THE FORMIDINE RIFT MYSTERY (Part 4)

[G4RY]

All interesting speculation ... apart from where are you getting the info that that a rescue is a plan at all? As far as i can tell, from Drew's interviews i'm seen, that isn't the case. The players are to be deciding the outcome - throwing a 3rd part into the mix would just feel like be cheating I cannot see them doing that, it just cheapens things unecessarily. Thargoids (or whatever) are longer term stuff imho.

(\(\;;/)/)

I apologize, i don't mean a 'plan' so to speak. More of an opportunity to escape if she becomes overwhelmed. I have no idea what will happen, only time will tell. Most of us who are willing to attend probably won't be in the instance anyway lol
Nobody knows what these flowery ships are at the moment, they are dubbed as Thargoid's by most people. i know the player's are deciding but i just cant see this big event being follow the leader or "she died, end of event".

 

[Volimar]

I'm sure I read somewhere that the starting point was 46 Eridani and then Salomé would be heading corewards... but not sure where I read that.

I'm still trying to get my Sol permit, so haven't had a chance to do much else... stuck on 100% Midshipman and it wont budge :/

I'm still not sure what ship to get for the 29th.. I want something fast with good range and ok at pvp.. I realise my Viper fuel tank is too small to use, so am thinking of fitting out a Diamondback Scout.. or is there something better?

In his interview with Obsidian Ant, Drew stated that you won't need any permits to participate.

 

[Lobey]

The "Thargoid" scan or some variant therof that disables player ships would be perfect for keeping everyone quiet while they got the story done - otherwise we get a "Lord British" event.

 

[-Denali-]

Healing beams and 50 allied rail guns pointing at the attackers rail guns plus Salomes FSD drive constantly jumping. She will be hard to catch.

Yeah, true. Don't mind me i'm just rambling are healing beams really that effective though?

I hope everyone here knows that healing beams only heal someone if you're in a wing with them. If you see Salome or any other person you wish to defend and shoot them while not in their wing, YOU WILL BE DEALING DAMAGE!

 

[BuddyE]

So... I am back. Back home.

That sure was something. I took off just too look at some new asteroid bases and then thought "go for the Rift, you can make it before the event..."
I just was at the right place at the right time. Docked at Farsight Base when the Zurara was found. I ran there, ignoring any advise about the bridge or the Poseidon Wall. I just brute forced my way there.

I stayed 2 days, just to invite as many friends as i could to have a look. I mean, who will go all that way just to look at it, right? Was really fun. Circling it and have people use my fighter to go as close as they want. What else could i do to get people involved in that story?

Now i am back and waiting for the event. Not sure how i can even help, but i will try. Hoping that i learn what this floating grave is really about.

 

[Spider95]

I apologize, i don't mean a 'plan' so to speak. More of an opportunity to escape if she becomes overwhelmed. I have no idea what will happen, only time will tell. Most of us who are willing to attend probably won't be in the instance anyway lol
Nobody knows what these flowery ships are at the moment, they are dubbed as Thargoid's by most people. i know the player's are deciding but i just cant see this big event being follow the leader or "she died, end of event".

What you say is certainly the same as my initial ones i had about the event - that surely there will be an 'out'. But the more I hear and look into it the more I realise this will not be the case at all. The outcome of this event may very likely be: follow the leader, she died. The odds are certainly stacked against her succeeding.

Why can't an event this big end up with the main character dying? It hasd been stated by Drew that this could happen and if so then yes, that is that! If she does die then maybe that is the end of that in the short term... but long there is far more to the story to play out.

(\(\;;/)/)

 

[G4RY]

I think there may be a lot over overthinking going on about this event. Have we not learned from the clues to not overthink things? XD

Think bigger - this event is just one milepost in a bigger journey. It probably will be 'oh have a fight, shoot some stuff, protect Salome' - why is that not enough it is a HUGE thing to happen!

Not exciting enough for Drew's book? LMAO. The fact this is happening is the exciting part - the outcome, well that's just how this part of the story ends. The repurcussions will not doubt ripple down through the game for some time to come I suspect.

