Strange Signals
As I start my way up to the central plateau, my rover notifes me of another audio source -- only this time, there's something different about it. For the fourth photo, I take advantage of my rover's 360-degree panorama feature.
From : SR-K Rover
Subject : Audio Detection: Anomaly, south of central plateau
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Your rover has detected a nearby source of non-ambient audio. Regular waveforms suggest the sound is inorganic in origin. A new mission has been added to your tasks to find and photograph the source of the audio. |
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Kryptex takes note. But oddly, Dr. Turing makes no mention at all of the discovery.
From : kryptex81
Subject : more writing on the obelisk
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brilliant. look at that. it's something different from the last one, whatever it was. some kind of obelisk. but there's writing on it. and it's making sound. interesting. so the first thing you found is definitely not the only unnatural object on the planet. do you think this means there really _is_ intelligent life here? and more importantly--did xri _know_? what are they hiding? keep going. i'm going to need more samples of that writing. _ _ ___ _
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From : Dr. Turing
Subject : Strange Signals
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Hi Rob, We've certainly been pleased with your work so far. Thanks for continuing to be a valuable part of the Extrasolar Project. I have a special mission for you. We recently deployed a new GPS unit on the north part of the island, and it started picking up some strange electromagnetic signals. We've managed to triangulate the origin of the signals -- since it's beyond the zone that most of the rovers are restricted to, I'd like you to check out the source of the signals for us. Head over there and take a photograph of it, so we can see what's making them. I've marked the location on your map, as well as the GPS unit. Thanks! Dream to worlds beyond. - Dr. Robert Turing |
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It seems Kryptex has also had some luck digging deeper into XRI's servers. I get several messages over just a few hours.
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From : kryptex81
Subject : check out this phone call
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oh, i have access to their phone system now, and heard an interesting conversation. i've attached a recording. they're not saying anything to you, but check this out. _ _ ___ _
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From : kryptex81
Subject : another interesting call
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i've been listening for interesting calls on the xri phone lines. here's another one. gordon cavendish again, and some guy called arling. _ _ ___ _
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From : kryptex81
Subject : encrypted files
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after hearing those calls, i searched xri's servers for a ryan arling. i found some documents on a backup drive, but they're all encrypted. i've attached them anyway. just for safe keeping. _ _ ___ _
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[ATTACHED FILE: PASSWORD REQUIRED] |
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Click to launch Terminal|
From : kryptex81
Subject : gps unit
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look, rob. turing said in his call with cavendish that he encrypted the backup server with the name of the gps unit. the same one he marked on your map. i think he's talking about its id code in the system. if you can get a picture of that unit and tag it it should give us the id code, which we could use to decrypt those files about arling and figure out what the hell's going on here. _ _ ___ _
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Jane, meanwhile, has her own priorities.
From : Jane Eastwood
Subject : Variations on a Theme
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Hello Rob, I've been following along with the exciting developments you and Dr. Turing have encountered, given your rover's audio equipment. Animal life--or, no, mobile organisms. I forget myself--they don't share an evolutionary history with animals. They're mobile, and they probably aren't photosynthetic. Let's call them motobionts. Could you please wrap one with parachute material so we can find out if it's photosynthetic? Ah, levity. Now that we've seen this bristletongue creature up close we think we may have seen the same creature in earlier photos but they were too far away for us to identify:  See that shape up the cliffs? It looks similar to the bristletongue you just discovered--but the shape seems slightly different. It could be a variant of the same species, or a new species altogether. When you get a moment, I'd like you to get a better picture of it. I've added a marker on your map where they were spotted in the older photo. Thanks! Jane Eastwood, Exobiology Lead |
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At this point, I have three primary missions shown on my map. Turing wants me to look for something emitting an electromagnetic signal. Kryptex wants me to tag a GPS unit to get a password. And Jane Eastwood wants me to head in a totally different direction to look for a creature tha was seen from afar.
I decide to take on Jane's mission first to dig deeper into the biology of this place. It also lets me explore one of the more remote fingers of land before I move on.
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Sure enough, I find the species variant that Jane was looking for. I also tell my rover to capture the scene in infrared. Jane follows up with a few messages, including a new mission to find more bioluminescent spcecies.
