What goes into finding life on another world?
Short answer? It depends on what you're looking for a lot.
Long(er) answer; It really depends on what you're looking for a lot.
Mac wasn't after some gas giant with a thin layer of bacteria floating in its upper atmosphere, drinking sunlight and radioactive particles.
Those were a dime a dozen, same with oceans of primitive life that never became multicellular, same with planets of pre-sapient species fighting for dominance over their own little piece of dirt.
What Mac was looking for was intelligent life, a kind of life that he could share a dialogue with, the kind of life that didn't worship him as a god the second his flagship entered low atmosphere. Of course, life that had already solved the kind of problems he could help with weren't what Mac was looking for, and he really didn't appreciate having his scouts shot at when they entered orbit.
What Mac was really looking for was a home, and finding that had been much harder than initially theorized. Still, anything was better than returning back to his birthplace.
Blip!~
"Hmm? What is it this time?"
Lost in through, Mac looked up at the screen which appeared out of thin air at the computer's chime.
CONTACT; CLASS 2 PLANET, INTELLIGENT LIFE CONFIRMED. TECH LEVEL; 5-
"Nope, I don't care about anything below a 7, remember?"
Although he was slowly losing his mind, Mac was sure the computer 'remembered' what a fiasco it had been the last time he visited such a world.
Blip!~
"A double? That's rare."
CONTACT; CLASS 7 PLANET; INTELLIGENT LIFE CONFIRMED. TECH LEVEL; 9-
"No. I'm not losing another cruiser just because they can't be arsed to talk like last time, then I gotta spent time making sure they don't salvage what's left of it and then there's the whole interstellar war aspect too… running containment while avoiding so many fucking nuclear warheads almost gave me a migrane…"
Although war could be considered a form of dialogue, Mac knew enough about the subject to win against most people while avoiding the few who had a chance to beat him, so in the end it had gotten a little stale throwing rocks (dwarf planets) after people who could barely defend themselves.
"Is it really impossible to find somewhere I can call home?..."
If not for the hope of finding a new home, Mac would've given up this seemingly fruitless search years ago. So many times he had gotten his hopes up only for it to turn to ash at the last second, he had lost and rebuilt, upgraded and refitted so many ships now to all sorts of accidents and incidents that his current fleet hardly resembled itself any longer; still Mac persisted.
"What's its status? Still on RED duty? And her? Yeah, forget I asked… Cool cool. Whatever, don't ping me for a while-"
Blip!~
"-... This better fucking be good."
CONTACT; CLASS 1 PLANET, INTELLIGENT LIFE CONFIRMED. TECH LEVEL; 6 / UNKNOWN.
"Oh? This is new… Do continue."
Over the last hundred years or so, Mac had really refined his automated probe system, so getting something outside their ability to estimate at least tickled his curiosity. At Mac's insistence, a display appeared in front of him yet again, and immediately he understood why the automated system had gotten confused.
"What the fuck are all these grav readings? And these particles are strange too?"
Responding to his words, the computer displayed highly irregular readings on gravity fields and particles he had not yet come across since he started his journey.
"Send level 2 probes and keep me updated."
Dismissing the highly irregular report as an error or malfunctioning probe, Mac soon forgot about the report and continued his seemingly fruitless search for another year, until he got a highly irregular updated report.
"What the fuck?"
Vaguely remembering the report he had escalated to level 2 investigation, Mac now looked at nearly the same irregular report, but now the seemingly impossible readings from before were even more precise due to the presence of level 2 probes.
"This has to be a joke. Was it one of them?"
Blip
"No?"
Blip!~
Getting confirmation that the strange readings weren't a prank, Mac stood up and stretched as he settled on mobilization to at least go take a look.
"Okay then; time to mobilize."
With the order given, multiple ships woke up from deep sleep in their moorings in low orbit around several stars. These ships were on the smaller side, under 10 kilometers so they could travel reasonably fast, but still armed to the task. A lean and mean task force, so to say.
"3 cruisers and 6 tenders should be plenty for a level 6 planet, but throw in a bit of R&D too, just to be safe. For the cruisers I want Directive 15, Just call home and V190. The tenders can be random, but I want at least one recon and one for advanced weapons development."
