The sapphire is not actually a sapphire, according to them. It's made with several compounds they're unfamiliar with, most of which seem artificial in their structure.
(("Them" being the scientists Gus had examine the sapphire before.))
I wanted to find out if further testing of the sapphire revealed any additional clues, or if the artificial nature was simply a construct of the gravity gradient in the Cavernverse.
If we haven't already collected information on the mineral deposits in cavern 2 of Cavernverse, send some harvesters to collect samples. Run the AI colony program with the added information of having those mineral deposits as resources.
Fungalverse: Send probes to various heights, starting at 100 meters and going up from there, to see how far up they can go before failing to return or being destroyed. record everything they see and experience, including atmospheric makeup further up. Send additional probes 100 miles in four directions from the original entry popint to see if the fungal forest extends that far in each direction. Also record whatever they find.
Edit: Spiders:send several probes to the spiderverse containing different types of organics:
a) several different swarms of insects
b) fish
c) large mammals
d) sods
e) robobodies (not organic, but still ...)
f) a mewling fleshmass
g) Haebi flesh
h) a sample of sharkmist, such as a sharksuit or a sharkmist vat (also not organic, I believe, but still ...)
Which of the above spawns spiders, which do not, and which, if any, fail to return (possibly due to having been eaten). are there any that act oddly, beyond what has already been observed?
I confess that I am at a bit of a standstill with communications with the spiders from spiderverse. they are intelligent and reasonable enough not to immediately eat or fight with sods who come into contact with them. I have no real further direction to go with testing them and have failed to discover a way in which we can be mutually beneficial. If anyone has any nonlethal suggestions, I am open to them. otherwise, I intend to return them to their home universe and let it be.
1. They find that the sapphire is made of materials that, in our universe, would be atomically unstable to the point of having half lives in the minutes or seconds. Something about the proximity to the ground in that universe stabilized them. They do a quick scan of the inhabitants of the colony there and find that the illness they feel isn't just due to gravity differences, but due to the formation of small amounts of aberrant materials in the feet and legs of the people, causing a form of poisoning. Getting them higher up seems to have drastically reduced this, but not eliminated it.
2. Going up slowly reveals that you seem to be in a cavern which is lit by some sort of luminous flora at the top.
3. a,b,c,d,f
With no objections from Dester/Saint/Miya...
Can the Autocolonies self deploy? (No human interaction). If so send one a good distance away from the inhabited colony (Preferrably at least the distance of a once around earth), and have probes occasionally check in and monitor how it sets up and how well it functions after is it sets up.
I think they, at least dester, might complain. Because gravity cancer.
Orgyverse:
1.You mentioned that the metallic moon's signal inhibits the formation of some 4th level proteins. I'd like to have some of the corpses we've retrieved from that universe to be inspected--do they have any of those proteins?
2.Gentlefish sent two live male specimens to me. Have them both contained in remote, shielded containment rooms. One of them will continually be exposed to a replicated version of the above signal, while one will be left untouched. I'll leave them there to examine the long-term effects. Also get a few healthy human test subjects, and put them into a containment chamber with the weird signal.
3.The scoutship in orbit of the metallic moon noticed automated defensive systems. Are they aiming at the probe? If so, let the probe be shot, but transfer it back to our universe after the first couple hits. ((EDIT: We should have enough reaction time to do this, because the scoutship is communicating through a QEC, which can be transferred in and out of that universe as fast as the EUE is capable.)) If it's not being aimed at, let it continue to orbit the moon, building a map of the defensive systems.
4.If the automated defense systems are inactive, the other two scoutships should continue orbiting towards the first scoutship. If the turrets are active, keep them away from the moon.
5.Start sending small ships with military equipment into the orgyverse, temporarily. Have them test our most important equipment--stuff like assaultsuits, MK.IIIs, hexsand, hexbug, sharkmist, blurad batteries, etc. Broadly speaking, does most of our advanced tech work, or not? Especially important is hexsand, as it allows us to make our warships nigh-invulnerable to conventional attack.
6.Is our current EUE large enough to send our large warships into alternate universes, or would we have to build smaller warships? No, we don't have any specifications for what our warships are.
7....Uh, send a bunch of robosods (with human NPC supervisors) and equipment to the origin point of the orgyverse, and have them clean up the massacre as much as possible. Once they're done, bring them back immediately.
Other stuff:
8.Ask the sods who were clinging to the probe why they were doing so. Do not let them leave the containment room.
9.Start on the process to manufacture new EUEs, focusing on getting production of the smallest ones ready, first. About when should we be able to assemble the first ones? A couple of turns?
Be advised, there is a large, artificial moon above the planet. It appears to be armed with advanced laser weapons similar to our own, and likely other types of advanced technologies. Additionally, it is transmitting an anomalous signal across the entire planet, which seems to interfere with the formation of certain proteins. While temporary exposure does not seem to be dangerous, long term exposure could potentially have significant effects.
I am slightly curious whether any creature infected in that universe will turn into spiders. Would a sod become many spiders? A single large spider? Something else entirely?
Another experiment would be to see whether or not the spiders are immune to that universe's infection.
Both experiments are relatively worthless, but the creation of the spiders is interesting. They had an extremely short gestation, and if that universe is capable of infecting multuple wildly different creatures, the process by which it does so could be valuable to us. Haebi requires a central nervous system to change significantly, and is less efficient at converting organic matter into another form. A virus which can so rapidly and efficiently change the form of organic matter, without any special infrastructure or programming, could be exceptionally valuable.
