After the initial golden trove of research academic discoveries slowed down in pace for a few years as research vessels were dispatched to further star systems and academics back on MafiaScum dug into the nitty gritty details of the findings. The first Scummer star base outside of our own solar system was completed in these years regardless, a notable milestone to FSA progress. The Aphris system was now wholly under our own control.
It took 3 years before the next truly groundbreaking discoveries were made when research vessels were sent to survey the Viradamon and Gaaria star systems. These discoveries ranged from fascinating opportunities to terrifying revelations.
Two more planets were found with conditions suitable for life, one in each system. Furthermore, both of these planets housed conditions similar to those of MafiaScum. These planets could potentially become future homes for Scummers! This discovery sent shock waves through MafiaScum. The prospect of colonising a new world was exciting for all levels of society. New resources to exploit, new land to live upon, new topics to study. The hypothetical prospects were incredible!
This news dominated the media for weeks on end, but was swiftly brought to a halt when the ISS Hubble started to report on numerous archaeological studies it had performed. The results were chilling. Firstly, artefacts had been found upon a planet in the Gaaria system belonging to a previously unkown civilisation of robots referred to as the "Cybrex". Little was revealed about them, beyond the fact that they existed some 600.000 years ago and had launched a full-fledged crusade against any and all biological beings in the Galaxy. Lead researcher Untrod Tripod notes that the mysterious computer discovered a few years ago may have been their work, warranting further investigation.
Study of the demolished planet in the Murust system had also come to completion. Caledfwitch concluded that the current state of Murust III was the result of a gargantuan orbital bombardment, perhaps by the Cybrex? Killer robots and planet-killer weaponry was not particularly what Scummers had been hoping to discover in space, despite their present absence in current times.
But that was not the end of the disturbing discoveries. A science team dispatched to a mysterious complex upon the planet Gaaria I had uncovered a series of pods.
With Scummer remains inside.
Many of the Scummers had been shackled or implanted with various devices in their nervous systems by another unknown species to us known as the "Carcharorian". In the past few millennia they had abducted primitive Scummers and subjected them to various experiments before abandoning the complex and cutting the power supply to all stasis pods, causing the inhabitants inside to choke and decease. Traces of abnormal radioactivity were also picked up by sensors. Something very strange had happened here, and Equinox called for further investigation.
News of killerbots, exploded planets, and alien live experimentation was more than enough to once again whip Scummer society into a nervous frenzy. The upheaval caused issues for Equinox's galactic expansionist agenda, with many calling for increased caution or an end to all further exploration lest we encounter something truly horrific that would danger us all. Nevertheless, Equinox managed to pass funding for a colony ship to go and colonise one of the two new habitable planets discovered in recent years. Many young Scummers volunteered, drawn by the prospect of making history and starting anew in a place wholly unknown.
