The Surveillance Supercomputer

It seems the automated systems in … are older than we can imagine. The data systems we have hacked do not give us any clues as to the identity or ultimate intentions of its creators, but the one thing we have managed to ascertain is that they arrived no less than 1.2 billion years ago, and departed soon after setting up the system as an observation post to surveil our entire galaxy. Remarkably, the system is still operating even after all these years: the array of installations spread across the system are, it turns out, highly sophisticated sensors. They send a live feed to the planet, where the central operating system processes it into information the drones can save and store. Spurred on by shortages of space and matter, it appears that they have improved their data compression techniques with determination: the massive structures on the planet purport to contain the sum of all observations ever recorded. However, we cannot test this assertion, since the data is compressed well beyond our ability to decompress it. Disturbingly, a reduced stream of "highlights" is still being broadcast into empty space. But surely no one is still listening, after all this time? Regardless, our programs are poised to take control of the drones. We may now shape the system to our imagination - if we dare.

The command below will trigger the "The Surveillance Supercomputer" event in Stellaris:

When this event fires, you can choose between these 6 options:

• We can integrate the world into our own operating system.
• Let them continue - we can siphon off their readings.
• Distribute the drones to our planets.
  • 8K Machine Pops are distributed to our planets.
• Distribute the drones to our planets.
  • 8K Mechanical Pops are distributed to our planets.
• But this is just an enormous alloy mine!
  • Add deposit: +25
• A well-organized network such as this could serve us well.
  • The … system will be placed under the control of a Machine Intelligence that will be our subject. Their capital, …, will be a Machine World with 8K Machine Pops.

Stellaris events fire in chains — one event leads to the next. Here is how The Surveillance Supercomputer (ancrel.12090) connects.