SHARED RESEARCH: Nomad City

[Kauket]

DERELICT NOMAD CITY
SCIENTIFIC REPORT AND ANALYSIS RELAY

AUTHORISED ACCESS

Auxesian Covenant Scientific personnel
Affiliate Ascendant
Affiliate Doctor
Affiliate James

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[Foxglove]

Planet Cambridge, Cambridge System
20th of August, 825 A.S.

Sender: Dr. Teresa Martinez

Recipient: Auxesia, Shared Data Platform

Topic: RE: Expedition

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I believe I am the first. Well, then, let us discuss a few findings.

I. Observations

For all intents and purposes, the Nomad City appears to be inert. Breaking patterns along its upper section suggest that the forces from an upper-atmosphere storm once damaged the construct a long time ago. Dispersion of the debris surrounding the Nomad City suggests that this event happened many thousand years ago. Currently, the construct is veering off to the side, as its center of mass has been put off-center, resulting it it slowly tilting, the gravity of Knossos slowly pulling it downwards. Whatever means of keeping its position it has had before, they have been disabled when the construct was damaged. At the current rate, taking into consideration the mass of Knossos and the height of the Nomad City, it will take around 23 and 30 years until the city will either shatter on Knossos' surface or burn up in its atmosphere, depending on whether the unknown material it is made of can withstand atmospheric entry. Curiously enough, the defenses and power generators surrounding it are nigh unto pristine, leaving me to believe that their lower mass made them less susceptible to the force of the storm that destroyed the city. They also appear to still be aligned perfectly to be interacting with the power-relaying appendages of the Nomad City. There is nominal Corsair presence, but curiously enough, there are no Nomads.

II. Conclusions

In the following, I will present several conclusions that can be made with the above premises.

a. The Weapon Platforms and Generators

While not immediately apparent upon entering the system due to the eye-catcher being the Nomad City proper, I believe the most interesting thing about the Knossos construct are the power generators and the weapon platforms.

There is a striking difference between the Nomad City and the surrounding objects: The Nomad City is destroyed while the generators and the weapon platforms are not. Following its destruction, the Nomad City slowly started to veer off to the side due to no longer being able to sustain itself. The generators and the weapon platforms are still perfectly aligned to interact with the energy-relay appendages of the Nomad City. Due to it being knocked askew, I believe that the generators no longer had a 'connection' to the city, thus causing them to cease their functioning and entering something akin to a standby-mode, in which they merely keep themselves in place until the 'disturbance' is rectified. From this we can deduce that firstly, these Nomad Cities can be destroyed given enough strength, and secondly, they are not completely invulnerable and need maintenance of some sort (being placed, aligned with the generators et cetera).

This does not mean, however, that the alignment of the generators with the Nomad City is a necessary factor in its weapon platforms working properly. I say so because there is a comparable, marginally different construct within the orbit of Planet Darlington, which appears to be fully functional yet non-hostile. It has currently raised its shields and appears to be in this state for as long as it exists, at least for all we would know. We do not even know whether the 'shield' is an actual defense mechanism. For all we know, it might have a different purpose we are unable to discern. The Knossos Nomad City is unique in the sense that it is the first Nomad City ever discovered to not be covered by one such shield. However, given that it is destroyed, we cannot deduce from that that the shield is, in fact, not part of its regular function, whatever that might be.

b. The Knossos Nomad City

What I found remarkable about the main body of the construct was that it appears to be solid. Given that we speak of it as a 'city', my preconceived notion was that the construct is some sort of housing apparatus for the spaceborne Nomads. However, what we can see of its surface seens to contradict that theory. Comparing it to the Darlington Nomad City, I believe it is fair to assume that these constructs are actually not meant to house Nomads, but are instead solid objects.

This begs the question, however: What is the purpose of these constructs if they are not, in fact, meant for housing as the name we gave them would suggest. I would not know. It likely is something that requires tremendous amounts of power, given just how sturdy these constructs are. However, I do not think we have enough leads to hypothesize.

c. 'Xeno Relics'

The Corsairs appear to have been attracted to the site mainly because they can exploit to for parts, which they can sell as 'Xeno Relics'. The outer parts of the Nomad City appear to be ornamentally decorated with all sorts of intriguing but ultimately random patterns that form naturally with whatever material was used to construct it. With the Nomad City's destruction and without the shield to protect it, it is easy for ships with weapons to break off parts and take them with them. The samples we took during our stay appear to be nothing more than lumps of the material the Nomad City is made off. While they look intriguing under certain angles of light, they are ultimately just that: Rocks.

III. Closing Statements

All in all, I believe the expedition was anything but in vain. However, it still does not answer the question what the actual purpose of these Nomad Cities is. Maybe someone here has an insight that I do not and is willing to share it, because I do believe that, if we understand this, we might come a step closer towards solving the issue the researchers on Darlington are facing in regards to its own alien construct.

-Martinez

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Signal Lost

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