|Viraliv|[27-7]Zrukt-Has|Ghaz|Ophial|Eglin|
12,674,133,437cy
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I get busy writing reports on my current findings while the Jungle moles get back to work. It will likely be a long time before they find more signs of life but I set them up to notify me if anything unexpected happens right away. Especially now that we have a lead. Essentially anything that isn’t rock, dirt, or anything like that is to be personally examined by me. Some rocks may go unturned but I will attend to my duties with the utmost diligence. That much will be assured to whoever created me through my, perhaps, ruthlessly filled reports. The bureaucracy will drown in the digital ink of it all
Ahem- wait I don’t even need to cough. Anyway, a few more artifacts were found near the carvings, not that I can collect them but I can collect 3d scans if I make an appropriate model for that. Theoretically that would allow me to rebuild it perfectly, although it would require the specific base ingredients that went into it. Not that it would be an issue with all of those miner models out there in the Ophial system. The artifacts were as expected. far out of the technological capacities of the Hezians. Though nothing that would give insight into why they have such higher tech comparatively to the Hezians was found.
A theory I buried due to lack of evidence comes to the forefront. There’s a growing possibility that there’s something in this pyramid that gave them the technology. Or at least helped them advance to that level at a pace more rapid than expected. It could also explain why the Hezians are so behind them, they simply split before such a discovery was made. Still, for now it’s just a theory amongst many other theories.
It’s rather fun to come up with all of these ideas on what could be but I’ll only know when the Jungle Moles get there. They’re taking the scenic route of course, I wouldn’t want to miss any important artifacts and other than my curiosity, there’s no need to rush things. This could take weeks, if not more depending on the amount of discoveries.
In the meantime, instead of frameshifting like I usually do. I’ll instead work on a… side-project of sorts. It’s inline with my mission though… really! This is a sort of side tangent really, but I hope it will provide a sort of break in the usual report. Something to make it more exciting by giving a reprieve from normalcy. In other words, this part of the report has nothing to do with the Vexians or the progress with the pyramid.
In an earlier report, I talked about my thoughts concerning avionic life on Eglin. How there were very few species that flew, and on how evolution focused towards giving more efficient mutations to navigating the massive jungles that cover most of the planet. However, while rare, there are a few.
In the case of this subsection of the report, this species is a very large avian. Built mostly for short bursts of speed that allow it to reach record heights, and then gliding long distances. This focus on gliding allowed it to maintain its current evolutionary path, counter to the global trend of the planet. I won’t go too far with a physical deception of it since it’s of little importance however, going by the index programmed into me it would be considered fierce and majestic. Colorful too, likely to stand out to mates. Most do not survive to adulthood due mostly to an inability to intake as much food as they require. Their eyes are some of the best on the planet, for a long distance anyway, and their hunting patterns are quite unique when hunting in the complex jungles. I can already see some improvements I can make to the drones based off of watching them.
Anyway, one of them got too high and must have seen a drone that was going down to the surface. It was a lucky strike, most of the time they fail to even notice anything. It was not too surprising that it happened though, the ones that made it to adulthood would have to be the most exceptional at spotting prey after all. It was a Fish Eye 2 model. It took it back to its nest, above the cloud layer, which isn’t that rare to find on this planet. I was ready to sketch up a retrieval plan but the camera still worked, surprising considering all of the intrusion attempts made by the avian’s beak. I was curious so I uplinked to it.
They got bored after a while, keeping it in its nest as a trophy of some kind. Or maybe because the strong material would be good for keeping its eggs safe. Oh yes, in this nest a few eggs were present. Not much is known about their reproductive cycle, and while it isn’t necessary for the mission, I decided to investigate it.
It took them months to gestate, I’m not sure when the eggs were produced exactly and there’s a chance that for a time the eggs gestate inside of the mother until they are strong enough to survive outside. It’s quite a long time really, enough for a season to pass but eventually they hatch and show off what took months to produce. It’s rather ugly, going by the index given to me of course. They are large, about half the height of a Vexian, though Vexians aren’t exactly large themselves. They don’t have many feathers, and those that they do have are fluffy and small. Probably to protect against the cold weather of the winds above the humid rainforest below. Attached to their nostrils they have a tube which connects to a clear sac hanging from their neck. I’m not sure what it is exactly but it could theoretically be an air sac since the air is a lot thinner. It might take them some time for their facilitatory organ to mature.
