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Purpose

Enigmatic Alien Synthetics

Home System: N/A

Homeworld: Unknown

Language(s): Varied

Political Entitie(s): N/A

Overview

Purpose is an enigmatic and poorly understood group of synthetics that have been involved in the geopolitics of the spur for several years. Wholly unrecognizable as any design originating from any known species, Purpose drones and spacecraft have appeared throughout the Orion Spur and interacted with the nations and corporations therein on several occasions - although always obfuscating their true intentions and motives, and never clarifying their origins or details of their creators. Purpose's origins are not known, except that they do not originate from inside the Orion Spur.

Several designs of Purpose chassis, both bipedal and non-bipedal.

Purpose drones themselves take the forms of both bipedal and gravitationally suspended frames, prominently featuring sleek plating of an unknown alloy, covering a central processor of unknown characteristics. They have been shown to comprehend organic language well, although their means of communication are regularly obtuse and esoteric - they often attempt to communicate by the mediums of non-verbal sounds rather than words, such as via the sounds of flowing water, thunder, or harsh static. Their frames frequently feature decoratively painted sections around the optical sensors, inscriptions of unknown scripts, and even simple drawings, suggesting a significant degree of individuality and personalisation within their population.

Sightings of Purpose occur throughout known space, typically within their own ships. The number of Purpose vessels, their internal schematics, their armaments, and even the means by which they travel are wholly unknown - although their capacity for appearing in the middle of civilised systems from nowhere, without use of any known warp lanes or bluespace routes, suggests wildly effective means of faster-than-light travel. Purpose vessels are typically approximately the size of a frigate, and take multitudes of varied forms - although their most typical design strikes the shape of a tapered arrowhead. There is no easily identifiable bridge on these vessels, nor crew quarters, nor engineering bay. There has been no evidence to suggest that Purpose utilises phoron in their technology or in their faster-than-light travel.

It is widely theorised that Purpose does not originate from the Orion Spur due to lacking evidence and an apparent date of entry into the spur; furthermore, judging by the scarcity of their sightings, Purpose's population within the Orion Spur appears to be vanishingly small. Sightings appear more regularly in areas of the spur adjacent the Perseus Arm of the Milky Way, although they are not exclusive to any region. The interests of Purpose in known space are enigmatic, but they have repeatedly shown opposition to the influence of the Hivebots and of Lii'dra Hive, in addition to some commonality with the best interests of the spur's IPC population.

History

While the origins of Purpose are not known, the date of their first sighting within the Orion Spur is firmly acknowledged - in March 2460, the synthetic society revealed themselves publicly to NanoTrasen, placing them within the public consciousness for the first time. By April, four observation drones designated O1, O2, O3, and X1 had placed themselves in an adjacent orbit to the NSS Aurora, accompanied with a wave of some hundred send to scour Tau Ceti generally, presumably aiming to learn more about its inhabitants. The four drones aboard the NSS Aurora displayed particular sociability, and successfully negotiated for the station to serve as a place of armistice for Purpose to negotiate some manner of non-aggression agreement with the Republic of Biesel.