saberfysh

To @Sir_Didymus, My opinion on good terrain goes back to the overabundance of mountains. There are towns who have thrived in building hillside ruins, sky islands, or elaborate mountain villages with interconnected bridges and platforms, but this is not the most common type of town created in Minecraft nor in real life. Mountain ranges on Earth have more often served either as defensible fortress locations or as natural barriers between countries, so building directly on them is more an exercise in fantasy than a practical geographical settlement. This does not mean they should be eliminated: mesas with their multicolored layers serve as good scenery, and the mountain side I built next to this rev (+630 +2600) is what inspired the layout and design of my outpost. All I'd like to see is not so many of them, and you'll get a more balanced map with the potential like the Solace-Pumpkinopolis region, which has a large meandering plain mixed in with water and hills, which is both interesting and habitable enough to encourage natural development. I don't advocate a complete return to vanilla dragon fights, especially if the majority of players find that boring. It might make Elytra too easy to get based on current mechanics. My original suggestion stands.

Map 9000 x 9000 is definitely too large. Not only are bigger maps a bigger load on the server, and more work for the admins to craft by hand, the large distances between players and towns has only led to more Elytra dependence, more gold consumption by horses and communities that cannot connect organically, resulting in a sparse rail system and isolated pockets of players instead of natural town interactions. One quick glance at the live map and I can optimistically say that less than 25% of all land is actually used. I wager that even if you bring the map down to 7000x7000 or 6000x6000, there will still be NO land disputes or ore shortages and still plenty of scenery, biome variety and space for mega builds. Big places like Rose City (600x600) and Pico (400x350) would be considered the high end of walkable distances for residents and visitors alike -- towns of this size had their own inner city transit systems in the past. The mesa biomes were great this rev. It was a bit hard finding regular sand though due to lack of deserts near spawn. I also felt the mountain areas were overdone in height and quantity and the balance needs to shift towards more open fields and river valleys the next time around. The Solace/Pumpkinopolis region is a good example of how several towns and projects can effectively and peacefully co-exist within 1000 blocks when given good terrain. As the next version of Minecraft is the Aquatic Update, please ensure that some portion of the generated map has an ocean shoreline or some large lakes (vanilla or custom). The amount of gameplay additions arising from this (turtles, dolphins, corals, tridents, tropical fish and shipwrecks) are too good to pass up. Nether I continue to approve of custom nether terrain. I recognize the immense effort being put into it and that the result is always above and beyond my expectations. As long as it's not vanilla and nether quartz is not nerfed, everything is fine. I can handle custom mobs, but not when they accidentally aggro nearby zombie pigmen. Those surprise attacks never end well unless I flee, and newer players may not have the armor or weapons to deal with it. In terms of portal deployment, instead of leaving all 12 to find with 6 on a slow release, launch the rev with 4 portals immediately and leave 6-8 to find. You want the portals and its clues to be discovered within 30 days of the rev, when most of the exploration is occuring. Any length past that and most players will have lost interest because they've settled down and have started building something permanent based on the live map. End The current ender dragon fight is too tedious and appears to be more of a raid boss confrontation designed for 15-25 players. You might want this for the first fight (since the reward is a dragon egg), but subsequent fights should go back to normal. At most, you would either increase the dragon's damage or its health, but no extra mobs. This will reduce server lag and make it more feasible for single players who want to farm Elytra using current methods. Custom Spawners There are four custom spawners of which I feel are valuable to this community and should be kept somewhere on the map. Creeper and Shulker grinders are mainstays on this server based on our population. Slime and Ghast have lesser uses but are still important for piston/potion users to have. Elytra Making the map larger and making Elytra harder to obtain are not a good combination. I believe anyone who wants to obtain Elytra and fly around should realistically be able to do so, and those who go without are not discouraged by sheer distances and long travel times. My suggestions for the dragon fight and the map size, along with going back to the rev 21 method of farming Elytra would put this matter back in a better place.

Archive #0051: Formal Letter to the Institute Addressed to the Honorable Dean and all Associate Directors, I am writing to inform the Polonius Institute of an important archaeological discovery which occurred incidentally during geological research on Zeta Sextantis 1690E (PVE). By now you may have heard from the Caledonia Council of our latest transmission, containing photographic evidence of modified Cyrenic runes on Zeta Sextantis. These runes have been known since its initial discovery from the Galantes LDR mission and were considered unremarkable, but the most recent fragments exactly match Gamilan vault artifacts from Old Caledonia, referencing Eshida, our ancestral mother of all creation. Estimated at 17,300 years old, its etymology has been deciphered by locals and corroborated by our peers at the Polonius Museum. The Council is now prepared to mobilize a small fleet carrying Lagan-class drills from Moria, the deepest tunnel bores manufactured by the Commonwealth. These machines will arrive on PVE and carve out entire caverns in a fraction of the time it takes a cluster of Tobits to extract small lab samples. We have received schematics for a drill factory, but are lacking the ingredients to construct them, so a large shipment of synthetic Reniboride will be included along with the Morian fleet. By the time they reach PvE, this may very well develop into a full-scale archaeological dig. Until then, I will be continuing extended research at the lab as ordained by the Council. I’m humbled that the work of our small geological team has serendipitously contributed to the knowledge of the Institute and to the Commonwealth. It is an opportunity to go beyond studying the planet, and learn something more about our shared history -- the legacy of a progenitor race that connects everyone in the Sapphric Veil. I look forward to assisting the Morians and ask that both the Council and the Institute liaise on our behalf to maintain favourable diplomatic relations between the Commonwealth and the denizens of PVE. Yours Sincerely, Professor William C. Euclase Faculty of Geology, Polonius Institute **THE END**

Archive #0050: Departure Entrant: William Euclase Designation: Professor, Polonius Institute The team spent the evening outside the lab tonight under the stars, as they packed the last of their equipment back on to the ship. Most of them were now convinced that Cyreen protoculture was a very real thing in the formation of advanced civilization in the local starspace, and were eager to see the museum artifacts back home. In the end, Milo was the last one still outside. He was going to miss being on a lush planet with a different view, and wanted to take in as much as he could before leaving. He had heard from Buzzie the exploits of the illustrious lieutenant that discovered this planet, combined both their technologies together, and brought that back to end the civil war and usher in a new age for Caledonia. He was born during the Commonwealth, a time without conflict and discrimination, and now has a newfound appreciation for the common link between us, and the people that fought for the peace that he and the others enjoy today. “The man certainly opened a lot of doors for our kind,” I told the young student. “Perhaps someday, your research will do the same thing.” I was about to guide him back into the lab, but he held still, took one long look at the stars, and with nobody in front of him, broke his silence: "Lieutenant, perhaps it was your destiny to open the doors between us."

