Drifter Observations in Skarkon

Bravo_Atruin · October 14, 2020, 3:54am

Through a well timed wormhole appearance, I’ve slipped into the liminal system Skarkon with a small cloaked frigate. In the time since, I’ve been observing a point of contention around the customs office at Skarkon II. EDENCOM, Collective, and Drifter forces have all engaged each other, with EDENCOM forces being the eventual victor. No superweapons discharge was noticed, despite one of the Drifter casualties being battleship grade.

A few items of note: I’ve observed an additional frigate class and what appeared to be a Drifter command cruiser. Both EDENCOM and Triglavian forces appeared to prioritize the Drifter craft, although it’s a bit difficult to tell with projectile fire. Judging by my observations and passive scan results, the Drifter’s shields appear heavily focused on total shield pool.

I managed to acquire some cargo from the battleship’s wreck, consisting of a large collection of interstellar navigation logs. Since this information is readily available to most, I suspect that the Collective would benefit most from these logs. Additionally, this appears to be evidence of Drifter surveillance on a constant basis.

Conclusions? None. Speculations? You got all my speculations already. I will only add this, the Drifters’ low numbers leave them vulnerable, especially with a distinct lack of logistics.

Haria_Haritimado · October 14, 2020, 10:40am

Captain Atruin

Thank you for your shared observation from Skarkon. Could you possibly provide pictures of the vessels involved or the entity classification given by CONCORD?

Fly safe,

Haria Haritimado

Aria_Jenneth · October 14, 2020, 1:11pm

Ma’am? I’ve added these elsewhere but this seems like it’s worth repeating.

Metis Tyrannos. There’s also a counterpart, Agreus; I’m guessing that as usual they’re probably similar in terms of capabilities. I could be mistaken, but I believe the green shimmer does indicate an overshield and therefore a doomsday reactive defense weapon. I haven’t yet sighted a battleship-scale Drifter.

I’d also add that despite the presence of a Jovian Observatory in Kuharah I did not observe any of the usual beacon-marked Unidentified Wormholes to appear throughout the day. It may be that the Drifters are no longer linking Hive systems directly to this space.

Bravo_Atruin · October 14, 2020, 2:08pm

I can actually weigh in on this subject; an Agreus was one of the participants in the skirmish off Planet 2. As I said earlier, I witnessed no apparent “doomsday” discharge. (What a dramatic descriptor)
Unfortunately, I was so focused on tactical assessment and speculation that taking visual record did not come to mind. However this Metis Tyrannos is visually identical to the Agreus I observed, as well as (to my recollection) the more specialized cruiser-scale vessel I observed.

Aria_Jenneth · October 14, 2020, 2:39pm

Of course, sir. Assuming complete accuracy, though, sir, might there be some possibility that the weapon had deployed earlier during another engagement? The weapon takes time to recharge, related, as I understand it to the overshield. The Drifters I’ve seen at Kuharah seem to be on patrol, and the Agreus I saw was badly charred. It appeared to have recharged its overshield, though.

It seems possible that the weapon’s been replaced by some other system-- as you said, perhaps a stronger shield-- and I haven’t witnessed a doomsday discharge in Kuharah personally.

As an aside, sir, the “doomsday” is so-named because of its similarity to the oldest of the titan weapons. It’s a focused, single-target attack that tends to mean destruction for whatever it hits, and if the target happens to be a planet the result is in fact “doom” because of the large-scale atmospheric and environmental disruption that results. The Drifter battleship-scale devices are, I understand, weaker than a titan’s strike, and and cruiser devices are weaker still, but the similarity remains.

It’s not so much called that out of a sense of drama as its similarity to what, within our own experience, the weapon most resembles.

Bravo_Atruin · October 14, 2020, 2:43pm

This is a possibility. It is my strong suspicion, however, that the Drifters and Sleepers (Awoken?) have not deployed this kind of weaponry based on the subsequent reinforcements of apparently higher capability, i.e. the battleship-scale and apparent command cruiser.
It’s possible the local physics make their superweapons ineffective in some manner, or even a result of the Triglavian field effect pervading the system.
This is all guesswork based on observation and others’ research, standing on the shoulders of giants as it’s been said. Having restricted myself to cloaked operation (in an expedition frigate!) I could not directly observe shield strength. I would strongly urge erring on the side of caution if you intend to survive. If you’re looking to make some sacrificial charge for Science! I honor you.

Sidebar: I did not intend to criticize your use of the “doomsday” term, rather the colloquial term itself.

Aria_Jenneth · October 14, 2020, 3:25pm

That was my assumption as well, sir. Only … ah. Let me show you what I’m talking about with the shimmer.

(By the way, we’ve never seen the reactive doomsday from Sleeper ships to begin with; only Drifters.)

Shot from an expedition into a Drifter Hive. Meet Hikanta Tyrannos; you can think of her basically as a standard Drifter battleship like Apollo or Artemis, just worse. The green shimmer you see is the overshield.

Overshield drops. Energy gathers.

Doomsday strike. Sorry about the interface clutter; the doomsday activation breaks all locks, and I had work to do.

Overshield and DD depleted. Hikanta resumes conventional (for a Drifter, so, Lux Kontos) fire.

Combat continues. You can clearly see here, the green “shimmer” from before is gone.

Defenses collapse, secondary explosions, then cataclysmic failure and destruction. End of fight.

You can maybe see why I’m reading so much into that green shimmer in the cruiser image, above. For comparison, here’s a Scylla Tyrannos as seen in the Abyss, where the overshield never appears.

Bravo_Atruin · October 14, 2020, 3:13pm

I see! Unless I’m mistaken, the ships I observed possessed a shimmer effect as well; however the visible wavelength was different! The overshields I observed were closer to a yellow/amber color!
At least, as far as I recall. I’ll have to find an opportunity to reenter Pochven and confirm. Which I had already planned on.

Aria_Jenneth · October 14, 2020, 3:35pm

Hm. That’s possible, sir. Let me show you something, though.

This is that first shot from Kuharah, the Metis. You can see the shimmer. You’re right-- it’s a kind of yellow-green, except … actually the shimmer on the Hikanta is also a yellow-green, just in a “cooler”-looking lighting environment.

In my experience all energy effects associated with the Drifters are about this color, from their weapon discharges to the lights on their ships to the lights inside the Jovian observatories they so diligently disassemble to the colors they explode in, it’s all a specific shade of yellow-green I’ve come to think of as “Drifter green.”

(Caroline’s Star, or at least the cloud in its wake, is that color as well. Take that as you will.)

If the Drifters have access to a new shade, it would be news.

Bravo_Atruin · October 14, 2020, 4:14pm

Hmm, it is quite possible it’s a lighting effect. Something to consider when I reenter.

Gale_Kautsuo · October 14, 2020, 10:53pm

Do remember, the Drifters we find out in dangerous and deadly wormholes do not have the doomsday style weapon.

Aria_Jenneth · October 15, 2020, 1:27am

No, ma’am. That’s Arithmos, and my understanding is that it trades the doomsday for defenses almost worthy of a capital ship.

Apparently someone stirred up a fleet of like fifty of them in a certain wormhole system somewhere. I don’t know whether they’re still present, but the nickname of the system among W-spacers is (or was), apparently, “Run.”

Because, it’s good advice.