51/03/6002
2 ABT
Tiyanki Territories, Great Expanse
Star System 8832 Cerasalsi
The “Mother Of Discovery” was a Zoeiphi Class exploratory vessel sent into the Tiyanki Territories as part of the Empire’s new wave of exploration. 25 Kilometers long, and with a complement of thousands of smaller ships, the Mother was the Empire’s first true mission inside the territories. This central area of the Sector, that in the end effectively functioned as a smaller sector of it’s own, had always been of great curiosity to the Empire, but due to larger astropolitical concerns and projects, it’s exploration had never been a priority. However, as one of the many benefits that Era 3 was bringing to the Empire, the large amount of recent first contacts, rising political tensions, and in part the skirmish that was the Wormhole War, gave Galactya a new impulse, revitalizing it’s drive to explore and expand.
The Mother travelled in Rainbowspace to the system closest to the edge of the Expanses, and then made it’s way inside of them in Realspace, while captioning systems tuned to Rainbowspace confirmed the rumor that the Expanses really did interact with seemingly all dimensions and realities (how something could leave such an impression upon the Bulk would soon become a matter of studies, but as with the search for humanity’s true planet of origin, no answer would ever be found, at least not for a long, long time ).
Dodging the various empires, nations and polities that inhabited the territories, as it was not deemed to be an appropriate to make first contact, the Mother reached the 8832 Cerasalsi Star System. This otherwise normal, unassuming G4 V Yellow Dwarf star was the subject of investigation due to the Eidoboros Array detecting an anomalous energy pulse and subsequent extremely weak signature, emitted approximately 440 years prior.
While deploying several hundred solar scoopdrop probes into Cerasalsi’s photosphere, the Mother remained in the star’s low orbit, surveying the rest of the system’s planets and celestial bodies. After a series of in-depth scans, the weak signal was re-located, coming from a very small body of clear, artificial nature in orbit of the fourth planet in the system, a small, reddish gas giant.
Recalling the scoopdrop probes into their hangars, the ship started to move at relativistic speeds towards the source of the signal, focusing it’s scanners and radars upon the small, alien object.