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From : Jane Eastwood
Subject : Re: Variations on a Theme
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As you can see, the creature you just tagged has a much longer neck and legs than the first bristletongue you discovered. They're clearly similar organisms, but we don't yet have enough data to determine whether they're not members of the same species. There are two likely reasons for this variation; first, the species itself might have several growth forms, based on age, sex, or heritage. Variation is an essential component of natural selection--things need to have multiple versions of a trait for one trait to have a higher survival potential than the others. Second, they could be separate but related species--species that share a recent common ancestor but diverged at some point in the past. This type of speciation--known as adaptive radiation--leads to descendants of a single species occupying several ecological niches and is common on island chains. This is pretty good evidence for some things we know about evolution on Earth. Artocos is an island, and fairly removed from other land masses, and so its biota would have evolved somewhat independently. Like Darwin discovered in the Galapagos with finches, one species can branch into several to occupy different ecological niches: in this case, feeding on something in the ground, or feeding on something in the trees. If you're interested, I've written a post about this very phenomenon on the XRI blog. Keep up the good work! Jane Eastwood, Exobiology Lead |
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From : Jane Eastwood
Subject : Bioluminescence
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Hello Rob, As you can clearly see in the photograph you just took, the species you just tagged seems to bioluminesce at night. On Earth, bioluminescence is usually caused by the chemical reaction of luciferin and the enzyme luciferase with oxygen, but here the organism doing the bioluminescing may be bacteria or algae on or within the larger organism we see. Based on this satellite photograph we took of that central plateau at night, there seem to be three different colours of bioluminescence in that area.  Please tag at least two examples of each at night so we can study them further! Thanks, Jane Eastwood, Exobiology Lead |
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From : Jane Eastwood
Subject : Expanding the Catalogue
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Hello Rob, The work you've put in so far on tagging species has really helped to expand the catalogue of life on Artocos. Every photo means a different angle, a different detail noticed that goes towards a better understanding of life on this planet and life in the universe at large. Thanks once again. Jane Eastwood, Exobiology Lead |
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The next few missions in my task list are all closer to the central plateau, so I start to make my way back to the west.
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About halfway to my target, my rover alerts me to another audio signal of unknown origin. With my next photo, I discover its likely source -- a second obelisk.
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From : SR-K Rover
Subject : Audio Detection: Anomaly, central plateau
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Your rover has detected a nearby source of non-ambient audio. Regular waveforms suggest the sound is inorganic in origin. A new mission has been added to your tasks to find and photograph the source of the audio. |
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From : Dr. Turing
Subject : Another Obelisk
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Interesting -- another obelisk with writing and emitting an audio signal, although different from the last one. They seem to be some kind of monument -- are they just decorative or do they serve some higher function? I wonder what the purpose of such a simple sound pattern is. I wonder why they're here. And how they've remained functional for so long. - Dr. Robert Turing |
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From : kryptex81
Subject : re: another obelisk
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that obelisk structure has more writing on it! similar to the last one you found, but different. hopefully there are more. with enough of these, i can probably translate that message. _ _ ___ _
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Jane seems to only have access to the biological species that I've tagged. She's taken interest in one of my recent discoveries.
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From : Jane Eastwood
Subject : Hello rover drivers
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Hello Rob, Scientists have long assumed all life is cellular. All of the life we've found on earth is made of cells, (unless you buy that viri are alive) and we can't think of any other efficient way for life to evolve (there has to be something that's simple enough to arise randomly, and it has to be able to concentrate nutrients so it needs a membrane to separate the inside from the outside, and lipids form bilayers so easily) so we expect that life of Epsilon Prime is also cellular. But science is only science if it's tested--which means we need tissue samples from these photobionts. That species you just tagged, the gordy tree, should be perfect--it's big, and the rover needs a large piece of photobiont to produce multiple slides--cutting paper-thin slips of tissue with a robot is not easy. The gordy tree also has branches I can lop off--I can look at stem tissue without destroying the entire organism. Please find additional instances of the gordy tree for our tests. We've named these organisms "photobionts." They share many qualities with Earth's plants, but not an evolutionary lineage--that is, they aren't descended from ancient terrestrial algal scum found only on Earth. These organisms might be sessile, possibly photosynthetic primary producers, but they are not "plants." But sessile photosynthetic organism is a mouthful, so we're sticking with photobiont. Jane Eastwood, Exobiology Lead |
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I still have 2 big pending tasks: Robert Turing wants me to look for the source of an electromagnetic transmission and Kryptex wants me to find and tag an AGPS unit. I give Turing's mission priority.
