Incursion of 4498
- Popularly known as Slaver Year.
Description / Specifications[edit]
It is believed by many that the so-called Slavers, a mythical race of fantastically advanced aliens, somehow got rid of the Voyagers, huge malign organisms that had infested the Distant Fringe for more than seven centuries and brought on a technological Dark Age. Though properly called the Incursion of 4498, the event is more commonly known as Slaver Year.
What is certain is that something arrived in the Tal Varisa system in 4498AD. Tal Varisa had seen regular Voyager activity, including attacks by "harvesters" on the surface of the mainworld. The object, believed to be a previously unknown form of Voyager, caused widespread panic. Military forces were deployed across the world to protect strategic locations and to try and control the population, should that prove necessary.
History & Background / Dossier[edit]
Arrival[edit]
The object was observed from the surface using optical telescopes and remained in orbit around the mainworld for a few days. It was relatively small (hundreds of displacement tons) and fairly regular in shape, but it proved to be invisible to almost all other sensor systems that were then available on Tal Varisa – the local technology had regressed to around TL6. It then descended to the surface, disappearing among a remote chain of inhospitable and uninhabited islands deep in the southern hemisphere.
A dome of iridescent energy, some 41 km in diameter and 3 km at its highest point, appeared around the islands. At no point did the dome bisect any land: it disappeared into the ocean and followed the contours of the seabed.
Military Defense[edit]
Navies and armed forces were scrambled towards the dome and defenses were prepared. However, watercraft, submersibles and aircraft that approached the dome altered their course, their crews describing how they were ‘compelled’ to turn away. Many of the crews, in fact, had no memory of their actions. Unmanned craft were destroyed as soon as they touched the dome.
The population of Tal Varisa readied themselves as best they could for whatever was to come, and waited.
But nothing happened. No Voyagers emerged from the dome to ravage and consume. In fact, quite the opposite occurred. No Voyagers entered the Tal Varisa system at all from that point.
Psions[edit]
Medical records dating from this time indicate a vast increase in the number of individuals with known psionic abilities suffering from psychological problems. Almost all reported gaps in their memories, disturbing nightmares, and strange behaviours. Some displayed neuroses and a few suffered outright psychoses. Some claim to have travelled to the dome and even to have gone inside of it, taking packages of strange or rare materials with them. No official records of people getting near to the dome exist.
Observation[edit]
All parties on Tal Varisa observed and monitored the dome, patrolling it at as closely as was possible but perplexed as to its nature and purpose. Days passed, and then months, and then years. There the dome sat, huge and implacable and utterly mysterious.
Departure[edit]
In 4549, after 51 years, the dome simply vanished.
One moment it was there, the next it was gone.
Reports indicate that a bright light ascended into the sky at approximately the same time as it disappeared, though no sensor details exist to support this claim. The dome left no mark on the land it had covered and no detectable sensor residue across a broad spectrum. The islands it had covered were just as they had been before the domes appearance, pristine wilderness colonized by a few hardy species of plants and animals.
- Almost exactly 168 hours after the disappearance of the dome, the supergiant primary star of the Demon's Eye system underwent a sudden and dramatic major outburst event, including a compact, intensely powerful burst of radio signals. This burst propagated across the region and appears to directly correlate with the departure of Voyagers in systems that it passed through – post-signal, Voyagers exclusively migrated corewards.
Post-Dome[edit]
The islands were immediately subjected to intense scientific scrutiny under the auspices of the University of Tal Varisa. The only notable discovery were structures, so-called Voyagers' Bones, seemingly of great antiquity, on a small island close to what had been the central point of the dome. The remoteness of the archipelago and the hidden nature of the remains had caused them to go unnoticed for the whole period of human habitation. There was no direct indication (other than their location) that they were related to the dome.
- It should be noted that similar ruins were known to exist on other worlds throughout the Distant Fringe, and geological dating indicated that they were hundreds of millennia old. These ruins have since been the subject of enormous public interest and intense scientific study.
There are so many unknowns with regard to the Voyagers that ascribing the dome to mythical entities such as the Slavers is perhaps foolish. The dome is more likely to have been a natural part of the Voyager lifecycle. But despite that, belief that the dome was a Slaver construct remains strong.
References & Contributors / Sources[edit]
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- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master Scout Emeritus Adie Alegoric Stewart of the IISS
- Author & Contributor: Lord (Marquis) and Master of Sophontology Maksim-Smelchak of the Ministry of Science