MusingsOnAnoikis
Indicators of biological Sleeper entities
This is a short piece to set out the case for biological Sleepers as opposed to an entirely mechanical race.
The earliest records of the Sleepers come from New Eden, not Anoikis. There are numerous archeological sites found in the Minmatar regions (constellation required) which impart various Sleeper artefacts. There is also a rumour directly regarding the Sleepers (reference needed): They were a highly advanced race with a speciality for neuro-digital interfacing. The legends say that they were so disgusted with the actions of the other races at that time that they created a vast digital world and then withdrew into it, so that they might live in peace. None of the legends mention anything about a digital sentience, nor do we find any reference to any digital sentience in any ancient text (including amarrian scripture).
The next place that Sleepers are encountered is within Anoikis itself. Here, no sentient biological entity remains from any source other than capsular.
The question of Sleeper drone sentience is still open, there is potential for sentience, but that changes our position as capsuleers. If there is no sentience present in the drones, then we are salvagers. If they are sentient then we change from mere salvagers to an invasion force. If the ethics committee were actually thinking, then maybe they would have given this thought rather than useless posturing regarding relations with the Sansha. If these drones are infect sentient, then we have attacked a race who, at their full power, lived alongside and matched up to the Jovian empire at its full power. Think of what we could have learned from such a race, our history, technology, philosophy…
The next main evidence for biological Sleepers is found at the Mirror (ref to mirror page). One of the sites is a Medical facility. If they were truly entirely digital, then I wouldn't expect to see a medical reference, especially not one incorporating a triage unit. Engineering yes, but medical no. High amounts of damage would be far less fatal to an infomorphic entity, due to their mechanical nature, so triage would become far less of a priority. It'd be more of a case of a data transfer to another shell, again not something I'd associate with medical.
After this the evidence is somewhat more sketchy and based on assumption. The main piece I'll cover here relates to the disappearance of both Sleepers and Talocan.
The utter absence of any 'live' Talocan/Sleeper entities is itself a mystery, but it seems highly unlikely that they fought each other to utter death, and yet enough of the Sleeper empire remained to be fully functional. There is nowhere near enough evidence of Talocan power, nor destroyed Talocan/Sleeper ships to merit this, unless there has been external interference with the evidence. What there is however, is a huge reference to quarantine and infection. The C5 site 'Quarantine Zone' is, I would suggest, a Sleeper zone. Certainly the only structures present are Sleeper, and the Talocan and Sleepers are both not known to have inhabited planets. A message on warp in reveals that the area has been quarantined due to infection and will be protected by force if necessary. Again, in the Mirror's medical enclave is more evidence. 4 zones dedicated to quarantine, with A,B,C and the mysterious X.
The final chapter is the C4 Evacuation facility. Sleeper drones are known to be capable of self-generation of wormholes. If they wished to depart an area, it would be simple for a drone to do so. The presence of an evacuation centre suggests that not every sleeper 'entity' was capable of doing so. Given that even a basic cruiser-sized drone has this ability, it seems silly to think that a 'live' Sleeper entity would lack it. If they, in their digital form, did lack it, why not just transfer their 'self' into a ship that does?
In conclusion, there is overwhelming evidence that the Sleepers did, even at the height of their empire, have a biological contingent. This also sets the stage for an answer to why both empires are left as mechanical shells - Infection.
Infection and Quarantine: The death of Empires
Both races found in Anoikis, Sleeper and Talocan, are devoid of biological life, yet the vast majority of structures inside the core remain intact. There was no ravaging army here. None would leave the enemies' production and research capacity so intact. Nor is there any huge amount of evidence pointing to a major battle between the two races. The inclusion of a third race is possible, but again there is no direct evidence. So what happened? Something undoubtably killed them or drove them away.
I believe the answer can be found scattered all over Anoikis: Infection.
