Hivebot

Incident Report VN(B)20121123 ID#00001
The Following report is to be dispersed to all major corporations and governmental bodies effective immediately, and subsequently dispersed through to all employed personnel stationed in the Nyx system ,recommended as mandatory reading materials, and made available to any other personnel who wish to see it. Due to the extremely dangerous nature of this information being ignored, it is of the utmost importance that all personnel stationed within the Nyx system, and stationed in locations bordering this system be required to read, and be up to date on this report, to maximize the chance of effective reaction should an incident occur.

'Date: June 17th, 2477 - September 4th, 2503
On June 17th, Multiple Generation III Von Neumann Probes, Exploring the region of space hereby referred to as the “Black Zone” within this document, were recorded disappearing from sensory arrays positioned in Geosynchronous orbit around Mars, outside the Martian Magnetoshield station array. These probes, third generation Von Neumann Probes, self replicating exploratory probes designed as a joint effort by Humans Skrell and Dionaea with the purpose of exploring uncharted space beyond the edge of occupied space were designed for perpetual operation, but were expected to fall into disuse within the next fifty years due to distance, were recorded dropping off the grid, in rapid succession, a grand total of sixty seven probes disappearing from sensors in rapid succession, all within the same three system area, in a system currently projected to be a minimum of 1000 Light-years from the border of the Nyx System now being referred to as the “Red Line”. Each Probe dropped out abruptly, simply cutting off, rather than fading out as was expected, prompting immediate investigation by means of a Bluespace probe into the general vicinity of the highest grouping of probes that vanished.

Following the disappearances, Lowell Space Center Bluespaced an Investigative Probe #23 into [REDACTED] coordinates, establishing control and reception through a Bluespace Gate held open for the duration of the investigative mission. Immediately following the launch of the probe, a subsequent thirty-seven hours passed without incident as the probe moved towards the last known position of VNP # III-24, the latest probe to vanish. At Twenty Seven Minutes, fourteen seconds of the thirty seventh hour, the Investigative probe #23 made contact with a highly aggressive, highly dangerous machine race that immediately dismantled the probe, and are theorized to be the reason the previous sixty seven probes went offline prematurely as well.

Subsequent investigations have revealed that the drones, which seem to be composed of a number of different models, though each appears uniform to the next, number in the millions at least, with entire planets seeming to be crawling with them, and thick clouds of them populating the space around any substantial celestial bodies in the area.

Due to the aggressive nature of these drones, and their numbers, as well as their response to resistance, a blockade has been established, and agreed upon by Sol Central Government, NanoTrasen, The Federation of Sirius, the Milky Way Federation, New Terra, and a number of lesser governmental bodies, as well as agreement from the Matriarch that the Skrell will both honor and help uphold this blockade, even against their own people’s ships, should anyone attempt to bypass them. According to this agreement, a “fence” of beacons has been positioned on the border of the Nyx system, consisting of two hundred and eighty three beacons, networked to both broadcast warnings to ships and other craft approaching it, and to detect and alert a dedicated fleet of ships composed of skrellian and human ships contributed by each group agreeing to the blockade, which will bluespace into the area immediately following an alert to a possible attempt at breaching the blockade. This fleet will then annihilate any craft attempting to cross the red line, to serve as a safety measure against the threat of the swarm, currently termed as “hive bots”

This information is to be made available to the public on request by all agreeing parties, to encourage no breaches occur through ignorance, and to minimize the loss of life. All space faring species have had this information distributed to them at the earliest opportunity.

TOP SECRET
(Only Known by Nano-Trasen and the Governments of each Race)

The Following information is a Summary of multiple recordings gained from the LocustEater project, an effort made immediately following the loss of Investigative Probe #23 by the Sol Central Government to obtain further information in regards to the group now collectively referred to as “Hivebots”. Unfortunately, due to data corruption during transmission, the imagery was impossible to reproduce.

The Hivebots, as they have come to be referred to, are an independent entity located in deep space, 1000 light years beyond the Red Line, estimated, and expanding, constantly heading in every direction, from what we can tell. Hard facts are near impossible to come by on these things, and to be honest? I don’t want hard facts if we can avoid needing them. Some of the others, mostly Jameson, they think these things are self replicating, and honestly, it seems like they have to be, given sheer numbers. While we don’t get a lot of long looks at them, we HAVE gotten close to some of the planets in their systems, on occasion, and every single one of the damn things was covered in them, to the point of being able to see the entire planet’s surface writhing and moving, covered in these things. They’re a nightmare.