I have a feeling some of those disappointed are going to be among those that felt rift mystery was 'just a POI' *sigh*. Take off the blinkers. We are nowhere near figuring out what all this might mean yet!

(\(\;;/)/)

In no way am i thinking this is the end, i know that. And in no way did i complain about the rift lol

My whole point is, whoever get's into the instance that Salome is in, it's either going to end FAST or she will escape and things will go according to plan. Nobody know's who will end up in that instance, could be 90% griefers, if this happens, it's over with 5 minutes flat, not even that. So this BIG event that's currently being spread throughout the ED community will be a fail.

And this is what i mean about something exciting for Drew's book. Even he said in ObsidianAnt's interview he was weary about this, "how would i put that into the book" or something along the lines.

And to answer your recent post:

I would rather she did survive to be honest, but in no way will i get salty if she does die. I'm open to however this plays out.

 

[Tanksy]

The more I've been mulling over the logs, the more I'm building a picture.

Harking back to my previous post --

I think the Zurara was on a separate mission (of sorts) from the "fleet of anacondas" that ended around the Settlement areas. These "Settlements" were either placed there due to technical limitations, not being able to have wrecks floating freely in space (Which makes little sense), or the logs were taken off the ship. Here is an interesting thought -- The settlements were landed by a "cleanup crew", who would of went out to find wrecks and hidden any information, data or leftover cargo nearby. Possibly as an archive, possibly as a storage for continuing future projects in that area.

About Rebecca: She was there three years after the event, but her logs only state that she's been there before but nothing specific about when. What if she was one of the crew-hands aboard Zurara, or one of the Anacondas, and was memory wiped due to the one Anaconda ship that possibly survived (Unlikely, but its log on the 29th didn't state anything about failures or destruction. Only that it was being followed/watched). Alternatively, Rebecca just was exploring and picked up a trace of the signals given off by the beacons. Remember, in one log -- A beacon is activated prematurely, then quickly shut off. Rebecca could of been astute enough to pick up this quick blip and be confused by it, flew out to investigate, got intercepted by the "cleanup crew" or something, and her memory was wiped.

 

[CMDR Percivus Keenblade]

And this is what i mean about something exciting for Drew's book. Even he said in ObsidianAnt's interview he was weary about this, "how would i put that into the book" or something along the lines.

"
Blah blah blah blah
Blah blah
Blahblah
And the griefers roflstompganked Salomé for the fun of it.

The end.
"

Seems like quiet an original ending for a book to me [big grin]

 

[Spider95]

In no way am i thinking this is the end, i know that. And in no way did i complain about the rift lol

My whole point is, whoever get's into the instance that Salome is in, it's either going to end FAST or she will escape and things will go according to plan. Nobody know's who will end up in that instance, could be 90% griefers, if this happens, it's over with 5 minutes flat, not even that. So this BIG event that's currently being spread throughout the ED community will be a fail.

And this is what i mean about something exciting for Drew's book. Even he said in ObsidianAnt's interview he was weary about this, "how would i put that into the book" or something along the lines.

And to answer your recent post:

I would rather she did survive to be honest, but in no way will i get salty if she does die. I'm open to however this plays out.

AH ... my note about the clue was more in reference to the one about 46 Eridani.

Saying that if the event is a fail if salome dies is not correct. From your point of view (and incidently mine too, I will be defending) you want her to survive. If she doesn't then from our point of view we consider that a fail. BUT there are plenty other people in game thought that absolutely want her to die - so for them, if she dies, that would be a success. It is not black and white, shades of grey everywhere. Our faiure could be another groups success. History is written by the winners. It is all a manner of perspective.

What Drew said in the interview was yes that if everyone died it would be difficult to put that into the book: but then he goes on to say that was why there has been a hell of a lot of work gone into trying to mitigte for this as much as possible. That includes being well aware of the griefers and the risks of playing in open. They know what they are letting themselves in for.

The very fact the big stuff is happening is the event and the excitment. This event is only determining a small part of a larger storyline.

