Options 2,3 and 4 seem most likely for the ships to be damaged. First and last ones are also definetly possible reasons, but I’d consider them less likely. Number one since, assuming and what I understand is the theory that the Drifter ships, or at least their designs, are as old as the Sleepers constructs or the Observatories, it is highly unlikely they are damaged simply by time, if that were the case, it should be as apparent as we can deduce from Talocan remains or older, non-maintained Sleeper Drones. Number five seems unlikely, but as mentioned, there are rumours of CONCORD developing counter-systems against the Drifters, so can’t be entirely ruled out.
As for their location:
Since the reports state that there are damaged ships at the Hive dubbed “Redoubt”, sourcing from archaic defensive forts, my guess is that instead of preparing to strike they had either defended the location from an unkown aggressor and prevailed, albeit at heavy cost, or had been damaged elsewhere. And when spotted, they were preparing to retreat for repairs and expected that their combined numbers would be a deterrent for a further attack.
Drifters are established to have an interest in old Jovian or Sleeper Constructs, as they do not take kindly to those who loiter around Observatories. As for Rens, their appearance there might be entirely random. While in an interstellar scale Rens is not far from Ani, it is still several normal jumps away. Notable might be that two of the three neighbouring systems for Rens do house a Jove Observatory; Frarn and Abudban.
Drifters fleeing something sounds like sensationalist crap, but, for the sake of argument, can’t entirely be left out, no.
Personally, my biggest factor in not wanting to assume the worst & immediately jump to attack each time Drifters appear is the hope that we might learn some important things, either about them or from them.
We know that they emerged from the ruins of Sleeper civilization in Anoikis, and that they have used the bodies of the racially Jove inhabitants of the enclaves to create their own, which they seem to lack for one reason or another. They’ve also brute-forced countless Sleeper Caches, which seem to have housed huge collections of information and technology from both the modern empires and the older “ancient races” - and now they’re roaming different systems either in search of something, possibly other lost tech like that which the Directorate and Sleepers cloaked across the cluster, or to complete some other yet-unknown objective to do with the stargates they seem so interested in the last couple of days.
They’re the only known living remnants of any of the “ancient race” factions, and are likely privy to a veritable treasure trove of technological and historical information that no other group has knowledge of - save maybe for the Angel Cartel, who knows what they’ve found out in the abandoned Jove regions & kept to themselves?
This sort of knowledge really is my personal stake in all this - I want to find out what they know, without risk of losing it all.
My apologies for the approximations I might say as i’m not so much used to give thoughts here on the IGS with so many people that are far more up to those things.
how much would they need the stargates?
I would wonder too if they really need to control the gates for their own travel purpose. What could be worst ?
That they use the gates or that they control them and shutdown the whole gate system ? In case of a whole shutdown, how long would it take us to take back control of it and move whole fleets to defend specific places ? Just wondering.
As for the reason why they are in such bad shape I would be more inclined to think that they had a fight somewhere. Simple I know but a high probability.
While I have been “visiting” Barbican UIWH I noticed that one of those sites inside had a huge defense system composed of 24 sentries. Could it be possible that sentries hit badly so many Drifters, be it there in Barbican or elsewhere. How many sentries would it take to hurt badly so many BS ? How much sentries could resist to the DDweapons ?
Sorry if I ask those questions that might be irrelevent but I’m not used to those firepower calculations. Just considering to know more and to have a better understanding of situation. Usualy more used to have head inside historical holobooks and researches.
New data has been received from an anonymous party. Given that this information was also leaked to major Capsuleer news networks, confidentiality is impossible to assure, and so we are moving public with our verification and reconstruction efforts.
ARC requests assistance from the public in reconstructing this imagery and determining the source of it.
Bounties are being authorized, with amount to be determined.
Given how many star references there are in that image, and its similarity to actual stars when viewed through camera drones, I’d go ahead and put my money on ‘a star’.
I’m not sure why, but the thing behind the suspected star, on the right, doesn’t it look a bit like a wormhole to you? Specifically when it moves behind it?
Pretty sure that is a wormhole. The object in the fore is some sort of large energy sphere. Not a star, nor a wormhole itself. But yes sliding behind it as the camera moves, that does look like a wormhole.
This present development with the unauthorized distribution of an official CONCORD document is most intriguing. I will not at this time speculate on the implications, but would suggest that the footage itself is indeed cause for concern, due to the circumstances surrounding the release.
With, albiet rudamentary editing of what little CONCORD data was provided, I was able to isolate and, as best I could, enhance the object that drifts behind the sphere object.
At first I was sure it was just a solar flare, but now agree it appears to be video of a wormhole.