Thus far, while we don’t have a lot of solid info, we DO have this.

There’s at least two types, both very similar to one another. One is lighter than the other, by the looks, not as much plating and such, but the other? It looks like that fuckin guy, what’s his name? the big heavy armored one from X-men? Whatever. Point is, these things we’ve named Juggerbots. They’re big, mean looking, and typically right through the drones in one swing, judging from the telemetry we get back. Nasty pieces of work. The other, the lesser ones? They seem like they’re just regular drones, workers for the hive, but without some more examination, it’s impossible to tell.

Our probes HAVE picked up some interesting readings before they got smashed up though. A number of them picked up spikes in radiation nearby that seem pretty similar to bluespace warps, which is a terrifying thought, since it’d mean these things could be anywhere at any time, but thus far, these signals seem really weak compared to even our basic shit, so some of the others think it’s just some anomalous space like that shit the SCS Everfrost went through a while back, where all those wormholes were opening up close range. But again, that’s speculation.

We also picked up radio waves, but the data coming through them was encrypted, indicating to us that these things are communicating. Whether it’s a simple command system or if it’s a full blown hive mind is anyone’s guess, but I hope to god it’s the first. If it IS a hive mind, with this many minds, they’d be able to outsmart even the Skrell with ease, which is a terrifying scenario. The problem is, it’s hard to tell how smart they are from the probes, but I will say this.

That last probe we sent? The one that caused us to shut down the whole goddamn project? I was there for it, and it fucking terrified me. See, that bit where the jugger bots just slice the whole drone in half? They didn’t do that this time. I swear to god, it picked the drone up, and looked straight at us with it’s one camera eye, and even if it was a machine, it still freaked us the hell out, because it looked straight at us.

They know. They fucking know we’re out here somewhere, and frankly, that’s enough to terrify anyone. From what we can guess, these things are all consuming, aggressive as the crabs on earth, and I don’t think they even have the capacity for compassion. If they come for us, no-one, not even the Skrell with all their tech they’re keeping for themselves can stop them. If our guesses are right, they’d overrun Nyx in under a year, and within fifteen, they’d be in Sol. They don’t look too tough individually, but we’re talking about entire planets covered in the things, and we know next to nothing about them. Our only real chance at surviving until we advance our weapons further is to go undetected, and not let anything else get sent over to that part of space, because if we don’t be careful, they’ll track all this back to here, and hit us where it hurts the most. We Must Hold the Red Line.

-Lead Researcher, Division 78, Sol Central Government Research Institute

Yamato Kirada

March 23, 2555
At 23:16, Martian Central Time, a transmission was picked up by receivers installed aboard the N.S.S. Phoenix. This Transmission, believed to have originated from roughly 1053 Light Years away, in the direction of the Red Line, is currently undergoing analysis, but is believed to be a video and audio transmission from the Black Zone. Upon completion of analysis, all relevant information will be transmitted to all governmental entities in occupied space, as per protocol H-67, and copied for storage in all governmental databases accordingly. Any detected threats relating to the transmission will also be evaluated if presented, however at this time, no further telemetry has been received to indicate anything out of the ordinary.

December 15, 2555
It has come to our attention that the threat of the "Hivebots" outside of the Red Line is something that none of the races can ignore, this threat is on our borders and capable of getting in. The current estimated distance is currently over 1024 light-years away from what we last recorded. In the incident that the Hivebots break through the Red Line and Enter our territories each Governing Races at be are Prepared to sign a Treaty and work together in hopes to survive the Invasion. We call this Treaty, "Movement Exodus", an old biblical term for the "End of Days", quite fitting for what this would mean...Nano-Trasen, The Skrellian Matriarch and her Royal Navy, Tajaran, Unathi's, Kidans, Aviskree, even the Vox Armalis and Auralis with their entire Grove, all Ready to try and survive as long as we can.

If it comes to it...May God have mercy on us all.