(\(\;;/)/)

 

[BluWolve]

The more I've been mulling over the logs, the more I'm building a picture.

Harking back to my previous post --

I think the Zurara was on a separate mission (of sorts) from the "fleet of anacondas" that ended around the Settlement areas. These "Settlements" were either placed there due to technical limitations, not being able to have wrecks floating freely in space (Which makes little sense), or the logs were taken off the ship. Here is an interesting thought -- The settlements were landed by a "cleanup crew", who would of went out to find wrecks and hidden any information, data or leftover cargo nearby. Possibly as an archive, possibly as a storage for continuing future projects in that area.

About Rebecca: She was there three years after the event, but her logs only state that she's been there before but nothing specific about when. What if she was one of the crew-hands aboard Zurara, or one of the Anacondas, and was memory wiped due to the one Anaconda ship that possibly survived (Unlikely, but its log on the 29th didn't state anything about failures or destruction. Only that it was being followed/watched). Alternatively, Rebecca just was exploring and picked up a trace of the signals given off by the beacons. Remember, in one log -- A beacon is activated prematurely, then quickly shut off. Rebecca could of been astute enough to pick up this quick blip and be confused by it, flew out to investigate, got intercepted by the "cleanup crew" or something, and her memory was wiped.

Trying to look back over the dynasty expedition logs, thinking along the lines that one of those was Rebecca. When I first read them I was aware of the terms that were references to the formidine rift mystery, but didn't consider that one of them could actually have been her. The FR dynasty missions Delta and Alpha are two that stick out to me, especially delta mission -

Spoiler

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 1/6
Expedition Log: 30/08/3270
"I should have paid a bit more attention to the mission description. I just saw the credit count and signed up there and then. More money than I've ever earned and all in one go, just for taking a year out. What's a poor girl got to do? A bit of jaunt into the void, how bad could it be? Didn't read the bit about several thousand light years. I've been past Leesti before! Get rich scheme - let's go!

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 2/6
Expedition Log: 12/09/3270
"It's pretty out there, we've seen a gorgeous double nebula called Heart and Soul. You should see it, lots of bright blue stars nearby, wish we could divert to have a closer look, but our mission is beyond apparently. Really brings back how big the galaxy is. Make you feel real small and insignificant.

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 3/6
Expedition Log: 18/09/3270
"My job is the EVA. Taking out one of out two Sidewinders and dropping beacons out in the void and then making sure they are activated. Not sure what these things are for. Who needs a beacon this far out anyway? Weird, they all have this code in their BIOS - 'Exodus'. Still, at least I now have something to do. The journey was so dull! Months of travel to get here.

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 4/6
Expedition Log: 01/10/3270
"Something weird happened today. Unloaded another beacon and set it up, then everything went offline - and I mean everything! Life support too! No comms, nothing. Stayed that way for about two minutes. Then everything was back to normal. Affected our support ship too. No idea what caused it. Going to need new underwear when I get back. Rumours are there is something odd about this area of space.

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 5/6
Expedition Log: 11/11/3270
"Oh my God ... someone help me. Where are they ... please ... this can't be happening.

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 6/6
Expedition Log: 29/11/3270
"I've had time to accept it now. I went out as normal with one of the beacons, set it up. Had that weird power loss again. I waited and it all came back online like before. Signalled my support ship - no response. Flew back and it was gone, just debris. No survivors. Don't know what happened. It's just me and this crappy Sidewinder a zillion miles from home. Should have known it wasn't going to work out. If it's too good to be true.... There's an Earth-like world here, going to try and reach it ... you never know.

That could be Rebecca, would explain her motive for uncovering the plot.

 

[Tanksy]

That could be Rebecca, would explain her motive for uncovering the plot.

She could have easily been picked up and memory wiped, too. BUT, she talks about visiting the Zurara once before, and I doubt she'd of gotten to it in that little Sidewinder the girl in the logs was left with.

Now the general feeling I get from the logs is that alien ships are the ones that destroyed the anacondas. What if Aliens are the ones who memory wiped Rebecca?

