Green Skies

Near our basecamp we were greeted by a set of peculiar city ruins.

The architecture showed characteristics of every civilization we've encountered so far - including our own!

However, the material composition is similar to what we use to establish base camps during planetary colonization. This is strange because these materials could never hold out for multiple decades, let alone the age our scanners determined these ruins to be.

It's unlikely for these ruins to have belonged to a mysterious precursor, yet the scanners persist in their conclusion. What could be at play here?

The trail of the signals led to a pathway into the lower levels of the ruined city. Usually archeological sites of this type have an underground transportation network or a collection of safety bunkers. Instead we found a small cave system littered with scraps of fabric, polymer containers and even organic waste. It appears we are not the first to explore this archeological site.

Worryingly, … informs us the skies outside are turning green; a cosmic storm is about to develop inside …. Still, we press on towards the origin point of the signals.

Our progress was briefly halted by a set of badly damaged metal doors. With little effort we worked our way past this obstacle and a rudimentary storage facility revealed itself.

Its shelves were filled to the brim with an assortment of derelict technologies. Boxes of well known corporations had been carefully stacked against the walls. And finally, the source of the signals we had been chasing for so long: a transponder computer not unlike our own.

As we logged into the device and searched its databases, our … started forming a wild conclusion: the signal was deliberately constructed to appear as mysterious and intriguing as possible - mimicking and combining characteristics from other civilizations.

What's more, inside the boxes we found construction kits of the ruins we encountered above ground.

We contacted our basecamp to report our findings, but the cosmic storm has already started interrupting our com lines. The last thing we heard from … is a worrying set of commands; it appears our basecamp is under attack!

The cosmic storm inside … turned out to have been concealing a pirate fleet! It was their crew that attacked our basecamp. The pirates asked us to relay this message to you:

Dear absolute fools,

Thank you for joining us at our most elusive retreat.

Isn't it amazing just how quickly seemingly intelligent beings abandon all reason whenever they detect the merest whiff of ancient artifacts and devious relics? Perhaps you had hoped to find a means to destroy a great enemy? To build fleets as far as the event horizon reaches? Or were you just trying to be nice to your own people? How quaint.

Please don't feel bad - many others came before you, and our business model depends on that many more will follow your footsteps.

Now, for a modest sum of 2000 energy credits we will return something you have lost.

Reject our offer and who knows what terrible things could happen to … and … poorly armed crew that is still trapped on the planet.

Please choose wisely.

We are safe in these caverns for now, but we don't know for how long. Are we going to entertain these bandits?