Archive #0046: Research Complete Entrant: William Euclase Designation: Professor, Polonius Institute Historians from the Caledonia Council addressed us directly today via transmission with a verdict based on all of our combined research. After analyzing the differences between the Cyrenic runes in the Gamilan Vault and the runes on PVE, they’ve established a link between the holy PVE city of Ishtar and the mother of all creation that exists in Caledonian mythology: Empress Eshida. According to the Council, Eshida was the name of the empress that founded early civilization on Caledonia, and the largest moon was named after her. In ancestral times, our homeworld (Old Caledonia) was once known simply as Caledonia, a planet with two moons (Eshida/Gamila) and three major asteroids (Polonius/Moria/Dynes). It was only after the fallout from nuclear war and mass evacuation to the moon, that Eshida was renamed to New Caledonia. After the war, Eshida as a moon was permanently renamed as the de facto Caledonia, and the abandoned, uninhabitable homeworld gradually became known as Old Caledonia. This historical calamity is why modern Caledonians are all spacenoids, and why Eshida disappeared from modern culture. The Gamilan Vault is the last known cache of homeworld artifacts, and is therefore of great historical and cultural importance. The runes found on the PVE Church of Lever ruins and on Old Caledonia artifacts are exactly the same, but pronounced differently, most likely due to linguistic shift. All of it highly suggests that Eshida was a member of the Cyreens, and that PVE and CMC were both sired by the same progenitor race. Council then declared that our mission was complete. We had concluded all of our primary research for the Institute and were ready to send Milo back home with the rest of the research team. Council also decided on that same transmission that I was to remain at the lab to collaborate further with the local inhabitants on updating the Starmap, and that arrangements will be made with Moria to send a PVE excavation team. Once the initial land survey and knowledge exchange is complete, one of their transports will take me back to Polonius.

Archive #0043: Cyrenic Runes Entrant: William Euclase Designation: Professor, Polonius Institute I knew about the Cyreens from a digital copy of the Seifer Raziel stored at the Polonius Museum, but was no expert on protolanguage runes. Buzzie, however, had spent a much longer time with them, and was eventually able to determine that the temple once belonged to the Church of Lever, and the inscriptions referred to a namesake artifact of their holy capital city, Ishtar. The runes symbolizing Ishtar were larger and more ornate than all other writings, and were standard sigils on the robes of every ruling Pontifex at the time. PVE carbon-dating placed it at a time period as the Ogrians, a prehistoric tribe that went extinct around the same time the Cyreens fled the planet. Having learned about the Institute, Buzzie suggested for this information, along with the images captured by Tobits, to be transmitted back to the curators at the Polonius Museum for further study, in hopes that the artifacts from the Gamilan Vault would provide clues. They returned our message days later, frantically stating they found an exact match of the Ishtar runes on one of the museum exhibition vases, and that its carbon-dated age was only a few thousand years older. This discovery shocked the Museum staff and the archeologists back at the Polonius Institute. There was now hard evidence that Cyreens may have been on Old Caledonia, thousands of years before it was rendered uninhabitable from nuclear war, resulting in modern-day space colonization. Since it was now physically impossible to determine whether Old Caledonia contained any Keystones or Star Maps due to nuclear fallout, photographs of the Ishtar runes were transmitted back to the Council for further review. They had catalogued some of the objects for the Museum, but were only partially through the Gamilan Vault. There was now going to be a massive cross-referencing of the Seifer Raziel syllabary with any other Vault runes they find.

Archive #0038: The Masked Maven Entrant: William Euclase Designation: Professor, Polonius Institute Our once cold research lab has suddenly been infused with an extra dose of commotion the past few weeks. Not only did Milo make good on his delusions about a certain individual, but said individual grabbed the collective attention of all the research staff with a mere few moves. He was right; there was more to this Buzzie than just a mask. Our first surprise came when Buzzie walked up to one of our Tobits, uploaded some information, and immediately turned it into a translator. This made the ATLUS dictionary redundant. He wondered why our ship did not greet the planet with the customized CMC hailing frequency, as that would’ve led to a proper first contact with the right individuals. After explaining that we were Polonians from the Commonwealth, it made more sense -- this was standard Caledonian military protocol (all previous visits were mining or military convoys), and the Polonius Institute was never educated on such a procedure. With the ATLUS document we had on file, he also learned about the post-war unification, the Polonius Institute, our academic history, and the purpose of this research lab. He then pulled out a piece of quartz and redirected our cluster of Tobits to search for it. This altered the trajectory of our mining by a whole 65 degrees and sent it southeast. I was shocked to learn that he understood how a Tobits swarm operated and was able to instruct them to search for a particular object of interest. Apparently, he had learned the trick from a certain mining engineer, and quartz was a rare mineral used for ancient buildings on this planet eons ago, which meant searches for it had the highest chance of uncovering something interesting. Within days, he had hit underground ruins, and had the Tobits send back pictures of the find. The Tobits were able to crack through a darkened quartz cavern with inscriptions lining the walls. Most of the staff didn’t understand what they were looking at, but after some digital enhancement, Buzzie recognized what it was: protolanguage runes, also known as Cyrenic runes. Realizing what we had found, Buzzie suggested that he spend the next few weeks with me deciphering the runes with his local knowledge and a small pile of books left behind by an old research team at his underwater base. He then promptly left via the shuttle line and informed me that analysis will begin when he returns.