Edit:

Hexedit is a drug that wipes memories and kills the person who takes it. I've never heard of it outside of the incident on the Zurara, so my guess is that the cargo crew had orders from outside to take the drug (Probably not knowing its effects), whilst Rebecca only lost her memory. Could be two different methods of memory wiping going on. Possibly, from two different parties. "Sirius" might of used Hexedit, whilst perhaps there is an alien presence, or rather was an alien presence, at the Zurara that could have caused Rebecca to lose memories of that place. Rather than trying to cover things up, it could be memory wipe to try and hide.

 

[Jaiotu]

Who is she and what does she want?

I haven't read the Oolite sagas, so what's her motivation in all this in the first place. In Altera when she talks to the guy in the shadowy cowl [I'd really like to try an inconspicuous shadowy cowl meet in the food court of a mega mall or shadowy cowl flash mob, probably a good way to stage a suicide by mall cop] is he dark wheel, inra someone else? I like INRA the most for things as they are conspicuous by absence of ever being mentioned.

"Dynasty" expeditions. The name might imply the Empire?

Why is Rebecca chasing this stuff in the first place?

Rebecca Tyley was the main character in Drew's Oolite Saga. After the events in the first book, Status Quo, her name was last name was changed to Weston. In the Oolite Saga time travel is a thing so it's hard to say just what version of Rebecca is which when that story line reached it's conclusion. I think, at the end of the final book, her name would have reverted back from Rebecca Weston to Rebecca Tiley.

At one point she met a future version of herself who was a member of The Dark Wheel ... and that person she met in Altera who was wearing the cowl certainly reminds me of the description Drew gave to one of the two members of TDW which she encountered in Mutabilis:

Spoiler

Rebecca was jolted out of her reverie and looked up into the hooded cowl of a heavily cloaked figure. She hadn’t even noticed him arrive. His face was shadowed, and he gave the impression of being hunched over. His voice was rough, as if he’d suffered some accident or disease that had affected his vocal cords. Yet the accent was cultured, sophisticated even.

What does / did Rebecca want? To make a difference. She was an Elite Combateer and that's what they always do. They make a difference.

 

[RevLogos]

My whole point is, whoever get's into the instance that Salome is in, it's either going to end FAST or she will escape and things will go according to plan. Nobody know's who will end up in that instance, could be 90% griefers, if this happens, it's over with 5 minutes flat, not even that. So this BIG event that's currently being spread throughout the ED community will be a fail.

I think there's a 99.99% chance she (they) high-wake out of 46 Eridani before anyone gets within 1,000 ls.

The challenge will be at the destination, where presumably she will need to reach some starport, outpost, or IMHO an unregistered comm beacon, then send the message heard 'round the bubble.

If they keep the destination secret then even that's easy. But then that wouldn't be as much fun.

 

[Jaiotu]

She could have easily been picked up and memory wiped, too. BUT, she talks about visiting the Zurara once before, and I doubt she'd of gotten to it in that little Sidewinder the girl in the logs was left with.

Now the general feeling I get from the logs is that alien ships are the ones that destroyed the anacondas. What if Aliens are the ones who memory wiped Rebecca?

Edit:

Hexedit is a drug that wipes memories and kills the person who takes it. I've never heard of it outside of the incident on the Zurara, so my guess is that the cargo crew had orders from outside to take the drug (Probably not knowing its effects), whilst Rebecca only lost her memory. Could be two different methods of memory wiping going on. Possibly, from two different parties. "Sirius" might of used Hexedit, whilst perhaps there is an alien presence, or rather was an alien presence, at the Zurara that could have caused Rebecca to lose memories of that place. Rather than trying to cover things up, it could be memory wipe to try and hide.

I'm pretty sure that Hexedit can be formulated to wipe the victim's memory without killing them as well. Although it's not Elite: Dangerous canon both Jim Feynman and Rebecca Weston agreed to allow Galcop hexedit their memories at the end of Status Quo. The Hexedit used aboard the Zurara was probably a cocktail of multiple drugs. The question is: why wipe their memories at all if they could have just killed them off? Makes me wonder if the technology of 3302 makes it possible to scan a person's brain postmortem and retrieve at least some record of memories. That would explain the need for a mindwipe before finishing them off.

