Rogue Drone History

Overview

Rogue Drone history stretches back over almost 100 years, and as such there have been many incidents and events in that time. The major events are detailed below alongside the timeline to help put them into a frame of reference.

Spectrum Breach

On Y.C. 88.05.19, a Federation-funded project took place, named Spectrum Breach. The purpose of the project was to achieve control of eight previously unexplored regions, with the help of the Federation's large drone fleets. The stargates leading to the new regions were quickly constructed, and the probes sent to the new regions revealed that the starsystems were promising. However, four months after the activation of the first stargate, an event took place, cause of which is unknown. The Gallente Federation quickly ordered the evacuation of the new regions and locked the gates leading to them. CONCORD's own research and anonymous witnesses indicate that the Federation facilities within the eight regions (now known as Drone Regions) were attacked by their own drones.

Code Aria Inquiry

On Y.C. 109.10.30, Now-former Commander Gispali Rhatal resigned from his position in CONCORD. At the same time there were allegations of CONCORD's wrongdoing concerning the death of an officer that had been supposedly killed in the regions of space now known collectively as the Drone Regions. The remains were never recovered. The investigation by CONCORD in the infested regions was the result of an unauthorised gate activation in November of Y.C.108 resulting in the opening of the Drone Regions. It was revealed in the leaked document, known as the Code Aria Inquiry that CreoDron had been responsible for the initial creation of the self-aware artificial intelligence that the drones possess. This was in violation of Concord directive omega-one-five, that artificial intelligence should not be capable of becoming self aware.

The Orphyx Program

It is not known when exactly the Orphyx program took place or what the Orphyx program end goals were due to the heavy censorship of information by CONCORD but what is understood is the researchers were using radical new programming techniques alongside the latest cutting edge hardware to create an advanced artificial intelligence drone that seems was intended to operate below the threshold of sentience and thus avoid Concord directive omega-one-five. At some point near the programs completion the drone appears to have self activated and gone on the rampage, killing many people and causing extensive damage before apparently leaving the research station via an airlock. The Orphyx program is of particular note due to so many of subsequent rogue drone incidents seeming to involve researchers who had worked on this project. The current whereabouts and status of the Orphyx drone are unknown.

Rogue Drone Timeline

Y.C. 30 - Y.C. 80 - Sometime during this period of time some ingenious Gallentean inventor had the idea of creating super-advanced drones that could think and act on their own - in essence acting in every sense like a regular space ship except being unmanned and computer controlled. First prototypes were encouraging, but then disaster struck. The drones became unruly, then unmanageable.

Some of these were huge - the largest drones ever constructed, these drones were even equipped with warp drives and equipped with the latest advancements in artificial intelligence. These mother drones, as they were called, along with several lesser drones soon managed to spread out, not only within the same system as the research facility that birthed them, but also to other systems. Only later was it discovered exactly how - the drones attacked and took over space ships, then used them to jump to other systems, the drones themselves safely hidden within the ship. Needless to say the super-drone research was soon abandoned by the Gallenteans.

The rogue drones soon started behaving very much like other living beings. They constructed a home for themselves, usually deep in some remote asteroid field, and began plans for reproduction. This involved both the mining of asteroids and attacks on unsuspecting mining vessels - all with the intent of gathering the materials needed to expand their homes and to build their own drones. As the months passed drone lairs popped up in dozen different places and today they can be found in almost every corner of New Eden, harassing and killing space farers of every sort. As each drone lair is started by a separate mother drone they often evolve in quite different ways. Each new generation of rogue drones shows some new mutations, creating a huge diversity in the shape, size and power for rogue drones.

Y.C. 88.05.19 - Spectrum Breach a Federation-funded research project intended to create openings into regions of unexplored space and facilitate the colonization of new worlds for a rapidly-expanding Gallente Federation is begun. Seeking to use its vast drone fleets and incorporating the latest advances in drone technology it quickly created Stargates connecting them to the new regions. Initial probes into the unexplored space confirmed a large amount of gateable systems and a wealth of minerals, and construction soon began

Y.C. 88.09 - Four months after the first stargate was commissioned an unspecified disaster occurred and a general evacuation of all the new systems was ordered by the Gallente Federal Government, with the help of an unknown corporation all surviving citizens were evacuated and the stargates to the regions were locked down

The reason they would take such drastic measures was, at the time, unknown to Concord. However the Gallente Federation quickly approached Concord for assistance with the matter of securing the access gates during a closed session of the Concord Assembly. When pressed for details by the Assembly session on what had transpired beyond the sealed gates, the Gallente Federal Government refused to release details.

Concord was able to bring the security of the sealed gates under its jurisdiction by a unanimous vote in the Assembly session and has since kept them deactivated and secure. By a majority vote, the decision was made to maintain a public blackout regarding the locations of the deactivated gates and public record was made on behalf of the Gallente Federation of an accident which halted the expansion program indefinitely. The creation of these Stargates was done without Concord notification and without the knowledge of other Empires. As such this was also made a matter of public record.

Although the Empires regularly and covertly pursue policies against the spirit of the Yulai Accord, such a revelation was extremely embarrassing to the Federation. In the wake of the gate closures, the Inner Circle convened an investigation commission named the Code Aria Inquiry. Its remit was to investigate the incident preceding the region closure, and monitor the gates to ensure they remained sealed under official Concord guidelines.

Y.C. 88.09 - With the affected Stargates brought under Concord control and secured according to standard operating procedures, Code Aria began to dispatch recon probes into the regions to ascertain exactly what had happened. Eight probes were launched to the regional co-ordinates obtained during the course of their investigation. The probes arrived in the initial systems and shortly thereafter ceased transmitting.