Archive #0035: Contact Entrant: William Euclase Designation: Professor, Polonius Institute Milo has returned with some local plant life after a few days through a boreal forest and a mountain plain. The geothermal operation has been expanding steadily at the lab, so I’ve had the Tobits carve out ducts for a simple greenhouse below to grow food and large plant life. While the Tobits did their job of repairing damage on the buggy, Milo himself came back worse for wear. I would’ve never guessed he’d go wild with enthusiasm, as it seemed unbecoming of a young scientist, but hindsight suggests I should’ve known better than to let him run loose on a planet for the first time without supervision. Not only did he need Nanobot medical treatment, he kept going on and on about a masked individual named “Buzzie” that resided off the shores of a nearby ocean, who understood our Tobits, our breathing gear, and our language. I was about to dismiss him for the day, until he added that said Buzzie claimed to have helped build the historic Galantes MK2, and is curious about our presence in the mountains. I was quite skeptical that someone like this existed, as many of the inhabitants that encountered us knew little about the CMC. To the frazzled student, however, this was clearly someone who knew a thing or two. Rather than have him irritate the rest of the staff, I decided to entertain the idea, and asked Milo to find this person and bring them to the lab. There are enough Tobits here to stop one person if any trouble arises. I had Emil from mineralogy step away from his work to give Milo a ride, both for extra protection and to increase the odds that they’ll bring this guest back in one piece. It’d better be worth our time, as we’re almost past the ice layer and this little side quest will slow down our research if it takes longer than the last trip.

Archive #0029: Ventures through Flora and Fauna Entrant: Milo Jasper Designation: Lab Assistant, Polonius Institute **Video Transcript** (buggy rattles over mountain plain) M: WOO HOOOOOOOOOO! M: This is the best feeling EVER! (tweaks camera towards self) M: Seriously, I’m literally flipping and flappering around the most beautiful place, EVER. Look at this! This is a legitimate homeworld. Endless sky. Endless terrain. Endless life, abundance, and potential, everything! Surely, I am the envy of all that never dared to venture. I have the entire place to myself, I can go miles without a soul in sight! It’s all mine! WOO HOOOOOO~~~ (crashes buggy over small cliff) M: Ugh…. (creeper approaches) M: W-W-What? (CREEPER HISSES) M: O SHI- (creeper killed by sword slash, camera knocked to side) M: AHHH-… H-Huh…? (footsteps approach, breathing sounds through mask) B: Tobits. M: Wait, how did you… B: Sephirator. M: U-Uh… yes? B: … B: Come with me. **END TRANSMISSION**

Archive #0028: Geothermal Systems Entrant: William Euclase Designation: Professor, Polonius Institute Our recent discovery of magma vents in the vicinity allowed us to transition away from running purely on solar power nodes outside the lab. We lost a considerable amount of Tobits in the process, but they’ve dug and routed both the magma and the geothermal pipes into reactors just above ground level, which have the double benefit of keeping us warm and providing ample power in the process. This has allowed us to manufacture more Tobits to construct a hangar arm and some basic security systems around the lab. Our initial dig through the ice is yielding interesting results. Traces of diamond and redstone are being found throughout the packed ice, and we’ve built a compactor arm to press the fragments into solid blocks after melting and draining the water. The only issue we’ve had so far is that the ice traps some of the heavy compounds in the air as liquid droplets, which vaporize upon thawing. Suffice to say, water obtained from this area is not fit for consumption without heavy processing. Our latest geological scans were picking up something interesting a few hundred meters down, but we’ll have to get past the ice layer before any deep analysis can begin. The solar nodes are now being used to charge a small buggy for Milo’s upcoming field trip. When our shuttle line to the bottom of the mountain is complete, we’ll be able to send him off with a Sephirator to survey the land and keep track of his vehicle via the radar tower. I’m sending him northeast to bring some samples back to the lab. Hopefully he’ll return with something interesting.

CMC: The Polonius Archives Archive #0023: Completion of Laboratory Entrant: William Euclase Designation: Professor, Polonius Institute External construction of the Arctic Research Lab is now complete, five weeks after the initial landfall on Zeta Sextantis 1690E (PVE). It goes without saying that the staff is much relieved, given that they’re no longer freezing themselves in the makeshift capsule outside. I was inclined to secure funding from the Institute for a legitimate science vessel, but the directors were wary of sending one on a long voyage such as this. To them, it was more cost-effective to send a small cargo ship and construct the facility on the ground than to risk losing one in the same way as the late Professor Irving, who died enroute while docked inside the original SS Galantes. I also knew that a lot of money was being committed to an upcoming exhibit at the Polonius Museum, featuring Old Caledonian artifacts recovered from the recently unlocked Gamilan Vault. It’s only natural that they accede to the Council’s plans, even if it means cutting back elsewhere. Despite those limitations, we are still on schedule and on track. As expected, numerous refinements from the Galantes MK2 engine since the war have allowed smaller craft such as our cargo vessel to both travel quickly and land safely. We were also given an ATLUS document to explain who we are in case we encounter the locals. In short, we aren’t Caledonians, but members of the Caledonian Mining Commonwealth (CMC). The Galantes Accord at the end of the civil war united all five colonies together, and after the purge of Gamilan governance and the liberation of its people, borderless citizenship and free trade was implemented amongst all five colonies (Caledonia, Gamila, Polonius, Moria, Dynes). Special CMC permits are only required for military and government operations, but we needed one for this research project as the ship was provided by the military. Now that everyone is in better living quarters, I can focus on the scientific objectives at our next meeting. We know there’s higher gravity and some extra compounds in the air that interfere with our metabolism, but there’s still a lot of details to be ironed out. The Institute wants us to refine the spectrometer readings, the orbital period, total planetary mass, then study the planet’s geology and atmospheric composition. That’s all I want our current team to focus on at this point. Even if the Council doesn’t say so, I can sense pressure from above to tie in some secondary (e.g. archaeological) objectives, not just scientific ones. They might even want us to update the Starmap if it still exists on PVE. I don’t expect miracles on our limited budget, but I might send our lab student Milo on a travel assignment to do some exploration with a set of Tobits and obtain a few lifeforms for biological research. It’ll be an exciting change for him compared to life on an asteroid colony. After all, what observations we make here might later determine if the planet is suitable as a long-term settlement.

