessitate opening up the ||||||||||||||||||||||| which obviously neither of us know about.
in the event that we reach a substantial understanding of their minds, if they have them, the natural temptation will be to use any means at our disposal to guide them away from sol and toward achenar. i hope i don't need to inform you that this would be a petty and self-defeating move against other members of our species during a time of existential peril. on an entirely unrelated note, ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||[unexpected EOF]
As we are all aware, events in the Pleiades are progressing rapidly, and each day the threat they seem to pose to our species grows. While consensus has not yet been reached on what to call the city-sized, fungoid lifeform located on HIP 19026 B1C, a rush of independent pilots have separately analyzed the variety of anomalous biochemical compounds present at the site; a wide variety of proprietary scanner firmware appear to be drawing similar, if not identical, readings, suggesting a relatively high degree of confidence in their data. To that end, I am attempting to synthesize these findings into some meaningful conclusions about the highly-advanced extraterrestrial life we can now be certain exists in close proximity to human space. The readouts for each sample have been sourced from a Lakon-manufactured ship-mounted scanner, but they are corroborated by scans from Faulcon DeLacy and Core Dynamics equipment.
My immediate comments on the samples themselves were written at the time of collection and as such are fairly informal.
SAMPLE 1
> Degraded lubricant analysed.
> Foreign particles located - possible RNA like structure identified.
This one is clearest to me. Within the degraded lubricant, there are (free-floating?) complex polymers similar to RNA in structure, which suggests some kind of volatile genetic data is being stored or transferred - RNA is the plaintext to DNA's archive file; DNA is much more stable but RNA is ribosomes know how to read. Will need to consult scanner documentation on what exactly "RNA-like" implies.
SAMPLES 2, 3
> Unidentified liquid detected.
> Carbon molecular chains analysed.
> Ammonia bonded molecular chains recorded.
> Dense genetic information postulated.
Okay, this is real interesting. There's carbon *and* ammonia biochemistry going on, and the ammonia biochemistry apparently has its own, remarkably dense storage mechanism. I have literally no idea how you'd store genetic data while being made of ammonia, but clearly somebody's figured it out.
SAMPLE 4
> Unusual sample extracted.
> Spore like inert growth analysed.
Not good. Spores mean reproduction. Some aspect of the giant moldy alien butthole is still alive enough to produce gametes, or was recently enough that the results are still viable, although apparently inert. Assuming the worst, any ships that enter the planet's drop zone are likely contaminated with at least a few viable spores. I would suggest instating a quarantine, but the Federal Navy could never deploy to the system in time. Hopefully, these spores are not well-suited to survival in a typical hyperspace corridor.
SAMPLE 5
> Paramagnetic polymer compounds search.
> Complex bonding with degraded organic material.
Okay, so this would seem to confirm that there are two primary biological actors at work at the site: degrading organic (carbon-based) material, and something else which is intiating complex bonding with it, possibly instigated by some big paramagnetic biomolecules.
SAMPLE 6
> Electroactive conjugated block polymers analysed.
> No matching records found.
So, electroactive polymers are synthetic molecules whose shape can be altered by electrical stimulation (or the reverse, accumulating electrical charge in response to physical stimulation). I don't think they occur naturally in any Earth-based life, but that doesn't mean they *can't* evolve on their own. This is almost certainly related to the paramagnetic polymers in sample 5.
SAMPLE 7
> Infra-red sensitive oligomer chains isolated.
> Multi-function use capable.
My first instinct was that this represents some kind of "smart" molecule, which can be programmed via infrared signals, but that's not necessarily the case. It may simply be a naturally multifunctional molecule which absorbs energy over the infrared spectrum, maybe roughly equivalent to chlorophyll for life that evolved in the light of a differernt class of star. If that's the case, it suggests at least one form of life involved here has a fairly mundane source of energy, and one that we could potentially restrict their access to on a strategic level- good news for mankind.
SAMPLE 8
> Flaked material investigated.
> Unknown sample contains unidentified ceramics.
Uh. Hm. Ceramics are generally not something you associate with natural biochemistry, or advanced bioengineering- if anything, they're a characteristic feature of early human civilizations. Was this place once a Guardian cultural site? We know their morphology and society exhibited many similarties - even covergent evolution - with ours. I have no solid answers, though.
SAMPLE 9
> Bonding medium scanned.
> Organic nature established. Matches other samples to 70% certainty.
An organic adhesive, maybe? Or is it referring to chemical bonding? If so, it may mean that the ammonia-based life can partially manipulate organic biochemistry in order to break down carbon-based biomass.
SAMPLE 10
> Detected cracked oligomer crystal.
> Incoherent structure for possible pathways through crystal.
> Unable to identify agent.