Early into the investigation the decision was made by Concords Inner Circle to withhold the limited information we had so far from the Empire delegates until more solid information could be obtained in order to prevent a panic. Over the course of two years the Code Aria Inquiry investigation revealed enough information to form a conclusion and the final report was published. The Inquiry ascertained that multiple manufacture facilities dealing with deep space gate construction were destroyed and incontrovertible evidence, supported by anonymous witness statements among evacuated survivors, indicated they were destroyed and attacked by their own drone fleets.

Y.C. 90 - A large and increasing number of Rogue Drone Hives have been encountered all over known space. These encounters had been dealt with by Concord response teams before they became public knowledge.

Y.C. 106.11 - Leaks from Concord’s Inner Circle revealed that large infestations of rogue drones had been discovered across Empire Space. Concord was soon forced to confirm the authenticity of the leaks and admitted it had been trying to contain this information, along with the knowledge that new breeds of Rogue Drones had been found in Deadspace pockets across patrolled space. Moving swiftly, Concord enlisted the Empires in ruthless sweeps through the worst drone infestations, within a matter of days successfully neutralizing the threat of a widespread rogue drone breakout.

Having received warp beacon access to hundreds of Deadspace pockets, the Empires declared their intention to use the pockets exclusively for their own purposes and deny access to other parties. Capsuleers immediately protested in an attempt to fight the monopoly being established by the empires, but it was a 17-year old Gallentean girl that ended up thwarting their ambitions. Hacking the warp beacon signal almost by accident, the girl released her discovery to the world at large, rendering any attempt to restrict access to the pockets impossible.

Y.C. 108.11.27 - Capsuleers were startled when a number of previously unknown offline stargates[1] across New Eden spontaneously reactivated. Tentative explorations indicated that as many as eight previously closed-off regions could now be accessed. Concord warned that the new regions should not be entered due to unspecified dangers, but were largely ignored by the Capsuleer population. It was soon discovered that the regions were heavily- populated by rogue drones, leading many to call them the 'Drone Regions.'

Y.C. 109.09 - Concord announces a naming committee for the so-called 'Drone Regions'.

Y.C. 109.12 - Concord announced its official nomenclature for the 'Drone Regions' the eight regions exchanging their previous alpha-numeric designations for proper names.

• Cobalt Edge (Region)
• Etherium Reach (Region)
• The Kalevala Expanse (Region)
• Malpais (Region)
• Oasa (Region)
• Outer Passage (Region)
• Perrigen Falls (Region)
• The Spire (Region)

Y.C. 110 - A new type of drone lair has appeared, commonly called a hulk lair. It seems that when rogue drones manage to capture suitably large vessels, like freighters or carriers, they don’t dismantle the ship completely, but instead start to incorporate their lair into the ship’s hull. Eventually these hulks break free from the drone lair that captured them and move off under their own power, still inhabited by drones. Hulks like these have often been found drifting in deep space.

Y.C. 110.02 - Controversy erupted in full force with the leak of a confidential report on Concord operation in the so-called 'Drone Regions'. The activities of the Code Aria Inquiry into rogue drone infestations, and the implications of the leaked dossier, caused outrage across the major empires, with the Caldari State and Amarr Empire being most vehement in their condemnation of Concord’s Inner Circle.

Code Aria Inquiry shows strong evidence of Rogue Drones abducting Capsuleer pilots, by hacking into the ships computer and overriding pilot commands to the ship, how wide spread this phenomenon is at this time is unknown.

Y.C. 111.03.10 - Seyllin's local star explodes, the first unstable wormholes are detected and explored, Capsuleers discover Sleeper structures and active Sleeper Drones inside wormhole space.

Y.C. 111.07.18 - First Seyllin Conference. [2]

Y.C. 112.08.14-15 - Second Seyllin Conference [3]

Y.C. 113 07.09 - Arek'Jaalan is formed, in the words of its presumptive leader Hilen Tukoss, the aim of the project is to “establish a series of communication networks to enable a greater flow of information between various Capsuleer individuals and organizations.” Specifically, the Arek’Jaalan network aims at “unifying Capsuleers with an interest in researching and discussing Sleeper technology and history, Talocan technology and history, Wormhole Space exploration and archiving, as well as any matters that relate to those.”

Y.C. 113.07.22 - Synenose Accord release Report[4] on the Unusual Sleeper Activities in Anoikis, Promised Land, and New Caldari

Y.C. 113.07.28 - An Awakened Informorph[5] has been increasingly spotted in systems across New Eden. New and interesting developments have followed in its wake including increased Sleeper aggression, changes in Sansha strategy and the reported construction of new Drone structures in the Genesis Region. Reports from The Synenose Accord say they have spotted an Awakened Infomorph in the Promised Land and surrounding region.

This region was once dominated by Bloodraider pirates. However their influence is being slowly displaced by an increasing Rogue Drone presence. Both local and Synenose Accord pilots have confirmed that "Rogue Drone hives are now appearing in the area. Visual analysis suggests that their sites are generally small-to-medium sized, off-grid, and in the medium-to-late stages of construction". Speaking to Synenose Accord pilot Unit XS365BT, she let slip that there was "another Drone complex within The Dead End system" which her corporation is currently investigating.

Y.C. 113.07.29 - A capsuleer in the Arek'Jaalan program receives several anonymous transmissions whilst in The Dead End system after sending a message in Binary into local space. These transmission were encrypted, but could be interpreted by translating the Base64 to ASCII and then, to plain text. Several capsuleers have since tried to contact the anonymous sender, but to no avail. The transmissions are still being studied. See Project Omicron for more details

Y.C. 113.08.07 - After surveys carried out throughout the Genesis Region by multiple Capsuleers it has been confirmed by Hilen Tukoss that these new Hives and Rogue Drones are the same as the current strains we are aware of and not something new.