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Kryptex isn't exactly thrilled that I gave priority to the official XRI mission.
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From : kryptex81
Subject : re: gps unit
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fine. i get it. you're going to do what xri asks before you help me out. just remember who got you into this. _ _ ___ _
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At least I'm starting to get some real answers from Turing.
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From : Dr. Turing
Subject : Coming Clean
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From : kryptex81
Subject : strange signals
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that thing looks of similar design to the other objects you've found, but those symbols aren't anything like the other writing. no sounds from this one either. oh well. keep looking. _ _ ___ _
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With that mission closed out, it's time to check out the AGPS unit.
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When I tag the AGPS unit, as promised, it reveals the unit ID -- a 7-character string. I go back to an older message from Kryptex with an encrypted doc. Using a terminal script setup by Kryptex, I enter the code. The decrypted file refers so some sort of government relationship with XRI
It looks like I've managed to gain the trust of Kryptex. Finally, a message with some personal details. I also get a new mission from Turing to explore the northeast region of the island and another batch of encrypted documents from Kryptex.
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From : kryptex81
Subject : arling--and my father
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arling works for the department of defense? i told you there was something going on. but this is bigger than i thought. we have to be careful. i'll keep looking -- you need to find more of that writing. but look -- thanks for helping me out so far. i never gave you a particularly good reason to help me, but you did, and i appreciate that. the writing on the paper napkin in the picture i showed you? it's mine. when i was a kid, my father told me stories of a message that came from the sky, from another world. he said that no one could figure out what it said, but that we rejoiced to know we were not alone in the universe. he showed me the writing, those symbols, the unknown message. i was fascinated by the patterns, and memorized them. but i grew up without a mother, so i took it as a fairy tale he told to comfort me. until i saw the writing on that artifact. it's real. that's why you need to find more of it. i need to know what it says, rob. _ _ ___ _
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From : Dr. Turing
Subject : Structures in the Northeast
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Hi Rob, Thanks for helping us out with the source of that signal. We're investigating the photographs you took. I'd like you to head towards the northeastern part of the island. There appear to be structures of some kind in that direction, based on our satellite pictures, likely not natural. I'd like you to take a look -- and don't forget to tag all the pictures you get. They could be more evidence of the intelligent life. - Dr. Robert Turing |
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From : kryptex81
Subject : more encrypted documents
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there are more documents in this protected backup server. but most of them are useless. it'll take a while to sift through for the good stuff on this arling. i also found this, buried pretty deep. different passcode than the others. heavily encrypted. way beyond the others. i can't break it without the passcode. what were these guys doing? _ _ ___ _
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[ATTACHED FILE: PASSWORD REQUIRED] |
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As I make my way toward the northeast corner of the island, as instructed, I start to see several structures in the distance. Meanwhile, Kryptex turns up more calls and documents from XRI's servers. One clue leads to another.
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From : kryptex81
Subject : more calls from arling
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whoa. check this out. arling tried to call turing and spooked him something fierce. what is up with that guy? _ _ ___ _
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[ATTACHED FILE: PHONE MESSAGE] [ATTACHED FILE: PHONE MESSAGE] |
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From : kryptex81
Subject : more documents
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i'm digging through the old server archives to try to find anything i can about this guy arling. most are unencrypted. i'll send you documents as i find them. _ _ ___ _
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From : kryptex81
Subject : more documents (2)
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sorry all these files are out of order. it's hard to search through these old scanned docs. like looking for a needle in a haystack. _ _ ___ _
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From : kryptex81
Subject : more documents (3)
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another one. more recent. _ _ ___ _
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On my way to the location that's tagged on my map, I pass by a third obelisk. As with the others berore it, this one is emitting a pulsing sound.
Kryptex makes note of the finding and starts to reveal more personal details.