Some kind of small crystalline biomolecule. I don't really know what it means by "possible pathways" - is that an optics thing? Consult with crystallography expert.
-------------
So, conclusions:
* There are definitely two forms of life active at this site.
* One is carbon-based and apparently degrading, which is consistent with the rotting apperance of much of the structure.
* Another is ammonia-based, highly complex, and capable of manipulating the carbon-based life despite ammonia's instability above extremely cold temperatures. This is most likely related to the "chilling" effect that Unknown Ships have been shown to exhibit on human vessels. It also appears to take advantage of sophisticated electrochemical phenomena, which in turn could be responsible for the disabling effects of Thargoid biomass on human technology.
* The presence of ceramics suggests - without certainty - that a vaguely humanoid intelligence once occupied this site.
* In the absence of any other contenders, we must assume the Guardians were that intelligence, perhaps in the very early stages of their development (I don't think it's time yet to claim we've found the Guardian homeworld, but HIP 19026 B1C should be considered a contender for it).
* The behavior of the ammonia-based life is consistent with decomposer organisms in our own ecosystem, albeit on a much, much larger scale.
Here is my final speculation, then: the site we have located was once a large-scale Guardian settlement, comparable in size to a 34th century Planetary Port. It is currently being broken down and, one assumes, digested, by a form of life that seems highly related to both Organic Structure nodules ("Barnacles") and Unknown Ships. The Guardian Ruins we've found may be what was left of this site before the decomposers arrived, or it may in fact be what they leave behind (meaning, troublingly, that every Guardian site previously discovered was once host to a megaorganism like this one).
The relation between these two forms of life remains extremely murky, and I advise against jumping to conclusions, but I find myself constantly returning to only one real possibility: Thargoids, or the larger biosphere they hail from, have evolved to break down and consume technological civilizations much like fungi and insect larvae break down individual corpses. They are not malicious so much as filling the ecological niche created by our species' apparently-imminent demise.
This is cause for concern, but not panic.
missing_EOF_exception: data stream contains bad suffix [195359 bytes | expected 1]
> switchmode --interpretive -f
+ENDCODEC[PLAINTEXT]
+EXEC[FORCE_FAILOVER;cryptlib.fdn.secure.33010601]
+AUTHPROMPT_INTERACTIVE[]
> $(&pilotsfed_generic_credentials)
..............................................................................................VALID!
credential set authorizes partial decryption only. output plaintext? [y/N] Y
metadata: {origin: "AlcazarsHopeDownlinkSECURE_FDN", author: "s_morrenwell", dest: "loopback", recipient: "\$OVERRIDEDEST[OFS:A_TANNER]"}
body: {
that moldy ammonia sphincter is going to kill us all. it's gangrene. gangrene that afflicts an entire civilization all at once, and eats it once it's dead. that's where Ram Tah's stupid goddamn aliens went.
right after ||||||||||||| smeaton, halsey's people updated the old contingency plans from the trander administration. find them, we were good enough at our jobs that a few copies must have survived your purge of the |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||. skip the first four cases. continuity of government, much less sol's security, is not our primary concern here; we need to ensure a genetically viable population - ideally several - makes it out of the core worlds, unless you want the future human race to all inherit hudson's turkey neck and an obligation to inbreed. colonia can serve as a backup but it's far too well-known; california nebula is not only non-viable but should be actively avoided. i don't know what the hell went down in clearwater, and you might not either, but i think we've both tumbled to |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| and who Halsey really spoke with. she's got mahon's ear now, presumably because of |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||| you fantastically gigantic idiots. the alliance defense forces should now be considered less trustworthy than harold duval after you got him hooked on wolf fesh.
we might get lucky. most likely, they won't form a coherent invasion force in the traditional sense; chemically, they're basically a giant pack of cigarettes with an EMP and hyperdrive attached. restricting access to infrared radiation - and abandoning systems where this is infeasible - will slow them further; if you can get access to ||||||||||||||||||||||| then there'll never be a better time to use it; a few more jackson's lighthouses is a small price to pay. but they're batting a thousand here, and every piece of data tells me they've been around a lot longer than us. this will never be anything better than a tactical retreat, and if you crap the bed hard enough it'll be a lot worse than that. long term, the orion spur is not salvageable.
research will continue into the nature of their collective c&c; this is going to necessitate opening up the ||||||||||||||||||||||| which obviously neither of us know about.
in the event that we reach a substantial understanding of their minds, if they have them, the natural temptation will be to use any means at our disposal to guide them away from sol and toward achenar. i hope i don't need to inform you that this would be a petty and self-defeating move against other members of our species during a time of existential peril. on an entirely unrelated note, ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||[unexpected EOF]