Hello again, PVE! Saberfysh here. With Rev21 drawing to a close, and Rev22's archaeology theme on the horizon, I present to you a new chapter in the CMC saga, dubbed CMC: The Polonius Archives. For those who have been following Buzzie71's Unity storyline, which has grown from a monolithic spaceship in Rev11 into a continuing serial (Unity: Origins, Unity: Ancients, and Unity: Diamond Spleef Cup ), you may be aware of a side story called the CMC Starlogs, which further expands on the Unity universe through the perspective of a neighbouring civilization in PVE starspace, the Calendonia Mining Colony (CMC). Set in the future long after the Unity Diamond Spleef Cup and the USMC Vengeance saga, this story follows a geologist from the Polonius Institute, sent to PVE as a researcher from the newly formed Caledonia Mining Commonwealth (CMC) after the end of the Caledonian civil war. It is aimed that readers who have read the Unity storyline (Rev11) and the CMC Starlogs (Rev15/16). Buzzie's appearance in this story is also considered canon. The related builds on the map this rev are the CMC Arctic Research Lab (-2950, 1620), and a replica of the Unity spaceship constructed at Alias (-1000, -1000). Certain revs will contain builds that appear separate, but are actually tied together as part of the Unity storyline. Posts here will be separated for each log entry as opposed to one long wall of text. Thank you for reading, and I hope next rev will be exciting for everyone!

CMC Starlog #013: Finale It is done. The fated day has arrived for the last of the 75th Division. Though I was the only man left standing, we were going home. Construction of the shuttle has finished, and all of the test flights by the Port Aperture team had been successful with the new plasma thrusters. The maiden voyage for the Galantes MK2 was about to begin. Collapsible wings. Redstone proximity brakes. Cryosleep cabins. A R.E.G.E reactor tube anchored with solid gold and diamonds. A reinforced cockpit and cargo bay coated in nanolithed quartz, storing extra materials for Tobits. It was a pinnacle of engineering, but even more valuable was the new technology and acquired information from the Star Map about the Cyreen, the Ilrath and Shrikes. Tobits won't be able to store everything, but the scientists have uploaded the data from ATLUS and pieces of the decoded star map onboard the shuttle. There was an incentive to come back when more of the star map was analyzed. They were also confident that based on the theoretical speed of the craft, I could outrace my original distress signal and make it back first. Buzzie was immensely grateful for everything that I had done for his kind. He was convinced that the creators of the map had something to do with sentient life all across the Sapphric Veil, either as a monolithic influence or even as indirect ancestors, and that he would inspire others with that same spirit on PVE. He would oversee further research at the facility and one day might make warp drive possible again. With enough time, everything that we discovered here would help him build advanced defenses and consolidate the populace in his cause to revive the Unity Project and combat the Storm. As for me, it's goodbye to this world and back to the first one. It has been long since I've sounded like the stolid, matter-of-fact mining engineer that once led a team. I've been deeply fascinated and moved by this planet, constantly on the receiving end of one discovery after another. While I return with a newfound apprehension of space itself, I hope PVE endures for many more ages as this historic first contact will prove useful generations later. If I survive this journey, I might be a little older, but everything I present to the coalition will turn the tide against the Gamilans and probably usher in a new age for Caledonia. The natives here call it PVE. I'm not sure what the coalition will call it when I return, but I have a feeling the word Zeta Sextantis is going to be a famous planet name for what might be one of the greatest find of any Caledonian Long-Range recon mining squad. Mylene, if you're still alive, please wait for me. I'm coming home. **THE END**

CMC Starlog #012: Origins By the time New Argoth finally pinpointed our map location with Tobits, ATLUS had translated much of the language on the star map using the book. A few days later, Buzzie and the PA scientists completed their search and gathered the rest of the team to share what they had discovered. The original Seifer Raziel was a planetary record of an alien species called the Cyreens. According to the Seifer Raziel, the protolanguage engravings were a simplified creole of the Cyreen alphabet; a derivative which they coined as the Ogrian language. The Cyreens were a nomadic race that colonized and terraformed planets in this system thousands of years ago, in an attempt to recreate their lost homeworld. They left Keystones and star maps on worlds like this, but always in separate areas underground. The Ogrians just happened to be a primitive tribe on this planet and were culturally uplifted by this spacefaring species out of goodwill. During this period, the Cyreens were not considered gods, but instead collectively worshiped as 'Angels'. All of this came to an abrupt end when the Cyreens fled the entire system, as for the majority of their existence, they had been on the run from a strong, evil race called the Ilraths, who had destroyed their homeworld. The Ilraths were servants of the Shrikes, an evil empire of slavers residing in the galactic core. The Storm are one of several thralls that guard the Ilrath region. After destroying the Cyreen homeworld, they continued on, assigning the Storm to garrison and extract resources from the territory. The last entries were terse references about escaping to the Thrawnian Expanse, a large empty sector in the outer rim of the galaxy. It was assumed that the Ogrian civilization fell shortly after. Whatever this book contained was probably dismissed by others in Luminon as ridiculous rabble, but to us it made perfect sense. It allowed Buzzie to use and read the star map properly, and as it showed us, there were records of these places. PVE and its neighboring worlds occupied a sector known as the Sapphric Veil. The Thrawnian Expanse was near the edge of the galaxy, over 9,000 light years away. There were markers of the worlds the Ilraths enslaved while chasing the Cyreens, showing that they largely ruled a region of starspace which included the Sapphric Veil. Caledonia was outside of the Ilrath region, whereas PVE was very close to it, suggesting that the Storm had expanded their territory in recent millennia under Ilrath command. Unless they decide to expand in another direction, Caledonia will be in the path of Storm enslavement too. For days, all of this had weighed heavily on me. I'd never even imagined that the people here and in Caledonia were insignificant players in a grand ploy for galactic power. I was just a mining engineer borne from a colony locked in civil war, whose entire crew was obliterated by the Storm on a long-shot expedition. Suddenly, I had the fate of our homeworld on my shoulders, and while I really want to go back, I wasn't sure how much I could accomplish even if I made it back home. It was then that Buzzie reminded me that there was plenty of hope. This discovery allowed New Argoth and Port Aperture to interpret the starship diagrams they had looked at earlier. They finally understood what they were looking at, and it was almost as astonishing as R.E.G.E fuel: a plasma engine that produced infinite thrust with a magnetically controlled tank of Xenon or Krypton. All it needed was a power source that could pump electrons into it, and plasma would magnetically shoot out the other end indefinitely. It was highly scalable with R.E.G.E fuel, which could do this far easier than nuclear fusion, and work in all kinds of shapes and sizes. The same design in a different shape could double as laser cannons. While it couldn't replace a warp drive, it was silent, efficient, and could certainly get close to the high speeds needed to evade the Storm and reach Caledonia. The scientists immediately went back to work with their new discoveries. This was the breakthrough they were looking for.