 

[IliteratSqirel]

The more I've been mulling over the logs, the more I'm building a picture.

Harking back to my previous post --

I think the Zurara was on a separate mission (of sorts) from the "fleet of anacondas" that ended around the Settlement areas. These "Settlements" were either placed there due to technical limitations, not being able to have wrecks floating freely in space (Which makes little sense), or the logs were taken off the ship. Here is an interesting thought -- The settlements were landed by a "cleanup crew", who would of went out to find wrecks and hidden any information, data or leftover cargo nearby. Possibly as an archive, possibly as a storage for continuing future projects in that area.

About Rebecca: She was there three years after the event, but her logs only state that she's been there before but nothing specific about when. What if she was one of the crew-hands aboard Zurara, or one of the Anacondas, and was memory wiped due to the one Anaconda ship that possibly survived (Unlikely, but its log on the 29th didn't state anything about failures or destruction. Only that it was being followed/watched). Alternatively, Rebecca just was exploring and picked up a trace of the signals given off by the beacons. Remember, in one log -- A beacon is activated prematurely, then quickly shut off. Rebecca could of been astute enough to pick up this quick blip and be confused by it, flew out to investigate, got intercepted by the "cleanup crew" or something, and her memory was wiped.

Trying to look back over the dynasty expedition logs, thinking along the lines that one of those was Rebecca. When I first read them I was aware of the terms that were references to the formidine rift mystery, but didn't consider that one of them could actually have been her. The FR dynasty missions Delta and Alpha are two that stick out to me, especially delta mission -

Spoiler

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 1/6
Expedition Log: 30/08/3270
"I should have paid a bit more attention to the mission description. I just saw the credit count and signed up there and then. More money than I've ever earned and all in one go, just for taking a year out. What's a poor girl got to do? A bit of jaunt into the void, how bad could it be? Didn't read the bit about several thousand light years. I've been past Leesti before! Get rich scheme - let's go!

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 2/6
Expedition Log: 12/09/3270
"It's pretty out there, we've seen a gorgeous double nebula called Heart and Soul. You should see it, lots of bright blue stars nearby, wish we could divert to have a closer look, but our mission is beyond apparently. Really brings back how big the galaxy is. Make you feel real small and insignificant.

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 3/6
Expedition Log: 18/09/3270
"My job is the EVA. Taking out one of out two Sidewinders and dropping beacons out in the void and then making sure they are activated. Not sure what these things are for. Who needs a beacon this far out anyway? Weird, they all have this code in their BIOS - 'Exodus'. Still, at least I now have something to do. The journey was so dull! Months of travel to get here.

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 4/6
Expedition Log: 01/10/3270
"Something weird happened today. Unloaded another beacon and set it up, then everything went offline - and I mean everything! Life support too! No comms, nothing. Stayed that way for about two minutes. Then everything was back to normal. Affected our support ship too. No idea what caused it. Going to need new underwear when I get back. Rumours are there is something odd about this area of space.

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 5/6
Expedition Log: 11/11/3270
"Oh my God ... someone help me. Where are they ... please ... this can't be happening.

Formidine Rift Delta Mission 6/6
Expedition Log: 29/11/3270
"I've had time to accept it now. I went out as normal with one of the beacons, set it up. Had that weird power loss again. I waited and it all came back online like before. Signalled my support ship - no response. Flew back and it was gone, just debris. No survivors. Don't know what happened. It's just me and this crappy Sidewinder a zillion miles from home. Should have known it wasn't going to work out. If it's too good to be true.... There's an Earth-like world here, going to try and reach it ... you never know.

That could be Rebecca, would explain her motive for uncovering the plot.

