I'm drifting through the New Outer Arm and thinking of answers to some crucial questions. And I must admit, that I personally really missed one obvious answer on the maybe most important question for our search. But let me pose this again and some more:
What was the old lady searching for?
Why is Lady Kahina as "Salome", the leader of the Children of Raxxla hurrying to the edge of the Formidine Rift and even faster back - and not as "Kahina"? And combined with that: why is a voyage to a completely different region of space (with the DWE) that much enlightening, that it justifies a message like that she gave us at Beagle Point?
By the way: was everybody paying attention at school, when it came to some basic knowledge about our little galaxy und our universe as such?
And has anyone an idea, how rogue planets may evolve? I - at least - thought just yet seriously about it ...
If you want to know my ideas on this, read on.
I really cannot believe, that I missed that reason: Raxxla, or not really Raxxla but it's origins. You may ask why Raxxla could be the reason, because she just talked about serious sh**, she found there. For a better reasoning see 4)
The edge of the galaxy must have characteristics, that are the same all around. That means, you must find inspiration everywhere on the outer arms regarding the question Salome seeks to answer. More again in 4)
As I'm no astronomer, there are people, who can explain this better than me. But what I recall, regarding the age of the galaxy, the numbers are vague. 13.8 Billion years for the universe seems to be consensus - the milky way formed later than some other galaxies, so there must be older galaxies around us.
It also seems quiet sure, that the Milky Way absorbed smaller galaxies in her vicinity. If these galaxies formed earlier than the Milky Way, their star systems should be older than the usual systems formed originally in the Milky Way. So, if we find older star systems in the Milky Way, they must be the result of an absorption of an other galaxy. Raxxla is rumored to be the home of artefacts of an alien race, that do not belong to our galaxy - so much for a first evidence for an absorption. By absorbing a smaller, older galaxy, the gravitational distortions may have torn Raxxla out of its home system and converted it to a rogue planet - that could be another evidence for my theory. If it's right, it makes for some interesting conclusions:
The old lady wasn't looking for Raxxla, but for the originating system. And she seems to have found it - with remnants of anxient alien technology. I was still wondering, why should there be something important to find, when the Federation and the Empire knows it and would be able to recover it. But she was hexedited, so that noone should find these place again and discover import things.
Salome may have found on her way to Beagle Point more systems with unusual ages - I guess they are scattered throughout the outer arms of the Milky Way. That would prove the collision/absorption theory and give her hints for what to look for on the edge of the Formidine Rift. It might even explain her interests in astronomy and her visits in Sol before her departure. And as the story unfolds and the bad powers rise, she is in a hurry to prove her findings at the Formidine Rift and bring the knowledge back.
Star systems with unusual ages would even explain the "Silenced Erimus Riddle" . Erimus was the first out here and may have found star systems with unusual ages - older than the presumptions about the age of the Milky Way. I'm pretty sure, he knows his astronomy - maybe he filed a bug report and got the answer: "no, it's part of a plot, but don't tell anyone!"
Bearing that in mind I will change my personal search strategy:
I guess, we're not looking for a single star system, but for a cluster of very old star systems. This is something to stumble upon, if you don't know, what you're looking for. You just have to look in the right place ("who goes looking")
And if Salome sells her data, we even have breadcrumbs, that give us direction!
So much from my side
best regards,
Crassus
[Update] ? You even cannot arrange one's ideas and write them down and being instantly superseded by history. Modern times *sigh*
[Update2] *rofl* The first three letters from my first update have been magically removed ...
I think there was talk of that! I'm across the rift right now so I didn't pay much attention to the festivities back home... Also it would be awesome if there was a CG to build a CoR station out near the rift. Certainly sounds like a good CG to propose to FD.
I agree that Salome is not even slightly equivalent to Palin. Direct interaction with a player faction isn't comparable at all with public Galnet stories for all and "interaction" entirely through fictional player-submitted Galnet articles. The Canonn-Palin "interaction" was entirely Canonn driven, this seems very different (and very cool).
That said, no ill will in the least to any Children of Raxxla, this is quite an awesome development!
Congratulations to you all, very cool that you're able to play such a role in the developing mystery. Thanks for keeping us all updated.
I've been wanting to get back out into the Rift again myself, maybe I'll see one of you on patrol. o7
So, grateful to LordZoltan and other Canonn scientists for pushing their stories as much and as well as they did, grateful to FD for playing along and approving the stories and Canonn CG's, happy for CoR and excited to see story developing in this new way, and grateful for the work that goes into it all. I just don't understand the unwarranted vitriol certain forum posters seem to direct at Canonn Interstellar. Can we leave the petty passive-aggressiveness behind and focus on the science?
I proposed this a while back and even got a rep from Drew (didn't mention it though because it's not a hint and didn't want to introduce any more tinfoil):
We could really use a forward-deployed base of operations to make long-term exploration of the Rift viable. The creation of Obsidian Orbital in the Maia system gave a huge boost for those researching the unknown artifacts. I made a suggestion a while back about trying to convince Frontier to start a CG where we would deliver hydrogen fuel to Jaques' station in Gliese 1269 with the intention of getting Jaque to move his traveling starport a little closer to the Rift... maybe even as far as NGC 7822. Someplace for us Rifters to call home... at least temporarily.