CMC Starlog #011: The Seifer Buzzie and few scientists had spent the first several days going virtually sleepless over the discovery of the star map. What they quickly realized was that the map could enlarge specific areas and provide small visual summaries about the system, markers of any known sentient species and their technological levels. It was not hard to use, but it was hard to understand, for most of what was important was written in an alien language, and there were far too many things in the galaxy for them to comb over in a short amount of time. After Tobits scanned the map regions and selected a few places in the galaxy that resembled our immediate starspace, they decided then to narrow down their search only to things that resembled Angels, Keystones and the Storm. The first thing the PA scientists did was go through their old texts, where they dug up and revisited an obscure, partially damaged book about this ancient tribe, entitled the "Seifer Raziel, 3rd edition." It was transcribed from the protolanguage by an archaeologist from the Luminon era, centuries before the Unity was created. As it was never related to the Unity Project, ATLUS never had this information other than a linguistic record. However, this book had better translations, and a more complete syllabary of the protolanguage runes. It was a torn up analysis of the original Seifer Raziel, which the author concluded was a highly guarded religious item that acted as a diary for the 'Angels' themselves. What was once considered nonfiction reading material suddenly became very important for the task at hand. Eventually, after lots of cross-referencing between ATLUS and uploading every last page of the salvaged text, the PA scientists deciphered correlations in both languages, and began to piece some of the language together. They knew that once they could interpret what each symbol meant, they could start scouring the star map for specific keywords. Meanwhile, a couple of New Argoth officials well versed in nuclear weaponry and navigation were studying the map with Tobits to determine our precise location and found diagrams of various starships these beings had either encountered or had built themselves. They studied the designs with the PA scientists and concluded that they were not using any method like R.E.G.E. fuel, but that some power source was running an engine that didn't appear to have a fuel tank. They are hoping that when a translation comes through, that they'll be able to understand what's going on and perhaps crack the dilenma behind their current designs.

Just to follow up on my subreddit post, I've now completed the spaceship for the Caledonia Mining Colony (CMC) Airbase so it's ready for showtime: Name of Place: CMC Airbase Creator: saberfysh Coordinates: -170, -1200, y65

CMC Starlog #010: Star Map The Tobits had continued their fervant pace of mining the past several weeks. Now digging far from the base, they began detecting ruins made of the same materials underground and inside them discovered crystals of various sizes with inscriptions from the same protolanguage. Many of these brought back to the lab were incapable of causing any effect other than a giant beam of beacon light. That was, until the past few days when Tobits reported a hit on something big. A large beryllium pillar braced with the exact same markings as the beacon, found amongst the underground rubble of an old temple near the ocean. Was this the keystone, I wondered? Some Port Aperture scientists immediately recognized the location as part of the Southeast Alliance from a few centuries ago. According to the ATLUS, this was a region comprised of prehistoric buildings that once had a third of the entire planet's known collection of quartz. However, because the terrain had shifted as a result of the planet scorching, it was now covered in deep ocean. Few pirates have had the technology to reach down deep enough to extract anything, and much information about the buildings have been lost. Once again, Tobits proved crucial to the extraction effort. The crystal was transported back through the tunnels, carefully de-dusted, and placed in the lab for study. Due to its size, scientists elected to move the beacon to the crystal instead to do the experiment. Sure enough, they hit the jackpot. And that's when everything changed, even for the great Buzzie himself. This crystal projected a star map of the entire galaxy. I had seen diagrams of the galaxy before while working for the Polonius Observatory, but never a detailed, interactive map pointing out major star systems and notable alien species throughout. We are certainly not alone in the universe. The star map was pointing to life... everywhere. This discovery unleashed more questions than answers for everyone on the team. What else is buried here? What in the universe made this planet so special? How are there so many things from so many eras located just on this one planet? What does that say about the other planets, or the local starspace alone? Exactly how advanced was the race that made this map? How accurate is this map, and how did they have so much cosmic knowledge of the galaxy's layout? Are these beings the first of their kind, or were they colonized here eons ago? The possibilities are endless, but this is proof without a shadow of doubt that there are far more advanced beings in the universe who have traversed the stars, perhaps to a greater degree than the Storm. Unable to comprehend the level of data, Tobits could only photograph the star map for future reference. The Port Aperture team, along with Buzzie, made it a mission to decipher the map and the language it was written in.

