Access to these files is restricted to anyone besides the executives of Alabama Productions and Manufacturing, as well as Guildkeepers and the Exalted Guildmaster of the Core. This study has been commissioned by the esteemed Guildkeeper Lyell and any findings and progress made are to be considered the intellectual property of the esteemed Guildkeeper Lyell.
I. Preamble — Study Conductor and Specimen
My name is Dr. Richard Lyn. The following will be an extended analysis of a single Nomad specimen that has been observed by the Arcani and APM's scientists for several months now. Note that any tests and surveys have been conducted under the utmost auspice of security to prevent a potential infestation of the work personnel, including myself. With gracious funding provided by the Esteemed Guildkeeper Lyell, the small science division consisting of myself, Dr. Linsey Clay and Dr. Jens von der Weiden was able to be adequately equipped, both in terms of personnel and technological apparel.
Due to the wandering nature of Nomadic entities, monitoring singular ones proved to be a challenge at first, especially since it was hardly feasible to follow them around, given that they possess way more advanced cloaking capabilities than we do. However, there seems to be a pattern when it comes to certain entities and their places of appearance — the same was true for the entity this study is about as it seemed to be drawn towards large gatherings of people in Omicron Delta, never aggressive, always just observing quietly. It was enough for us to conduct the tests necessary to prove my hypothesis to which I will come later.
This particular study was conducted with a certain focus in mind: To test the Nomad's abilities to interface with human-made technology. It is not a secret that the Nomads have had the ability to activate our trade lanes and jump gates since we know them, yet there is little to no effort directed towards studying and cataloguing this. For a human ship to activate either a trade lane or a jump gate, it needs to submit its identity to the lane or gate, which is why the TLAGSNET system serves the house police agencies as effectively as it does; there is simply no other way to use lanes/gates without interacting with it beforehand. Therefore I wondered: What does it imply when the Nomads are very well able to submit similar commands? Thus my thesis: The Nomads are able to interface with human technology as they please.
Now granted, while trade lanes and jump gates are true marvels of human ingenuity, which necessitates a tremendous level of complexity, yet the process behind activating a lane/gate is pretty simple if compared to the processess that carry out the process of opening a wormhole, for example. Of course, we are aware that the Nomads are able to produce similar installations with the capacity to perform similar tasks, as evidenced by the Xeno jump gates and trade lanes in Omicron Minor. The question I am asking myself is: How far does the Nomadic ability to manipulate our technology go? Are they just able to submit simple activation protocols by interfacting with human lanes/gates directly or are they even capable of interfacing with the Neural Net, which is, in large parts, supported by the trade lane network.
The following files will contain the tests conducted by my team with the Nomadic entity called "Astarte", which have been tailored to either prove or disprove my thesis. Why exactly this Nomad? Simple: It was a Morph. Older studies have shown these entities to be the odd ones out in Nomad culture, as it were. Following their older brethren in an attempt to emulate their behaviour, almost, Morphs seem to travel alone for the most part, which is quite unusual behaviour to start with. Comparisons to other animals that abandon their young in the wild to survive on their own have been made, and I believe them to be quite fitting in places, yet there is, of course, the fact that Nomads are never in danger of ceasing to exist. Regardless how often a singular entity is shot down, maimed, mutilated, mauled, torn asunder, burned, ground to powder, smashed to smithereens — the puppetmaster, the puller of strings operating this cheeky machination that is their physical body survives always. The fact that even Morphs return after dying, and the fact that they are still not like the others, traversing alone, seldomly displaying hostile behaviour, leaves me with the conclusion that they are, indeed, learners and sent to gather understanding like children examining their surroundings, as many have concluded before. For more information on this topic, refer to item II.
Do excuse my sudden excourse into flowery rhetoric, but I do tend to get carried away at times. While I do believe our findings to be wonderous, I also find them to be worrisome, since the further we delved into the subject matter, and the more knowledge we exposed the entity to, the more it seemed to understand, adapt, and use them for its own purposes. These did not have any malicious intent at first, as it appeared mostly fascinated with what it was actually able to perform, but with time, the mentality behind some of the interactions shifted. Whereas the entity seemed childish and ignorant at first, with more and more elapsed time, it appeared to become increasingly sly and manipulative. For more information on this particular topic, refer to item III and IV.