Abr Networked Worlds - Symposium Invitation
It was but a normal day on an inhabited Titanian Moon, one of many kinds of moons either terraformed over time or naturally evolved, and found in Abr territory. Cylinder habitats stayed in orbit, asteroid habitats buzzed with economic and industrial activity, and most importantly, communications arrays received a signal from beyond Abr territory. The signal was hit with First Contact AIs to translate and decode the language and codes used within it. While it had taken a while due to it being a foreign and very alien (in comparison to the Abr) script, it was eventually translated and made available for reading by the Abr. When read, it appeared to be a strange invitation to a virtual cyberverse called "the Symposium." While virtual cyberverses were known to the Abr and actually within their technological level, they were never used for personal entertainment of any kind and were instead used to simulate real-world experiments, scenarios, make predictions, etc.
Gaming was practically nonexistent to the Abr. In fact, it was a foreign concept.
However, the fact that someone decided to launch an invitation in their direction, or in every direction for that matter, was enough to warrant an expedition into both the source of the signal and the Symposium cyberverse. After all, if they did indeed send it specifically in the direction of the Abr, then they knew where they were. If they knew where they were, perhaps they had to know something about them. If there was a foreign civilization that knew something about the Abr but had remained hidden, then it was a likely threat to their existence. However, the Abr always thought things through and did not act off of random aggression or impulses.
The Symposium invitation was copied and given to an AI specialized in interactions with cyberverses, the AI accepted, and whatever fate the invitation would enact was done. On the other hand, an expedition of one Cruiser, six Destroyers, a Drone Screen was sent in the direction of the signal's source. The Cruiser and Destroyers were all dull spheres, although the Cruiser did have a tapered equator indicating a hangar section. The Drone Screen consisted of a swarm of trapezoid drones that piggybacked on the Destroyers and Cruiser during FTL, launching and forming a defensive screen around them when ordered to. Within two hours the small flotilla had made an acceptable distance from any gravity wells and initiated FTL.
Heat dumped into the shield banks, the Drone Screen was deployed, all Craftminds and Substrate Orgaminds reported positive. The flotilla had arrived at the edge of the system, scanning the system for activity of all kinds. They made a slow pace forward into the unknown.