CMC Starlog #009: Research Something tells me now that I'm wandering deep into uncharted territory. Back home, I knew all about the shuttle systems, the Polonius telescope, the SS Galantes, and all sorts of Caledonian protocols. But in spite of the CMC, the medicial nanobots, the Sephirator, Tobits, and cryosleep, I've reached the point where it seems the only skill unique to me on this project is the asteroid mining experience. The science here is taking off and getting complicated very fast. They had gotten far enough in prototyping to synthesize sponge into a power source, which is now the main reactor being used to power the rest of the facility, but because nobody had made a R.E.G.E fuel space engine in centuries, let alone one this compact, tensions were rising between the scientists debating over which proplusion method was the fastest or the safest. A few designs for the prospective R.E.G.E reactor are still in play but the final engine for the ship itself needs to be both strong enough and stealthy enough to avoid Storm detection. The mainframe they've built from an ATLUS blueprint is processing massive amounts of physics data, and the general consensus so far was that it won't be able to recreate long-range warp drive in something this small. Voxel theory. Rarity inverters. Redstone schematics of the Unity and the Illuminated Fleet. It is at this point that I leave the science to the scientists. The only thing I can do is share some basic specifications about the Galantes, the concept of cryosleep and the shuttle I landed in, in hopes that it can be retrofitted easily with some of the mining outfits back home. Buzzie assured me that the team understood this and that ample amounts of what I mined here can be brought back safely inside a special container called an Enderchest, which eliminates weight problems and ensures that exotic minerals such as Redstone and Sponge do not fall into the hands of the Storm. Knowing that work on the engine could take months, Buzzie and I directed our attention to the ancient artifact. ATLUS had identified the engravings as the protolanguage of an old religious tribe from 19,700 years ago. So far, it had only shot out an intense beam of light in reaction to a variety of gems, but the inscription contained a cryptic message implying that "vast knowledge" of the "Angels" could be obtained if the beacon was activated with a "Keystone." Buzzie and the other explorers found this a fascinating find, and very soon I had the Tobits memorize the inscription and sent them off to scour the underground for other ruins with the same markings. I may not be Professor Irving, but digging into things was definitely closer to my specialty.

CMC Starlog #008: Artifact Construction of a state-of-the-art spacecraft facility has finally begun after five long days of travel through the wild frontier, 1700 miles away from the Mining Colony. With the way that I busted up my legs from the crash landing, I'm glad there's transportation. As expected, sounds of the large convoy crossing the land had caught the attention of countless monsters along the way, but none of them were a match against the forces escorting us. The site of the airbase was in a deserted mesa, known for high temperatures and very little life, so there weren't many settlements in the area. Few would dare to venture out this far, but we had the technology to survive in it and extract the rich resources lying underneath. The long trip gave myself ample time to understand the people and the logistics behind the project. New Argoth had a long history in weaponry, Solace would assist the CMC in mining materials, and Millennia Systems would build the supply lines to connect both places. A few individuals were also involved in maintaining security, but spearheading the whole initiative was Port Aperture, the beleaguered scientists who were most in line with Buzzie's quest, having spent generations salvaging thousands of technical documents from ruins and wreckages across the planet. They were the only ones intelligent enough to understand the knowledge contained in the ATLUS terminal, and were quickly applying this in the laboratory. Already, prototypes of R.E.G.E fuel reactors were in progress. They could probably get even further if I knew how to program the Tobit drones. They were designed more for mining and can only run the complex blueprints Irving had uploaded, but their spectrometer readings and nano-weldings were providing the crucial precision needed for research and testing. On the mining front, initial scans of the mesa had returned extremely high values of ore. The Tobits have been working nonstop, switching out only to de-dust themselves before plunging back in. Within the first 60 metres down they had struck upon ancient ruins coated in a heavy silicate oxide the scientists called "Quartz." This mineral had the unique quality of capturing solar power when flattened and focused with conventional glass, but it was inferior to the redstone flux the scientists were trying to recreate. However, there was an interesting find from that expedition -- an impermeable crystalline beacon recovered from the underground ruins, labeled in a presumably ancient language. A strong but harmless beam will shoot out of it when activated with any variety of gems -- a light so bright it almost blinded the PA scientist who first inspected it. We don't know much about it yet other than the fact that it's very old and that it might be something very important. For now, there won't be time to analyze it until the rest of the station is up and running. Buzzie and I will need to keep track of everything that is going on, but the main priority is the ship itself.

CMC Starlog #007: Diplomacy Within days, faction leaders from various parts of the world converged at Buzzie's call for the treaty signing at the Mining Colony. At first, they were amazed by the advanced techology that ran though the CMC, but soon I noticed that some of the attendees didn't exactly like each other. It was hard to reel them in as they stared each other down, for their factions had been adversaries for decades, fighting for scraps on a shattered planet. Perhaps out of jealousy, or the fact that I did not speak the native tongue, a few of the rougher ones yearned to have me gutted and my gear stolen, but there were enough Tobits guarding the facility to discourage any foul play. Thankfully, it didn't take long for Buzzie to shift their attention to more important matters. With the treaty in hand, and the incomplete satellite map projected by Tobits, Buzzie explained the situation to them, summarizing the story behind Unity, the ATLUS terminal and the Storm. I learned slowly through Tobits that this meeting was a wild mix of high-profile merchants, commissioned explorers, wealthy political rivals and marginalized scientists that Buzzie could trust. Soon, they were seeing schematics of the Unity, the Mining Colony, and the vast amount of ingredients needed to be mined for R.E.G.E fuel. All of this, once thought impossible for PVE to recreate, could now be made with the advanced mining technology I had brought to the table, both literally and figuratively. I was met with wide eyes the moment they realized what I could do for all of them. Having broken the barriers of distrust, crucial intel was shared with each other for the first time about the planet surface, including uncharted resource veins and locations of old world relics, along with various groups of mercenaries and information brokers that could threaten the plan. The meeting soon became a lengthy summit that went into the night, leading to discussions about the Caledonian homeworld, the nanolithed weapons, the Sephirator, the use of Tobits, and the medikit nanobots that came with my shuttle. All of it was liquid gold to them and made them excited about how much profit could be had. It was then that I stopped and told them that this ceasefire treaty is more than just a simple business transaction. A brief pause ensued. Without Buzzie's help, I had them seated calmly again, then conveyed to them, in a broken manner with my own voice that I was the lone survivor of a harrowing mining expedition, the Storm threat is very real, and that my ultimate goal is to return home with my discoveries to end a bloody civil war. Fortunately, this story of profound loss was not lost in translation and resonated soundly with the motley crew in front of me. All of them at some point in their lives had lost a version of someone like Ardones, Galahad, Irving, and Captain Moliot. Even on a planet without the Gamilans, it was a plain fact that war never changes. Everyone who came to represent their group signed the treaty that day. The consensus was that Buzzie and the CMC crew would be relocated to another region on the planet high in R.E.G.E. fuel materials. There, an airbase will be constructed to research and produce spacecraft capable of evading the Storm and reaching Caledonia. In exchange for protection from greedy mercenaries and bandits, all of the technology both here and at the airbase would be shared with everyone to combat the Storm, under Buzzie's command. All future encounters with my species would be met with peace using a customized hailing frequency. Captain Moliot, you would've been best for this, but I hope you'll be next to me in spirit. Not only was this an astonishing First Contact with an alien species, it may be our best chance to liberate this planet, turn the tide of war back home and organize the coalition into something bigger than all of us combined.