Frontier re-introduced Jaques to the Elite galaxy with the premise that the station would wander around the galaxy traveling to a new location every Friday. Since then the cybernetic bartender has pretty much sat motionless at Gliese 1269.
I floated this idea up to Frontier last month via email... and haven't heard back. Once again... if there is anyone following this thread who happens to have Frontier's ear... could you please bring this idea to their attention? If we could get Jaques, or even a new construction, built within even a few thousand light-years of the Rift it would make a huge difference in our ability to maintain a constant presence in the Rift until we've solved the mystery.
You're jumping to quite a few conclusions there Zoltan. The CoR faction don't know anything more than anybody else. They're only assigned to patrol a certain section of space. I'm pretty sure they're just being used as a story-telling instrument.
The 'border' they gotta patrol doesn't contain 'it' I'm pretty sure of that. This is just meant, as somebody else put it here, to add some gravitas to the story.
I'm sure this will play out just like the Barnacle story, with a hint that can be solved by anybody. Let's wait for more actual hints to be dropped before we jump to any conlusions I say.
I am reasonably sure you guys are misreading it. I don't think the point is anything at all against CoR, just that Palin stuff was all Galnet-based and not directed at any one group, while apparently some of the Salome communications are direct-message and focused at a specific group. That's not bad (I think it's awesome, personally), it's just different, so the previous poster saying it's the same seems somewhat misguided at best.
I proposed this a while back and even got a rep from Drew (didn't mention it though because it's not a hint and didn't want to introduce any more tinfoil):
I just want to mention that there Are no player factions in ED. There are player suported minor factions that work exactly like other minor faction. As a player, you are not part of the faction. At best you are allied.
Only powers have player members.
The game treats all players the same. As long as Cmdr Salome accepts non CoR friends requests, no one is at a disadvantage.
Why all the fuss in that visit to Sol?
1. Got our attention, certainly
2. Audience with government officials? Maybe
3. Meeting up with "secret allies"/contacts? Maybe
Just want to mention something on this - Kahina's 'show' in Sol always seemed like a bit of misdirection to me. Drew confirmed in the discord chat that Salomé had an ulterior motive to be at Sol.
I think it's important to remember that the watching of the holofac came after her trip to Sol, when she returned (was summoned?) to Achenar.
I wonder now if the reason she kicked up a fuss in Sol was to get the attention of someone in Achenar. Perhaps she had already tried 'official' channels as a senator to find more information about the rift? Maybe she threatened to spill the beans if someone didn't give her access to the archives, so her show in Sol was a bit of bravado showing that she might go to the Feds with her information if the folk in Achenar didn't give her what she wanted? This would go some way to explaining why she was summoned back.
Four weeks ago I submitted a three part SMAC CG with the goal of constructing an 'Exploration Outpost' 2Kly or more Spinward of the bubble. I would be surprised if it gets taken up but you can only hope.
And if you will excuse a bit of shameless plugging... You can find out more about SMAC and it's goals here: https://elite.escape-committee.com/
I did manage to get some coordinates of a sort out of GLAROC in the end that were in the HYPHEERB sector near the rift, but nothing has been found there yet. Have a look at my spreadsheet here for some impressive tinfoilery ... Though you might want to wrap me in tinfoil and throw me overboard after looking at that one
I did manage to get some coordinates of a sort out of GLAROC in the end that were in the HYPHEERB sector near the rift, but nothing has been found there yet. Have a look at my spreadsheet here for some impressive tinfoilery ... Though you might want to wrap me in tinfoil and throw me overboard after looking at that one
If your Cass A target is HYPHEERB SL-K D9-0 I can see some neutron stars that are pretty close to there, don't know if these have been checked out
HYPHEERB AS-R D5-8, HYPHEERB QQ-K D9-4, GLUFOA HQ-G D10-40, HYPHEEG DM-J D10-2,,,all within observation limits from Sol. Probably others too.
I'm halfway back out there, getting punchy from staring into witchspace.
Agreed, please just post the coordinates of wherever these boundary points are. After weeks of floating in and around rift space having key data witheld, albeit temporarily, is a bit frustrating.
Ok, from a long-time lurker and not a real problem-solver type......consider the following tinfoil idea:
"Neverland (or sometimes called Never Never Land) is a fictional location featured in the works of J. M. Barrie and those based on them. It is an imaginary faraway place, where Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, the Lost Boys and other creatures and beings live. The name for the real world is the "Mainland", which suggests Neverland is a small island, reached by flight. Walt Disney's 1953 version of Peter Pan presents the possibility it is located in space, adding "star" to Peter's directions on how to get there: "second star to the right, and straight on (Right on??) till morning" and from afar, these stars depict Neverland in the distance. The 2003 film version echoes this representation, as the children are flown through the solar system to reach Neverland."
Any thoughts.........otherwise I'll just go back to watching..........
Doesn't raise any thoughts for me. Perhaps I'm dense? I'd need a better explanation of where you are going with this line of thought in order to adequately comment. Welcome though! All input is welcome, glad to see you're engaging and not just lurking. Keep flying Commander!
. Erimus was the first out here and may have found star systems with unusual ages - older than the presumptions about the age of the Milky Way. I'm pretty sure, he knows his astronomy - maybe he filed a bug report and got the answer: "no, it's part of a plot, but don't tell anyone!"