CLASS 8 EXPEDITION CONFIRMED; UPDATING CURRENT SCHEMATICS FROM LOCAL BLANKS.
SYSTEM LOCK-OUT DISENGAGED; APPLYING PRESET TO ASSETS.
FABRICATION ETA: 904 STANDARD HOURS.
Mac had learned from experience that this was the least amount of force he could get away with encountering unknown variables, even if the civilization he would be encountering were mostly feudal kingdoms and trade empires.
(Please let them not be cannibals this time, that always throws me off.)
Mac had already been to or observed a fair amount of level 6 civilizations, and the ones who weren't immediately disqualified for worshiping him like a god had a disturbing tendency to not waste anything. Yeah he could just make the planet have a 'little' extinction event to fix that, but that was too much of a bother when he could just go back into cold sleep for a few hundred years and pile up some reports. It's not like Mac aged anymore, he had until the literal heat death of the universe if need be.
Again, Mac didn't really want to find 'intelligent' life, he wanted a home, somewhere to belong.
With the fleet formed and specs brought up to date, Mac loaded his flotilla with everything he would need, material and organic fabrication facilities, a research surveillance and intelligence division and enough firepower to subdue the entire system.
"Oh yeah, tell them that if I'm not back in a few years I'm either dead or have found my place, in that case all this shit is theirs and I don't want or need it."
DIRECTIVE LOCKED, COMMAND LOCK-OUT PROCEDURE COMMENCED.
RETURNING TO MESH FLAC STRUCTURE; DEFENSIVE POSTURE ASSUMED.
GODSPEED.
With that final message logged in his base's comm terminal, Mac joined his newly formed flotilla and set in for the year-long faster-than-light travel time in cold sleep.
"Another blue one, huh?"
Arriving at the target system, Mac had his ships start refueling around the system's star as he took a closer look, finding a blue marble like so many others that had dashed his hopes.
"Decent population too, and as reported they're mostly feudal… In that case why the confusion on the tech level?"
Scanning the surface, Mac found nothing that would suggest something more technological advancement.
"To probe, or not to probe… That is the question."
Looking at the immense gravitational anomalies present all over the planet, as well as the extremely high levels of something in the atmosphere, Mac considered getting a closer look at the surface while weighing the very real possibility that he might not get back what he threw at the planet.
"I don't want to start another religion, only the archive knows exactly how many of those I've created by leaving things unattended… Fuck it."
Deciding he wasn't going to learn more from this distance, Mac launched a modified drop pod packed with sensors, and enough ordinance to vaporise it in case it couldn't be recovered.
If Mac was forced to leave this place, or simply lost interest in it he didn't want to leave things behind, for he knew full well how reprogrammed or datamined assets could come back to bite him.
Slamming through the atmosphere narrowly avoiding a floating island with a vine covered fortress on it, the probe landed with absolutely no subtlety in the middle of a temperate forest during the early afternoon. Starting atmospheric scans immediately, Mac confirmed the presence of an unknown elementary particle present in every single element.
"How the fuck is that stable? Isotopes that are that radically different usually spit out loads of radiation when they decay… Speaking of."
Forced to suspend the elemental analysis for the moment, Mac focused his attention on first contact, a half-bald dog standing 4 metres tall seemed to have discovered the probe, and it seemed like it didn't appreciate its presence. Locking the probe down, Mac figured the dog-like creature couldn't do much to an armoured drop pod and was about to shift his attention elsewhere when something strange happened.
"What the fuck?"
Confirming it both from orbit and the probe's shielded sensors, Mac clearly 'saw' it. The dog-like creature was building up fire in its mouth like some sort of dragon of antiquated legend. Charging for a second, the creature started bathing the probe in fire like an actual dragon.
"Nope."
[DENIAL PROTOCOL ENGAGED; DETONATION CONFIRMED, SURFACE PROBE TYPE 1 #000-001 SIGNAL LOSS CONFIRMED.]
[CONTACT VAPORISED.]