CMC Starlog #006: The ATLUS Terminal I have bore witness to something greater than any mineral find in my life. I could've spent my days, boring people with the Sephirator, the CMC arcology, the hired natives from various factions that mined here on behalf of the expedition, and the atomic eccentricities of redstone and glowstone on Zeta Sextantis, but it all pales in comparison. It all started when Buzzie handed over an etched beryllium alloy, tinted green from vanadium impurities. He told Tobits that it was the key to something, then left, saying it would be a while to transport 'it' over here. Weeks later, Buzzie returned to the Colony with a few natives hauling in a highly ornate but inactive terminal of some kind. Labeled the ATLUS, it was one of the remaining pieces of cargo that Buzzie had recovered from very specific ruins before pirates were able to plunder the site. He figured it would be safer behind airlocks and security bots on the upper floors of the CMC instead of a random cave in the forest. Once upstairs, he put the emerald key inside and it beamed to life. The ATLUS terminal functioned like a giant information kiosk, filled with reams of texts and pictoral diagrams. Over the past few weeks, Tobits was able to decipher the native writing on Buzzie's tablet to act as an interpreter. I was shown various images of his kind, common minerals I had mined, as well as complex charts about redstone and glowstone, which matched what the Tobits found in the lab. It is here that he loaded up an old satelite map, showing the geography of their planet and the locations of known major settlements around the world. Once again it baffled me how all of this information existed in Buzzie's hands. The populace as a whole struggles to travel around the planet, let alone map it from the skies. How did any of this get done previously? But Buzzie wasn't done. He then presented Tobits with a diagram of a highly advanced fusion reactor conduit called "R.E.G.E Fuel." This revelation blew my mind. And caused Tobits to shutdown. Twice. Liquefied redstone, known as "Flux", could be concentrated in a highly rare oceanic compound called "Sponge" under a hyperbaric chamber, then encased in nanolithed "Circlestone" to contain its raw energy and lethal radiation. It was then used to spark nuclear fusion. Both in its capacity and speed, it can provide enough energy to achieve faster-than-light travel, but cracks in the casing could cause an explosion hundreds of times stronger than a nuclear mining bomb. Manufacturing of this fuel was a gargantuan task, and only 3 units were ever made. They had spacefaring technology that would surpass anything the Caledonians have invented. How this race was once so advanced was beyond me. All of this became clear when he brought up more information for the Tobit to translate from the ATLUS. Roughly two centuries ago, scientists on this planet constructed a monolithic spaceship called the Unity. Its maiden voyage had gone astray from a warp drive malfunction, marooning it on an unknown planet which killed its entire crew. The ship's system then cloned its crew and managed to refuel itself for a return trip, but it was attacked and stolen shortly after by an alien race who called themselves the "Storm." An army of strike fighters were sent to fight the Storm, but the Unity was destroyed in combat and caused an explosion in space that scorched more than half of the planet's surface. This calamity obliterated the majority of the population and set their entire civilization back a few hundred years. All that's left is a lawless dystopia filled with buccaneers, drifters and mercenaries who have never been to space, and pillage technological relics for personal gain. This was no frontier planet. It was a cradle of civilization. Any money we would make from mining it raw is worthless compared to this discovery. According to ATLUS, the Storm attempted to do the same thing before they stole the Unity instead. Since then, they've been circling the star system, preventing any further exploration. I now finally understand why Buzzie went so far to assist with my settlement. Just like me, Buzzie is a survivor of a Storm attack. He needs my technology to help him rebuild and liberate this fractured planet from the Storm. He's the 71st Buzzie because one of the cloning bays from the Unity has been keeping him alive to protect this valuable data. Irving would've proclaimed this as one of the greatest discoveries of all time. The colossal amount of information coming out of the ATLUS terminal contained a summation of an entire species that has long been lost to chaos. Nobody else back home would be able to know about it... unless I get myself off of this rock. He then presented a bound document, which the Tobit interpreted as a draft of a ceasefire treaty that allows multiple leaders to sign. To serve as neutral ground, the treaty stated that the official meeting would be held here at the Colony. It was the first attempt at diplomacy that I had seen. Being the only person left to hold chain of command, I motioned my approval. It is clear that breaking free from the Storm will need something far more advanced than the ship I arrived in.