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They are dull colored as well, not the sharp red, orange, and cream colors of their parents. Overall, there’s not much to say about them. Near-standard avian structuring, from what I can tell. Nothing really special, their form is exceptionally suited for high-altitude to low-altitude transfers though. A sort of diving predator. It’s likely that the Vexians of the future will model advanced military aircraft after them. If they still exist by that time anyway.
It was fun watching them grow during the next few months. I also learned that these birds don’t migrate for seasonal changes. Mostly because their environment is almost always steady. The most they’d do, when the planet is furthest away from the sun, is move closer to the warm humidity trapped within the forest. A sort of vacation nest that is almost always located on the same tree as their main nest.
Anway, it’s been a few weeks since they hatched. I’m still keeping a camera on them. They haven’t changed much, only grew larger in size and demanded more food. Food usually comes in the form of large creatures, too slow or not perceptive enough to hide from them. The sort of creature that would take at least twelve Hezians to hunt with some risk. Their jaws, lined with sharp ribs, tear into the tenderized flesh. Tenderized because after grabbing hold of these creatures they then drop them from considerable height, usually only one drop is needed.
It makes me wonder… What if they were made into robots? No no no, not like that instincts! I mean, what if I used them as a reference for a new model. Something far more realistic and native seeming than anything else I could create at the moment.
Hearing that, instinct had no rebuttal. And so, I got to work on designing something using this species as a reference. Which was as easy as collecting a 3d scan of one of them. Luckily Fish Eyes are built for this sort of thing. This gave me the overall shape and size I should be aiming for. The harder part was the selection of materials to use. The skeleton was easy to decide on, just a light-weight and hardy alloy. The feathers and non-boney parts were a different story however. The feathers especially required fairly advanced materials to mimic their movements in the wind. Even now it isn’t perfect.
But, twelve hours later, it came out of the manufacturing station. It was okay. It looked similar enough, the more perceptive ones might notice some oddities. The larger problem is movement, it moves very… well… robotically. Fixing this certainly isn’t as easy as a simple 3d scan. This would require me to install a bunch of sensors on a live specimen as it goes about its days. I could take those and modify the animation of my prototype but that would violate the agreements.
Basically, my only option is to suffer and just learn as I go. Hmm, wait… there’s another option… Hypothetically if I were to build a model that could naturally ‘grow’ as in aging, then I could simply plant an ‘egg’ inside of one of the nests. If the creature adopts the egg, good, if not then I can just try with a different nest. This one would be a rather complicated procedure. There’s also a chance that the egg never gets adopted. But it would also give me the best view of their world.
Hmmmm. I can think of some other uses for this too. The experience from doing it this way will be a huge gain. Weighing the benefits, I can only see it as the only appropriate action. Furthermore! Instinct has nothing to say on it.
I can, therefore, I might. And in this case that is a definite. The most difficult part of this wholly difficult task is creating something that can ‘grow’ or more precisely, mimic growth. This of course is just a piece of a solution to the issue of creating something that mimics life. Which is possible with the database given to me, but that’s assuming it’s not totally alien life which it is in this case. Just to crash this understanding in to anyone reading this sub-report, I have to create something that mimics organic life enough to fool alien physiology, yet also something that I can patch myself when I want, but when I’m not focussing on it should posses a range of inherited actions from it’s adopted parents.
An exceptionally difficult task… Perhaps instinct thinks I can’t do it and that’s why it’s not bothering to say anything even now. I fully thought that the well-known party pooper would attempt something but, no. And so, while it may not be my main focus I will still devote a significant amount of my processing to it. And not just that, I’ll first have to design a workstation for it, for testing purposes. A Faux-Biological lab, so to beep.
I estimate that it will take quite a while, a few years maybe. Maybe shorter, it’s hard to tell at this stage especially with the limited amount of information I have on what will be required. Well, like I said I’ll leave all of the hard work to the secondaries. Sub-report end. Back to the primary mission.
So far, the tunnel that was found has not yielded any results. I do expect that to change eventually. However, another area was found by a different Jungle Mole, this one was set to the basic pattern. It found an untouched, by Vexians anyway, area that’s largely filled with dirt and various native creatures. It’s not large in size and not much of the original structure is visible but a more thorough inspection of the area may reveal something. It’s not much of a find really but the key thing is that it exists. And if it exists then there are likely others as well and those may yield something more substantial.