Discovery of the Arc-Moon

In the late 28th century, various corporations, colonial holdings, and governed systems existed throughout the galaxy. Due to some idiosyncrasies with the still relatively new FTL travel technology of the Fold Drive, communication between systems continued to be limited to light-speed. This obviously proved difficult for diplomatic relations, when communications with another system take years without FTL signals. This lack of communication caused many conflicts throughout the years, and complicated inter-system trade. These difficulties continued to mount, until a small human frontier survey mission discovered something ancient that had lain dormant for milennia. This mystery discovery catapulted the realm of communication far beyond any previous developments, and connected the systems in a way never seen before.
  In the year 2594, the survey ship Omniarc (owned by the Arc Planetary Holdings company) was canvassing the Pleaderos system for large concentrations of the exotic materials required for the construction of Fold Drives, when it discovered a number of anomalous readings on Pleaderos II. Initially dismissed as a faulty multi-specs reading, the bizarre readings persisted through multiple different scans. Diagnostics returned no faults with the sensors onboard the Omniarc, and so further investigation was required. A 50 head survey team was inserted in-atmo to Pleaderos II to identify the cause of the anomalies and secure the planet. Upon excavation of the anomalous readings, a tomb was discovered of a long-dead precursor race of what is suspected to be a 'race' of hypersophisticated synthetic life. The initial survey team remained on the ground, as the Omniarc returned to the company headquarters to report the discovery. The dismounted survey crew continued exploring the ruins of this planet, and the number of new discoveries continued to mount. The theories for the cause of death of this race at the time ranged from a digital virus, to them running out of power sources to consume. The former theory maintained its legitimacy for obvious reasons, but the lack of radioactive material on the planet of any useful energy output lent creedance to the latter. The truth has yet to have been discovered, but the nature of the planet itself soon came into view.
  Numerous precisely created tunnels ran throughout the whole of Pleaderos II, criss-crossing under the terrain. They were wide enough to drive vehicles, and were expertly laid out in a manner not yet comprehensible, but evident of a pattern. Mapping of these tunnels took over two months of non-stop drone surveys, with Arc Planetary guarding their newfound discovery with utmost secrecy. What the company was unaware of, was just how important their discovery was to become. Over the following two months after mapping was completed, APH delivered more company scientists to Pleaderos II to analize the alien structure, and a level of understanding was built up of what exactly they had found. Control systems were eventually identified for the bizarre machinery found on the planet, and with enough reverse engineering and frontier jury-rigging, they were brought online. Some of the company scientists sporting neural implants quickly found themselves convulsing violently on the floor. Later analysis determined that highly advanced nanomachines had located and connected to their control systems, writing ancient code to their NeurOS. Medical attention was rendered on-scene, and after a 4 day coma, they awoke to find themselves capable of understanding the machines in front of them. 
  The newly awakened scientists took to work booting the remaining systems on the planet, and the purpose of all the machinery made itself apparent to those unenlightened rather quickly. This was not a planet, it was a colony ship, and it died before reaching its destination. The technology on this ship-world was not even the most advanced tools the now-named Ozymex posessed, as logs in some of the computers indicated that other colony ships it made communication with before shutting down posessed increased capabilities. But now this planet, coined the Arc Moon by the executives back home, was a grave world, home to a fragment of a long-lost race that even the enlightened scientists could not comprehend. One thing they did manage to reverse-engineer was their communication systems. This newly named ArcComm relied on systems onboard the Arc Moon to permit the instantaneous galaxy-wide communcation with a network of relays and a small number of communicators that were present onboard the Arc Moon at its discovery. This limited access granted Arc Planetary a chokehold on various galactic markets, and their development of the anti-grav technology and energy storage technology based on the Ozymex precursors advanced the cause of space travel by hundreds of years.
  The Arc Moon remains the headquarters of the Unified Council and APH. Continued research on the FTL drive technology and the Ozymex is ongoing. Companies wishing to access Ozymex technology for study must pay dividends to APH in order to be granted allotments. APH believes this is necessary due to the complexity of the problem requiring outside assistance.

Comments

Please Login in order to comment!