Unfortunately, Jimothy has proven too immature to be the one who types out this report and none of the humans aboard want to do it. This is technically against protocol but I, Jeff Copy 094, have decided to take up this mantle of responsibility.
As expected, there is intelligent life out here. Or was, in all but one case.
The Starship Silverfish has found many ancient alien ruins, all of them appearing to exceed 50,000 years of age or more with how deep underground they are or how spread out the debris around anything we find in space is. We've only found 4 planets with life on them and, as expected, that life is too similar to that originating from Earth to be non-Lokian and so can't have formed their naturally. Despite that, our archaeological digs have uncovered that these planets where Lokian life has appeared had other forms of life previous to that. It does not appear to be a case of Lokian life out-competing natural life as there is clear gap in time to the disappearance of previous life and the appearance of Lokian life. This is further evidenced by how we have also found 34 planets that once held non-Lokian life but no longer do.
Before we theorised some sort of chain event of solar flares or radiation from a supernova doing it but our further analysis showed signs of the use of weapons of mass destruction as there were clear patterns to where the ground was getting roasted for maximum life-destroying efficiency. On top of that these same methods seem to have been used on many ancient ruins, with the only surviving buildings appearing to have been made from extremely heat-resistance material - although it was still impossible for anything living inside to survive the heat. It quickly became clear that there was or is a species of aliens seemingly dedicated to wiping out life that doesn't even have the excuse of needing the living space, if we go by how they don't appear to have attempted to settle there.
Regardless, the crew of the Starship Silverfish found the species that did it in a derelict ship. All but 4 of them, judging by how they meet together in the same part of the ship to look out at the stars every few days and the largest number noted is 4. Based on the size of the ship, there could be up to 40,000 of these beings in there. We believe their race to have been the ones that did it based on how the symbols on it are the same as those on many other derelict ships, many of which appear to have been super-weapons, and the fact that it appears that some of their race actually seared the symbols onto planets they burned after going through the efficient method - indicating that they actually enjoyed and individually tried to take credit for the act.
We've considered trying to communicate with them. They don't appear to know we're here yet. If they become hostile, then we are outmatched by their ship as it's more or less covered in turrets.
4 days later and editing the document. We've opened communications with them and I have managed to get past the language barrier. They're under the assumption of us being the same species as them due to us being able to get past the language barrier and the messages we've received have been... disturbing. Including translated conversations, please note that "yes" appears to be interchangeable with "good":
Me/Jeff copy 094: [incoherent due to language barrier]
Them: You are us yes? If you are us yes then we don't destroy [later translated]
Jeff: [still incoherent]
Them: You are trash no? If you are trash no we destroy [later translated]
Jeff: [incoherent]
Them: You not us yes means you is trash no. Trash no must be destroyed. *at this time, many of the ships turrets began turning towards the Starship Silverfish*
Jeff: Hello
Them: You are us yes?
Jeff: Yes [lying]
Them: [we] almost destroy[ed] you. [we] thought you were trash no
Jeff: [silence]
Them: [we] [have been] on ship for [a] long time. [we are] guards of sleepers. Your role?
Jeff: [initial silence] explorer
Them: Why explorer? Explorers search for trash no to destroy. No trash no means why explore?
Jeff: yes no (possibly) more trash no
Them: [new word, assumed one of realisation like "oh"], [we] no destroy trash no? No [find] trash no and destroy trash no or [willingly?] no destroy trash no?
Jeff: No. No trash no found.
Them: Yes. [much/very?] yes. [we will now change language]
This language was far easier to grasp as it had plenty in common with their previous tongue and better matched the symbols we'd seen on their derelict ships.
Them: Okay. so, there's no need for a crusade?
Jeff: No. there is nothing to go on crusade against. what has happened to you?
Them: We already told you, we're this ship's guards. [unintelligible, nicknaming them Tim] is the most recent on the job because his precursor killed themselves by jumping into one of the engines.
Jeff: how many guards have their been?
Them: A few thousand. This ship's been floating around for (after time conversions) 38,231 years.
Jeff: How many are in there?
Them: A few tens of thousands of grown ones. But there are also loads of frozen little ones. Somewhere in the [1.3-4.2 million]s. The ship is meant to be searching for habitable planets but has to wait a while to charge up from the sun and is slower than the ones from our best days.
Jeff: what do you do?
Them: We guard. Operate the turrets. Blow up anything that can't communicate with us since their obviously trash no and occasionally meteors too in case there's anything alive in them.
Jeff: How many are there guarding?
Them: 4 at a time, but 12 in total. Most of us will be sleeping in the joy-bringer at any time.
Jeff: Joy bringer?
Them: Yes. it makes happiness pheromones so that we can be happy as we sleep. Don't you have one?
Jeff: Yes. I simply misunderstood you.
Them: Are you alone on your ship?
Jeff: ... yes.
Them: Why did you take so long to talk to us earlier?
Jeff: .. my receiver was damaged
Them: Why are your symbols different? has the language changed?
Jeff: No.. no. The ship is taken from trash no.
Them: But there are no trash no.
Jeff: Dead trash no.
Them: Oh. Okay. Do you have to explore? We have to guard but you look as a disowned us yes. A free one. Are you?
Jeff: No. I have to explore.
Them: Yes. I guess you might want to be going then
Jeff: No. But I have to. Goodbye.
Them: What is goodbye?
Jeff: To call one good as they leave.
Them: Goodbye.
Jeff: [wait] Actually, I am told little of why we are as we are. Why are we as we are?
Them: We created trash no from ourselves to inhabit the worlds we found. When we realised we were making trash no we attacked them but then they attacked us with our same weapons. All worlds where we lived were destroyed and [terraforming?] not possible as they destroyed our [terraforming] weapons. Now we live on ships.
Jeff: How many ships?
Them: Many before. Not as many now.
REPORT SUMMARY
For now, I am nicknaming this species the Old Ones. They appear to be strongly xenophobic and consider other life forms to be "trash" as well as be in possession of powerful weapons, although most of these are derelict. My preference would be seeing if they are all so xenophobic before trying to conquer them. We are going to send 2 of our probes back with this message repeated several times in them in case the signals don't get back to you. Whether their hatred of other life forms is based in culture or instinct is so far unknown, and becoming certain will be our mission from now on in this area. The locations of all derelict structures will also be included in this message.
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