AI War:Nomad Planets Journal Entries
Contents
Nomad Planets Journal Entries
These are journal entries from the Nomad Planet Minor Faction, they contain spoilers. The entries can be found in the 6journal.xml file located in your game directory "\AI War Fleet Command\RuntimeData\Language\en".
Nomad Planets Start
Short Title: Nomad Planets
Long Title: A summary of what we know about the Nomad planets.
From: Dr. Jonathan Tarsen Xenoarchaeology, Home Command
To: Commander $playerName
Commander,
We've been tracking the "Nomad" planets here in the Murdoch Quadrant since we arrived. Their ancient Zenith ruins are old news, relatively speaking, but they've become rather more important since the start of the war. Something "woke" them, and now they "wander" the quadrant's wormhole network.
The wormhole network isn't really a spatial relationship, obviously, but something about the Nomads causes their relationships with other planets in the quadrant to... change, somehow. Whatever the cause, these planets eventually periodically lose their connection to some planets in the network, and gain connections to others.
The defensive implications are clearly serious. Perhaps even dire, depending on how much attention we attract.
But the situation is even more disturbing than it first appeared. We recently picked up a broadcast from the planet identified as "Nomad 1". The headers and encryption match ancient Zenith signatures, and the date of recording...
For the last two decades before the war I served with a team investigating the last Zenith dynasty. We searched hundreds of worlds for artifacts, data archives, and so on. Records of the very end are extremely rare, and our investigation concluded that a deliberate purging of information took place.
This broadcast was recorded nearly a standard year after the last of those records.
Regrettably we cannot decipher most of the message itself. The AI appears to be putting out a great deal of blanketing interference, consistent with AI firewall protocols we've encountered in the past. What we CAN read, however, indicates some kind of Command and Control communication with the Nomads themselves.
If you wish to investigate further we will need to:
- Find Nomad 1.
- Hack the AI's command station there to disable those firewalls (a Hacker can be used to do this).
- Capture Nomad 1.
Nomad Planets Beacon Captured
Short Title: Beacon Captured
Long Title: We have captured a broken "Beacon" which appears able to control the Nomad planets.
From: Dr. Jonathan Tarsen Xenoarchaeology, Home Command
To: Commander $playerName
Commander,
Congratulations on the successful capture of Nomad 1. We've secured the source of the broadcast... what's left of it.
Well, "Command and Control" was partly right. The "Beacon", as we're calling it, is more of a guidance system. Except that the Zenith apparently liked building their guidance systems inside huge golem-class monstrosities. The practice has a certain charm.
Nonetheless, given the size of the objects being guided, I'm not sure what the Zenith were thinking. It does have transportation uses... but let's be honest. We've done a thorough scan of Nomad 1, and discovered it isn't so much a planet as an artificial structure wrapped around the biggest warhead in the galaxy.
This is a weapon. A terrible weapon.
It may be how we survive this war.
On the surface it's simple:
- Repair the Beacon.
- Have enough energy available to activate the repaired Beacon.
- Bring the Beacon to an AI Home Command Station.
- Defend the Beacon long enough for the nearest Nomad to get into range.
No shield network or other defensive measure could possibly save the target from that. The Beacon itself will be destroyed in the process, of course, so we can only do this once.
And there are further complications. The AI obviously knows what this thing can do, hence those firewalls we had to disable. If we actually re-activate the device and bring it to a non-nomad planet such that its broadcasters "go active"... well, the AI response will be enthusiastic, to understate it greatly.
Nomad Planets Beacon Activated
Short Title: Beacon Activated
Long Title: We have reactivated the Nomad "Beacon".
From: Dr. Jonathan Tarsen Space Telemetry Lab, Home Command
To: Commander $playerName
Commander,
While reactivating the Beacon, we have learned more.
We're dealing with something that could actually fracture the wormhole network. The target planet, and the impacting Nomad, will be utterly gone after detonation. No wormhole links to either planet will survive.
If all the remaining planets are still linked (without relying on the transient Nomad links), the destruction will stop there.
But if the detonation actually "splits" the wormhole "graph"... this is a cataclysmic weapon, Commander. As long as we're still on the same "side" as the AI's survivng main warp-grid generators (their Home Command Stations) we will survive. But every single planet cut off from the main network will suffer the same fate as the original target.
However, if the detonation would actually cut us off from an active AI Home Command Station not on the target planet... the AI's warp grid is too strong to be simply shattered in this way. In this case the original target (and the impacting Nomad) will partly survive, as the warp grid itself will actually absorb the worst of the destructive energy. But it will rebound, and the resulting backlash will devastate the entire Murdoch Quadrant. We would survive, barely, but with hardly any ability to fight.
It is a terrible weapon, Commander. Choose wisely.
Nomad Planets Beacon Boom Non Homeworld
Short Title: Boom!
Long Title: The Nomad Beacon's target has been utterly destroyed.
From: Dr. Jonathan Tarsen Space Telemetry Lab, Home Command
To: Commander $playerName
Commander,
The Beacon is gone, along with its target. I hope that was worth it.
We may have to pay a yet-higher price for our survival.
Nomad Planets Beacon Boom First AI Homeworld
Short Title: Boom!
Long Title: The AI Homeworld targeted by the Nomad Beacon has been utterly destroyed.
From: Dr. Jonathan Tarsen Space Telemetry Lab, Home Command
To: Commander $playerName
Commander,
Yes! The AI had to feel that one.
The war is not over, and we can't do that again... but we yet have hope.
Nomad Planets Beacon Boom Second AI Homeworld
Short Title: Boom! Problem Solved
Long Title: The last AI Homeworld has been utterly destroyed.
From: Dr. Jonathan Tarsen Space Telemetry Lab, Home Command
To: Commander $playerName
Commander,
For lo the hammer fell, and we have victory at last.
Our most dangerous foe vanquished.
Perhaps that is worth becoming the Destroyer of Worlds.
... Was it our most dangerous foe?