Both civilisations show high levels of infection control, from the Quarantine facilities in the Mirror, to the Quarantine Zones. What is unclear is what is being quarantined. It is possible that the quarantine is Sleeper imposed on Talocan structures, or that it is Talocan and Sleeper self-imposed. Without this information, little progress can be made in this area.
An infection of high transmission and mortality rate would decimate even empires today. There have been studies on what the effect of releasing the Konyoke (sp) Pit infection would do, such a release of a similar agent in Anoikis may have caused the death of all biological life present. It would however leave the mechanics intact. Robots would still function, structures would still stand, power would still flow. But none of it could be moved nor taken with the fleeing people for fear of carrying the infection with them. They quarantined what they could, and when quarantine failed, they fled. If we ever manage to understand and access Sleeper structures, I would suggest that the evacuation centre be a priority for investigation, as knowing if they survived is a humanitarian, philosophical and scientific priority, not to mention the potential for military encounters.
This also explains why a nomadic race would leave behind their undoubtably mobile structures. A mobile structure is never left behind without a reason, the entire idea of them is that they can be moved around as and when they are needed to be. Something therefore prevented them from being moved yet did not stop the people from running, or killed the people without touching the structures. Your likely options come down to systematic genocide or infectious agents. There is no evidence for the former, and much for the latter, so the most likely cause of Talocan death/disappearance is that of infectious agents, again setting the stage for Sleeper eradication by the same agents.
Talocan Presence in Anoikis - Why?
The Talocan seem to display a remarkable lack of adaptation to Anoikis. Fullerite/Polymer materials are the building blocks of the most advanced materials known, capable of being used in electronics, buildings and ships without sacrificing any strength at all. Yet the Talocan display to such sign of having used them. Their structures look distinctly mineral, their ships are too ruined to tell. Samples from these should be a target for research by Dr Tukoss' team. I would suggest the Polestar as primary target, being the heart of a colony, as well as a logical target for polymer materials. Indeed, one polymer used in T3 construction is used to ensure that joins between parts do not wear, a logical use for a similar compound on the Polestar.
If the scans come back as primarily mineral, then we can assume that the Talocan were far less adapted to Anoikis that the Sleepers. This could mean one of many things:
They were a younger 'race' overall so not as advanced overall They had lived for less time in Anoikis than the Sleepers so were not as far down the path of specialisation They did not spend the majority of their time in Anoikis so had to need to adapt
If the scans come back as primarily fullerite, then we know that the Sleepers and Talocan were more equals, setting out the potential for one race to be the 'child' race of the other, and other such theories. You would expect a child race to have the same technology/building style/material use as the parent race, so this is a good opportunity to test this.
This experiment will not pin down an exact cause, but will at least narrow down our line of options.
What do the Talocan actually have in Anoikis?
We know very little about what the Talocan were doing in Anoikis. I'd suggest an analysis of the structures found, looking at the primary functions of each structure. From that we might be able to narrow it down. No intact ships nor present day Talocan have been found, so everything to find about them in Anoikis will be in structures.
SUMMARY
Obtain samples/scans of Talocan structures & ships to determine their primary building materials (mineral/polymer) Catalogue Talocan structures/remnants according to their purpose Investigate the Talocan/Sleeper quarantine interaction
Evidence for biological Sleepers outweighs that of a pure digital race. This does not invalidate the potential for a biological to digital (infomorphic) occurrence during their history Thought should be given to the potential of Sleeper/Capsuleer interaction. Protocols should be decided on There is little evidence of fighting in Anoikis The current most probable cause of death is via highly infectious disease. There is no need to panic, substances have been transferred from Anoikis to New Eden for a while and no adverse effects have been found. However, it is worth remembering should any Talocan/Sleeper structures be breached that all ships/personnel involved should be sterilised before and after the excercise, as well as being placed in quarantine for the duration. If there is still any concern over a digital virus, transmissions should be relayed back to a scribe as a 3rd party to avoid any contamination.
-Aedeal