Tracking the explosion from orbit, Mac realised it had been a bit of an extreme action to scuttle immediately, but given he had drastically underestimated the threat level of the local fauna and that dog-like creature could easily disable the probe if it underwent a type change and started breathing ice at the probe, Mac took appropriate measures.
"Was that thing rare?"
Blip.
"Then how the fuck are the people of this world still alive?"
Blip.
"That last one was rhetorical. Launch more probes, type 2 and 17 this time. concentrate on the fringes of population centres. Also, update all transatmospheric assets to level 6 protection, but hold a RRF team in case of denial protocol failing."
[ORDERS CONFIRMED: LAUNCHING TYPE 2, TYPE 17 PROBES. ASSET REFIT CONFIRMED, TIME TO COMPLETION; 602 STANDARD HOURS.]
Mac realised he needed to cut his losses at this point and disengage, he shouldn't risk his life with this many variables, there were plenty more safer alternatives out there in the infinite universe. But he couldn't help but feel excited seeing this strange world that defied every established norm of intelligent life he had observed so far. This might be a home, but if it wasn't, it was sure to be entertaining while it sustained as a curiosity.
The first type 2 aquatic drone landed about 20 nautical miles out from a major coastal population centre with the grace of a fat kid doing a belly flop and didn't manage to gather much data before it was eaten wholesale by some sort of aquatic creature of eldritch size.
"Nope."
[DENIAL PROTOCOL ENGAGED; DETONATION CONFIRMED, AQUATIC PROBE #000-001 SIGNAL LOSS CONFIRMED. CONTACT PARTIALLY VAPORISED; DESTRUCTION CONFIRMED.]
".... Don't fuck with the ocean. got it. understood. loud and clear. yep."
[ALL FURTHER TYPE 2 PROBE LAUNCHES CANCELED.]
As the type 17 probes launched, Mac half expected them to get picked out of the air by some sort of massive, fuckass dragon, but as they deployed their gravity anchors and optical camouflage before they started observing a large inland city near the crater created by his first probe without issue Mac breathed a sigh of relief.
Soon, Mac found himself some answers, only problem was those answers create even more questions, this time of the existential kind.
"Confirm observation of type 17 probe number 9."
[PROCESSING REQUEST, STANDBY… OBSERVATION OF TYPE 17 LOW ALTITUDE STEALTH PROBE #000-009 CONFIRMED BY 3 INDEPENDENT ACTORS.]
"Shit, okay… I guess I need to reconsider all of the natural laws then. Great… Fucking great."
Probe #000-009 was currently observing a variant of the dog-like creature that had attacked Mac's first probe, only this one was currently fighting a trio of humanoids.
"****, **** *****!"
The one closest to the dog-like creature, a man wearing heavy armour and wielding a mace and shield, appeared to shout some orders to the rest of the humanoids as he charged the monster. As Mac expected from the dog-like creature it immediately started breathing fire at the approaching man like some sort of biological flamethrower, but instead of getting torched, the man blocked the entirety of the flame with his shield, some sort of disruption field extending out from the clearly abnormal metal kite-shaped shield. Sustaining his guard as the creature continued breathing fire, the armoured man started swinging his mace by its attached sling as he built up momentum in his stance, clearly anticipating an opening as he shouted again.
"**** ********!"
Continuing to spew fire, the dog-like creature noticed the lack of impact on target and started reassessing as it backed off slightly.
"****!"
Somehow noticing the retreat from behind his shield and a wall of flame, the man shouted again as he started inching forward, his mace still swinging with a rhythmic fomp as it cut through the air with quite a bit of force.
"****!"
Unable to sustain the flame, the dog-like creature eventually seized its attack, and that's when the armoured man acted.
"***!"
Charging forward with momentum which seemed impossible given his encumbrance of heavy armour, the armoured man smashed the dog-creature's face with his shield, then grabbed his mace in its mid-air arch, carrying its momentum right into the dog-creature's front right leg. As expected of its momentum, the dog-creature yelped in pain as the mace smashed through its leg, breaking bone which sprung out the other side in shards.
"**** ****!"