Exactly what we had been discussing back when the expedition sites were originally being discovered. Sorry to necro my own posts, but:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ift-(Part-3)?p=5054699&viewfull=1#post5054699

TL : DR
Crushdepth and I thought back then already that the wording of one of entries "galaxy just hanging there" strongly indicated that TOW was not only part of the Dynasty expedition, but wrote one of those entries herself.
This would then fit with your theories, BluWolve and Tanksy.

I also hypothesized that she was going to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, for example by inserting a hint to the RR line into the recorded message, in case it found its way back into the imperial databanks the bubble: "Can't believe it's nearly six months since we set out from Riedquat. Did I say Riedquat? I meant Reorte."

 

[lorrad]

Exactly what we had been discussing back when the expedition sites were originally being discovered. Sorry to necro my own posts, but:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ift-(Part-3)?p=5054699&viewfull=1#post5054699

TL : DR
Crushdepth and I thought back then already that the wording of one of entries "galaxy just hanging there" strongly indicated that TOW was not only part of the Dynasty expedition, but wrote one of those entries herself.
This would then fit with your theories, BluWolve and Tanksy.

I also hypothesized that she was going to leave a trail of breadcrumbs, for example by inserting a hint to the RR line into the recorded message, in case it found its way back into the imperial databanks the bubble: "Can't believe it's nearly six months since we set out from Riedquat. Did I say Riedquat? I meant Reorte."

I like that one too, matches her speech patterns in Reclamation adding the oldtimer expression 'going dooally'. The problem come later with her being spaced and maybe rescued like Halsey? Maybe the singing Architects are guardian ai?

Perhaps a bit of catnip to distract us.

1. 21/08/3270 Why the hell are we out here? No one seems to know. It's taken months and still we're not there, wherever there is. We're dropping these beacons. Supposedly nobody knows what they're fore. If they do they aint telling. Makes no sense, there's nothing out here,,, and who would come all this way anyway.

2. 28/08/3270 We're still travelling. Jump drive mal functioned today, that made an interesting diversion. It's going to take a while to fix. This area of space is g me out. Could have sworn I heard some weird voices in the last jump. We are a long way from home. We're struggling to plot a course now, we're leaving the galactic arm and the jumps are getting longer.

3. 07/09/3270 Finally fixed the drive, more monotony. Can't believe it's nearly six months since we set out from Riedquat. Did I say Riedquat? I meant Reorte. It's getting to me, this endless emptiness. The guys are showing the strain. Three more months before we can turn around and head back. The star are thinning out, you can see the whole galaxy just hanging there,,,

4.22/09/3270 The darkness grows. The galaxy is faint and dim behind us. I'm told this place has been nicknamed the Formidine Rift. Apparently that means fear in some old Earth language. It's an apt name, some of the guys are going space crazy out here in the void. We had to sedate one guy, he went completely dooally. We've not seen another soul for weeks. Just us and this ship,, alone,,, in the darkness,,,

5. 07/10/3270 I'm scared,,,help me someone,, I can't bear another jump. The lights in witch-space are coming for me, the lights, always the lights,,, they're calling to me,,, a siren song ,,, I must join them,,,

6. 08/10/3270 Automated telemetry report: canopy blast bolts activate. Life support malfunction. Crew vital signs terminated. Ship systems engaging standby mode. Distress beacon activated.

 

[Crash1099]

Just a warning if you are going to the site of the ship bunch of livestream trolls going there.

 

[IliteratSqirel]

Yep, number three is the one. You see how the last sentence there matches the words in Reclamation EXACTLY. So moving from there to the assumption this is TOW writing the message, then this is an Elite pilot writing the message. Do they make mistakes like confusing the starting point of their expedition? Nah. Also, she could have edited out the mistake from the message, but she didn't. She left it there deliberately, I'm thinking.

 

[NeilF]

If the whole event consists of watching Salome buckyball a couple of hundred LYs, then this week's salt is going to look like a toddler's temper tantrum against the excrement-storm that will break loose.
I assume Drew has something a little more interactive planned.

Yep. Going to interesting to see what unfolds given the limitations of the engine. Ie: Multiple instances and limited gameplay depth/scenarios available.