They have proteins similar to our own, but with their 4th level structure slightly disrupted. As you would expect.
Did he? I don't remember that.
They don't appear to be aiming at it yet, so you continue orbiting the moon. Gonna point out that doing that with the EUE makes other people using it impossible, so any attempts to go anywhere this turn aren't going through. The moon seems to have a fairly even distribution of what appear to be laser based weapons on the surface. Hard to tell what their range of motion and firing arcs are, but you're willing to bet that destroying a few of them would clear a small window for ingress.
Hard to tell if they're active or not. They look whole and complete and the thing's clearly still sending a signal, but you might just be either outside their range or perhaps too small for them to notice. You are, after all, a tiny speck of metal communicating entirely via quantum entanglement. You'd be pretty dark, from an observation perspective.
It all seems to work just fine. And here's an odd thing; assuming you sent origin tech to try, it would work too. In fact, it would work quite well.
It's not. You'd have to make the EUE bigger or the warship smaller.
Done.
They tell you that they don't know, only that they were uncontrollably driven to do so. And that they felt that if they ever let go, they would die.
A couple turns.
(7,7,49) - Send another phase 1 probe to the same location for half a second, and then bring it back. Have the camera feed examined. Have another probe do the same thing 1 mile higher on the z axis.
Brambleverse- Send another phase 1 probe to the same location, and fly it over to the location where the flower disappeared. Has it reappeared? Is there any sign of the flower, or has it simply vanished from existence?
Order another probe to be deployed repeatedly to a single location not far from where the flower disappeared. It should be deployed for 15 minute intervals, in between which the camera and sensor data should be returned and examined. Do this as many times as possible over a 24 hour period.
New universe probes (time permitting):
5,5,5
8,8,8
6,6,-36
-36,-36,-36
Can't. Saint is spamming a QEC box.
CAN'T
ALSO CAN'T
NOPE
I have made progress on work regarding the universe (123,456,789), which has the effect of coating probes in a "foil" that violently explodes outwards upon the slightest physical contact. I believe we may soon be able to harvest and transport it well enough to begin experimentation upon it, the most obvious application of course being that of a weapon. The problem is, this foil has demonstrated the capacity to render entire testing rooms inoperable.
Hence I would like to request the usage of a testing room under the disclaimer that it may very well be rendered inoperable by the experiments conducted within..
For my following actions I would like the define the following terms:
Claymore Foil Universe - The universe with coordinates (123,456,789) and the metallic foil
Plate Probe - A probe with modular plating that it can release so that it ends up with only one foil-covered plate left after venturing into the Claymore Foil Universe
Observer Probe - A simple probe with cameras that wait for a Plate Probe in a Null universe, each carries numerous Camera Drones and one Poke Drone
Camera Drone - A small expendable drone with high speed cameras that transmit their feeds to the Observer drone
Poke Drone - A small expendable drone designed to be released by an Observer Probe and moved to collide with a Plate Probe's foil-covered plate
- Send a Plate Probe to the universe and then to a Null and detach all the other plates. Have the Observer Probe hide on the side of the Plate Probe opposite the remaining foil-covered plate. The Camera Drones will spread out and observe as the Poke Drone makes a head-on collision. Observe the scatter pattern of the foil and the residue, as well as their velocity and any sort of odd phenomena.
- Repeat 1. but with different Poke Probe collision angles. Observe the effects on the scatter pattern.
- Repeat 1. but with a different Plate Probe plate shapes, such as concave and convex plates. Observe the effects on the scatter pattern.
- Send the results of 1. 2. and 3. to some qualified NPC members to extrapolate the data and model what sort of shape is ideal for the purpose of use in an artillery shell. Repeat 1. with that sort of shape.
- Send the results of 1. 2. 3. and 4. to some qualified NPC members to extrapolate the data and model what sort of shape is ideal for the purpose of use in a projectile weapon. Repeat 1. with that sort of shape.
- Repeat 1. but have two plates of the Plate Probe remain foil covered. The plates should be very close to each other, but not touching. Does triggering one set off the other?
Nope
Can't
Can't
Shan't
Impossible
無理
FOB set up successfully. Please run any future local tests by me while I attempt to learn more about this planet.
The planetoid is all yours. I do not care for it nor wish to deal with it personally.
1) How does this planet feel? Is it comfortable? Humid? earth-like? Or is it the paradise we're looking for?
2) collect air samples and soil samples. Test for pathogens. Analyse microbial life. Does it pose any substantial threat to colonists?
3) Can we assume ourselves guarded from the signal? If not, requisition such protection. I like having my proteins intact. ((Yeah that sounds bad. We'll have to blow up that planetoid.))
4) Have (escorted) botanist collect plant matter samples within 50-meters around the entirety of the FOB. We will analyses these later, for sake of God's time.
5) Have non-scientist units clear an area of no less that 50 metres around the entirety of the FOB.
1. It has some unresolved issues with its father. Oh wait. It's humid, tropical, warm, wet and sort of uncomfortable, but would probably feel a lot better if you were wearing khaki shorts and a floral print shirt.
2. You sample the soil, air and other substances. The microbial life here is different, but similar. It would probably pose a threat in the same way that going anywhere on any planet in our own universe and being exposed to unknown contagions would pose a threat. Ie nothing outrageous. You're sure ebola exists somewhere, but it's not overflowing out of every rock.
3. We'll assume you brought some materials to build a shelter that neutralizes the sound.
4. Ok.
5.Clear as in no hostiles or clear as in deforest? I'll assume it's the first one. In which case you find nothing more hostile than some local fauna.