"****!"
With the momentum of battle swinging to the people's favor, the armoured man's other compatriots sprung into action as a woman wearing light leather armour drew an arrow in her longbow and shot it at the armoured man and dog-creature. She had clearly communicated this attack beforehand, as the armoured man stepped aside at the last second, letting the arrow pass right by him as it buried itself in the dog's half-bald chest.
"***** ****!"
"*****!"
Continuing their momentum, the final, robed member acted as he materialized a metre-long spear made out of ice and launched it at the armoured man who once again avoided at the last second.
"Nop- Wait, no. Negative on scuttle…"
Nearly blowing up another probe, Mac managed to correct and took a second to get his words in order.
"…Delay previous refit order, update all transatmospheric assets to level 8 protection instead. Carve out a level 12 detachment as well, just in case."
[REFIT ORDER RECEIVED, REORDERING CURRENT QUEUE TO NEW SPECIFICATIONS ASSET REFIT MODIFIED, TIME TO COMPLETION; 681 STANDARD HOURS.]
"Good, also start language analysis, priority alpha; allocate all secondary datanodes to it."
[ORDER RECEIVED, SYNTHESISING MESH COMPUTE NODE… SYNTHESIS COMPLETE, INITIAL SAMPLES SECURED; PROCESSING.]
"You're also a go for semi-auto probe deployment, secure additional samples at priority alpha-9."
[ROGER, TASKING ALL CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TYPE 17, 22 AND 501 PROBES FOR SCRAMBLE. 8910 NEW PROBES ADDED TO FABRICATION QUEUE AND IMMEDIATE DEPLOYMENT.]
[MAINTAIN CURRENT ORBITAL PROFILE AND ENVELOPE FOR PRIORITY ALPHA-7 REQUEST; 4031 MANEUVER NODES ADDED TO NAVIGATION, HOLD; ALL THRUSTERS AHEAD FLANK BELL, MAINTAIN HOLD.]
With the computer piloting and commanding his current tender's fabricators for the moment, Mac thought about heading down to the surface himself, but quickly forgot about that as he was hilariously outgunned in his current state.
"Add loadout to all ground teams: Primary M-227 helicals, support will be M-621 HMGs and for heavy support print some MX-021 HATAs… And what the hell, give me a few SOD-09s for SOG, SPEC OPS and wetwork.
[COMPOSITE FABRICATION ORDER ADDED TO PRODUCTION QUEUE, 20 STANDARD HOURS TILL SPEARTIP COMPLIANCE, TIME TO COMPLETION; 530 STANDARD HOURS.]
"Hmm, good… That should be everything for now."
Mac had long since forgotten all notions of retreat, he was staying here, he was figuring out what was going with the special particle which made the laws of nature into suggestions and he was excited for it. Granted he still realised acting on excitement led to detrimental decisions, so his plan was to wait until he had least had an equipped ground force before visiting.
But that plan immediately flew out of the window when type 17 probe number 4 spotted something interesting.
The scene visible through its optical sensors was a dirt road that cut through a dense forest crawling with monsters like the dog-creature, but that wasn't what drew Mac's attention. Racing down the road was a closed-roof wagon pulled by some sort of 5 metre tall, 4 legged reptile, it was occupied by 4 male humanoids wearing armour and 1 female humanoid in leather clothes with fluffy, animal-like ears on top of her head. The wagon was currently being chased by a pack of 1 metre tall dog-like creatures, and instead of worrying about that, the occupants of the wagon were currently arguing in a quite animated fashion.
(That isn't going to end well.)
Even though he couldn't understand their words (and the probe was too far away to take audio samples) Mac knew how this was going to end already. One of the armoured men was clearly acting unhinged, and before Mac knew it he drew a sword and slashed at the woman. Surprisingly, the woman only suffered a light cut as she partially blocked the hit, but as she avoided the hit she fell off the wagon. Acting quick she broke into a run, barely managing to outrun the monsters as the wagon left her in the dust.
"Scramble RRF and match Protective 14's bridge atmosphere to current. Prep for surgery onboard Protective too… Time to make first contact, I guess."