CMC Starlog #005: The 71st Buzzie I knew a revisit was in short order once the shuttle was discovered. Sure enough, another individual came to inspect the shuttle, and a Tobit spotted its approach. This one made the mistake of coming alone, I thought. My newly nanolithed gun was charged up and ready. What I didn't expect was something in a neon green jumpsuit with a decorative mask. Holding in one hand, it presented to the shuttle door one of my damaged drones. That drew the ire of all the other Tobits and it was quickly surrounded as they clattered out from the cave in droves. Knowing I had numbers on my side, I lowered my gun, turned on my Sephirator, and let the rear shuttle hatch slowly open. From the other side, the masked green suit put down the tobit drone, pointed an arm to itself, and uttered "Buzzie". What this creature did next was utterly astonishing. Using a few Tobits nearby, it demonstrated to me that its species can count. Then it proceeded to show basic mathematics, and what looks like a writing system on a powered silica tablet, followed by a line map of their star system. Whatever this "Buzzie" was, it was displaying technological understanding beyond any of the cretins that had visited the shuttle prior. It knew enough about science and its starspace to attempt knowledge exchange with me. I repeated the same process in my own words, and established that this planet we had codenamed Zeta Sextantis is called "Pee-Vee-Ee". To Irving, this would be a scientist's wet dream; sentient beings who were not impulsive, bloodthirsty animals. That's already a step better than the Gamilan Emperor. Eventually, I had a Tobit project a holograph of the compound it was going to build. The Buzzie studied it carefully, handed over the tablet to me, and then left. Moments later, it returned with a small group of diversely clothed individuals, highly curious of my equipment, but in the end coming to some sort of agreement and began stripping the nearby terrain of obstacles. It's now highly likely that I'm not dealing with the same creatures that destroyed our ship, and that they're capable of working together. What baffled me was how they haven't arrested me, and how all of this was happening at Buzzie's behest. It's also very strange how Buzzie appears so advanced but the others are relatively primitive. Perhaps he has a commanding role on this planet, or is worshipped like some god. The lack of paperwork and bureaucracy implies an absence of central governance. If there is culture going on here, I have yet to understand it. I've been completely wrong about them so far, as all of this has happened with absolutely no bargaining, no violence, and no intimidation. No matter, I suppose. I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Right now, all of this is an unlikely gift. These Tobits now have some work to do. And I have a lot of alien science to unravel.

CMC Starlog #004: Encounter I once mentioned that loneliness was an unsavoury prospect, but it appears that I've asked for more than I bargained for... I have been spotted. By sentient lifeforms. Three of them, covered in various bits of gem-like coverings, found the crash site and spent time wandering around the shuttle. I'm not sure if all of the Tobits made it back safely, but those things have likely given my location away... to sentient beings. The nearest Tobit managed to spy on them from the side of the crater and escaped detection. Surprisingly, they are also bipedal and appeared to be communicating with each other, but didn't seem intelligent or aggressive enough to force the shuttle open. Still, there has been nothing but tension since then. I don't know the total indigenous population, but there's enough for them to band together in some social unit. That has me concerned. Until I can determine whether they are friend or foe, the safety of the shuttle might be in peril. They might call in reinforcements to pry open the very thing keeping me alive. A single bombardment attack would wipe me off the map. I've set the shuttle to SS-assisted lockdown, and have the tobits dropping in resources through the vacumn chute to load up the Sephirator and replicate a standard-issue gun from the Armory database. Given that I'm exposed in the open either way, staying here any longer would be a ticking time bomb. I'll need to make a gambit and have the drones multiply, then hide them in the nearby cave for a potential ambush. They'll be needed to build a fortified second location, barring my survival. If they come back with similar numbers, I'll be ready. Let's hope nothing worse comes along.

CMC Starlog #003: Surveyor It's been ten days since the nanobots put me back into a walking state again to use the service terminal. Right now, I don't walk the same, and probably won't be quite the same. Things have been bad early on, but there may still be hope. The first set of Tobit drones have come back with useful readings. Sadly, Irving and Galahad aren't here to read the junk I don't understand, and life is not the same without Hans and the rest of the gang. In any case, Ardones was right; the spectrograph from the Polonius telescope back home suggested a world rich in minerals, which the Tobits found within 10 metres of surface scraping. Gravity is at 1.2G, and the rotational period is 1.08 days, but the dense gases and higher temperatures make for a highly volatile atmosphere that's unsuitable for breathing. I'll need to stay in a suit, but at least the Sephirator only needs to do filtering. The same would apply for the lab. There's enough resources here to build a full-size compound 150 metres away if I let the Tobits make more copies of itself. They've been able to neutralize all the wild creatures making strange noises during the night cycle. None of them seem intelligent, which is a relief... for now. One major concern is that some of them explode on provocation. I still need to make sure that doing this won't draw the attention of the enemies that shot down the Galantes. I'll need to send the drones out of range for further observation and have them return on their own. It's up to me to continue the mission. It's what the rest of the crew would've wanted.

CMC Starlog #002: Solitude (audio log) Technical verbosity will never describe this... this... nightmare. We all knew what we were coming here for... we knew what sacrifices were being made... but nobody back home really knows what the abyss will throw at you... until you dive deep into it. And this time, we're in deep. I don't think I've wept this much in a long time. Seven days have passed. The SCDIM has spoken. This run was a full wipe. Except for me. Moliot, Ardones, Galahad, Irving and my crew are all gone. All that's left is the shuttle and a mangled version of myself... alone on a faraway planet, stranded and in pain. All in the name of money... to fuel this blasted civil war against the Gamilans. A younger version of me might have given up. But nothing is worth this many lives, and I will make this right... especially if it means I get to see Mylene again. I tried to force open the airlock to the cargo hold once I saw the bad landing angle. It's more than what the SS system can handle. The cockpit would snap on impact, but the jammed wings would at least brace the cargo area. Pulling off this stunt cost me both my legs. The others would probably die trying. The only reason I'm still alive is because the LS has not failed, and nanobots from the shuttle's medkit have stopped my bleeding and are putting my shattered legs back together piece by piece. There's enough supplies for a few people here, so I will last a while longer. Still, the past few days have been mixed with various shades of pain, loneliness, and dread. Irving's initial scans confirmed that various cubic lifeforms were found on this planet. If they are dangerous, or even sentient, I cannot guarantee my safety. I'm going to need a Tobit drone from the upper case once I can stand up again. Until then, I'm in no mood to think....