Found in the wreckage of the Cub-class corvette, designate-Mnesis [REDACTED]

Upon entering the system I warped to the subject planet and inserted the Mnesis into low orbit. The elevator ran from the planet’s equator to its tethered-counterbalance, which appeared to be one of the planet’s original moons. Judging by the extensive lunar scarring the tethered moon may have been where the materials to construct the elevator were mined. The elevator had been extensively damaged, whether this was the result of combat or just millennia of neglect would require further analysis. That it was an active structure and still powered was obvious by the fact that it was still standing, but I confirmed this by checking the elevator’s EM signature. The entrepot station was similar in design to others we have seen, suggesting that it had been an orbiting station before it was incorporated into the elevator.

Surface scans determined that the planet had an iron/nickel/sulphur core and a rock mantle, with an iron/magnesium/aluminium/calcium/potassium crust. An atmosphere of mainly carbon dioxide, with nitrogen and argon gasses. The presence of trace oxygen may be explained by the flora monoculture that covered the surface of the planet. The previously unknown plant species is black stemmed (Energy storage adaptation?) and may have been a crude terraforming attempt, or simply a form of mass agriculture. This is not my area of expertise, however, and a planetary ecologist would be better suited to provide definitive answers. 

Moving into a geostationary orbit close to the elevator shaft, approximately 1000 km above the surface and some 19K km below the entrepot, I launched the four probes, piloting the primary myself via enprez. For the initial survey I had determined that the base structure would be the most fruitful location for the initial survey. GPR found little left of other structures beyond the subsurface remnants of foundations. These foundations were enough to suggest a significant complex/settlement around the elevator’s base structure. These findings were inconclusive, however, due to EM interference with the GPR. The source of the EM interference may have been the flora’s root structure (see below for further speculation).

Inserting into the atmosphere, we [ADDITION: from here Archaelogue Kel refers to herself and the four probes as ‘we’] continued down the elevator to the base structure, a mountain-sized square-frustum, its sheer scale demonstrated that it was also an active structure. The architecture was consistent with other sites belonging to Synod. The invasive plant-species had managed to penetrate the extruded molbond-polycrete but not to the extent that it had disrupted the active nature of the structure enough to threaten its integrity. (Was this species supplementing photosynthesis with some form of EM parasitism/saprotrophicism?) 


I sent the secondary and tertiary probes to survey the exterior of the base structure. The quaternary probe I sent to retrieve a sample of the plant-species. I made entry into the base structure itself through the cavernous trapezium-shaped entrance. Either side of the structure’s entrance were vast bas-reliefs consistent with what we had seen in other Synod sites. The actual images, however, were obscured by the overgrowth.

Inside the structure was a vast empty space, formed of a ring of huge chambers around the tether itself. Any extraneous internal structures/equipment etc. had long since… (disappeared, eroded, corroded to nothing. Where did they go?) The size of the chambers suggest storage for cargo awaiting transfer to the climbers to be taken to awaiting bulk carriers docked at the entrepot. Though at least one or more of the chambers could have also been used for climber and tether maintenance.

A power source was not visible. This is not unexpected/unusual. Given its longevity the power source is almost certainly deepcore geo-thermal, though chained fusion is not impossible.   

The base of the tether looked like a mono-cultural jungle it was so densely overgrown. This was despite the lack of any interior light. (Energy parasitism!?) I suspect that those elevator climbers not docked in the entrepot station, or hanging off the tether somewhere, were under the mass of flora. 

The floor of the structure was a sea of swaying plant life. Some of it had grown up the interior walls but not nearly as completely as it had overgrown the external walls. Again, this showed that it was drawing energy form somewhere, and suggested something akin to the nutrient/photosynthate exchange of a mycorrhizal network. I was, however, keeping the primary drone well away from the stems of the flora. I’m not suggesting that they were animate, all movement seemed consistent with the wind. 

I then found the ten-meter-tall skeleton of a mechanised bipedal ambulatory vehicle. My guess is that despite the impracticality of this kind of vehicle in normal circumstances, it would have been useful for both cargo handling and the manipulation of heavy components for the climbers and the elevator itself. I found three other such skeletons, all in varying stages of decay. The plant life had grown extensively throughout the machine and that this much of the vehicle had survived was testament to its ruggedness. 

A close inspection of the second skeletal vehicle discovered that parts of its head (a sensor area, as far as I could ascertain, the cockpit was in the chest area) were still sealed and could contain preserved Synod technefacts. Technically overreaching my remit, I made the decision to cut into the head and remove anything within. I had managed to extract a neurocore when we lost contact with quaternary probe. Moments later I… the probe registered contact with plant-matter-[END FRAGMENT]

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