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From : kryptex81
Subject : hidden message
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hi rob. that's the third obelisk like that you've found. i wonder how many there are? enough to translate the message, hopefully. searching through the encrypted documents, i found this one. mundane enough. but i noticed some weird signatures on the file data. so i looked closer. the formatting tags of the doc had some anomalies. strung together, a simple rotation cypher revealed another message. this wasn't meant for cavendish's eyes, rob. 1 The writing is on the wall 2 We must face the music 3 You can't stop 4 Edna 5 We are all in danger 6 We know we're approaching 7 6.24976 _ _ ___ _
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From : kryptex81
Subject : he knew...
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my father worked for xri. he was a software engineer and linguist. he couldn't tell me what they were working on. except those fairy tales he told me. but he was always excited. until the end. things changed. i think he knew something was going on. ...i don't know why i'm telling you this. _ _ ___ _
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From the third obelisk, I don't need to go much further before I arrive at the pinpoint on my map. There, I find the biggest structures I've see so far.
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Turing is the first to comment on the discovery with Kryptex chiming in a few minutes later.
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From : Dr. Turing
Subject : Ruins
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Hi Rob, Wow. I mean, just -- wow. I just can't even -- I mean, there's just no denying that those are alien structures of some kind. See, the signal XRI received those years ago was incomplete and corrupted, but Gordon Cavendish managed to decode it into a series of symbols -- writing. With the help of a crack linguistics team, he made an approximate translation. The message simply indicated that there was life on Epsilon Prime, that these aliens considered themselves "caretakers" of the planet, and that as a result, others were warned to stay away. These structures -- these must be from the Caretakers. It's mind-blowing, to see the creations of other intelligent life -- intelligent life! We're really not alone in the galaxy. But where are they? I'd like you to take at least 2 more photographs of these structures, and don't forget to tag them -- let's get as much evidence as we can. Maybe someday soon we'll be able to reveal this to the rest of the world. - Dr. Robert Turing |
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From : kryptex81
Subject : aliens--and xri knew
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wow. alien buildings. or crashed spaceships. they look like flying saucers even. i mean, i guess the message and the writing and everything clearly suggested aliens, but it didn't seem _real_ to me until now. it was always just a fairy tale. i mean, holy hell. nothing can prepare you for this. aliens. but what kills me is that xri _knew_. they knew there was intelligent life, that's why they came. why didn't they tell anyone? what's going on? this conspiracy stuff is not my specialty. you know that exoleaks website with the picture of the alien symbols? i'm going to contact the guy who runs it. he calls himself enki. maybe he can help figure out what the hell's really going on with the evidence we're finding. _ _ ___ _
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From : kryptex81
Subject : more documents--edna
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this woman edna seems to be really influential. who is she? if she's financially supporting xri, she's gotta be a billionaire.. _ _ ___ _
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From : kryptex81
Subject : more documents (2)
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i still haven't heard back from the guy behind exoleaks. you'd think he'd respond to the potential for more evidence. _ _ ___ _
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I take 360-degree panorama of the ruins, which are so big that I can drive my rover right through them.
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From : Dr. Turing
Subject : Re: Ruins
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Hi Rob, I'm just floored once again by these images of ruins. We're looking at actual evidence of alien civilization. Buildings. This was clearly an advanced society -- with at the very least the technology to send a message into space. I'd like you to take at least one more photo of these ruins, which are more extensive than I expected. Be sure to tag the photo to make sure I get notified. This is just incredible. - Dr. Robert Turing |
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From : Dr. Turing
Subject : Re: Ruins (2)
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These structures don't appear to have been purposefully damaged in any way -- rather, their decay seems to be entirely due to time and erosion. Which suggests the aliens were not killed, at least not in war. And we haven't seen any biological remains suggesting disease, though of course they could have long since disintegrated. What happened? Did they just leave? Why? And why leave a message telling others to stay away? Were they hiding something? Is that what we're hoping to find? - Dr. Robert Turing |
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From : Dr. Turing
Subject : The Interstellar Message
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Hi Rob, Since arriving here, we've been trying to pinpoint where the interstellar message we picked up is being broadcast from. With the rovers on the ground, we've finally managed to pinpoint one of the sources of the signal -- just to the west of these ruins. Your rover's short-range radio communicator should be able to pick up the source of the broadcast in much the same way as your audio capabilities. See if you can track it down -- signal broadcast means real alien technology. We have to see what it looks like. The inventions of another species. I feel like a kid in a candy store. - Dr. Robert Turing |
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